Participants: Gary Krause (Host), Kurt Johnson, Wagner Kuhn
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS000032
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00:01 A missionary hat preparing for short term mission trips
00:04 and Bible correspondence schools, 00:07 that and much more coming up next 00:09 on "Global Mission Snapshots." 00:23 Just before He went up to heaven, 00:25 Jesus gave us a command. 00:28 He gave us a mission. Jesus said, go. 00:33 Go unto all the world, telling them of His love. 00:38 This is our mission. This is our "Global Mission." 00:48 Hello I'm Gary Kruase. 00:49 Thank you for joining us as we look at a world of mission 00:52 on Global Mission Snapshots. 00:55 On today's program, we will be talking with Wagner Kuhn, 00:58 Associate Professor of World Mission 01:00 Seventh-day Adventist Seminary, 01:03 Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. 01:06 Now, that's a mouthful. 01:07 We will be talking to Dr. Kuhn about how we can best prepare 01:10 to be an effective witness cross culturally. 01:14 We will also be talking with Pastor Kurt Johnson, 01:17 Discovery Bible School Director about what's happening 01:20 with local churches that partner with the Bible school. 01:24 And we will visit a school in India, 01:25 that struggles to find room for all the students 01:29 that are wanting to attend. 01:30 But first, let's meet a missionary hat. 01:48 Felipe lives in the city of Lima, Peru. 01:52 He has dedicated his life 01:53 to sharing the love of Jesus with others. 01:56 But there was a time when Felipe was searching for his purpose 01:59 and did not know where to look. 02:02 He now knows that God's plans 02:03 can come from the most unexpected places. 02:08 Felipe was working at a university 02:09 where he was constantly searching for a sign 02:11 of what God wanted for his life. 02:14 Every day he walked to work passing by some homes and shops. 02:19 One day on his way to work, 02:20 Felipe was in a store and saw something that caught his eye. 02:24 There was a unique hat and Felipe loved interesting hats. 02:28 He bought the hat and wore it proudly the rest of the day. 02:32 Felipe was unaware of the significances 02:34 of the Adventist logo on the hat. 02:40 In my work, people asked me 02:41 if I knew the meaning of the cap. 02:43 And I said, no. 02:44 They asked me if I was an Adventist. 02:46 And I said, no, I'm not an Adventist. 02:49 Felipe was curious about what being an Adventist meant. 02:52 So he went looking for a Seventh-day Adventist church. 03:02 When I went looking for the church, 03:03 I asked the man selling orange juice 03:05 on the street about the Adventist church. 03:07 He answered me that he is an Adventist. 03:14 This was just the sign Felipe was waiting for. 03:18 After talking, the two men became friends 03:20 and visited the church together the next weekend. 03:23 Felipe felt welcome in the church 03:25 and returned again each week. 03:27 He now knows that God has a plan for his life. 03:33 My life is not only complete, it is more than that. 03:37 When I ask God something, 03:38 He gives me everything that I ask of Him. 03:40 So, now, I help other people to know about the word of God. 03:44 Felipe is thankful that he found the hat that lead him to be 03:48 a part of the Adventist church and to know Jesus. 03:52 He knows that God can use anyone 03:54 or anything including a hat to reach His people. 03:59 Please pray for those still searching 04:01 for a relationship with Jesus. 04:04 And thank you for your support of mission around the world. 04:19 I'm delighted to welcome Dr. Wagner Kuhn, 04:21 from the department of World Mission Adventist Seminary 04:25 in Berrien Springs, Michigan. 04:27 That's a mouthful. 04:28 Welcome, Wagner, glad you can join us. 04:30 Thank you. 04:32 You have a very important role in many respects 04:35 but to shape future pastors in the way-- 04:39 and present pastors in the way they are thinking about mission. 04:42 That's quite a responsibility. 04:44 It is indeed you know and I take it very seriously. 04:48 Are you saying that there is an interest in mission 04:52 among pastors that you are training? 04:54 More and more, you know, 04:55 you see pastors coming to the seminary for example, Gary 04:58 with avid desire of trying to understand more, 05:03 you know, cross cultural. 05:05 And because the places where they minister, you know, 05:09 they have members that come from all walks of life. 05:12 You know, from Asian background, 05:14 from Latin American background, 05:16 from you know, different types of cultures 05:19 and it is more and more with this interest in mind 05:23 that we try to provide certain way of helping 05:28 of training pastors and young ministers in our days. 05:32 Very interesting. 05:34 Now, Wagner, I want to talk to you about short term mission. 05:39 It seems today that almost every Adventist church, 05:41 every organization has some sort of 05:43 a short term mission opportunity 05:45 that they are involving church members 05:47 and can you describe this growing phenomenon? 05:50 Well, it is certainly a very huge phenomenon 05:54 that nobody really can catch and define very well 05:58 for example, since statistics are saying right now, 06:01 that between four and five million Americans 06:04 or North Americans are involved in short term missions annually 06:09 and these I'm talking about Christians in general 06:12 that go out to do medical missions, 06:15 you know, orphanage missions, 06:17 vacation Bible schools and all kinds of types of ministries 06:23 you know, evangelistic meetings and so forth. 06:27 Out of that it is estimated that about between 14,000 to 40,000 06:35 and even some 70 or 80,000 are Seventh-day Adventists. 06:39 We don't have very good statistics. 06:43 You know, North American division reported in, 06:45 you know, couple of years ago about 45,000 people 06:48 involved in short term missions in one year. 06:53 That ranges you know, from less than two weeks 06:56 to about you know, close to two years, 07:00 but nowadays short term missions 07:02 are even less than two weeks only. 07:05 Being certain mission trips only for about 07:09 six or seven days including travel days. 07:12 So, that's a challenge. 07:14 So how does that compare short-term mission 07:17 with people who are devoted, 07:18 sort of like make a career of being a missionary, 07:21 who go for long term, how do those numbers compare? 07:24 Oh, for example, Gary, I would say that statistics 07:28 are telling us some who are doing research 07:31 that for every one long term career missionary, 07:36 you have about sixty or more short term missionaries. 07:41 You know, are short termers as they call it. 07:44 So, you know the proportion and everyone that goes 07:48 will spend about 2 or $3,000 you know, average. 07:53 You know, the whole Christian tent makers 07:57 are those who are Christians out of North America 08:00 are spending $2.2 billion a year. 08:04 We don't have precise statistics 08:06 for the Seventh-day Adventist Church 08:07 but those who are studying it are saying that 08:12 at least 2 or $3,000 each person will spend. 08:16 Okay, now, what are the advantages 08:17 of short-term mission? 08:19 What benefits is that bringing to the church? 08:22 Short term mission can bring a lot of benefits. 08:25 One of them is that it can create 08:28 good partnerships for the long run. 08:30 And if those good partnerships for the long run are developed, 08:35 then a lot of benefits come. 08:37 Both for those who go and for the ones who receive. 08:41 I think, Gary, we need to be aware 08:43 that short term mission trips are only good 08:49 when they are good for both parties, 08:50 those who go and those who receive. 08:54 So we need to have that in mind. 08:56 So what council would you give to organizations 08:59 and people involved in short-term mission? 09:02 What are the things they need to keep in mind 09:04 to make it effective? 09:06 Well, first of all I think 09:07 they need to look at and ask the questions. 09:11 Those that I'm going to serve what do they need? 09:17 Am I the one to tell them what they need 09:20 or should I ask them questions of what is their need? 09:24 Because many of us who go on short term missions, 09:27 we have a personal agenda 09:30 and we want to do what we think it's important, 09:32 but we don't often ask the questions. 09:35 Also and this is very, very important. 09:38 Research is being done and very few of the groups 09:42 that go on short term mission get, 09:44 they get good training. 09:46 Usually there is no training involved, 09:48 there is a couple of hours 09:49 of certain explanations of logistics. 09:52 And very little is done in terms of serious training 09:56 and this is very important in order to avoid 09:59 major blunders and serious problems 10:02 you know, with-- especially with teams. 10:05 What sort of damage can be done? 10:08 One is that for example short-term missions 10:10 can create spiritual hyper 10:14 and usually this spiritual hyper is short lived. 10:17 It fades away after a couple of week, 10:20 you know, or a month, people return. 10:22 So this can be kind of a distorted picture, 10:25 you know of what can be done in the long term partnership. 10:30 So again if partnerships are developed 10:32 and you go two or three or four or five times to the same place, 10:37 then you will know the people who are there 10:39 and they will know you. 10:41 There is a bond of trust being created 10:45 and a spiritual development being effected on both sides. 10:51 For somebody who wants to do it right 10:53 and wants to know how to do it better, 10:58 are there sort of resources to help train them? 11:01 For example, I have a book here you know, 11:03 it's called Effective Engagement 11:05 in Short Term Missions, doing it right. 11:08 There are several books, you know, 11:10 for example also Passport to Mission 11:12 which is a book done by the General Conference 11:16 or the Institute of World Mission on how to be prepared 11:20 and being sensitive to minister cross culturally, 11:24 you should go out of your comfort zone 11:27 and then minister for those that you aim at. 11:31 Fantastic, Wagner, thanks for joining us today. 11:34 And viewers at home, you can go to adventistmission.org 11:38 to find out more resources 11:40 for how you can make short term mission work best. 12:24 I'm delighted to welcome Pastor Kurt Johnson to our program. 12:28 Pastor Johnson, cares for Bible Correspondence schools 12:31 around the world. 12:33 He also directs the Bible school at the Voice of Prophecy 12:35 in the North American Adventist Media Center. 12:38 Kurt, thanks so much for joining us. 12:40 This is a ministry that blankets the globe, 12:43 but you have an interest in getting as many churches, 12:46 local churches as possible involved, how does that work? 12:49 Well, we call them discover Bible schools. 12:52 And our goal is that to become a branch of the media center 12:55 and they--as we go and we help a local church 12:58 to set up basically a Bible study ministry 13:00 as an outreach to the local community. 13:03 And we help the church members to be able to go out 13:07 and find people to study the Bible with. 13:09 And then we share with them, there're five different ways 13:11 that we teach them to give those Bible studies to those interest. 13:15 And that's personally a one to one 13:16 Bible study small groups in a home, 13:19 correspondence by mail out of the local church. 13:22 They can study online on the internet and use of DVD's. 13:26 So in North America, how many church members 13:29 would you estimate get involved in this? 13:31 Well, we have 2,500 churches in North America 13:34 that have branch Bible schools. Wow. 13:36 And so, as far as the total member, 13:39 it varies per church from a handful 13:42 to you know, a lot more people. 13:44 Now, recently you had a major effort in Alaska, 13:50 tell us about that? 13:51 One of the things we do with our discover schools, 13:54 like what we did in Alaska is we will go into a conference 13:58 and we will set up a discover school, 14:00 a Bible study ministry in every church in that conference. 14:03 And then we mass mail a Bible study in roma card 14:07 which offers free Bible lessons to the person. 14:09 We mail that to every residence in that entire state. Wow. 14:13 And then we help the church members 14:15 to follow those Bible studies up. 14:17 So like in Alaska the population is just under 800,000 14:21 and there is about 300,000 homes 14:24 and so we mailed a card to every home 14:27 and then we also showed the church members 14:29 how to invite their friends and other people 14:32 to study and then the combination, 14:35 all that combinates into a graduation at the end. 14:39 So in Alaska we have about 2,000 active church members. 14:43 And we ended up with around 14:44 2,500 requests for Bible lessons. 14:47 They followed up. That's great. 14:49 Yeah, in one of our photos here shows 14:51 the group of church members in the Fairbanks 14:55 and also in the North Pole area of Alaska. 15:00 They were following up the Bible study request. 15:02 The North Pole area, I hope there are few. 15:05 Did you go up there? 15:06 Yeah, well, the North Pole 15:08 it's a little community that's near Fairbanks. 15:12 But, I went to the--our most northern city in North America. 15:18 It's called Barrow, Alaska. 15:20 It's a village of about 4,500 people 15:23 I was there February of last year. 15:26 Wrong time of the year. 15:27 Yeah, it was like between 30 and 40 below. 15:30 And I always wondered what it would be like to experience 15:33 those temperatures and I got to find out. 15:36 But in Barrow, our church membership 15:38 again varies between 5 to 10 people 15:40 depending on the time of the year, 15:42 different circumstances there. 15:44 In that village there were 28 people 15:46 that requested free Bible lessons. Wow. 15:48 And I was excited just a few weeks ago 15:50 I received an email from Penny, 15:53 who is the coordinator for the Bible school 15:56 and one of the ladies, one of the families 15:58 have just finished their Bible lessons 16:00 and they were ready to give them their diplomas. 16:02 So that was a great excitement about that. Yeah. 16:05 So 28 people in the village signed up for lessons? 16:08 That's correct. Yes. 16:11 You know in another village that you only reach by areoplane 16:15 is called Togiak and it's near Dillingham, near Bristol Bay. 16:21 In the summer time when it's thawed, 16:24 you can go in by boat otherwise you fly in. 16:26 A village of about 800 people and we have a church there at-- 16:32 when I was there a year ago, 16:35 the man that was Dan Radoff was-- 16:37 is a layman in his 80's he was the lay pastor there 16:41 and he had about 12 to 16 people that would come to the church 16:46 for a small group Bible study on a weekly basis 16:49 and they began to study, 16:51 they went through the discover guides. 16:52 They went through the Daniel in Revelation of course. 16:55 And all of those people graduated 16:58 and four of them made a decision to be baptized. 17:01 Is that right? 17:02 And when we had a graduation in Anchorage, 17:04 they all came in and we gave them their diplomas. 17:07 Heard their stories and then they made their decision 17:09 and were baptized at that meeting. 17:12 Wow, so what sort of impact do you see 17:15 it making on church members who get involved? 17:18 Well, you know, there is no greater joy that comes 17:22 than from inviting someone to make a decision to follow Jesus. 17:25 And so when you share Bible studies with someone 17:29 you know, those promises and those teachings 17:32 that have changed your life. 17:33 You know, really makes a difference 17:35 and so it impacts them dramatically. 17:37 There is an another story of a lady out of Anchorage, 17:40 her name is Jeanette and she had found in her life 17:43 that she had difficulties with drugs and alcohol 17:46 and have a little video clip I would like to show 17:49 of Jeanette sharing what God has done for her in her life. 17:52 Great. Let's watch that now. 18:02 I had addictions and depression. 18:06 I had it for 27 years. 18:12 I walk with the Lord everyday and He is the one who helps me 18:15 to get off the addictions like alcohol and drugs. 18:18 When Reach Alaska picking a project 18:21 for the Alaskan's Seventh-day Adventist churches, 18:24 I asked Jeanette, I said, would you like to study 18:27 the native new day Bible studies, 18:29 and she said, what's that? 18:31 And I told her there were set of Bible studies 18:34 and that they would encourage relationship with Jesus for her 18:39 and she said yeah, I would really like that. 18:41 And so I started sending them to her. 18:44 And she just started really answering them 18:46 getting the answers sheets back to me, 18:48 just back and forth really fast. 18:50 And so, she was all excited about it 18:54 and the Holy Spirit has really 18:56 put those Bible truths in her heart. 18:59 I was lost, I was into the world, I was. 19:05 I'm glad I'm no longer in the world now. 19:08 There is nothing for me out there 19:10 as long as I have the Lord in my heart, I'm happy. 19:13 Our efforts in Alaska culminated 19:15 in a live graduation program from downtown Anchorage, 19:19 where Jeanette and several others were baptized. 19:22 Bible studies are continuing across the state today, 19:25 with many more baptisms and lives changed. 19:28 Amen. 19:38 That's a great story. 19:39 Thanks so much for sharing, Kurt. 19:41 Viewers at home, you can go to biblestudies.org 19:44 to find out more about Bible correspondence lessons. 20:21 King Solomon wrote in the Book of Proverbs, 20:23 that we should train a child in the way he should go 20:27 and when he is old, he will not turn from it. 20:37 For more than a hundred years, 20:39 Adventist education in the country of India 20:42 has been following this advice with great success. 20:45 Across the country our Adventist schools are regarded 20:49 as sources of high quality education. 20:52 But they are also known as centers 20:55 that build strong Christian character. 21:04 These are mission schools. 21:06 The majority of students who attend 21:08 are not Christian when they begin their education. 21:14 One of the oldest Adventist schools in India 21:17 is the James Memorial School. 21:20 If you train up the child in the early age, 21:23 when the life is formed in a very concrete faith. 21:26 And we teach Bible here. 21:29 We teach them stories from the Bible. 21:33 So they are attracted and they will get converted. 21:37 Even the boarding also, every year we used to have baptisms. 21:41 Children accepting Jesus. 21:47 This culture of excellence is attracting families 21:51 who want the very best for their children. 22:02 Now the school is having more than 900 enrollments. 22:06 Actually the facilities what we have at present 22:09 is to accommodate only 5 to 600 students. 22:14 At present we're having more than 300. 22:17 And in the coming years we may get more students. 22:20 So we need classrooms. 22:27 We are going to built 10 classrooms with veranda 22:32 and each classroom will have 20x20 measurement 22:36 and staircase and also both the side 22:39 we will have the toilets and urinals for students to use. 22:45 With your financial support 22:46 of the world budget and mission offerings, 22:49 new class rooms can be constructed on school campuses 22:52 across India like the James Memorial School. 23:00 Thank you for your support of the mission 23:02 of the Seventh-day Adventist church. 23:05 To find out more, please visit adventistmission.org. 23:21 If you enjoy video stories of Global Mission Pioneers, 23:25 missionaries and mission in general, 23:27 then we would like to send you 23:29 a copy of the mission stories for kid's DVD. 23:32 It says it's for kids but it's for everyone. 23:35 So if you live in North America, 23:37 please call our toll free number 1-800-648-5824 23:42 or visit our website and ask 23:44 for the mission stories for kid's DVD 23:48 or you can ask for offer number 304. 23:52 Please remember to clearly state your name and address. 23:56 Well, that's it for today's program. 23:58 I hope you've been inspired yet challenged 24:00 by what you've seen and heard on today's program. 24:04 On behalf of the Adventist Missionaries and church planters 24:07 such as Global Mission Pioneers 24:09 who are serving all around the world 24:12 thank you for your continuing prayers 24:15 and financial support of Frontline Mission. 24:18 And thanks for joining us on Global Mission Snapshots. 24:21 Until next time, I am Gary Krause, God bless. 24:42 (Speaking in foreign language) |
Revised 2014-12-17