Funeral & Gospel

Greetings all. I have just returned from a huge funeral in which I was asked to preach the gospel. Francis was an elder at the local Mwamfuli church where i have preached many times. He was in his 50's and died from diabetes related issues. The funeral was held outside his house with people sitting in every vantage point, mostly on the ground. It was hard to say how many people were there because you couldn't see every part where people were sitting, but maybe 1500-2000 people.

There was the local AV Announcer vehicle there that provided a sound system. The choirs sung around his coffin and his family also gathered around the coffin and sang a hymn among their tears (there are 13 children!)

Francis was a contractor who built school buildings etc., and also had two little shop stalls in the market. He became a Christian in 1996 and obviously loved people. It was astounding to see the turnout of folk and most of them also proceeded to the graveside for the burial.

It was a wonderful opportunity to share the truth of the gospel. Many of the people were not Christians and the whole service was glorifying to the Lord. I was able to share from a number of passages and conclude with 1 Thessalonians 4 on our certain hope of resurrection.