A Send Off

Supper last night was provided by an elder in the local congregation. He and his wife had invited us and, as it turned out, quite a few others from the congregation also. His name is Emmanuel, Manny for short, he is originally from Nigeria, and went to Paris where he was trained as a Cordon Bleu Chef. So, needless to say, this dinner was quite a treat.

 The Main Course.

Dessert.

After calling the crowd together for the pre-meal prayer, Manny announced this occasion marked the end of the Sheppard's 3-month visit to their congregation, and that they were all happy to have had us visiting with them. The group responded with a round of applause.

Manny's dog, Portia, had put on

her best dress for the occasion.

I asked Manny about an old brown-and-white portrait photo I saw on his wall. He told me it was his father, who was the first of many in his family to embrace the truth thanks to the ministry of Bible Brown. If you read the Yearbooks, you've heard of him.

Conversation covered a wide spectrum of topics including a little about experiences in race relations. It was all very interesting and, although as Christians we know no barriers to our brotherhood based on nationality, language, or race, it is still a high privilege actually to experience it, particularly as Carol and I did last night as the only two white persons present being welcomed so heartily as part of the family with many expressing the desire that we return here again.

Toward the evening's end I asked for a group photo. As they all assembled, I took a video of them followed by a final photo. I post the results here ...

And for those of you reading this on a device that, for whatever reason, refuses to load and play the video, here is the group shot ...

I won't list all the names here but in the center is my young

friend Qis. Left of him is Elise, the pioneer sister who has

been mentioned here before. The brother directly behind

her is Manny.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable time with everybody. The whole experience has been stimulating and enriching. 

And now it's time to load our luggage into our Toyota so we will be prepared to steer it homeward early tomorrow morning.