Empowering young
people from mission
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through the "Give
Them the Keys" initiative
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and educating young people
in Timor-Leste and Bangladesh.
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These stories and
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.
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Jesus said, "Go,
go unto all the world,
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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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coming to you today
from Ayutthaya, Thailand.
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This is the site
of the ancient capital
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of the Siamese Kingdom.
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It had its glory
days for some 400 years.
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Today we know it as Thailand.
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Like all ancient civilizations,
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like all governments,
like all institutions
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eventually they
crumble into dust
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but the word of
Lord stands forever.
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And so when we
look at the challenges
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facing the
church today number one,
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is to keep our focus on missions
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so that's we do not become
just a form, an institution.
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On today's program
we will be talking about
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pass on the torch of
mission to young people.
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The first stop,
let's travel to Timor-Leste
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and meet the only
Seventh-day Adventist pastor
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in that country.
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Timor-Leste is the newest nation
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of the 21st century.
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After many years of conflict
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this nation now
has independence.
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Although a country
with religious freedom
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Timor-Leste is
hesitant to accept new groups
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that could
potentially cause conflict
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and a divide this
nation once again.
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Timor-Leste is 98% Catholic
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therefore much of the
country operates on Saturday
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and shuts down on Sunday.
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This makes it
difficult for Adventist children
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who cannot attend
school on Saturday
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in order to observe
the biblical day of rest.
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Every week Adventist students
have a tough choice to make.
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To miss lectures on Sabbath
could mean embarrassment,
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a beating and often
being expelled from school.
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Nathanya like
many other young ones
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attends a public school.
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She studies hard and
strives for the best grades.
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She has no other
option but to do her very best
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because she spends
one last day in school
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then the rest of her class.
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Nathanya has
made a bold decision
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to respect the
Sabbath and attend church.
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Nathanya's family
taught her from a young age
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to love Jesus
and read the Bible.
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From the Bible
Nathanya and her sister Lavina
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learned to do good
and to love others.
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They also learn to
pray for the things
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that concern the heart.
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Today Lavina and Nathanya
are praying about school.
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They had
explained to the teachers
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why they cannot come
to school on Saturdays
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but it has been
difficult for them.
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This time again
they have been threatened
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to be expelled from school.
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For them this is unthinkable.
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They know they need an education
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and they love going to
school with the other kids.
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After daily worship
the girls leave for school.
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As the school day goes on
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it appears that
the teacher forgot
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they missed school
this past Saturday.
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The girls come home
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thankful that one more
time Jesus has helped them.
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This family has been
praying for more than 10 years
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than an Adventist school
could open here in Timor-Leste.
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This school will
accommodate Adventist students
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as well as other faith groups
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who cannot attend
school on Saturday.
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A new school would
also be an opportunity
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for children who do
not have the privilege
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of an education as
schools here in Timor-Leste
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are operating overcapacity.
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Pastor Inaciu da
Kosta is the only ordained
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Timor-Leste
Seventh-day Adventist pastor
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in the entire country.
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He has been
working hard to start
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a Seventh-day
Adventist school in Timor-Leste.
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He has time and
again requested assistance
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in funds for this project.
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Fortunately this quarter
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Adventist church
members around the world
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will join hands to
help make it possible
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for Timor-Leste
to open the first
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Seventh-day Adventist
school in their country.
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I'm in Bangkok Thailand
with Greg and Amy Whitsett
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from the Center for
East Asian Religions
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and also their son Tyler.
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Thanks for joining us today.
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Yeah.
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Tyler, I'm gonna
start with you this time.
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Tell me what is the
most challenging thing
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about living in a
totally different culture?
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The most
challenging thing for me is,
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I that you have to
learn how to act in society.
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Hence when we came
here I had to learn how to--
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learned a new
way of social life.
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How to hang out with my friends,
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what cool what's not cool
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hence also
being away from family
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that can also quite hard.
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Yeah, now
you've been in Thailand
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for a few years now,
where were you before that?
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We were in Laos, in Laos.
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Now there's a good chance
that it might be many viewers
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who couldn't even
find that on a map,
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tell me about Laos.
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Laos is a very small country.
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It's the only landlocked
country in Southeast Asia.
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Its to the East of
Thailand and west of Vietnam.
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Okay.
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And you were pretty young
when you moved there, right?
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Yeah, I was, I
was three-years-old
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when we move there.
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Amazing.
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Now Tyler, just to be
little bit personal here
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I see a little bit of
redness around your eye,
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can you please describe
to me what happened there?
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Oh, that
happened quite recently.
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We were having a
fireworks party for New Year
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and basically we
were lighting off
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the grand finale
of the biggest show
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and it came up
and hit me in the head
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and I was in the
hospital for few days.
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So Amy, that must have
been a fairly frightening time?
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Yeah, for sure.
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Very scary but at the
same time you know knowing that
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God had called us here
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we knew that God
was in it somewhere
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and we just had a look
for Him where was He in it.
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And actually
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Tyler strength had
calm during that time.
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You know, he wasn't
all panicking and upset.
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His first words were
somebody pray for me.
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Please pray for
me. Is that right?
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You know and just--
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I think that helped me
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but just the assurance
that God is in it somewhere
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and just have to look for Him.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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So Amy, how many years now
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have you as a family been
living in Southeast Asian?
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Almost 13. Thirteen.
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So most of your
ministry has been overseas?
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Yes.
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Tell me what is the,
what is the most challenging
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thing about
mission service for you?
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What's the most difficult thing?
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I think my
answer would have been
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different 10 years ago.
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It would have been
something related to food
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or language or something.
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But now I think really
the hardest thing for me
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is just the
distance from family.
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You know,
distance from my parents
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and nieces and
nephews and having the--
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you know, the
influence of grandparents on
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how to raise kids
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and suggestions on
how to raise teenaged boys
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and, yeah, I think
just distance from family
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is the hardest.
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And what's the
most rewarding thing?
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Most rewarding thing is
just seeing people light up
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when they really experience God,
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when they've had God touch them
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in a personal way in their life
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in the way it
transforms their life
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is just
unbelievable, unexplainable.
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Definitely worth it. Wonderful.
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And so if somebody
was watching this program
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in thinking
perhaps, that could be me,
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I could be
involved in mission service
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what would your counsel be?
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We need you. Okay.
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We need you, God needs you.
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If you're feeling--
we actually had a pastor
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counselors we talked
him about it and he said
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if you're feeling the call,
how many people feel the call?
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If you're feeling the
call it's got to be from God,
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follow it.
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So if you're
feeling the call come.
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Wonderful. Pray
about it and come.
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Good.
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Greg, we're just
finishing off some meetings here
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for the Center for
East Asian Religions,
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what was the
focus of the meetings?
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The meetings were
talking about mission issues
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and sharing Christ for this
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and how to do a
better job of that
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because traditionally
we've not done a real good job.
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Well, why is that? Why is that?
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Well, its it's interesting--
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really its what I have
talked to people about it
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is this kind of
golf and football.
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In football or soccer
as we call in America,
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you know, there's two
teams in the say controversy
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but with golf it's
kind of on your own
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and you have different things.
00:09:01.10\00:09:02.44
And so we can talk
about both playing with balls
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and playing out on the
grass and enjoying the sunlight
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but actually the rules
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are that both
games very different.
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And when a Buddhist
hears about Christianity
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they hear some
things that sound familiar
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but so much of it is
just very foreign idea.
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Yeah.
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And doesn't
sound very attractive.
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They don't know how to
apply that on a golf course
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which is what
their life is like.
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So that's getting to the essence
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of the purposes
your center, right?
00:09:25.96\00:09:27.60
Right.
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Yeah, now at our
center the whole focus is just
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to network with
the church around
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and come along
side, ask what's working
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and kind of guide them
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and thinking about the questions
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they should think through
and how to be more effective
00:09:38.04\00:09:39.84
in sharing Christ with people.
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What are some of the or one
or two of the major mistakes
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that we make when
we try to communicate
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with people from
a different culture
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or religious background?
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Well, we assume that
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because we can, you
know, speak their language
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or translate into their language
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with different things
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that we have something
that we must share with them.
00:09:58.79\00:10:00.70
And in actuality we
have two eyes, a nose,
00:10:00.73\00:10:04.43
and two years which
have a lot of sensory input
00:10:04.47\00:10:06.40
to learn and we
need to come first
00:10:06.43\00:10:07.94
with the learners attitude
00:10:07.97\00:10:09.30
to understand what are the needs
00:10:09.34\00:10:10.67
and what are the
perceptions of the people
00:10:10.71\00:10:12.37
and then how do I
show Christ to meet them
00:10:12.41\00:10:14.38
on the same ground.
00:10:14.41\00:10:15.74
Right. Yeah.
00:10:15.78\00:10:17.11
So often we come
with our own package
00:10:17.15\00:10:18.48
of what we think
00:10:18.51\00:10:19.85
they need rather
than listening first
00:10:19.88\00:10:21.22
is what you are telling me?
00:10:21.25\00:10:22.58
Yeah, exactly.
00:10:22.62\00:10:23.95
We preconceive notions
that because its truth.
00:10:23.99\00:10:25.42
Therefore it must
be relevant to them.
00:10:25.45\00:10:27.42
And but really
present truth, relevant truth
00:10:27.46\00:10:29.96
is everything we
know to be as Adventist
00:10:29.99\00:10:31.89
but also we need
to make sure that
00:10:31.93\00:10:33.36
its actually touching a
spot that they also understand
00:10:33.40\00:10:38.03
is a need that
they have to fill.
00:10:38.07\00:10:39.50
Right. Yeah.
00:10:39.53\00:10:40.87
So Greg, for people
00:10:40.90\00:10:42.24
who want to find out
more information about
00:10:42.27\00:10:43.61
the center where
do they find that?
00:10:43.64\00:10:45.27
Well, a great place to look is
00:10:45.31\00:10:46.74
at the
adventistmisson.org website.
00:10:46.78\00:10:48.71
Well, said.
00:10:48.74\00:10:50.71
And of course
just add the prefix,
00:10:50.75\00:10:52.65
instead of the www
just add CEAR for the Center
00:10:52.68\00:10:56.18
for East Asian Religions.
00:10:56.22\00:10:57.55
So CEAR.Adventistmission.org.
00:10:57.59\00:10:59.99
Wonderful. Yeah.
00:11:00.02\00:11:01.36
Well, thank you
Amy and Tyler and Greg,
00:11:01.39\00:11:03.22
for sharing with us today.
00:11:03.26\00:11:04.59
All right, thank you.
00:11:04.63\00:11:05.96
And please remember the
Center for East Asian Religions
00:11:05.99\00:11:08.83
and the tremendous
challenge that they face
00:11:08.86\00:11:11.67
and pray for
missionaries all over the world.
00:11:11.70\00:11:14.30
Sometimes frontline mission
00:11:14.34\00:11:15.77
can be exciting and rewarding,
00:11:15.80\00:11:17.81
other times it
can be discouraging
00:11:17.84\00:11:19.41
and it's very encouraging
for them to know that
00:11:19.44\00:11:22.51
there is people
praying for them.
00:11:22.54\00:11:24.11
We will be right
back after this break.
00:11:24.15\00:11:25.61