Galdima Church Dedication

Our primary purpose for going to Bali was to attend the dedication of a new church at Galadima.This church was just four mud block walls when I visited it in 2010. The Pastors' Wives Association had visited in 2009 and told the people of the village that if they built a church the wives would pay to have a roof constructed. The roof was finished in 2010 and struck by lightning in 2011 and repaired. Now it 2013 the church has had the mud blocks covered with concrete, the floor finished, pews and an altar built. It is time for a dedication. Before we left I decided to take a quick picture. The local District pastor Rev. Joshua Mamman is in the back. He did not ride there. He moved into the back seat with his wife, Pastor Buduku and his wife. This is not the first or last time we will have 4 in the back seat. We left a little after 8 AM with a quick stop for diesel and another for a bag of cool water to put in my cooler.

For the few of my readers who have been to Bali. You probably crossed the old bridge on the left. There is now a wide two lane bridge.

Pastor Bunduku had been to Galadima earlier in the week to check on the preparations. When he was there he was told that a woman had been saying crazy things and the villagers had said she had evil spirits. So they bound her and tied her to a tree and left her to die. Pastor Bunduku went to her and gave her water then asked where her husband was and told someone to bring him. He talked to the husband who said she was sick and started talking crazy. He does not want a crazy wife. Pastor Bunduku convinced the husband to let him take her to a hospital. We do not know what her current condition is now. But it is much better than being tied to a tree.


 When we arrived the church as in the final stages of being prepared for the dedication ceremony. The Pastors' Wives had arrived on Saturday in two vans and a truck. Drummers and a trumpet player had walked the 6 kilometers from Garba Chede. The ceremony starts with a procession from center of the village to the church, lead by the drummers. The women were lined up in one line and would sing the whole way while the drummers drummed a different tune. The other line was other people, church members, guests and villagers. At the end were the local Evangelist, Catechist and finally the Pastors.

I stood to the side and shoot a video as the procession went by. By the time the end of the pastors had passed the front was more than half way to the church. I had to run through fields to get back in front of the procession to shoot a video of them arriving at the church.




They went to the front of the church where they said a prayer and then Pastor Bunduku read the dedication ceremony in Hausa.




Then the Catechist that started the church unlocked the door while something else was read. I did not have an interpreter as I was busy taking pictures.


After the door was unlocked another verse was read and then I heard my name called at and realized I was suppose to cut the ribbon. After the ribbon was cut we filled the church to overflowing.



I found a good seat by a window where the wind was blowing in so I could stay a little cool. Soon all the windows were blocked by people outside looking in.

 I cannot remember all the ceremony. They blessed the Baptismal / Offering Stand and then the Pulpit (which was designed for a tall person). After the pulpit was blessed they called for me to cut the pink  ribbon in front of the Altar. I quickly said the Pastors' Wives leader should cut this ribbon for they had provided the roof over our heads. She quickly moved to the front and cut the ribbon before anyone could protest and before I could get in a position to take the picture.

 They blessed the Altar and the church service was started. The Church Elder of the month read the announcements and said that last week they had 46 people in attendance and they collected 700 Naira in offerings.

 At the part of the service where they ask for guest they introduced me and told the church that one thing that the children of Mount Calvary had done was to buy a donkey for the Catechist to use. The donkey decided to break every pot in their compound. It must have had been forced to carry heavy pots before and did not want to do it again. I was asked to greet the congregation. I told them that I was bringing greetings from America and from Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Excelsior, Minnesota. Explained that Mount Calvary has been working with Jimeta Cathedral for the last 20 years starting churches like Galadima in Taraba State. I told them that I was happy to be part of the dedication and that I will take part of the yellow ribbon I cut and the pink ribbon the Pastors' Wives had cut back to Mount Calvary. We will display it so part of their church will be with our church. After I finished there were various dignitaries that spoke. While the village chief spoke on and on, an old man outside the window said something and Yakubu started to laugh. He told me the old man said  "You are not a pastor, you are not giving a sermon. Just sit down."


The Pastors' Wives spent about a half hour telling about how they have been working for many years to help start churches like Galadima. They had all the former leaders of the organization come to the front to thank them for their leadership and years of service to the church. The pastor in the center is the wife of the pastor at Pella. Her church is not far from Pella near Hong. At the end of their presentation the leader looked at me and told me that the Pastors' Wives do a lot of evangelism. But their biggest problem is the lack of transportation. They have to hire buses (vans) and drivers whenever they go out for evangelism. If this had been a different setting I would have given them my Money Tree speech I give to people who think money grows on trees in America.

The Pastors' Wives had handed out presents to various people for their work in starting churches in Taraba State and the Bali Project. After a few more hymns and special numbers from the Pastors' Wives, the youth, and the Garba Chede Women's Fellowship the sermon was started.

Pastor Comfort Albert Pukuma provide the sermon with the local Catechist interpreting from Hausa to the local language Jirim. She is an impressive speaker and I did not understand much of what she said. But I could tell that she had the full attention of the church and everyone outside.She had a short sermon for an African pastor probably less than 45 minutes.

After the sermon and a hymn we had the offering where the basket or in this case a plastic tub was placed at the front of the church and the youth band sings while everyone files past and places their hands into the tub and releases what is in their hand. Today the attendance was close to one hundred and there were 1,000 Naira notes in the tub.

After the church service ended the drummers loaded into the back of the Hilux and several others for the ride back to Garba Chede. We dropped off Pastor Bunduku and our other passengers at Garba Chede except for two young girls who Yakubu told me he had been asked by one of the Pastors' Wives to drive them to Yola and meet her at the Cathedral where we were going anyway. She would meet us along the road and join us. I had assumed that they were her children but later I found out they were from Galadima and their parents had asked that they be taken to Adamawa, where they can go to school.  There was also a young boy who was to go but he refused to leave fought to get out of the other vehicle he was in. One of the girls spoke Hausa and Yakubu could communicate with them. I bought peanuts at Garba Chede for snacks and gave them water to wash it down. We stopped in Jalingo the Capital of Taraba State and bought more water and some soda and crackers.

 We went a little off the main highway so I could photograph the church in Jalingo for their companion congregation Valley of Peace Lutheran in Golden Valley, Minnesota. While we were making this detour the vans with the woman who was going to meet us probably went through Jalingo on the main road. When we were a few kilometers outside of Yola the lady called Yakubu and asked where he was. They were at the Cathedral and never saw us on the road. We delivered the girls to her about 15 minutes later. I certainly hope that these girls will thrive in their new home in the Hong area of Adamawa. They slept much of the ride or talked and looked out the windows. They still had an overnight stay in a guest house and then a few more hours of driving to their new home.