Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS002606B
|
00:08 Welcome back to Panama City.
00:11 Panama is a beautiful country, 00:12 covered with rainforest, teeming with wild life. 00:15 And the country takes very seriously the environment, 00:18 so they're banning the use of all single use plastics. 00:22 Next up, we travel to Cusco in Peru. 00:25 Hello, I'm Jeff Scoggins 00:26 and I'm here in the city of Nuevo Huasao, 00:30 which is just outside of Cusco in Peru. 00:32 And I'm here at a church that has been build recently, 00:36 and I'm with a gentleman 00:38 by the name of Ruben, who is an engineer 00:41 and he has been actively helping 00:44 to build the churches in this area. 00:46 And so we wanted to talk with him 00:48 for a little while. 00:49 Ruben, tell me, first of all, 00:52 a little bit of your background? 00:53 You became an Adventist when you were little bit older. 00:57 Tell me your story? 00:59 Yeah. 01:00 No, I'm Adventist from like 20 years old, 01:06 when I was 20 years old. 01:08 My mother was Adventist first, yeah. 01:12 But my father was never an Adventist. 01:15 Yeah. 01:16 And so we went to, 01:18 like child don't go to the church and so, 01:21 but when I was 15 years old 01:27 my father go out, 01:29 yeah, leave my mother. 01:32 They don't go out for my whole life, 01:34 but from this time we have time to go to the church 01:37 with my mother, you know. 01:39 So when I was training I got baptized. 01:43 You were not interested in church for a while though? 01:45 Yeah. At first, yeah. 01:47 At first, but then... 01:48 Because my father don't send us to the church, yeah. 01:51 Yes, yes. 01:52 But after that I go into the church. 01:54 Okay, fantastic. 01:56 Now, your work. 01:57 Describe to me what your work is? 02:00 After that I decided to study, 02:04 yeah, in university 02:05 and I studied for civil engineering. 02:08 Civil Engineering? Okay. Yeah. 02:10 I had but I have a lot of problems 02:12 to finish the college. 02:15 Things, no more money to make it go to the college, 02:19 I work at the night. 02:21 No, but I was going to the church this time. 02:24 Yeah. 02:25 When I finish a job, I finish the... 02:28 I know I worked in a lot of places. 02:30 Yeah. 02:31 First I worked, for example, in Puerto Maldonado. 02:34 And there is a place 02:36 in Puerto Maldonado in Inambari. 02:39 For example for these guys, I make project. 02:41 Yeah, to make a church. 02:43 I don't know if this church was built... 02:46 Oh, okay. Yeah. 02:47 But I make these. 02:48 After that when I come into Cusco, 02:51 yeah, and I think 2015. 02:55 Yeah. 02:56 I go into Church Maranatha. Yeah. 02:59 And Maranatha have this land, yeah, long time. 03:04 Yeah. 03:05 And was making money putting money 03:08 to make this built, yeah, this church. 03:12 So no money, no money to make the church. 03:16 And coming from the United States 03:18 and some brothers from Shenandoah Valley Academy. 03:21 Shenandoah Valley Academy. 03:22 Yeah. Yeah. 03:24 So they asking the mission 03:28 what the church need or have some money 03:32 or land to make a church, yeah. 03:35 And Pastor Tito say, Maranatha have a land. 03:38 Yeah, yeah. 03:39 And they come here when there was no, 03:42 anything or the church. 03:44 Yeah. 03:45 And they decide to help these brothers 03:48 to make the church. 03:49 And so, this is the result, 03:50 this church behind us is the result. 03:52 Yeah, very nice. 03:53 I make the plans. 03:55 I saw everything. 03:56 Good. 03:57 These brothers have small amount of money, 04:00 like $4,000, 04:03 but it's not enough to make this church, yeah. 04:06 Now I understand that your ministry 04:09 has become very important to you. 04:14 I think. 04:15 You are starting a church in your own house, yeah? 04:19 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 04:20 Tell me what is happening there? 04:22 Yes, we live in San Sebastian in Cusco. 04:25 San Sebastian is in middle place, not middle, 04:29 it's in the middle of the city school. 04:31 In the middle of the city, yes. 04:32 Yeah, but there isn't church in these parts of the city. 04:36 So we have a dream 04:40 to have a church in this place. 04:43 Yeah. 04:44 And we're trying to make a church 04:46 so we have a little group. 04:50 We are together on Fridays and Saturday 04:54 in my house, yeah. 04:56 Not it's only my house, yeah. 04:59 Is for my mother and my other friends, yeah. 05:02 My other friend, my other brothers, yeah. 05:04 So we plan to try 05:07 to make one church in this place. 05:10 Now, but you plan to get bigger than your house, yeah? 05:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 05:15 So what will you do then? 05:17 We tried to have, to get a land first. 05:20 Yeah, yeah, but the land is so expensive in Cusco. 05:24 Yeah, yeah. 05:25 But we hope our God. 05:28 But you were telling me about a school? 05:30 Yeah, yeah, there is a sister in Cusco 05:34 who has a school, who has a school, 05:38 who offered us to, 05:41 we can go to this school to make a church, yeah. 05:44 Okay. 05:45 To have a group to make a church, 05:47 yeah, in the next month. 05:51 When we was better organized in our church, 05:55 probably we know, we are sure to go 05:58 and to make a church on this lands, yeah. 06:01 Okay, good. This is our purpose. 06:02 Now, you are an engineer so you work each day, yeah? 06:06 Yeah. 06:07 How much time do you think 06:08 that you give to working for the church? 06:11 Ah... 06:13 In a week, in one week maybe? 06:14 In one week. 06:18 I go in to meet the, be together with our brothers. 06:24 So this is my time. 06:25 But you're making plans, would not? 06:27 Yeah, when somebody came here, 06:29 come to me to say me, 06:31 we need some plans for church, something like that. 06:34 I... You give your time. 06:36 Yeah, I give my time, yeah. 06:37 Oh, that's wonderful. 06:39 When we make this church for example. 06:40 Mm hmm. 06:48 I was in bad situation with my boss in my work. 06:52 So in this time, 06:53 when Shenandoah Valley come in, I decide to. 06:56 You just stopped working. 06:58 Yeah, I stopped to work. 06:59 Come to make this, to help this, 07:02 to help this, to make this church. 07:03 Yeah. 07:05 Well, thank you for your dedication, Ruben. 07:06 It's been a pleasure talking with you 07:08 and meeting your group and the people that are here. 07:11 It's been just a wonderful experience. 07:14 So thank you for that. 07:15 All of this is for God. 07:16 Absolutely. 07:18 And we will see the results 07:19 more and more in heaven one day. 07:22 So thank you. Thank you. 07:23 Thank you. 07:24 Thanking for you. 07:26 I'm Jeff Scoggins for Mission 360°. 07:28 Pray for the groups 07:30 that are starting here in Cusco and around in the area. 07:34 Keep them in your prayers, 07:35 and we hope to see many people in heaven 07:37 because of what's happening in these places. 07:40 Next, we traveled to Vietnam, 07:42 where a missionary couple 07:43 revisits the place they went to, 07:45 after being evacuated from Cambodia. 07:52 Remembering their time as young missionaries 07:54 in war torn Southeast Asia, 07:56 GT and Ivy are in Vietnam, where they were evacuated. 08:01 Ho Chi Minh City used to be called Saigon 08:03 during the time of South Vietnam. 08:06 It was the capital city of South Vietnam. 08:08 And this is the city 08:10 where we were evacuated to the first time. 08:14 Ralph was the president of Southeast Asia Union, 08:17 ordered all to the missionaries, 08:19 and both of us to get off the country. 08:27 Good morning, Pastor Wass. How are you doing? 08:29 Good morning, Pastor Wass. 08:31 I'm doing fine. How are you doing? 08:33 Great, great. We're fine, thank you. 08:34 We are right here in Saigon. 08:36 Yeah, you mentioned that. 08:38 What a privilege it is to talk to you 08:39 when we are still in Saigon. 08:42 I'm holding in my hand right now 08:44 Ivy and GT, 08:46 a picture of a very handsome young couple 08:49 that was taken in March of 1974. 08:54 There's a picture of the two of you 08:56 with your bicycles in out there. 08:58 You were able to get 09:00 some Bible studies going, weren't you? 09:02 Yeah, many Bible studies came as a result of the ministry 09:05 of the English Language Institute. 09:08 And out of that, we baptized many of them. 09:11 So before we left the country, 09:14 there were 33 believers in that church. 09:16 There are lot. 09:18 And there were virtually none when you came there. 09:20 That's right. Very few. 09:33 We did a lot of refugee relief work 09:35 because the population of Phnom Penh in the 1970s 09:40 was about 700,000. 09:42 And during the war, when we were here, 09:44 it was easily more than 2 million people. 09:47 And so this hotel had become a refugee center, 09:51 where they were housed. 09:52 We visited some of the rooms, 09:54 and there were no electricity at that time. 09:58 So we saw many people crowded in rooms. 10:02 It was dark. 10:03 It was filled with smoke. 10:05 Women, men, children, 10:07 maybe 15-17 people in a small room. 10:12 They did the best they could, 10:14 providing refugees bales of clothing and rice. 10:17 But the situation continued to get worse. 10:20 GT, Ivy and the student missionaries 10:22 were evacuated several times to Vietnam. 10:25 But each time they returned to Cambodia, 10:27 only to have conflict resumed. 10:29 So we had the F-111 bombardment during the day, 10:35 and during night, it was B-52 fighter bombers. 10:38 Many a times we would be sleeping, 10:40 we were shaken out of our bed. 10:43 You know, it was more than a bad dream. 10:46 So we just prayed to the Lord 10:48 that even though 1000 may fall by the side 10:52 10,000 on your right hand, 10:54 but God will spare our life for some reason. 10:57 So after Sabbath was over as per our usual custom, 11:02 one of us, either the missionaries or us 11:05 will cycle to the central post office 11:08 about three kilometers away 11:12 to pick up our mail. 11:14 That evening, 11:15 one of the student missionaries went 11:17 and he came back with a bunch of letters, 11:19 plus a telegram. 11:21 The telegram was sent from Bangkok. 11:25 And the telegram said, 11:27 "All five get out immediately." 11:31 They were three missionaries left, 11:33 plus two of us, so they were five. 11:35 So it was sent by the education director 11:38 of Southeast Asia Union Mission, 11:41 Pastor Milton Foreman. 11:43 Milton Foreman was in Bangkok visiting, 11:46 and he had the impression on the Sabbath 11:49 that something ought to be done 11:51 for those missionaries in Phnom Penh. 11:53 So on his own accord, 11:55 without committee action from Singapore, 11:58 he ordered us out. 12:00 And so, on the airport, 12:02 we had to hide ourselves in the bunkers. 12:07 So we will run from one bunker to the next 12:10 until we got close enough to the aircraft 12:12 then we will run to that. 12:15 We landed in Bangkok several hours later. 12:20 So whenever there was a thunderstorm in Bangkok, 12:22 we hit the floor, 12:24 because instinctively for two years 12:27 we had trained ourselves to do that. 12:31 Two weeks later, the Khmer Rouge marched in 12:33 and took control of Phnom Penh and Cambodia. 12:37 Under their brutal regime, 12:39 an estimated 2 million people died in prisons 12:42 or in the killing fields. 12:51 Oh, this is such a memorable place. 12:56 This brings a lot of memories. 13:02 Many of our believers were killed 13:05 as a result of their walking experience 13:08 from Phnom Penh to the border with Thailand 13:11 or to the border with Vietnam. 13:14 Oh, that is a sad chapter of the history... 13:17 Very sad. 13:19 Of not only of the Adventist Church, 13:22 but it's sad chapter in the history of society 13:25 over the last 60-70 years. 13:31 I received this letter from one of our former church members, 13:35 who managed to escape from Phnom Penh. 13:39 I'm praying day and night, 13:40 not asking God to grant me any selfish request, 13:44 but simply pleading with Him 13:46 that somehow every single member in Cambodia 13:51 may gather together. 13:52 What a joy it's going to be, 13:54 and what a rejoicing it's going to be 13:56 when Jesus comes again, 13:58 so we'll be able to see all 33 of our members 14:01 who were baptized, 14:02 and we remain faithful to Him until the end. 14:05 And so the church, 14:07 a new church emerged from that tragedy. 14:10 And today we have a strong Cambodian Church. 14:12 We even have a mission 14:14 with school with many activities. 14:16 So we just thank God 14:18 for the opportunity of serving Him. 14:40 Well, thank you so much 14:42 for joining us on today's program. 14:44 And I hope that you've been inspired 14:46 and challenged by the 360 degree view 14:49 of mission around the world. 14:52 We've been reminded of the courage of missionaries 14:54 as we've seen the Ng's in Cambodia. 14:57 We've been reminded of the challenge 14:59 of mission in Peru, 15:00 and right here in Panama City. 15:04 We see the growing numbers of people in high rises 15:08 who need to learn about the love 15:09 of Jesus Christ for them. 15:11 And I want to thank you for your continuing support 15:13 of Adventist Mission through your prayers, 15:16 through your giving, 15:18 and through your personal involvement, 15:19 and it does make a difference. 15:22 Well, for Adventist Mission, I'm Gary Kraus. 15:24 And I hope that you can join me next time 15:27 right here on Mission 360°. |
Revised 2020-03-21