Last December, we had our first communion service in Kandi. Pastor Telesphore Ahohouzou, our district pastor, traveled 133 miles from the nearest Adventist Church in Parakou to be with us.

Pastor Telesphore and I have a very good relationship. I see him almost every month when I go to Parakou for supplies or other business. When I told him we hadn’t yet had a visit from a church official during our three years of service in Benin, he was eager to visit us and hold a communion service with us.

During the past three years, we have been able to attend about one communion service a year in various places as we travelled and attended conventions and meetings, but never in Kandi. We would like to share in the Lord’s Supper more frequently, as Jesus intended His disciples to do. As Ellen White wrote in Spiritual Gifts, Volume 3, p. 227, “This solemn ordinance commemorates . . . the great atonement which Christ made by the sacrifice of His own life for the final deliverance of His people.” Elmire and I greatly miss the dozens of communion services we had each quarter when we were pastoring, and we eagerly look forward to sharing communion with new believers here in Kandi. “Every disciple is called upon to participate publicly, and thus bear witness that he accepts Christ as a personal Saviour. It is at these, His own appointments, that Christ meets His people, and energizes them by His presence” (The Desire of Ages, p. 656) Thanks for your prayers and support for our mission.

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