Second Annual Etakpekpe

 

January 11, 2000

 

The second annual Etakpekpe was a spiritual milestone in the life of the church among the Aja.  “None of the voju ceremonies have ever had such sweet singing and spiritual strength,” was the statement of one of the Christians and echoed by many more.  One summarized what he experienced by saying, “the Church of Christ has arrived in Aja land.”  I cannot disagree with that.

 

Members from each of the fifteen congregations were present for the Friday through Sunday event.  There were 320 Christians, not counting the host Koyohoue and nearly one hundred visitors at times.  One group of twenty arrived on foot from Bakonu, fifteen miles away.  They each carried a basin on their head filled with eating utensils and bedding.   Three people road bikes more than thirty miles to arrive for the first night.  Most congregations rented pickup trucks to bring a large percentage of the congregation.

 

The open air meeting took place in an open space in the center of the village of Koyohoue.   Large tarpaulins provided most of the shade from the sun during the day.  A large tree that also shaded people was the location where the first meetings took place while Koyohoue, the first congregation among the Aja, was still a preaching point.  To see four to five hundred meeting under the same tree increased my faith a hundred fold.  I hope it does yours, too.

 

Most of the time it was difficult to realize that we were not in a closed room.  The ebb and flow of the rhythm of the loud voices drew everyone into the “spiritual singing”. 

 

Eighteen people from various churches were baptized at the close of the meeting.

 

Please join us telling the Lord how much we appreciate what He did here this weekend.

 

----- Richard

 

Prayer Requests:

  1. The eighteen new Christians will be strong in the Lord and lead others to Him.
  2. People will use what they have learned at the Etakpekpe meeting.
  3. There are several families on the Aja team and in the Aja churches that have been trying to have babies.
  4. Praise God for the encouraging visits of Murphy’s parents and Melanie Bailey’s mother.
  5. Praise God for the successful Etakpekpe meeting.
  6. Praise God that Heather Hicks is feeling better now after having malaria and amoeba.  (She was misdiagnosed as having typhoid fever).