Dear Brethren and Co-workers with Christ,
Greetings to all of you from the world headquarters of Tomorrow’s World and the Living Church of God here in Charlotte, North Carolina. As always, we are pleased that you are committed to the truth, and I thank you for your loyal support. And your support is not forgotten by our heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior. Though we are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8–9), we are rewarded according to our works (Matthew 16:27; Revelation 22:12; Proverbs 24:11–12). So, take heart. God sees us, and for all His faithful servants He has a reward far greater than any of us can imagine.
In this letter, I want to share with you the recent trip that several of us made to Kenya, from where my wife Carol and I returned last evening. Our thirteen-day working trip began in England, where I served as Tomorrow’s World and Living Church of God Regional Director for the United Kingdom and Europe prior to moving to Charlotte. This was our first time back in the UK in more than eight years, and we very much enjoyed seeing the faithful leaders and members of our London congregation, and some members traveled in from nearby congregations. The city of Kettering, where the office is located and where we lived for a year, has changed dramatically since 2016—more immigrants, more housing, more traffic.
After visiting our London congregation on the Sabbath, we joined Mr. Peter Nathan (Regional Director for the UK, Europe, and Africa) and Dr. Scott Winnail (Assistant Africa Regional Director) on a nine-hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya, where we held our first-ever Ministerial Conference for all Living Church of God ministers serving in Africa. We were joined by Mr. Rees Ellis and his wife Fanny from Belgium. Mr. Ellis oversees all French-language countries in Africa, and Fanny supplied expert translation services at the conference. Another couple from Belgium helped with some of the logistics of the conference. Mr. Simon Muthama, who serves in Western Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, found the venue and took care of other needs for the conference.
Most presentations were in English but had to be translated into French and Swahili for our non-English speakers. It was quite evident that our ministers are unified in spirit, although speaking in different languages and coming from different tribes and races. There was a common bond between our ministers, unlike the tribal divides seen throughout much of Africa. We are clearly unified in doctrine and purpose, as shown in the reports prepared by the men—but also in conversation during shared meals and general fellowship.
Our members there often face difficult choices. One minister pointed out, “One of the great challenges we face in East Africa is that our education system is not friendly when it comes to freedom of worship, hence affecting our children, especially high school where most of them have to be in boarding school.” Also, classes and exams are often held on the biblical Sabbath or Holy Days.
And there are other challenges. One minister asked about how to instruct a man coming into the truth who has more than one wife. Then there is even the problem of holding Sabbath services. Governments are exercising greater control and making it difficult for churches to operate without meeting strict regulations. One new regulation that comes up in more than one country is the requirement to have a certain number of adherents, sometimes numbers that we cannot meet. And we must not fill our congregations with people holding doctrines contrary to the truth just for the sake of increasing numbers.
Following the conference, several of us traveled by van for about eleven hours to Kendu Bay on the shores of Lake Victoria—one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world. Depending on whether you count the Caspian Sea as a lake or a sea, Lake Victoria is either the second- or the third-largest lake in the world. There we had the privilege of spending three days with members from several congregations around Kendu Bay. I conducted a Bible study on Friday evening and gave the sermon the next morning in Kendu Bay before traveling east to Othoro to meet brethren from that congregation and give a sermon there. Mr. Dexter Wakefield, our Director of Business Operations here in Charlotte, also accompanied us on our trip to Kendu Bay, but traveled two hours south to meet with our congregation in Kokuro for the Sabbath. He also gave the sermon in Nairobi a week earlier. On Sunday, our driver picked us up at 7:00 a.m. for a 90-minute ride to Kisumu to catch a flight back to Nairobi to begin our return home. I had the pleasure of giving a Bible study that afternoon in Nairobi. Mr. Wakefield, Carol, and I then had a light dinner before leaving for the airport at 8:00 p.m. to catch a nine-hour midnight flight to London. After a long layover at Heathrow Airport, we took another nine-hour flight back home.
Brethren and co-workers, I share these details with you to emphasize that we have a worldwide Work to do. Jesus said, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2). We have dozens of congregations in English- and French-speaking countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Whether in South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, Uganda, the Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, or parts in between, our members everywhere understand and practice the same doctrines and share the same passion for preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God and warning this world of where it is headed unless mankind turns around—something it is not doing at this time. We sing the same hymns—though not always in the same languages. We conduct our services in the same manner, whether in North America, Africa, Europe, the Australasian region, Central and South America, or the Caribbean. Everywhere we strive to live according to the Apostle Paul’s admonitions to the diverse congregation of Gentiles and Jews at Ephesus.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Ephesians 4:1–6).
On more than one occasion during our trip, someone reminded us of the words of King David: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). But that is not the state of our world today. There are still wars in the Middle East and Europe that threaten to evolve into greater regional wars, and even while we were in Africa a potential third regional war is not out of the question, as this February 10 Associated Press report explains: “The deadly march by Rwanda-backed rebels across eastern Congo could widen into a regional conflict drawing in even more countries, analysts warn....” Although there is a truce at the time of this writing, the report goes on to note, “Troops from Burundi, with its own tense relations with Rwanda, were sent to fight alongside Congolese forces. Troops from Tanzania, which hosted the weekend summit [of leaders from that region], were deployed in Congo under the banner of a regional bloc. And Uganda, on poor terms with Rwanda, had already deployed hundreds of troops to fight a different rebel group in eastern Congo.”
Dear friends, please pray for our members who could, in the not-too-distant future, find themselves in harm’s way. We have congregations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Tanzania, in Burundi, and in Uganda, which could eventually be affected. While most are safe for now and the fighting is far from most members, we do have one family in Uganda already living in a refugee camp from a previous conflict.
These are real people who share the same hopes and dreams many of you have. They love their families and children. They want to love and be loved. They enjoy food and conversation. But most of all, they are made in the image of God. They want peace, not war, but this is Satan’s world, and he is the author of hatred and violence (2 Corinthians 4:3–4; Ephesians 2:1–2; John 12:31, 14:30). We must pray, as they do, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Thank you again for all your prayers and support.
Sincerely, in Christ’s service,
Gerald E. Weston