Everyone gathered on the fresh autumnal morning at St. Judes Church in Plymouth for the biannual Area 1 Day of Fellowship on 28th September. The grand old church housed everyone nicely.
After a thought provoking Sabbath School lesson by Pastor Weiers Coetser the next thing on the agenda after a few songs was to present the Herman family with a gift from the Area and send them on their way with a prayer of blessing. After 6 years in Area 1 Pastor Clifford Herman answered the call to become SEC Pathfinder Director, a position we believe he will thrive in as he has been a great support to everyone in the area especially the youth of Plymouth and Bodmin churches. His and his families’ presence will be greatly missed in the area.
Meghan Herman and Evi Costin sang beautifully ‘My Life is in Yours Hands’ accompanied by Matthew Herman on the piano, followed by Steven Hulbert who sang ‘Reckless Love’.
Pastor Jacques Venter was the guest speaker who shared a message entitled ‘While We Wait’ which looked at the Parable of the Ten Talents in Luke 19. He emphasized that 10 in Hebrew is complete therefore the man gave all that he had (10 talents) to everyone (10 servants). Despite some of his servants hating him the man still became King and went on to reward those who were faithful in their task of multiplying his money. He explained that Jesus is the King in the story and urged us to make sure our ledgers are not empty when Jesus returns. By aiding in spreading His Word we show our association with Him. Christ wants to know that we are willing to be known as His and not hide our ‘talents’ or faith.
After eating together everyone once again met in the church. Plans for a group walk were halted due to the weather, but this didn’t stop a few hardy walkers venturing out for some very fresh, but very wet, air. Pastor Herman led out in the afternoon’s activities starting with some lively songs that never grow old such as ‘I am a C!’ and ‘Because He First Loved Me’. The energy levels remained high as everyone joined in a Bible quiz that got quite competitive.
After a time of inspirational sharing the group sang ‘Bind Us Together’ before Pastor Venter shared a few encouraging words. He reminded us that God feels like a frantic father when his children wander away. Sometimes we can still feel lost when we are surrounded by lots of people; the world can be so loud that we can’t hear God shouting out to us. Our lost places become significant when we turn to God and occasionally He will bring us back to these places to see if we will trust in him to overcome.
For evening vespers the group were blessed by a performance from the London Adventist choral who shared songs such as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, ‘Hallelujah’ and also a solo called ‘Precious Little Child’; a beautiful song about the singer’s grandchild.
We were very grateful to have the Stanborough Press book sale with us and everyone swarmed the stands enthusiastically afterward Sabbath.
After a long day of fellowship and friendship everyone left happy and refreshed for the coming week.
