I would like to thank all of our supporters, whether by monetary or spiritual means, for your help. Your generosity allows us to work here in Yendi. The church members and others who are outside of the Church really appreciate the work we do.
September had five Sundays which afforded us the opportunity to visit an extra Church this month. On the 1st we traveled to Binalodo. This is the village where Emmanuel, one of the older evangelists lives. Emmanuel’s health is not good. He has dementia. He became a widower about ten years ago and married a younger woman. He has young children with his new wife. Our visit to the village in Binalodo is twofold. We visit and encourage the Church as well as checking up on Emmanuel and his family.
Many of you that follow our daily Notes have heard me mention preaching the lesson “The Unchanging God” where I use a padlock and key that represents God’s salvation and the New Testament. On the 8th we visited the congregation at Nakpa in the Nanumba District south of Yendi and I preached this “lock” lesson. After services were over during the questions we answered many questions about polygamy. At the monthly class Jacob, one of the church leaders from Nakpa told us how happy he was that we had discussed the polygamy problem. He said that a couple of the men were leaning toward polygamy and the lesson solved many of the churches problems.
On the 15th we traveled to Jakpumba and worshipped with the saints. Our lesson topic there was on “Fornication”. Some of the customs here allow for fornication to occur amongst the teens to later twenty year olds; especially when looking for a husband or wife. Many children are born out of wedlock because of these practices.
Jagrido was our destination on the 22nd of the month. Before services began I asked if the men had a particular subject they would like to me to preach about. They wanted more information about the Lord’s Supper. It is believed by some outside the Church as well as a few in the Church in Ghana that the Lord’s Supper can’t or shouldn’t be taken if the member is struggling with certain situations or difficulties. The lesson generated many questions.
The last Sunday of the month was the 29th. We were invited to a congregation we had never visited. The name of the village is Jamoni. The road to Jamoni is terrible. We traveled east of Yendi toward Zabzugu which is in the district that border Yendi District. The Church was very hospitable towards us. We had a great question and answer period after service. Before we left we were presented with 14 tubers of yams and a rooster. What a nice gift! We re-gifted the items to Timothy Niligrini.
The last two Sunday afternoons in the month were spent teaching a new class at Kulkpeni. Some of the younger members wanted to do an in-depth topical study. The first topic was marriage. This is a hot topic that really produces lots of discussion. Marriages and marriage customs here are so different from the Biblical ways God would have his people live; polygamy presenting many of the problems. Some are drawn away from the Church because of pressure from their families for them to have more than one wife or for the young girls to become a second or third wife.
During the month 18 villages were visited by the evangelists and us. Twenty-three men attended the monthly classes. There was one soul restored to the church and the Lord added six more souls through baptism. Brother Waja Francis and Brother Anthony were absent from the class. They were helping to start two congregations in the Nanumba District. Francis said that many people were baptized during this campaign. He reported at the 2 new congregations 74 were baptized at Jounciyili and 32 at Binalodo. They also worked with the old church at Bincheratanga and baptized an additional 32 people. We are scheduled to visit the new churches at the end of October.
Timothy used his class time to teach the men ways to conduct children’s classes. My class time was used to discuss “The Christian and Lying”. In this worldly society lying is a common practice to keep anyone from taking responsibility for their actions. All of us have lied sometime in our lives. I encouraged us all to teach the congregations to let our “yes” mean yes and our “no” mean no with all of our dealings with the villagers and the Church.
Please add these three people to your prayers; our good friend Jimmy Stroud, Kandie’s brother Basil (Buz) Reynolds (Kandie’s brother) and our good friends Kim and Carolyn Hill. Jimmy is in rehab, Kandie’s brother Buz is fighting the symptoms of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and the Hills lost a mother and brother last week.
I know they would appreciate your prayers!
We really appreciate everything you do for the work. The Lord has been good to us and we pray that he will bless you as well! Please feel free to email us if you would like to have a question answered. May God Bless.
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
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