Participants:
Series Code: AVMN
Program Code: AVMN000013
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00:01 ASI is a ministry that's networking all these
00:03 different ministries together with the church. 00:05 Being involved with ASI meeting other people. 00:07 ASI convention is an excellent opportunity just 00:10 a great opportunity. In ASI there is a 00:12 particular fellowship, ASI is really the stamp, 00:15 it's the glue that holds all the ministries together. 00:28 Welcome to ASI video magazine I am Dan 00:31 Houghton. Today we are going to meet ASI 00:33 members that are living out the ASI motto, 00:36 sharing Christ in the market place. God has 00:40 called each of us to serve him and to bring 00:42 others to him, no matter what our job it is 00:46 our business to do God's will, that is what 00:50 ASI is all about. Manuel and Esther Alva are 00:54 physicians near Chicago, Illinois, they have made 00:57 witnessing a central part of their work. They 01:00 regularly pray with patients and have had 01:03 many opportunities to talk about God with both 01:05 patients and coworkers. Let's hear more about 01:09 their remarkable story. This is a practice that 01:14 tends primarily to Spanish speaking 01:16 patients, for Hispanic patients and family comes 01:20 from a Latin country and the kids are born here 01:24 and they start going to school, there is always 01:26 the economy, even larger than in a regular family 01:29 that always lives in this country. About values, 01:33 about habits and the way the older generation 01:38 relates to younger generation and there is 01:39 always a break up of a family. So there is ample 01:42 opportunity to listen to this patients bringing 01:45 their problems, bringing their complaints and just 01:48 finding with few questions about what do 01:51 they do for a living; how many people are in the 01:53 house; how many old adult children 01:57 still live in the house and immediately you can 02:00 start seeing on the faces of people, worry, 02:03 tension, because there is a problem and 02:07 and we just poke a little bit there and they 02:09 start telling their life stories and some of them 02:13 cry and some of them wish there was a God as 02:17 they used to know before they came here, could 02:20 solve these problems and its; its, if you just let 02:23 him speak and just tell them about yes, there is a 02:26 God. Yes, he cares for me, yes I believe in 02:29 him, yes I had the same problems that you are 02:32 having or similar problems. I can sympathize 02:35 with that My practice is quite different 02:37 I see mostly inpatients who are bedridden 02:42 sometimes even before coming to the hospital and 02:44 many of them are on supportive machines 02:48 and care and there is not such a good opportunity 02:52 for a meaningful interaction but sometimes the Lord 02:57 allows us to pray with a patient and show to them 03:03 that care and compassion We have opportunities to 03:08 pray with most of these people. Not only myself I 03:11 mean the medical assistants and nurse that 03:14 works here, they all are listening and trying to see 03:20 what the Holy Spirit tells them about what to say, 03:23 how to intervene in each patient's case. So that 03:27 facility has allowed the clinical work. People are 03:29 more open with their symptoms; they tend to 03:32 follow indications or suggestions for better 03:35 diets for better care, they are very unlikely to be 03:40 upset with us, I have to credit my staff for that 03:43 Mostly my major opportunities are with my 03:47 coworkers, the nurses, the physicians, specially I 03:53 had the opportunity to work giving some health 03:56 education to the staff in the area of house keeping, 04:00 most of them are Spanish speaking and they are in a 04:07 second class if we would say, second class in the 04:13 hospital setting and sometimes we as 04:17 physicians and professionals walk by 04:20 and not even say hi, good morning to this person 04:24 who is so dedicatedly cleaning the surroundings 04:29 of the hospital and that is something we regret, 04:33 but they feel included and notice important that 04:38 when you say hi to them and acknowledge. Well, 04:41 through several circumstances 04:43 I was able to make connections with their 04:45 director; their department director and we held 04:49 52 sessions in one full year of health 04:54 education in different topics, I used the book 04:58 written by Hans Diehl and it's so simplified that 05:03 anyone can understand. I have not seen Thracian in 05:06 the sense of Bible studies but only he knows the 05:10 seed is there, we're called to plant the seed or to 05:14 harvest according to what the Lord presents to us 05:17 Actually here in our office, our staff is 05:22 Seventh-Day Adventist except our receptionist. 05:25 She is a wonderful Catholic lady, but she 05:29 wanted to learn more about the Bible and our 05:32 children and children of our manager come and 05:36 work here and they actually like to interact 05:39 with patients and one of them said hey we have 05:41 new beginnings here, how do we show this to look, 05:46 the receptionist they have, the woman was stunned 05:49 with the series. Some other workers of the 05:53 hospital were also interested in coming 05:55 and seeing that, I remember that she said may be we 05:58 will see Bible studies here but I think they are 06:01 coming, we just have realized this year 06:03 I think about my responsibilities as a 06:06 parent and trying to combine being mother 06:11 and also a professional and sometimes I look 06:18 back and I say oh how many years did I sort of 06:22 wasted not being the best mother while I was trying 06:27 to get my training, but then there is consolation 06:31 in the Lord especially in this gatherings, ASI 06:36 gathering when I see my children being a used, 06:41 being active, doing things and I realize oh they have 06:47 Jesus in their heart too even though I don't feel 06:51 responsible for being the one who trained them and 06:56 taught and did everything spiritually for them 07:00 And I can tell you wonderful experiences 07:03 that God has given me through ASI and through 07:05 the things I have learned through ASI, experiences 07:09 in my family, coming back to love my mother 07:14 again; my mother and I were distanced for many 07:16 years and she ended up having colon cancer. I am 07:21 a gastroenterologist and we don't talk on the 07:23 phones often, I mean we didn't back then and I am 07:27 known to ask, she was just falling ill slowly. She 07:32 was in a lot of denial, she is a very strong person 07:34 but God was working, even ten years before that 07:40 he saw to it that we will meet ten years later with 07:45 this diagnosis, with forgiveness, with 07:48 reconciliation and if I hadn't been prepared 07:52 spiritually and mentally by all the material I heard 07:55 at ASI, I couldn't see myself turning back and 08:00 being a different person. So, God is using ASI 08:05 powerfully, not only to spread the message from 08:07 Christ in the market place but to change everyone 08:10 of the people that walk in and open himself or 08:14 herself and say God here I am, use me. God says I 08:18 can use you, let me work on you first, while I work 08:22 on you, you can work for me, it's wonderful. God 08:24 doesn't wait until we graduate, you know he 08:27 starts using us right away, changed us, changes us 08:29 and uses us, little as we can do, as 08:33 much as we can do. India was quite an 08:35 experience, we really didn't know what to 08:39 expect we would have liked to do medical work 08:43 but the setting where we were doing at this visit 08:48 was mainly evangelistic. So my husband was in 08:51 charge of the sermons, preaching I did the help 08:54 lectures and we were blessed to have our 08:57 youngest son Ray who was at the time 12 doing 09:01 the children's story and that was a good, I don't 09:06 have words to say very good experience and 09:11 there were 400 souls baptized in our group, 09:17 in our group. And it was not our doing we were 09:20 just their instruments. One of the physicians 09:23 across the hall is an orthopedist, he is a 09:27 Hindu orthopedist and when we went to 09:31 India somebody in the hospital wanted us to you 09:35 know they learned that we went there and they 09:37 asked us what do want, what do you, I said that 09:40 we want to do some health teaching and some 09:43 evangelism too, we want to tell people about God 09:46 and they were that's interesting, do you have 09:50 a picture that we can put in our newsletter for our 09:53 physicians and my wife and I had a picture and 09:57 my son Ray had a picture with our Indian garb and 10:01 we sent it to the hospital here. It's not an 10:03 Adventist hospital, but they put a picture 10:06 there and they put physicians from our 10:08 hospital visit India and they put a little article 10:10 there. So this doctor read that and he one day he 10:15 was reading this and he looked at me coming into 10:17 the lounge and he said now you are not Indian, 10:21 you are not Pakistani, you are not Middle 10:23 Eastern, you are Hispanic. What were 10:25 you doing in India? I said, Dr. Ray, we were 10:28 there because we love God and we wanted to 10:30 help people. And he said so what church you 10:35 belong to, I said we're Seventh-Day Adventists, 10:37 that the chapel in this hospital is the Seventh- 10:41 Day Adventist pastor, he is from India also. So he 10:46 comes up to Ray, he is still kind of confused, he's 10:48 thinking what kind of people go from this part 10:50 of the world to the other part of the world and he 10:53 met the pastor in the hallway and he says look 10:56 at this picture, he says, these people are not from 10:58 India. These people tell me they're Seventh-Day 11:00 Adventists and the pastor said well so am I. And he 11:04 said this is wonderful he said, do you do any other 11:07 things in India. And Pastor Benjamin told 11:11 him yes we run orphanages, hospitals and this man 11:16 said for years I had a dream to help an 11:18 orphanage in India, just tell me more about this. 11:21 So Pastor Benjamin showed him some 11:23 pictures in the Internet of all the orphanages and 11:26 Dr. Ray he is a seasoned orthopedist, who is about 11:29 to retire. And he was one of the first operating 11:33 knees laparoscopy here so, he said I need to help 11:37 your church and Pastor Benjamin said what do 11:39 you mean? He said well you can use some money 11:41 for your church and he said well let me see how 11:44 can we channel that and he called the general 11:47 conference and sure enough they set a 11:48 department of channels contributions and Dr. Ray 11:52 came and said okay he wrote a check for the 11:55 Seventh-Day Adventist Church. We were awestruck 11:59 and then he comes every Sabbath, he goes 12:02 to his office there are no patients there that 12:04 attend to any of these clinics from the Sabbath, 12:06 but he comes every Sabbath and he just starts 12:08 from middle, he sees the Bible lessons or the 12:12 health lectures that we are giving and he just goes 12:15 right on, right on. And he told me the other day, you 12:20 go to Mexico every month I know because I 12:22 got to look for you, I have to ask you a few 12:24 questions and your staff tell me you're gone, so 12:26 you went to Mexico every month, tell me what do 12:27 you do there. So, tell him I will go to my school, I 12:30 will do this and that and he says I want to go to 12:32 your school, I think it's my karma he said, it's my 12:35 destiny my karma to help the Seventh-Day 12:38 Adventist church and I said yes that's your karma. 12:41 And we have kind of slowed down on this 12:46 well I think we have the right set up for him to 12:48 visit us next February in Matamoros and there is 12:52 another physician there; a graduate, we're gonna 12:56 work together, they both do knees, knee surgery. 12:59 So I don't know what else God is gonna do with us, 13:03 tell me God is not done with me, so everything 13:06 something else happens my heart 13:08 just, just melts down. What an inspiring story 13:14 people willing to let God use them to reach others, 13:17 being a member of ASI it's been my privilege to 13:20 meet people like Manuel and Esther Alva, people 13:23 who are excited about sharing Jesus Christ, both 13:26 at home and around the world. If you would like 13:30 to be an ASI member, give us a call at 301-680-6450 13:37 or visit www.asiministries.org. 13:42 ASI is a service organization that spans the globe. 13:46 Many of the other Adventists world divisions 13:49 have established an ASI of their own with 13:52 local chapters in numerous countries. 13:54 These organizations function much like ASI in 13:57 North America with conventions, lay-led 14:00 projects and more. If you are from outside North 14:04 America I encourage you to get in touch with ASI 14:07 in your area, for more information visit 14:10 www.asiministries.org. There is a passion that is 14:15 infectious at ASI. Everybody is so passion 14:20 about Jesus. It's a blessing every time 14:23 just to rub shoulders with people that are excited. 14:26 If you have a passion for Jesus, you are going to 14:28 find no place that I know of where you will find 14:30 more passion by more people than being at ASI. 14:40 The quiet hour is an ASI member ministry 14:46 involved in a wide variety of outreached projects 14:50 around the world, including evangelistic 14:52 programs, construction projects, medical clinics 14:55 and more. Over their 70 year history the quite 14:59 hour has been active in a 140 countries and each 15:03 year they send 400 Evangelism teams to 15:06 numerous sites around the world. Let's see how they 15:10 are sharing Christ in a world wide market place 15:22 Greetings everyone. It's your quiet hour family 15:27 coming by for an half hour of good faith. The 15:31 Quiet Hour program is dedicated to building 15:34 faith in the hearts of all the listeners. 15:36 In 1949, the quiet hour launched a television 15:40 program, the very first Seventh-Day Adventist 15:42 program to appear on this new medium. It's said 15:48 appeared to be a living room with a sofa and 15:50 coffee table, book shelves and movie screen for 15:53 showing graphics, not much has changed. 15:56 I was impacted at an early age, growing up right 16:01 within the media of television when it was at 16:06 a very at it's earliest stages in the San 16:11 Francisco bay area, when there are only 17000 16:15 television sets in the whole bay area. Grand 16:18 dad loved to tell stories and so I was captivated 16:24 by his story telling and as I grew older I was drawn 16:31 to what he was doing. I noticed from an early age 16:36 he had a passion; he had a love for the Lord Jesus 16:40 Christ. And that instilled in me a 16:43 desire to serve Jesus. The quiet hour started out 16:50 as a radio program and it was sort of like the 16:55 quiet hour with God, but you know when you have 16:59 a quiet hour with God each day it gives you a 17:04 burden, it gives you a mission, 17:05 it gives you a sense of purpose and the quiet 17:10 hour today is looking for ways to help people 17:13 fulfill that purpose, to reach out and do 17:17 something about what that quiet hour has 17:19 put in their hearts. It branched into mission 17:23 projects at an early stage back in the 50s, there 17:30 was a desire to help sponsor airplanes, but our first 17:35 major thrust for airplanes actually took place in the 17:38 early 60s. And so the quiet hour has been know 17:42 in many, many different countries today. You go 17:47 to some countries the quiet hour is known for 17:49 jungle chapels. Over the years we've probably 17:52 funded over 3400 jungle chapels and counting, 17:58 jeeps, tractors, motorboat launches, you know 18:03 medical launches to schools, to medical 18:07 clinics, to bicycles and motorcycles and funding 18:14 several million Bibles that have gone to many 18:19 different countries, actually we have been 18:21 working in over a 135 countries over these years 18:25 but the greatest things that has been going on 18:27 that is most exciting has been the evangelism. 18:31 Of all the things that my wife and I have 18:34 experienced in ministry and I've been a youth 18:36 pastor, I've been a teacher. The most life 18:40 changing experience we had was when we took 18:43 young people, high school kids, college 18:46 students during spring break, during the summer 18:49 on short term mission trips, building orphanages 18:53 or schools or churches and we saw more life 18:55 changing evidence in that week and a half or ten 18:59 days then in a year of church. And we came to 19:04 realize that was one of the really important elements 19:09 of ministry that so many young people don't 19:14 experience. And so as a director of youth 19:15 ministries and young adult ministries here at 19:16 the quiet hour, our main focus is to make and give 19:19 opportunities for young people, college students, 19:23 retirees, we have people of all ages with us, but to 19:29 get them out of their comfort zone and to 19:30 experience a mission adventure that really 19:33 wraps the whole gospel into a package of as you 19:37 do on a one of the least of these give them unto me. 19:40 Every year we send out close to 600 teams into; 19:44 in different countries about 46 countries a year 19:47 and it's my responsibility, I get the privilege of 19:50 helping these teams get ready to go on their trips. 19:53 I know from 2008 we actually sent out 667 19:59 individuals went out, that equates to that about it 20:03 was little over 400 individual teams. 20:07 The way that we are able to accomplish so much with 20:10 the dollars that our donors provide is through the use 20:12 of volunteers. We, the bulk of the evangelism 20:18 that is accomplished by the Quite Hour is 20:20 accomplished through the use of lay volunteers who 20:23 participate in mission trips that we send out 20:26 every year. In our youth missions projects 20:29 really have four components to it. Yes, 20:31 we do evangelism, we try to build either a 20:35 church or a school, a very strong medical 20:37 component and then we also have the 20:41 element of children's ministries as well. 20:43 The volunteers are the future of the Quite Hour 20:46 and we have noticed over the last year or two or 20:49 three an increasing demand for people to 20:53 participate in mission trips. They are beginning 20:56 to see the value of that more and more people are 20:59 being interested in being part of spreading the 21:03 gospel personally and the Quite Hour gives them an 21:07 opportunity to do that, it gives them an opportunity 21:10 to do that in a low risk environment. They can be 21:14 part of a team at any level, they can be just a 21:17 support staff who goes along and washes dishes. 21:19 They can be a preacher who goes and speaks 21:23 before a group of a 100 or 500 or 2000. They can do 21:27 a children's program; so there are plenty of 21:30 opportunities for volunteers, they can be 21:32 any age we have had preachers as young as 11 21:35 and as old as 80. As a member of ASI I feel like 21:39 our responsibility is not so much to see what can 21:43 ASI do for us, but what we as a member of ASI can 21:47 do for the other members of ASI. 21:52 The Quite Hour benefits and the Quite Hour 21:54 contributes, but as an organization, as a 21:58 ministry we see ourselves as connecting people who 22:03 would like to do something for God either 22:06 they can go out on a trip with us to some place in 22:10 the world. Or if may be they can't do that they can 22:15 contribute funds to make it possible for others 22:17 to go out. I believe that and I feel that 22:20 the Quite Hour's role with ASI is to help the 22:25 ASI members grow and become more involved 22:31 with evangelism whether here in the United states 22:34 or overseas and obviously we are more 22:36 concentrated, our work is more overseas so we can 22:39 get them to you know partner with us. Many of 22:45 the ASI members like Gospel outreach, we 22:49 partnership with Gospel Outreach, Adventist 22:53 World Aviation, we are partners with them, many 22:55 of the ASI members we do partnership with them 22:59 to help spread the word. We know that the only 23:02 way the work is going to be finished is to do 23:05 united, collaborative efforts, networking 23:09 together in a common cause and that is to 23:13 present Christ to the world. As a youth pastor, 23:18 as a teacher, probably one of my greatest 23:21 concerns here in America is the culture of greed 23:23 that we live in. And especially the 23:25 younger generation, they are consumed with this 23:28 notion and that they've got to have it bigger, 23:29 better and faster and that's what the advertising 23:32 agencies keep promoting. When you take a young 23:35 person from that kind of a culture and you 23:39 intentionally place him in a very poor environment 23:41 where there is a lot of poverty and lot of great 23:43 need something really wonderful happens. 23:46 And when the kids are going I hear you know I 23:48 really don't want to go but my mom and dad are 23:50 sending me but then when they come back, they are 23:53 so excited and found out they were the ones that 23:57 were actually baptized you know. So, it's hard to 24:02 go to a mission field and work with the people and 24:07 the children and see the way that they're living 24:10 and not be changed and realize that you; God has 24:14 really blessed you and that you have so much to 24:16 give and the young people that come back, 24:19 their lives are changed I know I saw it in my own 24:23 life, you know I was born and raised an Seventh- 24:26 Day Adventist but it wasn't until I actually 24:29 went and preached my own series of meetings in 24:32 Rwanda, in Africa that the Adventist message 24:36 went from my head to my heart. 24:39 My wife Jackie Tucker are both trained at the 24:42 Lions Club eye clinic down in Midland, Texas 24:47 where all those glasses that you throw away and 24:50 at you know the Wal-Mart or the stores where 24:53 they collect these glasses, those are all sorted and 24:57 they are cleaned and they're tagged as to the 24:59 prescription and organizations like the 25:02 Quiet Hour, they give us thousands of pairs of 25:05 glasses every year and so we go to these very 25:08 remote parts of some of these communities and 25:10 we offer eye clinics, free glass; free eye 25:14 examinations and then we'll give them free 25:16 glasses. Well you have 100s of people like that 25:18 that haven't been able to read clearly in years but 25:24 my wife is very gifted at what she does in that, she 25:29 shared this story of this one little boy that came to 25:32 the clinic and had very poor eye sight. Couldn't 25:37 even read the big letter E in the bottom of the chart 25:39 from fairly close range, so he was probably 25:43 legally blind. Well let's face it, if you don't have a 25:46 skill to be able to read you are going to be 25:49 handicapped going through life and they 25:51 went into the stock room where we have all the 25:55 glasses, trying to find a very, very strong 25:58 prescription for this young man; couldn't find 26:01 it, they went back out reexamined his eyes 26:06 again and my wife blessed her heart she is a 26:10 very spiritual person. She gathered the team 26:13 together and said we need to pray, we can find 26:17 a pair of glasses for this little boy. I guess they have 26:22 been searching every bag, prescriptions, below and 26:25 above what they thought was required. My wife 26:28 went back to the bag that she knew the prescription 26:32 should be in that particular bag and 26:34 there at the top, the very top of that bag was a 26:38 pair of child's glasses in the exact prescription. 26:42 That little boy went out of there, you can just 26:48 imagine if you're blind and now you are able to 26:50 see I mean he was pointing out the leaves 26:51 in the tree and he was pointing out to his mother 26:53 that you know that the birds that were singing 26:55 and look at this and it was truly one of those 26:59 experiences that I am sure Jesus had many times 27:02 when he you know he restored the sight to the 27:05 blind or he healed a leper. You know we had that 27:07 kind of a moment that God who touched the 27:11 eyes of the blind you know 2000 years ago that 27:14 God still performs miracles in other ways 27:17 and those are the kind of experiences 27:18 that just keep us going. It's exciting to see lay 27:23 people involved in active evangelism and the 27:26 precious people they are bringing into the family 27:28 of God. ASI and the Quite Hour are committed 27:32 to empowering lay people to share the love of Christ 27:35 and the good news of his soon return. To learn 27:39 more about the Quiet Hour call 800-900-9021 27:45 or visit www.thequiethour.org. 27:50 I am Dan Houghton, thanks for joining me today on 27:54 ASI Video Magazine. Come back next time for 27:58 more stories of ASI members sharing Christ 28:00 in the market place. May God be with you. |
Revised 2014-12-17