In one area there was no road from the village to the main road so they had to walk everywhere. The challenge of carrying all their crops to the market meant that they were not able to sell very much and consequently the village stayed very poor. As a result the church decided that one way they could serve their community was to build a road for the 5 kilometres from their village to the main road.

They started the road and were able to build most of it but when they reached the house of an old man on the outskirts of the village he asked them why they were building. When they replied that it wasn’t a government project but rather one from the church to show God’s love to the community, he became angry and refused to let them build any further. He didn’t want a ‘God road’ going through his property. So they were forced to stop the project.

Christmas came and they invited the TCT trainer to help them have a special Christmas ceremony. The news of how the church had built a road for their community had reached the local and district government and nine of them decided to attend the Christmas ceremony to thank the church for their efforts.

When the old man saw the officials coming, he assumed they had come to arrest those at the church so he gathered ten friends, they collected their knives and followed along behind pretending they were weeding.

When they got to the church they were shocked to discover the officials were not arresting the Christians but thanking them for building a road. They were thankful that now when they visited the community they could come by motorbike and not have to walk.

The old man was embarrassed because he was there holding a knife ready to fight but actually the church was being appreciated. He completely changed his attitude and helped the church to build the road through his land and the remainder of the way through the village. In two weeks the rest of the road was completed.