Welcome back to
the beautiful city
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of Heidelberg.
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Our next story is of a
Seventh-day Adventist pastor,
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who is also a refugee.
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Forced from his home,
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he started helping
people along the way.
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He still lives
in a refugee camp.
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And, he has led
300 people to baptism.
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Gina tells his story.
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Hi Gary, I'm really
excited about this interview,
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because it is the first time
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I've been able
to interview someone
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who has had to flee their home
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and become a refugee.
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And this person
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is a Seventh-day
Adventist pastor,
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and this is Pastor Joseph Dut.
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And I am so happy
that we can be together
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and you can share your story.
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It is an amazing story.
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Thank you.
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Yes.
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When I met you
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and I heard that your
story of how you had to flee.
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All these
questions came to mind.
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And one of the first
was, I was wondering,
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how do you decide
when you are in a war zone?
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How do you decide when it's time
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to run away from your home?
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Thank you very much, sister.
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The question is really very good
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and I am happy that
you come and visit us.
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And thank you God
for bringing you safe.
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Actually, when we found
our self in the war zone,
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we just run,
because the incident,
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the fighting happened,
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and then we run away from home.
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So, many of us run away,
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and even if they met
after three days with children,
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wives, and the husbands.
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Some of them went and
met in the refugee camp
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because there was no option
for us to decide when to run.
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So it was a coin
of crossing fire.
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And many of us run from home.
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Now, when you were
running, just before you left,
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were you able to grab
anything from your house
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or did you just
run with nothing?
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It was very difficult.
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Many of us who
were found at home,
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they managed to save their life.
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Because if you run a home,
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if you run inside
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to grab
anything, it is difficult.
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And good thing I can testify now
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was that many members
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from our
Seventh-day Adventist Church,
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they run,
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some of them run
with their Bibles.
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And many of them
who saw fighting at work
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while they were not at
home run without the Bible.
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And people run with
only the clothes you wear.
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And that's it? Yeah.
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And they run to
refugee camps? Exactly.
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And I understand that
you and your family ended up
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in a refugee camp
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in the northern part of Uganda?
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Sure.
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And when you arrived there,
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your son asked you
an interesting question.
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What did your son ask you?
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When we arrived there,
it was late in the evening.
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And UNHCR plus UN
agencies, World Food Program,
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they received us.
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And in fact,
the place was a bush
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which given by
the Uganda government
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to settle the refugees.
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That evening my son asked
me, "Hey, Daddy, it is now day,
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it is a time
now to go and sleep.
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Where can I go and sleep?"
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Then I say, "We are going
to sleep under that tree."
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And he said, "Eh!
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That tree is
not for us to sleep,
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it's that is for dog."
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And I say, "Son,
let's hope that God
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will provide a shelter for us."
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And, he went together with me
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and we spent a
night under that tree.
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And since that time,
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has God provided a
shelter for you and your family?
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Sure.
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After three weeks,
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the South Sudan Field
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which was Greater
Equatoria by that time,
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led by Pastor Clement.
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They managed to
send us some money,
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the crisis kind of
money to help us settle.
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And when we received that money,
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we made a small house for
us to live with the children.
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And I hope God answered that
question which my son asked.
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So after three weeks, God
provided a shelter for us.
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So, are you still
living in a shelter
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in the refugee camp?
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Sure.
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You are still there?
Sure, I am still there.
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And what about the
other people there?
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Have you found other
Seventh-day Adventists
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living in a refugee camp?
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The amazing things happened.
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We went there and
there was no church,
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which was existing.
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Only few members,
they were existing there.
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So, when we arrived, we
started mobilizing our self.
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We said, as Jesus said to
us that you will hear wars
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and the rumors of the wars,
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and you do not
need to get confused.
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So, therefore we
mobilized ourselves
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and then we start
working, we start preaching,
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we start
advising and help others
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to come to Christ
because this is last days,
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and the war is happening.
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These are
happening because God Himself
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wanted His people to find
rest, to find refuge in Him.
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So, on that very
day, so we managed
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to mobilize our self
and the youth came up
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with a slogan, say,
"Come, we meet Jesus!
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Come, we hide in Jesus!"
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And that program of the
youth, it really does a lot.
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So, membership,
when we reached there,
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we were not many.
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We were few, but now,
we managed to baptize 310.
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310 baptisms in
the refugee camp?
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In the refugees camp, yes.
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That's wonderful. Thank you.
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I want to come back
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just briefly
about the youth group.
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Okay.
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Now, I understand
that this youth group
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is made up of young
people from varying tribes.
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Exactly.
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How did that work?
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Aren't these young
people usually fighting
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against each other?
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When the community saw
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the youth from
Seventh-day Adventist,
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they are together,
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especially from this
warring ethnic groups,
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Dinka and Nuer,
they became happy.
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And they consider saying that,
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"This is really a church which
can bring the good news to us."
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So many young people joined us.
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And then we kept on
moving, sharing the love of God,
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and then, we forget
this tribal conflict,
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tribal differences in the camp.
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And that is why our
membership went to that extent.
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Thank you.
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Pastor Joseph, thank you.
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You are a true
peacemaker. Thank you.
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And we just praise
the Lord for your work
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there in the refugee camp.
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God bless you.
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And we'll send it
back to you now, Gary.
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In Acts of the
Apostles, Ellen White wrote,
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"From the blood of
the martyrs has sprung
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an abundant harvest for God."
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In our next video, we pay
tribute to those missionaries,
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who have sacrificed
their lives for Jesus.
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I realized words like
"Rogue" and "Missionary"
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don't seem like
they should go together.
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But Michael Czechowski was
like Indiana Jones or Han Solo.
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He was and I quote,
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"A stubborn, impetuous man
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who refused to take
advice from Ellen White.
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History gives us a sense that
he was a charismatic swindler.
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Yet without him, many Adventists
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would've gone on believing
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what the Review and
Herald printed in 1869.
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Quote, "It may not be
necessary to preach the gospel
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in any country besides our own,"
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since our land is
composed of people
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from almost every nation."
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"If we reach the
immigrants within the US,
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they'll witness to their friends
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and families overseas,
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a great commission
will fulfill itself."
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The churches first big push
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for foreign
missions came in 1871,
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when GC delegates
voted to send J.G. Matteson
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to witness to the Scandinavians
and Danes of Wisconsin.
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Czechowski
however was no Millerite.
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He was an
ex-Catholic Polish priest
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turned obsessive sabbatarian.
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He was young, idealistic,
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fluent in seven
or eight languages,
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and terrible with money.
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James and Ellen White
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were so besotted
by his personality,
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that they helped
him pay all his debts
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and funded his
travel from Battle Creek
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back to New York.
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Later, Ellen would
receive a vision telling her
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to stop supporting him.
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Czechowski left
awake of burnt bridges
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and bad business
deals behind him.
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Though he hated taking advice,
he didn't mind taking money.
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So, when the SDA
Church wouldn't support him
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as a missionary to Europe,
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he found another
denomination that would.
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Czechowski used their money
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to share Adventist's
beliefs in Switzerland.
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However, he failed to
inform the Swiss congregation
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of the Home church America.
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It wasn't until a church
elder found a copy of the Review
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and Herald that
Czechowski secret came out.
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The congregation was shocked.
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Naturally, their
trust was bruised.
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The Swiss
leaders wrote to the GC
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asking for a
replacement missionary.
00:11:07.70\00:11:10.17
Adventist
historian David Trim writes.
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Adventists in
America were actually
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sort of embarrassed to learn
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that there were already
Adventist believers in Europe.
00:11:16.50\00:11:20.28
The Americans
invited the Swiss Adventists
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to send a delegate
to the 1869 GC session.
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Though he arrived
too late for the session,
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he stayed long enough to
return as an ordained minister.
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Elsewhere, Czechowski's tactics
finally caught up to him.
00:11:31.85\00:11:34.89
His bankroll was revoked.
00:11:34.92\00:11:36.83
Disgraced, he left his
family and moved to Hungary
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where he would later die at
57, reportedly from exhaustion.
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But the Swiss church
still sought a missionary.
00:11:44.90\00:11:47.64
And that is how
John Nevins Andrews
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became the first
official Seventh-day Adventist
00:11:49.50\00:11:51.47
missionary to
Europe as a replacement
00:11:51.51\00:11:53.84
for the rogue missionary.
00:11:53.88\00:11:56.01
The spirit of spreading
the Three Angels' Message
00:11:56.04\00:11:58.01
began to intensify within
00:11:58.05\00:11:59.38
the Seventh-day
Adventist Church.
00:11:59.41\00:12:01.92
Even J. G.
Matteson got to move on
00:12:01.95\00:12:03.85
from the wilds of Wisconsin
to his home country at Denmark.
00:12:03.89\00:12:07.32
His work would lead
00:12:07.36\00:12:08.69
to the first international
Adventist conference,
00:12:08.72\00:12:10.86
the
Scandinavian Publishing House
00:12:10.89\00:12:13.19
and Matteson
institute in Mysen, Norway.
00:12:13.23\00:12:16.67
The American Adventist Church
00:12:16.70\00:12:18.03
was beginning to catch a
glimpse of the possibilities.
00:12:18.07\00:12:20.57
The gospel
preached to every nation,
00:12:20.60\00:12:22.80
kindred, tongue, and people.
00:12:22.84\00:12:25.51
A world church, but we
still lack the key component.
00:12:25.54\00:12:32.51
Well, thank so
much for joining us
00:12:40.76\00:12:42.09
on today's program
00:12:42.12\00:12:43.63
and I hope that
you've been challenged
00:12:43.66\00:12:45.89
and inspired by what
you've seen and heard.
00:12:45.93\00:12:49.20
As we traced back
to throughout history,
00:12:49.23\00:12:51.53
we see people
such as Martin Luther
00:12:51.57\00:12:54.20
who have stood faithful,
00:12:54.24\00:12:55.67
and have risked their lives
for the cause of the gospel.
00:12:55.70\00:12:58.97
And today, we have seen
00:12:59.01\00:13:00.34
that so many people
around the world today
00:13:00.38\00:13:02.11
are on the
frontlines of mission.
00:13:02.14\00:13:04.28
And thank you for
your continuing prayerful
00:13:04.31\00:13:06.41
support for these people.
00:13:06.45\00:13:08.28
And thank you for
your financial support
00:13:08.32\00:13:10.62
and your personal involvement.
00:13:10.65\00:13:13.25
Today, I would like to
give you a special free offer,
00:13:13.29\00:13:16.09
it's the faces
of mission calendar
00:13:16.12\00:13:18.46
from Global mission.
00:13:18.49\00:13:19.83
And in this calendar,
00:13:19.86\00:13:21.20
you'll find daily reminders
of mission around the world,
00:13:21.23\00:13:24.30
give you something to pray for
00:13:24.33\00:13:25.83
as you remember
frontline mission workers.
00:13:25.87\00:13:28.64
Well, that's about
it for today's program,
00:13:28.67\00:13:30.71
and I hope that you can
join me next time right here
00:13:30.74\00:13:33.38
on Global Mission Snapshots.
00:13:33.41\00:13:35.48