Empangeni and Pietermartizburg Report - South Africa

Next stop was a flight to Durban, the biggest Indian city outside of India and the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal.  It is home to what was formerly the Zulu Kingdom, and the Zulus are the largest of the black tribes in South Africa.  We were picked up at the airport by Nina and Bester Snyman, who drove us to their home in Empangeni, about 2 hours from the airport.  The next day we picked up Ben Kramlich from Talking Rock Sabbath Chapel in America, who joined us for this part of the trip and the Feast of Tabernacles.  KwaZulu-Natal is much greener and warmer than the other regions in South Africa, which was better for Adrian and I; we are both not fans of the cold.  They placed us in a guesthouse called “Raptor’s Rest”, chosen because of its good security.

Bester and Nina became Adventists in 2010 from a Charismatic background, which they had joined from the Dutch Reformed Church in their youth.  They have 3 children, their oldest Marie, is 21 and Fransonet is 19 – both are in university, and they have a son named David who is 16.  Bester studied Walter Veith’s work zealously and led his family into keeping the Sabbath, a tough transition.  Nina and the rest of the family went through and studied it and finally accepted the Sabbath as a family.  What a blessing to be in unity as a family!  They also mentioned many times the kindness of an Adventist who welcomed them into the church and eased them through the process, Samuel Jacobs, who attended the meetings in Pretoria.  Nina mentioned that while it was hard to transition, she was ready for a change because she was exhausted with the emotional rollercoaster that is life as a charismatic Christian, where your relationship with God is based on feelings and experience.  Still, as former charismatics, they bring a relational side to the Christian experience that I feel many Adventists are lacking, who can become overly intellectual and rigid and disconnected from common sense (excuse me! And I mean myself too!).

I want to give a big thank you to Nina Snyman for organizing our whole trip.  This she did even though she and her family weren’t really feastkeepers.  They went to Tabernacles last year and were glad to be accepted, having had a tough experience regarding the Trinity.  Her husband Bester is a diligent student, and on looking into the Trinity was convicted that it was an error.  But he was definitely not a feastkeeper, considering the statutes and judgments to be of the Jewish era and only the 10 commandments to have crossed over after the cross.  This ability to work with others even while disagreeing is valuable and rare among the movement of those outside the mainstream church.  This, along with being confident in one’s own beliefs yet open to learn more, makes their family an important part of what is happening in South Africa.  Our trip ran smoothly largely thanks to the work of Nina, who made sure the people were there to pick us up, encouraged everyone to check and see if where we were staying was safe; and finally she also organized most of the Feast of Tabernacles itself.  Along with Hein and Philip and others of course, who booked our internal flights.

We happened to be at the Snyman’s house during a week long holiday for their daughters, so the whole family was there to greet us and attend the meetings.  They have a home church consisting of around 8 people besides their family, but most could only attend on the weekend.  The one couple that did attend all the meetings enthusiastically was Dion and Heidi.  Dion learned of Adventism just recently, and was about to join until Bester shared with him about the Father-Son.  Dion checks electricity meters for ESCOM, a security-type job that is really dangerous so he needs God with him.  He told us how he had been shot at and had Molotov cocktails thrown at his car and all sorts of other things.  He also told us how most people have illegal electricity. 

It’s surreal for me to see how beautiful the area was around us, which seemed like a middle class town in America, yet hear the stories of how much crime there is.  Everybody has stories of being broken into.  For those interested in race relations and variations of culture within a nation, South Africa has been at the head of history.  There have been major changes in governmental structure here in South Africa, from colonial state to republic to ‘New South Africa’ in 1994, and since then many have fled the country.  South Africa is at the forefront of Christianity and Adventism, with intense interest here in theological matters.  The expansion of Christianity in this region of Africa is massive, and its intellectual center is in South Africa.  As I cross this country I see that it is here that major evangelism will start.  The blacks know English, the Afrikaans are well educated and deeply protestant, and there is a desperate need of the gospel.  The people here are fiercely independent and free thinking.  Among English speaking groups, where the message must start as the literature and the history is in English (Ellen White, Jones and Waggoner, Wieland, etc), South Africa has the most potential. 

The big dilemma for this group in Empangeni was the feasts.  Waggoner’s position on the Covenants was not understood well.  In this we were assisted by Susan, a Sabbath keeper who was not an Adventist but who had recently found out she had Jewish heritage and was very interested in the festivals.  Adrian went through the Sanctuary in heaven and how the Book of the Law is in the most holy place next to the 10 Commandments, and we were amazed how quickly Susan was picking it up.  Her enthusiasm for this was encouraging, particularly since she expressed such strong skepticism at an earlier meeting. 

We explained that there were times where the spirit is to be poured, and by getting us to think about what to DO Satan was getting our mind off the real issue – that all righteousness is of God in Christ and there is none of it in ourselves.  AT Jones hits this point over and over again in Sermon 15 of the 1893 sermons, that we must believe we receive the Holy Spirit, and during that sermon a man suggests he read  Job 29:23– “They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.”  I am actually listening to this sermon right now, and amazingly right afterward Jones’ extemporaneously quotes Psalm 81:10 – “open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”.  This is the same psalm talking about Joseph keeping the feasts in Egypt, in verse 3 explaining “Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day!”  For me this is more evidence of the direction God wanted to take the Adventist Church if the 1888 message was accepted.

                         I quote in detail from this sermon:

“I believe this much in the Lord, that when we come together with our hearts seeking Him, every one that lays His heart wide open to receive what the Lord has to give, will not receive anything but what God gives. And the man who comes into such a place as this, with His suspicions aroused and with a readiness to look askance at the Lord--that man is not treating the Lord as a person ought to treat the Lord: he is treating the Lord just as a person might fairly treat the devil. Is he not? Now brethren, let us treat the Lord honestly; let us be honest with Him and He will be honest with us. "To Him that showeth Himself forward the Lord will show Himself forward. (Psalm 18:26)" If you and I treat the Lord honestly, He will treat us just exactly like God treats people. So I say, we need not come into this house with a particle of suspicion as to whether the Lord is going to give us things straight. He will do it, and I am going to expect He will do it, and so I am going to receive lots of blessing out of this thing. That is settled.”

Is this not the mirror?  This seems to be “drawn of the same well” as what Adrian is preaching.  When I see AT Jones using Psalm 18:26, a verse crucial to me in understanding the James 1:23, without my having known it… I praise God.  I am writing this from Thailand having finished my trip, on a Friday Evening New Moon Sabbath with confidence that my Father in Heaven wants to pour out his Holy Spirit upon us, through these appointed times.  If God will bless our camp meetings surely he will bless the times he has chosen, for of Tabernacles it states in Lev 23:40 – “ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God 7 days” and true joy is only in Christ – "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11).  I like how AT Jones expresses this, let us not approach God with our “suspicions aroused” but in faith that he will do as he has promised.  I hope you don’t mind if I continue a little more here quoting AT Jones because he chronicles a story that is relevant to me as I considered the poor, sickly state of our church:

“A sister told me not long ago that before that time four years ago she had just been lamenting her estate and wondering how in the world the time was ever going to come for the Lord to come if He had to wait for His people to get ready to meet him. For she said the way she had been at it--and she had worked as hard as anybody in this world, she thought--she saw that she was not making progress fast enough to bring the Lord in any kind of reasonable time at all, and she could not make out how the Lord was going to come. She was bothered about it, but she said when the folks came home from Minneapolis and they said, "Why the Lord's righteousness is a gift; we can have the righteousness of Christ as a gift, and we can have it now." "Oh," said she, "That made me glad; that brought light, for then I could see how the Lord could come pretty soon. When He Himself gives us the garment, the clothing, the character, that fits us for the judgment and for the time of trouble, I could then see how he could come just as soon as He wanted to." "And," said she, "it made me glad, and I have been glad every since." Brethren, I am glad of it too, all the time.

Has this not been our experience?  Have we not felt overwhelmed when we saw the scope of the work ahead of us, that magnitude of worldliness within us, and the vastness of the sins we needed to overcome?  That we have felt alone and disconnected from the church that meant so much to us?  Yet our unbelief is without excuse.  We have more light than those at 1888, for we have an understanding of the gospel in the whole system of weights and measures in the sacrifices, a better understanding of the sanctuary and the place of the statutes and judgments, and through struggle our understanding of the Father-Son relationship, that great divine pattern, is superior to those at 1888.  Praise God, for we are going to need it as the evil in the world now is greater than it was back then.  AT Jones then proceeds to quote a story that I have long thought ought to be connected to the festivals:

“Now there is sense in that thing today. You know we have all been in that same place. You know the time was when we actually sat down and cried because we could not do well enough to satisfy our own estimate of right doing; and as we were expecting the Lord to come soon, we dreaded the news that it was so near; for how in the world were we going to be ready? Thank the Lord He can get us ready. [Congregation: "Amen."] He provides the wedding garment. The master of the wedding feast always provided the wedding garment. He is the Master of the wedding supper now, and He is going to come pretty soon, and He says, "Here is the clothing that will fit you to stand in that place." Now there will be some folks that cannot attend that feast, because they have not on the wedding garment, but the Lord offers it as a free gift to all and as to the man who does not take it, who is to blame?”

Is not Tabernacles the Harvest Feast, the Feast representing the coming of Jesus?  Is not Tabernacles a preparation for the great wedding feast at the end of time?  Is not God leading us in this direction in this sermon?  I know it is so, for I have tasted that the Lord is good, and he blessed us wonderfully at the Feast in Pietermaritzburg.

Bester raised many thought provoking questions and his son Dawid would faithfully ask “where is the Scripture for that?” The white board in their home was covered again and again as the Divine Pattern of the feasts were explained. At the end Bester exclaimed that his previous framework had been destroyed and he saw there was clear evidence that this needed more investigation as there was a very good case for what we were saying. One of the texts that impressed Bester was in Ezek 36:

Eze 36:26-27  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  (27)  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

One of the evidences of a new heart was walking in the statutes and judgments. Many texts began to open up and be seen with much greater clarity.

Before we went though, Adrian had the privilege of baptizing Heidi and Dion.  Dion was extraordinarily touched by the lesson of how we ought to let God protect us, trusting in his rest, and not holding on to our anger. Security built upon our own works is an image to the beast in us, following the path of the Papal system in our own individual experience.  There is no peace in this and no rest.  We must come to the realization that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” James 1:20, even if we want to consider it “righteous anger”.  I am reminded by how much Psalm 94 relieved me of this need to take justice into my own hands, and we see this lesson repeated by Paul, who quoted Deuteronomy 32:35-

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. (Romans 12:19)

For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. (Hebrews 10:30)

This is a lesson that many of us in the movement need to learn, having been mistreated by our brethren in and outside the church; would that we could fully put our trust into God in spirit and truth to protect us, and that even if harm comes to us to accept it prayerfully.  Furthermore we can deceive ourselves that others are evil and we are good, when there is none good, no not one.  Let us believe God and let him avenge, for it belongs to him only, and his vengeance is infinitely more just than ours.  Instead let us pray for our enemies, remembering that we were once enemies of God, and that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.  One final thought from AT Jones (this will be a long report):

" What was counted to Abraham for righteousness? He believed God, and God said, "You are righteous, Abraham. "Now that is said three times in that little short space. What was it that was counted to him for righteousness? His believing God. It, i-t, it. "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to him that worketh not"--Is that what it says? [Congregation: "Yes."] Did the Lord say it that way? [Congregation: "Yes."] "But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly." But that is the Laodicean message again--miserable and poor and blind and naked. That is the kind of people that the Lord justifies. "His faith is counted to him for righteousness." The ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. What is counted to him? [Congregation: "His faith for righteousness."] And that is believing that God is justifying ungodly men? Will that bring righteousness to a man? [Congregation: "Yes."] To confess that he is ungodly and then believe that God makes that kind of man righteous. Yes, indeed. I cannot tell how; I cannot understand it. I know it is so, and I am so glad that it is so that I do not care whether I ever find out how or not. The Lord wants us to have what He gives. Let us take it.

                                         -----

Then it was on to Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal for Camp Meeting.  Last year was the first Feast of Tabernacles organized by this group (ACHM – Advent Covenant Hope Movement) in South Africa, and it was a success, bringing together many who have outsider perspectives differing from the main church and accommodating Father-Son believers who hadn’t accepted the feasts but were open.  The location was at a Charismatic site named African Enterprise, a beautiful spot with a waterfall and two streams merging into each other, next to a park where we could go for a walks and see zebras and deer.

The three men who were behind this feast were Hein De Wit, Philip Aspeling, and Cedric van der Mescht.  Hein was the main organizer, a man who truly loves the Feasts, having become an Adventist in 2010 after watching a Mark Woodman evangelistic campaign having been invited by a New Apostolic Church relative, and accepted the feasts in 2013  by watching a John Vandenburgh sermon and then going to Terra Bella for his first feast.  Interestingly that was the first year that Adrian attended a feast.  Hein is passionate on this subject, believing it to be a huge blessing meant for God’s people, and in his talk he discussed the Jewish Adventist ministry of Richard Elofer.  Amazingly there are actually 62 congregations that celebrate the Feasts, mostly in the Florida Conference – a contradiction, seeing that the church is disfellowshipping many for keeping the feasts, including Hein.  Richard Elofer actually suggested to Hein to just move his membership to the Florida Conference!  The feastkeepers bring a passion for fellowship and organization to a movement that is in desperate need of it (organization with a small ‘o’!); I see it as being God’s way of logistically bringing people together.  Hein made the point that the feasts were God’s appointments with us to bless us, and that we should not allow fear to rule and override logical conviction and fellowship.

Adrian started the meetings on Wednesday evening preaching on the Sabbath Fountain.  We are trying to ground the Feasts in Adventism and 1888 so that people don’t get confused and forget 1844 and fall into Messianic Judaism, losing all the hard work we have inherited that is in the Adventist foundation.  There is merit in learning some Hebrew to better understand the Bible, but not in thinking it makes your worship more holy or that English drives our Lord away.  It is God’s presence that makes a worship holy, and that is what we were stressing in the weights and measures of Numbers 28 and the Sabbath being Jesus resting in the bosom of his Father (John 1:9) where he was refreshed (Exodus 31:17).  Just as God is the head of Christ (1 Cor 11:3), Christ is the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23), and we see this parallel in how John lay in the bosom of Jesus (John 13:23) and Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples (John 20:22).

I was excited to see many of the blacks and coloreds that we had met along the way also make it here.  There was the representatives of the colored feastkeeping group in Saron, led by the Ontongs who built the church there which they have now been kicked out of.  My friend Ashwill was there, as well as Johan and Molly who run the dry fruit factory.  Pastor Cecil from the area also came.  Praise God!

Gary and Carolyn Hullquist and Ben Kramlich came from America together, but split up on arrival.  Ben came with us to Empangeni as previously mentioned, and Gary and Caroline to Nelspruit to meet Francois and do some health work.  The Hullquists made their way to Bhukozi’s school where there was a huge camp meeting going on, which I enviously looked at photos of (most communication was done through a large Watsapp group chat).  One young man, Tommy, was amazed to see Gary Hullquist there (he was very obvious, being one of the only whites there).  He had studied Adrian’s material and had watched the Pentagon of Lies series and desperately wanted Gary to baptize him – but Gary told him he should just come down to Pietermaritzburg and be baptized by Adrian himself!  So Tommy came down, along with a young black couple who have a health ministry in Johannesburg (fbook: Radiant Home Lifestyle) and Bhukozi.  Tommy was praising God for bringing Adrian to talk to Bhukozi at the school; he had been trying to explain the importance of the true Father-Son relationship but had not been having too much success, and he admitted to me that he may have come across too strong, a place many of us have been in our zealousness to share truth!  But Adrian coming was an answer to prayer and Bhukozi had many of his questions answered.  We hope to do more ministry work with these inspiring young blacks who have a large work ahead of them.  Bhukozi particularly has a huge field and works hard and needs prayer.

Speaking of Bhukozi, he really appreciated Adrian’s talk on the Covenants, who explained it as a personal experience as related in Galations 4:21 and the allegory of the two sons of Abraham.  He wished it could be longer, and it is a technical and difficult topic.  I recommended him to take the booklet ‘2 Covenants in Galatians’ by AT Jones (booklet on Maranatha Media), whom he is a big fan of.  It was nice to see him and many others taking many books back to where they had arrived from.  Big thanks to Philip and Hein for getting so much printing done.

Another old friend of ours whom we never had the opportunity to meet in person who came was Bright Nuka!  He flew from Malawi to Kenya and then to Durban.  He also received many books to take back with him and he sent plenty of photos back to his wife who couldn’t believe that he really was going to South Africa.  Bright was “adopted” by Morris, who was head of the publishing work for a long time and has been studying Adrian’s material for many years.  Morris had a Malawi friend/younger brother who had just died recently, and when he learned the Bright was from Malawi he said “we will go to Malawi and see the famous lake which I never had the chance to see, spreading the message along the way!”  Bright also took many books back with him.  I pray he can have some success there and not just be the man who is always “bringing complicated ideas” – another thing which many of us can relate too!

Clyde Langley, an older lay person told some interesting Biblical/historical factoids and gave away his book to all who were interested.  He was at the church where Ron Du Preez spent 7 hours attacking the feasts (specifically in response to Hein and Pieter Harmse too I think) and agreed with Ron for the most part, before studying it more and deciding that the feasts were still relevant.  He quickly told us of the 153 fish in John 21:11 and the Scarlet Worm of Psalm 22:6, both very interesting and I suggest the reader google.

For many of the South Africans it had been a long time since they had seen each other, and others only knew each other from online interactions.  I think many had long discussions into the night, and many plans were made on how to move forward.  People were assigned in groups to different cabins, and I assume that those who were together got to know each other very well! 

Ben Kramlich spoke on the importance of true education and agriculture, and the importance this has in the 3 Angel’s Message.  For this material he is indebted to the work of the E.A. Sutherland, a pioneer of Adventist education and the first president of Andrews University.  It is sad how off track we have gone, but we believe that God will restore this before the end of time as promised in Ezekiel 36, which connects the blessing of the land to the statutes and the feasts and righteousness by faith:

²⁶ A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

²⁷ And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

³⁰ And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

³⁵ And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

³⁶ Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.

³⁷ Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

³⁸ As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Farmers will come to the forefront of the movement in the near future.  This development in the message seemed highly fitting as we had heard much of the plight of the farmers in South Africa, and how famine was spreading across Africa because land was being made desolate as farmers were being killed off.  Many who came to these meetings are also farmers.  May the coming into the statutes offer all of them more protection, and please contact Ben Kramlich (benkramlich@gmail.com) for more info or if you have advice for him.

Gary Hullquist also preached on the Father and the Son, and did an in-detail presentation on the Holy Spirit – oftentimes a rather tricky subject.  A Pentecostal girl was there for that one meeting, sitting in the front and listening very intently.  I wonder what she thought.  Gary also brought his scripture songs, many of which we sang, and he also penned the theme song for the meeting based on John 1:14 and 2 Cor 4:11.  (If you would like to listen to his songs search “TRSC Scripture Songs” in the Google App Store/Play Store).  I found the verses to suit that which we aimed for:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth…  that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”

The highlight of the whole feast for me, and when I truly believed the spirit was moving with power, was during the footwashing.  As the men split and came together and prayed for each other, I felt there was a great unity and joy among the brethren.  For me it is interesting to compare such joyous movings of the spirit with my prior experiences in “riotous living”, and I think of the passages in Ephesians 5:18-21 and how the Feasts of our Lord are so different from the feasts of the world:

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of the God.”  Oh what joy there is in Godly submission!

One of the highlights of the meetings was the presentation of the Character of God and who is the author of death. There was a very powerful response to the message with heartfelt expressions of confession for worshipping our Father incorrectly as the author of death. A few were deeply convicted they need to be baptized into these new truths that completely revolutionize the gospel and the understanding of righteousness by faith.

Many others also graced us in attending the meetings, and forgive me for not giving anecdotes about everybody.  I pray that all can stay in touch and support one another as we move forward.  Pastor Vusi from Springs particularly is sharing the message to many brethren that he knows among the blacks and I just read right now on his fbook how he was thrown out of a brother’s house for his position on the Feasts (more because of shock, not malice; Vusi says he will see him in church soon!).  It is hugely encouraging to me the work he is doing.  He related me much history of the different tribes in Southern Africa. He also told me of his conversion experience, how he was told of the importance of the New Moons along with the Sabbaths (an interesting parallel to the many people in my travels who have been struck by Isaiah 66:23 – “From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD”).  As this was my first feast of Tabernacles, I also would like to quote this verse, which blew me away when Adrian first showed it to me at his house in Australia during Tabernacles:

“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.  And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.  And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.  This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.” (Zechariah 14:16-19)

Morris also was baptized, and he and Adrian hope to start working together to get the colporteur ministry going.  For Morris it has been a long road of study, and his wife still is wondering if “this is it now, or is there still more?”  His lack of malice towards the church is admirable, and as is his dedication to getting his brethren onto the true platform. 

Others also were baptized, and what a beautiful day it was to be baptized.  I think of Henne and Theresa, along with those before mentioned – there were seven in total.  Now I am back to my life in Thailand, and South Africa and Tabernacles is fading away, which I assume is also true for many of the readers.  Forgive me for not including you in this article.  Please feel free to write your own reflections on the meetings and send them to Pastor Adrian (Adrian@maranathamedia.com).  Seriously, he’ll publish it on his website, and Hein will too on the Maranathamedia.co.za if you want to do it in Afrikaans!

May we continue to remember what Christ is suffering every day in all the suffering happening in our world, and yet how he smiles and carries us forward as a people, sanctifying us day by day.  I pray that we keep studying and believe that though doctrine may seem difficult to understand, or financial trials overwhelm, or family problems threaten to split homes, that Jesus will help us if we only ask.  I pray for my brethren in South Africa.  I truly believe you are on the frontline of the endtime work.  What is going on in South Africa is a preview for what will happen everywhere else.  May your trials bring you closer to God.  I believe there are still things yet for us to learn, and much unconscious sin that must be brought to light and confessed thereby allowing us to receive greater grace; all of which must be done before Christ will return.  Let us not faint in this process for as it is stated in Hebrews 12:

⁵My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

¹¹ Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

¹¹⁴Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

¹⁵ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.

For ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

God bless everyone and I hope that we keep each other in our prayers.  I leave you with one last Ellen White quote with the purpose of encouraging everyone to give thanks always to God for sharing to us such wonderful truth and bringing us into such marvelous light; that he has sent Jesus to be our advocate and our righteousness;  and that we remember always the great things that he has done for us – particularly at this Feast of Tabernacles, in preparation for when we all meet again!  And may we eagerly await God’s appointed times and “be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” (Psalm 27:14)  If anybody comes to Thailand or knows anybody that is here and needs a tour guide or help or advice or for whatever reason you want to contact me, my email is danutasn@gmail.com  God bless friends! 

“Christ, our Mediator, and the Holy Spirit are constantly interceding in man’s behalf, but the Spirit pleads not for us as does Christ, who presents His blood, shed from the foundation of the world; the Spirit works upon our hearts, drawing out prayers and penitence, praise and thanksgiving.  The gratitude which flows from our lips is the result of the Spirit striking the cords of the soul in holy memories, awakening the music of the heart.”  Manuscript 50, 1900