People traveled from the various church areas and beyond to tabernacle together, fellowship and be taught and inspired by the Word of God. We were pleased to have Paul Moody (the regional pastor for English-speaking West Africa and pastor of the Spokane, Washington, congregation) and Guadalupe Gonzalez from Texas, keep the Feast with us this year. Everyone stayed at the resort and had meals together at lunch and dinner.

The Feast started with the opening night service on the Oct. 4, and pastor Oludare Akinbo introduced the theme for this year’s Feast: “Building Your Relationship With God,” taken from the UYC theme for the year.

We listened to inspiring messages from our pastors and other local speakers. The messages focused on building our relationships with God, what the Feast is all about, rejoicing in and enjoying the Feast, the great love and wisdom of God, the coming Kingdom of God and so much more. Another highlight was the Feast video sermon by the Church’s president, Victor Kubik, who spoke on “Understanding Suffering in Order to Rejoice.” We had services every day except on Oct. 8, which was the sports and excursion day.

There were opportunities for games, various activities and lots of fellowship.

The Feast activities included children’s, preteen and teen Bible classes, a preteen activity day, youth and general Bible studies, couples night, singles night, and sports (brethren enjoyed swimming, table tennis and various indoor games). Each afternoon, those members who were able came together to the hall, and we read through the entire book of Deuteronomy together, with adults and children taking turns to read 5 to 10 verses each. It was exciting and very educational, even to those who had done this before in the local congregational Bible reading programs or privately.

There was an excursion to the farm owned by the resort, and we also had the family fun/talent show night where there were presentations of special songs, drama skits, dances, lots of laughs, and a special delicacy of goat meat was served.

During the Feast, there were special music pieces done by both the senior and children choirs. We also had two little children who were blessed. On the first and last days of the Feast, group photographs were taken.

These eight days once again gave us a foretaste of the time in God’s Kingdom. It was fulfilling both spiritually and physically (as the Feast provided an escape from the stress of the world). Our thanks to all those who contributed to the success of this year’s Feast.

Uwala Moses Oluwagbemiga