Welcome back to Mexico City.
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Next up, we
travel to Lusaka, Zambia
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and a couple of
missionary doctors
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share their experience
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of running a
dental and medical clinic.
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When I came out here to
Zambia, I realize that...
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We are interdivision employees
working through the G.C.
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station out in
the country of Zambia.
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Lusaka is the
capital and we are both here
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and providing dental services
to the community at large here
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and my wife is
an ophthalmologist
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and I let her explain
what she is doing out here.
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So, yeah, we are
medical missionaries
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through the General
Conference as he mentioned.
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And as an ophthalmologist,
I run the Lusaka Eye Hospital.
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I'm the medical director there
and I have multiple duties,
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one being administrative,
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and the other being a physician,
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providing eye care,
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doing the whole range
of a ophthalmic surgeries,
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lasers as well as consultations.
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And I'm then overseeing
our optometry department.
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You know, we both, Janie and I
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we've done quite a
bit of mission trips,
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mainly short term mission trips,
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it could be a
week or a couple weeks
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throughout
different parts of the world.
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So we thought
this was, you know,
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something that we were
just kind of slide right into.
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Obviously, we
were kind of surprised
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that it was completely different
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than what we had expected.
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It had-- we knew it
would be challenging.
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We knew it'd be different.
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However, when we got
here, we realize that it was not
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like your
typical short term trips
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where you just go and do good
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and just return
home feeling good.
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We were assigned to
these two institutions
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and we had to carry the
institutions financially.
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We had to make sure
that payroll is met.
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We have fixed expenses.
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These were things that
really, we didn't expect to do.
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We didn't know we
had to be administrators
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and to run the
institution itself.
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We mainly thought
we would carry on,
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providing service and do
good and feel good about it
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and help bring
hope and healing to,
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you know, those we serve.
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But-- so it was quite
a different experience
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and we've grown a lot.
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And we are at a better place
after almost two years now.
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And I must say
that both institutions
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were struggling
financially when we did arrive.
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And so, it was just a matter
of doing a bit of research,
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trying to figure out
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what went wrong
and what we can do
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to help our health institutions
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out in the in the mission field.
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Survive and thrive and although
we're not quite there yet,
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I think we're on
track to really helping
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these institutions
get back on their feet,
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so that they can really be
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a prominent health care
institutions in the country.
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And people can
look to it and say,
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"Yes, that is a Seventh
Day Adventist institution."
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And our church
members can be a part of it
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and they can be a witness
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to those who don't know
anything about our church.
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So, why come
and be a missionary?
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Wasn't it
easier to stay at home?
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Yeah, I mean, you're
perfectly right, I mean,
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that would be
the easy thing to do,
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stay home and live
your cookie cutter life of,
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you know, your house,
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white picket fencing, you
know, for car garage, whatnot.
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But in our case, you know,
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we independently
had a desire to serve
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and become
missionaries before we started
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our respective
programs, before we even met.
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So it was very
special that, you know,
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we had an
opportunity through Loma Linda,
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where they had a special program
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called Deferred
Mission's Appointees
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and we signed up for that.
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And that kind of allowed us
or that gave us an opportunity
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to actually follow
through with our, I guess,
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childlike dream of one
day becoming a missionary,
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because before we
started on this path
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we were a little younger.
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And you know, our
dreams and goals may have been
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very naive and
very childlike to many.
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But that was what
truly motivated us
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into our respective
health care professions.
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And at the end we
wanted to stay true
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to that deep desire to serve.
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And I think it was
kind of a long journey
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to finish our
respective programs
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but ones we were done,
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we still had that in our hearts.
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We stay focused, we wanted to
do what we committed to doing.
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And we want to
follow through with that.
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You know, we believe
that it was a covenant between
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God and us and or--
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And we wanted to stay true
to that and follow through in.
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And I think that was one of
the best decisions we've made,
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you know.
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We feel like the life that
we're living is, is amazing.
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It is very raw organic.
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You can't make up
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some of the stuff
that we experience.
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And I think with time we
will know that, you know,
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we made a right
decision and it's amazing.
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For me, I wanted to
be a medical missionary
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since I was sixteen
and I knew in my heart.
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And when I got
into medical school,
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it was basically God saying,
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"You can get into medical school
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if you decide to serve me,
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and I've given
you this opportunity."
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And when I got into
ophthalmology residency,
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God was saying, "I'd let
you get into this residency
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if you decide to use
your skills to serve me."
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And when I got into
my cornea fellowship,
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it was the same thing.
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"You're going to use
these skills to serve me
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someday in the mission field."
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And so it was
very clear in my mind
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that that God was
opening all of these doors.
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So that
ultimately I could serve him.
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And I think, if I had--
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if I had run the other direction
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and said I want to live
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my conventional life in the U.S.
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and I want to make the money
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that an
ophthalmologist can make,
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married to a dentist
who could make the money
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a dentist could make
in the US, I think that,
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I know that that would
have been the wrong decision.
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And we would not be as fulfilled
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as how we feel now.
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Yeah, you know, although,
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because I'm so
involved in the medical side,
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I don't get the joy
of seeing, you know,
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the fruits of
the labor many times.
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But you know, we do
have a chaplain here
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at our eye hospital.
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And even yesterday in
our morning devotion--
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after our morning devotion
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he was making an announcement
about two individuals
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who gave their life to Christ,
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recently after our outreach
event in that community.
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And he made a particular
comment that was interesting.
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He said, "Yes, in that area,
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the people have
been very stubborn.
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But after this
outreach event, you know,
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their hearts were softened
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when they saw the good
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that our eye
hospital was doing."
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And so I think even though
I don't often get to hear of,
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you know, all of the fruits
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and all of the
fruits of the labor,
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I know that
there's a lot going on
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after we've
gone through an area,
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after we've done
screenings or outreach events,
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there have been people
giving their lives to Christ.
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There are
occasionally through the year,
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combined with our eye camp,
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we'll do a combined
evangelistic series.
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And during those times,
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you can actually see
many people getting baptized
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and giving
their lives to Christ.
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So it's pretty amazing.
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It gives a break from
just the medical aspect of it
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to hear those stories.
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Next up, an Adventist pastor
takes ministry to the beach.
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With the ocean as his classroom,
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he connects with people
wanting to learn how to serve.
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At the same time, he
teaches them from the Bible,
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his waterproof Bible.
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You'll enjoy this amazing story
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as people
literally soak up the word.
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You can't deny,
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all good things start
with a connection above.
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Unless we sit at the feet
of Jesus to learn His ways,
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we cannot live like Him.
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His love is in us,
propels us forward,
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like a wave moves a surf board.
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On first contact, we present
what's most familiar to them.
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And that is the
ocean and the waves.
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We tell them that
God creates the waves.
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They are in His Hands.
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Then they see that
God thought of them.
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And when they realize
that God thought of them,
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it begins to make sense
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that they are
part of God's creation.
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It then becomes easier to accept
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that God made us and loves us.
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The language needs to be simple.
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It needs to be
something that they understand.
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So I call them bros.
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So they know
that God is a friend,
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a true friend
who is beside them.
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God cares for us
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and we communicate
that to their heart.
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It's more than just saying it.
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We have to live it.
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Hey, Brother,
come here for a sec.
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That's good wave, huh?
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Check this out,
a waterproof Bible.
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You got a Bible in the
water. That's awesome, Bro.
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This one is the women's
version but I have one for you.
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Come closer, let's
do a short reading.
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I don't immediately
tell them I'm a pastor.
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People don't want to
know what our profession is
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but rather who we are.
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Then with time, they find out
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and begin to truly
understand this ministry,
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to be in the water with
them and relaxed in unique way
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with a waterproof Bible.
00:10:27.09\00:10:28.59
Sometimes it's hard
because people think
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that there is
only one way to preach.
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And it's only in their way.
00:10:32.29\00:10:33.73
But Jesus was never like this.
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He preached in His unique
way with His own language.
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The Pharisees,
many times charged him
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with preaching in the wrong way.
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Saying, He preaches to
the uneducated and the poor.
00:10:42.77\00:10:46.51
But Brother, Jesus
knew the language of people.
00:10:46.54\00:10:50.05
What gets us sometimes,
00:10:50.08\00:10:51.41
is trying to put
everyone in a box,
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as if this is possible.
00:10:53.28\00:10:55.75
Well, I really like to say this
00:10:55.78\00:10:57.65
because it was what
Jesus said when people asked.
00:10:57.69\00:11:00.46
"Where is your kingdom?"
00:11:00.49\00:11:02.69
The answer, "My kingdom
is neither here nor there.
00:11:02.72\00:11:05.73
It's unseen.
00:11:05.76\00:11:07.53
My kingdom is inside people."
00:11:07.56\00:11:10.37
When we understand this,
00:11:10.40\00:11:11.77
we begin to see
that our ministry
00:11:11.80\00:11:13.13
is inside each person.
00:11:13.17\00:11:15.30
If one surfs, then I
need to surf to be with them.
00:11:15.34\00:11:18.47
If I'm gonna talk to a sower,
00:11:18.51\00:11:19.97
then I need to sow
next to that person.
00:11:20.01\00:11:21.91
If I'm going to
speak to a street worker,
00:11:21.94\00:11:23.51
who lives
around homeless people,
00:11:23.55\00:11:24.91
I must
experience that for myself.
00:11:24.95\00:11:27.42
Then and only then,
00:11:27.45\00:11:28.95
I can see how that
person lives and what he needs.
00:11:28.98\00:11:33.49
As Pastor Vini gets
ready to teach surfing,
00:11:33.52\00:11:35.86
he pauses to
talk to the students
00:11:35.89\00:11:37.63
about the Creator of
the ocean and the waves.
00:11:37.66\00:11:40.50
He begins each
class with a small worship
00:11:40.53\00:11:42.96
and a waterproof Bible reading.
00:11:43.00\00:11:45.50
In the summer,
00:11:45.53\00:11:46.87
there are so many
requests for classes
00:11:46.90\00:11:49.20
that he has to limit
the number of participants.
00:11:49.24\00:11:51.87
And the results are astonishing.
00:11:51.91\00:11:55.24
The baptismal
results are fantastic.
00:11:55.28\00:11:57.61
There are beautiful
stories of people who,
00:11:57.65\00:11:59.25
otherwise may never
have heard about Jesus.
00:11:59.28\00:12:01.82
But here at the
beach, in the ocean,
00:12:01.85\00:12:03.95
they begin to
discover Jesus in nature.
00:12:03.99\00:12:06.59
And in time, they
come to me and say,
00:12:06.62\00:12:08.99
"Brother, I want to learn more.
00:12:09.02\00:12:11.19
Please tell me
more about this God."
00:12:11.23\00:12:13.43
Then we study
more systematically,
00:12:13.46\00:12:15.76
visiting their house
and bringing them to church.
00:12:15.80\00:12:18.07
They participate in praise,
worship, intercessory prayer,
00:12:18.10\00:12:22.14
making the request.
00:12:22.17\00:12:23.64
And they begin to have a
true connection with God.
00:12:23.67\00:12:26.41
Remember to read your Bible.
00:12:34.52\00:12:35.98
Yeah.
00:12:36.02\00:12:37.35
Well, that's about
it for today's program.
00:12:44.09\00:12:46.29
I hope that you've enjoyed.
00:12:46.33\00:12:47.66
And also been challenged
by what you've seen and heard
00:12:47.70\00:12:50.67
on today's program.
00:12:50.70\00:12:52.53
Around the world today
00:12:52.57\00:12:53.90
there are many
mission challenges.
00:12:53.94\00:12:55.60
Urban challenges
like here in Mexico City,
00:12:55.64\00:12:58.47
rural areas where
people have never even heard
00:12:58.51\00:13:00.78
the name of Jesus Christ.
00:13:00.81\00:13:02.61
But the light of God's love
00:13:02.64\00:13:03.98
is being shared by
faithful men and women
00:13:04.01\00:13:06.65
who take seriously,
00:13:06.68\00:13:08.02
the great commission to
"go into all the world."
00:13:08.05\00:13:10.99
Thank you, for your
continuing prayerful support
00:13:11.02\00:13:14.06
of mission around the world.
00:13:14.09\00:13:15.82
It does make a difference.
00:13:15.86\00:13:17.66
Before I go I'd like to send you
00:13:17.69\00:13:19.13
a small gift as a thank you
00:13:19.16\00:13:21.26
for your
continuing support of mission.
00:13:21.30\00:13:23.50
If you live in North America,
and you would like to receive
00:13:23.53\00:13:26.63
the Mission Spotlight DVD,
we'll send you a free copy.
00:13:26.67\00:13:30.51
It's chock-a-block
full of mission stories
00:13:30.54\00:13:33.58
like you see on today's program.
00:13:33.61\00:13:36.08
Well, for Adventist
mission, I'm Gary Krause.
00:13:36.11\00:13:38.55
And I hope that you
can join me next time,
00:13:38.58\00:13:40.62
right here on
Global Mission Snapshots.
00:13:40.65\00:13:43.39