Last year’s African Pastors Appreciation banquets were such a success that we just had to repeat them this year. Not only did we feed the pastors and their wives, but we also provided gifts for the local orphans and poor children and gave gifts of food to the local widows. It was a tremendous blessing to these villagers who often feel left out of nearly everything. In many cases they are so poor that they do well to afford to eat two or three meals a day and go to bed without being hungry.

The pastors and their wives were able to watch Benedicta and me teaching the Biblical story of the birth of our Lord Jesus. They were blessed to be given a full plate of many types of African foods. Also, many of these pastors and their wives rarely get together for fellowship with other pastors, so to have the opportunity to talk with them, laugh with them, and share ministry experiences was a blessing that they rarely enjoy. Additionally it is very unusual for them to attend conferences where both pastors and wives are together. Most pastor’s conferences are for the men only. And then there are ladies Bible studies, but very rarely are there meetings like these where husbands and wives attend together.

As we normally do, we provided toys for the orphans and poor children, which is, again, something that rarely happens to village children. There are of course, wealthy Africans who usually live in the big cities, but most of the village dwellers are quite poor and cannot possibly afford to indulge in buying toys for their children at Christmas. In some cases these poor families not only cannot afford presents of any kind; they cannot even afford a meal for Christmas dinner. They attend church on Christmas Day, and then go home to the same poverty they live with throughout the year.