P1808:3, 163:7.1
The next few days were busy times in the Pella camp; preparations for the
Perean mission were being completed. Jesus and his associates were about to
enter upon their last mission, the three months' tour of all Perea, which
terminated only upon the Master's entering Jerusalem for his final labors
on earth. Throughout this period the headquarters of Jesus and the twelve
apostles was maintained here at the Pella camp.
P1808:4, 163:7.2
It was no longer necessary for Jesus to go abroad to teach the people. They
now came to him in increasing numbers each week and from all parts, not only
from Palestine but from the whole Roman world and from the Near East. Although
the Master participated with the seventy in the tour of Perea, he spent much
of his time at the Pella camp, teaching the multitude and instructing the
twelve. Throughout this three months' period at least ten of the apostles
remained with Jesus.
P1808:5, 163:7.3
The women's corps also prepared to go out, two and two, with the seventy to
labor in the larger cities of Perea. This original group of twelve women had
recently trained a larger corps of fifty women in the work of home visitation
and in the art of ministering to the sick and the afflicted. Perpetua, Simon
Peter's wife, became a member of this new division of the women's corps and
was intrusted with the leadership of the enlarged women's work under Abner.
After Pentecost she remained with her illustrious husband, accompanying him
on all of his missionary tours; and on the day Peter was crucified in Rome,
she was fed to the wild beasts in the arena. This new women's corps also had
as members the wives of Philip and Matthew and the mother of James and John.
P1808:6, 163:7.4
The work of the kingdom now prepared to enter upon its terminal phase under
the personal leadership of Jesus. And this present phase was one of spiritual
depth in contrast with the miracle-minded and wonder-seeking multitudes who
followed after the Master during the former days of popularity in Galilee.
However, there were still any number of his followers who were material-minded,
and who failed to grasp the truth that the kingdom of heaven is the spiritual
brotherhood of man founded on the eternal fact of the universal fatherhood
of God.