Welcome back to New York City,
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and next up we travel to
a warmer part of the world,
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Johannesburg, South Africa.
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I'm talking with
Global Mission pioneers,
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Elder and Mrs. Sibanda
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at the Berea International
Seventh-day Adventist Church
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in Pretoria, South Africa.
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Mrs. Sibanda, how long have you
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and your husband been
Global Mission pioneers?
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We have been doing
global Pioneer Mission work
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for 11 years now.
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Wow, that's a
long time, yes. Yes.
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Elder Sibanda, I understand
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that about a year after
being Global Mission pioneers,
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you experienced
something very unfortunate.
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Tell me a little bit about that.
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Yes, the devil works
in some subversive manner.
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I got arrested
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and I was sent to prison
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on a remand.
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And for five months,
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I was packed in there.
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There was no case
because they did not have...
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Actually they did
not have any docket...
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There was no charge made.
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There was no charge
which they had prepared.
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Every time I would go to
court, they would tell me,
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the case has been
remanded to next week.
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The case has been
remanded to next week.
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And, meanwhile,
there was no charge sheet.
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And as I was in the
prison, in many cases,
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the prison authorities
would actually send other people
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who have come to
prison with worse problems,
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like murder, etc.
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for me to counsel them
whilst I was incarcerated.
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Okay.
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Yes, you see,
as I was in prison,
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there were quite
a number of things
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that were happening.
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People that were
worshipping on Sunday
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sometimes they
would call me to come
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and preach to some
of those prisoners,
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you know, the
inmates, because I was still
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in the 'awaiting trial' section,
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and when I was released,
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because there was no charge,
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I went back to prison
the following Sabbath,
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together with my
wife, and from then on,
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we started prison ministry
in a much tenser manner.
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Pretoria Central Prison
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became the first
prison in South Africa
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to be installed of Hope Channel
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through our ministry.
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And we've already installed
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about four of
those units at one prison
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but we are still
negotiating to install more.
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Tell me, what was
that like for both of you?
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You know, you had been in prison
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for five or six months
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and you, on the
outside, worried and praying,
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and to go back, to
turn around and go back,
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why did you do that?
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Did you feel
the Lord calling you
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to be involved in
this particular ministry?
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Did he lay it on your
heart? Did you want to do it?
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You know, this
incident that happened,
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that my husband
was incarcerated there,
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it opened our eyes and our minds
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that God wants to use us there.
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So we felt the
Lord wants to use us
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because there was so
much that we could see
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that we can do
help the guys there,
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where some of them did not
have a relationship with Christ,
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they did not know Christ.
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So we were encouraged
that God wants to use us there.
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Now, as a result
of your ministry,
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do you know of people
who have come to know Christ?
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Yes, there are quite a number
that have come to know Christ.
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Some of them, we have
adopted them as our children.
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And, in fact,
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our ministry is not only
concentrated to the inmates,
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it is now spread over even
to the officers themselves,
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because the officers,
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quite a number
of these officers,
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either they are stressed
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and they need a
lot of counseling.
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Sometimes, you
know, we would go there
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and do the counseling instead
of going to the prisoners.
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We actually go to
the officers themselves.
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Elder Sibanda, I understand
that you are the leader
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of the Global Mission
pioneer work in Pretoria,
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and you mentioned that
your wife goes to the prison
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a couple days a week.
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What else do you do?
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What else is involved in
your Global Mission ministry
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at this point?
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Well, in the
Global Mission ministry,
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there is quite a lot
that is happening currently.
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Pretoria, being a
metropolitan area,
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there's a lot of need
for the work to be done,
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so, sometimes, we do share.
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When she is at the
prison, I am on the front.
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I've got three
colleagues that I'm working with
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within the city.
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And we go out, knock doors,
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not only that but
we're also involved in,
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arranging and
conducting evangelistic meetings
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within the city.
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Well, there are quite a
number of other congregations
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that we have managed to pioneer.
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One such
congregation is a congregation
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up in Johannesburg where it
was a Pentecostal congregation
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and we managed to
share some truth with them
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by God's grace,
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the whole church plus the pastor
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became Adventist
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and the pastor
himself, currently,
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is training at St Lucia.
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He's left with
only a year to complete,
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to come back into the ministry,
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which actually was as a result
of the Global Mission pioneer.
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What is it that
keeps you motivated,
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keeps you in the ministry?
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Well, I remember the words
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of one of our division officers
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who happened to be a young man
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when I was
already a trained pastor,
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he said to me, "Listen,
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when the finger of
God is pointed at you,
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it doesn't matter where you go,
it doesn't matter what you do,
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you will come back to do
what he has asked you to do."
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And Global Mission work,
it's something that is inborn.
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Something that is
part of our lifestyle.
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And it is very
difficult to part with it.
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And we enjoy doing it because
we cannot just stop doing it
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until he tells us to stop.
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Hmm, very good.
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Elder and Mrs.
Sibanda, thank you for your time
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and for your sharing a
little bit of your life
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as Global Mission
pioneers here in Pretoria.
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Well, you're
welcome, you're welcome.
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Historically, the
Seventh-Day Adventist church
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has been strongest in
rural areas and on islands.
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And we have neglected
the great urban areas.
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Not so long ago, I
visited some of the cities
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and I'd like to show
you a video now that shows
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some of the
challenge that we are facing.
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When many of us
think of the mission field,
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we still think in terms
of small rural villages.
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Now, villages
are still important,
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but increasingly,
these are our mission fields,
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the growing cities of the world
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where millions
and millions of people
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are congregating.
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They're not going anywhere soon,
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except they're getting
bigger and bigger, and bigger.
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As the people are
walking these streets,
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living in these apartments,
working in these offices,
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it's the people
living in makeshift housing,
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in hovels and slums.
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It's the rich, it's the poor
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who need to know Jesus Christ.
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The growing urban
areas of the world
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are our greatest
mission challenge,
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but they're also our
greatest mission opportunity.
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Imagine that you
were standing here with me
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in the capital
city of Myanmar, Yangon.
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Right here in the
heart of the city,
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and then imagine that
there was a circle around us
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with a radius of 3,000
miles, 5,000 kilometers.
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Now that's a
relatively small space,
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but in that area,
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60 percent of the
world's population lives.
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And this is an area
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where the poorest
people of the world live
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and representatives from
the world's major religions
00:10:02.36\00:10:05.40
but the fewest Christians.
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Adventist work
began in the Middle East
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right here in the
ancient land of Egypt.
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Back in the 1870s some
people sent some literature.
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Now, more than 100
years later, 140 years later,
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the Adventist Church
throughout the Middle East
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is a minority of minorities.
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In fact, if you could
imagine a line of people
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stretching here
from Cairo, Egypt
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directly all the
way to Beirut, Lebanon,
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nearly 600 kilometers,
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and if each person were
spaced just one meter apart,
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you could walk that entire line
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and you would meet only
three or four Adventists.
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In the face of
numbers such as that,
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we ask the question,
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who is
sufficient for these things?
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And the answer
is, not us, only Him.
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When the apostle Paul
visited here in Athens
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some 2,000 years ago, he
discovered a mission field.
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It was a city full of idols,
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and when he met
with the philosophers
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up on Mars Hill
near the Acropolis,
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he connected the
good news of Jesus Christ
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to the culture in
which they were living.
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He made that
important connection.
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He talked about the
altar to the unknown God
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and showed them
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how that was
pointing to the one true God.
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Today we also face
tremendous mission fields.
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We think of the Middle East.
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We think of the
rising number of cities
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with populations way
more than a million people.
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We think of the 10/40 window.
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We think of the
growth in secularism
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and post-modernism.
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And we even
think of the challenge
00:12:07.92\00:12:09.36
of passing on the mission spirit
00:12:09.39\00:12:11.69
to our children.
00:12:11.73\00:12:13.06
And as we face these challenges,
00:12:13.09\00:12:14.73
we know that we have the
power of the Holy Spirit,
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and we also know the importance
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of following the
example of Jesus himself
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and the Apostle
Paul in finding ways
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to make the good news
meaningful, attractive,
00:12:24.21\00:12:28.21
and understandable to
people in various cultures,
00:12:28.24\00:12:32.21
in various contexts.
00:12:32.25\00:12:35.02
When Global
Mission began in 1990,
00:12:35.05\00:12:37.35
there were some 6 million
00:12:37.39\00:12:38.72
Seventh-day
Adventist Church members.
00:12:38.75\00:12:40.92
Today, there are
more than 18 million
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and thousands of
churches have been planted
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in remote Amazon
villages such as this one.
00:12:46.03\00:12:49.16
In large cities
such as New York,
00:12:49.20\00:12:51.70
and around the world today
we see that church planting
00:12:51.73\00:12:55.20
is at the fastest rate ever.
00:12:55.24\00:12:57.41
But huge
challenges still remain.
00:12:57.44\00:13:00.04
We look at the vast
megalopolises around the world,
00:13:00.08\00:13:03.81
more than 50 percent
of the world's population
00:13:03.85\00:13:06.82
live in cities, and
that's rapidly growing.
00:13:06.85\00:13:09.58
And we think of the 10/40 window
00:13:09.62\00:13:11.72
where most people
have still not even heard
00:13:11.75\00:13:13.52
the name of Jesus
00:13:13.56\00:13:15.16
and we think of the
secular and post-modern West
00:13:15.19\00:13:17.79
which seems to be growing,
and growing in unbelief.
00:13:17.83\00:13:21.83
When we look at the challenge,
00:13:21.86\00:13:23.20
we say, "Who is
sufficient for these things?"
00:13:23.23\00:13:26.10
The only thing that we can
do is to recommit ourselves
00:13:26.13\00:13:29.34
to a fresh vision of mission
00:13:29.37\00:13:31.27
and to the power
of the Holy Spirit.
00:13:31.31\00:13:33.31
Well, I hope that
you've enjoyed today's program,
00:13:48.29\00:13:50.59
and, more than that, I
hope that you've been challenged
00:13:50.63\00:13:53.16
and inspired by what
you've seen and heard.
00:13:53.19\00:13:56.46
Around the world today,
00:13:56.50\00:13:57.83
we see so many
mission challenges
00:13:57.87\00:13:59.47
from small remote areas
00:13:59.50\00:14:01.77
through the teeming
megalopolises around the world
00:14:01.80\00:14:04.54
where everyday the
populations are just growing
00:14:04.57\00:14:07.84
and growing and growing.
00:14:07.88\00:14:09.21
I want to thank you for your
continuing support for mission,
00:14:09.24\00:14:13.08
for your personal involvement,
00:14:13.11\00:14:14.75
for your prayers and for
your financial contributions,
00:14:14.78\00:14:18.55
your mission
offerings, your tithe,
00:14:18.59\00:14:19.95
your gifts to Global Mission.
00:14:19.99\00:14:21.79
It does make a
tremendous difference.
00:14:21.82\00:14:24.69
Before we go, I'd like to
offer you a wonderful gift.
00:14:24.73\00:14:28.56
This is a tremendous book.
00:14:28.60\00:14:29.93
It's called It's
Time, a brand new book
00:14:29.96\00:14:33.77
full of frontline
urban mission stories.
00:14:33.80\00:14:37.27
This isn't a book
of theory or theology,
00:14:37.31\00:14:39.87
it's a book of
practical illustrations,
00:14:39.91\00:14:42.34
practical examples of
holistic urban mission.
00:14:42.38\00:14:46.18
Well, for Adventist
Mission, I'm Gary Krause,
00:14:46.21\00:14:48.32
and I hope that you
can join me next time
00:14:48.35\00:14:50.25
right here on
Global Mission Snapshots.
00:14:50.29\00:14:52.99