Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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We've taken a short break
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and I wanna continue with Amjad
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who's had a
varied career as a...
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you used the term that
very few people would know,
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even some of your fellow
Adventist of younger age...
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Colporteur. Colporteur.
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I don't know the
origin of that word.
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But the best description
is you're an evangelist,
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going door-to-door,
sharing printed material.
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And while we were in
a computer revolution
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and people addict to it
saying this is the end of print,
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it hasn't come
yet and many people
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get great pleasure from
reading Christian material
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and you've been doing that.
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Now, at the moment,
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between visits back to Pakistan,
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you're selling materials in
the United States right now.
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How do you find that?
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Because there's a
lot of talk in the US,
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a little bit like in
England, that sort of,
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many people oppose Christian,
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they're not really
religiously oriented.
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How do you find that?
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Is their prejudice against
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even just showing them
moral Christian material?
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Here is a good advantage
is this in United States is
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all our
publications are in English
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and people speak English.
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And mostly they can read
it and when we approach them,
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you know, that, we
do have challenges,
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but it's not bad
as other places are,
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you know, that.
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We, it is challenge that
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many people will
not respond to it,
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people will not buy it.
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And even in many
homes and we visit they say,
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"We are not Christians or no.
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We have no
religion" sometime religion,
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but many says that we,
okay, we are Protestants,
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we are Catholics,
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we are not Seventh-day Adventist
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when they find it.
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Even though we
don't start that we,
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it's a
Seventh-day Adventist thing,
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we state Home Health
Education is promoting this.
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So you find there
is some resistance.
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There is a
resistance and once they know,
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many places, you're
Seventh-day Adventist,
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they say, "No, no, no, no,
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we have our own religion,
we have our own denominations."
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Gave at the office. Yeah.
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So there are,
challenges are there
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when you see there,
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but the work is
been always difficult
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and challenging
from the beginning,
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but it's not impossible.
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It's still going on,
and we still see the Lord,
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you know, help
and work on hearts.
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What is that?
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Do you remember any particularly
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memorable experiences
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you've had as
you've gone door-to-door?
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Bad one or good one?
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Do you wanna ask?
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Yeah, I was looking for good,
but bad ones were telling this,
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this is a
religious liberty program
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and so there's ups
in religious liberty
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and this is sad in a way,
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often religious liberty
is described in the negative
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where there's problems.
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Where there's none
people figure it's...
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Many good
experience people, you know,
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invite us for prayers
and they want to listen,
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they take our
books very respectfully.
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And even they
don't want to say no,
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there are many, say, it's, okay,
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we don't want it,
thank you so much.
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But there are times, you know,
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people bang door on us,
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you know, that there are
people who can be very abusive,
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you know, that one
fellow, you know, said,
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"Get out of it
and he said the words
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which I don't want to say that."
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And he chased me out very
badly from that place, you know.
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And another thing is sometime,
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within our own
denomination or organization,
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we don't respect as
other people are respecting
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outside the work, you know,
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but many are not
within our organization,
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do that too,
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but I see there are some both...
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I think I know
what you're saying,
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would explain that because...
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You don't believe within
our own Adventists community,
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the work of the LE
is regarded very highly.
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Is that what you
are saying? Yeah.
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It is, some places
and some people think,
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you know, this is,
oh, you're LE, okay, okay.
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Why is that?
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I have my opinions but
why do you think that...?
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Literature
evangelism is been always,
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as I said, is
challenging and hard,
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but sometime people think,
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maybe people are tired
of keep buying the books
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and that's why maybe one reason,
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I can think of it.
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That's why they don't
want to deal with you.
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No, but within the church why,
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what has caused this that
you picked up on occasion,
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I'm sure most
people don't think that,
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but perhaps a
significant number have the idea
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that this is not a...
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They don't think
highly of the ministry.
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Why would that be?
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Highly of the ministry is that
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maybe people are more educated
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or they don't
consider this is important.
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You can see the value of it,
our ABCs are closing, you know,
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that our own
people if buy, you know,
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our ABC will not
close, believe me.
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ABC, lot of places
are closing and some...
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And recently, I
was in California
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and all our,
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all our conference are
looking for ABC manager
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because nobody
wants to work there,
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you know, what
is the problem that
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there is a problem
that's why they have challenges.
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That's sad because you obviously
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know the history of the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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which was is unique to itself,
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but by my
understanding of history
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in the United
States particularly,
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at the time period the US
or the Adventist church began,
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within the US
there was much promotion
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door-to-door of
printed material.
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Yeah.
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As Sister White
said... And salesman.
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You see, as Sister White said,
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Sister Ellen G.
White said that...
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Ellen White was the one
of the Adventist pioneers
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who we believe God has...
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She highly promoted
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and she said this
will be the last work
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until probation closed.
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Right, that's what
I am viewing at so.
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You know, and laymen will finish
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the work there itself.
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But going back to history,
this is a projection and a hope
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and an insightful statement,
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but it's just a
matter of plain history,
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that the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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as well as other
religious entities of its time
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when it began,
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it developed and
grew exponentially purely
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because of the
literature evangelism work.
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And I'm old enough to remember
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when every pastor
had to spend one year
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as a literature evangelist.
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Now it's very different.
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It's a prerequisite to ministry.
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Now it's very different.
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Before pastor
could not graduate,
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if they would
have not done the work.
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And now, they can do theology
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without this
work and they do so.
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I think they should
bring that same policy back
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and they should let people work,
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and then at
least they will be...
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it actually a good
experience to talk to public.
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Well, it
strengthens your own faith,
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but also it teaches
you to project your ideas
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to other people as a salesman.
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You are not there as a salesman,
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but like everyone
at any time effectively
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you have to be selling
your idea what you evangelize...
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Yeah, sure.
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It is a sale but it is...
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But it's very much
tied up to your success
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as an LE whether
you're able to explain
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what you believe correctly.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Explain this book
in an attractive way
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that they wanted.
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Actually the main purpose
of the literature ministry is
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to introduce them to
for the health messages,
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and also about the
love of Jesus, you know.
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At the end of the day,
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we just tell
about the Christianity,
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about the
Seventh-day Adventist church,
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what their views are.
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Actually, we need to
have more colporteurs,
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we need to have
more people working this,
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even volunteer base or even for,
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you know, living,
then this work will grow.
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In the past if you
see, Brother Lincoln,
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that this work
has grown in the past,
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it came from
very humble beginning
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and that's why we
have publishing houses
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all over the world.
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We have colporteur work
going all over the world,
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but it is coming down, down,
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but it's
dropping, you know, that...
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In the West? Yeah.
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In the US, in Australia...
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In US and other
parts of the world,
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we're struggling, you know.
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In England, in
Canada, which is ironic.
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It needed more
attention. That's what I think.
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But you put your
finger on something that,
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you know, this is an
Adventist internal issue,
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but I think it's
worth talking about
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on a larger discussion
to a community in general.
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When there's
respect for a religion
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and religious
ministry, it will flourish.
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When people turn against it,
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that's a very
negative backward attitude.
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What they're saying now,
what they're saying is...
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And our own
church is marginalized
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what you're doing
and that's not good.
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Yeah.
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And I just wanted to
say that, they say it,
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that electronic
media or, you know,
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the computer age has affected.
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It is true, it is affected.
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All our books are on like,
you can read it on the phone,
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or on the computer online,
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and this is the reason
people don't buy it and but...
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I don't think so.
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But I think we're not
doing our part either,
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you know, that.
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You know, you can
look on the magazine racks
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and there's more
magazines than before.
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Many that don't print
as much as they used to,
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but there's still an
ongoing demand to read...
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I will not say the name
because it's on television,
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but within our own organization,
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many places you
cannot put your own
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Seventh-day Adventists
printed material there.
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So what kind of freedom is this?
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Within your own
organization, we own them,
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and we should have, you know,
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there our
publications sitting there
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and people should, you
know, and this you can't.
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And there's a need for openness,
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and an allowance,
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not just that religious
liberty did not marginalize you,
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but a greater
vision on sharing faith,
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that's what
religious liberty is.
00:09:55.39\00:09:57.23
It should be an
unimpeded distribution
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of faith and truth.
00:10:00.40\00:10:02.10
Yeah, this is, if I see...
00:10:02.13\00:10:03.87
And by the way, I
need to do this...
00:10:03.90\00:10:05.23
with the little
time we've got left,
00:10:05.27\00:10:06.60
I want to make a statement.
00:10:06.63\00:10:07.97
Liberty Magazine,
00:10:08.00\00:10:10.07
we're printing as many
as 185, 000 every issue.
00:10:10.11\00:10:14.11
That's quite a lot.
00:10:14.14\00:10:15.98
And I hear some of the
same comments from people,
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"Well, printing not anymore
00:10:18.25\00:10:20.08
it's the Internet, and Twitter."
00:10:20.12\00:10:21.75
We have a president
00:10:21.78\00:10:23.12
who came to power
largely through Twitter.
00:10:23.15\00:10:26.29
So you can't say
that that doesn't work,
00:10:26.32\00:10:28.72
but for Liberty
Magazine, we want legislators,
00:10:28.76\00:10:32.29
and thought leaders,
00:10:32.33\00:10:33.66
and community leaders
to get this and sends it...
00:10:33.70\00:10:35.90
that we sent it to them.
00:10:35.93\00:10:37.27
They are not
going to, by chance,
00:10:37.30\00:10:38.63
put their hand up
00:10:38.67\00:10:40.00
and like the fly flying
around little in the wind,
00:10:40.04\00:10:42.50
you know, an internet connection
00:10:42.54\00:10:43.87
they'll discover it.
00:10:43.91\00:10:45.24
It's not going
to happen randomly.
00:10:45.27\00:10:46.61
These need to be targeted.
00:10:46.64\00:10:48.14
And when you go to door-to-door,
00:10:48.18\00:10:49.51
you're looking for
people who have a direct need,
00:10:49.54\00:10:52.28
they will always
welcome the reading.
00:10:52.31\00:10:54.52
Because reading
is not dying away,
00:10:54.55\00:10:56.38
it is the way it's
distributed is changing.
00:10:56.42\00:10:58.79
People still love to read,
you know, this is a reason,
00:10:58.82\00:11:01.19
you know, that we still
have some success, you know,
00:11:01.22\00:11:05.33
that people are
reading our book.
00:11:05.36\00:11:06.70
Yeah.
00:11:06.73\00:11:08.06
And I'm sure,
00:11:08.10\00:11:09.43
as I was trying
to draw out from you,
00:11:09.46\00:11:10.80
you'll have many
positive experiences
00:11:10.83\00:11:12.87
and it's a hard sell with
your own membership sometimes,
00:11:12.90\00:11:15.44
hard sell on given doors
00:11:15.47\00:11:16.87
where they might chase you away.
00:11:16.91\00:11:18.31
Yeah, they do, they do.
00:11:18.34\00:11:19.67
But many times
I'm sure you've seen
00:11:19.71\00:11:21.04
God's Spirit
moving in an openness...
00:11:21.08\00:11:22.41
It does.
00:11:22.44\00:11:23.78
And it, the Lord always led us,
00:11:23.81\00:11:25.45
you know, to many places where,
00:11:25.48\00:11:28.25
you know, that
we have, you know,
00:11:28.28\00:11:30.15
this work successfully done.
00:11:30.19\00:11:32.12
And we have sold many
of sets of Bible stories
00:11:32.15\00:11:35.76
and My Bible Friends
and even health literature
00:11:35.79\00:11:39.93
to many of the people.
00:11:39.96\00:11:43.67
In the closing hours of
the Soviet Socialist Republic,
00:11:43.70\00:11:50.37
there was much talk of two terms
00:11:50.41\00:11:52.41
that in Russian were expressed
as glasnost and Perestroika,
00:11:52.44\00:11:56.31
openness and reorganization,
00:11:56.34\00:11:59.51
and when I look
at the world today,
00:11:59.55\00:12:02.22
thankfully
communism is largely faded,
00:12:02.25\00:12:05.05
but we are in
great need of openness.
00:12:05.09\00:12:08.06
Religious liberty
is just a principle
00:12:08.09\00:12:10.83
unless it's
expressed in openness
00:12:10.86\00:12:12.69
and ongoing
dialogue, and reorganization,
00:12:12.73\00:12:16.97
restructuring is
absolutely not only necessary,
00:12:17.00\00:12:21.07
it's what our
world is engaged in.
00:12:21.10\00:12:24.51
Tennyson, the poet Tennyson
said once in one of his poems,
00:12:24.54\00:12:28.38
the old order changeth.
00:12:28.41\00:12:30.51
There is no question that
00:12:30.55\00:12:32.35
as the Bible
predicted so long ago,
00:12:32.38\00:12:34.88
we are now living through
a time of radical change.
00:12:34.92\00:12:38.35
Everything is up for grabs,
00:12:38.39\00:12:40.46
including the
array of civil liberties
00:12:40.49\00:12:43.66
that the West is so cherished.
00:12:43.69\00:12:46.13
It's up to us,
with faith convictions,
00:12:46.16\00:12:48.90
to speak out,
reorganize our lives,
00:12:48.93\00:12:52.43
reorganize our priorities,
00:12:52.47\00:12:54.24
and be so focused
on sharing, witnessing,
00:12:54.27\00:12:58.57
and the
principles of eternal liberty
00:12:58.61\00:13:00.98
that they are unstoppable.
00:13:01.01\00:13:04.21
For Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:13:04.25\00:13:07.18