“The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers in to his harvest” (Matt. 9 37-38).
In November, 1996, I had the privilege of attending a Bible campaign in St Lucia with Bro Joseph and Sis Veronica Badlu, Sis Eunice Chan of New York, Sis Esther Worrell of Hamilton, Ontario, Bro Othmel and Sis Dorothy Mathias of UK, Bro John Brancroft of Barbados and Sis Maudlin December, who was residing on St Lucia.
We met with those who had been receiving the correspondence courses and held three evening lectures at the Vide Bouteille Primary School m La Clery An average of six visitors attended each lecture.
With the interest that was shown, Bro Badlu asked Sis Laura and myself to visit St Lucia for several reasons We were to do follow up work, seek out accommodation for the Bible Exposition and Campaign the first week in November and determine advertising prices and a possible radio program.
A study group
We have made contact with a small group of women on the island who are seeking for the Truth and have expressed concern that our visits are too short and rare There are many questions to be answered and many things they would like to know about the Bible the true meaning of the devil, the truth about God and His son, the soul, etc
Mrs Eileen Lambert, who has completed a Bible correspondence course from North America, was instrumental in getting some of her friends to start a Bible study class using our correspondence course as study material They took notes and wrote their questions, waiting for someone to come to answer them, “how can they learn unless someone teach them?” (Acts 8:31).
Details of the visit
On our arrival, we were met by Rose-Mane Olibert, who attends the study class and who transported us at no cost throughout our visit She took us to our guest house, telling us not to prepare dinner After relaxing and freshening up, we were collected at the guest house about 6 30 and taken to dinner at Mrs Lambert’s residence We met most of the women in the study group and, after having dinner together, we held a question and answer period until 11 p m We were shown the invitations Mrs Lambert had printed about our visit and the lectures at the school These were distributed to her friends and neighbors.
Thursday night was the first public lecture in the school on the topic, “God’s Promise to Abraham” We had six visitors with a lively question and answer period after the lecture.
The second night we considered the theme, “Looking for Jesus” Our visitors were reduced by one but again we had a lot of questions The third night, only Mrs Lambert was there until 8 15 so we did not lecture on the topic but considered her many questions She wanted to find out how our services are conducted and other aspects of Christadelphian teachings and organization.
As we were about to leave, two young men came in One was Gabriel Fontenelle who was in contact with the Dawn Fellowship through Bro Marcus Heaster, who is now m the Central Fellowship I had earlier tried to contact him without success until earlier that evening at 7 pm. He made the effort to meet us, bringing with him a friend from Grenada He was pleased to meet us, stating the Christadelphians were the only religious body teaching what he believes from his study of the Bible At present he is photocopying Bible Basics by Bro Duncan Heaster to assist others m the study of the Bible He, too, wanted to know about our organization so the discussion continued for awhile.
Gabriel asked if I could come for a week or even a weekend to stay with him to assist others and himself in proclaiming God’s word Copies of the Glad Tidings magazine, various Herald’s and other leaflets were left in St Lucia to be distributed by Mrs Lambert and Gabriel.
We admired the frankness of the St Lucians we met It was refreshing to see people seeking truth, asking questions, taking notes and testing what we were saying by scripture.
As we left early on Sunday morning to attend the memorial service in Barbados before returning to Tobago later that evening, it was nice to hear these words from our driver “I may have no intention of changing religions, but I am going to question my priest on what I have learned and if it is God’s will that I should change, I will” Lovely words to hear as you leave an island that is 90% Roman Catholic.
St Lucia needs our help and we appeal to brothers and sisters to give earnest heed to our calling to spread the gospel to others.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One