A Global Mission
pioneer in Lesotho finds a wife
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in an unexpected way.
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Another pioneer opens bridges
to the community using water
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and the sights and
sounds of Portland, Maine.
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All this and much
more coming up next.
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Hello and
welcome to Mission 360.
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I'm Gary Krause.
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Today's program is coming to you
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from the City of Portland,
Maine in the United States.
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This is a city
that is rich in history
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and culture and beauty.
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But it's also very important
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for the
Seventh-day Adventist Church
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because it's rich
in Adventist history.
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This, of course, is
the place where Ellen White
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went to school
when she was a child.
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This is the place
where she was baptized
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as a young person.
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On today's program,
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we're going to be looking
at mission around the world
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but first up, let's
travel to the country of Lesotho
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to meet a Global Mission pioneer
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who had met his wife, but
he just didn't realize it.
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Lefa had found his wife,
he just didn't know it yet.
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As a Global
Mission pioneer in Lesotho,
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a small country
in southern Africa,
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he frequently
went house to house
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getting to know the
people in his community,
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praying with them,
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and studying the Bible together.
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Each morning I pray for the work
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I will do that day.
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Then I prepare for the lessons.
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The first thing I do
is to make friendship
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with the people in the village.
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Then I request permission
to study the Word of God.
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Some agreed to start
the lessons immediately.
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When I leave them,
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I leave praying that God
will convict their hearts
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that the
information I brought them
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is very important information.
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I'm happy when I
see life transformation
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in the people.
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When I see the
hopeless find hope.
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Mathato was one of those people.
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She wanted to
learn more about God.
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So they studied
His Word together.
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She even wanted to go with Lefa
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and share God's
Word with others too.
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As time went by,
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the two began to
consider marriage.
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They prayed
about the possibility
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trusting that if
it was God's will,
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He would allow it to happen.
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My fear was that
people will think
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that I just
converted this lady for myself.
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I was praying
very hard at the time.
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But I had a
conviction that she was the one
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because I met her
while doing God's work.
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Soon they were married.
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She's now my wife
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and she supports me
in a very special way.
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Sometimes you
become discouraged.
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When I'm
discouraged, she tells me,
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we are going to do God's work.
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Lefa and Mathato now
spread the gospel together,
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they continue to
visit and study the Bible
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with families in their homes.
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Lefa and Mathato
hold health expos,
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particularly in
light of the drug abuse
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that is common
in their community.
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When a family's loved one dies,
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Lefa and Mathato even
help with funeral preparations.
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Together, they do all they can
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to show Jesus'
love to their community.
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Thank you for your
prayers and selfless gifts.
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Your support helps
Global Mission pioneers
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like Lefa reach the unreached
throughout Southern Africa.
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My guest is Pastor Tony Cuffori
who is pastoring here in Maine.
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Thanks for joining us,
Tony. Yeah, you're welcome.
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So describe for me
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what you're doing
here in this part of Maine?
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Well, I've
always brought up in...
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been brought up in Maine.
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And, you know, I
moved up this area
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'cause I wanted
to kind of experience
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a little bit of
moving away from the family
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just to kind of grow
with my wife and myself,
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but I got drawn to
this place because of...
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pretty much God called me here.
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Good.
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So you're pastoring
a couple of churches?
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Yeah.
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And one of them
is a church plant.
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How did this church plant start?
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Yeah, the church
plant, it was really...
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before I was here,
there was another pastor
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by the name of
Pastor Rick, who...
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God really put out on his
heart that there's no church
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in one of the
big cities of Maine.
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So they put a
center of influence
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a while back, a
couple years ago,
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and we wanted to do a
church plant in this area
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where we could reach
the people of the community.
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Terrific. And what happened?
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Well, you know, God is good.
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I mean, between
the center of influence
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and the church plant,
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you know, we really
believe that we need to spread
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the model of the
Great Commission,
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we need to go.
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And it's just
been a total blessing.
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We've had a lot of
people come in from the classes
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that we have in the evenings
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that have been coming
to the Sabbath school,
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and it's just
been a total blessing.
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So the...
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You're talking
about these classes
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that's part of
the Ark Ministries,
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is that correct?
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That is correct.
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So describe for me
what that ministry is?
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Sure.
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So we recognize that,
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you know, we can't
just go to everyone
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and just talk Jesus,
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you know, we have to, we
have to meet them at a...
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on their turf, if you will.
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So we have different classes
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that the community has signed up
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for that sparks an interest
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where they would
actually want to come.
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So we have
things from like hydro,
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hydro classes with water,
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we have things
with cooking classes,
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we've had
massage therapy classes,
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but we have all
this different type
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of health ministry
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where we can bring people in,
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build trusting
relationships with them,
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where we can, you know,
when that trust is built,
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we can share
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the everlasting
gospel with them.
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Wonderful.
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Now, we're in
the city of Lewiston,
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which I believe is the
second largest city in Maine.
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Yeah.
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It used to be a mill town,
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it's gone through
its economic struggles.
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And then you've also,
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in recent years had
a lot of immigration.
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How have you reached
out to the immigrants
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who have come to the community?
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Well, you know, God is great.
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I mean, He's really
blessed the whole situation,
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because one thing that He did
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was there was a couple
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that we actually
just got introduced
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through one of
the health seminars.
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That was, I'm trying to remember
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what race they were,
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but anyway, they, they ended
up knowing a bunch of people.
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So when we started
ministering to them,
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they went out and kind of like,
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it was like, God
did the work for us.
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But what it took was us
to go out to the people,
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reach people and we
met that one individual
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that could bring
in an army of people.
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Wonderful.
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So it was, you know,
it's just absolutely amazing.
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So how many people
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do you have worshiping
in this church plant now?
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Right now, well, we started
with just about 14 people,
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and we're on average
about 55, sometimes up to 75.
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Wonderful, you're
growing out of your space.
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Absolutely.
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And that's one of
the major blessings
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that we've had.
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So we're
currently looking right now
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to see where
God's gonna lead next.
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So how important do you think
Christ method of ministry is?
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How have you found
that in your experience?
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Extremely important,
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I mean, I think
the biggest thing...
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I want to be
careful how I word this is,
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you know, we have the
Great Commission to follow.
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And I really,
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this has really been something
that God's put on my heart
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is a lot of times
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the first word of the
Great Commission is go.
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And a lot of times
people are just kind of sitting
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and I think
God's really creating
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a sense of urgency.
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That's why it's
with a loud voice,
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the third angels' message,
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to go out to the
community and reach people.
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So, Tony, you did not come
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from a Seventh-day
Adventist background,
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how did you become an Adventist
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and how did you become a pastor?
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Well, we'll just say
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God has a great sense of humor.
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You know, I never
saw this coming at all.
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And I was kind of church hopping
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for quite a while
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going through a bunch
of different denominations.
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And, you know,
the real big thing
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that happened was
somebody invited me
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to a prophecy seminar.
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And long story short,
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once I went
through that seminar,
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I just... I never looked back.
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It was just absolutely amazing
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how we were taught the principle
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where you can allow the
Bible to interpret itself.
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Because before that,
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that's what I
wasn't being taught
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at other places.
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So you were sick of hearing.
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Well, this is my opinion,
this is your opinion and...
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Yeah, I mean,
there was one point
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where I did a Bible
study with a group of people.
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And I actually was more confused
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at the end of the Bible study
than at the beginning of it,
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but when I came to the seminar,
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it just made things
crystal clear and it was,
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it was awesome.
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So you pastor an
established church nearby.
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Why is planting
churches important?
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Well, planting churches is huge
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because a lot of
people are uncomfortable
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walking in a church setting.
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And the beautiful
thing with a church plant
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is you're
creating an environment
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that's going to be
friendly for, for people
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that might not
walk into a sanctuary.
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And, you know,
that's where you get
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real true
relationships that will build
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is when you have
these center of influences
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'cause right now,
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you know, I've
told you in the past
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that we're at an old Pizza Hut,
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which is just a safe
ground, but we've converted it
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into a nice friendly environment
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where we can meet
with other people.
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So it's not
threatening for somebody
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to come through those doors.
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No, not at all. Not at all.
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Can you give me an example
of somebody who's been touched
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through the ministry
of this church plant?
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Whoo! Wow, that's
a loaded question.
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I mean, not
just, not just myself
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and all the workers
that have been there but,
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I mean, we've
had it at a minimum
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just in the
last couple of years,
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probably 10 to 12 people
who have joined the church
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from, from the
center of influence.
00:10:00.76\00:10:03.00
Wonderful.
00:10:03.03\00:10:04.37
What a blessing. Absolutely.
00:10:04.40\00:10:06.03
Well, Tony, thanks for
so much for sharing with us
00:10:06.07\00:10:08.27
a little bit of
what's happening here.
00:10:08.30\00:10:09.64
Sure. Thank you.
00:10:09.67\00:10:11.01
I know that Maine,
00:10:11.04\00:10:13.04
I mean, not that
there's any easy areas
00:10:13.07\00:10:14.94
but this is a very
secular area of the world.
00:10:14.98\00:10:17.45
It's very post Christian.
00:10:17.48\00:10:18.81
I think the
statistic is about 60%.
00:10:18.85\00:10:21.08
Yeah, so it's a...
It's a mission field.
00:10:21.12\00:10:22.85
It is a
challenging mission field.
00:10:22.88\00:10:24.32
Yeah. Yeah, God bless you.
00:10:24.35\00:10:25.69
Well, thank you
very much. God bless you.
00:10:25.72\00:10:27.19
And viewers at home, here
we are in Lewiston, Maine.
00:10:27.22\00:10:31.53
One would think
00:10:31.56\00:10:32.89
this would be a
very Christian society.
00:10:32.93\00:10:34.26
But in fact, there
are many challenges here.
00:10:34.30\00:10:36.43
Many people are
living their lives
00:10:36.46\00:10:37.90
apart from God.
00:10:37.93\00:10:39.27
Pray for the church plant,
pray for the Ark Ministries.
00:10:39.30\00:10:43.04
Pray for Pastor Tony
00:10:43.07\00:10:44.41
and others involved in the team.
00:10:44.44\00:10:45.87
This will grow
00:10:45.91\00:10:47.24
that there'll be
many more groups started
00:10:47.28\00:10:49.04
for the glory of
the kingdom of God.
00:10:49.08\00:10:50.45
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:10:50.48\00:10:52.28