Pentecost is a important festival commemorating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension. On that harvest festival, the Lord reaped a harvest of about 3000 souls and added them to His church.

In the US, however, Pentecost isn’t one of that major celebrations, like it is here. This past week we had evening meetings Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Tuesday we met with the 3 current pastors and the 6 seminary students and studied the work of the Holy Spirit using the explanations to the 3rd article of the Apostles Creed in Luther’s Small Catechism. The following evenings were services of prayer and instruction on the work of the Holy Spirit, except for Thursday, when there was a violent downpour that made any preaching impossible.

This Sunday we had a big gathering in church, as many of the members from the church in Ghana came over and joined us for the Pentecost celebration. Pastor Moses from Ghana preached a sermonette, as did I.

Rejoice that the Lord has poured out His Spirit on you, to create faith in your heart – faith in Jesus and His death and resurrection – through the witness of the apostles we have in God’s word.

Tomorrow is Pentecost Monday, a national holiday. Happy Pentecost!