Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS002301A
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00:14 A tour of South America, learning more about Buddhism
00:17 and the sights and sounds of Vietnam coming up next. 00:46 Hello and welcome to Mission 360A°. 00:48 I'm Gary Krause. 00:49 We have a terrific program for you today, 00:52 coming to you from Ho Chi Minh City 00:55 in South Vietnam. 00:56 Of course, this used to be called Saigon 00:59 and it played a pivotal role as the capital of South Vietnam 01:03 during the Vietnam War. 01:05 It's built along the Saigon River 01:07 near the Mekong Delta. 01:09 And today many thousands of tourists 01:11 come to visit this very charming city. 01:14 On today's program, 01:15 we'll be learning more about mission in Vietnam. 01:18 But first up, we're going to go to South America. 01:21 South America, of course, is a very diverse territory. 01:25 And we have more than 2 million members in that area. 01:29 And it is a division that is very focused 01:31 on church planting and on urban mission. 01:34 Many, many centers of influence, 01:36 starting throughout South America. 01:38 So let's travel there now. 01:51 Salvador is known throughout Brazil for having a vibrant, 01:54 unique culture. 01:55 It boasts the fourth largest population of Brazil 01:58 with almost 3 million people. 02:00 The Adventist Church has experienced 02:02 significant growth here, 02:04 with churches scattered throughout Salvador. 02:07 Despite the strong Adventist presence, 02:09 there are still unentered areas of the city. 02:12 Global Mission is working to identify areas 02:14 with no Adventist presence 02:17 and establish new congregations there. 02:21 Josenildo's neighborhood is one of these unentered areas. 02:25 He was known as a drunk nuisance, 02:27 whose bad habits disrupted his family life 02:30 and the whole community. 02:38 Arivaldo, an Adventist lived nearby 02:41 and ran into Josenildo often on his way to work. 02:45 Arivaldo knew he was looking for work. 02:47 So he offered him a construction job 02:50 building churches. 02:51 It didn't take long for the two of them 02:53 to become friends. 02:54 Arivaldo treated him with respect, 02:57 which made Josenildo wonder why he was always so kind. 03:01 Over time, Arivaldo asked 03:03 if he was interested in Bible studies. 03:05 And the two began reading the Bible together. 03:13 Before I met Jesus, I didn't have happiness. 03:17 When I came to know Jesus, my life was transformed. 03:21 And today for God's glory, I'm happy. 03:25 My family also was transformed. 03:29 Josenildo was baptized and changed for the better. 03:33 Even his neighbors took notice of his transformation. 03:35 When the usual loud music from his home stopped one day, 03:39 everyone wondered if he was okay. 03:42 When they checked on him, 03:43 they saw that Josenildo was a changed man. 03:46 He spoke kindly to them and treated them respectfully. 03:49 And they wanted to know 03:50 what inspired these changes in his life. 03:53 Josenildo used this opportunity to minister to his neighbors. 04:04 Every Friday night, they gather in his living room 04:07 to talk about their week. 04:09 They bring their concerns, requests and praises here. 04:13 Josenildo points them to the Bible, 04:15 showing them a creator who cares deeply about them. 04:19 There's even something for the children, 04:21 as Josenildo's daughter leads an activity in the hallway. 04:31 This group has grown close, and as a result, 04:34 10 people have already been baptized this past year, 04:37 and more are studying for baptism. 04:40 Small groups like this one 04:41 are the core of church planting in Salvador. 04:44 Small groups develop into congregations, 04:47 and these congregations divide into more small groups 04:50 that spread throughout the city. 04:54 Nearly five years ago, 04:55 the church leadership in Salvador state 04:57 had an ambitious goal of building 1,000 churches 05:00 in five years. 05:01 They reached their goal, 05:03 and the final church is being built 05:05 where a new congregation will worship soon. 05:08 The goal of building 1,000 churches across the state 05:11 isn't just for the purpose of having new buildings. 05:13 The church buildings represent 05:15 ever growing congregations of believers 05:18 who like Josenildo have been changed by Jesus. 05:23 Jesus is good. 05:25 Jesus transforms. 05:27 Just as He transformed my life, 05:30 He can transform anyone's life. 05:33 No matter the struggle someone may face, 05:36 Jesus has the power to transform their life, 05:39 and more lives are impacted 05:41 as churches are planted throughout the world. 05:44 Thank you for helping us change lives 05:47 by supporting church planting through Global Mission. 05:53 I'm happy today that my guest is Mrs. Pham 05:55 who is working here 05:57 for the Adventist Church in Vietnam. 06:00 Thank you for joining us. 06:01 What do you do here for the church? 06:04 At the moment, I'm the publishing 06:06 and health director of the mission. 06:07 I'm also taking care of the feeding program. 06:10 Okay, describe what we see happening here? 06:13 So we have done this feeding program for 10 years. 06:17 Every Thursday, 06:19 we have some volunteer outside and from the church member, 06:22 we will come at seven in the morning 06:24 to cook 200 serving of food, 06:27 and we will give away to the people 06:30 who live around this area. 06:32 Very nice. 06:33 So how many do you normally have? 06:34 Is this the normal number of people you have? 06:39 Two hundred people every week. 06:40 Yeah. So where do they come from? 06:43 They just live in this area here? 06:45 I think like 70% live around here 06:47 and then 30% very far. 06:49 Okay. 06:51 So describe what happens, you start with prayer? 06:54 So we always start with a prayer 06:56 because that's the message we want them to know. 06:59 We want to let them know a little bit about God, 07:02 our church, our religion. 07:04 So after the prayer, 07:06 then we will give them the food. 07:09 So for the food we have rice, some vegetable and the soup. 07:13 And for sure that it's the vegetarian. 07:16 Yeah. Very, very nice. 07:18 And obviously the people appreciate it very much. 07:23 Most of, yeah or lot of them like it 07:25 and even some of them say 07:27 that they have tried charity food 07:29 in many places in Ho Chi Minh City that our food is the best. 07:32 That's good. Wonderful. 07:34 So you also care for the health ministry 07:37 here in Vietnam? 07:38 Yes. 07:39 What sorts of things do you do? 07:43 We have a very limited about the health ministry. 07:47 We have no SDA doctor or nurses in the church. 07:51 So no SDA medical doctor, 07:53 so wherever we want to do a health program, 07:55 I have to ask the doctor from Penang Adventist Hospital, 07:58 is from the US trying to help me. 08:01 Thus because of that every year 08:03 we can do like two or three health programs. 08:06 Yeah, very good. 08:08 And you also care for the literature ministry. 08:11 Tell me about that? 08:14 In fact, most of my ministry is for... 08:16 Most of my time is for the literature evangelist. 08:19 I started to work for publishing 10 years ago. 08:22 So last year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary 08:24 of the publishing work in Vietnam. 08:25 We started very humble with only two books, 08:28 two really textbook 08:30 and seven literature evangelists. 08:32 But until now, we have 27 title 08:35 and 60 literature evangelists around it now. 08:38 So it's a strong... So 60 people, wow. 08:39 Yeah. 08:40 Now most of them working in cities, where do they work? 08:45 Half of them work in the city and half of them are tribe. 08:47 They are working on the mountain in the village. 08:49 Okay. 08:51 So what sort of books do they sell? 08:55 At the moment, we have variety of books. 08:57 So they are selling health book, 08:59 children book and religious book. 09:01 Can you tell me a story of someone 09:02 whose life has been touched 09:04 through the literature ministry? 09:08 I want to share with you a story. 09:09 I have a literature evangelist, his tribe were working 09:11 in Lang Son province 09:13 and recently he shared a story with me. 09:16 Last year he went to a village about other denomination 09:19 and he's selling to a customer a health book. 09:23 So three months after that, 09:24 the customer contact him and said, 09:28 "Miss come up, 09:29 I want to know more about you and your church." 09:32 So my literature evangelist comes back to that village 09:35 and then get to know that customer 09:38 and also give Bible study to him 09:39 and give him the book Great Controversy. 09:41 And so after a few weeks, 09:43 the customer called my literature evangelist again 09:46 and said, "We found out the truth about the Sabbath day 09:49 so let's give out more Bible studies. 09:51 We want to learn from you. 09:52 So he kept following, 09:55 giving Bible study to his customer 09:57 until December last year 2017, 10:00 that customer with another two friends was converted 10:04 and became Seventh-day Adventist. 10:06 Oh, wonderful. 10:08 So these 60 literature evangelists, 10:10 are they working full time? 10:13 We have only 24 full-time and the rest are part-time. 10:16 Yeah. 10:17 Now, you're telling me earlier 10:19 that your family have been Seventh-day Adventist 10:22 back a few generations. 10:23 Tell me? 10:24 Yeah, I was born in a family, 10:27 which has four generations 10:29 as Seventh-day Adventist from my grandparents. 10:33 They are one of the church pioneers. 10:35 My grandfather was the pastor. 10:38 My mom is the mission treasurer right now. 10:40 And me and my husband. 10:42 Okay, that's wonderful. Now, what does your husband do? 10:45 He is a minister, 10:46 ministerial secretary of the mission right now. 10:49 So when we look at the church 10:52 that we have here in Vietnam, is it growing? 10:55 It's growing. 10:57 So in the past, we have only five churches, 10:59 now we have 26 churches. 11:02 And the members from 7,000 now is 9,000. 11:05 Wonderful. 11:07 So there is a focus on church planting? 11:09 Yes. 11:11 And we also do 11:12 more evangelistic meeting than before. 11:14 Every year, we have a guest speaker from the US, 11:18 Elder Ted Wilson, he came in 2014. 11:20 And then Pastor Darren Smith from California, 11:25 he came for two week evangelism. 11:28 And now we have so many pastors 11:29 from the Union Singapore 11:31 came to the evangelist meeting every year. 11:32 That's great. 11:34 Now I understand next week, 11:35 a new center of influence will be opened. 11:37 Tell me about that? 11:39 We are very excited about the opening ceremony 11:42 of the COI in Hanoi. 11:45 We have prayed for that for so long. 11:47 And we will... 11:50 This is the first time we have a big building 11:51 in the capital of Vietnam. 11:53 So before we only used to have a small group of SDA 11:55 in the capital with only 30 members, 11:58 so we have that with the COI, 12:01 we can have more church 12:02 and then we can create a big impact 12:05 in the capital of my country. 12:07 Wonderful. 12:08 Thank you so much for sharing with me today. 12:11 And, viewers at home, here we are in Vietnam 12:14 in the heart of the 10/40 Window, 12:16 tremendous challenges, 12:17 but also wonderful opportunities and next week, 12:21 a new urban center of influence 12:23 being opened right there in the capital of Hanoi. 12:26 It is a landmark thing 12:28 and hopefully on future programs, 12:30 we'll be able to share with you 12:32 some of the work of that center of influence. 12:34 We'll be right back after this break. |
Revised 2020-04-14