SOUTH AFRICA—About 40 Philadelphia Church of God members from the Johannesburg congregation celebrated a Thanksgiving Day picnic on November 24 at a local park under warm, sunny weather and a light, cool breeze.

While their fellow members in the United States keeping Thanksgiving do so in the fall, in the southern hemisphere, the season is spring, and a theme of the picnic was “firstfruits.” Members set up a special fruit table with an abundance of berries, pears, grapes and melons, a fresh snack and a reminder that God’s people are considered the first of two spiritual harvests.

Members ate at picnic tables under the trees and on blankets, and the park buzzed with conversation, words of encouragement and laughter. Quentin Morel remarked, “It has been a good picnic with great fellowship,” and John Phiri called it “splendid.”

Adults and children also played cricket, board games, soccer and swing-ball, and a few of the men and teens used some innovation and some buckets to get water flowing to set up a slippery slide for the children to cool down.

Regional Director Alex Harrison called the picnic “Outstanding! It’s just a day of unity and love. … It just couldn’t be a better day.”