Participants:
Series Code: AVMN
Program Code: AVMN000008
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00:01 ASI is a ministry that's networking all these
00:03 different ministries together with the 00:05 church and lay people. Being involved with 00:06 ASI, meeting other people. ASI convention is an 00:08 excellent opportunity, just a great opportunity. 00:11 In ASI, there is a particular fellow. 00:14 ASI is really the stamp, it's the glue that holds all 00:17 the ministries together. 00:28 Welcome to ASI Video Magazine, 00:30 I'm Dan Houghton. ASI members are people and 00:33 organizations committed to sharing Christ 00:36 in the market place. ASI members are people 00:39 known for their humble and loving service, 00:41 people who constantly look for ways to help others. 00:45 Today, we are going to meet two members of ASI. 00:47 That are involved in Christian service, both 00:50 at home and thousands of miles away. 00:53 Heritage Academy is an ASI member boarding 00:56 school in Monterey, Tennessee. The school has made 00:59 service a paramount part of its program. 01:03 Among their service activities Heritage 01:05 students work as call porters and participate 01:08 in the school's aviation ministry, an area of 01:11 particular emphasis is disaster relief and 01:15 Heritage students have been involved in a 01:16 variety of disaster relief projects across North America. 01:24 Alright, smile, pray, you bringing a hand and 01:27 pass those cards. God bless you, bye, bye. 01:33 This is funny he is sitting here for two hours, 01:35 he is driving with me from since, from Heritage. 01:40 This one is funny. He is canvassing with us today. 01:45 I work in a European Czech Republic as a 01:47 full-time call porter for ADRS and now five 01:51 years here in United States with students, 01:54 with those negative views. Let me show 01:56 you, this is Piece of the Storm, original version 02:00 to steps to Christ actually. We sold almost four thousand 02:05 pieces of the steps to Christ. The small version, 02:09 they're happiness digest. I can tell you, it was 02:12 such a book, the little book that I brought 17 02:16 years ago in my country and brought me to Christianity. 02:20 Then we've Desire of ages from Ellen G. White, 02:24 it's one of the best means I see for today's 02:27 Church, how to help us get out of our shell from 02:32 our Churches, you know, don't be hidden, 02:35 just a nice piece, the Church, but to really 02:38 work face-to-face. Okay good job Rachael. 02:43 Okay, keep going and you'll meet Derrick okay, 02:46 there's Derrick walking towards you. Do you 02:49 have those flyers? Alright Jibby, Jibby. 02:53 You know the kids, it's hard, 02:55 it's really front line ministry. 02:57 We work in every weather, everyday, 03:00 no matter the weather, no matter if it's dry or 03:03 hot or if it's raining or snowing or freezing. 03:09 The school is first and foremost focused on 03:12 preparing the students to go out and serve in 03:17 the mission field, wherever God calls them. 03:20 They see how what they do on a day 03:22 to day basis has lasting results. 03:25 It's really not a job, it is definitely a life. 03:30 When they have somebody at the door, 03:33 who is challenging their faith, you know, maybe 03:36 the person, who is an atheist or maybe they're 03:38 from a different religion. And they are questioning, 03:41 you know, what you as an Adventist believe. 03:45 That is so much different then a Bible class. 03:48 There are also students that come as a freshmen 03:51 to school and they don't want to be involved in 03:54 the canvassing work. They would rather cut 03:56 the woods or do something else. 03:59 But, when they're trying and they go with the 04:02 experienced ones, they see man it's something, 04:05 something really good you know. 04:09 It's doing good things for the people? 04:10 Nothing wrong is in appreciating the people. 04:15 And they started liking it. Oh! Well, what I like 04:17 mostly about this school is that, it has a very 04:20 spiritual environment. It's something very 04:24 helpful, if you wanna grow a strong 04:25 relationship with God to give you a lot of 04:26 opportunities, so you do, lot of call porting 04:29 and like definitely tried to give up Bible studies 04:31 and things like that. On Sabbaths, we can go out 04:33 to the nursing home, sing to the people their 04:36 and we do, we try to do a lot of ministries so, 04:38 we do on a disaster response with acts. 04:41 Right after the hurricane came through, 04:44 they were going door to door talking to people 04:49 at their homes and doing damage assessment for FEMA. 04:53 We, our first respond to any natural disaster, so 04:56 if there is any disaster. We just recently went 04:59 to Florida and Texas so, because of the 05:02 hurricanes and the topical storms. 05:04 And entering in data and these little cell phone 05:07 like devices that uploaded to the database. 05:10 Umm! Umm! That FEMA has in Washington, 05:13 other students got to work in one of the mobile kitchens. 05:17 Distribution line. Right and then, there was 05:20 a phone center there as well. That's true. That's true. 05:23 That the students were working at. 05:24 And we walked away from that saying, you know, 05:26 we need to be better trained and so all of our 05:29 students, by design are trained in first aid and 05:33 CPR through the American Red Cross 05:36 and all of them are trained through what's 05:39 called CERT one hundred, which is 05:41 Community Emergency Response Teams and 05:44 they all have a hard hat and a vest that's 05:47 recognized by any government or FEMA 05:50 organization anywhere in the country. 05:53 So, because we're a boarding school, these 05:55 kids go home and who knows what might 05:57 happen in their neighborhood. But they're trained and 06:00 by the training that they've had and the way 06:03 that they can help, they can hit the ground 06:05 running in any kind of disaster and be a leader. 06:09 We refocused the school on Ellen White's 06:15 principles that she spoke of in the book Education. 06:18 That it's an equal balance between academics, 06:21 spiritual and vocational. Our students spend their 06:25 school day, part of their day they're in class, part 06:30 of their day, they're in the vocational area. 06:33 Part of the day, we are having worship, they're 06:37 having personal devotions and so we are 06:42 intentionally educating in all of those areas to 06:46 develop the whole person. All the students here on 06:49 campus work, there is a lot of different vocational 06:51 areas like that we have kitchen. 06:53 We have grounds; we have office works, 06:57 school cleaning, dorm cleaning, call portering, 07:00 and video productions. We've greenhouses, 07:04 where our freshmen have a class in agriculture, 07:07 so they get their own little plot of land and 07:09 they get to pick what they grow and they 07:11 weed it, and they care for it and then they 07:14 harvest it and we all get to eat in the cafeteria 07:17 and they get excited because that's what they made. 07:19 These are where all our meals are prepared. 07:21 We've our cook here Ms. Linda, she is doing 07:24 of course, prepares our delicious 07:25 meals at this school. I always get the opinion 07:28 of the kids called third opinion is 07:29 very important to me. In fact if they make 07:33 something better, I'm sure they can do it. 07:34 You know, I like to see my food eat, not thrown away. 07:39 Well, I think that we've really been blessed that 07:42 we've 1200 beautiful acres in Tennessee. 07:45 And 600 Adventist Woodlands and 600 07:49 Adventist total acreage, we've beautiful overlooks. 07:54 Lot's of really neat terrain to take kids. 07:57 We involve them in outdoor activities, in biology. 08:01 This is our outdoor classroom. This is where some teachers 08:05 come out and do their classroom, their classes 08:07 sometimes, like there is like lot of chairs and 08:09 tables down there, so you can actually sit 08:11 down or if you want to come up for devotionals 08:14 or anything, you can come on, just sit out 08:16 under the tress of the shade on all those tables 08:19 with your friends, if you would like. This here is 08:21 our school building and office building, this is 08:23 where we take most, all the classes, we have a 08:27 lab here, where we do our chemistry and 08:29 physics lab reports and things like that, we also 08:32 have our own computer lab with the new 08:35 computers, that we just got also. 08:37 And we take the students a lot of places, 08:40 where they have, hands on learning experience, 08:43 for example last week, we had our junior class 08:46 up in Battle Creek, Michigan. At the historic Adventist 08:51 village and so they're having hands on 08:54 experiences with the Heritage of the 09:00 Adventist movement and that's something 09:03 that we feel is really important 09:04 in education is that. That education be 09:08 connected to life and it makes the things, that 09:11 students study that are much more meaningful. 09:13 The girls, one of their vocational training 09:17 programs is cooking. For the guys, one of 09:20 their vocational programs is in my 09:22 wife's class learning construction, where 09:24 they actually go out on the campus and they 09:26 build things like decks, ponds, sidewalks and 09:32 it's exciting because now they're taking the 09:35 tape measure that they learned how to read 09:37 their freshmen year, they're learning these 09:40 formulas in their freshmen year and 09:42 they're using them in a practical situation in 09:44 their sophomore year. We don't have regular 09:46 desks, we've tables in our classroom. 09:50 And that's because we use a variety of 09:53 education techniques to teach students to work 09:57 as a group, to think as a group and work together. 10:02 Then by the time they graduate, they have 10:05 skills to offer right out at high school to earn 10:09 money towards college or to go straight 10:11 to the mission field. 10:14 Well, ASI has been such a blessing in so 10:18 many ways. We've been able to take some of our 10:22 students down to help in the children's divisions, 10:27 to be able to lead out to care for them and 10:30 because a lot of ASI members bring their 10:31 children and there needs to be a ministry for 10:34 them as well. They also have the 10:36 chance when the meetings are over to 10:38 walk into this huge exhibit hall and see that 10:41 they're a part of a worldwide church. 10:43 Now just a little part of a Church right here in 10:46 the middle Tennessee or in their own little home town, 10:48 but a worldwide Church, where the Holy Spirit 10:51 is moving and living and breathing. 10:53 ASI has a lot to do with why we've a flight program. 10:56 Don Sterling sent us an email that somebody 10:58 had made a donation for us to have a plane and 11:03 you know the Lord brought to us a couple 11:05 years before that a pilot, who wanted to teach history. 11:11 And then the Aeroplane was delivered this past 11:13 June and the program started this fall. 11:16 I've setup a course, that if a student wants to go 11:20 at age 18. They graduate from Heritage, 11:23 go straight to the mission field with their 11:25 commercial pilot's license. We've a program 11:28 structured for that. They start flying as a 11:30 sophomore, they receive their private 11:34 pilot license when they turn 17. They receive 11:37 their commercial license when they turn 18 at 11:40 which point they can go straight 11:41 to the mission field. The idea and it probably 11:44 sounds crazy the way I express it, but the idea 11:47 is to put together a school that's really 11:50 being led by the students and we do it in 11:53 a number of ways, our year book editor is a student. 11:57 We've a student, who is leading out in our video 12:01 production group. We've the members of 12:04 the SA regularly, I put them in charge of things 12:07 and tell them you know, to go do things, 12:10 organize recreation or activities and you know 12:17 that way, that way they're making the 12:19 decisions, they're thinking and that's 12:22 really the goal. Last year, there was a 12:26 student, who is sharing with me and she was a 12:29 senior and she said when I came to the school. 12:32 I looked at the juniors and seniors, and I said 12:36 to myself there are so big and they're so smart 12:39 and they are such great leaders and just you know, 12:43 she had trouble ever imagining herself going 12:46 up into that role. Umm! And then you know at 12:51 graduation, she spoke about that in her senior speech. 12:55 But, now she had become all of these things over 12:58 the course of her time here. And that's you know 13:01 that's a big things that, you know, you're 13:04 developing a Christian character, you're 13:07 developing leadership. You are developing 13:11 decision making cooperative, cooperative abilities to be 13:18 able to work with other people. 13:21 ASI like heritage academy firmly believes in involving 13:25 youth in service and outreach. There is no better time 13:29 to be nourishing a love of Jesus and our 13:31 fellowman in our young people through acts of 13:34 humble service. For more information about 13:37 Heritage Academy call 931-839-6675 or visit 13:44 www.heritagetn.org, ASI has committed to 13:50 affective evangelism, to that end we are 13:53 sponsoring a train them now. A program that trains 13:57 lay people to conduct evangelistic meetings in 13:59 their homes, using the new beginning's DVDs, 14:04 around the world more then twenty thousand 14:06 people have been trained so far and they 14:09 in turn have held over one hundred thousand 14:12 evangelistic meetings resulting in tens of 14:15 thousands of Baptisms. When you come to ASI, 14:19 you've an opportunity to network with other 14:20 individuals of like mindedness. 14:22 ASI has helped me meet many, many others professionals. 14:27 Rubbing shoulders and hanging out with people 14:29 that are committed to the Lord soon coming. 14:32 You need to come to ASI, just network and hear 14:36 the testimonies because it will change 14:37 your life, it really works. 14:49 You and I couldn't go very long without 14:51 water; quite simply we need water to live. 14:55 In the same way, we need the living water of Jesus Christ. 14:59 To truly have life Jesus is the only answer, 15:03 Garry Bartholomew owns a water well 15:05 service business in Spokane, Washington. 15:08 On a daily basis, he is able to share this 15:11 analogy with customers and tell them about Jesus. 15:18 There's 15,000 people everyday that die worldwide 15:23 because of bad water or the lack of water. 15:26 Any faucet that we go to, you know, it may have 15:29 a little chlorine in it. We don't like the taste, 15:32 but it isn't gonna kill us or give us amoeba or 15:36 hepatitis or any of these nasty diseases. 15:39 Another way of saying that is that 80 percent of 15:42 the hospital beds in the world are filled with people 15:45 from waterborne diseases or from the lack of water. 15:49 We've one village that had just kind of a little 15:52 pond type thing that they got their water from. 15:58 You wouldn't let your animals 16:00 drink out of this water. I mean it is just absolutely 16:04 gross and people were dying because of it. 16:07 So, I am able to share that in my business and 16:09 it brings some very rewarding conversations. 16:13 It take those people's minds off their poor 16:15 troubles that Oh! Boy, I don't have water this 16:18 morning and it allows me to share this 16:24 dynamic ministry and sometimes a lot of 16:30 books or literature. Our ministry is water for life 16:34 international and it got started basically from 16:38 my wife and I going to Guatemala for the last 16:40 12 years, four years ago we started drilling 16:44 wells in Guatemala. It's a beauty from ashes story. 16:49 We hired a contractor in Guatemala to drill a 16:51 well for international children's care 16:53 orphanage there. We spend seven 16:55 months, went about 200 ft, told us we had 300 16:59 gallons in a minute, we'd never use all that 17:02 water and when we got down there and put a 17:05 pump in it, we had nothing, we had less 17:08 then three gallons a minute and it was 17:10 contaminated water. We decided well we come 17:13 from a drilling family, drilling background. 17:16 Let's try out ourselves. So, we started drilling 17:19 four years ago, what we began with was providing 17:24 safe water for the orphanage and school there. 17:29 And just miracle after miracle from there on 17:32 has brought us to where we are today with two 17:35 drill rigs, a pump truck and what other 17:41 equipment down there. We've a shop down 17:43 there now and this pick up is actually going 17:46 down this winter, is gonna be driven down 17:49 towing a trailer to the project. 17:51 Now, we are drilling in surrounding villages, 17:54 clinics. This year, we hope to do another 17:57 orphanage in El Salvador and a hospital 18:03 in Belize and more, more wells right around 18:08 the orphanage and school there. 18:10 It's a third world country that doesn't 18:12 have much for water system, so typically it's 18:15 come out of the river and that's where it still 18:17 comes from. Of course all the villages upstream 18:20 from the source, you know, use the river for 18:23 their waste also and so the further the river 18:26 goes, more contaminated it is and you now, 18:29 it looks like water. But, it's, it's water and a lot 18:33 of parasites, lot of problems. We started out with a 18:37 differential item in '89 Lincoln town car, 18:42 because it had about the right gear ratio and then 18:47 modified the opinions, so that we could get an 18:50 eccentric vertical lift. Now they have a hand 18:56 pump, they have no electricity, so they can't 18:58 run an electrical pump. But, they have actually a 19:00 merry go round pump is what we put on their 19:02 well and when they play on the merry go 19:05 round, it pumps them water. In the beginning it was, 19:08 you know, it was noble and it was new and 19:11 there were a lot of kids just playing on it. 19:14 Also we don't just provide safe water, we 19:17 provide the water of life, we do a lot of 19:20 sharing of the Gospel and we've seen scores 19:24 of Baptisms, very rewarding. I work with the drilling 19:27 part of things to a degree, but I've been 19:30 consumed more in the last few years with the evangelistic 19:35 side of things. That's how we open the 19:38 door though is to give them clean water, show 19:40 the people that we're there to help them. 19:43 Show them that we care about them and then 19:47 they're willing to listen to really truly what 19:49 we're down there for and that is tell them 19:52 and give them the true water of life. 19:55 I was in India doing some drilling 25 years ago. 20:00 And I start up the drill rig in the morning and 20:03 within a few moments, I would have three or 20:06 four hundred people standing around that 20:07 drill rig and I had the impression that, 20:12 Oh! If only I could have a picture roll. I wanted 20:16 anything to tell these poor people how it was 20:21 that they could get the scabs out of their hair or 20:24 they could get the flies off their face and 20:28 whatever else and I vowed right there in my 20:30 own heart that I would never work overseas 20:34 again, if I couldn't tell the people about Jesus. 20:38 A 12 year old boy from our Church does a 20:41 series of meetings each year. He has done it two years, 20:43 he will be going again this year. 20:45 I went and I preached the first meeting and 20:47 afterwards a young woman came up to me 20:49 and she looked about 6 months pregnant and 20:52 through the translator I learned that she had 20:53 been in a cab and bus wreck and it has 20:57 squeezed her abdomen and she had few fluids 21:00 leaking inside of her, so we got down there in 21:03 my building and we prayed for her. 21:04 And she says, I'm leaving tomorrow to go 21:06 to Guatemala City. The doctors are insisting 21:09 comedown for my second surgery. 21:11 They're gonna take out part of my colon, 21:13 part of my pancreas, part of my, there is lot 21:16 of her abdomen stuff, so it wouldn't leak and she 21:18 said there is a 50 percent chance that I'm 21:20 going to die or if I live. She came back in just a 21:24 few days, she says. I didn't have to have surgery. 21:27 And about the next night, she was there. 21:29 There she was, flat stomach and all, and I was amazed. 21:32 And she came back to say thank you to that 12-year-old boy 21:36 and to the Lord. She was healed. 21:38 To watch those people respond to Christ. 21:42 When presented with people from, a few 21:49 years old to 80 years old, it doesn't seem to matter. 21:54 I haven't seen a failure yet. It's what the Lord taught 21:57 us to do, it's what he came here and did, 22:00 was took care of people's physical needs 22:04 and then, they were able to talk spiritual things 22:07 and that, that's extremely satisfying. 22:10 Their health has improved, the medical 22:12 bills went down 60 percent in the first year 22:15 at the orphanage, just by having safe water 22:17 and we see a lot of parasite problems, a lot 22:20 of deaths from that and with safe water, which 22:24 just makes a difference between night and day. 22:28 ASI has shown me and I'm a person 22:32 that learns by example. I see something and I learn 22:37 that and they have shown me, they have modeled 22:39 to me sharing Christ. It is just more fun then 22:45 a barrel of monkeys to come and be able to see 22:49 people that are witnessing in their marketplace. 22:53 That are sharing Christ in their marketplace. 22:55 The networking that we experience at ASI 23:00 is something we can't get anywhere else. 23:03 Because we see other people that, that may 23:06 have a ministry and maybe they're just 23:07 across the border in another country, but we 23:10 see people that would love to go learn how to 23:13 drill a well or we see people that would like 23:16 to go help built a church or do some sharing of 23:20 the Gospel in an evangelistic series and 23:23 we see people that print literature, Spanish 23:26 books or literature, that we take down. 23:30 We took 14, we took 9000 pounds of 23:32 literature last year in our container when we 23:35 shipped them. So, this year we are taking 23:37 Bible, Spanish Bibles and literature and the 23:41 message books and so, all of these things we 23:44 find at ASI conventions and I don't know of any 23:47 other place we could find that. 23:49 A dozen years ago, I started being more 23:53 active in the drilling associations in the 23:55 different states, I could never really understand 23:59 and I asked myself what in the world am I going 24:01 to play golf with or we want to camp out with a 24:05 bunch of well drillers because industry looks 24:09 at me, at some of those people who are dirty all 24:12 the time and some of them have language 24:16 similar and this kind of thing and we put people 24:20 in a box. I have found a willingness among the 24:24 drillers, among the manufactures. 24:28 Some of these people I have called them up 24:31 from Guatemala and said this is our problem 24:34 and he says do I understand you are doing 24:36 mission work down there, I said yes. 24:39 He says I'm prepared to donate this if you do 24:42 the freight on it. There's pump suppliers 24:45 that supply pump and pipe and wire. 24:47 There's electrical suppliers that supply 24:49 electrical things, there's well drill suppliers that 24:52 supply tools and bits, things that are 24:55 expandable and those people are just, they're 25:00 happy to help, they want to help and that 25:02 encourages me. And I've seen people 25:08 that I thought were in a box and the Lord has 25:11 showed me I was wrong. You know, I do water 25:15 well pump systems and so I'm involved with 25:18 water in my everyday work. Now, I'm finding it harder 25:22 and harder to separate my ministry and my 25:26 everyday work to me they're one, it allows 25:30 me to share this dynamic ministry and 25:35 sometimes a lot of books or literature. 25:39 One of my favorite books is Child of the 25:42 Crossfire, because it's about a boy in 25:44 Guatemala, that actually ended up at that 25:47 orphanage and his dad was part of the guerrilla 25:51 forces and so the government captured him, 25:55 kill his dad and then wanted to get 25:57 information out of him and then the, when the 26:05 General Lucas was flying over this 26:07 devastated village taking this boy to the 26:09 orphanage. He looked down, he saw a little girl 26:12 in the garbage dump at the edge of the village. 26:16 The only form of life left that he could see. 26:19 He landed right there picked her up and took 26:22 her with him to the orphanage and we 26:24 adopted that girl in 1985 and that's our daughter, 26:29 and so that book talks about that and so I've 26:33 shared a lot of those books with people 26:35 because it also has the wonderful Sabbath message, 26:38 because the Sabbath is part of the program at 26:42 the international children's care orphanage and has just 26:46 lots, lots of good promises and a good message. 26:49 Our focus is on reaching out to others and 26:53 in my mind, that's made a healthy difference 26:56 in our Church. Its working like the Lord 27:00 said it would. It's more blessed to give then to 27:03 receive and I can see it. When I first started 27:07 going down of that while a couple weeks, 27:09 that's quite a bit of time to take and last year 27:12 I took two months and it's feeling better all the time. 27:19 What a wonderful example of sharing 27:21 Christ in the marketplace, stories like Gerry's 27:24 inspire me to get out of my comfort zone and 27:27 witness to those around me. If you would like to here 27:30 more testimonies like Gerry's, I encourage 27:33 you to come to the ASI convention, it's filled 27:37 with stories of people being used by God to 27:40 reach others both at home and around the world. 27:44 Find out more at www.asiministries.org. 27:50 You've been watching ASI Video Magazine, 27:53 I'm Dan Houghton, join me next time for more 27:57 stories of ASI members sharing Christ in the 28:00 marketplace. May God be with you. |
Revised 2014-12-17