At age 70, Panu
hears the name of Jesus
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for the very first time.
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That may sound
surprising but it's not unusual
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in this populous
region of the world.
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We'll hear the amazing story
of a family of new believers
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that reached out to Panu
by meeting a physical need.
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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
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telling them of His love."
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This is our mission.
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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On today's program
we'll travel to Thailand
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to experience the creative
work of urban missionaries
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who've humbly
dedicated years of their life
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to start new
groups of believers.
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We'll also travel to
Ukraine to meet children
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who've experienced the
power of sincere prayer
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in a marvelous way.
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All of this on today's
Global Mission Snapshots,
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but let's start by
meeting Lek and Mai
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the dedicated couple
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who introduced
Panu to Jesus Christ.
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Welcome to
Bangkok, the city of angels.
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Bangkok's
temples are a unique part
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of the capital's heart and soul.
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The architecture is breathtaking
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and the glittering
decorations shine brightly
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on a thousand
pieces of colored glass
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and pottery-adorned structures.
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The glaring gold
and the shiny fragments
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may explain one of Bangkok's
nicknames, a city of angels.
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Bangkok is the largest
city and capital of Thailand.
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Located in East Asia,
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Thailand is home to
more than 66 million people.
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The Seventh-day Adventist church
is growing slowly in Thailand.
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So far, there one Adventist
to almost 5,000 Thai people.
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Undoubtedly, Thailand is a
place where many have not had
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much opportunity to
learn the story of Jesus,
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not even once in
their entire lives.
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Isn't that hard to grasp?
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This is Lek, he
is a taxi driver.
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Lek and his wife Mai
have recently been baptized
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thanks to the work of
a Global Mission pioneer.
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They are so
deeply in love with Jesus
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that they decided to convert
their house into a church.
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As Lek drives his taxi,
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he shares the Bible
with his passengers.
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He often listens
to the Word of God
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and encourages people
with promises from the Bible.
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He wants to drive his
passengers to their destination
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and to the
knowledge of a loving Savior.
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As he works, his wife
Mai spends part of her time
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visiting neighbors
and making friends.
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Her goal is the same.
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She wants to share
Jesus' love with others.
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Today, they
have a special guest.
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His name is Panu.
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Panu is a
retired security guard,
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he could no longer walk
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until he met
pioneer Alvin, Lek and Mai.
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After receiving massage therapy
and learning new healthy habits,
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Panu can now walk.
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The house church is a
special place for Panu.
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Here for the
first time in his life,
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he heard the name of Jesus.
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He was 70 years old
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when he started
to study the Bible.
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A year later, he continues
to attend this house church.
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Lek and Mai
often study the Bible
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with the friends they meet.
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There are many pioneers
working here in Bangkok.
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Some of them have
spent five, six, seven years
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to engage the community
and earn their respect.
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Meet Reben a
Global Mission pioneer.
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Like Reben many pioneers
in this city rent a place
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to live where there
is no Adventist presence.
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They tend to live
on the second floor
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and reserve the main level
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for activities
with the community.
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Here they teach
English, cooking,
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health and spirituality.
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On Saturdays the main floor
even becomes a place of worship.
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You see, it takes many years
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of tireless
effort to establish trust
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and a positive
presence in a new community.
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Global Mission
pioneers who work in Bangkok
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promote a variety of
events to connect with people.
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Nature and
spirituality are valued here,
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so one Sabbath a month
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a group of Global
Mission pioneers invite children
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and their families
for "Nature Encounter."
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Here they sing Bible songs,
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so the children can learn
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the amazing
stories of men and women
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who conquered their
challenges with God's help.
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The families eat a
nutritious meal together,
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and then explore the
beautiful faces of nature
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as they encounter
the artistic creator.
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The Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Thailand
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sees a need and fills that need.
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People in the city,
often live busy lives.
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They forget to properly care
for their body and their health.
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So church members hold a
special health expo to remind,
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educate and
encourage a positive change.
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Here nurses,
doctors, psychologists,
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educators and pastors
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are united to
serve the community.
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All of the services
are offered free-of-charge.
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The health fair
was held outside MBK,
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one of the largest
shopping centers in Bangkok.
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Thousands came to
assess their health
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and discover how to better care
for their body, mind and soul.
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Because of
dedicated men and women,
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missionaries and pioneers,
the Seventh-day Adventist church
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is making an
everlasting impact in Bangkok.
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Through large health expos
or humble pioneers like Alvin,
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a chain-reaction begins.
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We pray God
will continue to send
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His angels to Bangkok, His city.
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My guests are
Don and Laura Noble
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from Maranatha
Volunteers International.
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Don and Laura,
thanks for joining us.
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Thanks. Good to be here.
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Maranatha Volunteers in
a nutshell what do you do?
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We build churches and schools
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and a lot of it with
volunteers around the world
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and try to
respond to the requests
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from the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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which of course
right now about 180,000.
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About 180,000
requests around the world.
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So this year we will be doing
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a little more
than 1,700 buildings.
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Yeah, that's--
Kind of be a scope.
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That's a huge amount.
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It is for a year but you know
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when you think
about that total number
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that were
requested to us you know--
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Now Gary, those we haven't
went every where those locations
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but and there's a lot of other
ways the things could be done
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but that's just
the specific requests
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we have so, its good thing
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because gospels
going around the world,
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moving into new
areas of the world.
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Yeah, that's
what it really means
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is the Seventh-day Adventist
church is really growing.
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Yeah, so it's a good
sign. It's a good sign.
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It's absolutely a good sign and,
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you know, since we've started
doing the one day church,
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you know, connection with ASI
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it's allowed us to
hit more locations faster
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so that's not the
only type of building we do
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but it's able to
function quite well
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in certain parts of the world.
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Now the volunteer
part of your name,
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how important is
that to what you do?
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Oh, what do we say
it's our middle name.
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Yeah.
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It's absolutely critical
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because when
people go their lives
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are changed, they come back,
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they get excited, they
get their church excited
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and then they support the
projects around the world.
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They get more involved
in their local church, too.
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So the mission of Maranatha
is really to build people
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and part of that
happens with the volunteer
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and part of that
happens with the people we leave
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or the people we
join in our local country.
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So it's on both
sides of the fence
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and I think it's really
phenomenal what happens.
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I mean my personal life
has been changed completely
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by going on Maranatha trip.
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That's interesting.
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Personally spiritually but
also it's how you got know Don,
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right and got married?
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Actually that's
a very long story.
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That's a long story,
yeah. We won't go into that.
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Actually I knew
Don long before that.
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Okay. Yeah.
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Well, now when I
first met you Don,
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that was in Cuba many years ago
and what's happening there now?
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Well, we've been
there about 20 years now
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and I can remember the
first time and there was,
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you know, with a
certain amount of fear
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we didn't know what to expect.
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We heard a lot of stories
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and people said you
couldn't do anything.
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So we said well, let's find out.
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And we went in
and it was difficult
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but the Lord has really blessed,
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the church has
grown tremendously
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and we've been blessed
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to be able to do
over 200 projects there.
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And been neat to
see what's happened,
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the people now
have places to worship
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in most of the
places in the country.
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There's a current project
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that's been on the
list for 19 years now.
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It's shortly we started there
it came on as a request level
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and it's been so
complicated to get permission.
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From the
government? From the government.
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They've worked well
with us I have to say that
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but this one has been tough.
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And I'll just tell really quick
story about that congregation,
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they meet in a
terrible little place.
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In fact, every single
Sabbath people come there,
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people just leave
because it's just too crowded.
00:10:07.11\00:10:09.94
And they had heard
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that we're gonna
build them a church
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and they knew that we
built a lot of other churches.
00:10:13.12\00:10:15.15
And we're there on
a Sabbath in Havana,
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we decided to go and just
take a look at that building
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where somebody tipped them off,
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we didn't know it.
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We came by lately afternoon
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and they'd all been
sitting all day waiting for us.
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And so I thought, oh,
boy, what are we gonna do?
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Because we can't
build them a church,
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we have no
permission, we have no money
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and so I was just
gonna get back in van
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and leave and they said
no, I got to talk to them.
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I said I won't
talk to them. Yeah.
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Because we know what
the answer is gonna be.
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Because I can't tell
what they want to hear.
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You know, it's like a...
00:10:47.59\00:10:48.62
But so I went in there,
I stood up and I thought,
00:10:48.65\00:10:51.22
Lord, what do I
say to these people?
00:10:51.25\00:10:52.73
They're sitting
there with expected faces
00:10:52.76\00:10:55.32
and I said well, tell the truth.
00:10:55.35\00:10:58.26
So I said why do
you think we're here?
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You're gonna build us a church.
00:11:00.62\00:11:02.72
I said well, I'm sorry.
00:11:02.75\00:11:04.35
We don't have
permission, we don't have money.
00:11:04.38\00:11:06.69
And they
started to cry out loud.
00:11:06.72\00:11:10.78
Most of the members there
00:11:10.81\00:11:12.06
absolute tears
running down their face.
00:11:12.09\00:11:14.40
That was just a horrible feeling
00:11:14.43\00:11:15.97
so I said, give me send
up a prayer, what do you do?
00:11:16.00\00:11:20.93
Tell them that there's
still hope, they can pray.
00:11:20.96\00:11:24.15
And there is hope with prayer.
00:11:24.18\00:11:25.99
So they said okay, let's do
it right now this is good idea.
00:11:26.02\00:11:29.28
So they said, let's select
00:11:29.31\00:11:30.55
one person from the congregation
00:11:30.58\00:11:31.98
and they'll go
up and they'll pray,
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so they selected a
little 11-year-old girl.
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And she marches up to the front
with no fear it didn't appear.
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She turned around, you know,
00:11:40.36\00:11:43.07
she looked up to heaven,
00:11:43.10\00:11:45.12
folded her hands and she
says, Dear Jesus, thank You
00:11:45.15\00:11:47.93
for giving us
our new church, amen.
00:11:47.96\00:11:51.27
Oh, wow. A prayer of faith.
00:11:51.30\00:11:53.72
Oh, that's certainly going.
00:11:53.75\00:11:56.20
I think this
church is gonna happen.
00:11:56.23\00:11:57.54
Yeah.
00:11:57.57\00:11:58.60
No pressure but
this is gonna happen.
00:11:58.63\00:12:00.17
Well, you know, God
has never said no to that.
00:12:00.20\00:12:02.75
We're very
close now to get ready
00:12:02.78\00:12:04.30
to start that church,
so it is gonna happen.
00:12:04.33\00:12:07.08
And when you
first started in Cuba,
00:12:07.11\00:12:08.90
it was very, very difficult
00:12:08.93\00:12:10.19
because I mean
for any foreign entity
00:12:10.22\00:12:13.36
to come in and do anything,
00:12:13.39\00:12:14.45
it was kind of
almost unprecedented.
00:12:14.48\00:12:15.77
Yeah, absolutely.
00:12:15.80\00:12:17.46
So it's been
great but, you know,
00:12:17.49\00:12:20.72
around the world,
different places of--
00:12:20.75\00:12:22.40
working lot in
Africa, still in India.
00:12:22.43\00:12:24.49
Yeah, Gary, one other things
00:12:24.52\00:12:25.63
we're doing in India
right now is education.
00:12:25.66\00:12:27.51
I have heard it said
that one of the geniuses
00:12:27.54\00:12:30.03
of the Adventist system
is our educational system.
00:12:30.06\00:12:33.40
And it's just so
important to grow children
00:12:33.43\00:12:36.47
up in a system learning
to know Christ at a young age
00:12:36.50\00:12:40.84
and so we're really trying
to emphasize that as well.
00:12:40.87\00:12:43.39
Fantastic.
00:12:43.42\00:12:44.53
Well, thank you, Don and Laura,
00:12:44.56\00:12:45.98
for all that you're doing
through Maranatha Volunteers.
00:12:46.01\00:12:48.49
It's a privilege.
00:12:48.52\00:12:49.62
And viewers at home,
00:12:49.65\00:12:50.68
please remember Maranatha
Volunteers in your prayers
00:12:50.71\00:12:53.40
and to find out
more information,
00:12:53.43\00:12:55.27
just go to Maranatha.org.
00:12:55.30\00:12:57.72
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:12:57.75\00:12:59.45