Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS002105B
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00:06 Welcome back to the campus
00:08 of Loma Linda University Health. 00:10 Behind me, you can see the Loma Linda Medical Center 00:14 and then positioned appropriately in front of it 00:17 is this beautiful depiction 00:19 of the parable of the good Samaritan. 00:21 Next up, we meet Pastor Roy, 00:23 who is planting a church in Melbourne, Australia. 00:27 I'm here in Australia 00:29 with a young pastor who is planting a church. 00:32 And most of us would say Melbourne, 00:34 but they say Melbourne. 00:36 This is Pastor Roy. 00:38 And tell me, 00:39 how long have you been working in Melbourne? 00:42 Yeah, so I first came here in 2005 00:43 as a Bible worker 00:45 and stayed here for two years 00:46 and ended up needing to finish my studies. 00:49 And so went back to the US, finished my studies 00:52 and came here 2012 with my family 00:55 and been here ever since. 00:57 Now, I said, you're planting a church, 00:59 but what does this mean? 01:01 What are you actually doing? Yep. 01:03 So we run a church service on a Sabbath morning 01:07 from the heart of the city of Melbourne. 01:09 Our church is located on 500 Collins Street. 01:12 And then during the week we run small groups 01:14 and different outreach programs to the community. 01:17 Tell me a little bit about the city? 01:20 Yep. 01:21 Melbourne is kind of a unique place 01:22 where people would call it very secular. 01:25 And so, for example, 01:26 we have holidays for sporting events. 01:29 We've got the Melbourne Cup, it's a horse race. 01:31 Nobody goes to work 01:33 when the horse races take place. 01:34 I've never lived in a place where that takes place. 01:39 We also have holiday for the Footy Championship. 01:42 So that takes place right near the city as well. 01:44 Nobody gets... 01:46 It sounds Australian footy as well. 01:47 Yep. So it's an Australian football. 01:49 Australia, Aussie rules. 01:50 Yeah, I'm getting too used to Australia here. 01:52 So is that with the Aussie rules as well 01:53 or is it different? 01:55 Yeah. Okay. 01:56 Yeah, yeah. All right. 01:57 Now, I understand that 01:59 it's also very international city. 02:01 Do you have a lot of people 02:02 from different parts of the world, is that true? 02:04 Absolutely. 02:05 It's a bit of a hub. 02:07 It's a very diverse city. 02:08 You've got 40% of people 02:10 that probably come from Asia alone. 02:14 And there's just tremendous diversity in the city. 02:16 Now, which is larger, Sydney or Melbourne? 02:18 I hear there's a bit of a rivalry 02:19 as to which is the biggest. 02:21 So they're going to go on record. 02:23 There is a bit of a... 02:24 There's a bit of a rivalry. 02:26 Yeah, Melbourne is smaller at the moment. 02:28 And what they're projecting is within the next five years, 02:31 that Melbourne would become a little bit bigger than Sydney 02:34 in terms of population. 02:37 Now why then you were a Bible worker 02:39 and now you're working as a church planter. 02:41 What inspires you to do what you do? 02:44 I think that there are moments 02:46 where you realize God wants you to do something. 02:50 And there were experiences 02:51 that I had as a Bible worker here in Melbourne, 02:53 where I really felt like 02:57 there was, 02:58 there were moment 02:59 where people connected with Christ 03:01 in a meaningful way. 03:02 And I think there's a lot of motivation saying, 03:04 "Hey, that was great. I want to do more of that." 03:05 And so, I ended up going into ministry afterwards. 03:08 Wonderful. 03:09 Now your wife is also working with you. 03:11 So it's a family affair here. 03:14 Now, when you're talking about reaching a city, 03:17 you know, you talked about small groups 03:18 and things like that. 03:21 How do you really connect with people? 03:24 Yeah, that's a good question. 03:25 We probably connect with the people 03:29 who are Australian born from two different, 03:32 two different methods. 03:33 One is mainly a referral. 03:35 So that just means friends of friends. 03:38 They come to church, 03:39 they realize this is gonna be a great opportunity 03:41 to witness to my friends, my family members. 03:43 And so, the majority of the people 03:45 that come into our church are referral, 03:48 and then we also use social media. 03:50 So websites like Facebook or meetup.com. 03:53 There are great ways of connecting 03:55 with the community. 03:56 And so, we run different Bible study groups. 03:58 One of them are, 04:00 is located right in the middle of the city. 04:02 We run it during lunchtime. 04:03 So the advertisement is 04:05 if you're a corporate person working or living in the city, 04:08 we've got a short Bible study in the middle of Wednesday 04:11 and they can come. 04:13 Okay. 04:14 Now a lot of people know what referrals are. 04:16 Social media, yeah, it's been around a lot, 04:18 but people are figuring out how do we use it for ministry? 04:20 You specifically mentioned one, which is meetup.com. 04:23 Some people may not know what that is. 04:25 You want to just tell them how you use that. 04:27 I mean, it's something that's just out there. 04:29 It's like Facebook, it's out there. 04:32 But maybe explain a little bit about what you're doing, 04:34 how you're using it? 04:36 So meetup.com 04:37 I think is the biggest networking website 04:42 where people who want to organize groups 04:44 can connect with individuals 04:46 who are interested in specific activities 04:48 or, yeah, different social events. 04:51 And so, they go to the website, 04:53 they can sign up 04:54 and based off of the areas of interest that they select 04:58 the website will automatically introduce 05:00 your group to individuals. 05:01 And so, if someone who's running a Bible study group, 05:04 I don't have to chase after people on the street 05:05 asking them, 05:07 "Hey, do you want to learn about Jesus?" 05:08 The website will bring people 05:09 who want to learn about Jesus to my groups. 05:11 So you put out something, 05:12 say if we're having a Bible study 05:14 media group show up this time and people come? 05:17 Yeah. 05:19 We put a fair bit of time 05:20 in how we wanted to word our group. 05:22 But, yeah, so we put out an advertisement 05:25 we said, there's free food. 05:26 We'll feed you at lunchtime. 05:27 And the Bible study is going to be short. 05:29 And so, if you want to learn about the Bible, 05:32 then here are different topics that we're covering. 05:33 And so, we've covered topics like Proverbs giving you wisdom 05:37 during the work week. 05:38 And we've had a number of people 05:40 coming through that. 05:41 Physical food and spiritual food really. 05:43 That's right. 05:45 Now, do you have any stories you can share about 05:47 maybe somebody who's connected through one of these groups or? 05:51 Yeah, so there's this one instance 05:52 where we were able to bridge social media 05:54 and our friendships together. 05:57 I found out a couple of weeks ago, 05:58 our neighbors have been reading our blogs on Facebook. 06:02 And while we were at the museum the other week, 06:04 they had mentioned, 06:05 "Hey, we've been reading what you've been posting. 06:07 And we really feel like 06:09 we can connect with you spiritually. 06:11 Can we come to your church?" 06:12 And I was taken aback 06:14 because these are individuals who are unchurched. 06:16 They don't attend church regularly, 06:18 and yet because they know us, 06:20 they read the different things that we post on Facebook. 06:22 And it's been an incredible way to have a voice, 06:25 to share spiritual things 06:26 in a way that we normally couldn't do. 06:29 What's even more amazing to me is that 06:31 we've been wanting to start this outreach 06:33 in the city called Gymbaroo, 06:35 it's, where children develop physical skills, 06:39 mental and social skills. 06:40 And we just were sharing that idea with our neighbors. 06:44 And they're saying, 06:45 we want to fund this ministry for you. 06:47 And that was quite an amazing thing. 06:50 Especially because 06:51 these are not Adventist individuals, 06:53 they just connected with us, care about us, 06:56 and felt that 06:57 there was a need in the community as well. 06:58 And, you know, 07:00 when you're mingling with people, 07:02 when you are interacting in a real way with people, 07:07 not with an agenda, 07:09 that's probably the most powerful way 07:10 to witness 07:12 when your life is your witness. 07:14 And the Holy Spirit is working. 07:16 You know, Pastor Roy, 07:18 it's been wonderful talking with you. 07:20 I would love to get down and come to Melbourne someday 07:22 and see what you're doing. 07:24 Please come and visit. 07:25 But thank you again for being with us. 07:28 I'm Richard Kajiura for Mission 360. 07:32 Next up, we meet the Sherman family 07:34 who are working in a very remote region 07:37 of Northwest Alaska. 07:49 We're refurbishing the church and fixing it up 07:51 and putting lots of time and effort and money into it 07:55 because we believe that God will supply the souls, 07:59 that God will bring people 08:01 and He will open up doors 08:03 and the time will come that we will have a fellowship here. 08:06 We will have a church family. 08:08 The work needs to be done patiently 08:10 and prayers for opportunities are made every day. 08:14 Although God is guiding the Sherman's mission work, 08:17 the cold weather, difficult circumstances 08:21 and distance from loved ones are discouraging. 08:24 Sometimes my wife and I are discouraged 08:26 when we're here alone. 08:27 You know, we sometimes feel that 08:29 we're just kind of out here by ourselves 08:30 and we are attempted to feel like 08:33 we're not making the impact. 08:36 And no one is really with us. 08:38 And no one is really supporting us. 08:40 And there's been times that we felt like 08:42 it would be nice to maybe move 08:43 and join a different type of mission field 08:46 where there's people who are working together 08:48 more as a team. 08:49 I'm kind of like seeing 08:50 you know, what are my weaknesses, 08:52 you know, 08:53 and that kinda like helps me to know 08:56 at the same time, 08:57 you know, God is kinda like helping me to work with it. 09:00 I'm very impatient. 09:02 I want things to happen instantly. 09:05 If I want it to happen, I want it to happen. 09:07 But living out here, 09:08 you know, I learned that thing doesn't happen 09:11 when you want it to happen. 09:13 One thing that has always given us hope is knowing that 09:16 we're doing what God has asked us to do. 09:18 And we've had comfort in that. 09:20 To be a missionary is like 09:22 living what you have behind 09:25 and go somewhere different 09:27 and getting out of your comfort zone. 09:40 Jade! 09:41 What are you guys up to? 09:51 You know, the coldness of the water, 09:53 the coldness of the icebergs 09:55 kind of reminds me about the coldness 09:58 that can come in the heart when you feel lonely, 10:02 separated from God. 10:03 And yet the warmth of God's love 10:06 and of His people 10:08 can bring into your life a wonderful connection 10:11 that will help you not to feel alone. 10:15 The things that inspire Irene and I are, 10:17 you know, there's a few different things, 10:19 but God will oftentimes provide opportunities, 10:23 He will open doors. 10:24 He will actually cause things to happen that 10:27 that give us glimpses of what He's doing. 10:31 You know, we'll start a new study 10:32 or someone will say something to us 10:35 that gives us encouragement. 10:36 We'll see some fruit of the relationships 10:40 we're building with kids, 10:41 as well as with people in the community, 10:43 you know, God will do something to help us see that 10:47 His work is being accomplished through us. 10:49 And that we're, 10:50 and that our faithfulness is pleasing to Him. 10:56 The courage and faithfulness, 10:58 Tony and Irene have is contagious. 11:01 Their determination 11:02 to fulfill the mission is inspiring. 11:05 God and his angels comfort them 11:07 and motivate them 11:08 to move ahead despite challenges. 11:11 The faces, the sounds, the people, the landscapes, 11:16 besides being so small and completely isolated, 11:19 Shungnak is still a huge priority for Christ. 11:24 The Sherman's example 11:25 is a beautiful testimony of selflessness 11:28 to revive the mission. 11:30 They might be alone, 11:32 but they are never by themselves. 11:35 Jesus is my... 11:37 He's everything. 11:38 I mean, Jesus is the reason why I'm here. 11:41 If I don't, I mean, not for Him, 11:44 I won't be able to make it. 11:46 You know, I won't be able to live here 11:47 for four years. 11:49 Jesus, for me, He is everything. 11:51 He's my friend. He is my encouragement. 11:54 He is my strength. 11:56 He's the one I go to when I'm hurt. 11:58 When I even can't 12:00 maybe even talk to my own family, 12:01 He's the one I can speak to 12:02 about every single problem I have. 12:04 And He's the one who is changing me 12:07 from the inside out. 12:22 Well, that's about it for today's program, 12:23 but I hope that you've enjoyed our 360 degree view 12:26 of mission around the world. 12:28 And speaking of 360 degrees 12:30 behind me is the Mission Globe here on the Loma Linda campus. 12:35 And it's at the end of the Centennial Pathway. 12:39 And it's a reminder 12:40 of the importance of mission to Loma Linda 12:42 and engraved on stone all around this globe 12:47 are the names of graduates from this institution 12:50 who have gone to all parts of the world 12:52 to serve. 12:54 Now you may say, 12:55 well, that's wonderful for them, 12:56 but I've never had the opportunity 12:58 or I've never been called. 12:59 And that's fine. 13:00 We're all given different gifts, 13:02 but we are all called to pray and support mission 13:04 wherever it's happening. 13:06 And so I wanna thank you so much 13:07 for being part of the Adventist mission family 13:10 through your financial gifts, 13:12 through your prayers 13:13 and through your personal involvement. 13:15 And as a small thank you for your support of mission, 13:17 I'd like to send you an Adventist mission tote bag. 13:20 It's a little reminder of mission 13:22 in your daily tasks. 13:24 Well, for Advent Mission, I'm Gary Krause. 13:26 And I hope that you can join me next time 13:28 right here on Mission 360. |
Revised 2021-02-25