The congregation at Nakpa invited us to visit them today. The location is about two hours south of the compound. This equated to an earlier than usual departure time so Kandie and I got up at 6:30 and we let Jack sleep till 7am. Timothy Niligrini rolled into the compound on his motorcycle at 7:30. I chose to take the old van instead of the pickup so there would be a little more room for our passengers. That idea almost got us into cold water. About three fourths of the way we had to cross an area where the water was flowing over the road. A small cargo truck was in the process of being repair by some men in the middle right hand side where the gravel had washed out. I decide to go take a chance and drive through the water after watching a pickup drive through it without any problem. Besides, there were a number of young men hanging around to assist us if we got stuck in the water. Well, somehow a rear tire got wedged in the small rocks they had used to drive on and we were stranded in the middle of the water. Kandie, Timothy, and Jack got out of the van into one foot of water while the young men were quick to come push us out. I was fast to pull out 15 Cedis to dash the men who were very happy to get the money. We were only delayed a few minutes this time.
At Nakpa the church leaders asked us to teach the bible class and to preach. Both lessons had one goal; to use the time to help instruct the congregation about spiritual gifts using the New Testament scriptures. One of the men that attend the congregation had made the assertion that he thought could raise people from the dead. This caused a division in the Church. It is important to remember the people in most of West Africa have been brought up on a steady diet of stories about mysterious things happening like Juju, soothsaying, curses, and the like. The men had decided we would use the bible class time to have a short lesson and then allow question and answers. The class went on for an hour and a half. I then promised the Church I would only preach a very short time during worship since we had covered most of my points during the class. The wonderful result of today’s teaching was the man recanted his belief. We thank God for loving kindness to all of us. It was a *great* day!
After services, one of the church leaders named Jacob , helped get all 184 men, women , and children lined up outside for a group picture of the congregation. It looked like it was going to be a good photo. The congregation presented us with some new yams as a gift. They were sorry they didn’t have a fowl to give us but we assured them the yams were just fine. Before we left the men were organizing the church members for the upcoming seminar at the end of the month. This group is our biggest seminar attendees. Their numbers run anywhere from 50-75 people.
On the way back to Yendi we made it through the flowing water without any problems. One young man walked through the water to show me where to drive. Kandie made sure he was rewarded with some Cedis for his trouble.
The rest of the afternoon for Kandie and I have been spent preparing for a trip to Tamale tomorrow for some business. Jack said he wants to stay and work in the Child Center so we will see how that all pans out. Jack spent some of the afternoon at Kulkpeni watching Tichak catching fish. I got a call last night from the mother of the cleft pallet/hair lip baby that we helped go to Tamale this last week. She said the people told her the child was not yet old (6 months) enough to do the surgery. It is a shame the interviewers for patients a month ago had not given her that information. We will try again when the child is old enough.
That’s it for today. We hope you have a good Lord’s Day and may God bless!
In His service,
Stephen & Kandie, Jack
P.S. Please remember Perry Martin and Rusty Johnson from W. Hobbs St. this week in your prayers. They will be traveling to us this week.
