An Urban Center of
Influence on wheels in Hungary,
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work among the
blind in Toronto, Canada,
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and mission
right here in Ireland,
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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 from Dublin, Ireland.
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And I am standing in
Trinity College Dublin.
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And this is a...
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As you can see a historic place.
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And tourists come
from all over the world
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to see this attraction,
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but one of the things
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that really
catches their attention
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is The Book of Kells.
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This is a copy of
the New Testament gospels
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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
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beautifully
illustrated and produced
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by Celtic monks
back in the 800s.
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So it's perhaps the most
famous still in existence,
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medieval document.
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Well, on today's program,
we're going to be looking
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at mission
right here in Ireland,
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but first up, let's
visit a health fan in Hungary.
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Adventists are getting noticed
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at one of Hungary's
biggest music festivals.
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It's a little
out of the ordinary,
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but offering to paint designs
has attracted concert-goers
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to these local
church members' booths.
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It's important to find something
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people will be excited about.
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Don't worry, though,
the paint is washable.
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They're also offering temporary
hair coloring, lemonade,
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and, of course, prayer.
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At events like this,
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church members
have the opportunity
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to invite people to visit
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a nearby Urban
Center of Influence.
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Tunderevesz came to this
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Global Mission Urban
Center of Influence in Miskolc,
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hoping for relief
from her health issues.
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She was warmly
greeted by the staff
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and after some evaluation,
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they recommended
lifestyle changes
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and natural treatments
offered at the center.
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Over time, her health improved
and now she can't imagine
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what life would be like
if she hadn't come here,
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not just for her physical health
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but also mentally and socially.
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I actually developed friendships
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with the people working here.
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It's very important to
have this kind of community.
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I learned a lot here
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and it was such
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a community-building experience.
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Although these services
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are offered with
no strings attached,
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sometimes these interactions
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lead to more than
just health improvements.
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Since I started coming here,
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I've applied to attend
an Adventist health camp
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in the summer and I've
been taking Bible studies.
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An Adventist summer camp
opens for a week each summer.
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People come from all over
Hungary to make new friends
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and participate in
outdoor activities.
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Most have heard about the camp
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through various
urban centers of influence
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or from their Adventist friends.
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This is a lifestyle camp.
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We are doing
lifestyle evangelism.
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That means we
invite friends and people
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who are not in
contact with Adventist Church.
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We have here about 200 people,
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most of them are
not Adventist people.
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And they're invited
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just because we
have hiking programs,
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we have cycling, and
different sports programs,
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and they're
attracted to these programs.
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If we invite
somebody to our local church,
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maybe nobody would come,
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at least in this part of Europe,
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but if we invite
them to participate
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in a program like
this, they would like to come
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'cause they like to be healthy,
they like to have new friends.
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And this way, this
is a non-threatening way
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to connect with them
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and to connect
them with Jesus Christ
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and to the Adventist Church.
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The camp is a social place
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where people can
bond together in nature.
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There are seminars and
discussions about health
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and religious topics that
attract many of the attendees.
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They're provided
healthy meals that feature bread
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from the camp's bakery.
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At the end of the
week, many people go home
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feeling inspired by the retreat,
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and some even decide
to take Bible studies
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or volunteer at their
local urban center of influence.
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For those who may not live near
an urban center of influence,
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there is another solution.
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Hungarian church
leaders in the Duna Conference
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want to meet
people where they are,
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so they created a fully
outfitted ministry caravan.
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After purchasing
a van and trailer,
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Adventist professionals designed
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and renovated the
interior of the trailer
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to be a modern
mobile center of influence.
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The Duna Conference is
made up of 54 churches,
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so each church
has the opportunity
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to invite the van to their
town for one weekend each year.
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The ministry is
operated by volunteers,
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who work closely with the
local members who invited them,
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to determine
what type of program
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would be
appreciated by the community.
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Usually, the van is
parked in a central,
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prominent part of town.
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They offer health
expos, children's programs,
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cooking classes, a
Christian film club,
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and personal counseling.
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The programs of the
mobile center of influence
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have to be flexible to meet
the changing needs of people
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in towns and cities.
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This van allows Adventists
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to connect with
people in the community
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and develop a
long-term relationship.
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Your prayers and
giving to Global Mission
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have helped these
ministries become a reality.
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Please continue to pray
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and consider what you
can give to this cause.
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Thank you for
supporting Global Mission.
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My guest is Heather,
and she is the manager
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of the center of
influence across the street,
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where you can see the
live life to the fullest sign.
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Heather, thanks so
much for joining us.
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Thank you.
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You're managing this center,
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could you describe where we are,
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and maybe a little
bit of its background?
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Okay, we're in the
prime area in Dublin.
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We're just right
in the city center,
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like five minutes takes us
right in to where everybody is.
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We're on a real busy road here.
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Lots of people
passing by all the time.
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And this is our
center of influence.
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And it opened just
over four years ago,
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and at that stage it was purely
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based on the
vegetarian cookery classes all
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and very much
healthiest activities.
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And since then,
we've expanded on that.
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And we realized that
while working in Dublin here,
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a lot of people are lonely
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and it is one of the
major mental health issues
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that are hitting people
here in Ireland is loneliness.
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So we started looking at
how can we create an environment
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where people
will find friendship,
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and in the same way
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that they will find
the friend of Jesus Christ.
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And the center has, as I said,
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been running for
just over four years.
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And in that time, we
have built on the activity.
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So we now have a seniors'
club and that another group
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and we run a
vegetarian cookery class
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and which is very, very popular.
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People love our cookery class.
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And we run health
talks, depression recovery,
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we are in the process
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of trying to set up a
parent and toddler group.
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Wonderful. Terrific.
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Now apart from you who
else helps out with the center?
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We have
volunteers from our church
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who will volunteer
in different activities.
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We have a lovely
core group of people
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who are very dedicated
to the Christian center
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and have been from
the very beginning.
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And recently we
have and had been joined
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by student missionary Hannah
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who has come from Australia
to help us in our project here.
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Fantastic.
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Now the main Cuisle, give
me the background to that?
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Cuisle is the Irish
word for heartbeats.
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And when the name was picked,
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and they wanted the
center to be the heartbeat
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of the
community here in Ranelagh
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and where the church is based,
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so they thought that
was a very appropriate name
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and obviously with being in
Ireland, picking an Irish name.
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Yeah. It's very relevant.
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Yeah, I like that.
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So you get a lot of
foot traffic past here.
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People walking,
you get a lot of cars.
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The people who
come to the center,
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do they live
here in the community?
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Yes, the majority of people
who come in here are regulars.
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All live around,
right here in Ranelagh
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and very rarely
we will get somebody
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who is from outside around here,
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but the majority are people
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who live close
to the center here
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walking past here every day,
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and who have been
interested in what is going on
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within our center
and within our church.
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Now do you find that
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there's a
little bit of suspicion
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in the
community about the center
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because Seventh-day Adventist
not well-known in Ireland.
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What sort of
reaction do you get?
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It's varied so people would
be suspicious about coming in
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and because
people really don't know
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what Seventh-day Adventist is.
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And I have had
one lady say to me
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that she comes
regularly she said,
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and her friends when
she told her friends,
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she was coming to another group,
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that she shouldn't come here
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because we will just
want to grab her and keep her.
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Okay.
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And she said, she
just tells her friends
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that's not what
she experiences here.
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She experiences love,
friendship, and acceptance,
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and that we're not and
pushing an agenda on her.
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Right.
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So it's not like you're
being aggressive in any way.
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You know, you're building
bridges with the community.
00:11:03.49\00:11:05.16
Yeah.
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Because I think when we looked
at the center of influence,
00:11:06.56\00:11:10.30
people want to
belong before they believe.
00:11:10.33\00:11:12.87
And in order for them to belong,
00:11:12.90\00:11:15.20
we have to create friendships,
00:11:15.24\00:11:18.97
we have to create relationships.
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And sometimes I think we
get that the wrong way around.
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We want them to
believe before they belong.
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And my experience here is
people just want to belong,
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they want friendship,
they want and after that,
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everything else
just falls into place.
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Fantastic.
00:11:35.79\00:11:37.13
Can you share a story of someone
00:11:37.16\00:11:38.73
who you've met
through the center?
00:11:38.76\00:11:40.23
Yeah.
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And I think there was the lady
00:11:41.63\00:11:44.53
who came to
different activities.
00:11:44.57\00:11:47.87
And she was very reluctant
00:11:47.90\00:11:49.74
when 'cause we take
people's contact details
00:11:49.77\00:11:52.41
so that we can keep them up
to date on what's happening.
00:11:52.44\00:11:54.74
And she was very reluctant
to give me her details.
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She was like, "I'll just
come when I want to come in."
00:11:57.15\00:12:00.02
So, you know, we can't
push that so we're like, "Okay."
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And we had an evening
program on a Friday evening
00:12:03.42\00:12:07.92
where we had,
Europe for Jesus here,
00:12:07.96\00:12:11.46
and she was
passing by, she came in
00:12:11.49\00:12:13.06
and it was a
testimonies evening,
00:12:13.09\00:12:15.16
and she loved it and
after that, she said to me,
00:12:15.20\00:12:18.13
"I want to give
you my contact details,
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I want to know what's going on."
00:12:19.87\00:12:21.20
And since then she has been
coming to church most Sabbaths.
00:12:21.24\00:12:26.07
And this is quite a
common story of how people are,
00:12:26.11\00:12:31.31
when they come to
our church service.
00:12:31.35\00:12:33.05
It's three, coming to
the center quite often,
00:12:33.08\00:12:36.28
and then wanting
to find out a bit more
00:12:36.32\00:12:38.39
about what's
happening in the church.
00:12:38.42\00:12:40.06
Fantastic.
00:12:40.09\00:12:41.42
Now so you've been managing
it for how many years now?
00:12:41.46\00:12:44.16
Just over two years now.
00:12:44.19\00:12:45.63
So how has it affected you?
00:12:45.66\00:12:49.26
For me, it has
been, I don't know
00:12:49.30\00:12:53.03
whether I can
even put it into words.
00:12:53.07\00:12:54.84
When I first took on the role,
00:12:54.87\00:12:56.37
I was just so overwhelmed
00:12:56.40\00:12:57.84
with how was I
going to lead this center,
00:12:57.87\00:13:00.94
what did I have to give,
00:13:00.98\00:13:03.71
but my experiences God
has given me everything
00:13:03.75\00:13:07.55
I have needed to lead the center
00:13:07.58\00:13:10.55
and my
experience of reaching out
00:13:10.59\00:13:13.05
into the community has
been a very, very positive one.
00:13:13.09\00:13:15.92
I'm amazed at how many people
00:13:15.96\00:13:17.69
actually come in
through our doors,
00:13:17.73\00:13:19.53
and want to know
00:13:19.56\00:13:20.90
a bit more about our
center and our church.
00:13:20.93\00:13:25.33
For me, it's just amazing.
00:13:25.37\00:13:27.24
Fantastic.
00:13:27.27\00:13:28.60
Well, thank you so much
for the work you're doing here.
00:13:28.64\00:13:31.11
And I expect that there's
gonna be wonderful stories
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coming out in the future.
00:13:34.08\00:13:35.54
God bless you in
what you're doing.
00:13:35.58\00:13:36.91
Thank you.
00:13:36.95\00:13:38.28
Viewers at home, we have
many centers of influence
00:13:38.31\00:13:41.35
all around the world in centers,
00:13:41.38\00:13:44.25
like Dublin and
tremendous challenges,
00:13:44.29\00:13:47.16
of course, because
there's been years of prejudice
00:13:47.19\00:13:49.96
built up and years
of misunderstanding
00:13:49.99\00:13:52.89
and this is a center
that is putting Christ method
00:13:52.93\00:13:55.96
of ministry into practice,
mingling, showing sympathy,
00:13:56.00\00:14:00.64
ministering to
needs, winning confidence,
00:14:00.67\00:14:02.60
and then
leading people to Jesus.
00:14:02.64\00:14:03.97
So please pray for
this center here in Dublin.
00:14:04.01\00:14:07.11
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:14:07.14\00:14:08.88