More from First Sunday at Wayamba

As we started the service people continued to join us. After the singing and dancing the ladies on the team went with Pastor Daniel's son John taking the children aside for their own time together, kind of a Children's Church if you will. Then I told several stories from the Bible to the adults, then Chris Read storied and finally Pastor Mohammed from Shalom Baptist Church storied. Pastor Daniel translated for Chris and I. Again God blessed us by not letting the rain come until we were leaving. It was a great start to a great week at Wayamba.

Sunday July 5, First worship service at Wayamba

When we arrived at the school at Wayamba Sunday morning Pastor Daniel from the sponsoring church at Zagyuri had the classroom open for us to use, but God blessed us with so many people we had to move things outside. The men you see in the first picture are mostly elders in the village. It was a big encouragement to have them there though I think they had been sent by the chief to check us out. As 10:00 approached the crowd grew. Pastor Daniel sent for most of his church to join us because the Wayamba people were new to our ways of worship. Everyone helped move benches from the classroom to the school yard and we sang, and prayed and told Bible stories. We did not issue an altar call because it did not seem the right time yet. Several who tried to count the people reported that there were about 130 children and 80 or so adults. What and encouraging blessing for all of us.

Team Two from First Baptist Church Rockwall Texas

This is a picture of the great team we have had working with us for the past week in Wayamba. Left to right they are Beverly, Feona, Peggy and myself, Judith our daughter, Cheryl Read (Team Leader) and Chris her husband and Colton their youngest son. After they arrived in Tamale on Saturday July the fourth. They went to visit the children at Anfanni's Children's home and present them with gifts from the states. That evening they went with us to show "The Hope" a movie about the story of the Bible. It was in the people's heart language, Dagbanli. There were over three hundred who watched the movie that night. The big screen and projector were set up right outside the chief's Mosque. We waited until the chief and the elders finished praying in the mosque, then they joined us to see the movie. It rained right up till time for the show then it stopped until we were through. When the movie was over the people applauded. After the movie everyone was invited to come to the village school the next morning to worship with us. Check the next post for more.

Teaching staff at Wyamba village school

The top picture is of Veronica and Priscilla. Priscilla on the right is the headmistress of the school and Veronica is the headteacher of the kindergarten. The school children range in ages from 4 to 15. The other two pictures show the other teachers and their assistants. Some of the staff are Christian, some are Muslim, but so far all are eager to help us help the children. We have permission to hold worship services in a class room. Be in prayer that our efforts this weekend will be under the power and direction of the Holy Spirit as we begin our evangelistic efforts to reach this village for Christ.

Clean drinking water for the children at the school in Wyamba

It has been a while since we posted to our blog, but we have not been idle. After a week away at our team conference we have returned to Tamale where for the last three weeks we have been busy laying the ground work for our Church planting efforts in the village of Wyamba about 6 miles north. Our most important project in this ground breaking is to win the trust and love of the people. We discovered that the children were drinking unfiltered water from a pond because there is no well or other source of clean water, so we have been hauling about 150 gal. of water from our house to the school every week. In these pictures Mr. Lansah our assistant/ driver and house help is delivering a load of water which is carried by truck in 30 gal. plastic garbage can(clean of course). The older boys are eager to help as you can see. This is a temporary measure. We are going through the school staff and the school's PTA and the village council to petition the water company to connect the school to a water line that runs about 100 yards from the school buildings. When our next volunteer team comes they will help with this project. The village people will contribute the labor needed to dig the ditch to run the water pipe in. We hope to secure a Polly tank for the school for water storage once the pipe is installed. Then the school will have clean water on demand. Clean water for the children will mean fewer health problems. When our volunteer team arrives July 3, 2009 we will begin evangelism and VBS in the village and hold the first Christian worship service ever in Wyamba. We will use oral Bible storying as the main evangelistic method.

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.