Welcome back to San Francisco.
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And behind me, you can see
the very impressive City Hall.
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Well, next up, we
hear the amazing story
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of Elder David Babcock,
Pioneer Missionary to Nigeria.
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My guest today is
Dr. Onaolapo Ajibade
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from the West
Central Africa division.
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Dr. Onaolapo Ajibade is
one of the regional editors
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for the encyclopedia
of Seventh-day Adventists,
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overseen by the office
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of archive
statistics and research,
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this new reference work
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will feature
thousands of entries
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from around the world
on a variety of topics,
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including
articles on mission work.
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Dr. Ajibade, Thank you so much
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for joining us on
Mission 360 TV today.
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Thank you for having me.
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Now, you'll be
sharing some stories
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on a few missionaries
who served in your division.
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Could you tell us a
story about these missionaries
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who served in your division?
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I'll have to tell you the story
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of how the
message came to Nigeria.
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Great.
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The first
missionary to come to Nigeria
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was David Cladwell Babcock.
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He came there in 1914
with his wife and children,
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and he settled in
a town called Erumu.
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Erumu is about 16 miles
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from the capital of present...
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Now in those days,
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the various denominations
shared the territories.
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So when he came, in
fact, when Babcock came,
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the first missionary
for any Christian group
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had come 50 years earlier.
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So relatively we were late,
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so he couldn't
get any of the cities.
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So he had to go
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to a fairly remote
place called Erumu.
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That was where
he settled in 1914.
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And within one year,
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he was able to
make seven converts.
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And then from there,
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he went further north to
another place called Shao,
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there he established a school
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and train the
first batch of workers,
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gospel workers,
indigenous workers.
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So he
established church there too.
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While he was there,
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he was invited
to yet another town,
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about 78 miles
to the second city
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that he went down there.
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They had heard
about the Sabbath,
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he went and preached
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and there he had 78 people
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joining the
church at the same time.
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Wow, that's amazing.
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So between 1914 and 1915,
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he was able to
establish three churches.
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One in Erumu,
the second in Shao,
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the third in Iputi.
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So that was what happened.
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So within this time,
he was able to establish.
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Now he had a school also
and trained local workers,
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which was very, very good.
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Right. So that was what he did.
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And now and that is
western part of Nigeria.
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Western part of Nigeria.
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Now we believe that
today we have a university
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named after him,
Babcock University...
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Right.
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With a student
population of 10,000,
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one of the largest
Adventist universities
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in the whole world.
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That's incredible.
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So what I thank the Lord
for the work that Babcock did.
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Now Nigeria is a very big place.
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One missionary is not enough
to cover the entire country.
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Therefore, that
was for the West.
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Now another missionary went
to the eastern part of Nigeria.
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His name was Jessie Clifford.
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He went 1923
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and he had
established the church there.
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And the church has also grown
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to become a union conference.
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If be about
158,000 members right now.
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Praise God.
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The university
is birthed there too
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called Clifford University.
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Also named after him.
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Also named after the missionary.
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The third part of Nigeria
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is the northern part of Nigeria.
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Again, another
missionary went there.
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His name was J.J. Hyde.
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His wife was a nurse.
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And incidentally,
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the medical
ministry was the best tool
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to win the people.
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Now because his
wife was a nurse,
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he began to treat
patients within one year,
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that is 1932, he
was able to treat
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nearly 9,000 patients.
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Wow.
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And through the
medical missionaries,
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we were able to win souls.
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Again, Northern Nigeria
is not a union conference.
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So in Nigeria, we have
three union conferences,
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one in the
west, one in the east,
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and one in the North.
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I want to thank God for
these three missionaries
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who came in
spite of all the odds,
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established the church
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and the Lord has
used them wonderfully.
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Right. Right. Exactly.
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And that's incredible to hear
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of how these
missionaries were able to reach
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really the whole country
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or at least try to
reach the whole country,
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and that their
impact is felt even now,
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as you mentioned, with
the two universities there
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and just the Union Mission
that has been established
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with hundreds of thousands
of members, that's incredible.
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Now did they face any challenges
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while they were there?
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Oh, Babcock
faced health challenge,
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in fact, he had
to go back in 1917,
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he had to go back
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because he had a disease
called sleeping sickness.
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So he had to rush back.
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And when he was going back,
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it was during
the First World War.
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His ship was torpedoed,
but God saved him miraculously.
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Praise God. So
that was what happened.
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And the rest
didn't have that problem.
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But they went at the right...
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They were not attacked by...
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They were able to
withhold all the hazards,
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but Babcock could not
stay long because of disease.
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Right.
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Well, thank God that
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they were able to still minister
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and serve despite any challenges
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that they might have faced.
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They did. They did. And
the work is still going on.
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Right, exactly.
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It was a mustard seed,
now it's a big, big structure.
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Right. And it's still growing.
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We what want to
thank the Lord for them.
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Definitely. Definitely.
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Their spirit is
very, very inspiring.
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The kind of spirit they
had is very, very inspiring.
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And we wish we could
have as many missionaries.
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Of course, we have
become missionaries ourselves.
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Right, exactly.
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Was there on any part
of these missionary stories
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that you've particularly
found inspiring for yourself?
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Oh, yes.
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All of them, the
sacrifices they made,
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can you imagine
going to a place,
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I mean, you don't eat your food,
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you don't know the weather,
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you don't even know
how they will receive you,
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but because God
said go, you went.
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That is most inspiring.
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And right now,
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there are still
many unentered places
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in the world.
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And we need the
spirit, the heart,
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if the work is
going to be finished.
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Right.
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So the spirited heart
to go to an unknown place
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because God said they should go
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as Abrahamic faiths,
which inspires me a lot.
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Definitely.
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And we should
all have that faith
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if the work should be finished.
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Right, and it's hearing
these stories of mission work
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that happens throughout
the world in the past that
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inspires me and
others to want to finish
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that work too and
continue that legacy...
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Exactly, exactly. Of
missionaries from our past.
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Thank you so much, Dr. Ajibade,
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for sharing these
stories with us today.
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Thank you very much.
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Reporting for Mission
360. My name is Chelsea Tyler.
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Next up, we
traveled to New Zealand
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and meet a woman who
was searching for answers
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and found them.
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In 2011, I lost my partner.
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And then 2014, I lost my father.
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I started
becoming more curious about
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where God was in my life.
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My name is Adelaide,
and this is my story.
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Started flicking
through all the channels
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on the TV and Hope,
I would flick it on.
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And I had all
these questions and just,
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wow, I was
amazed because questions
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I had in my mind were
being answered more or less
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when I switched the channel on,
and that was the amazing thing.
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And I've got to a point
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where I would tell my daughters,
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"Hey, remember that
question I just asked about God,
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guess what?
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It's just been answered.
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You have to come in and see,
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you have to come in and listen."
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It just became
the only thing that
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we would be watching on TV.
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I had questions
about where my father
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and my partner really were.
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So I went pretty deep
and quiet on that one.
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And then I thought,
"Ah, tune on the channel
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and see they had an answer."
00:09:01.84\00:09:05.31
Once I had found the connection
with the Seventh-day Adventist,
00:09:05.34\00:09:10.01
I said to my girls,
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"Well, I'm sure
there's the church
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down the road.
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Let's go and have a look."
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So from then on as I stalked,
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I call it stalking,
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I staked the
church for three months,
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while I was
having Sabbath at home
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with the channel,
with Hope channel.
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Once we came and we all got shy,
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we went down, we came down,
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drove around
and then went around
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the block again.
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Third time we came,
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we were all
dressed and prepared.
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We took a deep
breath outside the door
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and we just said
we're gonna do this.
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All right, let's do this.
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And then we
walked through the door
00:10:02.63\00:10:04.83
and we came in and sat down
00:10:04.87\00:10:08.14
and it just felt like home.
00:10:08.17\00:10:12.14
What I have learned
00:10:12.17\00:10:13.68
since coming into
the Seventh-day Adventist
00:10:13.71\00:10:19.41
about death is
that they are asleep
00:10:19.45\00:10:25.12
and it feels I'm really peaceful
00:10:25.15\00:10:28.59
with finally knowing the truth.
00:10:28.62\00:10:30.56
Quite interesting to
know what she'd learned
00:10:30.59\00:10:33.03
through Hope channel,
00:10:33.06\00:10:34.40
not only about the Sabbath
00:10:34.43\00:10:36.16
but also about what
happens when someone dies
00:10:36.20\00:10:38.80
and that Jesus is coming again.
00:10:38.83\00:10:41.74
I was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer.
00:10:41.77\00:10:46.98
I was happy that
00:10:47.01\00:10:50.68
I'd finally got a diagnosis,
00:10:50.71\00:10:53.58
didn't really
understand the diagnosis.
00:10:53.62\00:10:56.75
So when I got off the phone,
00:10:56.79\00:11:00.26
I got down on my
knees straight away.
00:11:00.29\00:11:03.73
I just said, "Okay, Lord,
00:11:03.76\00:11:06.49
thank you, thank you for that.
00:11:06.53\00:11:10.33
And I know that I asked you
to help me lose some weight,
00:11:10.37\00:11:16.30
but I didn't think it
was going to be like this.
00:11:16.34\00:11:21.84
But that's okay,
it is what it is.
00:11:21.88\00:11:26.55
Now I'm going to
do this with you.
00:11:26.58\00:11:30.09
And we're going to do
this journey together."
00:11:30.12\00:11:35.52
Our mother showed
us the path to follow,
00:11:42.30\00:11:44.87
and we will try to
remain on that path
00:11:44.90\00:11:49.00
so that we can meet her again.
00:11:49.04\00:11:50.67
I would love my
children to know that
00:12:05.59\00:12:08.96
God is real and
that He loves us.
00:12:08.99\00:12:11.03
Well, thanks so
much for joining us today
00:12:21.67\00:12:23.24
on Mission 360.
00:12:23.27\00:12:25.04
I hope that you're inspired
00:12:25.07\00:12:26.41
and challenged by the
stories that we saw and heard.
00:12:26.44\00:12:29.54
The story of Adelaide
touched through the ministry
00:12:29.58\00:12:32.51
of the Hope Channel.
00:12:32.55\00:12:34.05
And the story of David Babcock,
00:12:34.08\00:12:36.28
what an amazing venture
in faith there in Nigeria
00:12:36.32\00:12:39.89
in the early days
of Adventist Mission.
00:12:39.92\00:12:41.72
I want to thank you
00:12:41.76\00:12:43.09
for being a part
of Adventist Mission,
00:12:43.12\00:12:44.73
for your prayers, for
your financial support,
00:12:44.76\00:12:47.06
your donations
to Global Mission,
00:12:47.10\00:12:49.00
your personal involvement.
00:12:49.03\00:12:50.57
They do make a difference
for Adventist Mission.
00:12:50.60\00:12:53.54
I'm Gary Kraus.
00:12:53.57\00:12:54.90
And I hope that you can join me
00:12:54.94\00:12:56.27
next time right
here on Mission 360.
00:12:56.30\00:12:58.97