The Grace Foundation,
taking care of the needy
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and marginalized in New Zealand,
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a Center of Influence in
the heart of New York City,
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and Mission
Challenge around the world
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coming up next.
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Hello, and
welcome to the program
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coming to you
today from New York City.
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Directly behind
me on the corner here
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is a building
known as The Windemere.
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And in 1901,
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Pastor Stephen
Haskell and his wife Hetty
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moved into this
apartment building.
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This was quite the
building back then in 1901.
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In fact, it was very popular
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for the new class
of single young women
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who were starting to
work out in businesses.
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And the Haskells arrived
here and they were quite taken
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by the fact that
there was an elevator,
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they were quite
taken by the fact
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that there was a
very multicultural area
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and it's
fascinating that in that year
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when it was the
first crash on Wall Street,
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when in the summer
people were suiciding
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because of the terrible
heat wave, at that time,
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the Haskells
came as missionaries
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into the heart of New York City.
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Well, on today's program
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we have a lot
of mission stories,
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but first up, let's
travel to New Zealand
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and see what's happening
with the Grace Foundation.
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As more people
flock to the cities,
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the need for Jesus in
the urban areas grows.
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Big cities
encourage busy lifestyles
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with little or no time to
even think about religion.
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But in many people's hearts
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there is a need
for something more,
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a need for Jesus.
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Many are just
waiting for someone
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to reach out to them,
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to care for them and to share
the message of hope with them.
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The city of
Auckland, New Zealand,
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is one of the largest
cities in the South Pacific.
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A group of
Adventists in Auckland
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wanted to reach out to
those in need of God's love.
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Church members
started Grace Foundation
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and took on the challenge
of unconditionally loving
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the people of Auckland
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despite their past
or current situation.
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It's a big
experience itself, you know,
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to me these beautiful people
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that just love anyone, you know,
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doesn't really matter
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what crime you
have done in your life,
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you know,
because, I guess, you know,
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that's the way of Jesus.
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He loves everyone and anyone.
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And everyone can be forgiven.
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Tomoty's life hasn't been easy.
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Grace Foundation strives to show
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the love of Jesus
to people like Tomoty.
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It's the kind of people
that God sends into our care
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from homeless, mental health,
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and also mainly
from corrections.
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Grace Foundation offers a
range of holistic services
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to marginalized
members of the community.
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An important
aspect of their ministry
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is developing one on one
relationships with people
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who want to turn
their lives around
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or just need an
opportunity to succeed.
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Just the people, you know,
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the staff
members are really loving
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and they love everyone,
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you know, it doesn't
matter what you have done
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in your life.
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As the love of Christ
is shown to these people,
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they see and understand
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that God truly
accepts and forgives.
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This weekend,
people are attending
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a relationship retreat.
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Couples learn from the Bible
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what it means to love selflessly
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and put God first.
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They attend seminars,
small group discussions,
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and learn practical skills
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about how to participate
in a healthy relationship.
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It's Saturday evening
and a bus pulls up to church
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with another group of people.
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This Grace
Foundation operated bus
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picks up members in
marginalized communities
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to bring them to church.
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The vibrant worship
ignites peoples' passion
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to grow closer to God.
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As the pastor calls
for people to come up
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and leave their
burdens before God,
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people's hearts are touched
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and they come to
the front to pray.
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Many of these
people have felt judged
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in society's eyes, but
here they feel at home.
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Jesus has changed my life.
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You know, before I
gained the Holy Spirit,
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I always thought
that I was guilty,
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but once I
gained the Holy Spirit,
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I felt the true
power of innocence
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from our Lord Jesus
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and the Holy Spirit
has all the directions.
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Please pray as church
members in New Zealand
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continue to be a
light in this dark world.
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Pray that Grace
Foundation can touch the lives
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of the
marginalized people of Auckland.
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Thank you for your
support of missions.
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My guest is Pastor Bledi Leno
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who is the director of
Multicultural Ministries
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here for the
Greater New York Conference
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of Seventh-day Adventists.
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Pastor Bledi,
thanks for joining us.
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Thank you for having me, Gary.
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Now we're in a
church-owned building here
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in the center of Manhattan,
describe the neighborhood.
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What's outside here?
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Well, this is midtown Manhattan.
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We're right across
from some landmarks
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of New York City.
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We're right
across the public library
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and Bryant Park,
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only two blocks
from Times Square,
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and right at the corner of
5th Avenue and 40th Street.
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So, right in the center
and in the heart of it all.
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This place is
just amazingly busy.
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You come here on a summer's day
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and the park is packed
full of activity, right?
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Yes, you have
things such as musicals
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and theater in the
park, movies in the park,
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yoga and exercise in the
park throughout the summer,
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year round, really.
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Right, so now we
have thousands of people
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passing past here every day.
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What is happening
here at the moment?
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We have a great opportunity
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to connect with
so many people here.
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In this building,
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that the church has
owned for a few decades now,
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we have a bookstore
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that has been
active for all those years,
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and as of
recently we've implemented
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and started some
activities as a Life Op Center,
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as a Center of Influence.
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So some of the
things that we do here
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is lunch seminars
and happy hour talks.
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We like to explore those
two windows within the day
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that are the two windows
where people of our community
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are available to maybe sit
down and listen to a seminar,
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to a talk or a workshop,
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while they savor some
healthy, vegetarian food.
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And we've been able to provide
that for our community here.
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Wonderful, and you had
one of those events today.
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Describe what
happened at lunchtime today?
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We did.
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We had about 20 people
here who took their lunch break
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and decided to
spend it here with us.
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We had a nice seminar given
by a counselor and a therapist,
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a family and marriage therapist,
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so he was talking
about relationships
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and how to identify
challenges within relationships.
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It was beautiful.
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People came in here,
some of them, most of them,
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only have maybe 20, 30
minutes as a lunch break,
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so they were able to come
and savor some of our food,
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that we were featuring here
and while they were listening
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and being
interactive in this workshop.
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So it was a great opportunity.
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As we go around,
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we see that the majority
of these people are attendees,
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people who are
part of our community.
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They work here,
most of them commute
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as everybody in
this surroundings,
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they commute to
the city to work,
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and it's a great
opportunity to be able to expose
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most of them to Christian values
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when it comes to relationships
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and talking about
Valentines and love and romance.
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So you're connecting with things
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that are needs in the community
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and you've
actually done a study,
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a demographic
study of this community,
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so you understand the people
who live here and work here.
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Yes, that is
actually vital to do
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in order to
connect with the community.
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First of all, we need to
understand the community.
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And not just being around here,
which is very important to do,
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rubbing shoulders with them,
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but also from a
demographic study point of view.
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So, yes, we've conducted
a number of those studies
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in order to be
able to understand
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the community better,
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so that we can serve
the community better.
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We're surrounded
by business people,
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people who work in these
high-rise commercial buildings
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who work for investment
banks and big buck companies,
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and they
require quality programs
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and we try our best to
provide that in order to connect
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with them as best we can.
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And to provide a
bit more context,
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I understand
right next to us here,
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a new apartment
building is going up,
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and how much would it cost me
to buy a one bedroom apartment?
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Well, our
neighbors here are selling
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the one bedroom
apartments for $2.5 million.
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$2.5 million?
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Okay, I'll think that
one through carefully.
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Just briefly, can
you tell me somebody
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whose life has been touched
already through this center?
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Yes, we've been
here working since 2013
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with these types of events.
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We have a number of them.
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And we like to
channel some of the people
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who come through these
events to the other things
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that we're featuring here.
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We have counseling.
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We have spirituality groups
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that meet here and
study the Bible together.
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We have after-school programs
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and different kinds of workshops
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and seminars that we provide.
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One of them is Julie.
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Julie started attending
here a couple of our events
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and she felt that she
needed to get engaged more
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and she asked whether
any of the other programs
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would be fitting for her.
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So I introduced her to Eric,
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one of our leaders of
the groups, study groups,
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that we have here
throughout the week,
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and Julie connected with Eric
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and they've been
studying together
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the Bible in this group.
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We have about 15
to 18 young adults
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who work around
here, are professionals,
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and in their busy
weeks and busy day to day,
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they can't find
necessarily the time to connect
00:11:58.18\00:12:01.68
with a spiritual
group or with someone
00:12:01.72\00:12:04.15
who can help them in
their spiritual journey.
00:12:04.19\00:12:07.76
We were happy to
provide that for Julie,
00:12:07.79\00:12:10.03
so we still see
her every Wednesday,
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every Thursday when they
come here for their studies
00:12:13.40\00:12:15.63
and she's a very active person
00:12:15.66\00:12:18.67
and she's actually
brought many of her friends
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over to be with them.
00:12:21.94\00:12:23.54
Fantastic, fantastic.
00:12:23.57\00:12:24.91
Bledi, thanks so
much for sharing with us.
00:12:24.94\00:12:26.34
Thank you for
being here. Thank you.
00:12:26.37\00:12:28.28
And viewers at home,
00:12:28.31\00:12:29.81
please remember to pray
for Centers of Influence
00:12:29.84\00:12:33.65
in urban areas
all around the world.
00:12:33.68\00:12:35.65
They're
multiplying, they're growing
00:12:35.68\00:12:37.22
and they're
proving to be a platform
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to put Christ's
method into practice.
00:12:39.69\00:12:41.52
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:12:41.56\00:12:43.59