Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is a program
bringing you news, views,
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discussion, and updates
on religious liberty issues
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in the US and around the world.
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My name is Lincoln Steed
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and my guest on
the program today
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is a very interesting gentleman.
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His name,
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I have to keep reminding myself,
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Amjad Waryam Alam.
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You forgive me for not
easily remembering that.
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Thank you so much.
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There's a certain lyrical
quality to your name, Amjad.
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And I think myself
there's a lyrical quality
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to your whole ministry.
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Thank you very much.
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In a few moments,
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I'll have them
play one of your songs.
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You're a recording
artist, among many other things.
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Yes, I'm a gospel singer
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and I have produced
three albums so far.
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And thank you for today,
you're playing one of my album.
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Let's do it now.
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I hope they have got it cued up.
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I'd like to...
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there we go. Yeah.
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So you've got a
beautiful quality to it,
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and I was joking to
you before the program,
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I've got young
people, teenagers,
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that like to listen
to contemporary music,
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and there's a
category of music called
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trance music that...
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Yeah. It's...
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Of course, yours is
the ultimate meditation
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for Jesus Christ and
our faith as Christians.
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The meaning of the
song it's saying that
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"Lord, hear my
prayers or hear my request,
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and may your Holy
Spirit dwells in me,"
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you know.
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Beautiful. Yes.
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Now you're not
just a recording artist,
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you witness for your Lord
through your music, right?
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Yeah.
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I am a gospel singer and
I'm evangelist, you know.
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Right. We got to get to that.
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You're not just on this program
because you're a good singer
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and this is a wonderful
quality in that singing
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and I appreciate it.
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But you're an evangelist.
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You are also a
literature evangelist,
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a term that our church
has used for a long time.
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You sell and
distribute Christian literature
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door-to-door in
the United States,
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as part of your ministry,
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to gain funds as I understand it
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to further your greater ministry
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in your homeland of Pakistan.
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Yeah, I worked, you know,
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in the past as a Union President
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or Union
Publishing Director, sorry,
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and also I worked like
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a Thailand mission
publishing director and I...
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In Thailand? In Thailand.
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Ah! I didn't know
you've been in Thailand.
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Yeah. I was in Thailand.
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Been there many times...
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For five years I was there.
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And I worked as a colporteur
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and also as a
publishing director.
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Colporteur is a
term you and I know.
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But again, that's an old term
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for a literature
ministry salesman,
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if you like, going
door-to-door and witnessing,
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and through
selling these materials,
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which is in the great tradition
as Seventh-day Adventist
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particularly
know of the Waldenses.
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Yep.
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They used to go throughout
Europe selling Bible tracts
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and other faith materials.
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This is how a
church grow, you know,
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people know actually
we are on a very frontline
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when we are doing
literature evangelism.
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You know, we
meet people, you know,
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that we, of course, we
promote our church and our,
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you know, institutes,
and also our publications.
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And there are those
publications, you know,
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that when people read
and they come to church
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and sometime
they become Adventist,
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you know that...
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And always it's leading
them toward Christian commitment
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and a spiritual
awakening in their life.
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And I know after talking to
many literature evangelists,
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it's an
incredibly rewarding thing
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to meet people in their homes
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and to see the real
spiritual need and you've got,
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you've got materials
that are speaking of that.
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Yeah.
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So you're not selling per se,
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you're providing a
service for spiritually needy
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and searching people.
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While I was in Thailand,
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I just want to tell you that
one of the restaurant manager
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and a girl, you know,
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she accepted Christ through our,
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you know, publications
and she became Adventist,
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and now she's working for
Seventh-day Adventist church.
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Very good, well, I know that
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that story is
repeated over and over again.
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Yeah.
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And even many of the people
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who don't
necessarily, immediately,
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or obviously join our church.
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I know from different
contexts I've had that,
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that people have been positively
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affected by the
materials that you
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and others like you are
able to place in their homes.
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And I also know from
going to many sidewalks sales...
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Yeah.
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..that people have these books
from generations ago sometimes
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and they might sell
them in a so book sale
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but they once
literature like that is placed,
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it has an incredible lifespan,
that person may not read it.
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You know, grandma
or a mother may die
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and as they're
looking through the material
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and they discover
the book for themselves.
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Yeah, because,
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you know our publications
are very, very good,
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and plus they
produce hard covers,
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and it can be passed
from generation to generation.
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Now, I don't know if
you've been involved with these
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but there's a
set of Bible stories
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then by author Maxwell.
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Yeah, we have...
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I grew up on those,
with the pictures...
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I realized that the pictures
themselves form the reality
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that I sometimes not
confuse but I realize
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that the
visuals have informed me
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as much as the words
of not just that book
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but when I read the Bible,
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but that it sort of
creating a reality to the Bible.
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You know, these books are,
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these books are meant to
be like according to the age,
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when children are very young
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or they are three to four years,
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they go "My Bible Friends",
they read "My Bible Friends",
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but when they grew then up
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and become little
older then they go to
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"The Bible Story"
which is ten volume.
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You know, from
Genesis to Revelation.
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It's well thought out
material and obviously
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when you're doing this,
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you're working for the
Seventh-day Adventists church
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but it's far
larger than the church.
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Yeah.
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The church from the beginning
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in this ministry has seen itself
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as an inheritor
of the obligation
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placed on all
people of faith to share.
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And as Jesus said,
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the gospel commission
will go into all the world.
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Yeah.
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So it can easily
and we feel comfortable
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when it comes back
to our faith membership
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in the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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but this is not
narrow sectarian material.
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This is the Bible
story. It is the Bible.
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This is the eternal
gospel given to all men.
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Actually it's a
way to teach Bible
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according to the age
of the people, you know.
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And this is same thing I
did in United States, you know,
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when I came from Thailand.
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I came to USA
but I have a lot of,
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I had lot of
challenges of immigrations.
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So this is the first job
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when I went to
General Conference,
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they sent me to publishing.
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And the home health
education offered me
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a job as a colporteur.
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Using a lot of terms that
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not all of the
viewers will know.
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These are internal
organizational terms.
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Yeah.
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You know, most of our
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viewing audience are
not Seventh-day Adventists
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or knowledgeable
about our structure.
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All churches of
necessity have hierarchies,
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and departments,
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and different
ways of organizing but,
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you know, even
the General Conference
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that's our
overall governing body
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but it's very egalitarian...
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It is.
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The members choose these
leaders in regular meetings
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and so it's all designed
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as far as the
literature evangelist or...
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It's a very...
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..book industry,
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it's designed to
get the stuff out
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to the larger population
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because we feel
that it's changed us,
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you and me, I know
the Bible and these books,
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in fact, I grew up on it
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and we want other
people to experience this.
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Yeah, there are beautiful
books beside My Bible Friends,
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even our health books
are very nice, you know.
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People love it
all over the world,
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especially any country,
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you know, any
religion can make use of it,
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and for better health
for their good health.
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So when did you decide
to join your musical talents
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with your
salesmanship techniques?
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Yeah, these are always.
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You know, as we
all love the Lord,
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you know that and I have,
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I always had a
desire to produce an album
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where I can be
singing and sharing my talent.
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And when I came
to United States,
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the Lord gave me
time and opportunity
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and then I was able
to produce these albums
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in Pakistani
Urdu or you can say,
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Hindi language, you know.
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Now, did you, were
you born in Pakistan?
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Yes, I was born in Pakistan.
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How old were you when you come,
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well, obviously,
you were in Thailand
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but did you come
from Pakistan to the US?
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No, I was in Thailand.
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I worked five years in
Thailand as a colporteur
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and as a publishing director,
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then I came to
United States in 2006.
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So you moved as
an adult to Thailand?
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Yeah. Okay.
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I came to United
States with my two children,
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you know, and my wife and...
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So when did you,
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have you always
sung publicly and...
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Yeah, I used to
sing in the church but...
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Back in Thailand.
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Yeah, in Pakistan...
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Oh! Even in Pakistan.
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..in Thailand, you know, that
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and after when I see
that there is a need also,
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I had a desire to do evangelism
wherever people want to,
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you know, accept the Lord
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so they have
Christian music and,
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you know, also the
Bible, they can listen.
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Have you found that
sharing your faith in music
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that it cuts across
some of the inhibitions
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that people have to listen to,
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say to
Christianity, obviously...
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Music has their own language.
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I think it appeals to anybody.
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That's what I
think I'm leading you up.
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Yeah.
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So the language of music is more
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easily
understood by many people.
00:10:38.63\00:10:40.10
Yeah, it can sooth
people, it can attract people,
00:10:40.14\00:10:42.77
it can help them.
00:10:42.80\00:10:44.14
And always it's a blessing
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when you hear
especially a religious music,
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you know that...
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Now, at our
church in its early days,
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not much
different from many others,
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used to combine evangelistic,
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formal evangelistic outreach
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where they would often be a tent
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and a minister
preaching every night.
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They would combine that
with the musical experience.
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In fact, they were
often singing evangelists.
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Evangelists would sing,
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get the audience
in a receptive mood
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and then preach the sermon.
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Yeah. So this is
a natural tie up.
00:11:13.90\00:11:17.77
Although I must admit
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you're the first
literature evangelist
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I have met who brought together
these two aspects of witness.
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Yeah, I preach and
also I play music, music,
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especially
instrument called harmonium,
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and I play and I sing together.
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Harmonium is this little...
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It's like pumping air from
one hand and just playing...
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Oh!
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Yes, yes. ..the harmonium.
00:11:42.76\00:11:44.10
The sound is a
little bit similar
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to a very basic piano accordion.
00:11:45.77\00:11:47.64
Yeah, yeah, it is like piano.
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But there is no
connection electronically
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but you just
manually pump the air in.
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You know, I like music
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and what that reminds me
00:11:57.25\00:11:58.58
of a lot of gypsy music has that
00:11:58.61\00:12:00.05
that sort of a characteristic,
00:12:00.08\00:12:03.75
and they've been many studies
of where the gypsies came from.
00:12:03.79\00:12:08.12
Have you read
those? No, I did not.
00:12:08.16\00:12:10.29
The best they can come up
00:12:10.33\00:12:11.66
with although I
don't think it's provable,
00:12:11.69\00:12:13.73
is that in the Indian
subcontinent somewhere,
00:12:13.76\00:12:16.16
which of course
could include Pakistan.
00:12:16.20\00:12:17.63
I see.
00:12:17.67\00:12:19.00
So you're in a
good tradition there
00:12:19.03\00:12:20.37
with the harmonium
and very good music.
00:12:20.40\00:12:23.00
You know, this is a backdrop
to what I want to pursue
00:12:23.04\00:12:26.78
further with you on
your very special ministry.
00:12:26.81\00:12:31.18
That's in the context
of true religious liberty
00:12:31.21\00:12:35.08
doing and daring.
00:12:35.12\00:12:37.12
And so I'll take a break now
00:12:37.15\00:12:38.95
because we're very
close to the middle.
00:12:38.99\00:12:40.32
Thank you.
00:12:40.36\00:12:41.69
So, viewers,
please stay with us.
00:12:41.72\00:12:43.53
We'll be back after this break.
00:12:43.56\00:12:44.89
I want to talk
further with Amjad,
00:12:44.93\00:12:47.06
how he's really reaching out
00:12:47.10\00:12:49.80
beyond his
comfort zone in witnessing
00:12:49.83\00:12:53.44
and fighting for
religious liberty.
00:12:53.47\00:12:57.44
Stay with us.
00:12:57.47\00:12:58.81