This month was busy and exciting for us. It was exciting because our son-in-law Marcus and our eldest grandson Taylor came to help us with the work. Taylor’s visit made the 5th generation of our family to come and work in Ghana! That is pretty amazing! Kandie’s parents Royce and Cindy Reynolds brought their family to Ghana in 1970, Kandie’s grandparents Basil and May Reynolds joined them in 1974, Kandie and I brought all of our children in 1987, we returned as full time missionaries in 2001. This month Marcus brought our grandson Taylor. What fun we had! This was not Marcus’ first trip and we hope that it will not be his last!
We had to make numerous trips to Tamale for business as well as preparing to reopen the Child Center which has been partially closed since March of 2020. The Child Center was fully opened in May.
Covid-19 Update: The country is still under a mandatory mask rule which is not followed by most people in our area of Yendi. Social distancing is also mandatory but mostly disregarded; the people don’t really get the social distancing thing because they are used to communal living and eating. When we visit the congregations we supply them with masks and insist they wear them to show the brethren we should follow the governmental guidelines. The numbers of infections of Covid-19 seem to be reducing. People are reluctant to get vaccinated because they fear the vaccine will cause sterility.
Here is a list of villages we visited during the month and what transpired on our visit.
· Mulipido – 2nd May – This village has Brother Daniel Batoln working with the Church. The church said they were short of benches; we took them two benches instead of the one. The Church told us of the desire to lengthen their building because the existing building is too small. We matched funds; we provided 600.00 Ghana Cedis ($104) and the Church will take care of the labor and other items.
· Jegrido – 6th May – I was asked to present a short lesson for a final funeral for a female church member who had died a few days earlier.
· Jakpumba – 9th May – During this visit I was asked to speak about church attendance and the responsibility of each Christian has to the church.
· Duuni – 16th May – This is one of the largest congregations that we work with. They had built a larger building made of concrete block which looked very nice. They said they had done all the work themselves. We presented the congregation with enough money for them to purchase windows and doors for the building. They were extremely pleased with the money!!!
· Sobobito – 23rd May – I preached the lesson “Keep Yourself Pure”. This congregation has been having a problem with one of the leaders in the Church and the situation surfaced during the question and answer period after services. Timothy Niligrini and I encouraged the Church to deal with the situation as instructed in the New Testament. We hope for good results for all involved.
· Jegrido – 28th May – (Night class) We had planned to visit the nearby village of Yowonda but we had to change our plan because there was a funeral in the village. Our grandson Taylor taught a class about Jonah. He did a great job; it was good for the other young people to see that a teenager could teach; the class was well attended.
· Nakpachee – 30th May – Our son-in-law Marcus preached and Taylor taught the Bible class.
This month at the church leader’s class the men enjoyed listening to two new speakers (Marcus and Taylor). Taylor presented the lesson and material that was sent from the States by the Bethel ladies about the Tower of Babel. The second session lesson presented by Marcus dealt with “Christian Ethics”. There were lots of questions generated by this subject. This is because Ghana’s fundamental beliefs were built on paganism, not Christianity. Here’s an example of one of the things the market vendors face; if someone is in the market and they pick up something from a vendor, like candy, if the vendor sees them take it and says nothing then the person taking the candy says they have not stolen the candy because someone saw them take it!!!
There were a total of twenty nine present for the class. The brothers reported there were four people baptized and six were restored to the Lord’s fold. A church leader from the congregation at Nanjuni said the church was ready to put the roof on their building so we gave some matching funds to help them with that project.
Everyone that attended the class was given a new bicycle tire and tube as a gift. Also each congregation received the teaching material that Taylor had presented on the Tower of Babel.
By the time you receive this month’s Notes we will be back in the States. We hope to see some of our supporters that we haven’t seen in a long time. We know there may still be some traveling restrictions in some states but we will try to get around if all possible. Thank you so much for your prayers and support of the work. The brethren in Ghana send you their greetings!
In His service,
Stephen & Kandie Taylor
