Welcome back to Mexico City.
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Next up, we travel to Malawi
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where a Seventh-day
Adventist missionary doctor
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is working in an
urban environment
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as the only cardiologist
in the entire country.
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Dr. Tiffany
Priester and her husband
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recently caught
up with Rick Kajuira
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at the Adventist
World Headquarters.
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Thank you, Gary.
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Our guests today are Dr.
Tiffany Priester and Darryl
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who come to us
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all the way from
the country of Malawi
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in Southern Africa.
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Thank you for joining us today.
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It's our pleasure.
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Now, where are
you from originally?
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I grow up in the
Southern California region
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near Loma Linda.
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Okay, near Loma Linda
where you also studied.
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Yes. Okay.
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Now how did you end up
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as a medical
missionary in Malawi?
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Was it always your dream
to be a medical missionary
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or was it
something that just hit
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when you're in
medical school like?
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As far as I can remember
it was one of my dreams.
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I actually grow up
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listening to a
radio station called KSGN
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and they
featured mission stories
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and Loma Linda
often had missionaries,
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especially medical
missionaries returning.
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And those stories inspired me
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and I said, you know,
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I want to be a
medical missionary.
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I'm sure
somewhere along the line,
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I changed my mind several times,
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and by the time I was
in Walla Walla College,
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I knew I was a premed major,
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I was going to be in medicine
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and I was probably going to
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try to be an
Africa medical missionary.
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And as my freshman
year of medical school,
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I signed up for the
Deferred Mission Appointee
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or DMA program
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and this is where I've ended up.
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Okay.
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And, Darryl,
when you met Tiffany,
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did you know that
she had this dream
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of being a medical
missionary someday or?
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I didn't.
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I haven't been
going on mission trips
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for many years myself.
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And when I was
in youth ministry,
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I took kids on mission trips
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and the idea that we
might take a longer term trip,
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sounded great to me.
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Okay.
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Out of curiosity,
where did you go on
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with your kids on mission trips?
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Mostly Mexico.
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Okay. Right.
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Now, listen to
the mission stories
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well being medical missionary
and being in medical missionary
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may or may not
be the same thing.
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Were your expectations fulfilled
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when you reached
Malawi or what was that like?
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I learned by
traveling over the years
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that I shouldn't have
very many expectations
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but even so, even
with the few expectations
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I had, it's
always quite different.
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The hospital I
work out is in the city
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and it's much
different from the rural stories
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that people used to
present as missionaries,
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so I actually work a lot
with the middle and upper class
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and some with
the poor and people,
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and I have a
lot more, I can use.
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We have antibiotics,
we have ventilators,
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we have an intensive care unit
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and I have
stress testing equipment
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and cardiology
equipment that I can use
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and so it is
quite a bit different,
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but I would say at
least in a good way.
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And the Adventist church
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has rural
hospitals and city hospitals
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and you happened to
end up in the city one
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but in some ways you
have a large population
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that you can make a
difference in their lives
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when you're in a city.
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Do, and as the only
cardiologist in the country,
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people come from the city,
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from the rural areas
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and from
everywhere else as well.
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Okay.
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So you're the only
cardiologist in all of Malawi.
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Yes. Okay.
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And what about the
surrounding countries?
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Yeah.
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There's also no
access to cardiology care
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for several of the
surrounding countries
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for quite
somewhat, some distance,
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so there is
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Maputo Heart
Institute far to the south,
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so the country
surrounding is Mozambique
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and we get people that come
in and as far away as Harare
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where there also
is a cardiologist
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but if someone
needs a second opinion,
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they will drive over to see me.
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Okay.
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Now, when you look at
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the challenges of
city mission hospitals,
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what are some
of the major issues
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that people face there?
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As people move to the cities,
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they developed the
diseases of lifestyle
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so some of what I treat
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is actually similar
to what we'd see here,
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obesity, high blood pressure,
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high cholesterol,
starting to have heart attacks,
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so those things
need to be addressed.
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The message
about healthful living
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about walking
instead of driving a car,
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it's very difficult
to get across to people
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who will finally have a car,
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finally don't have to
walk 10 miles to get water.
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And to understand
the health effects,
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it's sometimes quite awkward
to emphasize that to people.
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we also have to balance our care
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in our outreach
clinics to the poor
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with our outreach to there
to the upper and middle class
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especially the business class,
so I do also an outreach clinic
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which is an hour
and half drive each way
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once a week down to a
rural hospital in Malamulo
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as well as to the
government hospital in town.
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So along with the
benefits of city living
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come some of the
negatives of health issues,
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and cities are becoming
one of the big mission areas,
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you know, that's
where people are.
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In recent years
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the global
population has shifted from
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being rural to urban.
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Excuse me.
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So when you're working in
a mission hospital like that
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and if you have
somebody who said, you know,
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hey, I'm interested in going out
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in mission service of some kind,
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what advice would you give them?
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I'd say to people who
are getting ready to go out
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that they should learn about
the area that they're going to.
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You know, if they're
going to rural hospital,
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it's going to be very
different than a city hospital.
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I'd say that they ought to be
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very aware of the
health risks themselves.
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Some places have malaria,
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some places have
the other fevers,
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so people who are
getting ready to go out
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and then to try to
have fewer expectations,
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I think the fewer
expectations you have,
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the less you
can be disappointed.
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And, you know, every single
mission field is different,
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and the things that are
needed there are different,
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the health
messages might be different
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that are needed there.
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I can remember
someone talking about
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not wearing
constrictive clothing
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to a group of people
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who had only one set of clothes.
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So the health message
actually is going to vary,
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so I'd say my
best advice would be
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for people to understand
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where they're headed
for what the needs are.
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Darryl, what were some
of the major adjustments
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you had to make when
you moved into Malawi?
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Well, I have to drive on
the right side of the road
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and remember to
do that every time,
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and really
there the pace of life
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is quite a bit different.
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And Malawi is changing
and the population is growing
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and you find more
people in the roads,
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in cars, on bicycles, on foot
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and it's just a
different way of driving
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level of
attention that's required
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is really quite a bit different,
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and as Malawi changes,
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you know, the
missionary needs change as well.
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The church is growing.
The needs change there.
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And what is true for us today
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won't be true for
missionaries 10 years from now.
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Sure.
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Our time is almost up
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but if somebody wants
to really do something
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to make a difference in mission,
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what would you tell them is key?
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Well, I think there are probably
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three things that we need.
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We need people to pray
for us to support God's work.
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We need
professionals that can help us,
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you know, maybe an architect,
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a nurse, a
respiratory therapist,
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you know, an
administrator, an accountant
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those kind of things
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and then of course
financially donations
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are always useful
for capital projects.
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But how can they
help financially?
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Donations can be
made to us through
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adventist
healthinternational.org/malawi.
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Wonderful.
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Thank you very much
for joining us today
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and back to you, Gary.
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We met some student missionaries
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who have volunteered at
least a year of their lives
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in service for others.
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Their work has made a difference
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in the lives of so many kids.
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Let's hear some testimonies
from some of the students,
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a former student missionaries.
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From around the globe,
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Seventh-day
Adventist University students
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take a year off from
school to travel abroad,
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to beautiful parts of the world
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where they teach
island kids to read and write,
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but most importantly to love.
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The impact these
volunteer student missionaries
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have on the young kids
surpasses understanding.
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Here are the
testimonies of students,
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our former student missionaries
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who are now attending
Walla Walla University.
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They had a lot to do
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with guidance from
their counselors need.
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All of the student missionaries
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impacted my life in a
really, really, really big way.
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You just make a lot of friends.
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A lot of friends for a life,
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you know, I'm so in touch
with my first grade teacher.
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Most people who I've talked to,
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they think, oh, I'm gong
to be a student missionary.
00:08:39.35\00:08:41.25
I'm just going to
go teach a kid English
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but it's a lot more than that.
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A student missionary was the one
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who taught me to tie my shoe.
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I had two or three
teachers in high school,
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my senior year from Wall Walla
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and they all helped
me apply for Walla Walla.
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If it wasn't for them,
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I don't think
that I would be here.
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It affected me in a
really positive way.
00:08:58.93\00:09:01.60
When I was in the high school,
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I wasn't the best
kid around the block,
00:09:03.00\00:09:04.84
but I did try hard in
school throughout like my church
00:09:04.87\00:09:08.64
I got scholarships
00:09:08.68\00:09:10.21
that gave me the
opportunity to be the person
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that I'm today.
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I was counting today
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and 17 out of
like my 25 teachers
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were from Walla Walla.
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I've been taught by a
total of 31 student missionaries
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and about 50% of them
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were from Walla
Walla University.
00:09:27.30\00:09:28.70
The school
probably wouldn't function
00:09:28.73\00:09:30.20
if we didn't have
their sermons and the ovens.
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If it wasn't for them,
we wouldn't have a school.
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Back home I was
taught by SMs my whole life.
00:09:35.64\00:09:38.97
The teachers
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that came and taught
me my science classes
00:09:40.38\00:09:42.68
were also science
majors here at Walla Walla.
00:09:42.71\00:09:44.88
And you could tell
that their teaching style
00:09:44.91\00:09:46.58
was adapted
from professors here.
00:09:46.61\00:09:48.68
I was aiming
towards architecture
00:09:48.72\00:09:50.19
but then an SM who is from here.
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He is a civil
engineering student
00:09:52.79\00:09:54.72
and he kind of influenced me
00:09:54.76\00:09:56.39
to go the civil
engineering direction
00:09:56.42\00:09:58.26
and I'm glad I chose that.
00:09:58.29\00:10:00.46
They taught me my
subjects of course,
00:10:00.50\00:10:03.10
but then they also
taught me life for instance,
00:10:03.13\00:10:05.27
they inspired me to come here.
00:10:05.30\00:10:06.97
They had a huge
impact on our lives
00:10:07.00\00:10:09.50
there, all little
kids running around campus.
00:10:09.54\00:10:12.04
I learned a lot
about God from them too.
00:10:12.07\00:10:14.64
By taking the
year off from school,
00:10:14.68\00:10:16.34
to come and like devote yourself
00:10:16.38\00:10:18.98
to serving like wow
00:10:19.01\00:10:21.18
that just, that just touches me.
00:10:21.22\00:10:23.32
They're not just their teachers
00:10:23.35\00:10:24.69
but they're also
like their friends,
00:10:24.72\00:10:26.05
their siblings or
they would even be parent
00:10:26.09\00:10:27.92
for some who
don't even have parents.
00:10:27.96\00:10:30.63
Some of them, I
got really closed to.
00:10:30.66\00:10:34.10
They're just like
brothers and sisters to me.
00:10:34.13\00:10:36.36
One day I hope to be a
student missionary too.
00:10:36.40\00:10:39.30
The list of opportunities
changes every year.
00:10:39.33\00:10:41.84
You can volunteer
00:10:41.87\00:10:43.30
your time and
energy around the world.
00:10:43.34\00:10:46.44
There are people who need you.
00:10:46.47\00:10:48.84
To become an Adventist
Volunteer Services missionary
00:10:48.88\00:10:52.05
visit adventistvolunteers.org.
00:10:52.08\00:10:54.38
There are many
different types of opportunities
00:10:54.42\00:10:56.69
to serve in many
areas and places.
00:10:56.72\00:10:59.49
Are you hearing
God's call to serve?
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Will you go?
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Well, that's about
it for today's program.
00:11:08.86\00:11:10.77
And I hope that
00:11:10.80\00:11:12.13
you've been
inspired and challenged
00:11:12.17\00:11:14.14
by what you've seen and heard.
00:11:14.17\00:11:15.77
As you've seen men
and women around the world
00:11:15.80\00:11:18.37
sharing the light of God's love,
00:11:18.41\00:11:21.01
from the mighty metropolis
of Mexico City to Micronesia,
00:11:21.04\00:11:25.38
to the vast continent of Africa,
00:11:25.41\00:11:27.42
there are still
many mission challenges.
00:11:27.45\00:11:30.15
And thank you for
your continuing involvement
00:11:30.19\00:11:32.82
in mission and your prayers
and your financial support.
00:11:32.85\00:11:36.73
It does make a difference.
00:11:36.76\00:11:38.29
Please continue to pray
for frontline mission workers.
00:11:38.33\00:11:42.26
It can be challenging.
00:11:42.30\00:11:43.67
It can be lonely.
00:11:43.70\00:11:45.03
And it's very comforting to know
00:11:45.07\00:11:46.94
that there are
people praying for them.
00:11:46.97\00:11:49.10
Before we go,
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I'd like to send
you a free small gift
00:11:50.51\00:11:52.37
to thank for your
support of mission.
00:11:52.41\00:11:54.68
It's the Mission Spotlight DVD
00:11:54.71\00:11:57.11
that is full of stories
like you see on this program.
00:11:57.15\00:12:00.98
The DVD takes
you around the world
00:12:01.02\00:12:03.28
to see mission in action.
00:12:03.32\00:12:05.65
For Adventist
mission, I'm Gary Krause,
00:12:05.69\00:12:08.19
and I hope that you can join me
00:12:08.22\00:12:09.69
right here next time on
Global Mission Snapshots.
00:12:09.72\00:12:13.40