The rains have started to taper off but the flooding of the lowland areas still make it impossible for us to visit some of the congregations. I was joking with the brothers at this monthly class; I said we complain when there isn’t enough rain and we complain when there is too much rain. They agreed when I said “Only a true God could put up with a creation like us!
Since I am talking about the monthly class, one of the questions that was asked concerned baptism; the question was, “Why do denominational people criticize the Church of Christ for not training and testing the people before they baptized them?” This led me to give a mini lesson on how each baptized male should know how to baptize a person. We then physically showed the class how to do a baptism and what to say and the importance of making sure the person they were baptizing was fully submerged. I used burying a dead person as an example; “Would it be proper to leave the arm or the leg sticking out of the grave?” They got it!
Half of the monthly class time was used to pass out the invitation letters to the leaders who in turn will carry them to the respective congregations to invite them to the seminar that will take place November 23-25. Kandie and I spent time several days before the class folding and ironing shirts and tying ties that our supporters had given us. Each man was given a shirt/tie and two additional ties so they could have a nice set of clothes for the seminar. This is also the month that I give each man who attends class a bicycle tire and tube to use in their evangelistic efforts. The men were very pleased with their gifts.
This month the men who attended class were 32 in number. The men reported that 40 people were baptized and 5 were restored to the Church during October.
Nana Bekum, one of the evangelists, was late in coming to class. He telephoned me saying he would be late because at one of the barriers all the passengers on the bus had to exit the vehicle and present their national ID cards. The roads are closed to the Togo border; the government officials wanted to make sure there were no illegal passengers traveling on the bus. Nana said if you didn’t have your government ID card the officers made a spot fine of 20 Cedis. Hmmm, that might be a way of increasing your monthly salary if you are one of those officers!
During the month we were able to visit the congregations at: Nanjuni, Borido, Yawando, Bincheratanga, Nyangpala. We also visited the village of Salankuku on Saturday 21st for a naming ceremony. One of the church members asked us to speak at the naming. It was supposed to start around 9:30 am but it was closer to 11 am before everything got started. The baby was a cute little guy and the parents gave his native name which I couldn’t begin to pronounce and an English (Biblical) name of Melchizedek .
Our visit to Bincheratange was twofold; first to see how well the church was functioning and secondly to find out if a rumor we had heard about the Church members having a disagreement was true. We were pleased to find out the Church is still alive, though very small, and that the disagreement was not amongst the local members but a problem brought on by some visiting evangelists who were trying to force the congregation to provide money for their traveling expenses. We encouraged the members to use the power God authorizes for each individual congregation. No one has the authority to force them to do something against their will. It is called autonomy!
At Borido the brethren asked us if we could help fix the church’s sign; the legs had broken off. We agreed to weld new legs on the sign if they come get it. We had Red fix the sign and 3 weeks later they picked it up.
When we visited Yawando we immediately noticed the building needing some masonry work around the walls and the base of the building. The church agreed to provide the manpower and the sand and we provided money for 4 bags of concrete.
Thanks for all the support you send our way. It is greatly appreciated!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
