A tour of South America,
learning more about Buddhism
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and the sights and sounds
of Vietnam coming up next.
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Hello and
welcome to Mission 360A°.
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I'm Gary Krause.
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We have a terrific
program for you today,
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coming to you
from Ho Chi Minh City
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in South Vietnam.
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Of course, this
used to be called Saigon
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and it played a pivotal role
as the capital of South Vietnam
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during the Vietnam War.
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It's built
along the Saigon River
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near the Mekong Delta.
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And today many
thousands of tourists
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come to visit this
very charming city.
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On today's program,
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we'll be learning more
about mission in Vietnam.
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But first up, we're
going to go to South America.
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South America, of course,
is a very diverse territory.
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And we have more than 2
million members in that area.
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And it is a
division that is very focused
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on church planting
and on urban mission.
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Many, many centers of influence,
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starting
throughout South America.
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So let's travel there now.
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Salvador is known throughout
Brazil for having a vibrant,
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unique culture.
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It boasts the fourth
largest population of Brazil
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with almost 3 million people.
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The Adventist
Church has experienced
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significant growth here,
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with churches
scattered throughout Salvador.
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Despite the strong
Adventist presence,
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there are still
unentered areas of the city.
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Global Mission is
working to identify areas
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with no Adventist presence
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and establish new
congregations there.
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Josenildo's neighborhood is
one of these unentered areas.
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He was known as
a drunk nuisance,
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whose bad habits
disrupted his family life
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and the whole community.
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Arivaldo, an
Adventist lived nearby
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and ran into Josenildo
often on his way to work.
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Arivaldo knew he
was looking for work.
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So he offered him
a construction job
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building churches.
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It didn't take
long for the two of them
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to become friends.
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Arivaldo treated
him with respect,
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which made Josenildo wonder
why he was always so kind.
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Over time, Arivaldo asked
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if he was
interested in Bible studies.
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And the two began
reading the Bible together.
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Before I met Jesus, I
didn't have happiness.
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When I came to know
Jesus, my life was transformed.
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And today for
God's glory, I'm happy.
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My family also was transformed.
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Josenildo was baptized
and changed for the better.
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Even his neighbors took
notice of his transformation.
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When the usual loud music
from his home stopped one day,
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everyone
wondered if he was okay.
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When they checked on him,
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they saw that
Josenildo was a changed man.
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He spoke kindly to them
and treated them respectfully.
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And they wanted to know
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what inspired these
changes in his life.
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Josenildo used this opportunity
to minister to his neighbors.
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Every Friday night, they
gather in his living room
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to talk about their week.
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They bring their concerns,
requests and praises here.
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Josenildo points
them to the Bible,
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showing them a creator
who cares deeply about them.
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There's even
something for the children,
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as Josenildo's daughter leads
an activity in the hallway.
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This group has grown
close, and as a result,
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10 people have already
been baptized this past year,
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and more are
studying for baptism.
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Small groups like this one
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are the core of
church planting in Salvador.
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Small groups
develop into congregations,
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and these congregations
divide into more small groups
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that spread throughout the city.
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Nearly five years ago,
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the church
leadership in Salvador state
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had an ambitious goal
of building 1,000 churches
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in five years.
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They reached their goal,
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and the final
church is being built
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where a new
congregation will worship soon.
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The goal of building
1,000 churches across the state
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isn't just for the
purpose of having new buildings.
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The church buildings represent
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ever growing
congregations of believers
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who like Josenildo
have been changed by Jesus.
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Jesus is good.
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Jesus transforms.
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Just as He transformed my life,
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He can transform anyone's life.
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No matter the
struggle someone may face,
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Jesus has the power
to transform their life,
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and more lives are impacted
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as churches are
planted throughout the world.
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Thank you for
helping us change lives
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by supporting church
planting through Global Mission.
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I'm happy today that
my guest is Mrs. Pham
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who is working here
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for the Adventist
Church in Vietnam.
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Thank you for joining us.
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What do you do
here for the church?
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At the moment,
I'm the publishing
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and health
director of the mission.
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I'm also taking care
of the feeding program.
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Okay, describe what
we see happening here?
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So we have done this
feeding program for 10 years.
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Every Thursday,
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we have some volunteer outside
and from the church member,
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we will come at
seven in the morning
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to cook 200 serving of food,
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and we will give
away to the people
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who live around this area.
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Very nice.
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So how many do
you normally have?
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Is this the normal
number of people you have?
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Two hundred people every week.
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Yeah. So where
do they come from?
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They just live
in this area here?
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I think like
70% live around here
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and then 30% very far.
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Okay.
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So describe what
happens, you start with prayer?
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So we always start with a prayer
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because that's the
message we want them to know.
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We want to let them
know a little bit about God,
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our church, our religion.
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So after the prayer,
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then we will give them the food.
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So for the food we have rice,
some vegetable and the soup.
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And for sure that
it's the vegetarian.
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Yeah. Very, very nice.
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And obviously the
people appreciate it very much.
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Most of, yeah or
lot of them like it
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and even some of them say
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that they have
tried charity food
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in many places in Ho Chi Minh
City that our food is the best.
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That's good. Wonderful.
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So you also care
for the health ministry
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here in Vietnam?
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Yes.
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What sorts of things do you do?
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We have a very limited
about the health ministry.
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We have no SDA doctor
or nurses in the church.
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So no SDA medical doctor,
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so wherever we want
to do a health program,
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I have to ask the doctor
from Penang Adventist Hospital,
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is from the US
trying to help me.
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Thus because of that every year
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we can do like two or
three health programs.
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Yeah, very good.
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And you also care for
the literature ministry.
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Tell me about that?
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In fact, most of
my ministry is for...
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Most of my time is for
the literature evangelist.
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I started to work for
publishing 10 years ago.
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So last year, we
celebrate the 10th anniversary
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of the
publishing work in Vietnam.
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We started very
humble with only two books,
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two really textbook
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and seven
literature evangelists.
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But until now, we have 27 title
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and 60 literature
evangelists around it now.
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So it's a
strong... So 60 people, wow.
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Yeah.
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Now most of them working
in cities, where do they work?
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Half of them work in the
city and half of them are tribe.
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They are working on the
mountain in the village.
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Okay.
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So what sort of
books do they sell?
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At the moment, we
have variety of books.
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So they are selling health book,
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children book
and religious book.
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Can you tell me
a story of someone
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whose life has been touched
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through the literature ministry?
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I want to share
with you a story.
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I have a literature evangelist,
his tribe were working
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in Lang Son province
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and recently he
shared a story with me.
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Last year he went to a
village about other denomination
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and he's selling to a
customer a health book.
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So three months after that,
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the customer
contact him and said,
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"Miss come up,
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I want to know more
about you and your church."
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So my literature evangelist
comes back to that village
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and then get to
know that customer
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and also give Bible study to him
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and give him the
book Great Controversy.
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And so after a few weeks,
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the customer called my
literature evangelist again
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and said, "We found out
the truth about the Sabbath day
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so let's give out
more Bible studies.
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We want to learn from you.
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So he kept following,
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giving Bible
study to his customer
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until December last year 2017,
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that customer with another
two friends was converted
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and became
Seventh-day Adventist.
00:10:04.40\00:10:06.03
Oh, wonderful.
00:10:06.07\00:10:08.07
So these 60
literature evangelists,
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are they working full time?
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We have only 24 full-time
and the rest are part-time.
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Yeah.
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Now, you're telling me earlier
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that your family have
been Seventh-day Adventist
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back a few generations.
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Tell me?
00:10:23.62\00:10:24.95
Yeah, I was born in a family,
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which has four generations
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as Seventh-day
Adventist from my grandparents.
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They are one of
the church pioneers.
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My grandfather was the pastor.
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My mom is the
mission treasurer right now.
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And me and my husband.
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Okay, that's wonderful.
Now, what does your husband do?
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He is a minister,
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ministerial secretary
of the mission right now.
00:10:46.41\00:10:49.38
So when we look at the church
00:10:49.41\00:10:52.35
that we have here in
Vietnam, is it growing?
00:10:52.38\00:10:55.68
It's growing.
00:10:55.72\00:10:57.05
So in the past, we
have only five churches,
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now we have 26 churches.
00:10:59.59\00:11:02.42
And the members
from 7,000 now is 9,000.
00:11:02.46\00:11:05.86
Wonderful.
00:11:05.89\00:11:07.23
So there is a
focus on church planting?
00:11:07.26\00:11:09.70
Yes.
00:11:09.73\00:11:11.07
And we also do
00:11:11.10\00:11:12.53
more evangelistic
meeting than before.
00:11:12.57\00:11:14.90
Every year, we have a
guest speaker from the US,
00:11:14.94\00:11:18.31
Elder Ted
Wilson, he came in 2014.
00:11:18.34\00:11:20.71
And then Pastor
Darren Smith from California,
00:11:20.74\00:11:25.21
he came for two week evangelism.
00:11:25.25\00:11:28.08
And now we have so many pastors
00:11:28.12\00:11:29.45
from the Union Singapore
00:11:29.48\00:11:31.02
came to the
evangelist meeting every year.
00:11:31.05\00:11:32.69
That's great.
00:11:32.72\00:11:34.06
Now I understand next week,
00:11:34.09\00:11:35.42
a new center of
influence will be opened.
00:11:35.46\00:11:37.89
Tell me about that?
00:11:37.93\00:11:39.89
We are very excited
about the opening ceremony
00:11:39.93\00:11:42.86
of the COI in Hanoi.
00:11:42.90\00:11:45.47
We have prayed
for that for so long.
00:11:45.50\00:11:47.60
And we will...
00:11:47.64\00:11:49.97
This is the first
time we have a big building
00:11:50.01\00:11:51.84
in the capital of Vietnam.
00:11:51.87\00:11:53.44
So before we only used
to have a small group of SDA
00:11:53.48\00:11:55.94
in the capital
with only 30 members,
00:11:55.98\00:11:58.68
so we have that with the COI,
00:11:58.71\00:12:01.18
we can have more church
00:12:01.22\00:12:02.55
and then we can
create a big impact
00:12:02.58\00:12:05.72
in the capital of my country.
00:12:05.75\00:12:07.22
Wonderful.
00:12:07.26\00:12:08.59
Thank you so much for
sharing with me today.
00:12:08.62\00:12:11.29
And, viewers at home,
here we are in Vietnam
00:12:11.33\00:12:14.26
in the heart of
the 10/40 Window,
00:12:14.30\00:12:16.50
tremendous challenges,
00:12:16.53\00:12:17.87
but also wonderful
opportunities and next week,
00:12:17.90\00:12:20.97
a new urban center of influence
00:12:21.00\00:12:22.97
being opened right
there in the capital of Hanoi.
00:12:23.00\00:12:26.81
It is a landmark thing
00:12:26.84\00:12:28.51
and hopefully
on future programs,
00:12:28.54\00:12:30.51
we'll be able to share with you
00:12:30.55\00:12:31.98
some of the work of
that center of influence.
00:12:32.01\00:12:34.52
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:12:34.55\00:12:36.35