Participants: Gary Krause
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS001206B
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00:01 Welcome back to New York City.
00:03 Next up, we travel to another large city 00:06 in a much warmer area, the city of Bangkok. 00:09 Rick. 00:11 Thanks, Gary. 00:12 Here with me is Tonya Wright. 00:16 We're sitting here in beautiful Bangkok, Thailand. 00:18 And it's nice to be with you here 00:21 for a minute, Tonya, and just wanna ask you, 00:24 what are you doing here in Thailand? 00:26 Oh, my husband and I, we're working here at a school. 00:29 I'm the principal of a school in Ubon. 00:32 And it's a new, a new school. They're just starting it. 00:35 So we're excited to be a part of that. 00:37 Now when you say Ubon, probably most of our listeners 00:40 won't really know where that is. 00:42 Can you describe it just a little bit? 00:43 It's in the northeast of Bangkok about eight hours. 00:46 I mean of Thailand, about eight hours from Bangkok. 00:48 So it's quite a drive. It is. 00:49 Yeah. 00:51 And how many students are at your school? 00:52 Right now we only have a preschool going, 00:55 we have two-year-olds and three-year-olds, 00:57 but we're gonna be building up 00:59 from that all the way to 12th grade. 01:01 So that's a precious age. 01:02 You're getting them when they're quite young. 01:04 Yeah. 01:05 How long have you been doing that? 01:06 We just started. So... 01:08 Now you have come here to Thailand 01:10 from a few other countries not far from here. 01:13 Yes. Where you've been living? 01:16 Can you tell us anything about 01:17 what you were doing in previous places? 01:19 Oh, my husband and I, 01:21 we actually worked at church planting. 01:22 And also we were running an English language school 01:25 where we were interacting with a lot of the local people 01:26 teaching them English. 01:28 Right. Wow. 01:29 Is there any special story 01:33 that kind of came out of your work 01:34 in another place? 01:37 Yeah, actually, when my husband and I just a year 01:39 or so after we'd been in the country, 01:41 we became aware of a young girl that someone was sponsoring 01:44 to come to our school that needed a place to stay. 01:47 She was trying to go to school there 01:48 and also attended English school, 01:50 and was running out of money for her rent. 01:52 So my husband and I discussed it 01:53 and decided that 01:54 we'd like to offer her to stay with us. 01:56 So we invited her to come stay with us. 01:58 She was Hindu. 01:59 And we understood that, you know, 02:01 the complications with that. 02:02 So we were just excited, though, to be able to help out. 02:05 And the first week she was with us, 02:07 she wanted to help 02:08 with whatever she could around the house. 02:10 She was so excited to that we were helping her 02:12 and she wanted to show her appreciation. 02:14 And I remember Friday night, 02:16 first Friday night, she was with us. 02:19 She was trying to do all these extra things. 02:21 And my husband, I are, "How can we teach her about 02:23 Sabbath and specialness of that, 02:25 you know, she doesn't understand it?" 02:27 And we don't wanna force it on her 02:28 but we, she'd say, "Oh, can I do your laundry?" 02:30 We're like, "Oh, no, maybe not tonight, 02:31 maybe we'll do that, you know, on Sunday." 02:34 She's trying to wash all the dishes. 02:35 And we're like we'll just leave until tomorrow night, you know, 02:37 and so she didn't know what to do 02:39 'cause she's used to working all the time. 02:41 And finally, we're like, "Well, 02:42 you know, we have some nice religious videos, 02:45 maybe you'd like to pick one out." 02:46 And so we went over to her collection of videos, 02:49 and she saw the gospel of John video 02:52 that we had, she's like, "Can we watch this?" 02:54 So we put it in, and she starts watching it 02:57 and realize she really hasn't ever heard 02:58 the story of Jesus before. 03:00 You know, and so it was exciting 03:02 to watch somebody who doesn't know 03:03 really who Jesus is watching Him 03:05 do all these wonderful things. 03:06 And then we come down to the end 03:08 where there's the crucifixion scene, 03:10 and she sees that they're taking Jesus 03:12 and she gets so angry. 03:14 She's like, "Why are they doing that? 03:16 Don't they know He's a good man? 03:17 What's happening? 03:19 What are they gonna do to and what's gonna happen?" 03:20 And then they kill Him. 03:21 And she just like burst into tears. 03:23 She's so moved, and so frustrated. 03:25 "Why did they do that?" 03:26 And of course, you know, we know what comes next. 03:28 So we're like just wait, be patient, you know, 03:30 and then there's the resurrection scene, 03:32 and she was just so excited. 03:33 She's up. 03:34 She's jumping around this room, Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive. 03:37 And it was just amazing to see, like the story of Jesus that 03:41 we've heard so many times, the first time 03:44 that somebody really understands that 03:45 and the impact that it had on her heart. 03:47 It was just truly a blessing. 03:49 Very heartfelt response on her part 03:51 to the exposure to the gospel. 03:53 Yes. Yes. 03:54 And what a beautiful capsule 03:58 of what we all want to see 04:00 in other people's lives. 04:01 We'd love to see 04:03 that connection with Jesus, wouldn't we? 04:05 Yeah. 04:06 Let's bring it back to today a little bit. 04:09 When you think about the mission challenge in Asia, 04:15 in Thailand, what makes your... 04:19 What gives you motivation 04:21 for what you're doing right now? 04:22 What I'm doing. 04:24 Just knowing there are so many people 04:26 that know so little about Jesus, 04:27 like this young lady, or if they have, 04:30 they don't really understand, 04:31 they have a skewed version of what the gospel really is 04:35 and who Jesus is. 04:36 And they might think, oh, He was a good man, 04:38 but that's all they know. 04:39 And when you're actually able to help somebody 04:42 see who Jesus really is and when you're there 04:45 when the Holy Spirit touches their heart. 04:47 It's just an experience that you can't ever forget. 04:50 And I'm just so thankful that God allows us to be a part of. 04:52 Wow. 04:53 And to think of that with the millions of people 04:57 we're surrounded with every day 04:58 here in Bangkok 12 million people 05:00 on the average day, 05:02 in the nation of Thailand many more million. 05:04 And if you think of the region of Asia, 05:06 with the large countries of China, India, 05:09 even as far as Nepal, and Pakistan, 05:13 and Indonesia, you think of the billions 05:19 who have yet to hear the name of Jesus. 05:22 And that's really 05:23 what gives you the purpose to why you're here. 05:26 It does. Yeah. 05:28 When you are working 05:32 in your new school, 05:35 what kind of things you're doing 05:36 with the little ones? 05:38 Well, like I said, we just arrived, 05:40 I haven't done too much yet, but, you know, 05:44 really our goal there is to be able to share 05:49 all kinds of hands on things, 05:52 and also to get their parents involved 05:54 to invite the parents to programs, 05:55 have the children involved in doing things 05:56 so their parents can come and have a very natural way 05:59 to connect with our church members 06:01 and with us something that they're interested in, 06:03 something we're interested in. 06:04 So you get a connection with not only the little ones, 06:07 but with the parents, the whole family's involved. 06:10 And that way you can share 06:12 the gospel with families, right? 06:13 Yeah, exactly. In Ubon, what's it like? 06:18 Is it more rural? 06:20 Is it, you know, more traditional? 06:22 Is it Buddhist? 06:24 Is it, what's the situation there? 06:26 From what I could see so far, it's a city. 06:30 It's a big city. 06:32 It's a growing city. 06:33 They've actually, the development you can tell 06:34 they've planned for it to be able to expand 06:36 quite a bit the way the city has been developing. 06:39 And, but it's a little more traditional, 06:43 I think, than Bangkok for sure, 06:45 but I haven't been there very long. 06:47 So we have much to learn still. Yeah, you're new there. 06:48 Yes, yes. 06:50 And as missionaries, we're learners. 06:51 Yes. 06:53 We studied, listen, and try to do our best. 06:55 And I really appreciate you joining me 06:57 for a few minutes here. 06:58 I am thrilled with what you're doing 07:00 and how the Lord is blessing. 07:02 And we'll be praying for your school. 07:03 Oh, thank you. 07:05 Yeah, just wanna again, say thank you. 07:07 And thank you to our viewers around the world, 07:10 who are again, sharing from their heart, 07:13 their resources, their time, 07:14 their prayers to make the mission of the church 07:18 go forward, and wanna hand it back to Gary. 07:21 Here's the show back to you, Gary. 07:23 Next up, another animated story from East Central Africa. 07:28 Mr. Victor lives in South Sudan, 07:31 a country in East Africa. 07:33 He grew up in a home 07:34 where his father drank a lot of alcohol. 07:36 Mr. Victor's father thought 07:38 that nothing bad would happen to him, 07:40 but one day he became very sick and could not recover. 07:44 He passed away. 07:45 When Mr. Victor grew up, he also drank alcohol, 07:49 and ignored his father's lesson. 07:50 And he, too, became very sick. 07:53 As he was sick and feeble, 07:55 he heard a very clear voice saying to him that 07:58 if he didn't stop drinking, 07:59 he would die just like his father. 08:02 He immediately decided to quit drinking. 08:04 Mr. Victor felt God was speaking to him 08:07 to save his life, 08:08 so he followed the advice and began to get better. 08:14 After this, Mr. Victor 08:16 and his wife began to learn more 08:18 about the Bible through a Christian television station. 08:21 They wanted to have children, 08:22 and after reading the stories of Abraham 08:24 and Sarah, and Hannah who prayed for a child 08:27 and was given Samuel, they too prayed to God. 08:30 About this time, 08:32 the Victors met an Adventist member 08:33 who asked them if they would like 08:35 to study the Bible. 08:36 They said yes right away. 08:38 Now they had someone they could ask questions 08:40 and who would show them answers from the Bible. 08:43 As they learned precious lessons, 08:45 they decided to get baptized 08:47 at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Juba. 08:50 Before long their prayers were answered, 08:51 and soon, a baby was born to the Victors. 08:54 They named her Shammah. 08:56 Then two more babies came along, twin girls. 09:00 After a while another baby was born into the family, 09:04 and they named her Faith. 09:06 The Victors were so happy. 09:08 Every evening before going to bed, 09:10 the family had worship together. 09:12 They enjoyed singing hymns, 09:13 listening to Bible stories, and praying. 09:18 After a while, Mrs. Victor was expecting yet another baby. 09:22 But this time, something sad happened. 09:28 When Mrs. Victor went to the hospital to give birth, 09:30 there was a complication and she passed away. 09:34 The Victor family was very sad, 09:36 but they kept their faith in Jesus. 09:38 Now more strongly than ever, they hope for His soon return. 09:43 Shammah's favorite Bible story 09:45 is Jesus' resurrection on the third day. 09:48 Mr. Victor tells his children 09:50 that one day Jesus will call their mother 09:52 from the tomb 09:54 and if they are faithful, they will see her again. 09:59 Every Sabbath, Shammah, 10:01 Faith, the twins, and many other children 10:04 go to Sabbath School and church. 10:06 They bring chairs to sit under the beautiful trees. 10:09 Here they find a place in nature 10:11 to connect with the Creator. 10:13 Sometimes, however, the children cannot have 10:15 Sabbath School because it is raining. 10:17 The only place they have to meet 10:19 is under the trees. 10:20 When it rains everything becomes very wet and muddy. 10:24 The Victors' children 10:26 continue to invite many young ones 10:27 like them to church. 10:29 They are praying that more children will be ready 10:31 for heaven with them, 10:32 but they also are praying for funds 10:34 to build a "Lamb Shelter." 10:36 This building will be used 10:37 for children's Sabbath School and church. 10:40 Please pray as you support 10:41 the many mission projects happening in Juba 10:44 and all around the world. 11:04 Well, I hope you've enjoyed 11:05 this special children's edition of the program. 11:09 And it's wonderful to see children's lives 11:11 being touched all around the world. 11:13 And it's wonderful too to see children engaged in ministry. 11:18 And we see tremendous challenges 11:19 around the world from areas in Thailand, 11:24 remote areas in Africa, 11:26 through the huge urban areas 11:28 like right here in New York City. 11:30 And we see that the holistic ministry 11:33 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church 11:35 is touching people's lives for eternity. 11:38 And I wanna thank you so much for what you do 11:41 to make that happen. 11:42 Your prayers make a big difference. 11:45 Your financial support makes things happen. 11:48 And your personal involvement also makes a wonderful, 11:52 wonderful contribution. 11:53 And before we go, 11:55 I'd like to offer you a special gift. 11:57 It's a money box. 11:59 It's a special mission money box, 12:01 and it's a terrific way to encourage your children 12:04 to make giving to mission 12:06 a priority a habit in their lives. 12:08 You can use it in your home 12:10 in schools and Sabbath schools, wherever. 12:13 Well, for Adventist Mission, I'm Gary Krause. 12:15 I'm glad you were able to join me 12:16 and I hope that you can join me next time 12:18 right here on Mission 360. |
Revised 2020-12-10