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he felt somewhat disappointed that he hadn't gotten into
more meat from the Bible. This may have helped him get
across his message more powerfully the following two nights.
The second night was much stronger than the first. Mr.
Armstrong showed from the pages of the Bible that God's
government was on earth, before man was created, and
administered by Lucifer. Then he explained how Lucifer
rebelled and the attitude he exhibited. He finished up the
second night by showing that the Gospel is the return of the
govern ment of God to this earth, which will solve the problems
mankind faces and replace the present god of this world.
I thought that was pretty strong.
But the next morning I talked to a few of our members
(we have four) in Nairobi. They were very inspired, of
course, but mentioned that they had a little difficulty
with Mr. Armstrong's accent. They are used to English
coming with a British flavor. Actually, most all the
English teachers in Nairobi are Asians from India! For
Nairobi Africans, American English takes some getting
used to. I mentioned this problem to Mr. Armstrong,
but I didn't see what he could possibly do about it.
How do you change your accent in six hours? He must have
prayed about it. Because to me he sounded exactly the
same the third night. But our members and everybody else
in the auditorium felt there was no problem whatsoever.
They sat transfixed. And nobody looked at their watch
as God's servant on earth today delivered the message
to Nairobi of the purpose for mankind's existence on
earth and what is his ultimate destiny.
To give you an idea, towards the end of the sermon
(you have to call it a sermon) Mr. Armstrong said, "You
know, God's face is not black like yours!" He paused as
those words sank into the hearts and minds of the audience.
He had our attention to say the least! Then he said, "Nor
is it pale and anemic like mine! His face shines like
the sun in full strength, and so will yours and mine.
We'll all be the same in the God Family. There will be
no divisions; we'll all be ONE!"
I felt like cheering! I got all choked up and felt
like I and that black-faced audience already were ONE!
I can't tell you how encouraging and exhilarating an
experience it was that final night.
Later I reflected on the situation. Here Ev and I
were, two Americans who live in Johannesburg, South Africa,
sitting in Nairobi, Kenya, with approximately a couple of
thousand Africans and about 10 other whites listening to
Mr. Herbert Armstrong deliver the clearest, most lucid
and inspiring sermon on the Kingdom of God I have heard to
date. It just seemed incredible!
Later that night we had dinner with Mr. Armstrong and his
team back at the hotel. I sat on one side of Mr. Armstrong