Fourteen million people live
in the London Metropolitan Area
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and reportedly some 300
languages are spoken here,
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making it perhaps the
world's most international city.
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"Mission in London" and
much more coming up next.
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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. 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 and welcome to
"Global Mission Snapshots."
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Taking you around the
world to see mission in action,
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today's program is coming
to you from London, England,
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full of remarkable landmarks
such as Buckingham Palace.
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On today's program,
we'll take you 360 degrees
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around the world.
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First up, let's
travel to South Sudan,
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and meet a couple
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who are educating
young minds for eternity.
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Eyira Adventist
Vocational Academy
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is a struggling
Seventh-day Adventist school
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located in Southern Sudan.
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It was in 1996
they opened its doors
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and they have
been holding the school
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each year since
then, even though
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the first eight or
nine years were during war.
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Sudanese are
flowing to Uganda, to Kenya,
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to look for
education opportunities
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in larger numbers.
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That's why I say this so,
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if there is
somebody outside there
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who wants to come in here,
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bringing education opportunities
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I think is
answering the true need
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of the Sudanese people.
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Lowell and Neria Jenks
are heading to Southern Sudan
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to start a vocational
program for the school.
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I think that they
realize that you know,
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we're like fish out of water,
coming all the way over here.
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And they're apparently doing
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what they can to make us fit in,
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feel comfortable and
to make it home for us.
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This is brother Lowell Jenks.
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Lowell will be heading up
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the new
vocational section of EAVA,
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and his wife Neria
who will be librarian
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and giving some assistance
in the office as well.
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You've made us feel welcome.
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We're calling this home.
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Thank you.
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You can see, green trees
and flowers, pretty full.
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We were
originally brought in here
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to initiate a
vocational program.
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The name of this school
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is Eyira Adventist
Vocational Academy.
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And other than teaching
agriculture to the students,
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nothing was being done.
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And I don't know how many years
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it had been since
a more formal type
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of a vocational
program was going on.
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But they wanted to come in
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and make the
part of the vocation
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in the school's
name more of a reality.
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With my English,
I've got to say things
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three to four or
five times sometimes
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before they really
grasp what I'm saying.
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So we put a whole
outline on the board,
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we explain
everything two or three times
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and I try to have some
kind of a training DVD or video
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that they can also look at
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because they pick
up additional things
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that I'm trying to give them.
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To me, living in South Sudan
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is like going many
years back in Belize,
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because when I was growing
up, we did everything manually,
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you know, electricity,
we didn't have electricity.
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So we go to bed when
the sun goes down and rise
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when the sun came up
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and basically
that's what we do here.
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Dishes, breakfast
and lunch together,
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so we don't use much water.
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You know, we live in
a nice house compared to
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what the average
Sudanese lives in.
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It was built by
somebody from ADRA,
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and it's a brick masonry house
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and we do have power of sorts.
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I think there's one
outlet in each room.
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We get power about
three hours a night
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from 7:30 to 10:30.
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For somebody like me
who goes to bed at 8:30
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I don't always get to
advantage myself of it.
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Anyhow, water we
catch most of our water
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throughout the year
off of the roof, gutters
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and a couple of
plastic cisterns.
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Dry months if we're
here during the dry months
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we hire a young lady to
carry water about a mile
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from the borehole.
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As far as
transportation, somebody,
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a former missionary
left me a motorcycle.
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And I do go around some on that.
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Although, limited
during the rainy season
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because I-- the
road gets very slippery.
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The school has a Land Cruiser
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and if we have to we go to town
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but otherwise
there are weeks at a time
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that we never, pretty
much leave the school.
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My guest is
Mfakazi who is planting
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a church here in London.
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Thanks for
joining us. Thank you.
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And appreciate the
warm welcome here today.
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Mfakazi, you've already
planted a church in London.
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How did that
start? Tell me the story.
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Well, I was a
member of my church
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in East London there
and one of my friends,
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we started talking
about being more involved
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and really
making a greater impact
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with what we have as Adventists.
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So we started
reading the book by Barrow,
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"Revolution in the Church."
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And understanding
the founding principles
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of our church.
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How pastors were evangelists
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and how they would
then train the lay members,
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to then continue
leading the church
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and they would move on
to planting other churches.
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And how this was so attractive
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to other
congregations to the extent that
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their used to come to
us and say, how is it that
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the Adventist
Church is growing so fast?
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And the principles there
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which are in the book
of Acts were coming out,
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that this is the
model that Paul used
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and this is what we use.
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And based on that understanding,
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I couldn't sit
on that information.
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I then resolved to go
out and try and create,
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encourage a lay
church planting movement
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in the South England Conference.
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And just went out and started
Sure Way Community Church.
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Well, just so that
our viewers know this,
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you were fully
employed as a software engineer
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or designer, you were in IT.
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Yes, I am in IT
and working a full day
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as you can
appreciate these days.
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As a solution
architect consultant in IT,
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but I see ministry as
actually of primary importance.
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Wonderful, so you
decided with your friend
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that you are
going to plant a church.
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What happened?
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Well, we started,
in the first year,
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we started reading this book.
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We used to meet every Wednesday,
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but at the end of the year
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I went to the SEEDS Conference
in Andrews University in 2000
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and when I came back, I
said to my congregation,
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I wouldn't be continuing,
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I would go out
and plant a church.
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So I worked
with the local church
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and put together a
church planting plan
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that got
approval from the church
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and the church
board and we went out
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to start planting the church.
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But the curious thing
is, whenever you set out,
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it's good having an
intellectual assent,
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it's another thing to
actually take a step out
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and plant the church,
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so those I started
with did not continue.
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But with my family and a
few others about half a dozen
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or so of us went ahead
and planted the church.
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And in this--
well, it's a community
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with very few Adventists.
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And an area of deprivation,
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a lot of social problems.
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So we
established the church there
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and it's still
going strong today.
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Wonderful, and the good
news is you've already started
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on planting your
second group of believers.
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Yes, so two years
ago I went out into
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another neighboring area
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and with a group
of about 12 people
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and we are now in our beginning
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of our third year
in planting that church
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and the vision in
this particular community
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is to establish a center
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of influence on the high street,
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so that the
church can be present
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at least six days a week,
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rubbing shoulders with
people in this community
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and us making a
difference in that area.
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I just love
that. So what are the--
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You're starting a
center of influence,
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what are the
principles that guide you
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as you seek to start
this group of believers?
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Well, as I said,
one of the principles
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I believe in is that
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the church should be
part of the community.
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Wonderful.
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So one of the principles is that
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people who belong to this church
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must be within a
specific radius of the church,
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so that they can be dissolved.
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And so we can do the
mingling and the mixing.
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And we can put into
practice Christ's method.
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So some of our ministry ideas
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are all about
mixing and mingling.
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So one of the examples
00:11:14.92\00:11:16.20
that we are currently
doing is that once a month,
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there is a farmer's market
in the High Street in this town
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and we have taken a
stall in that farmers market.
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And so every first
Sunday of the month,
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we're out there, on the
stall, sharing healthy food
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and also our church literature.
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We run health
seminars, again people come
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and we share with
them the principles
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of the church in terms of health
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and that is the way
we continue to build
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relationships
with these individuals.
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Okay, so no community church
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where people drive
in and then go away,
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you're actually
embedded in the community.
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We're trying to be
part of that community
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and be embedded
in the community.
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Know the issues that
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we share in
common with those people.
00:12:09.36\00:12:12.03
While we do surveys but at least
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we know some of the
issues directly ourselves
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because we live
in the community.
00:12:17.45\00:12:19.20
Now are you funded
entirely by the church?
00:12:19.23\00:12:23.24
No, Obviously, no.
00:12:23.27\00:12:25.44
In fact we haven't
taken any funding at all
00:12:25.47\00:12:27.29
from the
conference for this program.
00:12:27.32\00:12:31.37
It's entirely sacrificial.
00:12:31.40\00:12:34.13
What we are actually doing,
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one of our
founding principles is,
00:12:35.27\00:12:38.98
as the churches are saying,
00:12:39.01\00:12:40.74
the original
church is now returning
00:12:40.77\00:12:44.19
a significant amount of tithe.
00:12:44.22\00:12:46.26
To the conference and of course,
00:12:46.29\00:12:48.51
within that church we
don't have a paid employee.
00:12:48.54\00:12:52.10
Its lay lead.
00:12:52.13\00:12:53.16
Its lay lead
which means the funds
00:12:53.19\00:12:55.13
that are generated
by this church plant
00:12:55.16\00:12:59.40
or this new church, can be used
00:12:59.43\00:13:01.91
by the conference to
target an un-entered area.
00:13:01.94\00:13:05.92
Where they can send
an evangelistic pastor
00:13:05.95\00:13:08.73
to go and raise a
church in that community.
00:13:08.76\00:13:12.83
So we're bringing
about a greater level
00:13:12.86\00:13:15.77
of involvement of people
00:13:15.80\00:13:17.51
who would
otherwise be warming benches
00:13:17.54\00:13:19.94
in the big mother church
00:13:19.97\00:13:22.17
but when they come
into this smaller community,
00:13:22.20\00:13:25.03
there can be a
greater level of involvement.
00:13:25.06\00:13:27.82
But we are also
facilitating the growth
00:13:27.85\00:13:31.01
of our aggressive mission
00:13:31.04\00:13:33.36
by actually
saying to the conference,
00:13:33.39\00:13:35.18
here are our resources,
we don't need a pastor here,
00:13:35.21\00:13:39.90
you use that money to send
an evangelist somewhere else.
00:13:39.93\00:13:43.58
Fantastic, wonderful story
00:13:43.61\00:13:45.76
and God bless you
and your ministry.
00:13:45.79\00:13:47.51
Thank you.
00:13:47.54\00:13:48.74
What an exciting thing
00:13:48.77\00:13:50.49
that's happening
right here in London,
00:13:50.52\00:13:52.49
in a territory of
so many million people.
00:13:52.52\00:13:55.29
Don't go away,
we'll be right back
00:13:55.32\00:13:57.03
straight after this break.
00:13:57.06\00:13:58.79