Participants:
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS001005A
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00:06 Can you imagine a church
00:08 that floats pass your house every Sabbath, 00:11 in a place where you couldn't attend church otherwise. 00:14 This story and more coming up next. 00:21 Just before He went up to heaven, 00:24 Jesus gave us a command. 00:27 He gave us a mission. 00:29 Jesus said go, 00:32 "Go unto all the world telling them of His love." 00:37 This is our mission, this is our Global Mission. 00:53 Hello, and welcome to Global Missions Snapshot, 00:55 I'm Gary Krause. 00:56 Today's program 00:58 comes from the beautiful city of Vancouver, 01:00 British Columbia, Canada. 01:01 It's a water city 01:03 and it's the largest port in all of Canada 01:06 and today we'll also be traveling 01:08 to a part of the world where boats are very important 01:10 and that's the Amazon River. 01:12 Where for many years 01:13 the Adventist churches had a ministry 01:15 where boats have gone up and down the river 01:17 and we'll visit a floating church. 01:19 On today's program, 01:20 we'll look at some of the mission challenges 01:22 here in Vancouver. 01:23 We'll talk to a pastor from mainland China 01:26 who is planting a church among Chinese people. 01:29 We'll also talk to Pastor Kumar Dixit 01:31 about the challenge of reaching secular people 01:34 in an urban environment. 01:36 But first stop, let's talk to Pastor Daniel Jiao 01:39 and then we will meet his parents, 01:41 who for many years suffered in Chinese labor camps. 01:53 In early 1950's, 01:55 my father was studying to be a doctor 01:58 but had to quit because of Sabbath conflicts. 02:02 He began assisting Pastor Devlin 02:04 with translating Ellen G. White books. 02:07 In 1958, he was arrested and sent to brutal labor camps. 02:14 His crime, sharing his faith. 02:18 Sometime later my mother was also arrested 02:21 and sent to different labor education camp. 02:25 During the next 10 years, 02:27 they saw each other for total of 15 minutes, 02:30 but both my mother and father 02:32 remained faithful to God and each other. 02:36 During his time in prison, 02:38 my father was forbidden to worship 02:40 or to have any Christian resources. 02:43 But hidden in a pocket was a small book 02:46 in which he had written from memory 02:49 many favorite Bible passages. 02:52 It was more precious than gold. 02:54 I learned of God's grace, and trust, worthiness 02:57 through my parents. 02:59 And my father's little book taught me 03:01 the importance of God's word. 03:03 Today I serve as secretary of the Chinese Union Mission. 03:08 And I know that I won't be here 03:10 without a faithful example of my parents 03:13 who despite incredible adversary 03:16 stayed faithful to the one who is ever faithful. 03:52 Thank you very much for joining us. 03:56 Now we are all very curious, 03:57 do you still have that little notebook? 04:05 Yes. 04:12 How much did this little notebook mean to you 04:15 when you were in the camp? 04:38 So the little book, was one time 04:42 he was able to visit the home and he wrote 04:47 because he wrote all of the Bible passage 04:50 on this small booklet. 04:56 So as he, going his daily routine, 05:00 he memorized these Bible texts 05:02 and also it gave him lot of encouragement. 05:07 Okay, I must ask you were put into the camp 05:12 for sharing your faith, but you still shared your faith 05:16 while you were in the camp. 05:18 What kept you going? Why did you do this? 05:29 So his response is that when he was very young, 05:33 he thought about his life, you know, you grow up, 05:37 you get married, then you have children, 05:40 then eventually you die. 05:42 He felt life is meaningless until he accept Jesus, he, 05:48 Jesus came into his heart, then he knew that, 05:52 that Jesus is all he wanted in his life. 05:56 So that kept him going 05:59 even though after he was put into prison, so he-- 06:04 After he became a Christian, he was really happy 06:08 that wanting to tell everyone about his belief. 06:11 So even in the labor camp that fire still inside him, 06:15 he want to tell others. 06:17 How do you feel now 06:19 looking at the Adventist church and seeing that your son 06:22 is a secretary of the Chinese Union Mission? 06:35 So I am very happy that my son can participate 06:39 in a church work. 06:53 So he is very happy that his son can participate 06:57 in a church work 06:59 and he just want to like to tell everyone 07:02 that we are at the end of this age 07:05 especially the seven churches were coming 07:08 to the church of laity, the Satan is working very hard 07:13 to draw everyone away from Jesus' truth. 07:18 And he wants to encourage everyone 07:22 to hold on to God's truth unto the end. 07:33 So, we are so honored 07:35 and we want to thank you so much 07:37 for sharing your story with us. 07:38 Thank you. 07:45 Also thank you everyone. 07:48 Thank you. Thank you very much. 07:49 We're thankful for how the church 07:50 has been growing on mainland China. 07:53 But there is also a tremendous mission field 07:55 among Chinese people 07:56 who have immigrated to all corners of the world. 07:59 And my guest is Pastor Peter and here in Vancouver, 08:03 Pastor Peter, you have something of a mission field 08:06 among the Chinese people. 08:07 Describe for me the Chinese community here? 08:10 Well, out of the 2 million population in metro Vancouver, 08:14 we have about 500,000 Chinese population here. 08:19 500,000? That's right. Yeah. 08:21 And among them, 08:23 more than half of them are from mainland China recently 08:27 for the past one or two decades, 08:29 and the church here used to be mostly Hong Kongese, 08:34 Chinese members. 08:36 So they find it hard to adjust 08:40 to this new populations coming in, 08:42 with the language barriers and the cultural barriers. 08:46 So when I immigrated here, 08:50 the church called me to help out 08:52 reaching the mandarin speaking Chinese population here. 08:56 Yeah, because sometimes, 08:58 we think of Chinese as one monolithic group, 09:00 but there is many different languages 09:02 and cultural groups and kind of. 09:03 Wonderful. 09:05 Now, you had experience back in mainland China, 09:07 planting churches 09:08 and that's what you are doing right here in Vancouver. 09:11 What sort of methods are you using 09:13 to try to start this new group of believers? 09:16 I'll tell you what we are doing here is quite similar 09:20 to what we have been doing in Beijing when I was there. 09:24 What we do initially is we open our house 09:27 as venue of fellowship because people are hesitant 09:31 to go to the formal setting of a church. 09:34 So, we invite them to our Friday night fellowship meal, 09:38 we eat together, we sing together 09:41 and then we talk about some issue 09:43 that is not very indoctrinating, 09:47 but it's more practical in a way that, 09:50 we help them to cope with their stress 09:52 or their homesickness, 09:55 that's how we start out doing ministry. 09:58 And then once they become interested 10:00 and being drawn to the love of God, 10:03 we would organize them and invite them 10:05 into Bible study groups during weekdays. 10:08 Sometimes we go to the major university campus 10:13 here like SFUR, UBC, OBCIT, 10:17 sometimes we go to the students' home 10:19 and have studies there. 10:22 After about a year of study also, some of them gradually 10:27 they change their behavior stand, 10:28 they become more convince of our truth 10:31 and they become baptized. 10:33 So, for the past two years 10:35 we have about 14 baptisms already. 10:37 Wonderful. 10:39 It sounds to me that you're putting 10:40 Christ's method into practice, 10:41 where you're mingling and you're building bridges 10:43 and making friendships, wonderful. 10:45 Can you give me an example 10:46 of someone whose life has been touched 10:48 through this ministry? 10:50 Well, we have several, many miracle testimonies. 10:54 One of them is a young girl. 10:56 She is from Shenyang 10:58 and she has no religion whatsoever. 11:00 She never even heard about the name of Jesus 11:03 and when she just came here for studies. 11:08 Some Sunday church had a big program for retreat, 11:12 and they invited her to their ministry there 11:16 and evangelism. 11:17 And she said, "I don't understand 11:19 why they close their eyes, 11:20 what are they talking about I don't know, 11:23 I don't even know this is a church thing, 11:26 so, but, she was so grateful that 11:29 she was invited to our place 11:31 through a classmate who is Adventist before. 11:35 And then that guy invited him to our place 11:38 and with this relax environment, 11:41 she started gradually was no barriers and offenses, 11:45 she started to know everything about God and Adventism. 11:49 And now she is very active in church. 11:52 And she is leading out the youth ministry, 11:56 organizing study groups and she is also a good singer. 12:01 That's wonderful. Yeah. 12:03 What are the biggest challenges that you are facing? 12:06 Well, one of the biggest challenge is human resources. 12:12 More likeminded God fearing and fearless missionary people 12:18 who are willing to open up their private life 12:22 to show true Christianity to the outside population. 12:26 That's what we need most. Yes. 12:28 And what's your greatest hope for the future? 12:32 My hope is that 12:35 there will be more mandarin speaking Chinese people 12:38 came to know Jesus 12:40 and have this wonderful hope of second coming of Jesus. 12:44 Yeah. Terrific. 12:46 Well, Peter, thank you so much for sharing with us today 12:48 and it's just exciting to see, I mean, 300 Adventists 12:53 among 500,000, that's a mission field. 12:56 May God continue to bless you. 12:58 And viewers at home, 12:59 please remember Pastor Peter and his team. 13:02 What a tremendous challenge right here in Canada, 13:05 in Vancouver. 13:07 But God is leading, lives have been touched, 13:09 lives have been changed. 13:10 Continue to pray that God will lead for the future 13:13 and as Peter said that 13:14 there will be more human resources available 13:17 to come and help this ministry. 13:20 Don't go away, we will be right back after this break. |
Revised 2016-02-18