It was very strange not to have Timothy in the vehicle with us this morning, but Kwabena our new night watchman and a member of the church at Kulkpeni, accompanied us to the village. He did very well as my interpreter. Timothy Niligrini was feeling well enough to come out to the road and sign his papers that we need to give to the Social Security Tier 2 office tomorrow. It was good to see him out.
We were invited to the village of Nalongni; the Church is located southwest of Yendi. Kwabena lives in Kulkpeni which we pass on our way to Nalongni so we picked him up on our way. The rain started coming down moderately before we got to the village. Rain keeps a lot of people from attending worship but we drove out of the rain before we got to Nalongni. The people tell time by the sun’s position and today it was difficult to see the sun so church started a little later than normal.
I again used the witches, soothsayers, and dream lesson. The brothers allowed me to have the combined Bible class and lesson time; this gives more time after the close of worship for question and answers. A young mother asked why the apostles thought Jesus was a ghost when walking on the Sea of Galilee if there was no such a thing as a ghost. What a thought provoking question! It is easy to believe in the supernatural when you have been fed a steady diet of it all your life.
Steve’s stomach is not feeling so fine so I(Kandie) am going to finish the notes for him.
After we gave the children the crocheted hats we went to visit Joseph Kumasi. He was one of the original church leaders at Nalongni; he had to give up the position a few years ago because he had a serious stroke that left his right arm mostly useless and he walks with a cane because his right leg does not work either. When we visit the church we visit him just to check on him and leave him a little money for medicine. He was happy to see us. From Joseph’s house we went to the chief’s house and paid our respects to him. The church men gave us a gift of yams and the ladies gave us a gift of unshelled peanuts. They gave us about a bushel of peanuts. The ladies were lamenting the fact that they did not have any hot pepper to give us because their hot pepper was not ready to harvest. We were more than pleased with the peanuts.
The teenagers of the congregation petitioned for a soccer ball. Steve gave them the money to buy a new ball; they were thrilled! The congregation also asked for help buying new doors for the building. We told them that we would provide the metal doors if they would pay for the sand, cement, transport and the mason to install the doors. They thought that was a grand idea!
When we left Nalongni we passed through the village of Nadundo. The church is in the process of building a church building. The walls were up but they ran out of blocks; they need 350 more blocks to finish the last 3 rows of blocks. They needed money to buy the cement. Thanks to our wonderful supporters we were able to give them enough money to buy 12 bags of cement. The church will dig the gravel and pay for the mason to mold the blocks.
We gave Kwabena half of the yams that were given to us and the other half we shared with Timothy. We kept the peanuts; we are going to have the workers shell them and use them to make the Peanut Protein Paste for the malnourished children that come to the Child Center.
All in all we had a busy and productive day! Presently we are in Tamale. We had to be here by 8:30 in the morning to renew our Non-Citizen Cards and go to the bank; we decided that it would be better to spend the night than have to get up so early in the morning.
Hope you had a good Lord’s Day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
