MARCH 2026
Our area was fortunate to receive several good rains during the month. The rains started a little early this year and it sure was a welcomed relief. The water supply at the mission house was low because we lost all the water in the upper poly tank because of a leak. The rain also helped to kickstart the small grasses so the livestock had something to eat. Rain is vital for the farmers; it makes the difference between having food next year or not. Some women travel up to 2 miles a day to get water. As the proverb says “Water is Life”. In this heat the water evaporates very quickly! One day this month the temperature reached 117 degrees with a heat index 124 degrees.
We are able to have a resident permit in Ghana because I am a registered Ghanaian nurse and voluntarily work for the Good News Child Development Centre, a non-government organization that is licensed by the Ghana government. My resident permit allows me to work at the Centre and help the churches. When I went to Tamale to the Nurses & Midwives Council office in late February to renew my nursing license, I was informed I could no longer use my U.S. continuing education credits to renew my license. Everything has to be done through the internet; license renewal, continuing professional development (CPD) credits, and payment. This was a nightmare for me! My license PIN number was incorrect so I couldn’t go online. We made many trips back and forth to Tamale before the problem was corrected. Then I spent 4 days from 8am to 6 pm sitting at the computer online to get all 20 CPD credits. Finally, I was successful and I got the one-year renewal!
Around the same time as the nursing license escapade, Kandie lost her purse. It was gone for 2 days before we realized it was missing. We backtracked, searched and made a public announcement in an effort to recover her purse but we never found it. We decided that the purse was gone and moved forward with getting duplicate documents made of her driver’s license and non-citizen card. We had to go to the Yendi Police station and file a form for both the driver’s license and the non-citizen card which then had to be taken to Tamale to the various offices. We traveled to Tamale 3 more times before we had both cards in hand. It has been exhausting!
The March monthly evangelist/church leader’s class was well attended by 28 men. They reported that 4 people were baptized and 5 were restored to the church. This month I taught from a flip chart made by the women at Bethel about the life of Joseph. This chart covered four lessons; the interpreting of Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph ruling in Egypt, Joseph’s brothers coming to Egypt, and Joseph reuniting with family. I encouraged the men to divide the lessons because there is too much information to digest in one sitting. Even I was starting to get some of the events out of sequence as I was relating the stories. The first session of class was held in the church building but around 11 amI told Timothy the room was just too hot for the men to stay awake so we moved out under the Nim tree beside the building; a light breeze helped out a lot.
This month we had the opportunity to visit the congregations at Jagrido, Tombu, Kakpande, Kulkpeni, and Bungbali. Several of the congregations are building concrete block buildings. We are grateful for the financial help that you give us for evangelism. Without your help we could not match funds with the congregations. We sometimes struggle getting the congregations to understand that they must plan and count the cost before they start to build. The old-style mud ball buildings didn’t require as much money as the cement block buildings do. The mud was harvested near the church property and the members could use community labor to raise the walls. Now we are running into the problem of some congregations beginning a building without considering that this project is going to cost 3 to 4 times as much as a traditional building. Very few of these church members have had any financial education.
We have some guests coming to visit in May. Jimmy and Pam Clark, from our home congregation at Bethel, are making plans to arrive in Ghana around the first of the month. It will be nice to see our friends again.
We thank all of you for your support of the work, whether it be financial or through prayers. We definitely need both! May God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
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