After talking with Timothy Niligrini on Friday we made plans to visit the congregation at Sobitido which is located south west of Kulkpeni. Timothy said one of the church leaders was having a problem that we needed to discuss with the congregation so that settled our plans.
I was glad the sky was cloudy today because the air conditioning in the green pickup is on the blink. It takes about 30 minutes to get to our destination after leaving Timothy’s house. A visiting brother from Nalongni conducted the bible class and I chose to speak about speaking the truth and putting away lying. One of my main points was using the example of Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5:1-11. Again, I must say I was glad it was a cool day because Kandie and I were sitting in the front corner of the small building with little or no air circulating. The Church expressed their thanks for our visit but they voiced their concern that due to the lack of rain, food stuffs were scarce and they had nothing to present to us. You know I wasn’t going to allow them to feel bad about the situation so I immediately spoke up saying we understood and that being there and being warmly welcomed was good enough for us! There were a total of 93 people in attendance; 39 of the 93 were children.
When the worship service was over some of the adults remained in the building to discuss the problem the church leader was having. If I didn’t know better I’d say this situation is like watching a soap opera. One of the young sisters in the congregation alleges the leader got her pregnant. . The girl’s mother is also a church member but the mother was unable to get the daughter to tell her who the father was. A faith healer who says he has prophetic powers went to her room and identified the church leader as the father. One would ask “why was he there in the first place?” The alleged leader was taken to the police station where many questions were asked. He denied the allegations but he said he was told if he didn’t admit to the offence he would be held in jail. At this time the child had not been born so getting an easy blood sample for DNA was difficult and neither side had the money to pay for such a test. So today, we had a good conversation with the grandmother and the leader in the presence of the church members to try to help iron out the situation. I told the group that I would bare the expense of the test so the truth could be told. Both sides verbally agreed. If the man is guilty then he should care for the child, but if he is not the father he needs to have his reputation repaired and the real father pursued. He has stepped down as a leader due to this situation.
After leaving the building we went over to the chief’s house and greeted him. During the conversation with the chief he told us his farm didn’t do well because of the drought. He planned to put a new cement floor in his round room where he meets his guests. Due to crop failure he doesn’t have the money to do the job. We decided to give him the money for 4 bags of cement to floor the room. He was a happy camper. While we were there Kandie was able to purchase an old grinding stone to add to her collection.
On the way back to Timothy’s house we stopped at his home village of Jagrido to pick up a bag of grinding scraps at the grinding mill to feed his hogs .
Today was Yendi market day but due to all the street construction we were not able to find a place to park the truck. Maybe we will go tomorrow.
After bible study tonight Timothy informed us the father of the girl who had the baby we talked about at Sobitido called him and said he didn’t want to do the DNA test. Timothy will talk with the church brother and get his response to the matter.
That sums up the day. Hope you have a good day as well! May God bless.
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
