We were blessed last week to have Pastor Warner come to preach revival for us here in Gabon. As if having Pastor Warner wasn’t a big enough blessing, he decided to bring my Dad along with him! We began on Saturday afternoon with Dad teaching a Parenting class. I was overwhelmed at the response of our church when more than thirty parents (and ‘wanabe’ parents) came to the class. Dad taught for an hour and then opened it up for what became a two hour question and answer session. We are praying that this is the beginning of capturing the next generation of Gabonese for Jesus.
Saturday evening, Pastor Warner preached a Mens Discipleship Class. While on the way to the church Pastor mentioned that he wasn’t sure which sermon to preach. I suggested he preach all of them–I was only half joking. He preached his first sermon, prayed and then went right into the next one. The men loved it!
Sunday morning we had our adult choir sing and Pastor preached on being born again. Sunday evening we had our Children’s Choir perform. The messages through the revival had a great flow, climaxing on the final night when Pastor preached his classic sermon, “Knowing the Father”. When people shared testimonies as part of Sunday night’s service (after the revival), the recurring theme was the impact of that particular sermon.
The week went by too quickly. I was blessed to spend lots of time with my father (though wrestling him away from the grand kids was difficult) and I was blessed to have coffee and fellowship every morning with my Pastor.
The people in my church kept telling me how lucky I was to have my “two fathers” come to visit me here in Gabon. I was really wrestling with that because I grew up in church and my father is both my physical father and my spiritual father. Without his influence and faithfulness in my life I would not be serving God today or doing the will of God. I guess when you look at it like that, I really had three fathers come to visit me. I was blessed that my father recognized an age and time in my life when I needed someone else to guide me and he handed me over to Pastor Warner (and others like Pastors Ed Gutierrez and Alvin Smith) for further guidance and discipleship. I think when we are young, we are too naïve to realize the value of our parents and what they have to offer us. My Dad had to give me up for a while so that he could get me back later.
When we were driving back from the airport, tears in our eyes from saying goodbye, I asked the kids what their favorite thing they did with
Grandpa was. 
Zakary said he had fun fixing the computers. Nehemiah said his favorite was when Grandpa read Spiderman comics and they colored. Geoffrey then informed me that coloring was not Nehemiah’s favorite because it was his favorite and they couldn’t have the same one. Then he changed his mind and decided that his favorite was playing a new game called “foot-basket” (combination of basketball and soccer) that grandpa invented while he was here.
They may be gone from Gabon but the memories will remain, as will the impact they had on us and the church and for that we are most grateful.
