Sermon Transcript — January 19, 2008
We know that one of the commissions, one of the most important commissions that Jesus gave to His disciples, is one that guides us in the work that we do collectively, as a Church. He told them in Matthew 28:19, this is what ends the book of Matthew:
verse 19 — "Go, therefore, and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,"
verse 20 — "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Those were the marching orders for the Church. It was to be an active organization. It was to be spreading the message all over the world, the message of the Kingdom of God and the Church of God in this century, this century and the last actually, 20 th and 21 st, has been actively doing that and some of us have the privilege of actually making the trips to visit brethren in other parts of the world.
This is something that began with the apostles. We have in the book of Acts many accounts of long trips, much more difficult and time-consuming trips than the ones that we might make today. They didn't get to fly. They had to take a sailboat. That was about the fastest you could go and if any of you have ever sailed you know that...a big sailboat doesn't go that fast; that was how they had to do it.
I would just like to review a couple of things that came out of Paul's ministry and some of the trips he made. If you will turn with me to Acts 14, this is a passage that I often use to introduce a video because I will be showing you kind of a video update, in just a moment , of some things that are going on in the French-speaking parts of the world, as far as the Church is concerned.
This is Paul coming back from a trip that he made; a very long trip of many, many months. It says in Acts 14:26:
verse 26 — "From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed."
verse 27 — "And when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles."
verse 28 — "So they stayed there a long time with the disciples."
So Paul and his companions went out and made a long trip, preached the Gospel, God blessed that work, and he came back and gathered the Church together and explained, gave a report, and explained all that God had done. That is because everybody was involved in that, through their prayers, through their support of Paul, material support and moral support and prayerful support, those Church members all worked together for this outreach to the world.
Then, if you go to the next chapter, in Acts 15:36, after the long time that they stayed with the disciples, there in Antioch, it says:
verse 36 — "Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.'"
So the commitment that the Church makes is not only to preach the Gospel and hope something comes of it and see the fruit that God will give but, also, to care for those who are called as a result of that outreach. So Paul and Barnabas went back and made a pastoral visit to check and see how their new brethren were doing in all the various places that they had gone before, and that is something that we continue to do today and we do have brethren in far-flung areas of the world, and we're not able to visit them all as often as we would like, but we do try to visit them periodically, just as Paul and Barnabas did, to see how they're doing, to see how we can help them and how we can continue to serve them.
Paul, no doubt, was thinking as he did this about some other principles that he enunciated in Romans; for example, Romans 12, where he talks about comparing the Church to a body, Romans 12:4, and that was one of the analogies he used.
verse 4 — He says, "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,"
verse 5 — "so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another."
So we're all supposed to be connected. We're supposed to be interested in what happens to each other. We're supposed to be supporting one another mutually; that was something that Paul made very clear to the Romans and that's something that we try very hard to do in our time as well.
verse 6 — "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;"
verse 7 — "or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;"
verse 8 — "he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness."
Different members of the Church are able to do different things. One of the things that we are able to do in the United States, because of the great material blessings that God has given, we are able to support, materially, members in many other parts of the world and, as Paul said, "he who gives," let him be thankful that he is able to do that. That's a part of the gifts that God has given us that we can use to help and to serve our brethren in other parts of the world.
Let me just read one more passage before we roll the video. If you'll turn to Acts 11:18, this is now Peter giving an account of something unusual that happened when God began opening the door of salvation to the Gentiles that was rather unthinkable to the Jews at that time. They couldn't imagine that God would go outside of His chosen people with whom He had worked for hundreds and hundreds of years, from the time of the Patriarchs. It was quite a shocking thing, but when Peter explained how God had opened some amazing doors and made very clear what He was doing, it says in Acts 11:18 :
verse 18 — "When they heard these things they became silent...." Wow! This is amazing! God is doing something new! He's doing something extraordinary here. "...and they glorified God, saying, 'That God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.'"
And this is not, perhaps, an exact analogy with what we see today, but I believe, it often strikes me as I travel in places that are so different from the places I knew in my childhood, different in culture, different in language, different in history, and yet, I see the same values, the same spiritual values, the same goals in life, the same dedication to God and to His will, and it is really a striking thing. It certainly strikes me and I hope you'll keep that in mind as we roll some of this video now.
I think we're ready, if we can dim the lights, I will narrate over the top of it and try to give you a little explanation of what you're watching and when this is done, it lasts about a half an hour, then I'll just have a comment or two to finish up at the end.
Well, this is an update, basically, of things that happened during 2007 and the first thing I'll do is show you the countries where we have members with whom we're working or interested people: France, Belgium and Switzerland in Europe. We have members on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. There are French-speaking members in French Canada and then we get to Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, interested people in Burundi, the island of Mauritius, the island of Reunion, interested people in Madagascar, and I'm going to make some visits in the Seychelles on a trip on which I will leave tomorrow.
Now, to give you a little bit of an update, this is where the island of Mauritius is found in the Indian Ocean and we have about a dozen people that are attending there. We do now have a Feast site that is open for transfers for the first time. This year we did that. We've already reserved the site again for this coming year. We would be very happy to have transfers. It is a little piece of paradise.
Just some scenes from what everyday life is like. There were no people living on that island originally so everybody came from either India or Africa or Madagascar or Europe. It's quite a mix. How's that for a Feast of Tabernacles site? This is right across the street from the hotel we used for the Feast. The water is warm all year around. It's sunny and just doesn't get anymore paradise than that on the earth, I think.
This is the hotel that we used for the Feast site. Clean, rather simple rooms, but comfortable, air conditioned. These are the usual people who attend Sabbath services. Here are some shots from the Feast of Tabernacles. This was the group that was there for the Feast, including some visitors, and all of the reports were that it was just a fabulous Feast.
As I mentioned, we do have some interested people in Madagascar. There's a group there that has been affiliated with Church of God, Seventh-Day, and Seventh Day Adventist, and also one man who used to attend Worldwide in France when he was studying there.
These are some shots from the capital city of Antananarivo. They found us on the internet and we corresponded for several years. I don't just fly to these places right away. We give it some time to find out if it's serious or not, and so I had two days of meetings with their leaders and we discussed our fundamentals of beliefs, had lots of Bible study time together just to explain what we believe, and I wanted to understand what they believed, as well.
These are some shots of the capital. This goes back to the French Colonial period, some of the structures. These are the two leaders: Maminiaina Rakotoarivelo, as you see, and Patrick Rakotomahefa. Patrick, on the right, is the one who used to attend in Paris, back, when actually, when we lived in France; although I never met him at the time.
They wanted to take me to the local botanical garden on the afternoon of the second day. We'd had meetings solid for almost two days and they wanted to show me some of the wildlife of which they're very proud. If you have children and you saw the movie, Madagascar, you know all about that. So, we continued talking. I mean, the visit just moved to the botanical garden and we continued answering questions and had really a very useful time.
These are lemurs. They're only found in Madagascar, quite famous, the Ring-tailed Lemur. They're all on the Endangered Species list, but that was an interesting place to have a visit, actually, as we're strolling around through the garden here.
We are still in contact with them. They're studying our literature, continuing to do that, and I will probably have another visit with them, at some point, in 2008.
This is heading back for the airport for the rest of the trip, or the continuation of that trip, I should say.
Next, I will take you to Benin, which is a little country in West Africa and this has been the place where for two years in a row now we've held three days or four days of leadership training sessions for our Church leadership in French Africa. There's a very small, little congregation of about 15 people there and we bring in these gentlemen who come from East, West, and Central Africa, four or five different countries. This is Mr. Mundeli, our elder from Rwanda, who is giving a sermonette during services on the Sabbath day. Then we had sessions from morning till late afternoon and the chance to have meals together at lunchtime. These are gentlemen from all different countries, as I mentioned, about five different countries in Africa. There's the gentleman from Rwanda, Mr. Sebobobingo, and then Mr. Tia from Ivory Coast. That's about as far apart as we could get. These are very fine servants. They do just a wonderful work of service to the different scattered congregations that we have.
Here are a few scenes from the Feast of Tabernacles in Togo. Benin and Togo meet together. They're very narrow, long countries. Very colorful clothing as you can see. It makes a lot of sense in the African climate. I'm struck every time I go there that whoever invented the necktie had never been to Africa.
This was the whole group at the Feast of Tabernacles this year in Togo. We had over 80 people and the growth is continuing so we'll probably break 100 by next year.
We have another group that found us over the internet, who also have a background with Church of God groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is misnamed. It is neither democratic nor a republic, but that's okay. This is the capital city of Kinshasa, which is one of the largest cities in Africa, but aside from a few paved roads like this the infrastructure is really in bad shape and broken down like that truck. How an American school bus got there I have no idea.
This is the drive in. One of the rules for driving from the airport in Kinshasa is: Don't slow down if you can help it because you drive through some neighborhoods that are a little "iffy." This is what the roads look like once you get off one of the main thoroughfares. There is no maintenance. It's just dirt that sort of takes care of itself and lots of garbage blowing everywhere.
I did go around and visit with as many of the members, especially the Church leaders, as possible. These are some scenes from visits I made in their homes. This lady prepared a meal for us; that's the nicest kitchen of all the church members there.
This is the Feast site that we reserved for them where they held their second Feast of Tabernacles this year.
This is preparing for the Sabbath service that I had with them. They meet in the living room, as you can see, a large living room. This is one of their Church leaders, Justin Chanumamaminga, and he's giving a sermonette on the importance of studying your Bible. He's giving it in the local language. You may hear a little whispering down below the sound, that's the translation that was being given to me in French so I could follow along and understand his sermonette.
This was the special music and this fellow just had an outstanding voice. They didn't have any ability to accompany him, so he sang a cappella, but it was really beautiful.
I did give them a doctrinal questionnaire, which had been prepared by Dr. Kirkpatrick and we've used that in several countries in Africa, just on our fundamental doctrines, it's very helpful for us to find out what they understand and what they don't understand, if they're really studying our literature, and the leaders, the three leaders among them that took the exam, did pretty well. They were very close to what our leaders would have been, where they would have been, having been in United for quite a number of years, so this is a group that I'm going to continue to work with.
This is...I'm showing you a video...I usually set up my laptop wherever I go and show them the same videos. They enjoy having news of other parts of Africa, other French-speaking areas, and they are quite amazed whenever they see themselves and we'll come back to that a little bit when we get to Rwanda, which is our next destination.
The little, tiny country of Rwanda is only about 100 miles long by maybe 75 miles wide, on average, a little smaller than the state of Maryland, and, of course, this is an area where there's been a lot of tribal conflict, about a million people were murdered in 1994 in the attack of the Hutu tribe against the Tutsi tribe and there is still a certain amount of tension in this part of Africa as a result of that. It's a very hilly area. A lot of houses are built on the sides of mountains.
These are the two men who came up from Burundi and they represent the group that I'm going to visit on my next trip.
As you can see, Burundi is just down below Rwanda and they have several little congregations in this part of Burundi. The situation in Burundi has gotten worse of late. It had calmed down quite a bit when I began planning this trip but, just recently, there were some aid workers that were murdered on the road, so I'll be checking with the U.S. Embassy when I arrive and see if it is safe to leave the main city or not; but, hopefully, I'll be able to get out and visit those congregations.
They call Rwanda the "Land of a Thousand Hills" and it's easy to see that when you get there. This is the drive up to Giti, which is the village where we have many of our church members, most of our members, in fact, live here.
This is the Church hall that was built. I may have shown this to you in the video last year. This was built with money from the Good Works project and they are extremely thankful for that support and that help and I was here, as you saw, for the Feast of Trumpets.
They have established a sort of reading room. They have Church literature available and a couple of times a week they'll have someone come and just open the hall and people from the village can come and sit down and read the literature in the hall and then they close it up and head back out again after that, so they've set up a schedule.
Here we are preparing for services; quite a nice lectern now. If you would go to this part of Africa, this is what you would see, children staring at you everywhere, because this is far enough off the beaten track that they don't see light-skinned people very much and it's kind of free entertainment. In fact, all the kids from the village come and watch me too.
Sing along, if you want to, this is the local language: special music. My wife was talking to me about the video. She said, "Honey, I think you may have put too much singing in the video. They're going to think that all they do is sing there." They do enjoy singing and they don't have access to radios, televisions, so they kind of make their own music. They're very creative with it; in fact, the special music, this song for example, they'll take a melody that everybody knows and they write their own original lyrics themselves to talk about whatever occasion it is. So this was a piece of special music specifically about the Feast of Trumpets.
This is Mr. Mundeli, the elder in the area there, who is making announcements and there is a translator standing next to him. He's speaking in French so that I can understand and then James standing next to him is translating into Kinyarwanda. About two-thirds of the congregation has trouble following in French so he translates into Kinyarwanda for them so they can understand.
Mr. Sebobobingo, the deacon, is sitting at the table in the back. He's getting ready to take up the offering. He's got the offering basket there. Here they are taking up the offering. They have been using the same cassette tape for 20 years for offertory music. It was the Geneva, Switzerland congregation singing hymns and I believe God has blessed that cassette tape much the way He did the shoes of the Israelites during the 40 years in the wilderness. The tape has never worn out in 20 years and they still use it every holy day; that is the usual special music.
This is a Sabbath school presentation, which they tend to do on holy days. The children have memorized all of this and now they're reciting their memory work accompanied by music.
They put a lot of emphasis, as we do, on teaching your children. That is the future of the Church and just as we take it very much to heart to bring up our children with knowledge of what's in the Bible and teach them Bible stories and teach them biblical principles, they do that with their children as well.
This was quite a long presentation. They had memorized, probably, 20 or 25 minutes worth and knew it all very well. They don't have as easy access to books or crayons or the kinds of things that we might use to teach our children, so they use what they have, which is the music and the repetition and the group work.
Here they are watching the video. These are people who don't have electricity in their homes. They don't have running water. Maybe one or two in the whole congregation have a radio, so for them to see moving pictures is really amazing and to see themselves on a screen like that is quite something. You see how they're just totally engrossed in what is on the screen. When they see themselves it brings a laugh. There's not a lot of laughter in Rwanda because of all that they've been through over the last year, so whenever we can do anything that would bring them a healthy laugh, I feel like something good has been accomplished.
The ladies prepared a special Festival meal. This was the best meal that most of the members would have all month, a real feast by their standards; probably not what we would consider a feast by our standards. It was a white roll, white bread roll, there was a half an avocado, a boiled egg, and, I think, some of them got a piece of meat. Rwandans, in general, from what I've found in asking the question of many people, the average Rwandan will eat meat two, three, four times a year, so it's just not part of their diet, they can't afford it and so when we're able to offer something even as simple as what I just mentioned to you there, for the cost of what we spend at the Feast of Tabernacles on one meal with our family, we can offer all 80 of them a meal that they won't forget for the month or more.
That's the toilet block in the back there. As I said, no running water, so if you want to flush, somebody's got to bring the water up from the lake in the valley down below.
These are all children that were blessed in the "blessing of the children" ceremony. I wasn't totally prepared for that. I didn't realize there would be so many and, all the parents, it was important to them that I actually pick up every child, so I did my weight-lifting and got my workout that day.
This was the whole group there on the Feast of Trumpets, very happy and appreciative.
Here's some scenes from the Feast of Tabernacles. They hold that at Lake Muhazi, which is down in the valley below Giti.
This is the corral and here's another group of very happy Rwandan brethren. There were also about 80 for the Feast of Tabernacles this year.
I'll make a brief stop in Cameroon here. We have a group of about 30 that attend there, mostly in Duala. Duala is a port city built on the banks of the Wouri River where the river empties into the Atlantic and so once you're out of the city, in one direction at least, you're in the jungle. Lots of people use the river as a way of transportation when you're back in the jungle and you have to be careful around the water, there are crocodiles and hippos and things of that nature.
The roads have improved a great deal in Cameroon. You can see these are better, if any of you have seen some of my older presentations, you remember the roads were awful. That's because the Chinese have come in, in a big way. The Chinese are building infrastructure all over Africa and they're thinking long-term. Cameroon has a lot of petroleum reserves and the Chinese want access to that, so they're coming in and they're building roads all over West Africa as a way of making sure that they get some of that oil down the road.
Now, this is our Church hall. It was also purchased and is still under construction. We haven't finished it all the way yet, but that was also a project of Good Works.
Here we are at a weekly Sabbath. This is the main meeting hall, which has room for 100 people so there is room to grow and we also were able to use this house as a Feast of Tabernacles site. The bedrooms we turn into dormitories. We put multiple beds in there so we can actually house all of the brethren and some visitors, even, in this one housing complex.
This is Mr. Moise Elisee Mabout. He's our deacon there locally, long-time church member, very good business man. Cameroon is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It's usually number three or four on the list. Sometimes it's been number one, of the most corrupt countries. So, you really have to be on your toes not to get taken advantage of and Mr. Mabout works very hard to protect the interest of the Church there and he's a fixer and an arranger. He knows how to work the system to make sure that we don't get taken advantage of.
Watching a video and then, on the right, these are some new dorm rooms that have been constructed for use at the Feast and this is one of the pictures that was taken at the Feast of Tabernacles this past year.
And, we will move on to Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast has really had a sad story. It was one of the best countries in West Africa until a civil war broke out. When I first started going in there about three years ago, there were armed guards all over the place. I had to go through armed checkpoints to get out to visit our Church brethren. Things have improved, somewhat. The civil war has officially ended but the economy is in a shambles and there is always the possibility that war could break out again.
These men push these carts around all day selling coffee. They don't make too much money doing that but anything you can make.... This woman is a sandal merchant. She carries around a basket of plastic flip-flop sandals and sells them for whatever she can sell them for, so she...as I mentioned before, most people in Sub-Saharan Africa live on about a dollar a day and that's what she needs to make.
These are all just shots taken from my hotel window. It's quite amazing the kinds of things that you see. This is a very common occurrence. People carry things on their heads. They start doing that when they are very young and this is the road out from Abidjan. I still go through armed checkpoints, soldiers check me out, sometimes look in the car, look in the trunk.
We passed a toxic waste dump about a year ago. A European company paid a corrupt official and they dumped a bunch of toxic waste around different parts of the city to avoid having to pay for the treatment. About 12 people died. Others have been very sick. And that particular dump site is just up the road from where our Church brethren live, so we're hoping, they've been told that there won't be any side effects, but nobody is sure if that's really the truth or not, so we're hopeful.
This is driving into La Me, the little village where they live. This is the town mosque in the center of town with the blue doors there. We're on pretty good terms with the local imam. We haven't had any trouble with them, which is good.
And these are just some scenes that you see... this is actually stuff I shot from the church hall there, which I'll show you in a moment.
This woman is making cornmeal for her kids. This little girl is preparing fufu and the cat is waiting for scraps, I suppose.
This was the old Church building, on the right, built out of bamboo and palm leaves. Now, when I first went there, that was what they were, that was their meeting hall and I happened to be there one time when the shipment of Good News magazines arrived so I got to see the distribution. If we wanted to hold a Bible study after dark, we had to borrow electricity from a neighbor and run an extension cord in.
This is, now, the new Church hall, which is under construction, not finished yet. This has been financed by the Good Works project and already a much better place for them to meet than what they had before. This is Paul Tia, who is one of the local leaders at a Bible study. You can see we don't have the windows or the door in yet. Those will be the next steps. This is how we protect the extension cord, where the two of them are joined, because it rains almost everyday so we can't afford to have that get wet.
We do make sure that they have enough to eat during the Feast of Tabernacles. This is a feast for them, but we also try to throw in a few extras. I bought about $50 or $60 worth of extra treats, candy and coffee and tea, things that they can't usually get; powdered milk. What got the biggest applause, though, was five pounds of sugar. They have a sweet-tooth, too, and they don't get sugar the rest of the year, so at the Feast they can put sugar in their coffee or have sweetened-something and that was the sugar, I think right there — the biggest applause.
Okay, they are watching the latest trip video on my laptop. As I mentioned, whenever there's...this is off the beaten track and, if there's a Westerner in town, the kids will just come and stare in the door at me while I'm doing whatever.
Also, because they have to carry water, people don't have running water, when it rains, you'll see this in a moment, mothers send their children outside real quick to have a wash. It saves them having to carry water. So, I was talking with the members and it started raining and I glanced out the window and here were kids having their bath outside the house next door. Pretty effective. Okay, he's done... he can go back inside, now.
And this was the Day of Atonement. Some of you have probably done that in the past, if you came from Texas back in the days before air conditioning, you know what it would be like to fast in ninety degree weather in heavy humidity, but I was very dehydrated by the end of the day.
This is the youth group, again, the Bible Sabbath school, showing what they've learned. As I mentioned, they'd just come out of a civil war, so these kids have seen military all over the place and those analogies in the Bible seem to have made the biggest impact on them. "We're the Lord's commandos," this is how this song came out; so I'm working with them on that. We're going to try to tone down the Christian soldier theme and work in something a little more peaceful, as well.
But, the children are very enthusiastic and they had really learned their lessons well. Here they're singing the story of Ruth.
As I mentioned, all of these groups really put a lot of emphasis on teaching their children. They really want them to learn the foundational, Biblical principles, just like we do. They realize that the children are the future of the Church in their area, just as our young people are here.
That's me in the middle, in case you're having any trouble picking me out. This was a gift. They called this a "relaxing robe." I didn't feel anymore relaxed since it was pretty heavy and it was ninety-five degrees when I put it on, but it was actually a very thoughtful gift on their part. They don't have very much, so even something like that takes quite an effort on their part.
This is a bar — believe it or not — The Return of Peace Bar — because they're very happy.
The tires are always in very poor shape in Africa. It's because before a tire goes to Africa nobody wants it in Europe anymore. So after it's completely served a useful lifespan in Europe, then they send it to Africa and that's what people use there; so, you spend a lot of time changing tires.
We were going to do a baptism and so we went down to the lagoon. It was the nearest place where we had enough water to actually baptize somebody. I posted a lookout to make sure that no crocodiles or hippos snuck up on us while we were doing that. I was very thankful to be able to officiate at the baptism of Mr. Michel Tia, a very fine man. All of these people fit in two little, tiny Japanese cars to get down there. It was snug.
And that was the end of my pre-Feast trip through Africa, so I headed to the airport that very night about eleven o'clock at night and went on to France.
I'll just show you a couple of minutes of the Feast of Tabernacles in France. I always have to do my little advertisement at the end here. We're always hoping to have more visitors.
If you come into France for the Feast you'll fly through Paris, which is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, easy to take a day or two, either before or after the Feast, and visit a city with incredible history.
The island in the middle of town is where the Romans originally had a city. It goes back to the Roman Empire. That's Notre Dame de Paris, the Cathedral. The Louvre Museum is one of the most famous in the world with history going back to the Greek and Roman periods. Napolean's tomb — right there.
And, then, finally, we make our way down to Collonges-la-Rouge in the southern part of France; a very beautiful, more rural area. We've used this twice for the Feast and this will be, again, our Feast site this year, 2008.
Here we are at a Welcome aperitif, which is a kind of little mild cocktail, which people have before dinner and this on the first day of the Feast, so a chance for everybody to get together and start getting to know one another. We usually have between 100 and 150 people for the Feast there and the neat thing about the Feast in France is that everything happens on the same site: your lodging, your meals, services are all within about a thirty-second walk of each other, so there is no wasted time. It's just fellowship all the time.
This is our Bible study for our French brethren during the Feast. We try to take advantage of the time we have together. They're very scattered so many of them only see each other at the Feast. Sometimes they only see other Church members at the Feast of Tabernacles.
Here we are having our meals together. Since it is France, wine is included with lunch and dinner and that's all part of the package price, which makes for some very enjoyable conversation, very fine food and lots and lots of fellowship; lots of time to spend together.
We have some excursions that go out to places of interest. This one is called Rocamadour. It was a pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages and you'll recognize some folks from this area. There's Daniel and Cindy Harper, who went through ABC a few years ago and are now living in France. Daniel's working over there. This is Sarlat la Caneda, another medieval, Renaissance village. This is another one of the excursions that we made and everyone goes on the same bus so it's, again, a wonderful time to be together. Another very beautiful excursion.
We have a cultural evening usually and we had a folklore group come in and they presented a spectacle of folk dances and music from the region and so it's not only fun but it's educational, as well. (The Bennetts are in the middle there.) Some of them are wearing wooden shoes. I don't know if you noticed that, but that actually was common.
As always, the Feast goes by too quickly. Here we are already at the end of the Last Great Day with one last chance to have an aperitif together before dinner. We had wonderful weather this year, as you can see, shirt-sleeve weather, very nice and warm.
Mr. Audoin , our elder in France. Some of our ladies from Belgium and France. Sometimes your arms just aren't long enough. And, we always try to get everybody together for a family portrait; we try to take a group picture every year at the Feast. You'll recognize some faces in the crowd. We did have a number from Cincinnati who came this year.
It's very encouraging for our brethren in Europe, as I mentioned, even they are very widely scattered and if they get to meet with others, it's just a little group of, at the most, of about a dozen, so to be together, even to have a group of 100 or 150, it really feels like a Feast and it really makes it special.
So, here's my little plug at the end. Come and join us in France for the Feast next year.
Okay, if we can have the lights up, I would just like to make one or two comments by way of conclusion.
The Philippian Church was one that was very supportive of Paul's work. They sent him financial aid as he was working in different areas. They were people who had very good attitudes and that was one of the more together congregations, I guess you could say, under Paul's care. And, I just wanted to read something that Paul wrote to them in Philippians 4:10.
verse 10 — He said, "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity."
So, some financial support from the Church in Philippi had just reached Paul.
verse 11 — He said in verse 11, "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:"
verse 12 — "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."
verse 13 — "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
verse 14 — "Nevertheless you have done well that you shared in my distress."
verse 15 — "Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but only you."
verse 16 — "For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities."
verse 17 — "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account."
verse 18 — "Indeed I have all and abound, and am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God."
verse 19 — "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
The Philippian Church was a wonderful example of being willing to share and to support the Work that God was doing through His servants, especially as he was traveling to other parts of the world, other areas of the world. And, just like at that time, today, too, as you just saw and were reminded of in that video, God is working with people all over the world, in lots of different, widely different cultures and languages, and I would just like to remind you that a lot of that is possible because of the faithful support of brethren here in the United States.
This is a country that has been very blessed materially and by our faithful participation, not just by our tithes and offerings, but by our prayers and by our encouragement, and by our willingness to work together to accomplish that we are able to support brethren, literally on the other side of the world, and I just want you to understand and I want to thank you for your participation and remind you, once again, that you are a part of something much bigger than your life.
It's easy, sometimes, we get discouraged, we go through all the problems that the week can bring, you know, and at the end of the week we think, "Oh, this is just rough, it's hard." Well, please remember that you are part of something bigger than yourself and that you are helping and serving people on the other side of the world through your prayers, your encouragement for those who travel, and through your financial support. So, I would just like to say, as Paul said to the Philippian church, "Thank you. You are doing a very good work."
I leave tomorrow for another trip that will take me take back to Ivory Coast, to Togo, where I'm going to be training some of the leaders there again. We're going to have three and one-half more days of leadership training.
I will also be going to Burundi. I mentioned to you before that there has been some unrest there. I would certainly appreciate your prayers for God's blessing on that portion of the trip and for His protection and then I'm going to be making some first visits to the islands of the Seychelles off the coast of Kenya. There used to be a Church there in the past, back in W.C.G., and we know for a fact that some former members of that organization are on our mailing list and so I have received a few visit requests and will go there for the first time.
Finally, coming back, I will be making some stops in France and Belgium before coming back to the United States, so that will be a three-week trip and I would appreciate it if you would labor together with me in your prayers and I certainly appreciate your support and, once again, on behalf of our brethren in the French-speaking areas of the world: Thank you.