Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS002404A
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00:08 A 10-year old boy in the Solomon Islands
00:10 gives up video games to plant a church. 00:13 A young girl in Brazil gives up her birthday cake 00:16 to feed the homeless, 00:18 and a modern-day miracle in India. 00:20 All that and much more coming up next. 00:51 Hello and welcome to Mission 360, 00:53 coming to you today from San Francisco, 00:56 in California, in the United States. 00:59 Around the turn of the century, 01:00 from the 1800s to the 1900s, 01:03 there were several urban centers of influence 01:06 operating right here in San Francisco. 01:08 So many in fact 01:10 that Ellen White referred to this city as a beehive, 01:12 was a beehive of mission activity. 01:16 Behind me, you can see 01:17 the location for the Adventist Church 01:20 and a school at the time. 01:22 And there was a vision to start a center of influence 01:24 in the basement of the church. 01:27 And the vision was for it to be a clinic, 01:29 treatment rooms, 01:30 basically to help the poor and the homeless in the area. 01:34 There were many, many Adventists 01:35 who sacrificed and donated money 01:38 for this project. 01:39 But among them was a group of young people, 01:42 a self-denial society 01:45 who put their coins together 01:47 so that they could help this center. 01:49 And the Pacific Union Recorder at the time recorded this. 01:53 It said, 01:54 "The young people of San Francisco 01:56 and Oakland have voted to establish 01:58 a self-denial fund to take the money 02:01 that young people so often spend for candy, 02:05 chewing gum, ice-cream, 02:07 and other things more or less harmful to health 02:10 and with this money, 02:11 create a self-denial fund 02:13 to help in the establishment of the dispensary. 02:17 Who will join us in this grand work?" 02:21 What a wonderful project and what a wonderful thing 02:23 that children and young people 02:25 were involved in mission back then. 02:27 And today they are also involved 02:29 in mission in very, very practical ways. 02:32 First up, we're going to travel to the Solomon Islands 02:35 to visit a young boy who's given up something 02:39 so that he can start a new group of believers. 02:44 Ten-year old Joe watched movies and played video games 02:48 with friends at his home in the Solomon Islands. 02:50 But he wasn't happy. 02:52 Joe's family lived in a poor neighborhood 02:54 in the South Pacific country's capital, Honiara. 02:57 Neighbors sold illegal drugs 02:59 and children stole and got into trouble 03:01 with the police. 03:03 Joe's house was a popular place for neighborhood boys 03:06 to hang out every evening. 03:07 He noticed that one of his friends 03:09 didn't talk like the other boys 03:11 and participated in something 03:12 called a Pathfinder club every Sabbath. 03:15 Joe decided to join his friend 03:16 at the Seventh-day Adventist Church 03:18 to learn more. 03:19 Soon he joined the Pathfinders as well 03:22 and went to church every Sabbath. 03:24 After a while Joe and the other Pathfinders 03:26 were invited to fly to Australia 03:28 to attend a Camporee for Pathfinders 03:30 from all over the South Pacific division. 03:33 He really wanted to go, 03:34 so mom worked hard to save money 03:36 for his plane ticket. 03:37 When mom was finally able to buy 03:39 his ticket, 03:40 Joe flew to the Camporee and enjoyed every second of it. 03:44 When Joe returned home 03:45 and the neighborhood boys came over that evening, 03:47 he told stories from the Camporee. 03:49 The boys loved the story, 03:50 so they asked to hear more the next evening. 03:53 Then Joe thought to himself, 03:55 my friends like to hear about Pathfinders, 03:57 why not tell them about Jesus too. 04:00 So each evening when his friends came over, 04:03 Joe kept telling them stories from the Pathfinder Camporee, 04:06 but also began to share stories from the Bible. 04:09 Joe's friends enjoyed his stories so much 04:12 that they invited other boys from the neighborhood 04:14 to come hear them too. 04:15 Soon 30 to 40 boys came to Joe's house 04:19 every evening to learn more about Jesus. 04:22 Although mom didn't have much money, 04:23 she began to cook food for the children to eat 04:26 after story time. 04:27 She somehow always had enough food for everyone. 04:31 Joe's new friends began to ask him 04:33 if they could join Pathfinders 04:35 and four joined him at church the next Sabbath. 04:37 More of his friends came to church 04:39 the following week. 04:40 The Pathfinder leader couldn't understand 04:42 where all these children were coming from. 04:44 "Joe, why are so many kids from your neighborhood 04:47 coming to Pathfinder club?" 04:48 He asked, "What did you do?" 04:51 "I didn't do anything," 04:52 Joe replied. 04:53 "I just tell them stories about what we did in Australia 04:56 and we have evening devotions. 04:57 That's all." 04:58 The leader asked to visit Joe's home 05:00 to see the evening get-togethers 05:02 for himself. 05:03 When he came that evening, he was amazed at what he saw. 05:08 Afterward he said to Mom, 05:10 "This neighborhood would be a good place to open a church." 05:14 He noticed that Joe's house had 05:15 a large, unfinished living room that no one used 05:18 and asked if it could be used for Sabbath worship. 05:20 Mom agreed. 05:22 Several dozen neighborhood children 05:23 came to Joe's house for church the next Sabbath. 05:26 All the Pathfinder leaders and their families came as well 05:29 and they brought food for everyone. 05:32 Then something happened that made Joe very happy, 05:34 Mom decided to be baptized, not long 05:37 after his 20-year-old cousin was baptized too 05:41 and so were three of his neighborhood friends 05:43 whom Joe had introduced to Pathfinders. 05:45 Today, Joe's living room is packed every Sabbath 05:48 with about 70 people 05:50 and plans are underway to open a permanent church 05:53 in the neighborhood. 05:58 Now, Joe is 13 years old, 06:00 he's humble in appearance and speech. 06:03 But no one doubts 06:04 that God is using him in a powerful way. 06:07 "I may be small, 06:09 but in God's hands I can grow a church." 06:13 Like Joe, you too can help grow God's Church 06:16 as you share Jesus with your friends and family. 06:20 My guest here in San Francisco is Cindy Chamberlin. 06:23 And she is the Vice President for Communication 06:25 for the Central California Conference 06:28 of Seventh-day Adventists. 06:29 That's a mouthful. 06:30 Thanks for joining us, Cindy. Sure. 06:32 What is the role of a VP for Communication? 06:36 Well, I think the better question would be 06:38 what isn't the role of a VP Communication. 06:41 All right. 06:43 It's a smaller answer, shorter answer. 06:44 Shorter answer. 06:46 In a nutshell, I protect the conference's image 06:49 with litigation matters. 06:51 I also do PR 06:53 plan our beloved so-called camp meeting, 06:55 which is 10 days of live programming, 06:59 and also communicate to the local churches 07:03 and pastors and the people within our beautiful territory. 07:08 Wonderful. 07:09 And in your spare time, there is no spare time. 07:12 Can you describe for our viewers, 07:15 the Central California Conference, 07:17 what does it look like? 07:18 What sort of territory does it cover? 07:21 Well, that's a really great question. 07:22 And I think we probably live in 07:25 one of the most diverse conferences 07:28 in California. 07:30 We have the coastal areas such as Santa Cruz, 07:33 San Luis Obispo, 07:35 beautiful coastal resort towns, destinations of America really. 07:40 We also have San Francisco, 07:42 which is one of the most secular cities in the world. 07:46 And then we have Bakersfield 07:48 which is farmland and agricultural. 07:51 Then we have other areas that are very rural, 07:56 such as Sonora. 07:58 And then we have 07:59 a very high traffic Silicon Valley, 08:01 San Jose areas. 08:03 So we have a huge diversity of race and culture. 08:08 Even among Adventism, 08:10 we have the full spectrum there. 08:14 So much of your territory is heavily urbanized, 08:16 like the Bay area. 08:18 And I noticed that your vision statement 08:19 states reflecting Christ transforming communities. 08:23 What is being done 08:24 to help transform communities here? 08:26 Approximately once a month, sometimes more, 08:29 central organizes through Dr. Bina 08:32 and the Life Hope Centers, 08:33 a clinic whereby they take the clinic out 08:37 and they take and go to the people directly 08:40 and to service their needs. 08:42 We don't ask any questions, we don't preach, 08:44 we just service their needs. 08:47 We also have available an array of material 08:51 for the whole health package, 08:53 that being spiritual, mental, physical, 08:56 and a vast array of many other health services 09:00 for the taking. 09:02 But we don't push that, 09:03 we are simply there just to be the hands 09:05 and feet of Jesus. 09:06 Wonderful. 09:08 Can you tell me a story of someone 09:09 whose life has been touched through this ministry? 09:12 Yes, I can. 09:14 One story is about a girl in Hollister. 09:17 Her name was Delilah and Delilah came to the clinic 09:21 and she needed service. 09:23 I believe it was on her teeth. 09:25 And she received the services. 09:27 She had a little smidgen of Adventism 09:30 but she was not active at all. 09:32 And she just needed the services. 09:35 She was so impressed. 09:37 She's a young girl, so impressed by that 09:40 she decided in her mind 09:41 to become a dental assistant to make that career trajectory. 09:47 So she went, she enrolled in classes in that 09:50 and the next year 09:52 when Life Hope Center teams arrived, 09:56 they found there was Delilah. 09:58 She was this time a volunteer 10:01 and she had also brought her whole dental class. 10:04 Oh, wow. So what we... 10:06 What we see is when we go to help, 10:09 it comes back in dividends 10:11 because suddenly they've joined our team. 10:14 And now she's a huge advocate for what we do. 10:18 Cindy, thanks so much 10:19 for sharing with us those stories 10:20 and what's happening here in Central Cal 10:22 and may God bless you. 10:23 Thank you. 10:25 And viewers at home, 10:26 it's just wonderful 10:27 when Christ's method of ministry 10:29 is put into practice, there are results, 10:30 people are healed not only physically, 10:33 but also spiritually. 10:34 We'll be right back right after this break. |
Revised 2020-10-04