Welcome back to
Andrews University.
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Behind me, you can
see this iconic sculpture
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of J.N. Andrews
and his two children
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going as the first
Adventist missionaries,
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the first official Adventist
missionaries to go overseas.
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And next up, we're going to hear
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the amazing
story of a missionary
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who went to India
at a very young age.
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My guest today is one
of the regional editors
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of the Encyclopedia
of Seventh-day Adventist
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overseen by the Office
of Archives, Statistics,
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and Research at
the General Conference.
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This new reference work
will include many topics
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of interest to Seventh-day
Adventist around the world,
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including stories
about Adventist Mission work
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and missionaries.
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Dr. Christo, welcome. Thank you.
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It's a pleasure for me to
participate in this video.
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Today, you're gonna tell us
a little bit about a missionary
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named Theodore Flaiz who
served many years in India.
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Why did you choose
him to talk about today?
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When I reviewed the stories
of missionaries, most of them,
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well, many of them were
sad, and actually depressing,
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but the story of Flaiz I
found inspiring and pleasant.
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Okay.
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Yeah, many missionaries,
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many of our pioneer missionaries
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ended up giving their
lives and losing loved ones.
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So I know what you're saying
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when you say
many of them are sad.
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What role did Flaiz play
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in the work of
Adventist Mission?
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Flaiz came to India
when he was very young.
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He was barely 23
years old, just married.
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When he and his wife
Jenny sailed for India,
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came just in time
to attend the meetings
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of the 1919 Council
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when Southern Asia
division was formed.
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And he was appointed
superintendent of the first...
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He was the first superintendent
of the Telugu Mission.
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And while he was
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looking for a place to settle
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and to situate the headquarters,
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he received a number of
letters from a certain party,
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Mandla Abraham.
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And Abraham said that
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he was a minister
for the CMS Mission.
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And he said that he
had accepted the doctrines
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of the Adventist
Church and it was in fact,
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preaching some of
them and wanted to work
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for the Adventist Church.
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So Flaiz invited him to
attend a Colporteur Institute
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with the idea that he
might be a colporteur,
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but when he came to
attend the institute,
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it was a rather cold morning.
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So he wrapped
himself up in a blanket
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around this body over
his head to cover himself
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as much as possible.
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And there was another colporteur
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attending that institute
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who took a look at him and said,
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"Good morning, grandma."
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Oh, no.
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And this greatly upset Abraham,
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who abused him with
rather foul language.
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Okay.
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And this disturbed
Flaiz and felt that
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he could not be a
good Adventist worker
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and told him that
he had to return home
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and gave him
some money to go home.
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While Abraham was
disturbed and upset,
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and he heard that Flaiz
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was going to be
driving to Vijayawada,
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which is where he
was supposed to go.
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And so he hung around thinking
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that he could hitch a
ride and save the fare.
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Oh, Flaiz agreed to take him.
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And while they
were traveling by car,
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Abraham told him, "You know,
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I understand you're going for
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in gathering to raise
some funds for your work.
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And incidentally,
there is a Raja of Telaprolu,
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who lives not far from here.
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And if you go there,
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I'm sure he will
give you a good donation."
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And he showed him a pencil
he said the Raja had given him.
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So that wasn't very
far from Vijayawada,
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which was where
they were headed.
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And when they got
there, dropped off Abraham
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and went to see the Raja.
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The Raja said, "I
don't know that guy.
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And if he has a
pencil, he says I gave him.
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He must have stolen it." Oh, no.
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But when he saw the
brochure that Flaiz had
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and saw that Adventists
are running hospitals,
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he said, "My
mother was seriously ill.
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And my father promised that
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he would build a
hospital, if she would get well.
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Well, she got
well, but my father died.
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And it was up to me
to fulfill that vow.
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So I started building it
and had to abandon the plans
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because the World War 1912.
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I couldn't get
materials, so it stopped."
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Okay.
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If you would run a
hospital, I'll give it to you
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and some money to
finish building it.
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How
providential. That's amazing.
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And that's how the
Giffard Memorial Hospital began,
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but Flaiz also began a
high school in our support,
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which today is also a college.
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So we have two
very good institutions
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because of Flaiz.
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Is there anything about Flaiz
that personally inspires you?
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What impressed the
people that he worked
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with was that even though
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he and his wife were very young,
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they showed a
maturity far beyond the age.
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They welcomed
people into their homes.
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Even though people were
looking into everything,
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they felt at home
with the local people,
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the local people
felt at home with them.
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Even the decisions that he made,
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demonstrated the maturity
even though he was very young.
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Dr. Christo, was
Flaiz ever involved
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in the work of the hospital?
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He wasn't a
physician at the time
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when that donation was made,
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but after a number of years
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when his wife
was not keeping well,
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they came back to the US.
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And he went to medical college
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trained as a
physician and came back,
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and then served as a
physician at that hospital.
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Wow.
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Were there any particularly
struggles that he faced
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when he was over there?
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Perhaps the one
struggle was his wife's illness
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for which they came back.
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And she eventually passed
away, but he married again
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and came back to
India for the third time.
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Wow, he couldn't get
enough of mission work,
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obviously, right?
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He served at the GC
also for about 19 years
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as medical secretary.
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Okay.
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Then he came back
after that to work in India,
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that's where he systemized
the work of our hospitals
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and physicians in the division.
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I wanna ask you
one more question.
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Why do you personally feel
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that this encyclopedia
project is so important?
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Why is it so important to
preserve the contributions
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of our
missionaries from the past?
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The unfortunate situation
is that in our division,
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there's been no
published history
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of our division, no archives,
00:07:05.02\00:07:07.72
well no museum of collections.
00:07:07.76\00:07:10.76
And this work
that's being promoted by
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ASDR is creating an awareness
00:07:13.53\00:07:16.30
and an interest in this project.
00:07:16.33\00:07:18.60
So I'm happy to
be working with it.
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Wonderful.
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Dr. Christo, thank you
so much for sharing with us
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a little bit of
the life of Flaiz,
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and giving us an
idea of his contributions
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to the work of this church.
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You're very welcome.
It's been my pleasure.
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Reporting from Mission 360 TV,
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I'm Laurie Falvo.
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Next up, we traveled to Ethiopia
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to visit a Sabbath School class.
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And if you would
have physically visited
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there may not be
enough room for you.
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The children are
meeting in a shipping container
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and there's
just not enough room.
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Your 13th Sabbath Offerings
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this quarter can
help change that.
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Twelve-year-old Bamlak
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loves to share
Bible stories with felts.
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She has a pile of characters
and scenes to choose from.
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Even though she's so young,
00:08:08.62\00:08:10.09
she teaches the
children Sabbath School class,
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which meets inside
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this converted
shipping container.
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On Sabbath morning this church
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is filled with
worship through song,
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Bible study, and prayer.
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Churches in Ethiopia's capital
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Addis Ababa have seen
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significant
growth over the years,
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especially with the children.
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On any given day of the week,
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children gathered in churches
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to do their
favorite activity, sing.
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Children invite
their neighborhood friends
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to join them at church.
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They love learning new songs
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and playing games
like Bible trivia.
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They take ownership of teaching
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and being a part
of the church service.
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Tiojo's family
was not Adventist,
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but live near this church.
00:09:01.34\00:09:03.24
From his house, he
could hear the kids singing.
00:09:03.27\00:09:05.84
At just three years old,
he wandered down this tree
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to check it out.
00:09:08.48\00:09:09.84
He loved it.
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Soon Tiojo and his siblings
00:09:11.25\00:09:12.58
were at the
church every Sabbath.
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Their parents noticed that
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the children's
behavior had improved.
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And were curious about
where they spent so much time.
00:09:18.42\00:09:21.12
What was happening?
00:09:21.16\00:09:22.49
The kids begged their parents
to come to church with them.
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When they finally did,
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they were
impressed by what they saw.
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This was the right
church for their family.
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Fifteen years later,
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they're still
grateful to their children
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for introducing them
to the Adventist Church.
00:09:34.84\00:09:40.61
We love our church very much.
00:09:40.64\00:09:43.35
What they are doing
there is helping us to think,
00:09:43.38\00:09:46.25
meditate, and be
better Christians.
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Not only that, our home
and our church is the same.
00:09:49.68\00:09:53.66
What we have here, we
will take to the church
00:09:53.69\00:09:57.06
and if we need something
the church will help us.
00:09:57.09\00:10:00.16
The church is our family.
00:10:00.20\00:10:01.86
We are one, we are
very happy to be Adventists.
00:10:01.90\00:10:07.84
The Sabbath School
Program has taught many children
00:10:07.87\00:10:10.14
about the love of Jesus,
00:10:10.17\00:10:11.61
but if you visit Bamlak's class,
00:10:11.64\00:10:13.61
there might not be
enough room for you.
00:10:13.64\00:10:15.51
The children only have
this small dark section
00:10:15.54\00:10:18.11
inside the old
shipping container.
00:10:18.15\00:10:20.28
Bamlak and the other
children pray for the day
00:10:20.32\00:10:22.52
when there's more space
in their Sabbath School,
00:10:22.55\00:10:25.02
then they'll be able to
invite all their friends to come
00:10:25.05\00:10:27.46
and not have to
turn anyone away.
00:10:27.49\00:10:30.13
A portion of your
13th Sabbath Offering
00:10:30.16\00:10:32.09
this quarter will help build
a new shelter at this church
00:10:32.13\00:10:34.90
and several other
churches across Ethiopia
00:10:34.93\00:10:37.07
that need more
space for the children.
00:10:37.10\00:10:39.87
The offering will also
go toward various projects
00:10:39.90\00:10:42.40
in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo,
00:10:42.44\00:10:44.64
South Sudan, and Kenya.
00:10:44.67\00:10:46.54
Please pray for these projects
00:10:46.57\00:10:47.98
and consider how
you can contribute.
00:10:48.01\00:10:50.65
Thank you for supporting
the 13th Sabbath Offering.
00:10:50.68\00:10:53.92
Well, thanks so much
00:11:07.40\00:11:08.73
for joining us
today for Mission 360.
00:11:08.76\00:11:11.23
And I hope that you've enjoyed
00:11:11.27\00:11:12.60
our 360 degree vision of
mission around the world.
00:11:12.63\00:11:16.67
I hope you have been challenged
00:11:16.71\00:11:18.04
by seeing what's happening
00:11:18.07\00:11:19.41
with
missionaries around the world,
00:11:19.44\00:11:20.78
what's happening with
your 13 Sabbath Offerings.
00:11:20.81\00:11:23.35
Just seeing those kids
00:11:23.38\00:11:24.71
worshiping in
shipping containers,
00:11:24.75\00:11:26.08
we're reminded many of the needs
00:11:26.11\00:11:27.68
and challenges that still remain
00:11:27.72\00:11:29.92
and I wanna thank you so much
00:11:29.95\00:11:31.62
for being interested in mission,
00:11:31.65\00:11:34.49
for supporting mission,
for praying for mission,
00:11:34.52\00:11:37.63
for giving to mission,
for being involved in mission.
00:11:37.66\00:11:40.70
And if you'd like
to see more stories
00:11:40.73\00:11:43.00
about what's
happening around the world,
00:11:43.03\00:11:44.37
you can always go to m360.tv
00:11:44.40\00:11:47.30
and there you'll find many,
many video stories of mission
00:11:47.34\00:11:49.74
around the world.
00:11:49.77\00:11:51.11
So whether you
pray, whether you give,
00:11:51.14\00:11:52.71
whether you go, or
whether you do all three,
00:11:52.74\00:11:55.08
you are part of our
Adventist Mission team
00:11:55.11\00:11:57.11
and I wanna thank you again.
00:11:57.15\00:11:58.81
For Adventist
Mission, I'm Gary Krause.
00:11:58.85\00:12:01.08
And I hope that you
can join me next time
00:12:01.12\00:12:03.02
right here on Mission 360.
00:12:03.05\00:12:05.12