Riding in the tuk-tuk
is one of the best ways
00:00:08.97\00:00:11.87
to experience the
sights and the sounds
00:00:11.91\00:00:14.38
and the smells of the city.
00:00:14.41\00:00:16.24
Here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,
00:00:16.28\00:00:19.01
this is one of the most
economical means of transport
00:00:19.05\00:00:21.68
and if you find
yourself in Cambodia,
00:00:21.72\00:00:24.19
you'll probably find
yourself hitching a ride
00:00:24.22\00:00:26.29
in a tuk-tuk
several times a day.
00:00:26.32\00:00:28.02
Well, unfortunately,
00:00:28.06\00:00:29.39
we can't travel by
tuk-tuk to our next destination,
00:00:29.42\00:00:31.96
which is a native
school in Alberta, Canada.
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I'm Rick Kajiura
for Adventist Mission
00:00:50.71\00:00:52.55
and we're here in Canada,
00:00:52.58\00:00:54.78
but I'm not gonna
tell you where it's just
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'cause I'm gonna let
our guest tell you that.
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I'm here with Gail Wilton
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who is the principal
here at a unique school.
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Where are we exactly
00:01:04.46\00:01:05.79
and what's the
name of the school?
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We are in Central Alberta.
00:01:07.66\00:01:09.66
We're halfway basically
between Edmonton and Calgary
00:01:09.70\00:01:13.70
in the Ponoka County just
off the Maskwacis Reserve.
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And the name of our school is
Mamawi Atosketan Native School.
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Mamawi Atosketan in
the Cree language means
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working together.
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Working together, I like that.
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And I'm really glad I
let you say all those words.
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But this school, okay,
you said it's a native school,
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that's also Seventh-day
Adventist run school.
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What exactly does the school
do here in this community?
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Well, we're
actually a mission school
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and so we are just off reserve.
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Like you said we are funded.
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We are supported
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by the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Canada
00:01:48.04\00:01:50.31
in our local conference
here, the Alberta Conference.
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We are all First
Nations so all of our students
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come from the
local reserves here.
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There are four reserves
in this area that we service.
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We have the Samson, Ermineskin,
Louis Bull, and Montana bands.
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And so our children
come from all of those areas.
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We bus them in every day,
bus them home every afternoon.
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We are a mission school,
we do not charge any tuition.
00:02:12.76\00:02:16.90
We have a
breakfast and a lunch program
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at no cost to the
children or their families.
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The funding that we do get,
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though it's not
provincial funding,
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it's actually federal funding.
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That's where all
the First Nations
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funding comes from, is
the federal government.
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But here at our
school, our goal to work
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with these
children and introduce them,
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bring them to
Christ, and help them
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get their
education along the way
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so they can be productive
members of their society,
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become our future
leaders of our country.
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So how do you
promote the school?
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How do you get students?
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Is it difficult to get students?
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Well, we used to advertise
in the neighboring communities,
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but that kind of got
a little ahead of us.
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We can't keep up
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with the demand
when we advertise.
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So primarily, the students
that we have are students
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that we've had
for quite some time,
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or they're related to
students who attend here,
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or word of mouth basically
is how our school is growing.
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In the last eight years,
we've grown from 132 students
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this year were 208.
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And we are full. We are full.
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That's a good problem to
have, but you are expanding
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because you do have
a waiting list, right?
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That's correct.
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We have a
waiting list every year.
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We have students
that want to come
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and join our
school, but unfortunately,
00:03:33.34\00:03:34.78
we just don't have
the space to do that.
00:03:34.81\00:03:36.75
So right now we have
six of our classrooms
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that are in portables
in external classrooms
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outside of the main building,
00:03:43.39\00:03:44.72
we just don't
have space for them,
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but we are in the
midst of a building project.
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And that new
school that is being built
00:03:48.39\00:03:51.66
will be for our
7th to 12th graders.
00:03:51.69\00:03:54.36
And the current
building then will be used
00:03:54.40\00:03:56.06
just for the kindergarten
through to grade six.
00:03:56.10\00:03:58.47
So what grades do
you have up to now?
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Do you have up to 12? We do.
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We're kindergarten
all the way through to 12.
00:04:01.47\00:04:03.57
They're in these
small sort of out buildings,
00:04:03.61\00:04:06.64
external buildings.
00:04:06.68\00:04:08.01
I don't know if
everybody around the world
00:04:08.04\00:04:09.38
knows what portables
are, they are buildings that
00:04:09.41\00:04:10.91
you just sort of set up
that are usually supposed to be
00:04:10.95\00:04:12.85
somewhat temporary.
00:04:12.88\00:04:14.22
They're.
00:04:14.25\00:04:15.58
They're trailers
that we brought in
00:04:15.62\00:04:16.95
that have a classroom
and a bathroom basically.
00:04:16.99\00:04:20.29
And then anytime they wanna come
00:04:20.32\00:04:21.66
into the main building,
00:04:21.69\00:04:23.02
they have to run
through the Alberta winter.
00:04:23.06\00:04:24.39
That's right.
00:04:24.43\00:04:25.76
They have to come
through rain, sleet, snow,
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fog whatever it is that day.
00:04:27.16\00:04:28.50
Just for some
people that don't know
00:04:28.53\00:04:29.86
how cold it gets
in an Alberta winter,
00:04:29.90\00:04:31.27
how cold can it get?
00:04:31.30\00:04:32.63
Well, we close school
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when the wind
chill hits minus 40.
00:04:34.27\00:04:36.67
Minus 40
Celsius. Minus 40 Celsius.
00:04:36.71\00:04:39.97
Okay, that's
pretty cold. That is cold.
00:04:40.01\00:04:43.01
Okay, so then you
got a number of students
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and you've been
here a number of years.
00:04:45.85\00:04:47.18
Is there a story you
can share about one student
00:04:47.22\00:04:49.25
maybe that's really touched?
00:04:49.28\00:04:50.79
Sure. Sure.
00:04:50.82\00:04:52.15
And this is one that
I've shared several times,
00:04:52.19\00:04:54.16
but it is one that's
very close to my heart.
00:04:54.19\00:04:56.83
When I first
started here 14 years ago,
00:04:56.86\00:05:00.90
I was working
00:05:00.93\00:05:02.26
with a
classroom full of students
00:05:02.30\00:05:04.17
who were much older
than the grade level
00:05:04.20\00:05:05.87
they should have been in.
00:05:05.90\00:05:07.80
This one particular
student in sixth grade,
00:05:07.84\00:05:12.07
she just didn't
wanna have anything to do
00:05:12.11\00:05:13.58
with a new teacher coming in.
00:05:13.61\00:05:14.94
She ruled that class,
00:05:14.98\00:05:16.71
I did not have
too much management
00:05:16.75\00:05:18.41
on that class.
00:05:18.45\00:05:20.28
And so, if I said
something needed to be done,
00:05:20.32\00:05:22.82
she went totally against me.
00:05:22.85\00:05:24.69
And this happened
day after day after day,
00:05:24.72\00:05:27.52
but one of the things
that I always did in my class
00:05:27.56\00:05:29.69
was every morning when
I had worship with them,
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I would start off with
a little spiritual talk,
00:05:32.13\00:05:34.93
and then I'd
pray with my students.
00:05:34.96\00:05:36.83
So I would always ask them,
00:05:36.87\00:05:38.43
fold their
hands, close their eyes,
00:05:38.47\00:05:41.20
bow their head,
and understand that
00:05:41.24\00:05:44.57
a lot of them come
from and we're living in
00:05:44.61\00:05:46.84
some very difficult situations.
00:05:46.88\00:05:48.38
So the whole closing your eyes
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and being
vulnerable was a big situation.
00:05:49.98\00:05:52.88
So it was very hard to get that,
00:05:52.91\00:05:55.58
but I would pray
anyway even though
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that I wasn't necessarily
getting them all on board.
00:05:57.59\00:06:01.42
And every day I would ask them,
00:06:01.46\00:06:03.32
is there anybody
who would like to pray
00:06:03.36\00:06:05.09
or like me to pray for them?
00:06:05.13\00:06:07.00
But I never got a response.
00:06:07.03\00:06:08.63
Well, we were
several months into the year.
00:06:08.66\00:06:10.97
And again in the morning,
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I asked if there's
anybody who would like to pray.
00:06:12.37\00:06:14.90
And this young girl
who had previously been
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so much against everything
I had to do to the point
00:06:18.87\00:06:21.21
that she'd
actually picked up chairs
00:06:21.24\00:06:22.61
and threw them in my direction.
00:06:22.64\00:06:24.51
I am not gonna follow.
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I am not gonna be a part
of what's happening in here.
00:06:25.91\00:06:29.25
One morning, she
said, "I'll pray."
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And I was shocked.
00:06:31.79\00:06:33.12
I really did not expect
this especially to come from her
00:06:33.15\00:06:35.76
because she was a
very strong leader
00:06:35.79\00:06:38.06
in the classroom,
00:06:38.09\00:06:39.43
but not
necessarily a positive one.
00:06:39.46\00:06:41.66
And so I said,
"Okay, well, you can pray."
00:06:41.70\00:06:45.47
And she did what I did
every morning and she said,
00:06:45.50\00:06:48.27
"I need everybody
to fold your hands,
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bow your heads,
and close your eyes."
00:06:50.54\00:06:51.91
And everybody did.
They all listened to her.
00:06:51.94\00:06:54.44
They all did.
00:06:54.48\00:06:55.81
And when she
had everybody there,
00:06:55.84\00:06:57.35
you know, eyes
closed, heads bowed.
00:06:57.38\00:07:00.35
She put her head
back up and she said,
00:07:00.38\00:07:01.75
"I don't know what to say."
00:07:01.78\00:07:03.72
And I said, "Well,
Jesus is your friend,
00:07:03.75\00:07:06.35
talk to Him like you're
talking to your best friend."
00:07:06.39\00:07:09.22
She said, "Okay."
00:07:09.26\00:07:10.59
And so she
closed her eyes again,
00:07:10.63\00:07:12.09
bowed her head.
00:07:12.13\00:07:13.46
And I don't remember everything
that she said in the prayer,
00:07:13.50\00:07:16.26
but I do remember that
there were a few chas in there.
00:07:16.30\00:07:19.77
And in this area
cha means just kidding.
00:07:19.80\00:07:22.04
And you say those kinds
of things to your friends,
00:07:22.07\00:07:23.94
when you're just horsing around
and whatever you say, cha.
00:07:23.97\00:07:26.94
I remember in that prayer,
00:07:26.98\00:07:28.31
she was talking to Jesus
00:07:28.34\00:07:29.84
that she said cha several times.
00:07:29.88\00:07:32.11
It's just like, wow,
00:07:32.15\00:07:33.92
this is as if she
was talking to a friend.
00:07:33.95\00:07:36.42
And when she was
done, she said, "Amen."
00:07:36.45\00:07:38.19
Everybody went back
to what they were doing,
00:07:38.22\00:07:39.92
like nothing out of
the ordinary happened.
00:07:39.95\00:07:42.06
And my heart is
just pounding on my chest
00:07:42.09\00:07:44.23
and I'm just wanting to
tear up because this young girl
00:07:44.26\00:07:47.53
who had been so hardened inside,
00:07:47.56\00:07:50.53
she just found a new friend.
00:07:50.57\00:07:52.23
Wow, what a tremendous story.
00:07:52.27\00:07:53.64
You guys really are making
00:07:53.67\00:07:55.00
a difference here
in this community.
00:07:55.04\00:07:57.47
And for those of
you who are watching,
00:07:57.51\00:07:59.11
please remember to pray
00:07:59.14\00:08:00.74
for the Mamawi
Atosketan Native School
00:08:00.78\00:08:03.65
here in Alberta, Canada.
00:08:03.68\00:08:05.58
And thank you for
all you do for mission.
00:08:05.61\00:08:08.28
All the
stories, all the episodes
00:08:08.32\00:08:10.25
that you see of Mission
360 are stored at m360.tv
00:08:10.29\00:08:15.42
That's m360.tv So
if you wanna catch up
00:08:15.46\00:08:18.66
on a story you missed,
or an episode you missed,
00:08:18.69\00:08:21.16
just go to m360.tv Next
up, we traveled to Puerto Rico.
00:08:21.20\00:08:26.07
When we think about
impacting lives for Jesus,
00:08:32.14\00:08:35.28
we don't usually think of doing
00:08:35.31\00:08:36.64
so while riding a
bicycle, but in Puerto Rico,
00:08:36.68\00:08:39.75
this is exactly
what some creative
00:08:39.78\00:08:41.78
Seventh-day Adventists
are doing to share the gospel.
00:08:41.82\00:08:46.19
A group of students, teachers,
00:08:46.22\00:08:48.06
and pastors from
Antillean Adventist University
00:08:48.09\00:08:51.26
wanted to start
a mission project.
00:08:51.29\00:08:53.23
They decided to
launch a cycling ministry
00:08:53.26\00:08:55.46
to emphasize healthy
living and good friendships.
00:08:55.50\00:08:58.83
The group of
cyclists meets monthly
00:08:58.87\00:09:01.00
and pedals around
the entire island.
00:09:01.04\00:09:05.97
We ride around the
island of Puerto Rico,
00:09:06.01\00:09:08.18
which is an island of
about 100 miles by 35 miles.
00:09:08.21\00:09:13.01
So we ride about
285 miles in three days.
00:09:13.05\00:09:17.55
And this tells the public
that as an Adventist Church,
00:09:17.59\00:09:21.82
we're concerned about
the health of the people
00:09:21.86\00:09:23.69
who are here in Puerto Rico.
00:09:23.73\00:09:28.56
Although the health
emphasis is a major component,
00:09:28.60\00:09:31.50
it's not this
ministry's only focus.
00:09:31.53\00:09:34.17
Everyone in the
community is welcome to join
00:09:34.20\00:09:36.30
the group allowing
the Adventist cyclists
00:09:36.34\00:09:38.77
to create bonds with people
from different backgrounds.
00:09:38.81\00:09:42.08
During the ride,
00:09:42.11\00:09:43.45
they enjoy a special
moment they call Oasis,
00:09:43.48\00:09:46.48
a moment to
rest, eat, rehydrate,
00:09:46.51\00:09:49.88
and pray together.
00:09:49.92\00:09:53.29
And while we
ride, we meet people
00:09:53.32\00:09:54.92
who are in a divorce,
00:09:54.96\00:09:56.93
people who are losing their job,
00:09:56.96\00:09:58.49
or who are wanting to
hear the hope of Jesus.
00:09:58.53\00:10:03.30
It's a great opportunity to
spend three days with people
00:10:03.33\00:10:05.63
whom we don't know,
but they become our family.
00:10:05.67\00:10:10.31
German is retired
from the US military.
00:10:10.34\00:10:13.38
He served in various
places around the world,
00:10:13.41\00:10:16.04
but his
experiences brought physical
00:10:16.08\00:10:18.15
and emotional problems
00:10:18.18\00:10:19.51
that he had
difficulty resolving.
00:10:19.55\00:10:21.75
His doctors recommended
00:10:21.78\00:10:23.12
that he participate in
regular physical activity.
00:10:23.15\00:10:27.12
Even though he
wasn't an Adventist,
00:10:27.16\00:10:29.19
German joined the
group of Adventist cyclist
00:10:29.22\00:10:31.86
and they welcomed
him with great joy.
00:10:31.89\00:10:34.76
After several months
of cycling with them,
00:10:34.80\00:10:36.97
German not only experienced
00:10:37.00\00:10:38.83
significant
improvement in his health,
00:10:38.87\00:10:41.10
but he also had the opportunity
00:10:41.14\00:10:42.64
to witness his new
friend's sincere love.
00:10:42.67\00:10:46.04
By their influence,
he decided to be baptized
00:10:46.07\00:10:49.44
into the local Adventist Church.
00:10:49.48\00:10:53.68
For me, it was a support.
00:10:53.72\00:10:57.05
I see their mission
00:10:57.09\00:10:58.79
and I'm proud to
be part of this group,
00:10:58.82\00:11:01.52
to give myself motivation
00:11:01.56\00:11:03.99
to understand that
health is important.
00:11:04.03\00:11:06.46
But there's also
the spiritual part,
00:11:13.84\00:11:16.81
which is even more important.
00:11:16.84\00:11:19.67
Jesus calls each of us
to find unconventional ways
00:11:19.71\00:11:23.08
to share His love.
00:11:23.11\00:11:24.91
There are many ways
to mingle with people
00:11:24.95\00:11:27.42
like riding a bicycle.
00:11:27.45\00:11:31.52
Maybe I'm not a minister,
00:11:31.55\00:11:33.22
but I feel that with
what I have in my hands,
00:11:33.25\00:11:35.72
I can help other
people know Jesus.
00:11:35.76\00:11:41.50
My plan is to be physically
prepared to ride the bike
00:11:41.53\00:11:44.17
and talk about
Jesus for three days.
00:11:44.20\00:11:48.17
Who is Jesus?
00:11:48.20\00:11:50.21
A Jesus who
wants to see us happy,
00:11:50.24\00:11:52.54
a Jesus who
wants us to be healthy,
00:11:52.57\00:11:54.44
and a Jesus who
likes to make friends
00:11:54.48\00:11:56.51
with those who don't know Him.
00:11:56.54\00:11:59.68
Please pray for the ministry
00:11:59.71\00:12:01.05
of the Adventist
cyclists in Puerto Rico
00:12:01.08\00:12:03.55
and consider how
you can share Jesus
00:12:03.59\00:12:05.39
in unique ways where you are.
00:12:05.42\00:12:07.82
Thank you for
supporting mission.
00:12:07.86\00:12:10.49
Well, that's about
it for today's program,
00:12:24.67\00:12:26.47
and I hope that
you've been inspired
00:12:26.51\00:12:28.61
and challenged by our 360 degree
00:12:28.64\00:12:31.15
view of mission
around the world.
00:12:31.18\00:12:33.65
Church planters in India,
00:12:33.68\00:12:35.92
people sharing their
faith in Puerto Rico,
00:12:35.95\00:12:38.42
the challenges
of the 10/40 Window,
00:12:38.45\00:12:40.29
we see so much
happening around the world.
00:12:40.32\00:12:42.92
Of course, huge
challenges still remain.
00:12:42.96\00:12:44.89
And I wanna thank you so much
00:12:44.93\00:12:47.06
for your
continuing participation
00:12:47.10\00:12:49.60
as a part of Adventist Mission
00:12:49.63\00:12:51.03
because we consider
you to be part of our team
00:12:51.07\00:12:54.40
because every time that
you pray for missionaries
00:12:54.44\00:12:56.47
for Global Mission pioneers
for urban centers of influence,
00:12:56.50\00:13:00.44
you are praying for mission
and you're making a difference
00:13:00.48\00:13:03.38
in the lives of
people around the world.
00:13:03.41\00:13:05.31
And every time that
00:13:05.35\00:13:06.68
you give your mission offerings,
00:13:06.72\00:13:08.05
every time that you
donate to Global Mission,
00:13:08.08\00:13:10.15
you are helping new
church work around the world.
00:13:10.19\00:13:13.46
And there are many, many people,
00:13:13.49\00:13:14.92
many thousands of
people who are coming to know
00:13:14.96\00:13:17.63
Jesus Christ as their Savior.
00:13:17.66\00:13:19.79
Well, for Adventist
Mission, I'm Gary Krause.
00:13:19.83\00:13:22.06
And I hope that you
can join me next time,
00:13:22.10\00:13:24.17
right here on Mission 360.
00:13:24.20\00:13:26.30