Marriage and Blessing of Their Children of Mr. & Mrs. Godopwa Hakiyina, Guyuk, Nigeria

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On Palm Sunday I drove up to Guyuk with Pastor Ruth and nine of the Deaf that normally attend her services at the LCCN Deaf Centre. We would have had several more but when I showed up with the truck, a few had decided to go for some food. We were late so we did not wait for them. We added a bench to the bed of the truck and headed north at a little faster speed than I normally drive.

When we arrived at LCCN 4, Guyuk, they had already started the Sunday Service and were at the Annoucements. The announcements at churches can last a long time during the wedding season (April-May) and Holy week. All the local and regional weddings, prayer services, inter-faith services and much more are announced. The printing of bulletins is not affordable.


The church is relatively small but is located on a large compound. On the right side is a shade structure for the overflow crowd. I am sure they are in the process of saving to build a larger building. They have piles of concrete block along the front wall and areas where sand is being stored to make more blocks. The normal way new churches are built is to save some money until you have enough to make a batch of blocks. You then buy cement, collect sand and make the blocks. They may make and store the blocks for several years. When they have enough blocks and enough money to buy the cement for the foundation and walls they will build. Then when they get enough for the roof they will build the roof. The next stage would be to buy windows and doors. Finally, they will add the electrical, plumbing, plaster, paint and furnishings. The entire process can require years. But rather and putting the money in the bank and letting inflation and fees eat it up they make concrete blocks.

Pastor Ruth changed into here robe and stole and joined the local pastor at the Altar. She will not be officiating at this marriage but will assist the local pastor.  Being Palm Sunday the Women's Fellowship, the Gospel Singers and the Youth Band had prepared special songs.

The marriage and blessings was worked in to the service. This is the second marriage as a part of the Sunday Service that I have seen here. It saves the couple a lot of money. This is a rather new procedure. I was told at the first one I attended in March, at the Cathedral that is was the first anyone had seen. The Yola Diocese Bishop happened to be scheduled to officiate at that Sunday's Service so he performed the marriage.

The local pastor performed the rites of marriage and blessing of the children with the help of an interpreter. Part of the ceremony was mixed with various parts of the service. The couple and wedding party had to get up and move to the front several times. At one point the wedding party performed a song in sign. This is an adult version of 'Jesus Loves Me". I edited it down to the last verse. The interpreter was a little behind until he figured out the song.

Toward the end of the service they had the offering. The offering box had two holes one for the men and one for the women. It is a bit of a competition as to which group gives more. They walk and some dance up to the box while the youth band sings. When the men have finished, their offering side is covered and the women come forward. Next week they will announce the totals during announcements. After the regular offerings they had a special offering for the couple. The couple stood by the donation baskets on top of the offering box and shook hands with everyone as they came by and put money in the baskets.

During the second offering I went outside to get some water. The truck was parked in the sunlight. The one sachet of water that was in the truck was will over 100 degrees F. I moved the truck to some shade and used some of the water to cool of the dark bench that was in the back.

 Instead of going back into the church I joined a group of young ladies at one of the windows. All the windows and doors had people standing at them. The view from this window as not bad, but you could not read the sign from the interpreter or see much of the pastor when he was kneeling before the Altar. 

After the service the best man organized everyone for pictures. I did not know the couple. I was just the driver for the people from Jimeta and tried to stay out of the pictures. It is hard to do when you stand out in the crowd the way I do you. I always seem to end up in the picture. 

After the first picture a successfully avoided the rest of the pictures. I will have to go and buy a flash drive to put all their pictures on give it to Pastor Ruth to get to them.

After the pictures at the church we drove over to the mother of the bride's compound for a snack, soft drink, and reception. The best part was the half frozen sachet of water that I was given. We excused ourselves after about a half an hour and thanked the family. 

We drove over to Retired Archbishop David Windibizri's house. He was in Jimeta at a meeting. We greeted his wife and spent a few minutes then headed back to Jimeta. This time at a more reasonable speed.

On the way back, we stopped in Numan at the LCCN Headquarter's Compound to pick up a package for Archbishop Babba's son Paul who lives in Mississippi. I got a chance to see the compressor that Global Health Ministries had purchased for Water Program. I had been working on finding a trailer hitch for the compressor but did not know that it had a very specific hitch and ball requirement. I had been told it was a two inch ball. But the trailer connection specified that it must be a 25/16 inch Class IV ball. The chances of finding that ball and hitch here is slim to none. Now we have to create a plan B. 

Waiting in Numan for the package.

Click on picture to do the the donation site.

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