Participants: Gary Krause (Host), Greg Whitsett, Jim Rennie
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS000043
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00:01 On today's program we travel to the Indian Subcontinent
00:04 and to a mountain village in China. 00:06 We'll also learn how one organization 00:08 is touching the lives of hundreds 00:10 of needy women and children in Asia. 00:13 All that and more coming up next on Global Mission Snapshots. 00:28 Just before He went up to heaven 00:30 Jesus gave us a command, He gave us a mission. 00:36 Jesus said, go. 00:39 Go unto all the world, telling them of His love. 00:43 This is our mission. This is our Global Mission. 00:53 Hello and welcome to Global Mission Snapshots 00:55 I'm Gary Krause. 00:57 When I speak at camp meetings, sometimes I've someone 00:59 from the Adventist Mission staff come with me. 01:02 When they do I like to give them a quiz. 01:04 And today I have a quiz question ready just for you. Ready? 01:09 What percentage of the world's population is Christian? 01:13 Is it A. 100%. 01:15 B. 65%. 01:18 C. 33%. 01:22 Well, if you choose A 100% you got a very optimistic view, 01:25 if you said 65% you're still pretty optimistic. 01:29 You're right if you choose C. 01:32 Just 33% or one third of the world. 01:35 That means that two thirds of earth's population 01:38 either has no religion 01:39 or another religion than Christianity. 01:42 And many of these people live in Asia. 01:44 So today we'll be talking with Greg Whitsett 01:47 who heads the Global Mission Center for East Asia religions. 01:52 But first, let's learn about Asian Aid 01:54 an organization that's making a difference in Asia 01:57 through education and through health. 01:59 We'll be talking with Jim Rennie, 02:01 the CEO of Asian Aid, USA. 02:04 But first, let's watch this video. 02:38 For over 40 years Asian Aid is an organization 02:41 giving hope to so many. 02:44 Their outreach spans from India, Bangladesh to Nepal and beyond. 02:49 From remote villages and empty fields 02:53 to scrolling centers of education, 02:56 from nothing to the unimaginable. 03:02 Asian Aid's development projects provide child sponsorship, 03:06 fresh water, and medical care for women and leper victims. 03:11 They provide a high standard of education 03:13 to impoverished children. 03:16 Asian Aid has a vision driven by a woman 03:19 humbly fulfilling the Biblical principle 03:22 that calls for us to care for the least of these. 03:27 This standard is still true today. 03:29 The need is still there. 03:39 Less than 50% of India's children get an education, 03:43 one million women in Nepal suffer from uterine prolapse 03:46 and are in need of immediate surgery. 03:48 Over 5,000 babies die everyday due to extreme poverty. 03:53 These are better few of the harsh realities. 04:00 Asian Aid is meeting these challenges 04:02 and transforming the lives of so many in need. 04:07 Always sticking to their core mission, giving hope. 04:21 Asian Aid sponsors thousands of children 04:23 in slums, in destitute villages. 04:27 They support over 100 schools and orphanages. 04:32 They provide a value spaced education 04:38 and give them a sense of place, a home. 04:42 Well, in my dream I was just thinking 04:44 of a small boarding school with maybe 50 children 04:47 and that of course did increased to 200 quite fast 04:50 but now to see these buildings 04:53 and this campus is just so amazing. 04:56 And now there are 750 children 05:00 actually studying and learning so much on this school compound. 05:15 In Nepal over a million women 05:17 suffer from an epidemic of uterine prolapse. 05:20 Through their educational outreach programs 05:23 and medical treatment clinics 05:25 Asian Aid has helped thousands of women. 05:29 They also give shelter and educate women 05:31 who have escape from the human trafficking business 05:33 providing them a way back to a better life. 05:37 One of the most important things that Asian Aid does 05:40 is see that girls get care for, 05:42 that girls get a chance of education 05:44 and girl get a chance to come up in society. 05:56 Asian Aid supports premier school 05:57 for the blind and the deaf 06:00 preparing them for success in the world community. 06:08 It's easy to put a price on what it cost to educate 06:11 and feed a child for a day 06:15 but how do you put a price on transformation. 06:22 Asian Aid graduates serve important roles 06:24 from nurses and teachers 06:26 to top leading medical and research scientists. 06:30 All are contributing in positive ways to the global community. 06:42 I want to be a social worker. 06:45 I want to become teacher. 06:48 I want to become doctor 06:49 because I want to help the other of the people. 06:57 These children are living proof 06:59 that Asian Aid doesn't just feed a child's stomach 07:02 but fuels their desire to learn, 07:04 to achieve and to give something back. 07:07 Asian Aid feeds a child's soul, 07:11 but ultimately what Asian Aid does 07:14 is give hope, hope to children, hope to women, 07:19 hope to those who needed the most. 07:23 Asian Aid knows that making an investment in hope 07:26 requires a decision to act now. 07:30 It's a principle that can only pay off 07:32 with help from sponsors like you. 07:35 Standing still is not an option. 07:38 Asian Aid is hope in motion. 07:52 As you can see Asian Aid is doing 07:54 a wonderful work in parts of the world 07:57 where there are just tremendous challenges 07:59 and I'm delighted to have as my guest Jim Rennie 08:03 who is the CEO for Asian Aid, USA. 08:06 Jim, thanks for joining us. 08:07 Thanks, Gary, please to be here. 08:09 On the video there we saw 08:11 just a range of things that you're involved in. 08:13 Can you just give us some of the highlights, 08:15 some of the main themes of what you are doing? 08:18 Well, Gary, our main activity is child's sponsorship. 08:23 We take children based on need 08:25 and place them in an Adventist school 08:27 and then sponsored by a person or a group 08:32 back either in America, Australia, 08:35 in fact in many parts of the world. 08:38 So that's our key activity 08:39 and we have over six and half thousand children 08:42 sponsored in Adventist schools predominantly in India, 08:46 but Nepal and Bangladesh also. 08:51 The next key activity our orphanages, 08:54 we have four orphanages which are run by the church 08:58 but funded by Asian Aid. 09:01 And so once again the children in those orphanages 09:05 are sponsored by a sponsor or a group 09:09 back in one of many countries. 09:13 Then we are also active in helping schools. 09:16 We're getting a big demand for helping schools 09:20 with medical issues, building issues, 09:23 and improving education. 09:24 So that's a major challenge for us in some of these countries. 09:30 In India and Nepal we've started to get involved in child rescue 09:36 that's from children involved in beggary, 09:40 involved in prostitution, involved in child labor. 09:43 We got involved in one program in Bangalore and one in Nepal. 09:47 And then in Nepal we're involved in women's health issues. 09:52 We traditionally have helped women in that area 09:55 and have Asian Aid in total 09:58 has done over 9,000 women operations in Nepal. 10:03 Jim, you know, that's a lot of people 10:06 whose lives have been impacted. How are these children chosen? 10:10 For example the kids who come to put into an Adventist school, 10:13 how do you get lucky enough to be chosen? 10:16 Well, it happens in a number of ways. 10:19 First of all school may indicate 10:21 that it wants applications so we grant them applications. 10:26 So either our field worker or the principal 10:29 literally receives the application 10:32 which is weighted by the school and by us based on need. 10:36 And so some times we get leads from the church 10:41 but in most cases I would say 80-90% of the children 10:45 have had no exposure to the Christianity. 10:48 So we're doing a key thing. 10:50 We are giving them a good education 10:53 but we are also introducing them to Jesus. 10:57 Can you give me an example of one of the children 11:00 whose life has been changed by Asian Aid? 11:04 Yes, well, I visit a lot of schools in India 11:07 and sometimes I don't spend enough time with the children. 11:12 So one day I had noticed a little bright young boy, 11:17 he was always saying hello. 11:20 I noticed he was very attentive from the school 11:22 and he was a day student. 11:24 So we have day students, boarders. 11:28 And so a day student walks from their home to the school 11:31 so they are normally pretty close 11:33 sometimes they might come on a bus. 11:36 And his name was Riku, R-I-K-U, no, Riku I think. 11:42 So I asked them to take me back to his home 11:45 and so we walked down through the town. 11:49 Oh, it was probably a 10 minute walked through the busy streets 11:52 and then very quickly out into a small village. 11:55 And he was just so proud 11:59 to take me back to his tidy, small, dirty house. 12:05 His mother was so proud that I was there. 12:12 It was--it was what I call a tidy dirty house. 12:15 To us we couldn't think of living there 12:18 but to them in their own way it was tidy. 12:21 She looked after it and she was just so proud 12:24 that her boy was getting an education. 12:27 So it was just an eye-opener 12:30 to realize where the kids come from. 12:33 Now some of them live in better houses than that. 12:36 And so he gets home probably around 3:30-4:00 12:41 he busy helping his mother, he has to go and get water. 12:44 All the things you would imagine on the mission field 12:47 but for that boy to walk me through the streets 12:51 and to take me back to his house 12:53 and to see the reaction of his mom. 12:55 So I probably don't do that enough. Right. 12:57 I think the other things that are the orphans. 13:01 See orphans have nothing 13:03 and they are always pleased to see you, 13:05 they always call you sir 13:08 and they want to sit down and talk to you. 13:10 And so when things are going tough I go and talk to the kids. 13:15 Yeah, Jim, somebody viewing this program 13:17 they say perhaps I would like to sponsor a child, 13:21 how do they go about doing that? 13:24 Well, our key way of contacting us 13:26 is through our website asianaid.org 13:29 And child sponsorship, not everyone 13:32 can go to the mission field, not everyone can travel, 13:35 not everyone can go in a building trip. 13:37 But the great thing about sponsorship is 13:39 you know that every morning you are making a real difference 13:43 in the life of the child who is over there in the mission field. 13:47 And so you'll get school reports sometimes good, sometimes bad. 13:53 You can write to your child. 13:56 So child sponsorship is a very effective way 13:59 of having real live involvement in the mission field. Wonderful. 14:04 Jim, thank you so much for coming, sharing with us today. 14:08 And viewers at home, maybe God is calling you 14:13 to make a difference in the life of a child 14:15 in India or Nepal or Bangladesh. 14:19 Life is tough, life is very difficult 14:22 and there are many kids whose lives 14:23 have been changed through Asian Aid. 14:24 So go to asianaid.org and see if this is something 14:28 that you might be able to support. 14:29 I know my daughter, my seven year old, 14:32 receives letter from a girl that she is sponsoring in India 14:35 and helps open up her eyes 14:37 to a world of need and to connect with that. 14:39 And please pray for Asian Aid, pray for Jim and his team. 15:29 When I was a kid, we would go to camp meeting 15:31 and part of the excitement was 15:33 to meet "real life missionaries." 15:36 Well, I'm delighted to say that 15:38 my guest today is a real life missionary. 15:41 And, Greg, thanks for joining us. 15:43 Greg, you work with Global Mission. 15:44 You are the director of the center for east-- 15:47 The Global Mission Center for East Asian Religions. 15:50 It used to be called the Buddhist study center 15:52 but now we see that it's actually 15:54 bit more complex than just Buddhism. 15:56 Tell me a little bit about the scope of the center? 15:59 The center is working with Buddhist of course 16:05 that's our primary group that's been working with 16:08 over the last couple of decades. 16:10 But it also encompasses Taoism, and Confucianism, 16:15 Shinto and other East Asian religions, 16:18 traditions that maybe some of them are not so much 16:23 a religion but it's a mindset, it's a world view 16:26 that certainly impacts how people will understand 16:29 the good news of Jesus Christ. Sure. 16:32 Now, Greg, you are working in Bangkok, Thailand 16:37 before that where were you? 16:38 Well, I was working in another part of Southeast Asia 16:42 that is not open to the gospel so it's actually a area that we, 16:48 when we wrote articles and things we always suited then 16:51 because we didn't want to disclose the location. 16:53 But it's a country, communist country 16:56 that has beautiful people, and beautiful place to live 17:01 and enjoy these great peace and that's sort of thing 17:03 but not a lot of religious freedom. Yeah. 17:06 Now that's where I first met you and at that time 17:09 you were working for the educational needs 17:12 of the community and making a lot of friends I saw. 17:16 How long have you and your family been in Southeast Asia? 17:19 We've been there 11 years, 17:21 10 years before coming to the center 17:24 and enjoyed all of that. 17:26 It's just a beautiful place to be involved in living a life. 17:29 So 11 years and how long have you and Amy been married? 17:33 We've been married 17. 17:34 Okay, so majority of your life is been... 17:36 That's right. Yeah. 17:38 Now you have two children and you're living in a place 17:44 that is very different from where you come from, 17:46 what has led you to not only go as a missionary but to stay? 17:52 Well, we actually have three children. Oh, sorry. 17:56 You're right, we have two, 17:58 we got our own children 17:59 but we have a foster daughter that's been with us. 18:03 But that's all right. How old is she? 18:05 She is 13. Yes. 18:06 That's between our kids, who are 14, 11. 18:08 And she is a joy to our home and living with us now in Bangkok. 18:14 But we first got involved in missions was 18:17 when I was a student at Atlantic Union College 18:21 as a colporter, literature evangelist, 18:23 and that's mission, isn't it. Sure. 18:24 Going out and going door to door 18:26 and at that time I realized 18:27 I really wanting to focus my ministry 18:30 on those outside the church reaching the unreached. 18:34 And so made that, my wife and I got married 18:37 that was our dream that that's what we would focus our life on. 18:40 And when we were at the seminary felt the call to missions 18:45 and with the help of the mission's department 18:47 we join with Adventist Frontier Missions 18:49 and enjoyed serving for 10 years there in Laos. 18:52 And it wasn't always easy the first month I arrived 18:54 I was in ICU, almost passed away actually 18:57 because I had maybe dysentery with leptospirosis 19:01 and all these other kinds of tropical things 19:05 I didn't have any idea were so green 19:07 but God spared my life and we are still serving. 19:12 What a amazing experience it has been. Yeah. 19:15 Now, Greg, I know that recently 19:19 you went through tragedy in the family. 19:21 Tell us about that? 19:22 Well, when we were in our previous employment 19:28 in the different part of Southeast Asia there, 19:30 there were two girls that we-- 19:32 I was involved in children ministries in the field 19:35 and did a lot of work for children. 19:36 I had the first vacation Bible school in the country 19:39 and all these kinds of activities 19:40 but during that time, you know, I become aware 19:43 of different needs of different families 19:45 and not only our own daughter Seda but another girl 19:50 that is much younger we were also taking care of her. 19:55 Her father had been killed in gang activity, 19:57 her mother who had been gone since she was one month old, 20:00 actually in prison for dealing drugs. 20:02 And so her grandmother was trying to raise her 20:04 and she asked us to be kind of surrogate parents. 20:07 So we fostered her and helped 20:08 and that brought us a lot of joy 20:11 but she had a health condition called thalassemia 20:14 which is a blood disorder, and causes anemia 20:17 it can cause growth stunting and that sort of things. 20:21 And she required a monthly blood transfusion 20:25 since the time she was about four and a half. Oh, poor kid. 20:28 And yeah, it was very traumatic she was very unhealthy 20:31 so my wife is a nurse and would help her quite a bit 20:34 with stabilizing her health some and going to hospital. 20:37 Well, it was very difficult for us to leave a country 20:39 and to accept this call for one reason, 20:41 for many reasons but one of the reason is 20:43 because of course this little girl we'd have to leave behind 20:48 and that was difficult and the tragedy we went through 20:52 it was actually just in January we found out 20:55 that she got a spinal meningitis and they couldn't control it 20:59 and she was in ICU so we rushed to go be with her 21:03 and hope to get her better medical care, 21:05 take her to better hospital but she just didn't make it. 21:07 We got to say goodbye. 21:08 She was crying, she was actually in a coma, 21:11 but she woke up for just about an hour 21:13 able to say goodbye to her. 21:16 Very heart wrenching, you know, 21:18 and she coded when we try to transfer her 21:20 and while they were doing a heart compressions, 21:25 different chest compressions that sort of thing, 21:26 you know, just watching that thing 21:28 and holding the grandma next to me 21:30 and just saying God why, why, you know. 21:34 What a challenging experience that was 21:36 because here the six year old child now, 21:39 you know, she passes away. 21:42 The grandma went into a serious depression 21:44 and didn't know why was worth living anymore. 21:48 God had taken her son, now her granddaughter 21:51 and as how she saw it. 21:52 And to make a long story short we told her after few months 21:57 we said, please come and spend some time with us. 21:59 And we just began to go back through 22:01 the story of the plan of redemption, 22:05 but especially focusing on the meaning of Sabbath. 22:08 And on the picture the new earth and what that was going to be 22:14 where she can be reunited and raise her daughter, 22:16 her granddaughter rather in heaven. 22:18 And now she is excited she's got her faith restored 22:21 and she is sharing the blessing of God's plan 22:24 and the Sabbath with everybody. 22:27 And so we find that there is great comfort 22:29 in the promises of the new earth 22:31 and the time we reuntied with our loved ones. Yeah. 22:34 Thanks for sharing that with us, Greg. God bless you. 22:38 And viewers at home you know 22:39 there are so many joys in mission service 22:41 but there is also challenges, there's hurts and there is pain. 22:43 And please remember the thousands of missionaries 22:46 who are serving around the world today. 22:48 God will remain close to them and will comfort them 22:51 and encourage them and continue to support them. 23:01 It's Sabbath morning on this mountain top in China. 23:05 Above the simple village home stands a church. 23:09 Every week members of this village 23:11 gather to study and worship God. 23:14 Several years ago an Adventist member started visiting 23:17 the mountain tribal groups 23:18 and he made the long track up this mountain. 23:21 He found this village in a small group of people 23:23 who believed in Jesus and worshiped on Saturday, 23:27 only they didn't have a church building like this. 23:33 The man kept coming back and meeting with the people. 23:36 Together they built this church by hauling the materials 23:38 up the mountain in baskets on their backs, a 40 minutes hike. 23:45 Years ago there was 23:46 an Adventist family in this village. 23:48 This man's grandfather was studying to become 23:50 a worker for God at China training institute back in 1940. 23:55 Those were turbulent times and the school closed. 23:58 But through the years a small group of believers 24:01 remained faithful until one day a visitor found his lost tribe 24:05 and reignited the ember of faith in this village. 24:10 Today one third of the people in the village are Adventists. 24:14 Every Sabbath they gather to sing, pray, 24:16 and worship God in their church. 24:19 The children especially love it 24:21 when they share a meal after church. 24:27 Thank you for joining us on our visit to this 24:30 not so lost tribe and meeting the lovely people 24:33 who live and work in this village. 24:36 And thank you for your prayers 24:37 and support of mission work around the world. 24:48 Today we have a special offer on Global Mission Snapshots. 24:51 We know that many of our viewers love mission 24:53 and the different peoples, cultures, 24:55 and places around the world. 24:57 And so if you live in North America 24:59 and also enjoy eating we'd like to send you 25:01 a free copy of a new cookbook called "A Taste of Travel." 25:06 This beautifully illustrated book features soups and stews 25:09 from more than a 130 countries. 25:12 So if you live in North America, 25:13 simply call our toll free number 1-800-648-5824 25:19 or visit our website and ask for "A Taste of Travel" 25:23 or just mention the soup cookbook. 25:25 This book is completely free 25:27 although if you'd like to include a small donation 25:30 we'd be happy to receive it. 25:31 But hurry because supplies are limited. 25:34 And don't forget to clearly state your name and address. 25:37 And we'll send you a copy while supplies last. 25:41 Please pray for the people and places you see here each week. 25:45 And thank you to those of you who call or go online 25:48 and support Global Mission projects. 25:50 Thank you for helping us to reach the unreached with hope. 25:54 Until next time, I'm Gary Krause for Global Mission Snapshots. |
Revised 2014-12-17