Hello, and welcome
to Jesus for Asia Now.
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I'm Natalie Wood and
I have my husband Jon
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here with me today.
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Hello, love. Hi,
darling, how are you?
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Doing great.
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Today we want to talk
about your recent trip
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to Assam state in India.
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It's an amazing state.
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We've had Bible workers
there for over seven years
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and yet I've never visited
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because it's just
so far out of the way.
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And so we went up there
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and visited some
of our Bible workers,
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not all of them could get there
because it's such a large state
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and it's not just a
big state geographically
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but getting from one place
to another takes a lot of time.
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Some of the Bible
workers that came and visited us
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and you'll see
their pictures later,
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they traveled 12 hours
and they were the closer ones.
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Let's show our viewers the map,
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so they get an idea of
what you're talking about.
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Yeah, in this map we're looking
at the big picture of the globe
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on this side of the world,
there's India in the center,
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Southeast Asia on the right,
Africa, Arabia on the left.
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And as we zoom
in, you'll notice,
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India is kind of unique in that
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one little piece goes
up and over Bangladesh
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and it's very narrow
in certain parts there
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but you go past Bangladesh
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and you've got
several states over there,
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like seven states
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and Assam is this
big state in the middle.
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And, but it's a big state
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and not only is
it big geographically
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but it has, it takes a long time
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to travel from
one place to the other
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because the
transportation is slow.
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And so some of our Bible...
And are roads not good either?
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Roads aren't very
good, the trains are slow.
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So some of our Bible workers,
it took 12 hours to come
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to the central
place to have the meeting.
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Then we flew into a
town called Guwahati.
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Okay. Say that again?
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Guwahati.
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Very good, you got a
talent with languages,
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but it took me a
while to figure out
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Guwaha, Guwaha what?
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Yeah.
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So that's the capital of Assam.
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In that capital we
have the headquarters
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of the work for that state.
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Okay, so let's do
some statistics real quick.
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Okay.
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'Cause I know
they're kind of overwhelming.
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Yes.
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And so then we'll
talk about other things,
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but how many people
live in Assam total?
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I am told 32.8 million people.
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Okay.
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So it's about 10%
of the United States.
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Population size. In
population size, yes.
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Okay.
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And how many
Adventist pastors are there?
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There are four.
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Four pastors? Four pastors.
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Okay, so four pastors?
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Yeah, and if we had the same
number of pastors per capita
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as we do in the States
they should have 400 pastors
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but right now they have four.
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They have one in upper Assam,
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two in the middle
in the central Assam,
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one of them is the
ministerial secretary
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and then one in lower Assam.
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Okay.
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So there's four and then...
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Four pastors and
there is a secretary,
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office secretary and that's it.
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Thankfully some
ministries have stepped in
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and have provided some
more Bible workers for them.
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Okay. JFA has 33 Bible workers.
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Okay.
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Other ministries
provide 21 Bible workers.
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So between JFA's Bible workers
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and other
ministries Bible workers,
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so it's 53 Bible workers,
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four pastors for
33 million people.
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That's not a very good ratio.
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It's hard not to cry
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when I talk about those numbers.
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Yeah and thinking that,
you know, those are numbers,
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but they're real people.
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Real people with real names
and God is living with them,
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He woke up, I mean, He
saw them wake up this morning,
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He sees them go
to sleep tonight,
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He walks with them,
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carries their burdens with them,
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and He looks across the
world looking for His kids
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who have all the
light, and all the knowledge,
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and all the truth,
and they're not there.
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They're not
there with those people
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that they don't even
know that the truth exists.
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They don't even know that
good news exists in the world.
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Then the flipside of that
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is that this is
a huge opportunity.
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Right and that's where
we're gonna go from here.
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Yes.
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We want to talk
about the opportunity,
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and we want to
share a little bit about
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what's being done right now.
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Yeah.
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So let's start out with bananas.
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We're talking
about Bible workers today
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and you give me a
picture of bananas.
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Well, a lot of times
we kind of forget that
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this is a physical world
that we live in and we travel.
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As we travel we
deal with new things,
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and exciting things,
and challenging things...
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Different things.
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You know, it's
not just pushup button
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and make this work,
there's effort involved,
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there's sacrifice involved,
and there's pleasures involved.
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And one of the
pleasures is these ugly bananas.
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Ugly bananas, okay.
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The ugliest, most
hideous bananas I've ever seen.
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They are really sweet.
Yeah, they look like...
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They got eaten by something.
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Yeah, but you open them up
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and they're just
really wonderful bananas,
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great flavor. Okay.
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I'm not going to
say they're my most
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favorite bananas in the
world, but they come close.
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Okay, that's good to know.
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By the time I
got, you know, used to,
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you know, seeing
that skin I was like,
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"Oh can I have some..."
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I eat three or
four in a meal. Okay.
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And the next picture
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is the Assam region office sign.
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Yeah, so this is the sign
right in front of the offices,
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and the next
picture will be the offices.
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As you can see on the
left, we've got the offices
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and straight ahead
the yellowish building
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that's the church
and then in the back
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there's the living quarters
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for the ministerial
secretary and his family.
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Okay.
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This is the group they
came to meet us the first day
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and this isn't all
of our Bible workers,
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these are the
ones that are closest.
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But the ministerial
secretary is on my right,
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so the viewers
left in the blue shirt
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sitting next to him is
his wife in the pink shirt.
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And then to my left,
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to the viewer's
right is Israel Prasad,
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our JFA India director,
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and next to him is
the office secretary.
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We got to know them pretty well,
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just loved the
food, loved the people,
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really enjoyed it up there.
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Planning to go back.
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In fact one of my dreams
is to buy some motorcycles
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and travel around Assam
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because Assam is
a beautiful place,
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and you'll see this coming
up in some of these pictures
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as we travel
through the countryside.
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The first day though we spent,
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had a meeting
with the Bible workers,
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encouraged them and
also gave out some books.
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Okay.
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And we've got a
video about that.
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Yes. Shall we roll that now?
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Absolutely. All
right. Here we go.
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This is Acts of the Apostles.
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Today, we're in the
northeast corner of India
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in a little state called Assam,
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and we have 33 Bible
workers in the state,
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and we've called
several of them here.
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Several of them had to
come five hours on a train,
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but the good news is that
today we get to give out books.
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It's not often
that we come to a place
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that has a bunch
of books in stock
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and we're excited about this.
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This is the steps
to Christ in Assamese.
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And then this is
Voice of Prophecy
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study lessons,
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so they can give these
out to their study interest.
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This is the Desire of Ages,
you know the Desire of Ages,
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look how thick this is.
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I can't tell how
many pages there are,
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but it's over a thousand pages,
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can't read it, it's in Assamese.
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This one is a really good book.
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I think it's the devotional,
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daily devotional
book from Mrs. White.
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This one is
Patriarchs and Prophets,
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really awesome book for people
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to learn about
creation of the world
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and everything and
The Great Controversy.
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So these books, each
one of our Bible workers
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is gonna ten of
each of these books.
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So they're gonna go
home with the whole,
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I don't know how they're
gonna get it home honestly,
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but when we asked
them if they wanted to,
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they were really excited.
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I'm sure that these are,
these books are hard to find.
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I know many, many
pastors that are asking for one,
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our Bible
workers, they're asking
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for just one book,
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and thank you to a
donor who made this possible,
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and we're gonna do
this throughout all of India
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and we're really excited.
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If you want to
get aboard and join,
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there's other countries
that need these books as well.
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Some languages they're
just now starting to translate
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and print some of these books,
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and many of the
Ellen White books
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are not in the local languages
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and so there's a lot of work
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to be done on
the side of the book,
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the book they're
printing, publishing,
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and this is really exciting
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because this is
gonna be source material
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to go into their sermons,
to go into their Bible studies,
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to go into their
understanding of who Christ is.
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So we praise God
today here in Assam
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in Northeast corner of India.
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Our Bible workers just
left with all their books.
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Many of them have six
hours, some of them have
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overnight
travel to get back home
00:11:02.79\00:11:05.59
where they're supposed to be.
00:11:05.63\00:11:06.76
And then on Thursday we've
got more Bible workers coming,
00:11:06.80\00:11:10.47
we're gonna
give them more books.
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Wow, they looked burdened,
but they also looked happy...
00:11:15.70\00:11:19.44
Yeah.
00:11:19.47\00:11:20.41
That they would now
have more materials to share.
00:11:20.44\00:11:22.54
Yes, that's right. So...
00:11:22.58\00:11:24.21
And so, it's amazing
to see the kind of effort
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that they put into
carrying these books,
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'cause a lot of them
had many hours to go,
00:11:28.98\00:11:32.05
getting on the bus and
however else they travel,
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I don't know, train,
whatever but it's not,
00:11:34.59\00:11:37.43
it wasn't an easy
task for them to do.
00:11:37.46\00:11:39.53
Yeah. But they did it.
00:11:39.56\00:11:40.63
So then the next day
you got to go traveling,
00:11:40.66\00:11:44.83
but there was a
little bit of a mishap
00:11:44.87\00:11:47.14
at the beginning of the day.
00:11:47.17\00:11:48.60
Well, we were
supposed to get going about
00:11:48.64\00:11:50.11
5 o'clock in the morning,
00:11:50.14\00:11:51.14
and so we got up
and we took cold showers
00:11:51.17\00:11:53.74
and went downstairs,
00:11:53.78\00:11:56.11
and they had one of
these sliding doors,
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you know, like the
garage doors that roll up
00:11:58.88\00:12:01.28
and they paddle
locked it from the outside
00:12:01.32\00:12:04.25
so we were stuck in our
hotel, we couldn't leave.
00:12:04.29\00:12:07.32
So we made all kinds of noise
and finally the guy woke up
00:12:07.36\00:12:10.43
and he came over and
unlocked and let us out.
00:12:10.46\00:12:13.80
And we were
going to the nearest,
00:12:13.83\00:12:15.43
the absolute
nearest Bible worker
00:12:15.46\00:12:16.80
that we could get
to and that was like
00:12:16.83\00:12:18.23
three hours drive.
00:12:18.27\00:12:19.80
Wow. Three or four hours drive.
00:12:19.83\00:12:21.27
So we have to...
How many miles was that?
00:12:21.30\00:12:23.14
It's only like a 120 kilometers,
00:12:23.17\00:12:24.61
so like 70 miles.
00:12:24.64\00:12:26.34
It just took a long time
because we had to drive slow
00:12:26.37\00:12:29.11
because of the roads
and the different things
00:12:29.14\00:12:31.35
that you see out on the
roads and stuff like that.
00:12:31.38\00:12:33.42
Sometimes you run in,
00:12:33.45\00:12:34.78
like for instance
here's the taxi stand...
00:12:34.82\00:12:37.05
Okay.
00:12:37.09\00:12:38.12
This is a bunch of taxis
00:12:38.15\00:12:39.29
waiting to take
people on their rides.
00:12:39.32\00:12:41.19
You can see they're
not gonna move real fast.
00:12:41.22\00:12:42.72
Where is the engine? The
engine is absent right now.
00:12:42.76\00:12:45.46
It's a front engine vehicle.
00:12:45.49\00:12:48.20
We ran into heavy traffic.
00:12:48.23\00:12:50.37
Elephant.
00:12:50.40\00:12:52.07
Yeah. That is
quite heavy actually.
00:12:53.67\00:12:55.87
Heavy foot traffic,
00:12:55.90\00:12:57.34
but as we go through the country
00:12:57.37\00:12:59.11
we see different
things like this picture here.
00:12:59.14\00:13:01.98
I don't know what
that is standing up,
00:13:02.01\00:13:03.61
it's either really tall weed
00:13:03.65\00:13:05.65
or maybe bamboo or
sorghum, I don't know...
00:13:05.68\00:13:09.18
Yeah some... Tapioca...
00:13:09.22\00:13:10.42
Some sort of
grain it looks like.
00:13:10.45\00:13:11.79
Yeah, maybe.
00:13:11.82\00:13:12.82
Maybe it's like hay
bales, I don't know.
00:13:12.85\00:13:14.66
You know, what this does to me
00:13:14.69\00:13:15.72
is it makes me
want to come back,
00:13:15.76\00:13:17.69
figure out... To find out more.
00:13:17.73\00:13:18.76
There's things in the
world that I don't understand,
00:13:18.79\00:13:22.53
and so that
traveling kind of puts that bug
00:13:22.56\00:13:25.70
in me to come back
00:13:25.73\00:13:26.77
and especially when
we have people that are,
00:13:26.80\00:13:30.61
you know, committed to Christ.
00:13:30.64\00:13:32.64
Wherever you go,
there's that bond,
00:13:32.67\00:13:34.24
there's that connection
and so we have family.
00:13:34.28\00:13:36.91
And our viewing
audience that are believers
00:13:36.95\00:13:39.55
has family on the
other side of the world.
00:13:39.58\00:13:42.18
I just don't know them yet.
00:13:42.22\00:13:43.79
Not yet. Right.
00:13:43.82\00:13:45.42
That's one of the
reasons we're such advocates
00:13:45.45\00:13:47.12
for foreign missions
because it is our family,
00:13:47.16\00:13:50.23
you know, there's a
scripture that says,
00:13:50.26\00:13:52.63
our own flesh is the term
00:13:52.66\00:13:54.36
that's used our
own flesh and that's...
00:13:54.40\00:13:55.83
It's Isaiah 58.
00:13:55.86\00:13:56.90
Right, and
that's the connection.
00:13:56.93\00:13:59.93
Yes.
00:14:00.04\00:14:00.94
You know, it
doesn't matter who they are,
00:14:00.97\00:14:02.80
they are our own flesh.
00:14:02.84\00:14:03.94
Yeah.
00:14:03.97\00:14:05.04
There's one statement
that I saw recently that said
00:14:05.07\00:14:06.98
that travel is
dangerous to narrow mindedness,
00:14:07.01\00:14:12.28
selfishness, you know,
greed, all these things,
00:14:12.31\00:14:16.45
and that's what we
have seen when people come
00:14:16.48\00:14:18.99
and see other
parts of the world.
00:14:19.02\00:14:22.02
You get a bigger
picture, and can you imagine
00:14:22.06\00:14:25.03
how Christ must feel being,
00:14:25.06\00:14:28.43
you know, He wakes
up with these people,
00:14:28.46\00:14:30.50
He, but He doesn't sleep
00:14:30.53\00:14:32.67
but He sees them
wake up every day,
00:14:32.70\00:14:35.10
He sees them go
through their day,
00:14:35.14\00:14:37.04
He sees them go to bed at night,
00:14:37.07\00:14:38.74
and He sees them
living in darkness,
00:14:38.77\00:14:41.98
living without any
concept that there is a loving
00:14:42.01\00:14:45.08
that they have a loving father
that cares for them, no clue.
00:14:45.11\00:14:50.15
And then He, God
looks over the corner
00:14:50.19\00:14:52.35
over the curve of
the earth and sees
00:14:52.39\00:14:55.19
people that are, you know,
00:14:55.22\00:14:57.46
imbued and surrounded
with the truth and light...
00:14:57.49\00:15:02.10
The light and truth.
00:15:02.13\00:15:03.20
The gospel, and so He
sees these people here
00:15:03.23\00:15:06.57
and those people there,
00:15:06.60\00:15:07.57
and He's like if I
could just get them together,
00:15:07.60\00:15:10.14
if I could just bring them
over here, so these people...
00:15:10.17\00:15:11.47
So ones that know share.
00:15:11.51\00:15:13.48
Yeah, and there's
another, you know, in the past
00:15:13.51\00:15:16.64
we used to put
bumper stickers on our cars
00:15:16.68\00:15:18.65
but now we put like names,
00:15:18.68\00:15:20.95
bumper sticker on
our Facebook page...
00:15:20.98\00:15:22.58
Yeah.
00:15:22.62\00:15:23.69
Yeah, and one of them said God,
00:15:23.72\00:15:26.42
God's, we are God's plan
A for reaching the world,
00:15:26.45\00:15:31.59
He has no plan
B. And that's true.
00:15:31.63\00:15:35.16
God's plan, His only
plan for reaching the world is
00:15:35.20\00:15:38.30
through His
Church and people say,
00:15:38.33\00:15:40.34
"Well, God's
gonna, if we don't do it
00:15:40.37\00:15:41.74
then God will have another way."
00:15:41.77\00:15:44.44
And I don't, I mean that
may be true in the long run
00:15:44.47\00:15:49.01
in the very end,
God may bring in angels,
00:15:49.04\00:15:51.15
it's not prophesied that
He's going to bring in angels,
00:15:51.18\00:15:53.08
it's prophesied that
He's gonna have a people
00:15:53.11\00:15:55.15
that follow Him whithersoever
the Lamb take it them.
00:15:55.18\00:15:58.65
Yeah, wherever the Lamb goes.
00:15:58.69\00:16:00.06
In other words, they're
not going to be tied down
00:16:00.09\00:16:01.59
to anything, any
personal considerations like
00:16:01.62\00:16:06.63
maybe they have a good job.
00:16:06.66\00:16:09.56
Well, I can't leave
my good job, you know,
00:16:09.60\00:16:11.40
who will support, no, that's
not a consideration anymore.
00:16:11.43\00:16:13.70
The only consideration
00:16:13.74\00:16:14.90
they have is
where's the Lamb going.
00:16:14.94\00:16:17.34
Where does God want me? Exactly.
00:16:17.37\00:16:19.37
And you know God wants people
where the need is the greatest,
00:16:19.41\00:16:23.04
that's where God is.
00:16:23.08\00:16:24.35
That's where He's
feeling the most pain, you know,
00:16:24.38\00:16:27.75
because if it's not, we have
this like cushion between us
00:16:27.78\00:16:31.59
and the people that
are suffering in silence.
00:16:31.62\00:16:35.36
The people that, you know,
00:16:35.39\00:16:36.73
don't know that they
have a heavenly Father,
00:16:36.76\00:16:38.56
there's a cushion because
we don't see them every day.
00:16:38.59\00:16:40.50
There's no cushion
between them and Christ.
00:16:40.53\00:16:42.83
Christ feels their pain,
00:16:42.86\00:16:44.83
and He longs to
relieve that pain,
00:16:44.87\00:16:47.14
and He's happy
when His kids help Him.
00:16:47.17\00:16:49.77
Right.
00:16:49.80\00:16:50.87
'Cause relieving
those kids' pain,
00:16:50.91\00:16:53.38
relieves His pain.
00:16:53.41\00:16:54.98
Yeah, so as we travel we
see more and more of God's kids
00:16:55.01\00:16:59.45
and our heart
breaks for all these kids.
00:16:59.48\00:17:03.32
You know, like we said
earlier, 32.8 million people,
00:17:03.35\00:17:07.99
four pastors.
00:17:08.02\00:17:09.09
Yeah. Thirty
three JFA Bible workers.
00:17:09.12\00:17:11.79
And most of those people
haven't had the opportunity
00:17:11.83\00:17:13.83
to hear the gospel yet.
00:17:13.86\00:17:14.86
Oh, no, no. Absolutely no.
00:17:14.93\00:17:16.03
So they're like
unripe harvest and...
00:17:16.06\00:17:20.27
Yeah, it's awesome. Right.
00:17:20.30\00:17:22.60
So let's get back
to your trip. Okay.
00:17:22.64\00:17:24.61
It's a beautiful country.
00:17:24.64\00:17:25.97
So it's very green
and tropical there.
00:17:26.01\00:17:27.34
Yes.
00:17:27.38\00:17:28.41
Other parts of
India are not like that.
00:17:28.44\00:17:30.48
No, not in the
south, it's very desert.
00:17:30.51\00:17:33.01
But up here it's very
tropical, very beautiful.
00:17:33.05\00:17:34.92
Okay.
00:17:34.95\00:17:35.98
And we had a
little bit of a spy.
00:17:36.02\00:17:41.66
All right, so the next picture.
00:17:41.69\00:17:43.56
Beautiful flowers again,
tropical paradise up there,
00:17:43.59\00:17:46.70
beautiful
scenery, here's a river.
00:17:46.73\00:17:49.06
Now the vegetation blew me away.
00:17:49.10\00:17:51.20
This leaf, this
is a really big leaf.
00:17:51.23\00:17:53.07
Yeah.
00:17:53.10\00:17:54.14
I don't know if it's edible,
00:17:54.17\00:17:55.20
but that would
feed several people
00:17:55.24\00:17:57.14
but if it's not, you can
still stand under it during a...
00:17:57.17\00:17:59.94
You know, use
it for an umbrella.
00:18:00.04\00:18:01.48
Yeah.
00:18:01.51\00:18:03.48
And then we found
a church out there,
00:18:03.51\00:18:05.81
one of our Bible workers
is taking care of this church.
00:18:05.85\00:18:08.25
Then we kept going
00:18:08.28\00:18:09.32
and came to one of
our Bible worker's houses.
00:18:09.35\00:18:11.59
There's two buildings
there, the closest building,
00:18:11.62\00:18:13.46
the green one is the church.
00:18:13.49\00:18:14.92
And the one
behind it is his house.
00:18:14.96\00:18:17.99
Okay. He has a
special story on this.
00:18:18.03\00:18:20.13
This is our Bible
worker who owns that property.
00:18:20.16\00:18:23.10
Many years ago he was
part of a faith community,
00:18:23.13\00:18:25.70
they worshipped on
Sunday and in a different town,
00:18:25.73\00:18:29.24
and for some reason
somehow he got a hold of a tract
00:18:29.27\00:18:33.38
that talked
about the seventh day
00:18:33.41\00:18:35.18
being on Sabbath.
00:18:35.21\00:18:36.24
Oh, okay.
00:18:36.28\00:18:37.31
Or the Sabbath being on
the seventh day, Saturday.
00:18:37.35\00:18:39.85
And so he did went
through the Bible study
00:18:39.88\00:18:42.08
that was in that tract
and he accepted that truth.
00:18:42.12\00:18:45.49
And then when he started
to share with his community,
00:18:45.52\00:18:48.82
the town and the pastor there,
they got very upset with him
00:18:48.86\00:18:53.70
and they got very angry with him
00:18:53.73\00:18:55.93
and he wouldn't give it up,
00:18:55.96\00:18:57.20
he wouldn't give up this
truth that he was holding on to,
00:18:57.23\00:19:00.50
and so they beat him up,
and they beat up his wife,
00:19:00.54\00:19:04.51
and they beat up his kids,
00:19:04.54\00:19:05.61
and then they kicked
him out of his own house.
00:19:05.64\00:19:07.14
Wow.
00:19:07.18\00:19:08.21
And told him you can't
live in this town anymore.
00:19:08.24\00:19:10.28
So they chased him
away from his town.
00:19:10.31\00:19:15.02
And he could have
just given up the Sabbath
00:19:15.05\00:19:17.39
and come back to his
house, come back to his town,
00:19:17.42\00:19:19.82
but he hung on to that truth.
00:19:19.85\00:19:21.12
Right.
00:19:21.16\00:19:22.19
And so he was excommunicated
00:19:22.22\00:19:24.53
so to speak
from his own village.
00:19:24.56\00:19:27.30
Thankfully the nice
thing, the only nice thing
00:19:27.30\00:19:28.96
they did was they
let him sell his house.
00:19:29.00\00:19:31.37
So he took the money
from the sale of his house,
00:19:31.40\00:19:33.40
and he purchased this
property and built that house,
00:19:33.44\00:19:36.47
and then provided the space
on the side of his property
00:19:36.50\00:19:39.61
for this church to be built.
00:19:39.64\00:19:40.91
Okay. Wow.
00:19:40.94\00:19:43.58
The things some people go
through to hold on to truth.
00:19:43.61\00:19:46.51
Yeah. You know,
we have it so easy.
00:19:46.55\00:19:48.65
Yeah, oftentimes we do. Yeah.
00:19:48.68\00:19:50.89
And so this guy is
really hanging on to the truth
00:19:50.92\00:19:52.92
and so he's a full
time Bible worker now.
00:19:52.95\00:19:55.16
His wife took a picture
of him giving a Bible study,
00:19:55.19\00:19:57.39
and these are some of the people
00:19:57.43\00:19:59.56
that actually drove him
from his town in the beginning.
00:19:59.59\00:20:05.07
And so they saw how
he didn't hold bitterness
00:20:05.10\00:20:07.67
or a grudge against them.
00:20:07.70\00:20:09.00
He had Christ
like love towards them.
00:20:09.04\00:20:11.17
He stayed in contact with them.
00:20:11.21\00:20:13.58
And after many years
they started to soften,
00:20:13.61\00:20:16.41
and so they
started to be curious about
00:20:16.44\00:20:17.85
what he believes.
00:20:17.88\00:20:19.08
And so now he's giving
Bible studies to the very people
00:20:19.11\00:20:22.02
that kicked him out for
holding the faith that he has.
00:20:22.05\00:20:24.99
Wow. That's awesome.
00:20:25.02\00:20:28.16
Yeah, but you notice a thing
00:20:28.19\00:20:29.26
that's hanging on
the porch right there.
00:20:29.29\00:20:32.46
Yeah. There's a
closer up picture.
00:20:32.49\00:20:34.93
This is, this is like filled
with pictures and it's printed
00:20:34.93\00:20:39.40
but look at the material.
00:20:39.43\00:20:41.04
Yeah, it's cloth. Yeah,
this is printed on cloth.
00:20:41.07\00:20:45.64
Do you ever seen a picture roll,
00:20:45.67\00:20:47.18
or something like this,
a chart printed on cloth?
00:20:47.21\00:20:50.48
No.
00:20:50.51\00:20:51.61
I've never seen that
but down in the corner,
00:20:51.65\00:20:54.08
check this out, copyright 1908.
00:20:54.12\00:20:56.35
1908.
00:20:56.38\00:20:57.59
Review and Herald
Publishing Association.
00:20:57.62\00:21:00.56
Wow.
00:21:00.59\00:21:02.46
This is the tool he uses
to do Bible studies with.
00:21:02.49\00:21:04.53
Wow.
00:21:04.56\00:21:05.59
And he says, "Do you
have any more of these?"
00:21:05.63\00:21:08.96
We've never see
this. I've never seen on.
00:21:09.00\00:21:10.93
And he's like, "Do you have
any friends that have these?
00:21:10.97\00:21:12.80
Can you buy these anymore?"
00:21:12.83\00:21:13.94
I'm like...
00:21:13.97\00:21:15.00
No. I'll look.
00:21:15.04\00:21:16.47
So if there's anybody
in our viewing audience
00:21:16.50\00:21:18.91
that has any of these,
00:21:18.94\00:21:20.68
there's some
Bible workers in Assam
00:21:20.71\00:21:22.41
that would love to
get some more copies.
00:21:22.44\00:21:24.38
Yeah.
00:21:24.41\00:21:25.48
His is getting a little tattered
00:21:25.51\00:21:26.68
'cause he's been
using it so much.
00:21:26.72\00:21:28.88
Wow. From 1908...
00:21:28.92\00:21:30.39
That's over a
100 years old. Wow.
00:21:30.42\00:21:32.82
And he's using
it out there. Wow.
00:21:32.85\00:21:34.46
So what he's got?
00:21:34.49\00:21:35.52
Hope nobody takes it
and puts it in museum.
00:21:35.56\00:21:38.66
Exactly, exactly.
00:21:38.69\00:21:41.43
So this is a
gathering of some men.
00:21:41.46\00:21:43.87
One of these guys is the pastor
00:21:43.90\00:21:45.07
that actually kicked him
out of his house and town.
00:21:45.10\00:21:47.14
Wow.
00:21:47.17\00:21:48.20
And that beat him,
00:21:48.24\00:21:49.20
and now they're doing
Bible studies together.
00:21:49.24\00:21:51.51
Wow.
00:21:51.54\00:21:52.74
God is good, He
brings things full circle.
00:21:52.77\00:21:54.64
Well, this is, this is what,
00:21:54.68\00:21:56.08
this is how the gospel
goes forward often is the God
00:21:56.11\00:22:00.55
allows persecution
to happen to people
00:22:00.58\00:22:03.52
so that His truth
00:22:03.55\00:22:05.72
and His
character will shine forth.
00:22:05.75\00:22:08.49
And there becomes
a testimony. Exactly.
00:22:08.52\00:22:10.63
And there becomes
an example. Exactly.
00:22:10.66\00:22:12.93
And this shows the
reality of God's presence
00:22:12.96\00:22:16.33
and His blessing on those
that take hold of His truth
00:22:16.36\00:22:19.77
and value that more than
family, kindred, houses...
00:22:19.80\00:22:23.57
Friends... Whatever,
yeah. All these things...
00:22:23.61\00:22:25.77
Yeah, so that's a
beautiful testimony.
00:22:25.81\00:22:27.84
Right.
00:22:27.88\00:22:29.24
So you didn't get to witness
00:22:29.28\00:22:30.75
these next
pictures firsthand either,
00:22:30.78\00:22:32.48
but they shared them with you
00:22:32.51\00:22:33.82
because they wanted you to
know what they'd been doing.
00:22:33.85\00:22:35.45
Yeah.
00:22:35.48\00:22:36.52
And so what are
these pictures of?
00:22:36.55\00:22:38.59
Some of the young people
that came to get the books
00:22:38.62\00:22:40.66
that was in the last video,
00:22:40.69\00:22:42.46
they gave me some pictures
off of their flash drive,
00:22:42.49\00:22:45.69
and you can see
they're really into evangelism.
00:22:45.73\00:22:49.23
So there's a lot of pictures
of them doing evangelism,
00:22:49.26\00:22:51.53
different groups,
day, night, check this out,
00:22:51.57\00:22:55.64
okay, it's raining there,
you can barely see the rain
00:22:55.67\00:22:58.44
in the picture but
they're under umbrellas.
00:22:58.47\00:23:00.88
Instead of going home,
00:23:00.91\00:23:02.41
they just pop
out their umbrellas
00:23:02.44\00:23:03.81
and sit in the rain listening
to an evangelistic series.
00:23:03.85\00:23:07.05
Wow.
00:23:07.08\00:23:08.18
And he's standing there
with a microphone in his hand.
00:23:08.22\00:23:10.72
And a powered speaker. Oh.
00:23:10.75\00:23:13.22
That speaker might be powered
by battery but it looks like...
00:23:13.25\00:23:16.69
But still, it's still power.
00:23:16.73\00:23:18.53
Yeah, so... He
could still get a zap.
00:23:18.56\00:23:20.53
Yeah, so this group,
they are on the lower Assam,
00:23:20.56\00:23:23.10
and they say that
there's a lot of interest
00:23:23.13\00:23:25.70
compared to other places
00:23:25.73\00:23:26.97
and so they're just
going like gangbusters.
00:23:27.00\00:23:28.74
These are the Bible workers
00:23:28.77\00:23:29.94
that have requested a projector.
00:23:29.97\00:23:32.51
Okay. Okay, so
that they could show.
00:23:32.54\00:23:34.58
As you can see
they're also sharing
00:23:34.61\00:23:36.78
the sanctuary message...
00:23:36.81\00:23:38.51
Right using the felt set. Yeah.
00:23:38.55\00:23:40.52
Which is nice.
00:23:40.55\00:23:41.65
And here's the team, this
is a lot of the Bible workers
00:23:41.68\00:23:44.52
from different
districts all gathering together
00:23:44.55\00:23:46.55
to do this evangelistic series
and check out that guitar,
00:23:46.59\00:23:48.86
it's massive.
00:23:48.89\00:23:49.92
That's really big, really big.
00:23:49.96\00:23:52.13
Yeah, looks like a guitar from
the Mariachi band or something.
00:23:52.16\00:23:55.03
Yeah, but at
least they had music.
00:23:55.06\00:23:56.50
Yes. That's really nice.
00:23:56.53\00:23:58.73
And then, of
course, the baptisms.
00:23:58.77\00:24:00.47
Right. Yeah, beautiful baptisms.
00:24:00.50\00:24:02.77
The president is
the man on the left,
00:24:02.80\00:24:04.64
far left with
his hand up raised.
00:24:04.67\00:24:06.57
Okay.
00:24:06.61\00:24:07.58
They are four,
remember they got four pastors
00:24:07.61\00:24:09.44
in all of Assam.
00:24:09.48\00:24:10.65
The president is the
man in the white shirt
00:24:10.68\00:24:12.78
in the very center.
00:24:12.81\00:24:14.15
His wife is at his left side,
and all the baptismal people
00:24:14.18\00:24:18.92
that were baptized
are standing behind him.
00:24:18.95\00:24:21.52
Okay, that's really neat.
Yeah, just some more baptisms.
00:24:21.56\00:24:25.33
There's a lot of
pictures of baptisms
00:24:25.36\00:24:27.00
with that these guys gave
me, I only put a couple in here,
00:24:27.03\00:24:30.87
but with this
final slide, the sunset,
00:24:30.90\00:24:34.57
you can see out
across the field,
00:24:34.60\00:24:36.64
you can just barely make out
the outlines of the Himalayas.
00:24:36.67\00:24:39.87
You know, this is in the north,
just right next to Bhutan,
00:24:39.91\00:24:42.54
right next to Sikkim,
00:24:42.58\00:24:43.65
right across
from Bhutan is China.
00:24:43.68\00:24:46.28
So we're right
up there in an area
00:24:46.31\00:24:48.35
that is very
resistant to the gospel.
00:24:48.38\00:24:51.49
And the more we
can do in this state,
00:24:51.52\00:24:54.99
then it starts to spread,
00:24:55.02\00:24:57.13
and so our goal for Assam
00:24:57.16\00:24:59.83
is to double our
work force this year.
00:24:59.86\00:25:02.56
At least. Right. At
least double our workforce.
00:25:02.60\00:25:04.43
Now, it costs about
$90, it used to cost $50
00:25:04.47\00:25:08.10
when we first
started Jesus for Asia.
00:25:08.14\00:25:10.21
Fifty dollars a
month for a Bible worker.
00:25:10.24\00:25:12.07
Right. But the cost...
00:25:12.11\00:25:13.44
And then it was $60. Yeah.
00:25:13.48\00:25:15.24
The cost of living
has increased so much...
00:25:15.28\00:25:17.81
And the exchange
rate has gone down.
00:25:17.85\00:25:20.32
Now it's up to $90 but still,
00:25:20.35\00:25:21.95
can you imagine living your
whole family on $90 a month?
00:25:21.98\00:25:25.72
No.
00:25:25.75\00:25:26.79
I don't even know
how they do it over there
00:25:26.82\00:25:29.26
but they do,
00:25:29.29\00:25:30.39
and so they for $90 a
month, you can sponsor,
00:25:30.43\00:25:34.03
anybody can sponsor a
full time Bible worker.
00:25:34.10\00:25:36.83
Wow. Yeah.
00:25:36.87\00:25:38.37
That's awesome. Yeah.
00:25:38.40\00:25:39.80
It's a real privilege. Right.
00:25:39.83\00:25:41.24
But not everybody
can afford $90 a month.
00:25:41.27\00:25:43.64
Right. So what do they do then?
00:25:43.67\00:25:45.24
Well, if they can
afford $10, then they give $10
00:25:45.27\00:25:48.78
and that adds
with someone else's
00:25:48.81\00:25:50.18
$5 or $10 or whatever,
and the Lord adds it up,
00:25:50.21\00:25:53.68
and it becomes $90
to sponsor one worker.
00:25:53.72\00:25:56.95
Yeah.
00:25:56.99\00:25:58.05
Now we don't actually give like,
00:25:58.09\00:26:00.22
some people when they
sponsor a Bible worker
00:26:00.26\00:26:02.86
in some other ministries,
00:26:02.89\00:26:04.29
they get a picture and name
00:26:04.33\00:26:05.89
and a bio and all
that kind of stuff.
00:26:05.93\00:26:07.13
Right.
00:26:07.13\00:26:08.16
We haven't chosen to do that
00:26:08.20\00:26:09.50
because of the
administrative requirements
00:26:09.53\00:26:12.10
because it would
make the cost of having
00:26:12.13\00:26:14.34
a Bible worker increase
00:26:14.37\00:26:15.60
so much to pay
someone to keep track of them
00:26:15.64\00:26:18.51
and other
people to take pictures
00:26:18.54\00:26:20.84
and whatever to get
the stories and everything.
00:26:20.88\00:26:24.41
So we've chosen not
to do that at this point
00:26:24.45\00:26:26.82
because of the cost
increase it would cause
00:26:26.85\00:26:29.48
but 100% if
someone does give $90
00:26:29.52\00:26:32.35
or when there is $90 to send,
00:26:32.39\00:26:34.62
it all goes to
the Bible workers,
00:26:34.66\00:26:36.56
nothing is taken out
here for administrative and...
00:26:36.59\00:26:40.10
So all the $90
if somebody gives,
00:26:40.13\00:26:42.40
none of it goes
to administration.
00:26:42.43\00:26:44.60
No, not here. Not in India.
00:26:44.63\00:26:45.93
Yeah, 100% goes
directly to their salary.
00:26:45.97\00:26:48.10
Right. Right.
That's a good deal.
00:26:48.14\00:26:51.34
Yeah, it's awesome,
and it's great to see
00:26:51.37\00:26:55.04
to be able to pay them
every month, it's so awesome.
00:26:55.08\00:26:58.15
Yeah. Absolutely. I love it.
00:26:58.18\00:26:59.61
We've had many times
00:26:59.65\00:27:00.78
where we couldn't
pay them full salary.
00:27:00.82\00:27:02.38
Yeah, and I
thought they would leave.
00:27:02.42\00:27:04.52
And it's so heartbreaking.
00:27:04.55\00:27:05.92
Yeah, there were several years
00:27:05.95\00:27:06.99
that they were
getting two-thirds of a salary
00:27:07.02\00:27:09.32
or half salary from
time, it would fluctuate...
00:27:09.36\00:27:10.83
And it wasn't even a $90 salary.
00:27:10.86\00:27:12.89
Right. It was 60 at that point.
00:27:12.93\00:27:14.50
Yeah, but they stayed there
00:27:14.56\00:27:15.76
and I've asked
them several times,
00:27:15.80\00:27:17.43
why did you stay?
00:27:17.47\00:27:18.97
And they said, "God
first, money second."
00:27:19.00\00:27:22.60
So they got their
priority straight.
00:27:22.64\00:27:24.24
Right, and God blesses
them and He works with them.
00:27:24.27\00:27:27.34
Yeah. And He helps them.
00:27:27.38\00:27:28.61
Yeah. That's awesome.
00:27:28.64\00:27:30.45
It is. It is. It is beautiful.
00:27:30.48\00:27:33.75
Well, I would
like to invite you...
00:27:33.78\00:27:35.22
Actually I'd
like to challenge you
00:27:35.25\00:27:36.62
to be a part of their
ministry by praying for them.
00:27:36.65\00:27:40.12
And if you would like to
be a part financially also
00:27:40.16\00:27:42.82
of spreading the gospel
through native Bible workers,
00:27:42.86\00:27:45.73
please send your tax deductible
love gift to Jesus for Asia,
00:27:45.76\00:27:49.93
PO Box 1221,
Collegedale, Tennessee 37315.
00:27:49.96\00:27:56.17
Call us at 423-413-7321,
00:27:56.20\00:28:01.14
or checkout our
website at Jesus4asia.org.
00:28:01.18\00:28:05.28
Thank you for joining
us for Jesus for Asia Now.
00:28:05.31\00:28:08.18
May God richly bless
you as we work together
00:28:08.22\00:28:11.05
to prepare for
Jesus' soon coming.
00:28:11.09\00:28:13.32