This morning I woke early once again, so I had plenty of time to prepare for the day. The papaya and pineapple were particularly good at breakfast.

Guy picked me up at 09:30 for the 20 minute drive to his house. There were about 15 people waiting and we started our service almost immediately. We sang hymns and had our opening prayer, after which I gave a news update of my trip and of our worldwide work. After another hymn I gave the sermon on the same topic I've been covering, the spirit in man. After the final hymn and prayer, we all paused long enough for Guy to go over the principle points of the sermon in Ewe for Anna, who doesn’t have a complete command of French. This took about 10 minutes as he worked off his notes.

Guy and Pierre and I walked over to Guy’s detached home office where they showed me some photos from the Feast of Tabernacles. This year they particularly enjoyed having Lee and Robyn Page with them for the last half of the Feast. We also went over the church accounts, credits and debits and we discussed future plans for the little group in Togo. This is a very solid, unified group, with which it is a pleasure to work. I never feel anything is at cross purposes, there are no negotiations over issues; we’re on the same page. This is refreshing and encouraging.

One of the children came to tell us that lunch was ready. We had a salad of raw vegetables and vinaigrette, which was very good. This was followed by tilapia and couscous with a couscous vegetable sauce to go on top. It was delicious. They had purchased a bottle of red wine, which the eight adults shared, as well as soft drinks for everyone. The conversation was pleasant and I caught up on news of health and work situations and news of many friends, and one or two adversaries, in other associations.

Once lunch wrapped up, we cleared the decks and sat around informally to begin asking and answering questions. As usual here, both the adults and the older children had questions. And as usual it was clear they had been studying and thinking about what they have read in the Bible.

Here are some of the questions from this session:

• In Genesis 6:2 were the "sons of God" holy angels or fallen angels? (child’s question)  
• My answer: Neither, angels do not procreate (Matthew 22:30). “Sons of God” can refer to men, and that’s what these were.
• Who are the two witnesses (Revelation 11) and how will we be able to identify them?
  
• My answer: We don’t know yet who they will be, though probably 100 have proposed themselves over the past decades! They will be human beings, who no doubt will come from the Church. We hope to be in the place of safety (Revelation 12:6, 14) during the time of their mission, so we won’t really need to identify them. But they will have the power to cause plagues, apparently the same ones that came on Egypt before the Exodus (Revelation 11:6), and anyone who tries to stop them will be killed by fire proceeding from their mouths (verse 5). They won’t be hard to spot!
  
• It says in Revelation that the woman (the Church) will go into the wilderness to her place (Revelation 12:6), does the image of the wilderness (in French desert) have a particular prophetic meaning?
  
• My answer: the wilderness does not appear to be a specific prophetic image like a mountain, a woman or an animal. It is a probably reference to the wandering of Israel after the Exodus, a deserted place away from other peoples, where God can work specifically with, in this case protect, His people.
  
• What is the history of the Word who became flesh? (This turned out to be question about the 4^th century Arian heresy that the Word was a being created by the Father; Jehovah’s Witnesses believe this today).
  
• My answer: John 1:1 says in the beginning, that is to say from all eternity, the Word was deity, and was with deity. He was God, not, as is claimed from an inaccurate explanation of Greek grammar (“a god”). We should also consider the case of Melchizedek, the mysterious high priest who met Abraham (Genesis 14:18). Who was he? Hebrews 7:3 says of him: “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.” Who could have met Abraham who had no beginning of days and will have no end of life? It cannot be an angel or other created being, because they all have a beginning of days. It could only be either the Word or the Father. It cannot have been the Father because Melchizedek was a priest, a representative of the “God Most High.” And Jesus said no one has ever seen or heard the Father (John 1:18; 5:37). That leaves only the Word who became flesh. And this passage says He had no beginning of days. He was never created and has always existed.
  
• Should we have such discussions with people of other beliefs?
  
• My answer: If someone has a sincere question about what we believe, we should be ready to answer: “be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). But if someone comes to us with the specific intent of changing our beliefs to convince us of other doctrines, then the Bible encourages us not to receive them, and not to participate at all (2 John 10).
  
• Why in Exodus 19:15, when the Israelites were preparing to meet God, did Moses tell them not to come near their wives? (child’s question)
  
• My answer: They were told to wash their clothes and abstain from sexual relations as tokens of seeking consecration, of preparing themselves wholeheartedly to meet with God. They were to be clean and not distracted by physical things. Biblically, we should note, it is not “more holy” to be celibate, but in times of intense trial single people may a less difficult time concentrating on the tasks at hand (1 Corinthians 7:26). 1 Corinthians 7:5 says mates should not deprive each other of sexual relations, except if they both agree for a short time so each can concentrate of prayer and fasting.
  
• How do we know that the day we call Saturday [in French samedi, which interestingly comes from the low Latin sambati dies, meaning Sabbath day], is really the seventh day of the week?
  
• My answer: The weekly cycle of seven days has not been lost since the time of Jesus. This can be proven historically. Jews and Christians both have kept the cycle, Jews in order to keep the Sabbath and traditional Christians to observe the first day of the week. Jesus as God knew which day was the seventh and He had to observe it so as not to transgress the law of God which would have been sin. So there is no doubt about the weekly cycle.
  
• Will we recognize each other after the resurrection?
  
• My answer: John tells us that after the first resurrection we will be like the glorified Jesus (1 John 3:2). This indicates we will live on the same plane as He, fully children of God (Hebrews 2:10). This means we’ll be aware of everything that is going on, just as God is: how sparrows there are in the world and how many hairs every individual has on his head (Luke 12:6-7), how many starts there are and all their names (Psalm 147:4), and so on. This is hard for us to imagine now, but yes we’ll certainly be able to recognize each other. Look for me without my eyeglasses and a few pounds lighter….  
  

This is only a small sample, there were three or four times more questions than this but this gives an idea of the kinds of questions asked. We asked and answered for about 2 ½ hours.

After the questions dried up (although if we’d waited a few minutes, they might have started up again) we chatted about different things. The men were interested to see how to update a website, so I showed them on my laptop what our website looks like on the inside (although, I don’t really see the true inside, the code, just what I need to see to post things or correct what is posted).

They also asked about my iPhone. I showed them some of the apps I use when I travel, especially airline apps, hotel apps (they were amazed to see all the hotels in Lomé with room prices quoted), Uber and Lyft (which they found to be fascinating concepts), weather and time apps as well as my calendar information (with reminders) and e-mail service. I showed them how google maps works even in Lomé. I plugged in the address of the hotel and showed how the app could trace the route and give step by step instructions. Several of them have entry level smartphones with apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook, but they had never seen anything on this level especially the variety of apps. They asked how much an iPhone cost and I was a little embarrassed to tell them (considering many of them live in very limited circumstances), but I also explained that I don’t buy the newest model which is the most expensive, I buy the previous generation which costs considerably less. I also explained that my phone is a very useful tool for the work I do. It caused no offense, and in fact really fascinated them.

Finally as the sun moved toward the horizon, I said goodbye all around and Guy and two of his children drove me back to the hotel. The children had asked to go so they could see the Radisson, which is 27 floors high, up close. Their eyes grew wide as we approached the building which is nicely lit and can be seen from far away.

I said goodbye to the three of them and Guy said he’d be back in the morning with Pierre to take me to the airport.

I had a light bite by the pool and had some time to relax this evening. It’s been a productive and enjoyable day.

Tomorrow will be a travel day, on to Côte d’Ivoire, my last stop in Africa for this trip.