Welcome back to Tampa, Florida.
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Next stop we travel
to Bangkok, Thailand
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where Rick McEdward
learns the fascinating way
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in which Chinese characters
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depict scenes from the Bible
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providing connection points
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between scripture
and the Chinese people.
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Thanks, Gary.
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Here with us
today is Dr. Samuel Wang
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good friend of mine an
experienced missionary.
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And, Dr Wang, I
hope you don't mind
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if I ask you a few questions.
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Sure go ahead. All right.
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Tell us first of
all what is it that
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you're doing with your work
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and your sharing
of the gospel today?
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I am now working as
a Chinese evangelist
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for this region in SSD
and, and especially in SAUM.
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So the SSD is
Southern Asia-Pacific Division
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and SAUM is the
South East Asia Union
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and these are areas have large
populations of Chinese people.
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Outside of China and Taiwan
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the largest the
Chinese population
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is in Thailand
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and then you have next
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you have the Chinese in Malaysia
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and Chinese in Singapore
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as well as in Indonesia.
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So there is large groups.
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When you speak to
the Chinese people
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and you're doing
some evangelistic outreach
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what kind of
approach you use with them?
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I normally would go
from the Chinese culture,
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from the cultural gateway
to go from there to the Bible
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because Chinese
are normally quite
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proud of their own
culture, history and traditions
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and there we find
a lot of similarities
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that we can still use to
pave a way to the Bible truth.
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So you have
found some connections
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that are evident
between say Chinese language
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and culture
history and Bible truths.
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Yes.
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You know, today with the Bible
we have is a written version
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we have it like 3,500 years
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but a human history
is much longer than that.
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So for the first 2,500 years
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the Revelation of
God was not written
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but we have Noah,
we have a Enoch, Adam
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they all receive
Revelation from God
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that I believe must
have been pastored down
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through oral by word of mouth.
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So these oral traditions
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you found that there are
some very specific connections.
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Can you give us a simple one,
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I don't know maybe
there's something about Noah,
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or Enoch or something that
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that could be simple for
us to see that connection.
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Probably the easiest one
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we can see is in
the Chinese characters
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the inventors
of these characters
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may have known the
stories in the Bible.
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For instance the
word for the boat
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you find a boat
with eight persons in it.
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And another word let's say
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about restrain
or control yourself
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it is a tree in the middle
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and then there
is some mouth there
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and it seems to indicate
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that the only thing you
need to restrain yourself
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is not use your mouth to
touch anything from that tree.
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So we're referring
back to the Garden of Eden
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and the choice between taking--
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the mouth taking and not taking,
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Another-- now the word is there
is two mouths and two hands
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picking from that tree
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and that's the
word for it to die.
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And-- oh, wow,
interesting and of course,
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the boat with the
eight would have maybe
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potentially refer to Noah
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and the eight people on the Ark.
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That could be a way
that the early inventors
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of the Chinese people
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wanted to keep
the stories to know
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and the character
writings, they pass it down.
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Very interesting.
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So when you share these kind
of things are people surprised?
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They are-- I think
the feelings are mixed.
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They are-- at
first they are surprised
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and then they
feel very privileged
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and it is so much information.
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Not only in their writings
and they can also see like,
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you know, other traditions.
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Even the Confucius teachings,
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you can find almost
all the major teachings
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like love God and love people
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and he
prophesied about a holy man
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who is going to
come to rule the world
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with the principle of love.
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And those are very
similar to the Bible teachings.
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So in some ways
there is an affirmation
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of cultural heritage
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at the same time
teaching biblical truth.
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So in order not to
make the Chinese feel like
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Christianity is
a foreign religion
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we have find the
pieces and from here in there
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in the Chinese culture tradition
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so it will be a
natural way to lead them
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to the complete Word of God.
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I want to just ask
a personal question.
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I know your personal story.
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Well, we have
just a very short time.
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How did God bring
you from where you were
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up into the
place now where you're
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kind of a world known
evangelist among Chinese people
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Well, I don't
think I'm well known
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but I was born in
a very humble farm
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and grown up in
a communist China.
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The ten pointer
for me was, you know,
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to the Tiananmen
Square student movement,
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national students all of them
have a part in this movement
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but I didn't find the answer
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then I shift to a
spiritual movement
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which is known as a
Hare Krishna movement.
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Which is sort of a
branch of Hinduism.
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Is a branch of Hinduism,
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they are very
much contextualized
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to the western version of it.
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Okay.
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And I have become
attracted to this movement
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and actually
was doing quite well
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in that movement
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but when I started to
try to preach to others
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I run into Adventists
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and I run into
Spirit of Prophecy
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and the book of
Great Controversy
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just convert me.
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Change your life.
Changed my life, yeah.
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Since you became
devoted Adventist Christian
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you've been developing
all kinds of resources.
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For last two years
you've added a couple more
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resources to help
explain faith to others.
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Tell us about the
back to the beginnings
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books that you've shared with.
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That back to the beginnings
is a new contextualize
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the Chinese resource
for reaching the Chinese
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and that is a project
that started with Center
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for East Asian Religions
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used to be the
Buddhist studies center
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and I had a privilege to work
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with the center for
the past four years.
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And this book is as a
new way to reach the Chinese
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not only used the Bible
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but start from
the Chinese culture
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and to pave ways
and to build bridges
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to lead the
Chinese to the Bible truth.
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Wonderful.
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Well, thank you so
much for joining us today.
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And I just want to say,
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you know, there's many
ways of sharing our faith
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and what Dr. Wang
has shared with us
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today is just one of them.
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I encourage you to make
friends with your neighbors
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and share your faith.
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Back to you, Gary.
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I invite you now to
pause for a few month
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and as you watch this
video as you see the images,
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as you listen to
the words of this song.
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Please remember in
prayer those who are serving
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on the front lines of Mission.
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The song is called
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"Missionaries
Need Missionaries Too."
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Somewhere under sun in
the heart of a foreign land
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The family where the passion
is living their mission trend
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Bringing God to, to
a hungry thirsty child
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Knowing what our
lives are always on the line
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Missionaries
need missionaries too
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They need the
prayers of loved ones
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They need love from me and you
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And when they just like Christ
make the ultimate sacrifice
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Someday in heaven
they will thank you
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Because you are a missionary too
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Somewhere in jungle skies
Is a plane that saving lives
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Brining cures to ease the pain
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Brining sight to darken lives
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Carrying all their
work Through the storms
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And through the night
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Never ending labors
Touring souls of light
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Missionaries
Need missionaries too
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They need the
prayers Of loved ones
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They need love from me and you
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And when they just like Christ
Make the ultimate sacrifice
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Someday in heaven
They will thank you
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Because you are a missionary Too
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In the streets or a
village Their work may go unseen
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For the sake of Christ
They sacrifice their own needs
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Remind them that you love
them And give them what you can
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Because your
mission field Is very near
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Help them carry out God's plan
00:10:09.94\00:10:15.78
Missionaries
Need missionaries too
00:10:15.81\00:10:20.68
They need the
prayers Of loved ones
00:10:22.25\00:10:24.75
They need love from me and you
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And when they just like Christ
Make the ultimate sacrifice
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Missionaries
Need missionaries too
00:10:34.36\00:10:38.70
They need the
prayers Of loved ones
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They need love From me and you
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And when they just like Christ
Make the ultimate sacrifice
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Someday in heaven
They will thank you
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The things your
praise Brought them too
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And mission is
accomplished Lord, thank you
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You are a missionary too
00:11:06.73\00:11:14.14
You are a missionary too
00:11:14.17\00:11:19.84
You are a missionary too
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Well, that's about
it for today's program
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and I hope that
you've been inspired
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and challenged
for what you've seen
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on Global Mission Snapshots.
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Around the world today
from here in Tampa, Florida,
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to China, to the
streets of London, England
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the light of God's
love is being shared
00:12:04.12\00:12:06.29
by men and women, boys and girls
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who have made a commitment
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to follow the
example of Jesus Christ.
00:12:09.96\00:12:12.49
And I want to thank you
for your continuing prayers
00:12:12.53\00:12:14.96
and your financial
support for Global Mission
00:12:15.00\00:12:18.80
planting new groups of believers
00:12:18.83\00:12:20.60
around the world.
00:12:20.64\00:12:21.97
And before we go I
would like to offer you
00:12:22.00\00:12:23.61
a small free gift
00:12:23.64\00:12:25.47
as a thank you
for your continuing
00:12:25.51\00:12:27.21
participation in mission.
00:12:27.24\00:12:29.11
I hope that you
will continue to pray
00:12:29.14\00:12:30.58
for the
frontline mission workers
00:12:30.61\00:12:32.91
and for the un-entered areas
00:12:32.95\00:12:34.68
and un-reached
people groups of the world.
00:12:34.72\00:12:37.65
For Global Mission Snapshots
00:12:37.69\00:12:39.02
I'm Gary Krause
00:12:39.05\00:12:40.39
and I hope that you
can join me next time
00:12:40.42\00:12:42.02
right here on this program.
00:12:42.06\00:12:43.89