This was a peculiar month because the Muslim month long fast that is called “Ramadan” was observed. Since most of the daily workers are Muslims we decided to give them their 3 weeks paid time off (required by Ghana law) at the end of Ramadan. The workers find it difficult to do their jobs while they are fasting; they are not allowed to eat or drink anything from sunup to sundown. It seemed like the ideal time to give them their holiday. Their absence made things quiet in the compound. The holiday officially ends on the 2nd of May.
The 1st Sunday of this month we first visited the congregation at Niliyuundo located in the Nanumba District, south of Yendi. The windows in their building had been eaten up by the termites so we told them that we would have the 34 inch metal windows made if they did their work and paid the mason. On class day the church leader came to the house and picked up the windows.
On the 2nd Sunday we visited the congregation at Salankuka located east of Yendi. The congregation meets in a school block because the roof on the building they erected last year collapsed. There was too long of a span between the walls and the mud balls were not strong enough to hold up the roof. When we visited the chief after services he was asking if we were going to help raise the building again. I told him that it was over to the church to decide what they were going to do with the building. We told them that we would help when the church had a plan. The chief was happy that we were willing to help again!
We traveled to Bungbali on the 17th to worship with the two congregations in that area; the congregations of Bungbali and Tombu. Presently both of these congregations are meeting in traditional mud ball buildings; they want to build a new building using cement blocks. We agreed to help them start making blocks by giving money for cement; the churches will be responsible for providing the sand, gravel and labor to mold the blocks. They asked for a block mold to use to mold the block. A block mold is made of heavy sheet metal. The mold’s dimensions are: 16 inches long, 9 inches high and 6 inches wide. Metal pipe is attached to the end for handles. The bottom of the mold has a removable metal sheet that allows the cement packed mold to slide out when turned upside down. The mason who is going to mold the blocks is one of the church members; he came to the mission house and we went to town and bought a quality mold. I decided to buy 2 molds so the work would go faster. When they finish using the mold we will have them for the next church that needs to mold blocks.
Jagrido was our destination on the 24th. I must say that was the most uncomfortable service we have attended in some time. They have a modest size building but there was no air circulating. Everyone was sweating! What was interesting was the Churches sermon topic; “Can a Christian be a Politician?” That was a new one for me.
The monthly classes for the church leaders went very well. There were 26 men present for the class. We were only able to get through half of the lesson on the man’s responsibility to his wife. In this male dominated society you can imagine everyone had lots of questions. I mentioned 1 Peter 3:7 how the writer said the men should live with their wives in an understanding way which led to a short anatomy lesson.
The men reported that 12 people had been baptized into Christ and another 4 people had repented and returned to the Church. As some of you remember, we gave bicycles to those men attending the class last time we were in Ghana. We decided it would be nice to give the men a tire pump for their own personal use so on class day I handed out the tire pumps. The men were very pleased with the gift. We thank all of you who contribute money to the work so we can do things like this for the men.
May God bless you for your prayers and financial support to help with the work here in Ghana.
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
