Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS001201A
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00:11 Stories from Africa, The United States,
00:13 and Hong Kong 00:15 that and much more coming up next. 00:41 Hello, I'm Gary Krause, and welcome to Mission 360. 00:45 Coming to you today 00:47 from the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong. 00:50 I'm standing in a very special place. 00:53 Beside me is the grave, the tomb of Abram La Rue. 01:00 Abram La Rue was a Seventh-day Adventist lay person, 01:05 who came to faith later in life 01:08 and he had a burden to take the good news of Jesus Christ 01:12 and the Seventh-day Adventist message to the people of Asia. 01:17 At around age 65, 01:19 he contacted the General Conference 01:21 of Seventh-day Adventist 01:23 and told the leaders of his desire, his passion 01:26 but they replied that unfortunately 01:28 they didn't have the money 01:30 and besides that well, he was a bit too old. 01:33 But nothing was to stand in the way of Abram La Rue, 01:36 he was the man of resources, 01:38 he had quite a history as a gold miner, 01:42 as a woodcutter, as a shepherd, 01:44 as a sailor and he went back to his old trade 01:47 and he got on a boat to Honolulu. 01:50 There he worked for a while and then he worked his way 01:52 across to Hong Kong, where he landed in 1888. 01:57 And for more than a decade, 01:59 he worked here mainly sharing literature. 02:02 In 1891 he had printed the first tracts 02:06 in the Chinese language. 02:08 He ministered to sailors, 02:10 he ministered to different people. 02:12 And in 1902 Pastor Anderson and his family came 02:17 and the first people were baptized 02:20 and joined the Seventh-day Adventist church 02:22 right here in Hong Kong. 02:24 And it was these beginnings with Abram La Rue 02:27 that started the work that of course 02:29 then continued on into mainland China. 02:34 And it's a privilege to stand here 02:36 to remember the importance of this man 02:39 who dedicated his life to mission 02:42 because he never went home. 02:45 He never went home. 02:46 Well, we have a lot more about mission 02:48 in this region of the world coming up, 02:50 but first up let's meet a Global Mission pioneer 02:54 in Botswana. 03:08 I'm here as an Adventist Global Mission pioneer 03:13 and I've been here for six months. 03:18 The village is quite interesting to work in. 03:23 When I first came to this village, 03:25 we had five regular members but the population 03:31 is estimated to be above 18,000. 03:34 At first I was a bit discouraged, 03:37 because I was form an atmosphere 03:39 where you fellowship with more than 50 people, 03:43 where worship services will be vibrant and to come 03:47 and find five people who couldn't even sing 03:50 was the main challenge. 03:55 We embarked on the house to house project, 03:59 house to house visitation 04:00 where we share with people the love of Jesus, 04:03 and the Lord has been so good. 04:06 To begin with, we now have more then 80 people 04:13 who are regular in attendance. 04:15 Every Sabbath we have on average 10 or more visitors 04:20 and we have been having baptisms on a monthly basis. 04:29 The first initiative that we took 04:32 was the one for prayer 04:35 where we intensified our prayer life, 04:38 where we would go to a village, 04:40 to a home instead of maybe studying with them, 04:43 we start to pray for them. 04:45 We have encountered people who have been so sick, 04:48 and after praying for them 04:50 we saw them being healed instantly. 04:56 I asked my Lord, where does He want me to serve Him? 05:02 I made a covenant with the Lord. 05:04 I said, "If what I did pleases you Lord, 05:09 you will find me something to do 05:11 which will uplift your name." 05:13 To me, to be a Global Mission pioneer 05:18 is a humbling experience, if I may I use that word. 05:22 One of the things that I want to see accomplished 05:27 is to have the gospel permeate this village 05:32 and the surrounding areas to have people 05:36 living in harmony with the principles 05:39 laid down in the Bible. 05:42 Those are basics priorities that I want to see achieved 05:46 and accomplished in this village. 05:57 My guest is Pastor Jeff Scoggins 05:59 who is the new planning director 06:01 for the office of Adventist Mission 06:03 here at the General Conference. 06:04 Jeff, thanks for joining us. Thank you. 06:06 Now, Jeff, when I first met you, 06:08 you were actually working 06:09 at the Adventist world headquarters, 06:11 what were you doing there? 06:12 Beginning when? When I was there. 06:15 When I came out of college 06:16 I was in ADRA in north American division 06:19 and then about 1998 maybe you, 06:24 actually it was Mike I guess who was invited me and you 06:27 to do communication for Global Mission. 06:29 Right, so that's where we work together 06:31 but was it too long after that you were invited 06:35 to go to Moscow 06:36 to work in the Euro-Asia region of the world. 06:39 What were you called to do there? 06:42 I was called to be the field secretary 06:44 for strategic planning and global mission. 06:46 Okay, so you'd been talking about global mission, 06:50 you've been promoting global mission, 06:52 you've been doing brochures and every thing like that. 06:54 Now you actually going into the field 06:56 to be involved, you know. 06:57 That was it. So what did you do? 06:59 When I got there, we walked into not the same day 07:03 but very soon there after walked into Adcom 07:07 and they said, "Let us tell you what we want you to do." 07:10 Which I thought I knew what I was supposed to do, 07:13 turns out I didn't. 07:14 They said in the next two years which was my term there, 07:17 the next two years we want to plant 300 new churches. 07:22 House churches to the former Soviet Republics. 07:25 Can you raise four million dollars to do that? 07:29 And I don't know what I was thinking 07:31 but I was inspired and I said sure. 07:34 Is that all? Yes, that it. Yeah, exactly. 07:38 I got a reality check when the first donation came in 07:42 for 10,000 dollars and my wife so kindly said, 07:47 "Do that several hundred more times 07:48 and you'll have it." 07:50 And that's when the amount of money 07:51 just hit me of what it really was. 07:54 Yeah, and while you prayed through it, 07:57 and you work through it and there's actually a book 08:00 published full of wonderful stories from that project 08:04 because how many churches were planted? 08:06 311 if I'm not mistaken by the time we were done, yeah. 08:11 And these were planted by whom? Global Mission pioneers. 08:15 We brought in 300 young men, 08:19 really from all of those places 08:22 where they were going to be planted. 08:24 We brought them in from local places 08:26 and train them at the seminary Zaoksi 08:30 for three months. 08:31 And then we sent them out into the field, 08:34 we went and we purchased very cheap houses 08:38 for them to live in, 08:40 which they also used as a church. 08:41 Wonderful. 08:43 And so yeah, it was, 08:44 it turned out to be quite the project, 08:48 people still talk about it in its 15 years later. 08:51 Right, and I was just talking to someone the other day 08:54 and hundreds of those churches are still operating. 08:56 They still are. 08:58 In fact I was a little worried about it, 08:59 because I've been out of touch for quite a while 09:01 after leaving there and they, I asked somebody just recently, 09:06 "How many are still going?" 09:08 And the guy that I worked with closely Ivan Ostrovsky, 09:10 he said at least 60 percent are still going strong, 09:14 others are still struggling, 09:16 some of them had to be sold or whatever which is fine, 09:19 that's the process. 09:20 He said some of the young men that we brought in 09:22 are now conference presidents. 09:23 That's wonderful. Yeah. 09:25 So, Jeff, share a story from one of the pioneers, 09:28 one of their experiences in this project. 09:30 One of my favorite stories 09:33 is about a young man named Andre. 09:35 And I'm not gonna tell you where he was working at 09:37 because for all I know he's still working there 09:39 and it's a closed country right now. 09:42 But he came out of a life of crime. 09:44 He was in big time in organized crime 09:47 and I have to shorten the story, 09:49 I make this assortment because it's a long 09:52 and it's great story but it turned out that he, 09:56 somebody handed him a Bible. 09:58 And he discovered not only Jesus 10:01 but he discovered the Sabbath in the Bible. 10:03 He never heard of a Seventh-day Adventist in his life. 10:06 He was on death row 10:07 through a series of miracles he was released. 10:12 After being tested on the Sabbath 10:15 and all sorts of things, 10:16 I mean he was going to be killed by the prison warden 10:19 due to his beliefs 10:21 and he stayed staunchly with him, 10:25 even though he had no training nothing like that. 10:28 He had been miraculously preserved in the uranium lines. 10:31 People didn't lived there, 10:33 that was a death sentence in of its own. 10:35 He got out of prison and he went to find out 10:37 if there was any other people that kept the Sabbath, 10:40 discovered the Seventh-day Adventist and when I met him, 10:43 he was planting a church in his country 10:46 for a Seventh-day Adventist church 10:47 and he was there with a bunch of other pioneers 10:50 that we were talking about 10:51 and they were talking about how difficult it was 10:53 and how they were afraid of the local authorities 10:58 and things like this. 10:59 And I was watching this young man, Andre 11:02 and he was just down there shaking his head. 11:04 And I knew what he was thinking 'cause this guy was fearless 11:07 after what he had been through and I even asked him I said, 11:13 "Can I share your story?" 11:15 I said, "Will that get you in trouble?" 11:16 He said, "I don't care, if it gets me in trouble." 11:19 I still don't do it for his sake 11:20 but he was just an inspiring story 11:24 of what God can do even without the infrastructure or that, 11:29 you know, maybe could have come and baptized him 11:31 or something like that. 11:32 He worked through our men, he was planting churches. 11:34 Amazing story. 11:35 Yeah, and so throughout the former Soviet Union 11:40 these lighthouses were established seminaries 11:42 where there were no Adventist congregations. 11:44 Correct. 11:46 So why is church planting like you're involved in there 11:49 in the former Soviet Union, why is that so important? 11:53 Because it's what pushing us out 11:55 into the frontiers of mission. 11:57 We don't want to be here much longer 11:58 if we can do anything about it 12:00 and the thing is that Jesus gave us the ability 12:03 to do something about it. 12:05 He said go tell the world, 12:06 and when we tell the world he can come back. 12:08 What we are doing is we're not just planting churches, 12:11 we're planting churches in the areas 12:13 where there are not currently Seventh-day Adventists 12:16 and so that is our mandate. 12:19 We are doing what Jesus told us to do. 12:20 That's why it's so important. Fantastic. 12:23 Extremely fantastic 12:24 and that's why you're our new planning director. 12:26 Welcome. 12:28 So, friends, at home please remember to pray 12:30 for Global Mission pioneers. 12:32 Pray for Global Mission initiatives to reach into new 12:35 and challenging areas and people groups. 12:37 And to find out more information 12:39 about church planting and Global Mission 12:41 and how you can support through your prayers and your finances, 12:44 go to AdventistMission.org. |
Revised 2016-08-22