Participants:
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS001102B
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00:10 Welcome back to Manaus.
00:11 Next up, we travel to Rwanda 00:13 where Gina Wahlen hears a remarkable story 00:17 from a genocide survivor. 00:19 Today, we're on the beautiful campus 00:21 of the Adventist University of Central Africa in Rwanda 00:26 and I'm talking with Doctor Phodidas, 00:29 who is a professor in the Theology Department. 00:33 Now doctor, 00:34 today as we look around here on campus 00:37 and across Rwanda, it's beautiful, it's peaceful, 00:42 but as we know, it is not always been that way. 00:46 During the genocide you were here. 00:48 Could you tell us what it was like 00:50 during that time? 00:52 Well, it is very difficult to actually express 00:56 exactly what's happened during that time. 00:58 It was bad, 01:00 where you see thousands and thousands of people 01:03 being killed in the churches, in the stadium. 01:07 More than million of people were killed in only 100 days. 01:13 One million people in only 100 days. 01:16 Now during that time, 01:18 did you lose any family members? 01:21 Yeah of course I... 01:22 We were about eight children in my family, 01:26 and parents and six of them were killed 01:30 and all of them had children and even grandchildren. 01:35 I mean we had grandchildren in my family 01:37 and all of them were about 34, 01:40 from my mother's family, all of them were killed. 01:45 All of them. 01:47 And even you, 01:49 I understand faced death many times. 01:52 And in fact in your story, 01:54 there's point where you are digging 01:56 your own grave. 01:58 Can you tell us what that was like? 02:00 What was happening? 02:01 What was going through your mind? 02:04 Well... 02:06 it is very hard to express, but God is so good. 02:10 When you know Him, 02:11 He gives you the courage to face even moments like that. 02:15 So when I was.. 02:17 caught in a bush, it was around 11 A.M 02:20 and they asked me to go and dig the grave, 02:22 because they said, you look strong, 02:24 we don't dig the grave for you, 02:26 you better dig, then we kill you after. 02:29 And so I was going to dig, there was no other choice, 02:32 I dug, I started digging, 02:35 but at the same time I was praying, 02:37 I was saying, Lord, I know you are able to help me. 02:41 And I said, you know, 02:42 I had started preaching at the age of maybe 20 02:46 and I was a church elder in one of the biggest churches 02:49 in Kigali called. Remera. 02:51 And so, I said, Lord, I've preached about Daniel, 02:54 I've preached about Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego. 02:58 And I know, you can do the same today, 03:00 you can save my life. 03:02 And so I prayed 03:03 and the Lord answered my prayer. 03:05 Now, well, it's a long story but I was saying, 03:08 Lord, you save me, you give me wings, 03:11 I will fly from this place, but there were no wings. 03:14 And I prayed for the fire to come, or the thunder 03:18 so that people would just be scattered. 03:20 But there was no thunder. 03:22 But God has His own ways of answering prayers 03:25 and He answered my prayer. 03:27 I thank the Lord for that. 03:29 How did He answer your prayer? 03:32 Well, one of the killers had my Bible. 03:36 The Bible I had, wherever I was, 03:38 I used it as a pillow, 03:39 I put it into a plastic bag in the bush, 03:43 I could read it everyday. 03:46 And so I-- 03:47 one of the killers had it just on the top of the grave 03:51 and he was reading and interestingly, 03:54 he was only looking at the highlighted verses 03:57 and so as he read, he was asking me, said, 04:01 "Why are these places different from others? 04:03 Why are they highlighted, underlined?" 04:06 I said, "These are my favorite passages." 04:08 And he couldn't understand, he kept reading, 04:11 he read those verses, 04:12 underlined verses and later on he said, 04:15 could you please give me this Bible 04:17 before you die. 04:19 I said, "Go ahead and take it." 04:21 But he said, others couldn't allow, 04:22 he said, "No, that is not his Bible, 04:24 it is our Bible. 04:26 You will pay it if you want to get it. 04:29 And so he said, 04:30 "No matter how much money you need, I'll pay it." 04:33 He obviously had been attached by the word of God. 04:37 And later on, 04:39 it is a long story but later on, 04:42 the very man, as he continued reading, 04:44 he was somehow attached 04:45 and he said to his colleagues, militia, he said, 04:49 "Could you please allow me to help him digging the grave." 04:52 And he dug the grave for me. 04:54 But I was, I wasn't comfortable with that, 04:56 because I was scared, I said the grave is finishing 04:59 and they're just going to bury me, to kill me. 05:01 And so I prayed and prayed 05:03 and but God answered the prayer in a different way 05:06 and so, well, 05:08 they used that grave to bury somebody else. 05:11 They said, "No, we're not going to use it 05:12 to bury this strange man. 05:14 We're burying someone else we know from this village." 05:17 Because I was of a different village 05:19 and they said a prayer, 05:22 which actually I wasn't comfortable with. 05:25 Because they were saying Mary, mother of Jesus, we save him 05:29 and it was ironically, so I felt, 05:31 I have to say something as an Adventist and I said, 05:35 these people have never been instructed, 05:37 they have never known God. 05:39 I must tell them who God is 05:40 and what is the truth about the dead. 05:43 So that they themselves don't expect to be prayed 05:47 for once they're dead. 05:48 And so I said, Lord, 05:50 please don't allow me to fly away, 05:53 don't work out any miracle before I say it 05:56 something to this people. 05:58 I preached to them by God's grace, 06:00 and they repented, 06:02 and they were even hiding me for about two days, 06:05 they gave me their food and so on. 06:07 It's a beautiful testimony you have doctor. 06:11 Just in closing, 06:12 what would you say to a person, 06:15 who may be watching this right now, 06:17 who has experienced trauma, 06:19 or something very difficult in their lives 06:22 and they're having a hard time 06:24 forgiving those who have hurt them. 06:27 What would you say to that person? 06:30 It is beautiful to know Jesus and it is really good, 06:34 "cause when you know Jesus, 06:36 you won't just get traumatized. 06:39 I know what I'm saying. 06:40 There are people who may not understand 06:42 exactly what I'm saying, 06:43 but when you've had 06:45 a personal experience with Jesus, 06:47 He makes you busy with Him, 06:50 even when you have gone through all that, 06:52 because having lost every one at a very young age 06:56 and not knowing, because I was thinking, 06:58 if I go to school, what is it going to be for. 07:02 If I get a better life, 07:04 who is going to see that. 07:05 All these questions were coming to mind, 07:07 but again I was busy. 07:09 As I said, I was church elder at the age of 24, 07:11 and I was preaching everywhere, 07:13 conducting evangelistic campaign and I felt, 07:17 I found myself taking care of others 07:19 and caring for others, praying for them 07:22 and I felt, there was no room for me 07:24 to feel like I was desperate. 07:26 God is so good. 07:28 Actually, in fact, 07:29 I felt, I had to respond to other people's problems 07:32 and needs and up to now, the Lord has blessed it. 07:36 Thank you so much for sharing your story 07:38 with us today, pastor. 07:40 Thank you so much. Thank you. 07:41 Very inspiring. 07:43 Next up, we continue our journey 07:45 back through the time 07:47 as we look at the mission history 07:48 of the Seventh-day Adventist church. 07:51 The first thing you think of when I say NASA 07:53 is probably the moon landing. 07:56 It was truly incredible. 07:58 Only 12 people in the history have ever bounced 08:01 across the lunar surface. 08:03 But as impressive as that is, 08:05 NASA has a sight set on loftier goals, Mars. 08:10 And if putting a human on the moon was hard, 08:12 putting one on Mars is crazy. 08:15 The history of reaching the red planet 08:17 read something like this. 08:19 Spacecraft did not reach earth orbit. 08:22 Spacecraft's radio failed. 08:25 Spacecraft at the top of the rocket 08:27 failed to jettison. 08:29 Orbiter failed during launch. 08:31 Orbiter flew past the planet. 08:33 Lander failed due to fast impact. 08:36 Flyby Module and Lander arrived, 08:38 but Lander missed the planet. 08:41 Is this picture clear? 08:43 Just getting to Mars is problematic. 08:46 Earth and Mars orbit the sun at different speeds. 08:49 That means the two planets are constantly drifting apart 08:52 or getting closer together. 08:55 If they launch when Mars is closed, 08:57 the trip could take as little as six months. 09:00 If they launch when Mars is furthest away, 09:02 add a year to the travel time. 09:05 And if they miss, 09:06 it's not like they can set up another rocket 09:08 to try again right away. 09:10 The cycle between launch opportunities 09:12 is close to year and half. 09:16 The journey itself is arduous. 09:18 The living space is crammed. 09:20 Bathing with water is impossible. 09:23 Showers happen with moist towelettes. 09:25 All food must be canned or freeze dried. 09:28 Microgravity deteriorates muscle and bone. 09:31 And if a solar storm hits, 09:33 astronauts must retreat 09:34 to even tinnier protected areas of the craft. 09:38 Assuming launch, flight and landing are successful. 09:41 All Mars astronauts will also become farmers 09:44 on a freezing oxygen less planet. 09:47 They will plant, cultivate, harvest, cook 09:50 and compost indoors to have food rashes. 09:53 They must continue a self-sustaining existence 09:55 for somewhere in the ballpark of two and half years. 09:59 That's the minimum amount of time 10:01 they'll spend all alone, 10:03 removed from their friends and family 10:05 before they can come back. 10:07 And why? 10:08 Because they believe it's important. 10:11 Important enough to take the risk, 10:13 to make the sacrifice. 10:18 When I say steamship, 10:20 you probably think of a Titanic. 10:22 And you're either thinking of very terrible tragedy 10:25 or a very long movie. 10:27 Either way, passengers tell us that the only thing worse 10:30 than swimming for your life from a sinking steam ship 10:32 is having to live on board one. 10:36 On Christmas Eve, 1901 Jacob Nelson Anderson 10:39 led the first three commission Adventist missionaries 10:42 to China. 10:44 With their four year son Stanley, 10:47 he left their home in Wisconsin 10:48 and traveled by train to San Francisco. 10:51 From there they boarded a steamship 10:53 bound for Hong Kong. 10:55 This was 10 years before anyone would dare 10:57 to claim a steamship could be unsinkable. 11:00 At the time everyone carried 11:02 living memory of tragedies like the Independence 11:04 which crashed into a reef of the Northern California coast, 11:08 losing 150 passengers and crew. 11:12 If our missionaries traveled in the steerage deck, 11:15 then they were packed in like cattle with the cargo. 11:18 When the miserable food 11:19 was dealt out of huge kettles into dinner plates, 11:22 the strong would shove and bony. 11:24 Two to four hundred might sleep in the same room on bunks. 11:28 Privacy was impossible. 11:30 Available restrooms often equated to pots and pans. 11:34 Unsanitary conditions frequently lead to death. 11:37 Did you catch that? 11:39 Just being on a steam should kill you. 11:42 No icebergs necessary. 11:44 And the trip takes a minimum of three weeks. 11:48 Upon arrival J.N Anderson's escort 11:50 fail to meet the missionary team. 11:53 Stranded and exhausted, 11:54 they immediately realized they had another challenge, 11:57 communication. 11:59 Mandarin doesn't use the western alphabet, 12:01 but unique characters for every word. 12:04 Its grammar doesn't come from verb tenses 12:06 but from tonal inflection. 12:09 Standing there with bags in hand, 12:11 our missionaries probably felt a lot like astronauts 12:14 setting foot on Mars. 12:16 But they believe that work was important enough 12:18 to take the risk, to make the sacrifice. 12:23 J. N Anderson's diary records him as a man 12:25 with a rich heart for the land and its people. 12:29 He and the others were committed. 12:31 The first task was to learn the language. 12:34 It took two years. 12:36 The next task was getting from Hong Kong 12:38 to mainland China. 12:40 This only proved possible 12:41 because of the efforts of other missionaries, 12:43 both official and unofficial. 12:45 J.N Anderson met his neighbors, shopped at local markets 12:49 and shared his faith On Valentine's Day, 1903 12:53 Anderson baptized six Chinese converts 12:55 to Adventism, 12:57 that's how the church started in China, six people. 13:02 Anderson's appeals to the General Conference 13:04 scored four doctors and two nurses, 13:07 the beginning of Adventist medical missionary 13:09 work in China. 13:10 A Chinese church headquarters were established. 13:13 Anderson sister-in-law formed the first Adventist school. 13:17 Anderson's younger brother was so inspired 13:19 that he made the steamship journey out 13:21 and joined the efforts, 13:24 In the spring of 1906 13:25 J.N Anderson passed the torch to Nga Pit Keh, 13:29 ordaining him as the first Chinese minister 13:31 in the SDA Church. 13:33 This one action opened the door 13:35 for dozens of others Chinese church members 13:37 to join in spreading the good news. 13:40 Today in China there are over 400,000 Adventist believers 13:45 and 4571 congregations. 13:49 Well, thanks for joining us on today's program. 13:52 I hope that you have been inspired and challenged 13:54 by what you've seen and heard about mission around the world. 13:59 You know, in Europe, in Africa, 14:01 right here in Brazil, 14:03 there're still many mission challenges. 14:05 They seemed to be many obstacles, 14:07 but there're still many opportunities. 14:09 And I want to thank you for your continuing prayerful 14:12 and financial support for mission. 14:14 It does make a difference. 14:17 And around the world, 14:18 global mission pioneers are planting churches, 14:20 and it's so encouraging for them to know 14:22 that there is a world church praying for them. 14:25 Before we go, I'd like to give you a special offer. 14:28 It's actually a book that I wrote some years ago 14:31 called God's Great Missionaries. 14:33 And it's full of stories, 14:35 not only of Bible missionaries 14:36 but also people today 14:38 who're putting Christ's love into action 14:41 around the world. 14:43 Well, that's it for today's program. 14:44 For Adventist Mission, I'm Gary Krause. 14:47 And I hope you can join me next time 14:48 right here on Global Mission Snapshots. |
Revised 2016-05-12