The Roll Call at Elmina Castle

In 1998, a group of African American pastors stood inside the dungeons of Elmina Castle on the coast of Ghana — the oldest European slave-trading post in sub-Saharan Africa. For over three centuries, captured men, women, and children from dozens of West African tribes passed through its Door of No Return, shipped to plantations across the Americas and Caribbean.

One pastor in the group, overwhelmed by the weight of that place, began to sing. He sang an old spiritual: "Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King." Within moments, every voice in that dungeon joined him — pastors whose ancestors spoke Akan, Yoruba, Igbo, Fon, and languages long forgotten. They sang in English, a tongue none of their forebears originally shared, united by a faith that had outlasted the evil meant to destroy them.

The Apostle John saw something similar from his exile on Patmos — a vast, uncountable multitude drawn from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They stood not in a dungeon but before the throne of the Almighty, robed in white, waving palm branches. They had come through great tribulation. They had survived what should have scattered them forever.

Yet there they stood — together, singing.