Participants: Jeff Reich
Series Code: LM
Program Code: LM000124
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00:03 tour of some of our mission projects around the world.
00:36 Back in 1986 when my wife and I founded Laymen Ministries, we 00:39 never dreamed it would grow to 00:41 the size of the organization it is today. 00:43 As I look back there's so many amazing experiences that 00:46 could've only come about by the leading of the Holy Spirit. 00:49 Even still today God is doing some amazing things 00:52 through this ministry. 00:53 Looking back into the past and especially the collapse of 00:56 eastern Europe. Door after door opened that we never dreamed of. 01:00 Like, in the spring of 1990. It was during that time that 01:03 eastern Europe was in serious turmoil as country after country 01:06 declared it's independence. 01:08 In fact, one country, the country of Poland was one of the 01:11 first countries to declare it's independence under the 01:13 solidarity movement. 01:15 It was about that same time I remember a friend called me from 01:18 new york and he was telling me and he was talking about eastern 01:21 European countries. 01:22 He said Jeff you need to bring students over from eastern 01:25 Europe and train them in desktop publishing and printing so that 01:28 they would have the literature necessary for being able to the 01:31 spread the Three Angels Messages 01:32 around in these formerly closed communist countries. I was 01:35 thinking yeah sure what are the chances of us getting students 01:38 from eastern Europe? 01:39 I prayed togetwith this gentlemen on the phone and 01:42 within two weeks a young man from Poland flew all the way 01:45 from Poland to New York city got on a greyhound bus and came to 01:49 Laymen Ministries in St. Maries Idaho. 01:51 And this was the beginning of our first exposure from people 01:54 from these oppressed communist country... these oppressed 01:58 communist countries of Eastern Europe. 02:00 Shortly after that we had a young men come from Romania by 02:03 the name of Christian Dan 02:05 and the Polish man was named Wictor Kuczek. 02:06 And they were telling us they said Jeff as we were being you 02:10 know conversing with them and 02:11 teaching and training them, they said 02:13 "Jeff, if you want to be able to start a ministry in our country 02:16 you need to come to our countries and you need to become 02:18 acquainted with our culture and our people and you need to see 02:21 what the situation is." 02:22 And I was like what are the chances of these guys and this 02:25 little backyard ministry in northern Idaho going to Eastern 02:28 Europe and getting involved with trying to do all this. It just 02:31 seemed almost impossible to me. 02:32 But you know with God the things that are impossible with men are 02:36 possible with God. And we prayed, 600 dollars in our 02:39 pocket, airplane tickets, Arnet Mathers who was working with us 02:42 at the time and I. 02:44 Flew over to Romania and we met with these two young men and we 02:48 traveled to countries to like Poland and Romania. and Czech 02:52 Republic was Czech Slovakia then. 02:54 And we started looking at the needs and you know over a period 02:57 of time we ended up having projects set up in Poland and 03:01 Romania, Bulgaria, Albania. 03:02 And then a few years later we 03:04 started working in countries like Lithuania and Ukraine and 03:07 Russia. It was really quite amazing lets take for instance 03:10 the country of Albania. 03:11 It was the very first country that, actually we were one of 03:15 the very first organizations I should say that went into this 03:19 country right after the collapse of communism in 1991. 03:22 The country was in total chaos and it was the most oppressed 03:26 communist country I think of all of eastern Europe. and amazingly 03:29 enough through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 03:32 we became friends with Megin Shehu who was an Albanian 03:35 Diplomat and she was also a linguistics major from the 03:38 University there. She introduced us to another man who was a 03:41 University teacher at one time in linguistics. 03:44 Who was called Edmond Seferi and he was chief of staff to the 03:47 then president of Albania Sali Berisha in the sense he was like 03:51 amazingly enough the Vice President 03:53 of the country of Albania. 03:54 Together with those two and a couple of other people we set up 03:58 a team of translators and we sent over 3.2 million pieces of 04:02 literature to that little country. 04:04 The amazing thing is at that time there was only about 3.1 04:07 million people in the whole country. So that was enough 04:10 literature for one piece of literature for every single 04:13 person in that whole country. 04:15 Part of that first shipment was the very first Bible lessons 04:18 that were ever published in the history of that nation. Even 04:22 before the Old Testament was translated into their native 04:26 tongue there. 04:27 Trips to eastern Europe was frequent as three or four times 04:31 a year as project after project started opening up. We hoped for 04:35 instance in the country of Poland we set up a printing 04:38 ministry. 04:39 And then in Bulgaria we ended up translating and sending over 04:43 three million tracks and bible lessons. Then came the country 04:46 of Romania where we ended up becoming friends with General 04:50 Ion Chis, he was the head of the Ministry of Justice for the 04:53 government. 04:54 And together with the Ministry of Justice and the United Prison 04:58 Ministries and Romanian SDA Union. We printed some 500,000 05:02 books for the prisoners. 05:04 Books like The Desire of Ages, The Great Controversy, Ministry 05:07 of Healing, Bible Readings for the Home. 05:10 Christ Object Lessons. 05:11 It was so amazing. 05:13 Today in Romania Laymen Ministries still supports the 05:16 work of HPS which is the Prison Ministry we help organize over 05:19 there called the Humanitarian Prison Services "H.P.S." 05:22 And it still has nearly today around a thousand volunteers who 05:27 are working in these prisons all around the country in 44 05:30 different prisons. They visit inmates, they hold Bible studies 05:34 and they perform church services across the country. 05:38 The idea of having 05:39 The Desire of Ages printed and then 05:41 distributed in the former communist prisons of Romania 05:43 with the help of the government, seemed like an impossibility. 05:47 Our HPS workers together with prison guards went from cell to 05:52 cell in the entire maximum, medium and minimum security 05:57 prisons all across the country. 06:00 While at the Juvenile Facility in Craiova, General Chis while 06:04 both on national Romanian television and CNN boldly stated 06:08 to the inmates and prison administration, 06:11 "We used to put people in prison for books like these now we are 06:15 putting these books in prison." 06:20 We will never forget the looks on the faces of some these young 06:23 men. And in their hands was a book that could forever change 06:26 their lives. 06:27 The entire faculty in every prison received a free copy of 06:33 the book Desire of Ages as well as the lifers 06:36 in the maximum security prison in Craiova. 06:40 In Focsani the commander received us with open arms for 06:44 distributing the book The Great Controversy this orthodox priest 06:48 shows off all the books distributed in his prison while 06:50 holding the Great Controversy in his arms. 07:11 Today Laymen Ministries continues to support the work of 07:15 HPS. They now have around 1000 volunteers working in all the 44 07:19 Prisons of Romania. 07:29 All the way of on the other side of the planet in the South 07:31 Pacific is the country of the Philippines. We started to work 07:34 there in the summer of 1996. My heart went out as we visited the 07:38 primitive indigenous Katutubo people called the Arian tribe. 07:42 Right now I would like to share with you some of our before and 07:45 after video footage of the Katutubo people and how Laymen 07:48 Ministries is making a big difference 07:49 in the jungles of the Philippines. 07:52 Laymen Ministries has been working with the remote 07:57 indigenous people called Katutubo. This is the Katutubo. 08:08 These crude dwellings provide temporary housing as they move 08:14 from one place to another. 08:16 The nomadic, superstitious, animist people, often laden in 08:21 filth and infested with disease. 08:30 It is been said that this is one of the most primitive people 08:34 groups of the world. 08:37 This site of these un-reached families still haunts us, and 08:40 drives our ministry to educate these people 08:44 in a better way of life. 09:07 And thats just what is happening today. We have schools full of 09:12 Katutubo students who are reading and writing in both 09:15 Tagalog and English and are maintaining a high grading 09:18 score. 09:22 They are clean and are learning to have confidence and 09:26 self-respect. 09:33 They're overcoming their fears of the spirits 09:37 and the people in general. 09:49 Our goal is to have these students be missionaries to 09:51 their own villages among their own people. 09:53 Laymen Ministries is now pushing for excellence in education, 09:58 spiritually, physically and mentally. 11:12 Here in the Philippines specifically in Occidental 11:17 Mindoro we've been working for about twelve years now. With a 11:22 native tribe Katutubo they're called here meaning "native," 11:27 and these people are among 11:29 the most primitive people in the world. 11:37 We are very blessed to have four operating accredited elementary 11:43 schools and as these students come along, we cannot send them 11:48 to the public school because of prejudice 11:51 and low quality education. 11:54 Laymen Ministries has found that we need to have our own high 11:58 school academy here and it has to be a working academy. And we 12:02 find that that follows the council 12:05 that we've been given also. 12:06 Because our ultimate goal here is to improve the life of 12:10 people, educate them, bring them to a knowledge of Jesus Christ 12:15 and then these students that we're working with through high 12:19 school and later through college, will go back and become 12:23 missionaries for their own people. 12:31 This morning we've hiked up to the top of the high school 12:36 property. The school owns this ridge line which is about 12:39 75 acres. Owning property and a free clear title in the 12:45 Philippines is extremely difficult. 12:47 And many people said it's impossible you cannot do it. 12:51 Well God kept opening doors and we are now standing on about 75 12:56 acres that Laymen Ministries owns free and clear. 13:00 We want our students to have a peaceful calm environment in 13:05 order to study. Initially we're going to put up a duplex here so 13:11 we can live here and have an office here but of course we 13:16 have to think of administration and school rooms and then 13:21 dormitories for the students. 13:31 The main octagon shaped building will have class rooms on the 13:37 outside wall, a circular hallway inside and then in the center 13:44 cluster will be an area for offices, a librarian, maybe 13:50 computer rooms and that kind of thing. 14:14 Also talking about the South Pacific another interesting 14:17 story emerges. Several years ago while I was at ASI National I 14:21 was approached by a delightful gentlemen with an accent. 14:23 I remember he walked up to me he said something like "Hi mate! 14:27 are you Jeff Reich? I think i've seen you on 3ABN" and I realized 14:31 this was Dr Mark Turnbull. 14:32 He was from the country of Australia. He suggested this 14:35 idea about starting a project in the South Pacific 14:37 with Laymen Ministries. 14:39 Over a course of time and much prayer and discussion we did 14:42 decide that we would start working together and the Lord 14:45 lead Dr. Turnbull and his family to the country of Vanuatu. 14:49 Soon after they were located in the jungles of the far northern 14:52 region called Gaua and the Island of Gaua actually is a 14:55 volcanic Island there in the Northern part of Vanuatu. 14:59 After several months of being there Mark realized that because 15:02 of the difficulty in trying to travel around from all these 15:06 different Islands surrounding Vanuatu, that what they really 15:09 needed was an airplane, 15:11 And that way he could also reach these really remote Islands in 15:14 the far north. We prayed and we made the need known and the Lord 15:18 through a whole series of amazing things caused the plane 15:21 to be donated to Laymen Ministries. 15:23 We received an almost brand new Maule M7 aircraft and we shipped 15:28 it over and had it assembled at the main airport. It was owned 15:32 by Air Vanuatu in the capitol Port Villa. 15:35 A gentlemen named Jeremy Ainsworth he's originally from 15:38 the UK and was a bush pilot in Alaska for over 30 years and 15:42 he's also known by the people in the Maulel Aircraft business as 15:45 the Mr. Maule I think is one of the things they call it and some 15:49 people joke saying he is the Maule guru. 15:52 But he's assembled airplanes in something like 20 different 15:55 countries around the world, and he just came on board and the 15:58 Lord impressed him to volunteer and help us to assemble this 16:00 airplane for us. 16:02 And I'll never forget, when the airplane was first assembled and 16:05 we flew it up to the Island of Gaua. The people were so excited 16:08 and they were just cheering and clapping because the airplane 16:12 was actually landing for the very first time 16:14 on this Island of Gaua. 16:15 Where Mark had his headquarters there. Today so many amazing 16:19 things have happened a new hangar has been built to not 16:23 only to house the airplane but to provide a home for Dr. 16:26 Turnbull and his family. 16:28 Back in February of 2010 we broadcast a video showing an 16:31 Australian volunteer by the name of Scotty, who was helping lay 16:35 the foundation for the hangar. By Spring the framework was in 16:38 place and in the fall the hanger was finally finished. 16:42 This hanger is a tremendous blessing to the Turnbull family 16:45 and their mission work in Vanuatu. The added living space 16:48 and storage space will help them to be more organized and 16:51 efficient in their work. 16:52 The hanger will also provide more space for storage for 16:56 medical supplies, general storage, tools, aviation 16:59 equipment, not to mention it will serve as protection for the 17:03 airplane. 17:04 We also bought property a while back when we built the church 17:07 school and today there is a school full of eager young 17:10 people who are learning about the gospel, the Three Angels 17:13 Messages and the basic elementary things that you learn 17:16 in the primary education. 17:17 One of the reasons that we started working in Vanuatu was 17:21 to target these remote northern area of the country, an area 17:24 that has been reached by Adventists before. 17:27 It's what is called the Banks and Torres Island groups right 17:30 now airstrips are being literally carved out by hand in 17:33 several of these Islands. 17:34 In fact just recently Laymen Ministries made front page news 17:38 in the newspapers in the capitol of Vanuatu, as two such air 17:41 strips were recently completed and historic landings were made 17:45 on these extremely remote Islands. 17:47 For more then a year the local Islanders had been working 17:51 vigorously to clear the jungles for airplane landing strips. 17:54 They remove large stones and trees using such things as bush 17:57 knives and raw man power. 17:59 And in some cases they were even using coconut shells to scrape 18:03 away the soil. When we found that out we provided wheel 18:06 barrels and shovels and later even chain-saws. 18:08 When I was up there in 2009 on one Island they had most of this 18:12 one area cleared for a landing strip but it just wasn't quite 18:16 finished yet or safe enough to land an airplane on. 18:19 But in April of 2010, Dr. Mark and thats what the villagers 18:23 there call him, landed the Maule airplane on one of the most 18:27 northern Islands of Vanuatu not only was this history being made 18:31 for this country but it was a milestone for Laymen Ministries. 19:08 Another airstrip was recently completed on the Island Mere 19:12 Lava. Last year I flew over this Island with Dr. Mark and we 19:15 dropped off a box of supplies to the workers clearing the runway. 19:19 Now the airstrip is finally done both Dr. Mark and Jeremy 19:24 Ainsworth made their first landing on this Island on 19:27 August 17th of 2010. 19:36 Lima Mike seven, is on the ground. Mere Lava. 19:39 Lima Mike seven. 19:40 And there was more celebrations and singing that mark this 19:44 historic occasion. The people were really happy at this first 19:47 landing not only because it marked the combination of a lot 19:50 of hard work, 19:51 but it means that they now have hope. They can now weep what 19:55 they've sowed. You see this airplane brings hope to these 19:59 Islands, hope for relief from pain, for assistance during 20:03 emergencies that lives may be saved 20:05 for the ones that they love. 20:07 Not only for this world physically, but also spiritually 20:10 as they accept the good news of the everlasting gospel for the 20:14 world to come. 20:16 This airplane brings with it the truth about the character of God 20:19 and the most solemn message and warnings given to mankind. 20:23 In our last program on Vanuatu we pointed out how Jesus said 20:27 this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all the world for 20:31 a witness and to all nations and then shall the end come. 20:34 And again what you're witnessing here is a fulfillment of that 20:39 prophecy. You are seeing the three angels messages landing in 20:44 the jungles of one of the most remote areas of the world. 20:48 Areas that were once closed to the three angels messages now 20:52 have their arms open towards the message. God's blessings 20:56 have been more than we could ever ask or think. 21:01 In the Northern part of India is an area called West Bengal. 21:04 Sandra and Terri Horner, 21:05 our mother and daughter team have been working 21:07 with running a health education training center there in 21:10 connection with Laymen Ministries. 21:11 Now this center is in a very unique place because it's about 21:15 30 miles away from the Nepali border about 25-30 miles away 21:18 from an area called Sikkim. 21:19 And what they've been doing is having students come out of 21:23 Nepal and they work with these students to lead them into a 21:26 solid relationship with Jesus Christ and they train them in 21:30 health education and Biblical theology. 21:35 I came to Nepal in 1997 to visit and to hold a short course, and 21:41 then with the Lords help and the Laymen Ministries I came for 21:46 full time work starting in January of 1999. This is about 21:52 11 years that we've been working together with Laymen Ministries 21:55 here in Nepal and India. 21:58 The major objective of our lifestyle education center is to 22:02 work for the Nepali speaking population and helping to train 22:07 workers for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 22:10 These young people they go back to Nepal and they work as health 22:14 educators in the villages where they came from and they help 22:17 establish churches. 22:18 Now this program has had a tremendous success and we've 22:21 actually built a number of churches in various parts of 22:23 Nepal because of these young people and the dedication they 22:26 have and going back and preaching the three angels 22:29 messages in these areas where they're from. 22:31 One story that recently happened thats just really totally 22:34 amazing was the conversion of a third generation witch doctor 22:38 her name is Molly and she was looking for peace in her life. 22:41 Even though she was a witch doctor there was not a lot of 22:44 contentment there was a lot of stress in her family. 22:47 But she noticed these Adventist people every Sabbath walking to 22:50 church and they were carrying a book with them which was the 22:53 Bible and they always had smiles on their faces and they were 22:56 singing songs. 22:57 So one Sabbath morning she followed this group of 22:59 Adventists to their church. As she listened to the words of the 23:03 Bible, week after week coming to the church of every Sabbath, and 23:07 listening to God's Word being shared, 23:09 conviction came home to her heart and she eventually 23:12 accepted Jesus Christ. Then she publicly burned all of her tools 23:15 and her idols, the tools that she used for her craft and her 23:19 idols and everything that was involved with you know being a 23:22 witch doctor and Hinduism. 23:24 And she was Baptized, now this is really quite amazing because 23:27 first of all those tools of her craft are worth a lot of money, 23:31 but the second thing is for her to make a public admission in 23:34 front of the whole village there and burn these things was quite 23:38 a testimony. 23:40 On our most recent trip to India and Nepal Sandra and Terri 23:43 Horner's hard work is bearing fruit. On this trip 19 Nepali 23:47 villagers gave their life to Christ and were baptized. 23:59 Our students from the Lifestyle Education Center also traveled 24:02 to Sikkim and did an Evangelistic series in 24:05 collaboration with the Adventist church in that area. 24:07 In Southern India Pastor Johnson and Pastor Shadrach Samuel took 24:10 us around Chennai where we heard some unique and interesting 24:13 testimonies of many who have been impacted by Laymen 24:16 Ministries' television programs broadcast in India. 24:19 In an effort to expand upon this work we have acquired some land 24:23 to build a television studio. Be sure to keep an eye out for a 24:26 new program coming up on our recent work in India. 24:32 Today you know we have workers that we've sponsored all across 24:35 Nepal and people are being won to Christ. Churches are being 24:37 built it's really been an amazing program by this mother 24:40 and daughter team working up there in West Bengal. 24:44 We have also been translating a lot of books and tracts into the 24:48 Nepali language there to strengthen people and use as a 24:51 means of outreach material. It's also through your ongoing 24:55 support that projects like these are very successful. 25:01 In the Country of Lithuania, Laymen Ministries supports 12 25:04 Bible workers, publishes books and helps needy orphanages. 25:09 The ministry also supports projects in Russia, the Ukraine, 25:12 China and other places around the globe. 25:15 In an addition to our projects overseas Laymen Ministries 25:18 prints a magazine here in the USA containing theological 25:21 articles and stories from our missionaries 25:23 from around the world. 25:24 We also produce TV programs in various languages for satellite 25:28 broadcast as well as for the internet. Laymen Ministries Book 25:32 Store carries a variety of resources to equip lay people 25:36 with Biblical truths. 25:38 We carry Bibles, hundreds of books by various authors, audio 25:42 books, music, CDs, DVDs, teaching and training tools. 25:45 Even an inexpensive New Testament MP3 player for those 25:49 who may have reading challenges. 25:52 There are many other helpful resources in our free catalog. 25:56 You can order these same materials online through our 26:00 secure website at www.lmn.org 26:03 This bookstore has actually been a significant blessing for our 26:06 mission work overseas, as the proceeds from the bookstore help 26:09 cover many of the basic 26:11 operating expenses for the ministry. 26:12 This means one hundred percent of your donations for mission 26:16 work goes directly to the mission field. There is much 26:20 work to be done and the time is short. The harvest is truly 26:24 great but the laborers are few. 26:26 There are still billions of souls out there unprepared to 26:30 meet their Maker. As you are able 26:32 by your prayers and offerings 26:34 please support and labor with us as we endeavor to prepare the 26:36 fields for harvest. 26:51 We are in our eleventh year now of being here in Occidental 26:55 Mindoro. I have had students come up to me and say "Titto Jim 27:00 can I talk with you?" I have had a student say "Titto Jim I have 27:05 decided to accept Jesus Christ as my personal savour!" 27:10 What a reward. Makes all the effort worthwhile. 27:14 To come to India to me has been like going to graduate school. 27:19 Meeting with so many challenges here, much corruption, demon 27:23 possession, love of money, the thirst for power. God's grace is 27:28 sufficient. Many times I have felt like I came to the end of 27:33 my rope. 27:34 But the Lord's promise in First Corinthians is "My grace is 27:38 sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness" and 27:42 He has never failed. 27:43 I am not sorry for one day that I have spent here, 27:47 it has been a true reward. 27:56 If you would like to get involved with us in any of these 27:58 projects please contact us at 1-800-245-1844, or write us at 28:04 Laymen Ministries, 414 Zapada Rd., Saint Maries, Idaho 83861. 28:11 You can find us on Facebook and on the world wide web at 28:14 www.lmn.org |
Revised 2014-12-17