Timothy was late this morning coming to the compound. I think he thought his clock said 8 am instead of 9 am. Anyway, things worked out just fine because the road we took to the village of Jomoni has been repaved which allowed us to travel much quicker. Jomoni is on the Gnani road but it is way beyond Gnani about 10-12 miles. Timothy said he had told the church leader it would be 9:30 when we arrived and we only missed it by 5 minutes (9:35am) .
One of the men of the church led the bible class and I taught the lesson with the help of Timothy’s interpretation. I gave the same lesson about witchcraft, soothsayers, and dreams. After services one of the men said he had had a dream one night about getting a snake bite on his finger and the next day he saw a snake near his room. He was worried the dream was telling him that he was going to get a snake bite. Two days later when he saw a snake coming into his room he wondered if the dream was going to come true. Because this man is a Christian he didn’t consult the Juju about the dream but the fetish priest and Juju people love to use the villagers’ dreams to exploit and hold power over them.
I related a dream to the audience that I had when I was 9-10 years old around the Easter holiday. I dreamed my nephew Kelly had died and he was put in a big eggshell casket. Occasionally he would rise up and talk to me and I would push him back down into the casket saying “you are supposed to be dead, be quiet!” Of course the audience thought it was hilarious. I told them my nephew is still alive so the dream meant nothing. When you’re raised in a family where the bible is taught as I was, we don’t have people encouraging us to believe in superstition although I am told I did have an old grandmother who wouldn’t cross the road if a black cat crossed in front of her.
The congregation is making plans to put up a cement block building during the dry season . They have already molded several hundred blocks. We decided to go ahead and give some matching funds so they can continue to make the blocks. They tried to give us praise for the money but I said give God the glory and the people back home who made it possible.
Tonight at Kulkpeni Timothy led the class. During the class the men told us about a prayer camp that had come to the village. Another name for a prayer camp would be a faith healer camp. It would seem the man running the camp is a magnet for women and they are paying 50 Cedis ($5USD- and the daily minimum wage is $2 /day) to this man for him to pray for them. They talk about how much power he has. They even go to the man’s farm and work. A husband of one of the women who went to the camp was annoyed because he said his wife doesn’t go to his farm and help him and here she is working on this other man’s farm. The bottom line is it is all about the money !!!
As I am finishing writing these notes we are having a gully washer & toad strangler rain falling on the roof. The month of September is when we get the biggest rains of the season.
Hope you had a good Lord’s Day. We sure did! May God bless.
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
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