The rains have started to wane. It has been 10 days since we received any significant rainfall so everyone has started harvesting. I am glad we had a significant rainfall this year; but the government did not subsidize fertilizer this year; I am afraid that food is going to be in short supply later in the dry season especially during the months of April, May and June. We are thankful for your support because we may have some church members and some in the community that will need some assistance during the lean times.
I want to give you an update on conditions the people in Ghana are facing which is not unlike what is going on in the states and other parts of the world. Two weeks ago the price of diesel per liter was 15.99 GHS (Cedis); presently it is 23.49 Cedis per liter. The monetary exchange rate for $1 USD right now is a little over 11.00 GHS. It takes 3.78 liters to make one U.S. gallon. If I have done the math correctly one gallon diesel costs 8.07 USD. When fuel prices rise, so does everything else. We are planning the seminar for the last of November. With the cost of everything skyrocketing we decided to purchase the non-perishable items and store them. The 25 liters of cooking oil that we purchased for 130 GHS for the 2019 seminar cost 700 GHS. We could tell the woman we purchased the oil from was reluctant to sell it because they were expecting the price to go up. Sure enough the next day it raised 100 GHS and the Yendi vendors were shipping it by bus to Accra where they reportedly were getting 1,200 -1,500 GHS per 25 liters. Cooking oil is an essential to most Ghanaian meals.
In preparation for the evangelistic Seminar next month we put a new floor in the large round house. The ants had tunneled under the cement and caused the cement to flake off. There were other spots on the veranda of some of the other buildings that we also had repaired. We purchased the paint so the church members can paint the building before the seminar.
The seminar is a highlight during the year where hundreds of people come to learn and have fellowship for 2 ½ days. We provide the rooms and food and the visitors are responsible for bringing any personal items and paying for their transport. It is a lot of work but it is well worth the time and money as it is a great teaching tool for the Lord!
The congregations that we made contact with this month were Duuni, Bakjon, Bakpaba, Nalongni, Kulkpeni and Nadundo. Matching funds for building projects were given to Duuni, Bakjon, Bakpaba, and Nadundo. Now that the rains have stopped the congregations will continue to work on their church buildings.
The congregation at Nadundo was re-established about six months ago. While we were visiting the congregation at Nalongni on the 23rd three men from Nadundo came to talk to us after services; they wanted to build a church building and needed help purchasing cement. They already made 500 cement blocks molded and still needed more. Thanks to our generous donors we were able to give them money to mold 850 more blocks. That next Sunday we went to visit them and were happy to see they had already used the money to buy cement and make many more blocks. The chief of the village has already given the Church a plot of land so It shouldn’t be long before they can start raising the walls.
Twenty-four men attended the monthly class. Several men were not able to come due to deaths in the family and one man’s motorcycle broke down. The subject of the class study was the “Woman’s Responsibility to the Family”. The men reported that 6 people were added to the Lord’s Church through baptism and 6 were restored to the Lord.
This month we sent out the seminar invitations to the congregations that we work with. After handing the invitations Timothy and I started giving out the class transport money as well as a shirt and tie and a tire and tube as a gift for those attending the class. The men enjoyed getting the shirt and tie so they will have something new to wear to the seminar!
This year the theme of the seminar is “What will your answer be?” It is scheduled for the 24th-26th of November. The meat we like to use is pork but there has been a disease that killed many of the pigs in our area. I had already resolved in my mind to buy a cow but just a few days ago Brother Divine found four market size hogs that we purchased; that should be plenty of meat for the seminar. Please keep the seminar in your prayers. It means so much to those that attend.
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
