Feast In Benin City – Day 7

Monday, October 02, 2017
Benin City, Edo, Nigeria
The answer is “Nothing.” (See the riddle posed in the last post to understand the answer.)
Here we have arrived at the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles – day seven. We head to services in the morning and things begin promptly at 10:00 am as scheduled. Like the Ghanaians, the Nigerians also like their music and like it loud. Edefi is leading songs for the first time and did a very good job. The sermonette was given by Osas and he did a fine job as well.  These were the two men, along with Cody Kitts, who met us at the airport. They appear to be developing into fine servants here in the Nigerian congregation.
Mr. Kitts gives the announcements and lets everyone know that we have no afternoon activities planned so that everyone can begin the packing process, be at dinner on time and be ready for Bible Study at 7:00 pm. Originally, the Bible Study was planned for 7:30 pm, but we felt that with dinner at 6:00, it would be easiest to go right into Bible Study at 7:00 pm and make it an earlier evening since we’ll have two services tomorrow plus travel home. I gave the sermon again today. I am able to go into much more detail here because the Nigerians are English speakers. Therefore, we do not have to take the time for the message to be translated into a local language.  Still, I try to speak more slowly than I normally would so Nigerian ears have time to process my American accent.
Lunch is served pretty quickly after services conclude. Rice is a big portion of each meal here, along with chicken on some days and fish on others. Croaker is a common fish – plentiful and affordable. A local dish, called moi moi, is a paste made from beans and spices and is our vegetable for some meals. Then there is a dough ball made of wheat (name??) and eaten with the hands that is also well loved by the members here. Maybe on a future trip I will develop a taste for this food, but for now, no. The croaker is a whole fish, either fried, or cooked, often in a tomato-based sauce. It is quite good, but the bones are a continual impediment to enjoying large bites of fish at a time. Much to our surprise, Miss Beatrice, though almost blind, skillfully eats her entire fish, leaving nothing behind but an intact fish skeleton!
Several of the youth here were able to go to the summer camp in Ghana about two months ago. Four or five young people and a few adults who served as staff boarded a bus in Benin City and in about 24 hours made their way across about half of Nigeria, the country of Benin, the country of Togo, and half the country of Ghana to the city of Kumasi, where the camp was held. They joined about 100 Ghanaian teens for camp. (The place camp was held was also the location for the Feast of Tabernacles.) The teens told us that they absolutely loved camp and their new friends from Ghana. The two things that were most challenging for them were:  1) that all the Ghanaians spoke Twi more than English, so it was a challenge to communicate at times and 2) the rice they made there tasted funny (different spices)! But asked if they wanted to go back, they said absolutely!
After fellowshipping over lunch, we headed back to our room to take care of a few things, wash out a few pieces of clothing we would need after the Feast and begin our packing process. We had some spare time, so we decided to walk the whole facility of the Randheki. All we had seen so far was the lobby, our room, the parking lot, the street over to the other wing and the area for meals and services. We were quite surprised to find a very nice pool at the back of the hotel. Unfortunately, we did not have time to try it out, but at least sat for an half hour enjoying the setting as the holy time of the Last Great Day approached. Since we are fairly close to the equator (about 7 degrees north), the sunrise and sunset times do not vary much all year long. Because it was not part of their experience, for some in these places, it is challenging to grasp how different the length of days can be from summer to winter where we come from.
A few minutes before six we head over to dinner which is followed immediately with our Bible Study. I spoke on the topic of how the world will be rebuilt after Christ returns to rule the earth. So many professing Christians have no concept of the fact that the only hope of human life surviving on this planet is by Christ intervening to save humankind from destroying himself. There has never been a weapon devised by humans that has not been used. Nuclear weapons are no exception. When humans get greedy enough, desperate enough, or fanatical enough, they will be unleashed. Humans will use whatever is at their disposal to take what they want, to defend what they have, or to hurt those who are different from themselves. The strong will always take advantage of and oppress the weak until Christ steps in to stop this selfish behavior. The belief and practice of humanism is a not enough to change the nature of humanity.
After Bible Study and fellowship everyone heads back to their rooms for a good night’s sleep. Morning services tomorrow will start bright and early at 10:00 am. For almost everyone, this will be their final night at the Randheki as they will travel home after the afternoon service tomorrow. Pam and I head back to get cleaned up before bed. Like Ghana, our shower is working, but the ‘hose holder’ is not, so we again have a ‘hold-the-hose’ shower. But it is warm, cleansing and soothing nonetheless! 
On a totally different subject, I should mention that across the street from the hotel – we can see it from our window - is a car mechanic’s shop. Yet, there is no shop.  All the work is done under a tree with a small shed nearby to store tools. The ultimate “shade-tree mechanic!” Yet somehow, this place repairs Mercedes, BMW’s, Volkswagens, and Toyota's! They have constant line of cars in this narrow strip of ground and it looks like three or four fellows doing the work. Absolutely amazing, resourceful people!
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