A literature evangelist
taken to a police station,
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your mission offerings at work,
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and the sights and
sounds of Lyon, France.
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All this, much more
coming up next on Mission 360.
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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 Lyon in France.
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And this city is a
manufacturing city,
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has a rich history,
culture achievements.
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But for me, the thing
that stands out is that
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this is the
birthplace of Peter Waldo,
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who is regarded by many
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as the founder of
the Waldensian movement.
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He was a merchant from Lyon,
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and he gave away all
his property to his wife,
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the rest of his
possessions to the poor,
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because he
wanted to model a simple
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and a humble Christian
life, what an inspiration.
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On today's program
we're going to carry on
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in that spirit of mission
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as we look at
mission around the world.
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But first up, we
asked the question,
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are mission
offerings still important?
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I think you know the answer,
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but we'll find
out in just a minute.
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Have you ever felt as if
you're putting your money
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into a black hole
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when you give your
weekly mission offerings?
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Maybe you should think about it
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more as dumping your
offerings into the river.
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Not to get rid of them,
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but to help mission
flourish around the world.
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Mission offerings don't seem
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to get as much
attention anymore.
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Yet they're
still vitally important
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to supporting
work around the world.
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Think of your
mission offerings as a river
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flowing through
the entire world,
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providing life-giving water
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to help sustain
the mission fields.
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You probably know
countries and projects
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that are supported by part
of your 13th Sabbath Offering.
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But what about the
regular mission offerings
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you give each week?
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Where do they go?
What do they support?
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And what do they achieve?
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You may be
surprised to learn that
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your weekly mission offerings
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help support the work of
about 400 missionary families
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around the world.
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In fact, 70% of the
weekly mission offerings
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each quarter help
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to support overseas missionaries
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and the international
work of the church.
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Appropriations from
the General Conference
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to world divisions,
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the Middle East
North Africa Union Mission,
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and the Israel Field
help these regions build
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and sustain mission activities
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in their territories like water,
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irrigating fields when
there's not enough rain.
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The remaining money helps
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various
institutions and agencies
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that serve the world church.
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For example, it
helps the compassionate
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medical mission work
of Loma Linda University,
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the outreach of
Adventist World Radio,
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and the
humanitarian ministry of ADRA,
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the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency.
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In recent years,
millions of people
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from challenging
areas of the world
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have found salvation in Jesus
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and have joined the
Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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In 2018, every 22 seconds,
someone became an Adventist,
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and every 4 hours, a
new church was organized.
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Thanks to your offerings
and the Global Mission focus,
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thousands of new congregations
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have been
established in unreached areas
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and among new people groups.
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But after these new
believers have been baptized,
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how are they nurtured?
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How do we make sure that
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their new faith is strengthened
and they grow as disciples?
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Your river of mission offerings
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helps grow and sustain
new work throughout the world.
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Please keep this
life-giving river flowing.
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Thank you for your faithful
weekly mission offerings
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and your continuing
prayers for Adventist Mission.
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My guest is
Pastor Daniel Monachini,
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who is the president
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of the Adventist
Church here in South France.
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Thanks so much for
joining me, Pastor.
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Can you describe
some of the makeup,
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the demographics,
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the territory
that you're working in.
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We work in the
South France Conference
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near Mediterranean Sea.
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Yes.
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There is, the France
is getting in two parts,
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the North Conference with Paris
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and the South Conference
with the south of the France.
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You can get into the France
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and there is two
conference in our union.
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Okay.
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So you have some big cities
and you also have rural areas.
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Describe the big cities?
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The big cities of
the south of France
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are very multicultural places.
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We have a lot of immigrants
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because I'm Italian and France
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is very attractive economically,
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but also
philosophically, you know.
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With the revolution in
France, the philosopher said,
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"France is not a
country, is an idea."
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Then people feel more
free to be accepted in France.
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Very interesting.
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Now, what are the challenges
that you face in mission here?
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The big challenge
is our territories,
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you know, the south of Europe
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is a Catholic,
North, Protestant.
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But France have this story
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and story with
the French Revolution,
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the end of monarchy and
destroying the monarchy.
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The philosopher in that moment
went to cast away the church,
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the Catholic
Church, but also the church
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because they feel
that the power of the king
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it was helped by the church,
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then they build deep
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artistic feeling
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and believing in
the heart of the people.
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Yes.
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And it's not sort of like
the gentle sort of atheism.
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It's a very anti
religious sort of outlook.
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So what are you
doing here in mission?
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What are you doing to
try to build up the church?
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In this vision, the best way
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is to connect with people
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to build deep relation.
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Relation that
people can trust you,
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knowing that you are
Christian and Adventist,
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but that you are normal person,
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that you live in your community,
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that you work
with your neighbor,
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that you want to
be in the services
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of your town or your city,
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then we encourage member to be
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part of their
community to invest time,
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emotion relation
with the neighbor
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and with people
in their community.
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Yes.
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So, it would seem to me that
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you are following
Christ method of ministry.
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This is very
important for you. Yeah.
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Tell me about the
small group ministry?
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The small group is the best way
for a French people to begin,
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to create it an atmosphere
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where you can
speak about your problem.
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And you can also
speak about spirituality.
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A lot of people and
the young generation
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have a lot of
questions spirituality
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and an open mind.
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Not on religion or in
the doctrine of a church,
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but the person of Christ
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and the message of
the gospel is very,
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very interesting
then what best of house
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to create it the atmosphere,
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and to speak
friendly about this question.
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Without the
vision that, you know,
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after me or beside me,
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there is a trap where the church
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was waiting for you.
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Right. Right.
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And for a city such as,
like Lyon where we are now
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where you got more
than 2 million people
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in the greater
metropolitan area.
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You simply can't afford
enough church buildings,
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so expensive.
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So meeting in
homes and other places
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is a very positive
way of doing church.
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Now, I understand that
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you're planning a center
of influence here in Lyon.
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Tell me about that?
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Yes, we have the
opportunity to build
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with French administration
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a project of services
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where there is a
place for church,
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but there is place for different
00:10:01.90\00:10:07.40
from different form of
services for the church
00:10:07.44\00:10:11.07
and for the
community, excuse me,
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like ADRA or we
speak about a nursery,
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a nursery
community we speak about,
00:10:17.41\00:10:22.88
what is our culture
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as Adventist for
health ministries.
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But, yes, we've a place
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where we can offer
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this different
vision of the gospel
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and of the Adventist message.
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Wonderful.
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Thank you, Pastor,
for sharing with us
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and God bless you
in your ministry here.
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Thank you. Thank you very much.
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And viewers, when
we think of a place
00:10:46.21\00:10:48.28
like the south of
France, many people think of it
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as a wonderful
tourist destination
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which it is, but there
are millions of people here
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who are, well,
their defenses are up.
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They're just not
interested in religion
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and that's a
tremendous mission field
00:11:00.59\00:11:02.26
for the Adventist Church.
00:11:02.29\00:11:03.63
The number of
Adventists to population,
00:11:03.66\00:11:05.49
the ratio is just amazingly low.
00:11:05.53\00:11:08.33
So please pray
for the leaders here,
00:11:08.36\00:11:10.60
church members, the
new center of influence
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that God will open up
new pathways of mission
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to connect with the community
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and share the
good news of Jesus.
00:11:17.64\00:11:19.11
We'll be right
back after this break.
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