Participants: Arthur Nowlin (Host), Dr Kim Logan-Nowlin (Host), Pr. Ariel Roldan
Series Code: MIW
Program Code: MIW000038
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00:01 Hi, I'm Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlin. I'm Arthur Nowlin.
00:03 And welcome to "Making It Work." 00:36 Arthur, throughout our lives we take many journeys. 00:41 Your journey become Seventh-day Adventist, 00:44 serve in the military. 00:46 My journey being able to take on different roles in my life, 00:52 starting a business from nothing 00:53 and allowing God to move that to a new direction every day. 00:58 And some of you viewing right now, 01:00 you're on a journey but you don't know 01:01 where that journey is taking you. 01:03 Or some of you are going to the left, 01:05 to the right because you're totally not sure 01:08 if it's from God. 01:10 Well, the Bible says that God is not the father of confusion. 01:14 Today we have a very special guest with us, 01:17 Pastor Ariel Roldan. 01:19 He is the pastor of the Oakwood Seventh-day Adventist Church 01:23 in Taylor, Michigan. 01:24 Welcome, pastor. 01:25 Thank you. Thank you so much. Welcome. 01:27 Oh, God bless you. 01:29 We want to talk about today our topic, The Journey. 01:33 You've had a tremendous journey 01:35 and I'm excited about hearing it. 01:37 So I'm going to turn it over-- 'cause I want you to tell, 01:40 share with our viewers your journey. 01:42 Sure. 01:44 My journey begins many years ago 01:47 in another continent, in South America, 01:49 in the country of Argentina 01:51 where I was born to Alfredo and Maria Roldan. 01:57 My dad, when I was born he was a coal porter 02:00 or a literature evangelist 02:01 which is someone that basically, 02:03 it's like a missionary but with literature. 02:05 In fact, they brings the Gospel to people through books. 02:07 But before that he had been a police officer in Argentina. 02:11 So someone shared the Gospel with him more fully 02:14 and he accepted. 02:15 My mom was Catholic, 02:17 and they both took Bible studies together, 02:19 and they decided to be baptized 02:21 and join the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 02:24 So I was born into that kind of a home. 02:26 My dad loved the work of doing literature evangelism 02:31 and we traveled quite a bit. 02:33 So you're talking about a journey 02:34 one from Argentina to Bolivia 02:37 and the Lord used that ability that my dad had, 02:40 He really did bless my dad with that, 02:42 to come into United States. 02:43 We came to Harrisburg Pennsylvania in 1984. 02:47 I was 11 years old when we arrived. 02:51 It was a quite a memorable event. 02:54 My dad came first, 6 months and worked to raise some money 02:58 and then was able to pay for tickets for my mom, 03:00 myself and my younger brother, too, to join him. 03:03 And when we arrived, it was interesting, 03:06 the United States is not at all what you see on television. 03:09 Back in those days "Magnum, PI" was hot in South America. 03:12 Right, right. 03:13 No one was driving Lamborghinis, 03:14 there was no beach in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. 03:18 And where we lived, 03:19 the neighborhood we moved into saw a lot of hooties, 03:22 no Lamborghinis. 03:24 Some hooties. 03:26 We were like, where's, where are the mansions, 03:27 where are the, the rich people 'cause in South America, 03:30 the idea is every American lives 03:33 as the television portrays them to be. 03:37 So we began to see that the United States, 03:40 so it is a land of opportunity also is a land of challenges. 03:44 And one of the first ones was the language, 03:47 trying to pick up English. 03:50 And at that time we did not have 03:52 what we have today with many Hispanic popular artists 03:57 whether in the movies or in the music industry. Right. 03:59 Back in those days being a Hispanic was not necessarily 04:02 something that inspired pride and your ethnic background. 04:08 And so most Hispanics would try to learn English 04:10 as fast as possible and hide their accent. 04:13 Many-- My friends at school would deny 04:17 being able to speak Spanish 04:18 so they wouldn't have to translate for me. 04:20 But I would hear them speak Spanish. 04:21 It was just an embarrassing thing to be a Hispanic, 04:24 during that time, during the early '80s. 04:26 I think the only popular one was Gloria Estefan 04:29 but she hadn't totally crossed over at that time. 04:31 Yeah, okay. 04:32 Only conga was in style back then. 04:36 But that-- that was some of the things 04:39 that began to set the stage for this journey that my family 04:43 and myself more prolonged to go through, 04:47 trying to adjust-- 04:48 Excuse me for interrupting but the journey 04:52 when your father left South America 04:54 there was a purpose in that. 04:57 Yes. Yeah. 04:58 What was that purpose, to just come to America 05:01 and find the land of milk and honey or... 05:06 Well, the United States was going through a transition. 05:10 New York which had been the capital 05:12 of many other South American countries, 05:14 like Arabian countries with Hispanics. 05:16 Many Hispanics were actually, 05:18 were leaving, exiting New York City, 05:20 finding lower cost housing, 05:23 better neighborhoods for their children. 05:25 They were moving into Virginia, Pennsylvania and so they, 05:29 the Allegheny East Conference was looking for mini-- 05:34 individuals who could minister 05:35 to this growing Hispanic population. 05:38 And so they brought some pastors 05:39 and these pastors decided, 05:40 well, we need some people in the ground 05:43 to get in contact with people in their neighborhoods. 05:46 We need some good LEs, and so someone called 05:49 from North America to Bolivia. 05:51 And providence, for us providence worked it out 05:55 that a lady mentioned my dad's name 05:58 and he got a good report from the leadership 06:01 and so they brought in here 06:02 to work as a literature evangelist, 06:05 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that's why we came. 06:08 Excellent. Excellent. 06:10 So you said the transition was difficult 06:12 in the beginning, you know. 06:14 How long did it take you before you really settled in? 06:19 Um, I think for my brother and I, 06:21 it took about 2-3 years. 06:24 My parents are still... 06:25 Oh, yeah. Still in the process. 06:28 I mean, it's interesting as I speak to you, 06:30 my dad retired now, some years ago. 06:32 My mom is in the process of retiring. 06:35 But when we first came, he was, I think difficult 06:38 for my parents to be so helpless. 06:41 And especially my dad who was a very, 06:43 I mean, he was almost like an entrepreneur. 06:46 You mentioned about having your own business. 06:48 To go from that type of independence, 06:50 to being dependant on your child 06:51 to translate for you at the bank, 06:53 to open up a bank account, 06:55 to always be looking for a Hispanic dentist 06:58 or a dentist that has a Hispanic dental hygienist 07:00 to translate for you. 07:03 It took a while for my parents to digest this reality 07:06 and my dad was painted or told, 07:09 you know, hey, you be in a Hispanic environment, 07:12 with Hispanic supermarkets, with Spanish radio, 07:14 with Spanish television, you don't need English. 07:17 But that's not the reality. 07:19 And when my parents came here they quickly realized that 07:22 they would need to learn English, 07:23 they were very proactive. 07:24 They learn--They enrolled 07:25 in some community classes for English. 07:30 But they always had this, 07:31 the mindset that we would stay here temporarily 07:33 and then move back. 07:34 Is that right? 07:35 They missed family, all our cousins and aunts, 07:40 stayed down in South America. 07:42 So he was, he was always with his thought 07:45 in the back of our heads, someday we'll go back. 07:48 Okay. 07:49 So originally we were not settling with too many routes. 07:53 We thought it's only gonna be temporary but, 07:55 and once you learned the language, 07:57 once you begin to get a job and you begin to get a-- 07:59 a rhythm of how things work here, 08:01 you begin to realize that 08:02 it is a land of tremendous opportunity, 08:04 a lot more than we would have had in, in South America. 08:08 Let's talk about how long it took you to become a citizen. 08:14 Talk about your father 08:15 and what he went through in his journey, 08:17 and then what happened to you at the age of 11? 08:19 Okay. 08:21 My brother was 10 and I was 11, 08:23 we landed in Miami, then we landed in Philadelphia, 08:25 my dad picked us up. 08:28 And at that point our legal status... 08:32 I guess, you're a foreigner 08:35 most of these processes are not commonly known. 08:39 You start out with a visa. 08:41 My dad entered with a religious visa 08:42 an R-1 it's called. 08:44 And after you proved yourself that you know, you're here to-- 08:47 The government's afraid 08:48 that people will come here and get wealthier. 08:50 That's one of their fears that they have. 08:53 They'll come, you get people into this country 08:54 and then they'll become dependant on the government. 08:56 What they want to see is, people that will come 08:57 and be productive. 08:59 So after a certain period, 09:00 when they see that you've been productive, 09:01 then they'll allow you to apply to become a legal resident. 09:04 Okay. 09:05 And you can stay for that, 09:07 in that status for indefinitely. 09:09 You have to renew it every 10 years. 09:12 Should you want to become a US citizen 09:14 after you become a US resident for 5 years 09:16 in good standing, you can apply to become a US citizen. 09:20 When we came here my had a R-1 visa 09:22 and the whole family fell underneath that umbrella. 09:25 Okay. 09:26 About a year of being here in 1985, 09:30 my parents got a phone call from the lawyers 09:32 that work with the Allegheny East Conference in New York, 09:35 telling us-- telling my parents what happened? 09:38 My parents were like, what do you mean what happened? 09:40 What happened? We just called the immigration. 09:42 The INS, that's what it was called back in the days, 09:44 Immigration and Naturalization Services, 09:46 now it's Homeland Security. 09:48 What happened? 09:51 We just called to see what the update in your case is, 09:53 what is your status and it's been closed 09:55 and you've been denied. 09:56 Really. Oh. 09:57 And so my parents were shocked. 09:59 Everything was going fine. 10:00 Everything, all the paperwork was there. 10:02 It was a legit call. 10:03 I mean, it was a legit institution, 10:04 the Allegheny East, 10:05 the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 10:06 My dad obviously had the skills and when they began to enquire, 10:13 the sad irony was that, 10:15 it was the pastor that was overseeing my dad. 10:18 This was the last step in this whole process. 10:21 Immigration caught him. 10:23 At that time immigration was very innocent. 10:25 It was-- Pretty much everything was done over the phone. 10:27 They would call the immediate supervisor 10:30 just to verify that this whole application was legitimate. 10:33 Right. 10:34 So all this pastor had to say was yes. 10:35 The Allegheny East Conference 10:36 has made a call for Alfredo Roldan. 10:39 We are financially responsible for him. 10:41 He's working for us. 10:43 We make ourselves responsible for him and his family. 10:47 And all he had to say was yes, 10:48 that all those things were true 10:49 and he said that he doesn't know 10:51 what happened to him that day. 10:52 He got nervous and he said no. No. 10:56 And they hung up the phone. 10:57 And when my parents found that out, 11:01 the Allegheny East Conference obviously was frustrated. 11:03 They had to restart that process 11:05 which meant more expenses. 11:07 And just in that one year immigration laws changed. 11:12 When they tried to go through the process again, 11:14 my parents no longer qualified. 11:16 They put new, new requirements 11:18 that my parents no longer had anymore. 11:22 And so that began the 10-year journey of waiting 11:26 and waiting to see what would happen. 11:27 And my parents had to make that choice. 11:29 Our visas would expire in just a few months. 11:32 Do they stay and let it expire? 11:34 Do we stay legal or do we go back to South America? 11:37 South America that time was in tremendous turmoil. 11:40 And my parents decided or my brother and I's sake to, 11:43 to bear the brunt and stay here and see what happens. 11:46 So we stayed for 10 years 11:48 waiting for our papers to finalize then. 11:51 Every problem, every difficulty, 11:53 every challenge we would encounter, 11:55 we would blame that pastor, blame that pastor. 11:57 That began to have an effect on my brother and I. 11:59 My personal journey in that regards 12:01 was I began to resent the church. 12:03 I began to resent spiritual leadership. 12:05 If there was one thing I swore, 12:07 I would never become is a pastor. 12:09 Is a pastor. 12:10 I thought that's the last thing. 12:12 Amazing. Boil me in oil. 12:15 I'm not gonna become a pastor. 12:16 The last you say. Those pa-- 12:18 A pastor was a coward. 12:20 I thought, you know, I thought the lowest in me was that guy. 12:24 But, I mean, in retrospect, 12:26 God has took- taken me through a journey 12:28 where I have met with that pastor 12:30 and we have made peace. 12:32 I needed that. 12:33 So you talked to him. 12:35 This is much later. 12:36 Yeah, but you did talk to him. 12:38 I confronted him 12:40 because I carried bitterness in my heart for decades. 12:45 My parents in 1994-- 12:47 1993, a new pastor from New York 12:50 was transferred to the church we were in Harrisburg. 12:52 And he saw my family's plight. 12:54 He took compassion and said, let me make some phone calls 12:57 and once again he tried to process my dad's papers 13:01 and this time it worked. 13:03 For some reason the Lord opened the doors, 13:06 but unfortunately by 1994, 13:08 10 years had gone by and I turned 21. 13:10 So I turned 21 that April, 13:13 that August was our interview 13:15 in Argentina to get our green card. 13:16 So because of 4 months 13:18 I was exempted from the family package. 13:21 My younger brother got his green card, 13:22 my parents got their green cards. 13:24 And that was another hard decision for my parents. 13:26 You know, we came here as a family, 13:28 we were gonna stay here as a family 13:29 and now one of our family members is out, 13:32 because of that pastor, because of that pastor. 13:36 I decided to stay, the-- the lawyers told us, 13:38 if we take Ariel to Argentina to get your residency cards, 13:42 that's the-- that's the way the law work-- was back then. 13:47 There's a risk that he won't be allowed to come back 13:49 because once they see that he's 21, 13:51 they may say, oh, he's out of a family package, 13:54 cancel his papers 13:56 and he won't be allowed to come back here. 13:57 So my parents didn't want to take that risk. 13:59 They told me to stay here. 14:00 Why don't we come back, we'll apply for you. 14:03 So that's what my mom did. 14:04 And she came and obviously it was a big financial drain, 14:08 so they had to wait to build up a little bit of funds, 14:10 but my mom applied for me as a direct relative, 14:13 but because I was an adult it took a lot longer. 14:17 It took another 11 years. 14:19 Eleven years? Really? 14:20 Till I finally was able to get my, my green card. 14:23 But in the process, 14:26 after I realized that I was not gonna get my green card, 14:29 questions began to arise because I had-- 14:31 this is 1994, I was out of high school for 2 years now. 14:35 It began to dawn on me what being an illegal immigrant 14:38 in this country would do to me. 14:39 Number one, no education, 14:41 and no opportunity for education, 14:43 which highly limited my employment, 14:45 which has highly limited my income. 14:47 And so I began to realize, what do I do here in America? 14:52 I can't become an American and so who do I become? 14:56 And I began to realize that, 14:57 I didn't really know who I was, what I was to be. 15:01 I had learned like so many undocumented people 15:04 in this country do with that-- 15:05 There is a market for illegal immigrants in this country. 15:08 You mean, you want to work, you'll find work. Right. 15:10 So I was working under the table for people 15:13 and making money. 15:16 But still feeling like this was not it. 15:18 This-- There has to be something more, 15:21 to why God has allowed us to come into this country. 15:24 After waiting for, like I said some years, 15:30 the church that we were attending, 15:32 we transferred to an English speaking church which, 15:36 maybe I should say this in a little blurb. 15:39 Because I grew up in inner-city and primarily Hispanic, 15:42 congregation-- 15:45 It's interesting that it's in this country 15:46 that I began to learn about things like racism. 15:49 My country never had that. Okay. 15:51 It's more of a homogeneous type. 15:54 We have social class prejudice but not color prejudice. 15:58 And I began to realize that, 16:00 yes, there were some individuals 16:01 who go occasion race type of prejudice. 16:04 But within the Hispanic culture, 16:06 I began to hear Puerto Ricans, 16:08 say things about Mexicans 16:09 and Dominicans say things and... 16:11 And then all of us together 16:13 would say things against Anglos. 16:15 The white man was evil. 16:16 That's what the sentiment was in the inner-city 16:18 and my mom began to attend a pretty much all white church. 16:21 So I was already with this presupposition 16:24 that these are evil Christians Sabbath keepers. 16:28 But God used those, that church, 16:32 to correct and show me that... 16:36 these were some of the most self sacrificing people 16:38 'cause they helped me with lawyers, 16:40 they contacted state representatives. 16:43 They-- One of them, my youth leader 16:44 even wanted to adopt me to resolve my problems. 16:47 So the Lord helped me 16:48 cure my racist heart of the prejudice 16:50 that I had been infected with and correct my view. 16:54 And I began to realize everyone's racist. 16:56 The paradox of the race, the race, 16:58 it's a virus, it affects every race. 17:01 So every race needs to be immunized against that. 17:05 And the Lord immunized me 17:06 by taking me to an Anglo church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 17:09 who loved me tremendously and sacrificed a lot. 17:13 And in spite of all of that I was for sure, 17:15 now God will definitely do things through the church, 17:18 everything failed, everything failed, 17:20 everything failed. 17:22 There was, all these roadblocks and I finally began 17:25 to transfer my resentment to the pastor to God. 17:27 What do you have against me? 17:28 Why can't I have a life? 17:30 I'm not choosing to go in the pathway of drugs. 17:33 I'm not choosing to go the pathway of this. 17:35 Let me interrupt you again. 17:37 Those are one of the thoughts to my mind, 17:40 you know, why didn't you just give it? 17:42 Why didn't you just make a decision, 17:44 okay, I'm gonna go and be a drug dealer 17:47 or someone as participating in some street gang? 17:51 What kept you solid? 17:53 I-- It's a tragedy. 17:55 It's a sad-- part of my journey here 18:00 when I got to see a friend of mine, 18:01 a Cuban friend of mine named Carlos Baccau, 18:04 who in the attempts to try to fit in into the society 18:09 be chose to choose these paths of drug dealing 18:12 which was very profitable. 18:15 In the neighborhood that I was, those were the guys 18:16 with the nice cars with the-- 18:18 At that time, these big fat gold chains 18:19 with their names hanging there. 18:23 And he had those and he had lots of money 18:26 and he invited me to sell for him. 18:27 He actually told me that he would take care of me 18:29 because we were Adventists. 18:31 I'll watch your back. He was Adventist? 18:33 Yeah. Okay. 18:35 He was a Cuban refugee. Okay. 18:37 Which in his journey, I mean, he survived. 18:39 His parents, their parents 18:40 when they came into this country, 18:41 they got in this little makeshift raft 18:42 that should have sank coming from Cuba to Miami, 18:47 but in the providence of God it survived 18:49 and he was a baby in arms when he came here. 18:52 So... 18:54 but, you know, we make our choices. 18:57 And he died at the age of 19, shot 19:00 because he did some things with people in New York 19:03 that he shouldn't have. 19:04 Sort of tried to maneuver some things financially that, 19:08 that he shouldn't have. 19:09 Shouldn't have been in that business anyways, 19:11 but he died and that was a wake up call for me in a-- 19:14 in a definite I'm not going down that path. 19:16 But you had considered it? 19:19 Well, asides from the drug dealers, 19:21 in the Hispanic culture you feared this thing 19:24 called the chancleta. 19:25 Okay. 19:26 And it's your parents' belt and it's a flip-flop. 19:29 Changu-- Okay. Chancleta. It's the flipper. 19:32 South America is hot, so they wore slippers-- 19:35 It's a awesome, awesome instrument of righteousness. 19:38 I can imagine. 19:39 It's local, you can throw it, 19:42 at a long distance. 19:44 And I fear my parents' disapproval. 19:47 I mean, they, they had struck out their necks 19:49 to stay here in this country for me. 19:50 I feared not just like they would corporately punish me. 19:53 I just felt that they would be disappointed 19:55 and that I would actually bring harm to them. 19:58 Because when you mess with these individuals, 20:00 I know that they would go after your family and... 20:02 Take everyone. So but when-- 20:05 Carlos was to me a wakeup call that it can happen to me. 20:09 It happened that close to me 20:10 that a dear friend of mine is dead at 19. 20:12 I was 18. 20:14 He would have been 40 years old this year. 20:16 And with family and children and probably like me, 20:19 but he's no longer, he was cut short violently. 20:22 So that, that part of me was just not attractive at all. 20:26 God used that experience 20:27 to totally close those doors for me. 20:32 But still, you know, the bitterness, the resentment 20:35 and the like of knowing who I am. 20:37 Finally in 98 I decided to leave this country 20:40 and say, phooey, you know, I don't want. 20:42 This country doesn't want me, I don't want this country. 20:44 Went back to South America to Bolivia. 20:46 You did go back. 20:48 I went back, um... only for 3 months. 20:53 It wasn't planned, I was just gonna go there forever 20:55 and never come back to this country, 20:56 but landed, through the God-- 20:58 Lord's providence, in a-- in Bolivia, 21:01 I had a branch from this organization 21:03 called ADRA 21:04 which is that relief agency 21:06 of the Adventist Church for Hawaii. 21:08 And they had a branch in Bolivia 21:09 for drug addicted children, glue sniffers. 21:12 They needed a translator 21:13 to help write letters for sponsors in the US 21:15 and since I was bilingual, they asked me to help out. 21:18 Where they sent me to the mountains, 21:19 they didn't tell me that part. 21:21 Really. 21:22 And where their center was located, 21:24 no electricity, no running water. 21:26 They had running water 21:27 but not like the kind that we have. 21:29 But these children 21:30 the Lord used to begin to show me my calling. 21:34 I began to feel a natural attraction 21:37 to talking to them about Jesus and praying with them. 21:39 The children were sniffing glue. 21:40 Yes, these were 9-12-year-olds. 21:43 Actually 6-12-year-olds that were at the center, 21:46 to get detoxed, emotionally, 21:48 not just physically, detox spiritually. 21:51 Then I began to realize, 21:52 it's natural for me to want to share the Lord. 21:54 It's natural for me to explain the Bible 21:55 and I began to realize that people actually understood 21:58 when I explained the Bible to them. 21:59 The Lord had used somehow, 22:01 something in my brain that I can understand 22:03 how they would understand it. 22:04 And I began to discover skills and things inside of me 22:08 and then all of sudden I thought, 22:09 you know, I-- 22:10 Lord, if I was only back in the States, 22:12 why did you close the doors? 22:14 And all of a sudden a door opened 22:15 which I don't have time to, to share, 22:18 but it was a tremendous miracle both legal and financial 22:22 that only 3 months after I left, 22:24 I was landing in Miami airport once again. 22:27 The Lord did another miracle to get me into this country... 22:30 still illegal. 22:31 Still illegal. And I didn't have to-- 22:34 This journey, you know, 22:36 after it took you to the United States 22:39 and then it took you back to South America 22:42 because you said you were really searching to find out 22:45 who you were and-- 22:47 I left because I was angry. Okay. 22:48 But in Bolivia the Lord began to challenge me. 22:50 You don't know who you are. 22:53 Now you can go to school here in Bolivia, 22:54 there was Adventist University were I was at 22:57 What do you want to be? 22:58 You are right in the university. 22:59 What do you want to take? 23:00 And I began to realize, I don't know. 23:03 So you went in searching, 23:04 so eventually you had to find your purpose. 23:06 I began to realize, I don't know who I am 23:08 and God is trying to show me. 23:10 And through this drug-addicted children, 23:12 the Lord began to awaken inside of me a desire to serve, 23:16 a journey of service for Him. 23:18 So I came back to the United States, 23:19 went to Pennsylvania, 23:20 I have to really fast-forward through this part. 23:23 The Lord moved upon different things 23:25 that ended up in California for a whole year 23:27 learning how to do massage. 23:29 Then I went back to Pennsylvania 23:30 to work as a youth leader, as a massage therapist. 23:34 Still illegal but I thought hey, 23:35 I'm not gonna go and turn myself 23:37 into immigration services. 23:38 I myself, I'm self employed. 23:42 But I still felt like this was not fulfilling. 23:44 There's something more that I have to be doing, 23:45 not just massaging people. 23:48 I began to feel the need to be more trained, 23:50 how to share Jesus with others 23:52 and I found out about this school in South Dakota 23:53 called Mission College of Evangelism. 23:56 The Lord opened up a door for me to be there, 23:57 when I got there, 23:58 there massage therapist was leaving 24:00 and they found out that I was there, 24:02 that I had those skills and they said, hey, 24:04 well, you want to swap education for, 24:07 you know, you work at our health clinic 24:08 because they had a Black Hills Health and Education Center 24:11 and they needed a male massage therapist. 24:13 So I stayed there for 2 years, took their evangelism course, 24:16 their pastoral course, 24:18 then when I decided that I need to 24:19 go to nursing school, I left. 24:23 Pastor Torres asked me to do 24:24 an evangelistic series in Columbus, Ohio with ASI. 24:27 I ended up staying there for 2 years, 24:29 church planting and that church is a full-fledged church now. 24:32 God is awesome, yes. Praise God. 24:34 I finished nursing. 24:36 I started nursing in 2004, finished nursing in 2008. 24:40 I started working. I got married that year. 24:42 Six months after I got married, 24:44 I told my wife I want her conviction. 24:47 I'm quitting my job at the hospital. 24:49 We need to move to Berrien Springs, Michigan. 24:52 God is calling me to be a pastor 24:54 and I need to get education. 24:55 So we left in 2008, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 24:59 landed in Andrews University. 25:02 Finished my bachelors, finished my MDF, 25:04 and I graduated this past May of 2012. 25:07 Praise the Lord. Congratulations. Praise God. 25:10 It's fantastic. 25:11 You know, so the way you tell, 25:14 you know, new immigrants coming in to the United States. 25:20 Number one, pay your taxes. 25:23 And take car insurance. 25:24 Okay. 25:25 I used to tell him my illegal-- 25:27 Ah, in Columbus, Ohio, 25:28 80% of my congregation was illegal immigrants. Wow. 25:30 So I really began to see that 25:31 I wasn't the only one struggling. 25:33 Just with papers but with identity. 25:35 When I finally got my green card 25:37 already knew who I was. 25:38 Nothing changed that the day I got my green card. 25:40 Because there was a divine identity that extends beyond-- 25:44 You see, even Americans don't know who they are. 25:46 And if you become a US citizen, 25:48 the US government cannot tell you 25:50 what your calling for your life is. 25:52 What will give you fulfillment, that purpose, 25:54 that meaning for your existence. 25:55 Only your Creator can do that. 25:57 And God through His various circumstances 25:59 delayed my process so that I could not tell you 26:04 that I know that I'm a pastor because I'm a US citizen, 26:06 rather I know that I am supposed to be what I am 26:10 because God showed a knucklehead Hispanic 26:12 through many years, His calling for my life. 26:17 So I tell would immigrants surrender to the Lord. 26:20 Trust the Lord. He can move mountains. 26:23 Even if you're in this country, 26:24 I mean, I was a massage therapist, 26:26 I did all these things, 26:27 in spite of having a green card, 26:29 but I was submitted to the Lord. 26:30 If the Lord said, go, I stepped out in faith, 26:32 trusting that He would open doors for me. 26:35 I was given the privilege of baptizing people 26:39 that I was giving Bible studies in Columbus, Ohio, 26:41 though I wasn't even a pastor. 26:42 Right. So-- And those-- 26:45 I used to weep at night thinking, 26:46 Lord, you know, I never thought 26:48 life with You would be like this. 26:49 I'm getting to do stuff that in my wildest dreams 26:54 I wouldn't have thought of. 26:55 Now you're the pastor 26:56 of the Oakwood Seventh-day Adventist Church, 26:59 Taylor, Michigan. 27:01 Are you enjoying your journey here at-- 27:03 Oh, I, I have these visions and all these passion 27:10 and things that I just want to pour into the church, 27:13 there's not enough Sabbath for me to preach. 27:16 I could preach there every day of the week 27:18 if I was allowed. 27:20 But it's a wonderful church. 27:22 I've received my family with tremendous welcoming arms, 27:27 and I'm humbled because the Lord-- 27:30 I keep pictures, 27:31 I keep memorabilia of what reminds me 27:35 just like the people of Israel, 27:37 that God told them, remember who you used to be. 27:40 Don't forget where I took you out of. 27:42 You were a nobody, but you're out where you're at 27:45 because I had mercy upon you. 27:46 Amen. My Lord. 27:47 Well, listen, I want to thank you, pastor, 27:50 so much and we want to thank you from "Making It Work" 27:53 for allowing the church to host our program here. 27:57 It's our blessing. Thank you so much. 27:59 Absolutely, absolutely. 28:00 We all have our own journeys, but with God, 28:03 your journey can be done through great miracles, 28:06 and a blessing to bless others. 28:09 Well, I'm Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlin. And I'm Arthur Nowlin. 28:12 And remember your journey can have a purpose to serve. 28:16 Yes. God bless. |
Revised 2015-05-14