Video from Wyamba

Visit with the chief

There is a certain protocol that must be followed in gaining entrance to a village. First you must find someone known in the village who will approach an elder and request an audience with the chief. In this case we used Pastor Daniel who had once lived in the village. He approached the elder who was also the linguist for the chief. The linguist speaks to and for the chief since it would not be acceptable for us to speak directly to him. The elder set up the meeting, and on the appointed day we went to the house of the elder and gave him what is called "Kola" which is actually money. In this case the amount was about $5. In former times this gift would have been in the form of Kola nuts which have a great deal of caffeine and are chewed by the men for the buzz it gives them. The elder/linguist then took us to the chief's lodge or greeting house where we were granted an interview with the chief and all the rest of the elders. When we entered the presence of the chief we bowed and clapped for him. The linguist explained the nature of our visit, gave our names and passed the Kola to the chief. The elders clapped for us and we were then questioned by the chief through the linguist as to our purpose. Having satisfied himself about our intent he granted us permission.

Wyamba, Village of the Dagomba people

This begins what we hope will be the chronicles of the planting of a church in the village of Wyamba. As far as we know there are no believers in this village of several thousand.
We made our first visit on May 19, 2009 to greet the chief and ask his permission to enter the village and tell people about Jesus. This is a Muslim village, with some African Taraitional Religionist also. The chief questioned us about why we wanted to do it and I told him that the most high God had told us to go everywhere and tell people about Jesus. He asked if we would help his people in other ways and I told him that we are taught to love and help everyone whenever we can and that we would do whatever we could do to help his people. He welcomed us to his village. Without his permission we could not do what God sent us to do. Thank you for praying for this first step. Keep praying and watch for future postings as God does a work in Wyamba.

Grinding mill at Kushibu

This is the long awaited grinding mill at Kushibu. This will save the women hours of transporting their produce to another village to have it ground. This should also provide much needed income for the village. This is not the harvest season so it is not getting a lot of use now but that will change after the new crops come in.

Worship with Pastor Stephen Napari at Shalom in Tarikpaa

Sunday we went to worship with Pastor Stephen at Shalom. I asked to be excused from preaching because I told them we just came to join their worship not lead it. this is an encouragement to the local pastor. I was interested in strengthening our relationship here. Pastor Stephen is a good preacher, pastor/teacher and worship leader, who has a real heart for God. These pictures show the praise service and the children's choir.
Pastor Mohammed has matured as one who keeps things from getting bogged down, and he is a good preacher and inturpreter.

How is this for a Wednesday night service

After Tommy and I got pictures of the new roof on the church, (see previous post) we went by Bakko's village to deliver a set of African mad e drums to his people for his church. Bakko is another student pastor and he preaches at about 6 or 7 villages when he can get to them. Each one is about 5 or 6 miles from the others and he uses a borrowed bicycle to travel on. Bakko is a farmer/hunter to support he and his family. The churches up here in the bush don't pay a salary, maybe some corn or rice, or yams. We are taking resumes if you are interested. Then we went to Nanjgoaa, a Konkomba villiage where Tommy preaches on a fairly regular basis. It was Wensday night. There were only about 8 or so people at the compound made up of mud huts with grass roofs. It was dark with only the moon and stars providing light., because this village is beyond the power lines. Those present started beating on a drum and singing. In just a short time there were over 60 gathered. After about an hour the singing and dancing tapered off and I preached for 15 min. using the story of Zacchaeus. After the message I asked those who wanted to pray to become Christians to pray as I prayed. With the aid of an interpreter about 20 of them prayed with me. That beats most Wendesday night services I remember back home. God is good all the time.

New roof on Fire's church

A young man named Fire is one of our students. His real name is Mahami Haruna but he is called "Fire." I can't write it correctly because some of the Mampruli alphabet is not on my keyboard. The name "fire" means "who have I robbed?" It may have to do with the fact that Fire was born with Cerebral Palsy. Anyway some time back a storm took the "local" or grass roof off the little church. When Our son Chris was here he took picyures of it and when his church saw them they decided to put a new roof on it. The roof is now in place and the holes in the walls have been patched. Soon the walls will be plastered and it will be good as new thanks to New Harmony Baptist Church in Savanah, TN.