Welcome back to New York City.
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Next up, we travel
to another large city
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in a much warmer
area, the city of Bangkok.
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Rick.
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Thanks, Gary.
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Here with me is Tonya Wright.
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We're sitting here in
beautiful Bangkok, Thailand.
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And it's nice
to be with you here
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for a minute, Tonya,
and just wanna ask you,
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what are you
doing here in Thailand?
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Oh, my husband and I,
we're working here at a school.
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I'm the principal
of a school in Ubon.
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And it's a new, a new school.
They're just starting it.
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So we're excited
to be a part of that.
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Now when you say Ubon,
probably most of our listeners
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won't really know where that is.
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Can you describe
it just a little bit?
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It's in the northeast of
Bangkok about eight hours.
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I mean of Thailand,
about eight hours from Bangkok.
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So it's quite a drive. It is.
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Yeah.
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And how many
students are at your school?
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Right now we only
have a preschool going,
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we have two-year-olds
and three-year-olds,
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but we're gonna be building up
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from that all the
way to 12th grade.
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So that's a precious age.
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You're getting them
when they're quite young.
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Yeah.
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How long have
you been doing that?
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We just started. So...
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Now you have
come here to Thailand
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from a few other
countries not far from here.
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Yes. Where you've been living?
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Can you tell us anything about
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what you were
doing in previous places?
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Oh, my husband and I,
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we actually worked
at church planting.
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And also we were running
an English language school
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where we were interacting
with a lot of the local people
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teaching them English.
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Right. Wow.
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Is there any special story
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that kind of
came out of your work
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in another place?
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Yeah, actually, when my
husband and I just a year
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or so after we'd
been in the country,
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we became aware of a young
girl that someone was sponsoring
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to come to our school
that needed a place to stay.
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She was trying to
go to school there
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and also
attended English school,
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and was running out
of money for her rent.
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So my husband and I discussed it
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and decided that
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we'd like to offer
her to stay with us.
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So we invited her
to come stay with us.
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She was Hindu.
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And we
understood that, you know,
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the complications with that.
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So we were just excited,
though, to be able to help out.
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And the first
week she was with us,
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she wanted to help
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with whatever she
could around the house.
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She was so excited to
that we were helping her
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and she wanted to
show her appreciation.
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And I remember Friday night,
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first Friday
night, she was with us.
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She was trying to do
all these extra things.
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And my husband, I are,
"How can we teach her about
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Sabbath and specialness of that,
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you know, she
doesn't understand it?"
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And we don't
wanna force it on her
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but we, she'd say,
"Oh, can I do your laundry?"
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We're like, "Oh,
no, maybe not tonight,
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maybe we'll do that,
you know, on Sunday."
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She's trying to
wash all the dishes.
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And we're like we'll just leave
until tomorrow night, you know,
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and so she
didn't know what to do
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'cause she's used to
working all the time.
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And finally, we're like, "Well,
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you know, we have
some nice religious videos,
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maybe you'd like
to pick one out."
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And so we went over to
her collection of videos,
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and she saw the
gospel of John video
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that we had, she's
like, "Can we watch this?"
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So we put it in, and
she starts watching it
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and realize she
really hasn't ever heard
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the story of Jesus before.
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You know, and so it was exciting
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to watch
somebody who doesn't know
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really who Jesus is watching Him
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do all these wonderful things.
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And then we come down to the end
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where there's the
crucifixion scene,
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and she sees that
they're taking Jesus
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and she gets so angry.
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She's like, "Why
are they doing that?
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Don't they know He's a good man?
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What's happening?
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What are they gonna do
to and what's gonna happen?"
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And then they kill Him.
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And she just
like burst into tears.
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She's so moved,
and so frustrated.
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"Why did they do that?"
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And of course, you
know, we know what comes next.
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So we're like just
wait, be patient, you know,
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and then there's
the resurrection scene,
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and she was just so excited.
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She's up.
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She's jumping around this room,
Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive.
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And it was just amazing to see,
like the story of Jesus that
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we've heard so many
times, the first time
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that somebody
really understands that
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and the impact that
it had on her heart.
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It was just truly a blessing.
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Very heartfelt
response on her part
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to the exposure to the gospel.
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Yes. Yes.
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And what a beautiful capsule
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of what we all want to see
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in other people's lives.
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We'd love to see
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that connection
with Jesus, wouldn't we?
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Yeah.
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Let's bring it back
to today a little bit.
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When you think about the
mission challenge in Asia,
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in Thailand, what makes your...
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What gives you motivation
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for what you're doing right now?
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What I'm doing.
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Just knowing
there are so many people
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that know so little about Jesus,
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like this young
lady, or if they have,
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they don't really understand,
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they have a skewed version
of what the gospel really is
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and who Jesus is.
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And they might think,
oh, He was a good man,
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but that's all they know.
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And when you're
actually able to help somebody
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see who Jesus really
is and when you're there
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when the Holy
Spirit touches their heart.
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It's just an experience
that you can't ever forget.
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And I'm just so thankful that
God allows us to be a part of.
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Wow.
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And to think of that
with the millions of people
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we're surrounded with every day
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here in Bangkok
12 million people
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on the average day,
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in the nation of
Thailand many more million.
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And if you think
of the region of Asia,
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with the large
countries of China, India,
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even as far as
Nepal, and Pakistan,
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and Indonesia, you
think of the billions
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who have yet to
hear the name of Jesus.
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And that's really
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what gives you the
purpose to why you're here.
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It does. Yeah.
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When you are working
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in your new school,
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what kind of things you're doing
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with the little ones?
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Well, like I
said, we just arrived,
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I haven't done too
much yet, but, you know,
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really our goal there
is to be able to share
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all kinds of hands on things,
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and also to get
their parents involved
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to invite the
parents to programs,
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have the children
involved in doing things
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so their parents can come
and have a very natural way
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to connect with
our church members
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and with us something
that they're interested in,
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something we're interested in.
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So you get a connection
with not only the little ones,
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but with the parents,
the whole family's involved.
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And that way you can share
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the gospel with families, right?
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Yeah, exactly. In
Ubon, what's it like?
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Is it more rural?
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Is it, you know,
more traditional?
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Is it Buddhist?
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Is it, what's
the situation there?
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From what I could
see so far, it's a city.
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It's a big city.
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It's a growing city.
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They've actually, the
development you can tell
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they've planned for
it to be able to expand
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quite a bit the way the
city has been developing.
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And, but it's a
little more traditional,
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I think, than Bangkok for sure,
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but I haven't
been there very long.
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So we have much to learn
still. Yeah, you're new there.
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Yes, yes.
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And as
missionaries, we're learners.
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Yes.
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We studied, listen,
and try to do our best.
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And I really
appreciate you joining me
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for a few minutes here.
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I am thrilled
with what you're doing
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and how the Lord is blessing.
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And we'll be
praying for your school.
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Oh, thank you.
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Yeah, just wanna
again, say thank you.
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And thank you to our
viewers around the world,
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who are again,
sharing from their heart,
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their resources, their time,
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their prayers to make
the mission of the church
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go forward, and
wanna hand it back to Gary.
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Here's the show
back to you, Gary.
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Next up, another animated
story from East Central Africa.
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Mr. Victor lives in South Sudan,
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a country in East Africa.
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He grew up in a home
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where his father
drank a lot of alcohol.
00:07:34.62\00:07:36.95
Mr. Victor's father thought
00:07:36.99\00:07:38.39
that nothing bad
would happen to him,
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but one day he became very
sick and could not recover.
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He passed away.
00:07:44.43\00:07:45.93
When Mr. Victor grew
up, he also drank alcohol,
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and ignored his father's lesson.
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And he, too, became very sick.
00:07:50.97\00:07:53.44
As he was sick and feeble,
00:07:53.47\00:07:55.50
he heard a very clear
voice saying to him that
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if he didn't stop drinking,
00:07:58.04\00:07:59.77
he would die
just like his father.
00:07:59.81\00:08:02.64
He immediately
decided to quit drinking.
00:08:02.68\00:08:04.81
Mr. Victor felt
God was speaking to him
00:08:04.85\00:08:07.02
to save his life,
00:08:07.05\00:08:08.55
so he followed the
advice and began to get better.
00:08:08.58\00:08:11.22
After this, Mr. Victor
00:08:14.92\00:08:16.93
and his wife began to learn more
00:08:16.96\00:08:18.46
about the Bible through a
Christian television station.
00:08:18.49\00:08:21.50
They wanted to have children,
00:08:21.53\00:08:22.86
and after reading
the stories of Abraham
00:08:22.90\00:08:24.70
and Sarah, and Hannah
who prayed for a child
00:08:24.73\00:08:27.44
and was given Samuel,
they too prayed to God.
00:08:27.47\00:08:30.74
About this time,
00:08:30.77\00:08:32.11
the Victors met
an Adventist member
00:08:32.14\00:08:33.81
who asked them
if they would like
00:08:33.84\00:08:35.18
to study the Bible.
00:08:35.21\00:08:36.54
They said yes right away.
00:08:36.58\00:08:38.51
Now they had someone
they could ask questions
00:08:38.55\00:08:40.85
and who would show
them answers from the Bible.
00:08:40.88\00:08:43.55
As they learned
precious lessons,
00:08:43.59\00:08:45.45
they decided to get baptized
00:08:45.49\00:08:47.19
at the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Juba.
00:08:47.22\00:08:50.19
Before long their
prayers were answered,
00:08:50.23\00:08:51.93
and soon, a baby
was born to the Victors.
00:08:51.96\00:08:54.70
They named her Shammah.
00:08:54.73\00:08:56.63
Then two more babies
came along, twin girls.
00:08:56.67\00:09:00.77
After a while another
baby was born into the family,
00:09:00.80\00:09:04.04
and they named her Faith.
00:09:04.07\00:09:06.11
The Victors were so happy.
00:09:06.14\00:09:08.01
Every evening
before going to bed,
00:09:08.04\00:09:10.25
the family had worship together.
00:09:10.28\00:09:12.05
They enjoyed singing hymns,
00:09:12.08\00:09:13.88
listening to Bible
stories, and praying.
00:09:13.92\00:09:18.35
After a while, Mrs. Victor
was expecting yet another baby.
00:09:18.39\00:09:22.39
But this time,
something sad happened.
00:09:22.42\00:09:27.96
When Mrs. Victor went to
the hospital to give birth,
00:09:28.00\00:09:30.77
there was a complication
and she passed away.
00:09:30.80\00:09:34.34
The Victor family was very sad,
00:09:34.37\00:09:36.54
but they kept
their faith in Jesus.
00:09:36.57\00:09:38.67
Now more strongly than ever,
they hope for His soon return.
00:09:38.71\00:09:43.21
Shammah's favorite Bible story
00:09:43.24\00:09:45.15
is Jesus'
resurrection on the third day.
00:09:45.18\00:09:48.85
Mr. Victor tells his children
00:09:48.88\00:09:50.39
that one day Jesus
will call their mother
00:09:50.42\00:09:52.62
from the tomb
00:09:52.65\00:09:53.99
and if they are faithful,
they will see her again.
00:09:54.02\00:09:59.36
Every Sabbath, Shammah,
00:09:59.39\00:10:01.20
Faith, the twins,
and many other children
00:10:01.23\00:10:04.10
go to Sabbath School and church.
00:10:04.13\00:10:06.77
They bring chairs to sit
under the beautiful trees.
00:10:06.80\00:10:09.70
Here they find a place in nature
00:10:09.74\00:10:11.21
to connect with the Creator.
00:10:11.24\00:10:12.97
Sometimes, however,
the children cannot have
00:10:13.01\00:10:15.08
Sabbath School
because it is raining.
00:10:15.11\00:10:17.28
The only place they have to meet
00:10:17.31\00:10:18.98
is under the trees.
00:10:19.01\00:10:20.42
When it rains everything
becomes very wet and muddy.
00:10:20.45\00:10:24.75
The Victors' children
00:10:24.79\00:10:26.12
continue to
invite many young ones
00:10:26.15\00:10:27.72
like them to church.
00:10:27.76\00:10:29.16
They are praying that
more children will be ready
00:10:29.19\00:10:31.03
for heaven with them,
00:10:31.06\00:10:32.69
but they also
are praying for funds
00:10:32.73\00:10:34.46
to build a "Lamb Shelter."
00:10:34.50\00:10:36.33
This building will be used
00:10:36.36\00:10:37.70
for children's
Sabbath School and church.
00:10:37.73\00:10:40.04
Please pray as you support
00:10:40.07\00:10:41.57
the many mission
projects happening in Juba
00:10:41.60\00:10:44.17
and all around the world.
00:10:44.21\00:10:45.54
Well, I hope you've enjoyed
00:11:04.56\00:11:05.89
this special children's
edition of the program.
00:11:05.93\00:11:09.06
And it's wonderful
to see children's lives
00:11:09.10\00:11:11.90
being touched
all around the world.
00:11:11.93\00:11:13.87
And it's wonderful too to see
children engaged in ministry.
00:11:13.90\00:11:18.51
And we see tremendous challenges
00:11:18.54\00:11:19.94
around the world
from areas in Thailand,
00:11:19.97\00:11:24.01
remote areas in Africa,
00:11:24.05\00:11:26.21
through the huge urban areas
00:11:26.25\00:11:27.98
like right here
in New York City.
00:11:28.02\00:11:30.32
And we see that
the holistic ministry
00:11:30.35\00:11:33.56
of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church
00:11:33.59\00:11:35.32
is touching
people's lives for eternity.
00:11:35.36\00:11:38.63
And I wanna thank you
so much for what you do
00:11:38.66\00:11:41.20
to make that happen.
00:11:41.23\00:11:42.73
Your prayers
make a big difference.
00:11:42.76\00:11:45.33
Your financial
support makes things happen.
00:11:45.37\00:11:48.84
And your personal involvement
also makes a wonderful,
00:11:48.87\00:11:52.17
wonderful contribution.
00:11:52.21\00:11:53.84
And before we go,
00:11:53.88\00:11:55.21
I'd like to offer
you a special gift.
00:11:55.24\00:11:57.75
It's a money box.
00:11:57.78\00:11:59.81
It's a special
mission money box,
00:11:59.85\00:12:01.58
and it's a terrific way
to encourage your children
00:12:01.62\00:12:04.85
to make giving to mission
00:12:04.89\00:12:06.82
a priority a
habit in their lives.
00:12:06.86\00:12:08.92
You can use it in your home
00:12:08.96\00:12:10.29
in schools and
Sabbath schools, wherever.
00:12:10.33\00:12:13.13
Well, for Adventist
Mission, I'm Gary Krause.
00:12:13.16\00:12:15.20
I'm glad you
were able to join me
00:12:15.23\00:12:16.60
and I hope that you
can join me next time
00:12:16.63\00:12:18.90
right here on Mission 360.
00:12:18.93\00:12:20.87