All right, well I want to thank everybody for being able to make it to this mission trip.
I believe that this trip is going to be a great trip.
You know, we're right here at the beginning of it and I'm sure that we're going to get many people saved over the next few days.
And I would also like to thank Pastor for this opportunity to preach as well and to be here in beautiful Sierra Leone.
Now, my sermon for this morning will be a little bit different than what we're normally used to
because what I'm going to go over is, yes, I'm going to go over lots of Bible, lots of Scripture,
but I'm also going to talk about what we're going to do over the next week.
So I'm going to talk about our itinerary, any rules that we might have, you know, the details of the trip as well.
So it's going to be both wrapped up in one, okay?
And I'm mainly preaching to the people who are here today,
but if somebody happens to listen to this sermon later, then they'll be able to glean lots of wisdom from it as well.
There's going to be lots of Bible as well.
So the title of my sermon this morning is called Mission Trip Etiquette, Mission Trip Etiquette.
So we're going to talk about a few things that are going to be important on this trip this week.
So the first thing I would like to go over is basically the basic itinerary for the week.
You know, what are we expecting throughout the week?
So from day to day, you know, you guys are going to wake up, you're going to get ready, you're going to eat your breakfast, right?
Breakfast here is served between 7 and 10 a.m. in the morning.
So you're going to get up, you're going to do all that good stuff, get ready.
And at 930 every single morning, we're going to meet at that top courtyard up there where the pool is, right?
We're going to meet up at 930. We're going to have a five-minute meeting.
He's talking about what we're going to do on that particular day.
And then we're going to head out and we're going to start sewing.
We're going to do sewing from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. noon.
And then we're going to have a one-hour lunch break.
And then we're going to do sewing from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the afternoon.
And then from then on, after that, you guys have your free time until 7 p.m. that night and then we're going to have dinner together.
And so that's going to be the very basic schedule that we're going to follow for this week.
And let's see here.
And also I want to point out as well that we want to keep the schedule pretty, pretty, we want to keep it.
So basically what I'm saying is just be on time, you know, just try to be on time whenever you get the, whenever you can.
Don't be that guy that makes everybody wait on you. You know what I mean?
Like on every single mission trip we have, you know, people who basically, you know, we have to wait on them for a while and everything.
And of course, you know, sewing is important. That's why we're here.
And we want to see people safe, you know, but use common sense as well.
For example, if we only have five minutes until we got to go to lunch, you have 10 minutes left on your gospel presentation.
And just tell them, hey, listen, I got to go, you know, here's a YouTube card. Get down their number.
Try to call them later. Do whatever you have to do. But, you know, don't hold everybody else up.
You know, that's just the common sense. That's just something that's nice to do.
And so we're going to be big on just trying to keep that schedule.
OK, because if you think about it, you'll get more salvations in the long run as well.
You know, for example, if we're having someone in the morning that we're going to have a lunch break in this morning and afternoon.
Let's say that, you know, we're supposed to break it as well. But then one guy is preaching for an extra 10 minutes.
Right. Let's say that, Eric, you're preaching. You're too long. You know, you're causing all of us to get held up.
Well, then that means that lunch has to extend for another 10 minutes and then everybody else loses 10 minutes as well.
So we're actually losing like two hours for your 10 minutes. So we're actually going to get more people safe in the long run if we keep to the schedule.
All right. So that's that's it on that. The only day that there will be an exception is on Sunday.
We're actually going to leave here at 8 a.m. instead of 930. And that's because that is our recreation day.
Now, let's talk about the recreation. OK, we've got some good stuff planned for you guys.
So we are at 8 a.m. We're going to leave here and we're going to go to the Mambo Waterfall.
Now, I'm sure that everybody here has heard about it. You know, we made a couple of videos about it.
You guys probably saw it on YouTube. And we went there and visited it earlier this week.
And let me tell you something. You know, originally we were going to split up into two groups.
People who could handle the hike and go to the waterfall and then the people who could not handle the hike and go to the beach.
Right. But after seeing it, we decided that you guys, to put it like Lola said, you guys need this waterfall in your life.
You know what I mean? Like this waterfall far exceeds what we were expecting it to be like.
And it's and it's fantastic. So basically what we're going to do is we're going to provide a vehicle,
like a four wheel drive vehicle to drive up there for people who are not able to handle the hike.
Right. So there's basically three parts to the hike that we saw. It's about an hour long hike.
The first part of the hike, you're walking through the Mambo Village.
And that's really, really nice because you get to meet lots of the local people.
You know, they're always they're saying good morning. They're very friendly. It's a very great experience.
You get to see where they actually live, how they live. And I love that first part.
And so you can participate in that one. That'd be great. But then and that's for the first 20 minutes.
But then the second 20 minutes of the hike is brutal. This is the part that's very difficult.
And you're basically going straight uphill for about 20 minutes. And it's not for everybody.
It's only for the experienced people. So we're going to have a vehicle waiting for us to bring people up.
And so you can skip that part if you're not able to go on that part.
And then the third part is we're going downhill into the jungle. And then that part was breathtaking as well.
You know, it's basically a jungle walk and you hear all the birds chirping.
You see the lizards walk by and then you see the waterfall ahead of you. It's beautiful.
So that part we're all going to do. So basically that in.
So that's it. So we're going to be there at the Mamba Waterfall.
We're going to get there around 10 a.m. And we're going to be there until 1.30 p.m.
on Sunday. After that, we're going to go to the Takugama Chimpanzee Reserve.
Right now, I have not been there personally myself, but Lola and Kevin went there earlier this week.
And they and basically I told them, look, you know, check it out.
And if it's just, you know, two monkeys in a cage or whatever, we're not going to go.
But then Kevin came back and I'm like, so was it? Was it two monkeys in a cage?
He's like, no, no, no, no. It's way better. There's one hundred and five monkeys in a cage.
So it's going to be great. And they said it's really good.
And even our tour guide, they said that the tour guide, both of them were saved, but they're not only saved.
They're like, they're very safe. They knew their stuff is what they were saying.
They were like, yeah, we hate this workspace salvation. You know, people try to use James 2 to talk about a workspace salvation.
You know, that's not what it's talking about and everything. So they knew what they were talking about.
And they're going to be our tour guides. And in fact, one of the tour guides actually came out soloing with us yesterday.
So he wanted to learn how to evangelize and everything. His name is Alfred. He came out yesterday.
So that'll be a lot of fun. We're going to go to the Champions League and the monkeys were cool too.
And then at that night, we'll arrive back here around 6 p.m. So let's talk about what we'll do on every day.
So yesterday on the 6th, we went to the Milton Margai Technical School.
So that's where we went yesterday. And we got 11 people saved there. So that was a great day of soloing.
We were only there for a couple of hours and we got so many people saved. So praise the Lord for that.
Now today, on the 7th, everybody who's able to, we're going to go to the Farah Bay University.
And this is a very big college and it's about 30 minutes from here. And there's going to be thousands of students there.
So we'll have plenty of people to preach to there. And on Friday, we're going to go to the Ipom College, another college.
Now on Saturday, the colleges are not open. So for the morning part of the day, we're going to go to the Lumley Park Market.
There's many, many people to talk to there. Very, very busy. And me and Daniel, we got many people saved there last time we were here.
So we're going to go there. And then in the afternoon on that same day, we're going to do some beach soloing.
So we're going to go down to the beach. There's going to be lots and lots of people there because it'll be a Saturday evening.
And we're going to get, hopefully we'll get many people saved there as well. So that'll be very nice.
And then on Sunday, we already talked about it. That'll be our recreation day.
Now on Monday, we're going to go to the Prince of Wales Secondary School. So that'll be really nice.
We'll have a preaching engagement there. And then we get to talk to the high school students as well.
And on Tuesday, we're going to do the same thing at Albert Academy. These are two high schools.
So we'll go to those two on Monday and Tuesday. And then after that, if you're staying longer than the 12th,
which is everybody here, then we'll have more activities after that. But we'll just we'll determine those later.
So let's talk a little bit about the supplies that we're going to use while we're out soloing.
Now, first of all, we have our YouTube card. Most people here are familiar with our YouTube card.
But this is going to be our icebreaker. So you approach somebody else, someone, and you're going to say,
hey, did you get one of these? You know, this is a card. And then you're going to basically explain it to them.
You know, we have a video on YouTube, the Bible Way to Heaven. Are you 100% sure you're going to heaven?
And then that's how you're going to break the ice with them. And you're going to use this card.
You hand these cards out to everybody. OK. But then let's say that the guy wants to hear the gospel and you get through the gospel with him.
Maybe you get halfway through. Maybe you get the whole way through. Maybe he's just interested, but he's busy and has to go.
You can leave them with a DVD. DVDs are for people who are actually interested.
OK, so we've got I believe that we yeah, we have a thousand of these.
So be liberal with these. Hand these out, you know, but just hand them to people who are interested.
Now, if somebody gets saved, then we have the New Testament. So give them the New Testament.
You can even write their name in it. You know, just give them a New Testament if they get saved.
And then finally, we have the SD cards. Now, this is a 16 gigabyte SD card that fits into your phone and has lots of preaching.
It has the audio Bible on it, has hymns, has all the good stuff on there. It has documentaries and everything.
So this goes to anybody who gets saved and they have the capability to use it.
Right. So don't hand it to like an old lady who doesn't even have a cell phone or whatever, you know, and she's never going to use it.
She's going to throw it in the garbage. So these are people who get saved and actually use it.
And then on top of that, for ourselves, not for handing out, but I have souvenirs that we got for everybody.
So these are Sierra Leone flags and we got one for everybody. And it's a desk flag you can put on your desk at home.
So this is just a little souvenir for everybody in case you want that.
You know, so that's basically it for the first part. That's our itinerary.
That's what we have to hand out. And basically, you know, the recreation, we talked about it.
The recreation is a lot of fun. You know, I'm looking forward to going to the Mamba waterfall again and everything.
And the fellowship is great too. You know, that's one of my favorite parts of this trip.
And of course, traveling, you know, seeing new sites, meeting new people. This is all a lot of fun.
But I don't want us to forget why we're even here in the first place. You know what I mean?
You know, we're here to preach the gospel. You know, the Bible says in Romans 1 16, it says,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
There's great power in the gospel. We have power because we have the gospel and the gospel piece that we're going to preach to the people here in Sierra Leone.
Now, there's no telling how many salvations that we might get in the next week.
You know, these people are very receptive to the gospel. They're ready to get saved.
And we have the power of God on our side. You know, John 4, where you're at, look down if you would at verse 35.
This is a familiar verse, but we'll take a look at it again.
It says, Say not ye, this is John 4 35, Say not ye, there are yet four months and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.
So we can truly say this about Sierra Leone. You know, the fields are white on the harvest.
People are ready to get saved. And, you know, we didn't wait on it either.
You know, it says this person in this verse, they're like, Oh, well, we got four more months.
We don't have to worry about it. You know, we don't, we might not have four more months here in Sierra Leone.
You know, we might not have a lot of time in the future to come back and preach the gospel.
So we wanted to do it now. We wanted to do it while it is yet day.
We wanted to come here and preach while we can. And so that's why we're here.
And praise the Lord, you know, there's been a great door open unto us.
And then it also says in that same verse, it says, lift up your eyes and look on the fields.
I take that as, you know, it's something that you might not even readily see, right?
You have to get the search for it almost. And a lot of people don't even, don't know about Sierra Leone.
You know, they don't think about Sierra Leone as being a great mission place.
In fact, whenever we announced that we were coming here on a mission trip, a lot of people had never even heard of Sierra Leone.
They've never even heard of the country itself. And so, you know,
but we have lifted up our eyes and we have found Sierra Leone and this is a great mission field for the gospel.
And so I'm glad that we're here. And, you know,
I know that I'm preaching to the choir here because everybody here had to give up something in order to come.
You know, all of you guys had to overcome obstacles to come.
Obstacles like the expenses involved or obstacles like this quarantine that's coming on.
Now, let's talk about that a little bit. You know, I still cannot believe that this is actually happening.
You know what I mean? Like basically what happened with this whole quarantine business is that there's nothing online about it.
Right. You can't find it anywhere online before. And so I did, I did, you know, we did our due diligence.
We did research. We did what we had to do.
But basically there was no way to foresee this because they just announced it right before it went into effect.
And then we got here on October 1st. And whenever we landed the guy at the airport, he asked, are you vaccinated?
And we were like, no. And they said, well, you know, starting on October 4th, you have to be vaccinated or you have to quarantine for two days.
And so we kind of we freaked out. So we started making phone calls and everything, trying to make it better for you guys.
That way that you guys did not have to quarantine. Right.
And so we made lots of phone calls and everything. But at first we thought it was a scam. Right.
Because they say, all right, if you have any questions, call this number, call the hotline or the 117.
And we called them and then we asked them, so what's up with this quarantine business?
They were like, we've never heard of that before. So the phone number that you're supposed to call to get more information, they had no idea.
So it's been crazy. But so then you guys had to, you know, but then whenever we announced it.
Right. And I love this. Whenever we announced that there's going to be a quarantine, not one person dropped out.
Everybody still came. And so praise the Lord for that. You know, you guys are strong for that.
You know, I'm talking to people right now who are serious about serving the Lord.
You know, I'm talking to people right now who are serious about getting people saved.
I'm talking to people who love Sierra Leone and love the people here, talking to people who understand Philippians 1 21.
That's my favorite verse out of the entire Bible. It's for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
And you know what? I know that everybody here knows that verse and knows what it is to serve the Lord with your life.
And so turn, if you would, to Matthew Chapter 10. Matthew Chapter 10.
So with that being said, you know, with that being said, the Bible says in Romans 10 9,
For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
So, of course, I'm talking to people who are very zealous today, but I also want us to have the knowledge as well.
You know, we don't want to be like those people. We want to follow what it says in 1 Corinthians 14 40 where it says,
Let all things be done decently and in order.
So basically what I'm going to do now is I'm going to go over some rules for the mission trip this week.
OK, now the biggest rule that we have, you know, if you break everything else, you know, whatever.
But if you got to keep this rule, OK, the number one rule is never go out by yourself.
You know, while we're here, don't go out by yourself. Always have a partner with you at all times.
Right now, this is just common safety.
You know, and, you know, whenever you're out on your free time, make sure you have somebody with you.
But also when you're soul winning, always have your partner with you as well.
And let me tell you a few reasons why it's always important to go soul winning with a partner.
Right. We're going to talk specifically about soul winning with a partner.
I have a few reasons why. So first and foremost is the safety.
Right. So you're there in Matthew Chapter 10. Look down, if you would, at verse 16.
Now, when Jesus sent out the disciples two by two, and by the way, two by two is the biblical model as well for soul winning.
So that's why we do it. We do that at our church as well.
But let me show you what it says in Matthew 10, 16, where it says, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
So Jesus is telling the disciples, look, I'm sending you out, go out, you know, preach the gospel, but be careful.
You know, he's saying, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
And so you've got to be careful, you know, and listen, you know, you should be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
But it's not wise whenever you leave your partner behind, you know, especially whenever you're in an unfamiliar country like in Sierra Leone.
You know, never leave your partner because, you know, whenever you leave your partner, it's oftentimes because you feel like it's safe.
Right. Oh, it's safe here. I can leave my partner.
You know, you're not only putting yourself in risk, you're also putting your partner in risk as well because their partner is leaving.
Right. So just make sure that you keep with your partner at all times.
So during soul winning this week, what we're going to do is we're going to partner everybody up with a partner.
Right. So you and your partner, it's a two man group.
And then you guys, you guys can preach to two different people at the same time.
That's totally fine. But just make sure that you guys are within 10 feet from each other.
So just make sure that you're like right here in case something bad happens, you can help out.
Right. So you and your partner need to stay close. And then every group of two is going to partner with another group of two to make a group of four.
Now, this group of four, they just have to stay within eyesight from each other.
So, right. You and your partner are here. The other two people are over there.
Right. So basically, you just got to stay together. We're going to stay in a group of four at all times whenever we leave this hotel.
And whenever even whenever you go out for free time. Right. Because there's going to be a few hours of free time every single day.
Whenever you leave the hotel, make sure that you have somebody with you, but not only just two people.
Whenever you leave the hotel, we would like you to have four people with you whenever you leave the hotel just for safety.
And we would also like you have somebody in that group to have a working cell phone.
And we'd like you also to text the group chat. Right. Everybody here is on the WhatsApp group.
Just text the group chat. Let us know that you're leaving and tell us where you're going as well.
And then let us know once you get back. OK. Just common safety practices.
Because here's the thing. You know, maybe they seem like extreme rules to you and maybe they are.
You know, maybe they are extreme. You know what? Just bear with me and my father.
You know, I just want to look out for you guys. I want you guys to be safe.
So just please follow these simple rules. And, you know, Sierra Leone is considered one of the safest countries in Africa.
And I feel safe here. You know, I don't know about you guys. Some of you guys have not been out and about yet.
But I feel very safe here. But even so, you know, Sierra Leone is safe, but it's not that safe.
You know, still bad things can happen. So just make sure that you follow these safety precautions, please.
And then a few extra rules on top of that is that we want you back at the hotel by six thirty p.m.
Right. That's right before it gets dark outside. And then we're going to have dinner at seven anyway.
So just be back around about that time. And this is a good safety tip that we've learned this week is that whenever you have a backpack on,
ensure that you keep everything important in zippers. Right.
So don't put like your phone on the side where somebody could just grab it and run off. Right.
Keep everything inside zippers. Right. And then don't flash money either. Whenever you're pulling out money, do not flash it.
You know, for example, I have my bag with me at all times. I'll give you an example.
So I have my bag and it's always around my neck. And then basically whenever I need to pull out money,
I stick my hand inside and I count it on the inside. One, two, three. And then I pull it out. Right.
So just basic things. Right. This is just for you and your safety. So just use common sense, basically.
So that's the moral of that. Just use common sense while we're here. Now turn, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 15.
Proverbs chapter number 15. Let me give you a few other reasons why it's good to have a salooning corner.
Now, this applies here in Sierra Leone and back home and in America whenever we go back.
Most of us here are from America. So let me give you a few other reasons why it's always good to have a salooning partner.
One thing is there's always accountability. Right. And 1 Thessalonians 5.22, which is abstained from all appearance of evil.
Right. We want to make sure that there's always accountability when we go out salooning.
You know, what if you knock on somebody's door and then somebody from the opposite gender opens the door and then bites you in or whatever.
You know, that sort of thing happens a lot out salooning. And it's always good to have a partner with you because, you know, we don't know.
You know, maybe you went inside, maybe you didn't know, but we don't know that when we can never know that because nobody else was there with you.
Right. So it's good to always have somebody with you for accountability sake, not just for safety, but for accountability.
Also for instruction as well. You know, there are a lot of people here on this trip and I know most of you pretty well.
But then there are other people that I don't know very well. And, you know, maybe there are some people here or maybe not that that's not very good at salooning.
You know, then, you know, you partner up with somebody and then you learn. Right. That's how you learn. You learn by going with other people.
Now, I'll tell you my story. You know, the first time that I ever got somebody saved, I went on Faithful Word Baptist Church's mission trip to Jamaica over three years ago.
And whenever I went there, I was very newly saved. And I've gone salooning a few times as a silent partner, but I never got anybody saved.
You know what? I went to Jamaica and I got partnered up with some good people there who taught me how to go salooning.
And by the end of the trip, I got seven people saved on that trip. So praise the Lord.
You know, and I would hope that on either this mission trip or future mission trips, we would have stories like that as well.
I think that's great. But, you know, it's very important to go salooning with a silent or with a partner for instruction sake.
You know, one thing I've noticed over the years is that people who are really good at salooning go with a lot of people, go with a lot of different people.
Right. They don't get stagnant. They don't go by themselves all the time or with the same person every single time because the Bible says that iron sharpens iron.
You know, I'm always constantly learning new things from going out salooning with new people.
So this is a very important part of going salooning, you know, and maybe you're the kind of person who's like, you know,
Brother Raymond, I'm the best salooner ever. I don't need anybody to teach me. Nobody needs to teach me. I'm good. Right.
Well, you know what? You know, you should still partner up with somebody so that they can learn from you.
You know what I mean? If you really are the best salooner ever, then you should want to give other people that knowledge as well.
You know, so it's always good to go salooning with somebody else for that reason as well.
And of course, we shouldn't have that attitude anyway. But we should always have an attitude that wants to learn more.
We should always have that learning experience. So always go salooning with a partner for that reason as well.
Turn, if you would, to James chapter five. I'm just going to keep talking about going with a silent partner for a few more minutes.
But another great reason to go salooning with a partner.
And I believe that this is probably the most important reason to go salooning with a partner, even more so than safety.
And that is prayer. Prayer. You know, your partner can pray while you're preaching the gospel.
You know, while you're at the door, maybe you're preaching the gospel and the guy's just not getting it.
Well, then your partner can be praying in their heart.
And I do believe that this makes a big difference because prayer changes things. It really does.
And, you know, in Deuteronomy 32, 30, don't turn there. You're in James chapter five. Excuse me.
So in Deuteronomy 32, 30, we can apply this to salooning, even though that's not the primary application.
But it says, how should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight, right?
Except their rot had sold them and the Lord had shut them up.
So with human reasoning, we would say that one, with God, you know, one person can chase a thousand and then two people could chase around and chase ten thousand or two thousand.
There are two thousand. Excuse me. That would be our human reasoning.
But you know what, though? In the Bible, with God, though, whenever you add another person, then you don't just chase away two thousand.
You chase away ten thousand. And, you know, we can apply this to salooning because we already know that the biblical model is two by two.
So we can apply it that way. And basically, you know, I believe that you're going to be way more effective whenever you have a partner with you.
You know, I fell into this trap before, back whenever I was a new salooner, where basically, hey, listen, you know how to preach a gospel and I know how to preach a gospel, so let's split up and we'll cover more territory.
You know, but basically that's using the human reasoning, human logic, because the fact that, and I believe that the biggest reason for that is because the prayer, the prayer changes things.
And whenever your salooning partner is praying while you're salooning, then I believe that that helps.
Now look down, if you would, at James chapter five and look at verse sixteen. The Bible says,
So that is an example of somebody who prayed a fervent prayer and it was effectual.
It had an effect, you know, and basically we want that out salooning because of course, whenever you're preaching the gospel, you're praying in your heart too.
You know, you might stop and pray a little short prayer, Lord, please open this person's eyes. And that's great.
You know, the more prayer that we have, the better, you know, we've noticed that in Sierra Leone that people have that attitude, like more prayer, the better.
You know what I mean? Everybody wants to pray, so that's great to have.
But, you know, and that short prayer in your heart is good, but you're not going to get that fervent prayer unless you have your partner there.
You know what I mean? You can't pray fervently while you're preaching, in my opinion. That's your partner's job.
And so, you know, yes, we want as much prayer as possible, but the best prayer is the fervent prayer.
So that's another reason to go salooning with a partner.
Now turn if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Ecclesiastes chapter 4, I'll give you a couple more reasons and then we'll move on.
But another great reason to have a partner with you is to eliminate distractions.
You know, maybe you're back in America, you're knocking on a door and then the dogs are barking or maybe the kids want to play or, you know, maybe there's another person who's trying to come up and distract you or whatever.
Your partner can help you out. They can eliminate that distraction so that you can preach and you can get that guy saved.
You know, so that's another great reason to have a partner. Here in Sierra Leone, we've noticed that many, many times we're preaching to somebody and then a rude Muslim guy will walk up and then he'll start trying to derail the conversation.
He'll say, oh, you know, you're preaching, you're like, yeah, so Jesus died for all of our sins. And he's like, oh, excuse me, excuse me, I have a question. Excuse me, excuse me.
Where does the Bible say that Jesus is God? You're just like, dude, just leave me alone for a minute. Okay, I'll get back to you in a minute. You know what I mean?
Like, we've seen that many, many times. So basically, if you have a partner there, then those distractions can be eliminated. Another great reason to have a partner is for the rest breaks, right?
We all get tired, right? And it's great to have a partner to take over whenever you need to take a break. Now, whenever we're going door to door, this would look like maybe you sit out for a few doors and then your partner knocks on the door, talks to the guy behind the door, and then you take a break for a while.
And you know what? This is a great reason to have a silent partner with you. You know, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter four, look down if you would at verse number nine, where the Bible reads, two are better than one.
And right there, we could just, we could just shut it right there. Case closed, you know, two are better than one. Go solely with a partner. That's the best way to do it.
Two are better than one. Let's continue though. Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone when he falls, for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat. But how can one be warm alone? So the Bible is basically telling us here that if one, if you have your friend with you, then if you fall, then your friend's going to help you up.
If you need help, then you have somebody there to help you. And so out soloing, if you need help with anything, you're going to have your partner right there to help you out.
And so that's why we go soloing two by two in America. That's why we're going to go soloing two by two here in Sierra Leone as well. You know, and let's talk a little bit about about breaks, you know, since we're talking about breaks, you know, specifically on this trip,
I want you to know that if you ever need a break, take a break. You know, don't let anybody push you and pressure you into continuing to soloing whenever you're too tired and you're too wore out and you need to take a break.
Okay, make sure that you take a break whenever you need it. Right. And just make sure that you're close to your partner, but you can sit down while your partner continues to preach.
You sit down for as long as you need to because of the fact that soloing is hard. You know, it's hard work and not everybody's going to be able to do it for hours and hours and hours without a break. Right.
So we always make sure that everybody knows to take breaks whenever you need them. Don't and don't feel bad about it either. You know, even if you're so wiped out that you got to like come back to the hotel or whatever, do that.
Or if you're so wiped out or you're feeling sick or tired or whatever and you need to take a break for an entire day even, just do it. You know, we're not going to make you feel bad about it ever.
Because at Faithful Word Baptist Church, you know, you take as many breaks as you possibly want to because of the fact that we don't want to run you guys into the ground and then have you guys never come back.
You're like, man, I love that Mambo waterfall, but Brother Raymond was just pushing me too hard. I'm not going to the next mission trip. You know what I mean? We don't want that.
So take as many breaks as possible. And if somebody's pressuring you to keep soul winning whenever you can't just, you know, let me know about it. I'll take care of them. Don't worry.
And also, you know, also I'll just throw this in there. You know, we found a good store as well. So if you guys need toiletries or any good store stuff, just let us know. We'll take care of that.
But at the end of the day, you know, take breaks whenever you need to. And if you guys need anything else, just let me know.
You know, if you need to go somewhere, do something, we'll take care of you. And let's talk about one more reason why it's great to have a partner while you're out soul winning. This is my last reason today.
This is my favorite reason to go soul winning with a partner, and that's the fellowship, right? We can't forget about the fellowship. You know, it's great to go soul winning with a partner because you have your friend there and, you know, you guys are having good fellowship.
You're talking, you're having a good time, or maybe you don't know the person yet, and then you're about to make a new friend. So it's always great to go soul winning for the fellowship.
You know, in Romans chapter 16, we're all pretty familiar. Well, hopefully we're all familiar with that passage, but basically Paul gets a big shout out to every single one of his friends, basically.
And these are his, the people that he's been working with. He calls them his work fellow, his fellow laborers, and he was working with them and they're his friends.
So if you want a friend list like Paul had, then you need to go soul winning with a lot of people, right? So, you know, and last thing that I want to bring up is if you're still not convinced that it's important to have a partner while you're out soul winning, then you know what?
And I hate to put them on the spot, but think about Albert. You know, we have our friend Albert here in Sierra Leone. You know what? He doesn't have any church to go to. He doesn't have any good Christian friends. He doesn't have anybody to go soul winning with.
And let me ask you, Albert, is that easy? No, it's very hard. Don't you wish that you had a partner to go with you all the time? Yeah, of course, right?
And so whenever you guys think, oh, I can handle, I don't need a partner. Just think about Albert because he wishes that he could have a partner and he can't, you know? So that's it on that.
So, and so, oh, yeah. And speaking of that as well, speaking of Albert getting a friend to go out soul winning with, if you get somebody saved and they seem interested in learning how to go soul winning, get their phone number down. Maybe Albert can meet up with them later.
So, you know, make sure that you guys do that. You know, try to encourage them to come out soul winning as well later on. Now, I'll turn it to you to First Corinthians chapter one.
First Corinthians chapter one, we're going to finish it here in First Corinthians chapter one. These are just a few thoughts that I want to close with. I want to recap what we have done so far this week.
So on Monday, October 4th, we've gotten 12 salvations on that day. And we got nine of those salvations in one hour. So it's incredible here.
And, you know, it's very good soul winning. On Tuesday, October 5th, we got five salvations. And then yesterday, on Wednesday, October 6th, we got 11 salvations.
So that is 28 people who have already gotten saved before we've even gotten into the meat of the week. You know, before we've even gotten our big crew going out, we've already gotten 28 people saved.
28 people who have received Christ. 28 people have passed from death unto life. 28 people who have believed in the Lord. 28 people who were on their way to hell, but now they're on their way to heaven.
28 souls who are going to heaven now. And all because we're here. You know, and I believe that today we're going to get way more people saved. And for the rest of the week, we're going to get lots of people saved as well.
You know, some other great highlights from this week. Yesterday, we got to preach in a school yesterday. And I bet that some of you have not heard about that yet, because it was very spur of the moment.
We've been trying to make appointments with different people all throughout the week. But then basically one of the guys here, he's like, hey, he pulled one of us aside. He's like, hey, I've got this brother who owns a school, or he's the principal of the school or whatever.
And, uh, basically he, uh, I can talk to him and get you guys in and we're like, all right, cool. And then like 10 minutes later, he's like, all right, he's here. And we're like, what? And then we went to go talk to him. And then he said, um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We would love you guys to come. Come on, let's go. I'm like right now. And he's like, yeah, right now. Come on, let's go. Let's go. I'm like, I got to grab my friends. All right, well, hurry up. Come on, let's go. Let's go. You know, so then we just grabbed everybody.
We hopped in the car and then we drove over there and it was, and then like five minutes later, Kevin is preaching to 400 students, you know, in a big assembly. And that was great. You know, that was a great experience. He loved it. I loved it. We love that experience.
And you know what? We're going to have many other preaching opportunities this week, Lord willing as well. So if you're a guy, if you're a man and you have that desire to preach in front of a large crowd of students, which is a great opportunity, it's a great experience.
Then just come and see me. We'll talk about it because we're going to have more opportunities to do that this week. Now look at, if you would, at First Corinthians chapter one and verse 18. This is where we're going to end our sermon today. It says right here,
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. See, we have the power of God on our side.
We have the power of God in us because we have the gospel of peace and we're going to preach it to the Sierra Leoneans here in Sierra Leone. You know, we have the power of God. We can change people's eternal destination from hell to heaven.
We have this great power in earth and vessels. And let us never forget that this week. You know, things may get hectic, things may get difficult, but you know what? Let us never forget why we're here and that we have the power to get people saved.
So let's go out soul winning with power this week because the power of God is the gospel. All right, so let's pray.
Lord, thank you so much for this opportunity to preach and I just pray that I would have said something that helped somebody out and just please motivate us all this week to give it our all and to get some people saved.
Lord, just please fill us with your spirit for this entire week, Lord, and just please bless us and please pave our way so that we have a very easy way to get people saved and preach the gospel to many students, whether they're college or in elementary school or high school or middle school, whatever.
And just please help us to get many people saved this week and it's in Christ's name I pray, amen.