On today's program
Adventist schools in India
00:00:01.06\00:00:03.40
helping children
prepare for a better future
00:00:03.43\00:00:06.06
and Global Mission Pioneers
00:00:06.09\00:00:07.66
in the African
nation of Botswana
00:00:07.69\00:00:10.07
all that and much
more coming up next
00:00:10.10\00:00:12.38
on Global Mission Snapshots.
00:00:12.41\00:00:14.11
Just before He
went up to heaven,
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Jesus gave us a command.
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He gave us a mission.
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Jesus said, go.
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Go unto all the world,
telling them of His love.
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This is our mission.
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This is our "Global Mission."
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Hello, I'm Gary Krause
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and welcome to
Global Mission Snapshots,
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a program where we
look at what's happening
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with Adventist Mission
here and around the world.
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In recent years the
Seventh-day Adventist Church
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has increasingly focused
on Mission to the Cities.
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According to the
Global Health Observatory
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a hundred years ago
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two out of every ten
people lived in urban areas.
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Today it's more
than five out of ten
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and in a few years
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the vast
majority of human beings
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will be living in cities.
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Today, we'll be talking
with doctor Gaspar Colon
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from Washington
Adventist University
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and the Center from
Metropolitan Ministry.
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We will also be
talking with Wes Via
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who was leading Simplicity
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an urban outreach project
in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
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Before we meet our guests
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several years ago the
Seventh-day Adventist Church
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chose several major cities
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for special prayer
and holistic outreach.
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Let's join Gerson Santos
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who is the Director of the
Global Mission Urban Center
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as he introduces us
to some of those cities.
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Mission to the Cities,
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this is probably the
most important initiative
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that Seventh-day
Adventist Church ever had.
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About 200 years ago
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just three percent
of the world population
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was living in the cities
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now we have more than half
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of the people in the
world living in the urban area.
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In a couple of decades
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we're gonna have three quarters
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of the whole
population of the world
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live in those major cities.
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The Seventh-day Adventist Church
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decided to reach out
to those urban areas.
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In each
division around the world
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one city was selected
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and all over the world we
have about 600 major cities
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that will be
reaching in a couple of years.
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Let's see some of those
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most challenging
cities around the world.
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One of the Mission to the Cities
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urban areas is Lagos, Nigeria.
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A port city, Lagos is located
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on the southern
coast of Nigeria,
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the largest city in the country
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and one of the largest
on the continent of Africa.
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Lagos has an estimated
population of 13 million people.
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The economic success of the city
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is attracting more
people all the time
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and Lagos
continues to grow rapidly.
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Some place the
population as high as 21 million
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yet here in one of the largest
urban areas of the world,
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there are just about
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100 Adventist
churches in the city
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and only about
12,000 Adventist believers.
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We know that God is here
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and God will give us the means
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and the ways and the
courage, and the wisdom
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about how to come
about the whole program.
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And we are sure
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that by the end of this
year and the years after,
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we will witness some
miracles in this city
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because we want Lagos
to be won for Christ Jesus.
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Prague, the capital
of the Czech Republic,
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is also its largest city.
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Founded in the 9th century,
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today Prague is a mix
of modern and historical.
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Although there are
more than 1.4 million
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inhabitants in this city,
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you will find less than
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10 Seventh-day
Adventist churches
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and only about
700 Adventist members,
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that's a
fraction of one percent.
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One of the
challenges for the church
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is to create a strategy
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of evangelistic
work in the cities,
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which will focus on the
context in which people live,
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where their needs are,
where their injuries are,
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and where they need help.
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Let's go across the ocean
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and look to another
challenging urban area.
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Built on the
ruins of an Aztec city
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and what was once a lake,
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Mexico City has grown rapidly
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and it's said that the
city's population doubled
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between 1930 and 1950.
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Today, Mexico City is one
of the world's largest cities
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with a greater metro population
of 23.6 million people.
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There are nearly
54,000 Seventh-day Adventists
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and more than 200 churches,
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that's still less than a quarter
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of one percent
of the population.
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The city of
Kinshasa is the capital
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of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
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Here Adventists
are using unique ways
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such as street music to
reach people in their community.
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Kinshasa has a population
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that is
approaching 10 million people.
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There are about 8,000 Adventists
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and nearly 70
churches less than 0.1 percent.
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My guest is Dr. Gaspar Colon
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from Washington
Adventist University.
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Dr. Colon is also the Director
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of the Center for
Metropolitan Ministry.
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Welcome, Gaspar.
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I'm glad to be here.
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I'm glad you're here
because Mission to the Cities
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is such an
important mission challenge
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that we're facing today
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I know it's been a
passion of yours for many years.
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How did that start?
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Actually it is something
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which starts with
experiencing something
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and then later
as the years go by
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learning about it from books
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and other people who
have experienced it also.
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Back in 1971, when
I was just one year
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from graduating from college
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I had met a young lady
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and we were had
courted and we were engaged in
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and we were called as a
collegiate task force couple
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to work in Times
Square in New York City.
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And so we went to
the New York Centre
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which was right
there on 46th Street
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in The Times Square
area in the Theater District.
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And we were tasked with
meeting the needs of community
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that is right there
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in Times Square
residential community.
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And so we did everything
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that we could to get
acquainted with the area.
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We decided that
we would provide them
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with some of the
programs that we that-
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that were very
popular at the time.
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Stop smoking clinics,
weight control programs
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and things of that nature.
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And so we talked to a few people
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but we had already
decided what we wanted to do.
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And so we printed up fliers,
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we went into the
residential community,
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we hand these out we
put them on store windows
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and eagerly anticipating
large crowds of people
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to come and to nobody came.
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And we- and we
were just surprised
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because we had
talked to so many people.
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Said yes, I would
come but nobody came.
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And there's as we
began to analyze this
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we figured well
we better go back
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in the community and
discover from the people
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why they weren't coming.
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I mean where we were
was only half a block
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away from 8th Avenue and
the residential community
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was on the other
side of 8th Avenue.
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They wouldn't walk across
and into the Theater District.
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And when we asked they
said we don't go there.
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And we said but it's just I
mean we can see it from here,
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we don't go there.
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And as we look
that what we were doing
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we figured we're not going to be
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able to reach these
people from that section of town
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we have to move
in to the community.
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And so we relocated the ministry
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by looking for
and finding a place
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where we could do the work
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that we were called to do.
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So they were
basically saying that's an area
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the tourist may go
to but it's not for us.
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That's right, there
no grocery stores there,
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it's all first foods
and high-class restaurants
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and theaters and we
have nothing to do there.
00:09:36.44\00:09:40.66
So this is something
that I heard you emphasize
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many, many times that you
have to understand the community
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because it has its own rhythms,
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it has its own
ways of doing things.
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That's right.
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And too often we think
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we know what they need
and we bring it in, right.
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That's right.
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So what did you do,
you obviously started a-
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you moved across
to the right place
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and then what did you do?
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Well, what we did
is we looked around
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we found to this storefront
00:10:01.67\00:10:04.68
between a former
church that we later found out
00:10:04.71\00:10:08.51
was a discotheque
and a Chinese laundry
00:10:08.54\00:10:12.49
and it was maybe
nine or ten feet wide
00:10:12.52\00:10:15.45
and 30 feet deep.
00:10:15.48\00:10:17.36
And it was- it was sufficiently.
00:10:17.39\00:10:20.30
We carpeted it and
we wanted to set it up
00:10:20.33\00:10:24.11
at the same time
while we were doing that
00:10:24.14\00:10:26.19
we were visiting the school's
00:10:26.22\00:10:28.14
and offering the health teachers
00:10:28.17\00:10:31.13
and the science teachers
to help the kids understand
00:10:31.16\00:10:36.64
about smoking and
health issues and drugs.
00:10:36.67\00:10:41.35
And so we came
in with little talks
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for the third,
fourth, fifth graders
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and then in the middle
school also we went in,
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they used to be
called junior high schools
00:10:52.63\00:10:54.61
back then in New York City.
00:10:54.64\00:10:56.99
And we got acquainted with all
the children in the community
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who were going to
school in that, in that area.
00:11:00.25\00:11:03.16
That opened the way for
us to get to know the parents
00:11:03.19\00:11:06.12
because as we went
around visiting the neighborhood
00:11:06.15\00:11:10.35
and talking to people it-
00:11:10.38\00:11:12.70
it just began to
become very family like
00:11:12.73\00:11:17.19
and we were very much in tune
00:11:17.22\00:11:20.75
with what was
happening in that community.
00:11:20.78\00:11:23.66
Then of course
we wanted to kickoff
00:11:23.69\00:11:26.67
the inauguration of
our community center.
00:11:26.70\00:11:31.22
And we needed to put up a sign
00:11:31.25\00:11:33.89
and in those days a
bubble letters were in
00:11:33.92\00:11:39.43
and so we got
this thick Styrofoam
00:11:39.46\00:11:42.20
and we were going to do
the shaping of the letters,
00:11:42.23\00:11:46.50
"the opened door" and so-
00:11:46.53\00:11:51.00
but we didn't want to
do it inside of the center,
00:11:51.03\00:11:55.32
so we figured would
go down to a playground
00:11:55.35\00:11:58.59
down the street
and get that done.
00:11:58.62\00:12:01.40
And as we did that
there were some kids
00:12:01.43\00:12:04.67
that were playing basketball
00:12:04.70\00:12:06.49
and one of them came over
and said what are you doing?
00:12:06.52\00:12:08.95
And we say well we're
putting together a sign
00:12:08.98\00:12:13.40
for a community
center down the street.
00:12:13.43\00:12:15.89
And he said well, can I help?
00:12:15.92\00:12:18.75
And so he started helping
and we gave them the tools
00:12:18.78\00:12:21.62
and his starter
shaping the letter
00:12:21.65\00:12:23.81
and one of his friends came.
00:12:23.84\00:12:26.43
And when his
friend asked he said
00:12:26.46\00:12:30.26
well we're,
we're building a sign
00:12:30.29\00:12:32.29
for our new
community center down street.
00:12:32.32\00:12:36.22
And so
immediately it just seems like
00:12:36.25\00:12:40.16
they were wanting this so much
00:12:40.19\00:12:42.40
this became their
project as well as our project
00:12:42.43\00:12:45.49
and that's how a ministry
00:12:45.52\00:12:47.42
with pathfinder's
and stop smoking programs
00:12:47.45\00:12:50.76
and people would come and
it was a busy place in town
00:12:50.79\00:12:54.59
because they were feeling
that they owned this place
00:12:54.62\00:13:00.04
as a place where they could
come after school hang out,
00:13:00.07\00:13:04.43
do things and have their parents
00:13:04.46\00:13:07.35
involved also in programs.
00:13:07.38\00:13:09.67
Fantastic.
00:13:09.70\00:13:11.12
Thank you
Gaspar, for reminding us
00:13:11.15\00:13:13.52
of the first
step in urban mission
00:13:13.55\00:13:15.33
and that is to be understand
00:13:15.36\00:13:16.87
to become one
with the community.
00:13:16.90\00:13:18.92
Our viewers at home,
00:13:18.95\00:13:20.35
if you want to learn
more about urban mission
00:13:20.38\00:13:22.59
just go to
missiontothecities.org
00:13:22.62\00:13:24.87
and we also have reminder
for your Mission 360 Magazine,
00:13:24.90\00:13:29.24
full of mission stories
from all around the world
00:13:29.27\00:13:31.48
including urban mission stories.
00:13:31.51\00:13:33.62
You can go to Mission360Mag.org
00:13:33.65\00:13:36.60
and there you can read it
online and you can get an app
00:13:36.63\00:13:39.37
for your
various types of readers
00:13:39.40\00:13:42.30
from Kindle through to whatever.
00:13:42.33\00:13:44.63
So thank you so much for
joining us today, Dr. Colon.
00:13:44.66\00:13:48.08
Thank you. My God bless you.
00:13:48.11\00:13:49.45