Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Heather Dawn- Small
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000243
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00:30 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
00:31 Welcome again to Issues and Answers. 00:33 Today our issue is going to be; How can we work for God? 00:38 And I guarantee you one thing, you're going to find that the 00:41 answer is that the Lord is calling each and every one 00:44 of us to be His hands, and His feet here in the earth. 00:48 And it actually reminds me of the scripture found in 00:50 I John 3:18. 00:53 Listen to what Paul, excuse me, this was John, of course, wrote. 00:57 He said, Little children let us not love merely in theory 01:03 or in speech, but in deed and in truth, in practice 01:07 and in sincerity. 01:09 God is calling us to be His touch in the world. 01:13 And particularly today, we want to focus on the fact that God 01:18 has a call for every woman to ministry. 01:21 With us today is someone who is passionate about 01:25 Women's Ministries is Heather Dawn Small. 01:28 She is the director for the General Conference of 01:31 Seventh-day Adventists Women's Ministry Program. 01:34 Heather, thank you so much for coming back. 01:36 Now tell us about your new theme at the General Conference 01:40 for Women's Ministries. 01:42 Well, at the General Conference there's an over-all theme 01:44 of every department, and that theme is Tell the World. 01:47 Well, of course, when you're dealing with women 01:50 Tell the World just wasn't enough for us because we're 01:53 touchy feely kind of people. 01:55 We want to get in there and really get involved. 01:58 And so I thought about it, and prayed about it, 02:01 and God gave us the theme, Touch A Heart, Tell the World. 02:04 And you've got a beautiful logo. 02:06 Let's look at that. 02:07 Yes, and on the logo you'll see the first slide. 02:11 It has A Ministry for every woman 02:14 Touch a Heart, Tell the World. 02:16 And that's what we're trying to promote, and encourage our 02:21 women that every woman of the church should be involved 02:24 in ministry to somebody in some form or fashion. 02:29 And by doing that we'll be touching hearts, and we'll be 02:32 telling the world. 02:33 Amen, amen! 02:34 How did God lead you to this theme? 02:37 Oh, that was an awesome thing that He did because it started 02:41 about a year before the General Conference session in 2005. 02:46 I remember Ardis Stanbacken who was then the GC 02:49 Women's Ministry director. 02:50 She and I were talking about what our theme could be. 02:53 I can't remember who came up with the idea of, 02:55 A Ministry for Every Woman because at General Conference, 02:57 session we always have our meetings, and we do this 03:00 beautiful backdrop, and so we were thinking, what could we do? 03:03 Then we asked our graphic artist if she would come up with a 03:08 picture which would depict this. 03:10 And she came up with the picture which you just saw with a woman 03:15 holding the globe. 03:16 Well, after the session was over and now I'm here, director, 03:21 and I'm looking at the General Conference theme, 03:23 and I'm sitting in the hall. 03:25 The session wasn't over as yet. 03:26 That's when it started. 03:27 I'm sitting in the hall and I'm thinking, Okay, Lord, what am I 03:30 going to do with this? 03:31 I mean, where do You want me to lead the women of the 03:35 church according to what You want for us? 03:37 Amen. 03:38 And as I began to think about it the first thing that came to my 03:41 mind was Isaiah. 03:42 Isaiah 61:1-3 where the Bible talks about "the Spirit of God 03:47 is upon me. " 03:50 It's the prophecy of Jesus Christ. 03:53 As I read that I realized, but this is what God wants to do. 03:58 He wants us to go out there and proclaim His message, 04:02 but He also wants us to heal people, and to touch people, 04:06 and to be involved where there is pain. 04:10 As I thought about that; that whole idea of touch came in, 04:15 and I thought, Oh, Touch and Tell. 04:17 But then somebody else gave us the idea of Touch a Heart, 04:22 Tell the World, which was even so much better. 04:24 It's beautiful! 04:25 We put it altogether and then I came across a quotation, 04:29 which is on the second slide, from E. G. White's 04:33 Ministry of Healing. 04:34 That's on slide two. 04:36 In it she says: 04:57 As I read that I thought wait a minute; this is not what 05:01 we've really been doing. 05:02 We've been going out there and preaching, and teaching, 05:05 but we really haven't spent time meeting the needs. 05:09 And it's not that as a church we don't do that. 05:12 Yes we do. 05:13 You know we have our Community Services; we have ADRA. 05:15 But it seems as though, to me, we need to bring those together. 05:19 Amen. 05:21 So God gave me this whole vision and this idea that even before 05:27 we do our evangelistic meetings, women must go into the community 05:30 three to six months before, and they must work 05:34 in the community. 05:35 They must visit people's homes. 05:37 They must see what the needs are. 05:40 Meet the needs of the people. 05:41 Then when the pastor, or whoever it is comes, to preach the word, 05:46 people will come because we would have touched their hearts 05:49 with the touch of God. 05:51 They will know that we are really sincere. 05:54 I think that will make a whole big different to the way that we 05:57 go out there and tell the world. 05:59 I think if we just live that in our day-by-day life. 06:01 Yes, definitely. 06:02 You know, when you said that Jesus, and as Ellen White had 06:06 written, that He ministered to their needs, 06:09 then He said, Follow me. 06:10 People don't care how much you know till they know 06:12 how much you care. 06:13 And that's just the scripture we opened up with today. 06:17 That we've got to love, just not in theory and in words, 06:19 but in action and in truth. 06:21 So I do know that when we go out, and if we minister to 06:25 people, just becoming friends with them, helping to meet 06:29 their physical needs, winning their confidence, then they will 06:33 listen to what love drives us, or compels us to do this. 06:37 I know I've said this before, but I think I'll say it again, 06:41 because it's something that we all need to hear. 06:45 People don't want perfect Christians. 06:47 People don't want us to go out there looking all nice, 06:49 and dandy and fine, with our Bibles tucked under our arms. 06:52 And we go out there and we open the word of God, and we preach 06:55 these wonderful sermons. 06:56 The average person out there does not want to hear what 06:59 the word of God says until they have felt the word of God 07:03 in their lives. 07:04 They want to know, "Oh, is this true? 07:07 Well then, tell me what this is done for you. " 07:09 Yes! 07:10 Now, if I can't share with you what God has done for me through 07:12 His word, then why should somebody else listen to it? 07:15 So we've got to change the way that we have been reaching out 07:18 to people's lives. 07:19 We've got to realize that unless somebody needs, unless a person 07:26 who has a suffering; there is a woman who's being abused 07:30 by her husband. 07:31 There's this other woman who doesn't have any money to feed 07:34 her hungry family. 07:35 How can we tell them God's word and expect them to accept it, 07:40 if we do not first meet their need; meet them at the point 07:44 of their pain. 07:45 Amen, amen. 07:46 It's when we do that; that's when ministry really begins. 07:49 And, you know, sometimes that pain, it doesn't have to be 07:51 just physical abuse, sometimes it's a pain of loneliness 07:54 or isolation. 07:55 That's right. 07:56 When we go out and prove ourselves to be friendly, 07:58 and interested in someone; listening, sometimes it's just 08:01 people need someone who will listen to them. 08:04 How do you, as you're taking this message, this theme, 08:08 across the world, and I know how much you travel. 08:11 You're doing what, close to twelve international 08:14 trips a year? 08:15 Ah, I'd say between eight and ten. 08:17 Eight and ten? 08:18 That's amazing, especially when you're gone two weeks at a time. 08:21 Two to three weeks, yeah. 08:22 That is amazing, Heather Dawn. 08:24 But when you go out, and you're teaching women this and say, 08:28 Let's Touch a Heart, and Tell the World, have you ever had 08:32 women who say, Well, I don't know what my gift is? 08:35 I don't know where begin. 08:37 How do you teach them where to begin? 08:39 First thing I ask them what are they passionate about? 08:41 What do they like? 08:42 What do you think you are good at? 08:45 It doesn't matter, tell me something, whether it's baking 08:48 bread or it's doing some kind of art work. 08:51 Whatever it is, that's what God is going to use. 08:55 One of the big crazes that I see here in the United States 08:58 that I've gotten myself caught up in is scrapbooking. 09:01 I love scrapbooking! 09:02 I scrapbook cards all the time because it's become a personal 09:07 ministry for me. 09:08 But somebody who loves scrapbooking can go to a crop 09:13 meet, a group where there are other women meeting to do 09:16 scrapbooking, and share God's word with them as they sit 09:20 and they talk. 09:21 Just talk about what God has done. 09:23 That's ministry! 09:24 I'm using whatever God has put in my hand to reach out 09:28 and to become friends with other people because, you see, 09:31 it's not that I have to go with my Bible. 09:34 I don't have to have a neat set of Bible lessons there. 09:37 No, I don't. 09:38 I just need me, and God with me, speaking through me. 09:41 And so it could be anywhere. 09:43 I could be knitting with my friends in a group. 09:45 I could be painting. 09:47 I could be baking. 09:48 I could be... it doesn't matter what it could be. 09:49 There was one lady who told me once, "Well, I don't know what 09:54 I do well. " 09:55 I said, "Well, think about it. 09:57 What do you enjoy doing?" 09:58 She said, "I love to read. " 09:59 And I said, "Do you read out loud? 10:00 She said, "I love to read out loud. " 10:02 I said, "That's a ministry. 10:04 Can you think of anyone in your community who needs, 10:07 or who would love to have someone come and read the word 10:10 of God for them? 10:11 Or read a book for them? 10:12 Or read the newspaper for them?" 10:13 She thought about it and she said, "Yeah, I guess I can. " 10:16 I said, "Then go and do it. " 10:18 Just take that; take your voice, and let your voice be what God 10:23 will use to touch someone's life. 10:24 Amen. 10:25 When you were talking I was thinking about a precious lady 10:28 in Berkley Springs, West Virginia, who loves to quilt. 10:31 She started a quilting group at her home. 10:34 She had many different denominations available, 10:37 or that were attending this quilting group. 10:40 So then one day she had been introduced to the book 10:44 that I wrote, Exalting His Word, and she had left that 10:46 out and some woman there picked it up and said, "What is this?" 10:50 They all decided, after reading a little bit, that they'd like 10:52 to study that. 10:53 So they started getting together thirty minutes earlier 10:56 than their quilting time, and began this devotional. 10:59 It turned out that, she said that it ended up that they were 11:03 spending just a lot shorter time doing any quilting, 11:06 and more time studying the word. 11:07 So we can reach out and be friends to people. 11:11 That's true. 11:12 One of the things that I've noticed over the years 11:15 in the church is that people in the world think 11:17 Seventh-day Adventist's are strange people. 11:19 Yes! 11:20 We are so "other worldly" so they think. 11:24 You know, they look at us: the way we dress, the food we eat, 11:26 you know, what we do and what we don't do; which is a very 11:29 long list, and they think, Oh Adventists are just strange. 11:32 I grew up in the church hearing "You've got to be in the world 11:36 but not of the world. " 11:37 Separate yourselves. 11:39 And to me what we've done is we've built these nice neat 11:44 little boxes for ourselves called churches, and as long as 11:47 we're inside of this little box called the church we're fine. 11:50 But God has called us to ministry outside of the box 11:54 called the church. 11:55 He has called us to go into the community. 11:57 Now many of us are scared stiff of doing that because we're 12:01 safe in the church. 12:02 We come to church, we give our offering, we give to missions, 12:05 and we think we've done our part. 12:06 But that's not what God has called us to. 12:09 He's called us to a ministry of touching peoples lives. 12:12 There are many people who will never come into a church. 12:17 Never ever will they walk one step into the church. 12:20 So what do we do for those people? 12:22 Do we just leave them and say, "Well, I'm not going to go down 12:25 to that bar because if somebody sees me walking into that bar, 12:28 or standing outside of that bar, I don't know what they 12:30 would think. 12:31 If somebody sees me in the red light district, "What would 12:33 they think if some... 12:34 But God is saying that's where we've got to go. 12:37 So if we would only allow God to take us outside of the box, 12:42 called our church, and go and minister where the needs are, 12:48 It's, I mean, it's just awesome what it's going to do. 12:51 I'm seeing it taking place in so many parts of the world 12:55 where our women are going into the communities, 12:58 and they're just doing what has to be done, and the changes 13:01 it's bringing about in the people's lives. 13:03 Amen! 13:04 Sometimes you can even volunteer. 13:06 I've talked with some Adventists who had volunteered 13:09 at the Salvation Army. 13:10 Yep. 13:11 They were making so many contacts in the community, 13:14 and going out and doing things there. 13:15 People began to know that they were Adventists, 13:19 They'd already developed up this wonderful relationship 13:22 with the people, and they were beginning to make inroads into 13:26 many denominations as well as into the community. 13:29 That's right. 13:30 We've got to stop being "those Adventists". 13:33 To me, we need to be Seventh-day Adventist Christians. 13:38 Amen. 13:39 And there's a huge difference between the Seventh-day 13:41 Adventist and the Seventh-day Adventist Christian. 13:43 Amen! 13:44 Because the Seventh-day Adventist is only interested 13:46 in the "do's and don'ts". 13:47 But the Seventh-day Adventist Christian has Christ first. 13:51 And if we can only be on that side, then wow! 13:56 I just can't, I'm so excited about what I know God can do 14:00 for us, and through us. 14:01 Amen, amen. 14:02 I had to, when you talked about Christian, you know, 14:04 we believe that God has his people in every church. 14:08 Oh, yes, definitely! 14:09 I was recently doing an interview at a prison, 14:12 and the chaplain there asked me, "What do Seventh-day 14:15 Adventists believe?" 14:16 I said to him, Well, we believe that the Bible is the inspired 14:20 word of God. 14:21 We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 14:24 We believe that salvation is by grace alone, 14:27 yet we believe that in the power of the Holy Spirit, 14:31 and the power of the word, that He empowers us to obey. 14:34 That God works in us to will and act according to 14:37 His good pleasure. 14:38 And so I was talking along and then I said, "and we believe in 14:42 keeping all of the Ten Commandments 14:44 He looked at me and he said, "You know, there's really not |
Revised 2014-12-17