Welcome back to Accra, Ghana.
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Behind me, you
can see a sea wall
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that was built by slaves.
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And it's symbolic
of a very dark history
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where, along
this coast of Africa
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between the 16th
and 19th century,
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European nations competed
trying to get a foothold
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in the slave trade.
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And it's estimated that
some 12 million human beings
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were taken against their will
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in terrible
conditions across the Atlantic.
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Many of them
Ghanaians and taken into slavery
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mainly in the Americas.
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Well, we want to look
forward with hope to the future
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and we want to talk
about the healing power
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that Jesus can bring.
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And next up,
we're going to travel
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to the country of Thailand
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and visit Chiang Mai.
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I work with a
Global Mission Center
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for East Asian Religions
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and part of our job
is to help the church
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and our church
members understand
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how to be more
effective in reaching out
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to our East Asian
brothers and sisters.
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One of the things
that we've discovered
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is that ministry happens
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in unusual places
and unusual times.
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So it's not always convenient.
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Ellen White
gives us a great quote
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in Ministry of
Healing, page 143,
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which says that
Christ method alone
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gives true success in ministry.
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And His method was
to mingle among people,
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to minister to their
needs, to sympathize with them,
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and we have found in
our own personal ministry,
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that that really is true.
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One of the stories that we have
is the story of our neighbor,
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Uncle Tong Lien.
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He was a great neighbor,
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an elderly man with children
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who were just
passed college age,
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and he adopted our kids
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and they called him grandpa
and they would go to his house
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and eat fruit off
of his fruit trees.
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And we just had a really
nice relationship with him.
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One day we came
home, we passed this house,
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we noticed there
was a large crowd
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gathered outside his house
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and we didn't
know what happened.
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We later found out later,
few minutes later found out
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that he had had a sudden stroke
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and he passed away
quite unexpectedly.
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And the home was just, the
family was just devastated.
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And so we went and we decided,
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the best thing to
do is to participate
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as best we could as Christians.
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And so, Greg had a camera,
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and he volunteered to
be a cameraman for them,
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and just to take pictures,
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and we found that this
was a great opportunity
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for us to learn
about their culture.
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What happens when people die?
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How do they suffer?
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How do they deal with
death in their culture?
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And so we
participated as best we could
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in their funeral service.
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Yeah, you know, it
actually wasn't a good time.
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We had just started an
English language school.
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And that meant that
my life was very busy
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as the director of that school,
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and I didn't have time for this,
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but you know what?
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It was very
important that we make the time
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because in Romans
15, Paul talks about
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how we should weep
with those who weep
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and rejoice with
those who rejoice.
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So ministry and mission
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doesn't come to
us when we're ready.
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We don't do it when we're ready.
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But mission happens
when problems happen.
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That's what the mission is.
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And so here we
had an opportunity.
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What would we do?
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Well, there's many
parts of the funeral
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in the Buddhist religion
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that we were not
comfortable participating in,
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because it's not our religion,
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and it would
divide our allegiances
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and our loyalties to God.
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But we found ways
that we could help.
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So one of the things I did
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even though I had to go
to school during the day,
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in the evening I would come in,
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and I would be a
part of the wake there
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all night long, they
would stay up with the family,
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they would play
poker, they would drink,
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you know, caffeinated
beverages to stay awake
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and all of these things.
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So I went there
to be a part of that
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and to be with them.
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And what I found is that
it was hard to stay awake.
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But being there
was so important,
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the family wanted that
and with those adopt children,
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we would take time.
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And they were playing games
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so I just talked to them
while they're playing the games,
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I didn't know how to play
the games they were playing.
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But at one point I thought,
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you know, I should
bring a game from home.
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So I got some
dominoes and brought those over
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and they're like,
"Oh, wow, what is this?"
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They haven't
played dominoes before.
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So I played it, I
taught them how to play
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and they loved the game.
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And we would play
and do different things.
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One evening, the
village chief came
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and the village chief wanted to,
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you know, be there
to honor the family
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because this man had
been a leader in the village.
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And, but around 2
o'clock in the morning,
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one of the sisters came to me,
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the daughter of this man
who passed away and she said,
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"Greg, do you have
coffee in your house?
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We need to give
him and we ran out."
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And I said, "No, I don't
have any coffee in the house."
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They said, "Okay, well,
we're going to go look and see
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if we can buy some."
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I said, "At 2 am?"
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Everything is shut down by nine,
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there's going to be nothing.
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Well, they went and looked
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and sure enough
15 minutes later,
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they drove in on
a little motorbike
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and they said,
"Oh, there's nothing.
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Are you sure you
don't have coffee?"
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And I said, "Well,
I do have something.
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What did I have?
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I had Roma,
roasted barley type drink,
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no caffeine whatsoever."
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I said, "It won't
help him stay awake."
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They said, "It doesn't
matter. Just let him have that."
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Well, you know, this is,
to make the long story short.
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Over the next few days,
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it was like a five
day funeral process.
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We were there the whole
time, you washed dishes.
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I would wash dishes. I
didn't know how to cook.
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I hardly knew
much of the language.
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There wasn't
much that I could do.
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But I knew how to wash dishes.
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And so I would argue
with them and then sit down
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because they didn't
want a foreigner doing this.
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But I insisted and I
sat down on the little stool
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and washed
dishes and washed dishes
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and washed dishes all day long.
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And then in the evening,
Greg and I would trade places
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I would go home,
put the children to bed,
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go to bed myself
and Greg would stay
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and spend the whole night awake,
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playing dominoes and
visiting with a family.
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They so much
appreciate our time with them.
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But it wasn't, I don't
think two or three months later
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and you got really sick.
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I became very sick
and was hospitalized
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across the border in
the neighboring country.
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And the family
was very, very upset.
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We had become children to them.
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In fact, the mother
had said, "You call me Mum,
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you call me mom now.
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And these are your sisters,
and this is your brother
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and we are your family."
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And when I became
sick and was hospitalized,
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mom was very upset.
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She said she went to
her daughter and said,
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"Amy needs, you must go.
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You have to go."
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And they said, "But we can't,
we don't have a passport."
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She said, "No, you
must go. You have to go."
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Long story short,
they weren't able to come
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but she prayed for me.
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And we found out later that
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she was saying
her Buddhist prayers,
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but she was praying for me.
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We had become family to them,
and we're still family to them.
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And it gave us a
great opportunity
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to be able to share
our religion, our beliefs,
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and our hope that we have
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that Jesus is
coming again with them.
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And it's opened up so
many doors with that family
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and it also served as an
opening into the community
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because we
belong to this family.
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We now belong to that
community and had more influence
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with our neighbors
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and the leadership
in that little village.
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So anytime you
want to make a disciple
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and share Christ with people,
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you have to remember,
we have to make Him real
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by our way we live.
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Jesus is not just a doctrine.
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He's a way of life
and when He transforms us
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people see that
are attracted to Him.
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This is the first step.
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No matter whether
people are Buddhist, or Muslim,
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or what country,
what faith they are,
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we want to be
genuine friends with people.
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If you'd like to learn
more about how you can reach out
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to your neighbors,
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go to
www.globalmissioncenters.org.
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And if you'd
like more information
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on how you can reach
your East Asian friends,
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go to
cear.globalmissioncenters.org.
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God bless.
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Welcome back to Accra,
Ghana, and more specifically,
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to the old castle which
is right on the coastline.
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If you ever missed any
episodes of Mission 360°
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or you want to look
again at some of the interviews
00:07:58.14\00:08:01.11
or some of these short pieces,
00:08:01.14\00:08:03.18
just go to m360.tv
any time of day or night
00:08:03.21\00:08:07.02
and you can catch up.
00:08:07.05\00:08:08.38
Next up, we travel
back to the South Pacific.
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My name is Jovese.
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I had no place to lay my head,
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and I used to come
and sit around in the park
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and no work.
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I go in jail a lot of times.
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And then I met a preacher
preaching God's word around.
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And I just joined them
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but I know I'm just
coming over to feed.
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Oh, I'm so happy.
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I know here is my
place to have dinner
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and lunch and breakfast.
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No more go to jail.
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I got baptized,
and I know God now.
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And I stay away from trouble.
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And I see now my
body is changing,
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my way too is changing.
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I'm not taking
those kinds of things
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that I was taking before.
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So I'm very happy for
God to have people working.
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My name is Vien.
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I've actually got five kids,
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but there's only two
with me at the moment.
00:09:04.57\00:09:07.68
For the past few weeks,
00:09:07.71\00:09:10.08
we've been living
here on the streets,
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staying in the containers
with our street friends there.
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We were told by our friends
that there's a group of people
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that always come and
give out food for free,
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like for breakfast.
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So when we were
sitting on the bench
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and then one of them
brought some tea stuff,
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and they were like really
nice and the lady was asking me
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if everything's okay,
00:09:37.27\00:09:38.61
and then I
couldn't hold my tears
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and I started
crying, you know, like,
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they invited me to
stay back for church
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and we read
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a few Bible verses there
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and did some sharing.
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I haven't been going
to church all these years
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and the guy told
me to read the Bible.
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And then after
reading that, like I just feel
00:10:00.00\00:10:03.20
like there's a big load off me.
00:10:03.23\00:10:05.47
I'm a fisherman.
00:10:11.61\00:10:12.94
You know, I always roamed
around the street before too,
00:10:19.98\00:10:23.75
and I see how difficult
the life in the street,
00:10:23.79\00:10:27.42
and I know how
they hunger every day.
00:10:27.46\00:10:31.96
It's like and mostly
that devil tempted them
00:10:31.99\00:10:35.53
to do bad things.
00:10:35.56\00:10:36.90
And that's why when
I come to this church,
00:10:36.93\00:10:40.34
and I know I must
take care for these people.
00:10:40.37\00:10:44.07
I want to turn their lives,
00:10:44.11\00:10:45.94
they're gonna find
rest in Jesus alone.
00:10:45.97\00:10:49.04
People come and
they call us pastors.
00:10:49.08\00:10:53.52
To them I say, "No,
I'm not ordained pastor.
00:10:53.55\00:10:56.42
I'm just an
ordinary church member
00:10:56.45\00:10:58.62
and we want to come
00:10:58.65\00:11:00.12
and share the love of
Christ to you people."
00:11:00.16\00:11:02.99
We pray for not only
in the cities of Fiji,
00:11:03.02\00:11:05.99
the cities all over the world.
00:11:06.03\00:11:07.60
But if we don't pray for them
00:11:07.63\00:11:10.23
and we do the
mission to the city,
00:11:10.27\00:11:13.23
I think these
people will be lost.
00:11:13.27\00:11:15.17
The church at the park,
00:11:21.11\00:11:23.45
it was established
about three years ago.
00:11:23.48\00:11:26.25
Every week, the
church gives out food
00:11:26.28\00:11:30.29
and reaches out in Bible studies
00:11:30.32\00:11:32.79
and outreach programs,
health, singing ministries,
00:11:32.82\00:11:37.69
and the giving out
of tracks and discs.
00:11:37.73\00:11:40.26
They were transformed
because of the love shown
00:11:40.30\00:11:43.33
by the church members
00:11:43.37\00:11:45.03
who usually visit
them in their homes
00:11:45.07\00:11:47.17
and those live
here, give them food
00:11:47.20\00:11:49.97
and meet their needs,
00:11:50.01\00:11:51.91
just like Jesus
did 2,000 years ago.
00:11:51.94\00:11:55.71
This park is very special.
00:11:55.74\00:11:57.18
It is situated
at the very center
00:11:57.21\00:11:58.91
of the main city.
00:11:58.95\00:12:00.28
This have all sorts of
people, all walks of life,
00:12:00.32\00:12:02.85
many problems
come and meet here.
00:12:02.88\00:12:05.05
Most people have
gone from this place
00:12:05.09\00:12:07.52
refreshed knowing
that there is a God
00:12:07.56\00:12:11.36
who loves them,
00:12:11.39\00:12:12.73
and who is ready to take
care of their everyday needs.
00:12:12.76\00:12:17.83
Well, thanks so
much for joining us today
00:12:29.08\00:12:30.85
on Mission 360°.
00:12:30.88\00:12:32.31
And I hope that
you've enjoyed our 360 degree
00:12:32.35\00:12:34.85
view of mission
around the world.
00:12:34.88\00:12:37.12
And I hope that
you've been inspired,
00:12:37.15\00:12:39.19
but also challenged by
what you've seen and heard.
00:12:39.22\00:12:42.12
Because as we look
around the world today,
00:12:42.16\00:12:43.86
we see that
there are many people
00:12:43.89\00:12:45.53
who have never even
heard the name of Jesus Christ.
00:12:45.56\00:12:48.66
But Jesus talked
about a light set on a hill
00:12:48.70\00:12:51.57
and He Himself is the
light and He has asked us
00:12:51.60\00:12:54.30
to share His light
throughout the world
00:12:54.34\00:12:56.74
to the ends of the earth.
00:12:56.77\00:12:58.11
I want to thank you so much
00:12:58.14\00:12:59.47
for being part of our
Adventist Mission Team
00:12:59.51\00:13:01.58
because every time
you pray for missionaries,
00:13:01.61\00:13:03.71
for Global Mission pioneers,
00:13:03.75\00:13:05.45
every time you give
your mission offerings,
00:13:05.48\00:13:08.22
you give your
donations to Global Mission,
00:13:08.25\00:13:10.29
it does make a difference.
00:13:10.32\00:13:12.85
For Adventist
Mission, I'm Gary Krause.
00:13:12.89\00:13:14.72
And I hope that you
can join me next time,
00:13:14.76\00:13:16.69
right here on Mission 360°.
00:13:16.73\00:13:19.06