Global Mission Snapshots

Missionary Stories & Corinth

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Gary Krause (Host), Marshall & Rosemary McKenzie, Early Simon

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Series Code: GMS

Program Code: GMS000038


00:01 I am walking down Lechaion Road in Greece,
00:03 this is the ancient city of Corinth
00:05 where Paul came to preach about 2,000 years ago.
00:08 There's a lot of history to this place,
00:09 so you want to stay tuned
00:11 because Global Mission Snapshots starts right now.
00:26 Just before He went up to heaven,
00:28 Jesus gave us a command.
00:31 He gave us a mission. Jesus said, go.
00:36 Go unto all the world, telling them of His love.
00:41 This is our mission. This is our Global Mission.
00:51 Hello, I am Gary Krause
00:53 and welcome to Global Mission Snapshots.
00:55 As we just saw Earley Simon recently visited
00:58 the ancient city of Corinth
01:00 where one of God's great missionaries
01:02 the Apostle Paul lived and worked
01:05 while on one of his missionary journeys.
01:07 Today we'll be talking with Earley about Corinth
01:10 and how those ancient streets relate to mission today.
01:14 We'll also be talking with Marshall and Rosemary,
01:16 a young couple serving in a very challenging area
01:19 of the 10/40 Window.
01:21 We'll learn how Adventists are touching lives in that area.
01:25 But first up, let's watch a video story
01:28 shot by Todd Gasley called My Greatest Find.
01:37 When I am on vacation, lots of times
01:39 come out here to Montana and always told myself
01:42 I am gonna live out here some day.
01:45 And in 86, I decided I'm gonna work my way around the country
01:49 and this is where I ended up.
01:51 A husband, in 1993 a husband and a daddy found me
01:55 and that was as far as I went with Lewistown, Montana
01:58 and today I am in Whitehall to picking up garbage.
02:01 Other people's trash is other people's treasure.
02:03 You know. There's never a boring moment.
02:07 One time I picked a bag out of a barrel
02:11 what sort of we used to have the 55 gallon drums,
02:14 there was a black bag, it was heavy
02:16 and I thought it was kitty litter,
02:18 I didn't think too much of it,
02:19 and I flung it in the back of the hopper
02:21 and it broke and pennies went all over.
02:25 And I shovel pennies into a box,
02:28 put them in the truck and took them home
02:29 and I washed them all off.
02:31 And I think my wife took them to the bank
02:34 where the counter, she had some like $134 in pennies.
02:37 There were three gallons of pennies.
02:40 Well, and that happens quite frequently
02:42 were you find stuff like that.
02:44 I've known Zeke for some years now.
02:47 We both worked in radiator shops
02:50 and even asked me to check out, I am way with him at one time.
02:55 I failed to talk to him about Jesus.
03:00 And now I often wondered you know,
03:03 why he never knocked on my door five, six, eight, ten years ago.
03:10 Yeah, I even actually one day roll over to Zeke's place
03:16 and chickened out,
03:21 turn around, went home.
03:26 My biggest find, I believed the most valuable thing
03:29 to me that I have ever found
03:31 was the "Conflict of the Ages" series by Ellen white.
03:38 Because we grew up with my dad had one years and years ago
03:42 but it was probably 10, 12, years old a German one
03:46 but it was only the first book, the Patriarchs and Prophets one.
03:49 And I remember with kid-- as we were kids growing up
03:52 my brother Paul and I, my sister Margaret
03:55 and we would read those that book and grew up.
03:58 So I was kind of familiar with it.
04:00 I was born and raised on Hutterite colony
04:03 in northeast corner of South Dakota
04:06 and I had a very strong religious
04:09 upbringing that kind of stuff.
04:10 I did a lot of work on the colony.
04:12 They taught communal living and communal lifestyle that--
04:16 we have all things in common kind of
04:17 out of the second chapter of the Book of Acts.
04:20 They have all things in common, you know,
04:22 they're goods and everything.
04:24 They're sold and they shared with everybody
04:26 so nobody had want or need.
04:29 When I was 17 years of age, I run away from home
04:33 and I got into all kinds of trouble.
04:37 I drink a bottle of whiskey a day
04:39 and there was a time in my life, I had reached a time
04:42 when I was miserable drinking and I was miserable being sober
04:46 and there was no not much use left to live, why live?
04:51 For a long time, the Lord has put on my heart to go
04:55 and see him and I chickened out.
05:00 Dad always talked about that there was a series of them
05:03 and he never had the others, you know.
05:07 So that to me was a valuable find.
05:08 That was priceless to me. Thank you, Lord.
05:12 Yes. That was worth it.
05:15 You know, that tremendous wisdom and knowledge of the scripture,
05:19 I should say the Father's word
05:21 because He's is our Father, you know, we are His children.
05:24 The Father's word and the interpretation thereof,
05:27 that wisdom in un-- it's priceless.
05:31 I still got them at home. I read them daily.
05:34 I was teaching at Sunday school one time at a church
05:37 where I went to and we went through the Book of Ezekiel
05:40 and I came to Ezekiel 20, okay.
05:43 And where God says, the Sabbath day is a sign
05:47 between you and Me, that you may know who I am.
05:51 Okay. God's speaking.
05:52 And I brought this up in the church and I never knew
05:57 leaders in a church could be--could get so upset
06:00 because I dare bring up the Sabbath day, you know.
06:03 I like that, Ezekiel 20:20, Ezekiel 20:20 vision, you know.
06:07 Some day I am going to get a license plate
06:09 and its going to fit just perfect.
06:11 Well, that's what I planed, you know,
06:13 That has been my walk.
06:14 I've gone to a lot of different churches over the years
06:18 and I would always hear this,
06:20 where the law was done away with at the cross,
06:22 the Ten commands do not apply
06:24 and then I'm like, why are they in there then?
06:26 One preacher even told me one time,
06:28 you may not even be welcomed here,
06:31 you know, because of some of the questions that I asked
06:36 pertaining to the Sabbath day, for number one.
06:40 I have always thought about
06:43 going to the Seventh-day Adventist Church
06:45 and a minister told me one time,
06:47 the last pastor that I had, "If you really want to get
06:50 into legalism, that's what you'll get into."
06:54 And I got to thinking you know, how can that be possible?
06:57 When they teach the Father's word you know,
07:00 "Thy word is a light unto my feet and a lamp unto my path."
07:04 The Father's word and God spake all these words saying
07:08 and you considering Sunday School
07:10 and talk about we ought to be obedient and not to sacrifice.
07:14 It's better to obey than to sacrifice.
07:17 Obey what?
07:19 The Father's word and God spake all these words saying,
07:22 "I am the Lord thy God who brought you
07:25 out in the land of Egypt."
07:26 I know that Ten Command by heart.
07:29 Yeah, I learned them.
07:31 And, so, why don't they apply? That's been my question.
07:42 There was another week before I went back.
07:53 Hey, hey, Karl. Hey, Zeke.
07:55 Nice to seeing you. All right.
07:57 How you've been? Come on in.
07:59 All right. Yeah.
08:00 Don't want to stand outside.
08:02 All right. Anyhow what's up?
08:03 Oh, I just coming By, you know,
08:05 it's like we've been talking and stuff about doing some study
08:11 and stuff together and everything
08:13 and I was just kind of coming over to see
08:15 how we got this seminar going on.
08:19 And I just like to invite you to it.
08:23 Oh, like that prophesy seminar thing I read about, the big--
08:25 Yeah, the pro-- Yeah, that's the same one.
08:27 Hey, what took you so long?
08:30 You know, I am here for eight years or better, you know.
08:34 Yeah, I'd love to. All right.
08:37 And then we sat for around about for a couple of hours
08:40 and we talked about different things
08:42 from the scripture
08:47 about the law and the commands.
08:51 I just had a fantastic visit that whole evening with him.
08:58 I'm a janitor for Fergus Electric
09:00 and Courtesy Chevrolet in Lewistown Montana.
09:04 I became Christian 14 years ago
09:07 and I don't want anybody anymore to come to me
09:11 and say what was it that took you so long
09:15 to come and visit me.
09:17 You don't want that happening to you either.
09:20 So I just implore you today, when the Lord speaks to you
09:26 just get out there and do what He asked,
09:30 what He tells you to do.
09:31 When He tells you to invite someone
09:33 to some of these meetings, get out there and do it,
09:36 don't be a chicken like I was, don't be afraid.
09:40 There's nothing to be afraid of,
09:42 the Lord is there and He's gonna go before us.
09:44 I'm sure glad Karl finally decided to do that
09:47 and did that and I was so excited to be coming
09:51 to their prophesy seminars that they were having.
09:53 And what I realized, didn't realize this
09:55 and I found out from that is Jesus is coming back soon.
10:00 This past Sabbath day when I got baptized
10:03 it was...
10:06 it was very, it was a very relaxing time.
10:10 I was nervous, I will say that
10:14 because had all those people watching
10:16 and I get stage fright really easy.
10:21 And after baptism it was like this garbage can
10:25 that's I just dumped, it's empty, it was light.
10:29 Moving it back, compare to the way it was pushing it in.
10:32 And once I came out of that water I was refresh,
10:34 I was--I felt empty, I felt renewed,
10:37 a new creation in Christ Jesus.
10:40 What a tremendous feeling.
10:43 And the biggest thing I like about the whole thing,
10:46 there's my wife and children were there to see that.
10:50 That in itself was just a tremendous peace.
10:55 Who is the Lord putting on your heart right now?
10:59 Who are you going to go and ask?
11:03 Don't be afraid, okay?
11:06 To learn more about mission,
11:08 please visit adventistmission.org.
11:15 I am very happy to welcome Marshall and Rosemary McKenzie
11:19 who are visiting from the Middles East
11:22 where they are serving in, doing what, Marshall?
11:26 We are doing several things.
11:28 We try to provide literature that meets relevant needs
11:33 because there's many different needs in the Middle East.
11:36 And it's exciting to be able to meet with the people,
11:39 find out what those needs are
11:40 and then be able to supply them with materials
11:44 that can help them to grow personally,
11:46 it helps them to grow spiritually
11:48 and then at the same time to work with the young people.
11:51 You realize in the Middle East,
11:52 there's lots of young people and they are very active,
11:56 they are always wanting to learn.
11:58 And we are learning from them
12:00 as much as they are learning from us.
12:01 And so it's exciting to put those two things together.
12:04 Fantastic.
12:06 Now the Seventh-day Adventist church is focusing
12:09 very much on what can we do in the large cities
12:12 and I know in the Middle East you have huge cities.
12:16 I was very interested to hear about a center
12:18 that you've been working with, a center of influence.
12:22 I think you call it For Your Life Center
12:25 or something like that.
12:26 Yeah, it's all about health and it's about health awareness.
12:31 But the center is also there to help people with English,
12:33 if they want to learn English.
12:35 The center is there to help them overcome smoking.
12:37 You know, where we live in the Middle East
12:41 they passed a new law that you can't smoke in the buildings.
12:43 Oh, good.
12:44 But a lot of the population still smokes.
12:47 And, but as we are meeting people at the center
12:49 they wanted to stop, they wanted to quit.
12:52 And so we offer you know, stop smoking.
12:55 We do general health screening.
12:57 So there are just different things that we exist there
13:01 for to just help the community with their needs.
13:04 The mayor of the community was--
13:05 he came actually for the opening of it
13:07 and they were excited about the potential
13:09 of us just helping our neighbors.
13:12 And it was exciting to see the response of our neighbors
13:16 as we had the opportunity to open this center.
13:20 Excellent. Now, tell me about some of the responses, I mean--
13:23 We had responses, matter of fact
13:25 we had some of the young people that came in
13:28 that weren't from Middle East University.
13:30 They came through with their parent,
13:32 one of them was a senior in high school
13:34 and she saw what was happening and she said, "Can I translate?"
13:39 And so here we now have this relationship
13:41 with an 18 year old, who is a senior in high school
13:44 and she's-- we keep contact with her.
13:46 And she actually helped us translate for three days.
13:48 And so we have young people that were making contact with.
13:52 We also had other people,
13:54 there's a lady that came in to the center
13:56 that didn't realize she had diabetes.
13:58 And when she found she actually had diabetes,
14:01 there was a lot of stress she was carrying.
14:03 And she just let it all out.
14:04 And she spends literally an hour or more there just in tears
14:08 and some of our young people were next to her
14:11 and they were helping her.
14:13 And now they visit her every weekend.
14:15 They go to her home to just encourage her
14:17 and see if she needs anything
14:19 and they just want to provide
14:21 those needs that she hasn't.
14:23 So they are developing that relationship
14:25 and so we met that.
14:27 So we've had--
14:28 Matter of fact construction workers,
14:30 they were on the job and they were like,
14:32 they came over and they went through
14:33 the health screening and in the process they said,
14:36 "Hey, here's my friend, take care of him.
14:38 I got to go back to work."
14:39 So it just, I mean, taxi drivers
14:43 that were saying you know,
14:44 I'll take you in your taxi
14:46 but you need to come into the center first.
14:48 So it's just a lot of different experiences
14:50 we had down at the center.
14:51 So, Rosemary, it's all about
14:53 making connections with people.
14:54 That's right.
14:55 And it's really exciting to see
14:57 how those connections are made.
14:59 We are able to because of that center help
15:02 in a special way displace people
15:05 that are in the country
15:06 because of war in their region.
15:08 They've come into our country
15:10 and so we're able to provide a special opportunity
15:13 to provide screening for them
15:14 and help in some of their other needs.
15:17 There's a lady that was--
15:20 That needed to have a surgery
15:21 so that she could keep her baby
15:23 and so because of this center
15:25 we're able to connect with her
15:26 and help her provide the medical care
15:28 that she needed, not at our center,
15:30 but to help her to get the care she needed.
15:34 Now these refugees coming in
15:35 from a war torn countries,
15:36 are we talking like tens of people,
15:38 hundreds of people, thousands--
15:40 How many people?
15:41 Hundreds of thousands. Wow.
15:43 So that really makes things
15:45 very interesting looking at it.
15:47 It does and you see the needs are real
15:50 and the needs are deep.
15:51 It's not just, you know,
15:53 can you give me $5 or whatever
15:55 because I need some food.
15:56 It's in multiple areas of their life.
15:59 And to be able to be there
16:01 and help them with that,
16:02 that's really what it's all about.
16:03 You know, connecting with them
16:05 and making those relationships eventually.
16:08 Now, Rosemary, you have a three-year-old,
16:11 a six-year-old and a nine-year-old,
16:13 I know you are vitally involved in this ministry.
16:15 How do you juggle every thing?
16:18 That's a very good question.
16:21 You know, my first focus is our home and our children
16:24 and so then after that then I have opportunities.
16:27 You know, some days I am like,
16:29 I look at the week I am like,
16:30 I didn't really do anything
16:32 other than just take of my kids and my house
16:33 but then other weeks like, every thing like
16:36 pours in and I am like, wow,
16:39 I did this and this and this and this,
16:41 all in this one week.
16:42 So it kind of comes and goes
16:44 which makes it easier, you know,
16:46 better for our family.
16:48 Yeah. Now there maybe a young person
16:50 watching this program and if they are thinking about
16:54 maybe going for overseas mission service
16:56 what would you say to them?
16:58 I would say definitely take advantage of the opportunity
17:01 while you are younger and really look at it
17:06 as a long term commitment eventually.
17:09 You know, the short-term is wonderful,
17:11 but you want to--
17:13 You see, if it fits you and really pray about it
17:15 because the need is just tremendous.
17:18 And we need young people to be involved in these
17:22 service opportunities around the world.
17:24 Rosemary and Marshall,
17:26 thank you so much for joining us.
17:27 And viewers at home,
17:29 please pray for Marshall and Rosemary,
17:32 their children
17:33 and the hundreds of mission workers
17:35 all around the world.
17:37 It can be lonely, it can be discouraging,
17:40 but it can also be tremendously exciting
17:42 and it's wonderful for them to know
17:44 that a world church is praying for them.
18:31 It's my pleasure to introduce
18:33 our guest Earley Simon.
18:35 Earley, thank you for joining us.
18:36 My pleasure. Now you are
18:37 one of the video producers at Adventist Mission.
18:40 Responsible for many of the beautiful videos
18:42 that we see on this program.
18:44 Thank you for that. Now, Earley,
18:46 I am kind of jealous because not so long ago
18:48 you went to the city of Corinth.
18:50 Tell us about Corinth.
18:52 You know, it was an amazing experience
18:54 just to be there because you read those
18:56 stories in the Bible and sometimes you can't really
18:58 place where this is unless you like geography,
19:01 go look in the map which is not the case for me.
19:03 All right, so being there is-- it was really amazing,
19:06 the Bible is like coming to life.
19:08 And I actually went back and read the chapter
19:10 where Paul visited Corinth.
19:11 And now I know because I was there,
19:14 I actually got to walk down
19:15 some of the ancient streets from 2,000 years ago there.
19:19 So it's pretty amazing experience.
19:20 It's a beautiful place,
19:23 it's located in the middle of two ports.
19:25 So there's a port where it connects to Italy and Europe
19:29 on one side and there's a port from Asia.
19:31 So it's a pretty central hub for a lot of the trading
19:33 there that would happen there.
19:34 They still happens there but that
19:35 happened in ancient days as well.
19:37 So Paul came to that city,
19:40 a huge city, a metropolis.
19:42 They said there were estimated
19:44 700,000 to 800,000 people that lived there.
19:46 And so Paul is going there to do mission
19:50 to the cities, you know.
19:51 He's not going to talk to small groups
19:53 he's going to talk to the masses.
19:54 And the Bible tells us when he reaches that city
19:58 he looks for people that he can connect with.
20:00 And I don't know who were the first people he found there
20:03 but he met Aquila and Priscilla and that he stayed with them.
20:08 And one of the connecting factors that maybe linked
20:12 Paul and Aquila and Priscilla so well is that
20:14 they were tent makers. Paul is also a tent maker.
20:17 And a tent maker means that they made tents
20:19 so they might have shared a lot of you know,
20:21 secrets of the trade and special ways of making
20:24 different types of tents.
20:26 But that wasn't what Paul went there for,
20:28 to learn new techniques, he went there to evangelize.
20:31 And this was just his way of supporting
20:33 his ministry as he was there.
20:35 And just to be able to see those surroundings
20:39 and where he preached was pretty exciting.
20:41 On the beginning of the program you saw
20:43 Lechaion Road from the ancient city.
20:46 And that's a pretty well preserved area.
20:47 When we were there, they were actually
20:49 renovating this center square which is a high platform
20:54 where people preached there.
20:56 And that's the place that is believed
20:58 that's where Paul preached to the people.
21:01 And from the surroundings that's so there of the remains
21:03 you can still tell that this like was downtown,
21:05 you know, center of the town.
21:07 And Paul probably came there
21:08 many times and preached to the people.
21:10 As you walked down those roads you see shops,
21:12 you see places where people
21:14 took baths because there is a mountain nearby
21:15 that the water would come down and
21:17 people took baths there in the middle of downtown
21:20 which is pretty different concept for us nowadays.
21:23 But there also prisons that's something
21:25 that caught my attention.
21:26 There were several prisons there and I guess at that time
21:29 it was the point to bring people there
21:31 for being judged if they were going
21:33 really go to jail, if they really had committed
21:36 the crime or if they are gonna be freed.
21:38 And they brought those people there
21:40 so at the center of town they would be recognized
21:42 and they would-- people would see
21:44 the crime that they did.
21:46 It was suppose to bring shame to them.
21:47 So there's a lot of stuff happening
21:49 at that one place that we got to visit there.
21:51 And that's the location where Paul preached.
21:54 You know Earley, you remind us of something
21:57 very important that Paul
21:59 was planting churches in urban areas.
22:02 And when you read through the Book of Acts
22:04 it's basically the story of urban mission
22:07 and the Christian churches were established in the cities
22:11 because these are the places where the people were
22:13 and there were also the places of influence
22:15 from where the gospel would go.
22:16 And in fact the word pagan meant from the country.
22:20 That's kind of interesting.
22:22 I remember visiting Ephesus
22:25 and again Paul ministered there as well.
22:28 And it just struck me, how closely people
22:29 were living together and these churches
22:32 were meeting in people's homes in the heart of the city.
22:35 They didn't have a church building like we do.
22:38 Now, Earley, when you left that place
22:41 what sort of feelings did you have?
22:44 I felt part of the story.
22:49 I felt like it really happed and it helped me
22:52 to focus on some of the things that Paul did
22:55 in reaching the cities, you know.
22:56 Sometimes we think that we just
22:59 connect with people on Facebook or Twitter
23:01 or we tell them to go watch a TV program
23:03 like this one which is a way for people
23:06 to get connected with Jesus and to know Jesus
23:08 and for us to make connections with people.
23:10 But I think Paul's example is very unique in a sense
23:13 that he went there, he was there.
23:16 He went where people were,
23:17 he preached from there, he wasn't afraid,
23:19 he made special connection with individuals and it worked.
23:24 The Bible tells that there's a lot of a baptism
23:26 that he reaped from there.
23:28 He followed Jesus' example of mingling among people.
23:31 Yeah. Earley, you mentioned
23:33 tent making and I am glad you mentioned
23:35 that because today, viewers at home,
23:38 we need more tent makers.
23:39 This is a term we use for people who support their ministry
23:43 through their own trade,
23:45 their own business, their own profession.
23:47 Many parts of the world, we cannot send missionaries,
23:50 we cannot do traditional evangelism
23:52 but we need tent makers.
23:55 And Earley, I want to talk to you
23:56 a little bit too about this magazine,
23:58 Mission 360, full of stories.
24:01 Brand new magazine,
24:03 you can find it online at Mission360mag.org
24:07 and there you can download it on to your iPad,
24:11 down to your iPhone, to your Kindle whatever.
24:14 But this is full of stories
24:16 and there will be tent maker stories here as well.
24:19 Earley, thank you so much for sharing
24:21 with us about the Apostle Paul.
24:22 The Apostle Paul is like Jesus,
24:25 he's our example of coming among the people,
24:28 ministering to them, mingling, showing sympathy,
24:30 winning confidence and leading people to Jesus.
27:06 I hope your hearts were touched by that music video
27:08 all the way from Krasnodar, Russia.
27:11 Let's pray that God will melt our hearts
27:13 and make us even more receptive
27:16 to His words in our lives.
27:18 There are so many people
27:19 whose hearts are longing to learn of God's love.
27:22 Here at Adventist Mission we've created
27:24 mission cards for kids featuring pictures of children
27:28 from all around the world.
27:30 They were especially designed for Sabbath school teachers
27:32 to give to each child to take home.
27:36 Perhaps you might like to order some but you'd like to also see
27:38 a sample set of cards first.
27:40 No problem, just call us or visit our website
27:43 and asks for mission cards for kids or ask for
27:46 offer number 302.
27:49 Please remember to clearly state your name,
27:51 mailing address and be sure to mention
27:53 mission cards for kids or offer 302.
27:58 Well, that's about it for today's program.
28:00 I hope you've been challenged and I hope you've been
28:02 inspired by what you've seen and heard.
28:05 For Adventist Mission, I am Gary Krause
28:07 and I hope you can join me next time
28:09 right here on Global Mission Snapshots.


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Revised 2014-12-17