Records Of Births and Deaths

The Sunday after the Family Weekend debacle of men and women, husbands and wives not knowing their birthdays,  I decided to make enquiries about the children. Before closing the service, I started asking the kids how old they were, and they all looked at their parents. I turned to the parents and asked them the dates of birth of their kids, and they were all blank. Only the interpreter could tell me his Birthday and those of his kids. He has a book where he kept the records. Kudos to him,  he kept records for some of his siblings, who were born within the time he had learnt how to read and write. So when you ask those his siblings how old they are, they will go and ask him, and he would tell them. Most times, he would remember the year but had to recheck his record, to be sure of the exact dates. Please don’t blame him. He has fifteen other siblings, some of who have become parents themselves!

I asked some of the kids I had known before I got to the village their ages, but they looked at their parents for answers. I asked the parents and most of them gave me the same ages they gave me when I newly got to the village. I recalled having asked some parents about the ages of their kids three years ago, and they gave me some numbers. Asking them again this time, they still gave me the same ages. The ones they told me were six years old three years ago, should be around nine. Yet, I was told they were still six years old.

Children of Gbaukuchi Village

Well, I proceeded to ask for the ages of some of the babies who were born after I got to the village, but the parents could not provide the answers. This is got me a bit livid. I told them I could understand the parents not knowing their birthdays, but I expected them to keep records for these toddlers and babies. One of them stood up and confronted me. “Pastor, why no record the date? We bring the baby come church for dedication. Why you no write down the date?”

Another problem here! This man believes that the day the baby was named should be the Birthday!

“Birthday is not the day you brought your baby to church for naming or dedication. It is the day your wife was delivered of the baby” The usual practice in the village is parents to bring babies to church for naming and dedication two or three months after the birth of the baby.  Now, none of us could remember the exact date even though we knew the month. Coming from the city where all these are never a problem, I felt terrible. These kids would grow up not knowing their exact dates of birth. I had taken this little detail for granted. I felt I had let them down. I went home that day with a heavy heart.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV

Within the same week, I discussed the issue with a much older friend, and he smiled saying, “it is not a problem. Since you know the months the kids were born, pick ‘most likely’ dates in those months and ascribe them to the kids. He proceeded to tell me that the same thing was done for him. He was born in a village in the southwest, and his date of birth was not recorded. It was months after that someone remembered. His parents then decided to pick a random date in the month of his birth.

I heaved a sigh of relief and felt lighter and better.

Now we have opened a register, where the interpreter records the births and deaths in the church.