It is hard to believe that half of the month of September is already in the past. We spent the morning visiting the Church at Jegrido. This is Timothy Niligrini’s home village and the residence of his older brother Daniel who is a church leader. Jegrido is southwest of Kulkpeni so Kandie and I picked Timothy up along the way.
As we were driving through the village we met some soldiers and policemen. Some of you might recall us telling about a land dispute near Kulkpeni where several people were killed in early August. The reason for the military presence is that the paramount Konkomba chief lives at Jegrido. The government wants to make sure peace is maintained in the area.
The last time we visited Jegrido there was a subject that we didn’t have time to cover so we asked Daniel, Timothy’s brother, what that was. He said there were actually two items; tithing and child spacing. I quickly gathered a few of the Old and New Testament scriptures dealing with tithing and giving and presented a lesson as the sermon. Many of the denominations use tithing and ask the church members why the Church of Christ does not do it. Personally, I am glad the New Testament teaches us to give as we have prospered . The Old Testament way of dividing everything into a 10th part would be very tiring to do on a regular basis.
There were 84 people present for the service this morning. Fifty of the 84 were children.
As our custom after services Timothy and I answered questions. Then I proceeded to explain the importance of child spacing. I had discussed the idea during one of the lessons that we presented at the monthly class for the church leaders. Many of the people here don’t like to hear “birth control” when planning a family. They don’t like someone telling them not to have children so Cindy, my dearly departed mother-in-law, used the term child spacing. All it entails is giving the mother’s body a chance to recover before another child comes along. If you “space” the children every 2-3 years a woman who starts having children at the age of sixteen can still have 10 children. You might say “Wow, 10 kids!” One must take into account these folks have babies well into the age of their late 40’s so “spacing” is less intrusive to their mindset.
Last night Timothy had asked me if I would haul a few bags of his groundnuts (peanuts) back to his house. The groundnuts were stored in Daniel’s house which is adjacent to the church building. There were two big bags of nuts along with two smaller bags. Timothy was glad to get the groundnuts hauled for free rather than having to pay someone to haul them to his house.
On our way out of the village we stopped at the Chief’s house. I always give this man more kola than the other chiefs since he is a paramount chief. During the visit the chief related the story about the land dispute that I talked about earlier. We told the man we would be praying for a peaceful resolve of the situation. We will see!
After dropping off Timothy at this house we went to the lumber supply where the carpenter built the benches I ordered yesterday. The benches looked nice. I was pleased with the results. We know some of you have given money specifically for benches in the past and we appreciate your support. The benches cost $15 USD each but that equates to 201.00 Ghana Cedis and the daily wage is $2/day. That is why a bench is a great gift for the Churches.
We are sad to say that Tim Carter, an elder at Bethel, passed away early yesterday (Friday) morning. We have known Tim for decades and we know he will be sorely missed. Please keep his wife and family in your prayers as they mourn his passing from this life.
That wraps up another Lord’s Day for us. Hope you have a good one as well. Thanks for your continued support of the work.
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
