Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS002805A
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00:16 A floating church on the Amazon,
00:18 a church plant in Romania, 00:20 and the sights and sounds of Tokyo, 00:22 all this and much more coming up next. 01:07 Hello, and welcome to Mission 360. 01:09 I'm Gary Krause. 01:10 Today's program is coming to you from Tokyo, 01:13 the largest metropolitan area in the world. 01:17 According to some estimates, 01:19 some 36 million people live in the Greater Tokyo Area. 01:24 And in a densely populated area such as Tokyo, 01:27 I guess it's somewhat natural 01:29 that it is also 01:30 the vending machine capital of the world. 01:34 It's estimated that there is one vending machine 01:37 every, for every 23 people. 01:40 And in these vending machines, which are obviously here 24/7, 01:44 you can find drinks, you can find hamburgers, 01:48 you can find chocolate, you can find toys, 01:51 you can find popcorn, the list goes on. 01:54 But we'll be looking more at Tokyo 01:56 on today's program, 01:57 but first up, let's travel to the Amazon 02:00 to see what is being purchased 02:01 through your 13th Sabbath offerings. 02:04 A floating church. 02:08 The Amazon River is a source of food and income for many. 02:13 As you travel along the river, 02:15 you can see many communities along the banks. 02:17 Here you will find 02:19 one quarter of our planet's freshwater supply. 02:22 That's why boats are necessary for transportation. 02:25 There are entire communities 02:27 with either no knowledge of the Bible 02:29 or no churches. 02:30 Adventists here found a fitting way 02:32 to reach more than 10,000 communities. 02:35 Thanks to your past contributions 02:37 to the 13th Sabbath offering, 02:39 the floating church was built. 02:41 This custom boat 02:42 is a church that carries the pastor's family. 02:45 It often works alongside the ADRA Luzeiro boats 02:48 to provide health care and hope to people. 02:53 The main goal 02:54 behind the floating church project 02:55 is to reach places 02:57 we typically find hard to visit. 02:59 The floating church offers an infrastructure 03:01 for a pastor or Bible worker, 03:04 a captain and others to live aboard. 03:07 There's also an auditorium 03:08 where people from the community 03:10 can come to listen to the Word of God. 03:12 The floating church has an auditorium 03:14 that seats 120 people. 03:16 It's a comfortable space 03:18 for people to come and learn about God. 03:22 I know what difficulties they face 03:24 and how hard it is for the gospel message 03:27 to reach the distant communities 03:28 along the Amazon River. 03:30 This touched me in a special way. 03:33 I was moved by the prospect of this project. 03:35 It was encouraging to imagine how far this boat could go 03:39 to reach the riverside families. 03:40 This boat also has onboard apartments 03:43 for the crew. 03:44 Reno Guerra is both the pastor and the captain of the boat. 03:49 He and his wife Natalia accepted God's call 03:51 to bring hope and healing to the region. 03:56 As soon as the boat docks, 03:58 it's received with a lot of joy. 04:02 People are happy to see the floating church 04:04 because it is a beautiful and unique boat. 04:08 Pastor Reno sounds the horn 04:10 to catch the attention of the people 04:12 who come curiously to look. 04:15 So the pastor invites the people to a church program. 04:19 He enters a community 04:20 where the work already has begun 04:22 and calls the people to come inside the floating church. 04:27 The boat is usually docked for 60 days 04:30 as they talk about family, 04:32 health and community well being. 04:35 In the first year of service 04:37 two new churches were established 04:39 through the floating church. 04:40 This past June, 04:42 the Gutierrez Church 04:43 opened as a result of the missionary project. 04:49 This is the first daughter church plant 04:51 of the floating church project. 04:56 The church that floats is the mother 04:58 of all the traditional church structures 05:00 that are built along the banks of the Amazon River. 05:05 Indeed, miracles are happening along the Amazon. 05:12 We noticed that this project changes 05:14 what people think about God and about the Adventist Church. 05:20 There is change in their society. 05:23 People become calmer, happier, 05:27 more content and united. 05:31 The church helps the community to realize 05:33 how they can work together as one body 05:36 to develop social projects for themselves. 05:51 I believe many souls will be reached 05:53 through this boat. 05:55 This boat can reach places 05:57 where even radio signals don't travel to reach hearts. 06:10 We pray 06:12 that this will be managed and used well 06:13 for the gospel 06:15 to reach the farthest places in the Amazon. 06:19 We have the opportunity to navigate rivers and oceans 06:23 as part of our mission 06:24 to reach unreached people groups. 06:26 Please pray for the floating church 06:28 and the many missionaries 06:30 involved in flooding the Amazon with hope. 06:33 And thank you for supporting projects like these 06:36 through the 13th Sabbath offering. 06:57 My guest is Pastor Doug Venn, 06:59 and Pastor Doug works with me 07:01 in the office of Adventist Mission. 07:03 He's the director 07:05 for mission to the cities for the General Conference 07:07 and also director 07:08 of our Global Mission Urban Center. 07:10 Doug, thanks so much for joining us. 07:12 It's an honor to be with you, Gary. 07:13 Yeah. 07:15 So what we're going to talk about now 07:16 is the challenge of Tokyo. 07:17 I mean, give our viewers some sort of a view 07:20 of the challenge factor. 07:23 What are we facing with a city such as Tokyo? 07:26 Well, the Adventist work in any of the cities 07:30 is we have the opportunity to expand it. 07:34 And so it is, again, with the situation in Tokyo. 07:37 We did some analysis and there, every church, 07:42 imagine every church trying to reach 07:45 over 2 million people. 07:47 And so, that's part of their challenge, 07:48 and that's why I'm excited. 07:51 We have a new initiative 07:53 that's going to be looking at changing that. 07:56 Terrific. 07:57 Now, Dr. Ng who is my boss, 08:00 the secretary of the General Conference, 08:03 came up with this idea of Mission Unusual. 08:05 What do we mean by this? 08:07 Well, Mission Unusual is this initiative 08:09 where we're trying to take our work 08:12 to prepare the planet and its cities 08:16 for Christ's soon return. 08:18 So it's really global mission. Yes, exactly. 08:20 And we're wanting to expand 08:22 and to see how we can start new groups of believers, 08:25 whether that's going to be in church planting 08:28 or through centers of influence, 08:30 or we're truly wanting to have total member involvement 08:33 with our students who will come and help 08:37 through our Adventist volunteer services, 08:39 and kind of a comprehensive plan 08:42 to then actually make disciples. 08:45 So, Doug, I know that you have spent 08:47 quite a bit of time in Tokyo. 08:48 I know that, 08:50 Greg Whitsett from our Center for East Asian Religions 08:52 has spent time there. 08:53 Why? 08:55 What role 08:56 are the Global Mission centers playing in Tokyo? 08:58 Well, what we're doing is 09:00 we're trying to support the initiative and of the, 09:04 and the ideas 09:05 that the Japanese leadership have. 09:07 And so, in this situation, 09:09 we're coming in and trying to support 09:12 that local initiative, 09:14 whether it's through kind of resources, 09:18 whether it's through finances, 09:20 thanks to our donor's mission offerings 09:24 as well as then to find out some structural ways 09:27 of how we can align the entire Adventist family 09:32 to support what's happening on the streets there of Tokyo. 09:35 That's what we're talking about is, 09:38 let's do a team effort here. 09:39 That's right. 09:40 Let's have Adventist volunteers. 09:42 Let's have some missionaries. 09:43 Let's have Global Mission pioneers 09:46 and all come together with this one goal 09:48 to build the church up in this city. 09:50 That's correct. Yeah. 09:52 That's why it's so unusual 09:53 is because imagine 09:54 the Adventist family working together, 09:56 aligning its resources, imagination, 09:59 and that horsepower 10:00 of truly total member involvement 10:02 for what purpose? 10:03 It is for mission to the cities. 10:04 And in this case, it's the world's largest city. 10:07 Now you've met with the pastors, 10:09 you've talked to some of the young people. 10:11 What is the feeling there about this initiative? 10:13 I think that there is a energy and a excitement 10:18 that they're seeing what God can do. 10:21 You remember the time when Elisha had, 10:24 was surrounded there in the city, 10:26 and his servant was just focusing 10:28 on the enemy army. 10:30 And so I see that right now through this, 10:33 the last several years, 10:35 that not only we 10:36 as the leaders of the General Conference, 10:38 but also the Japanese 10:40 and, you know, in the past, and their team after division, 10:43 they're starting to see like Elisha did, 10:46 through eyes of faith, 10:48 to see actually that God has a plan 10:50 for that great city. 10:51 God has a plan for us to expand the kingdom 10:54 and to prepare many more disciples there 10:57 with the Japanese background 10:59 who are ready for Christ's soon return. 11:01 So you mentioned that each Adventist Church 11:05 at the moment in Tokyo 11:07 has a mission field of 2 million people. 11:09 That's correct. 11:10 So the goal of Mission Unusual is to plant churches. 11:13 How many do we want to fund? 11:15 Well, right now, it's exciting 11:17 that the local leadership has a vision 11:20 to actually start a church planting movement. 11:22 And so, we're in the process of mentoring young adults, 11:27 now whether they're going to be a professional or a student, 11:31 to actually become disciple makers 11:33 and to actually start and mentor other disciples 11:37 who will start other new groups of believers. 11:40 And so, we're wanting to start a movement. 11:42 Yeah, and I love to hear that. 11:44 Because we're not talking about static, 11:46 we're just going to try to fill up existing churches, 11:50 which is we want to do that, but we want to multiply this. 11:53 Amen. Amen. 11:54 We want to see God's kingdom expanding rapidly. 11:57 So what are the good signs 11:59 that are happening at the moment? 12:00 Well, right now, we've seen that we had a recent, 12:06 over the last several years we've been working on, 12:08 you know, starting with the Gideon's band 12:10 of, you know, about 1,200 Japanese pastors 12:14 to then actually then, 12:16 who they will then start mentoring others. 12:19 And so we're in that process of making, 12:22 encouraging that vision 12:23 for discipling a church planting movement. 12:27 So we've also seen how God is working 12:30 on the hearts of the people 12:31 where we've had recent public evangelistic meetings, 12:35 where people have come to Christ. 12:37 I remember one story from Osaka, 12:39 where there was a man, 12:41 God actually gave this man a dream. 12:44 And through that dream, 12:45 he was able to come into contact 12:48 with our Adventist family, 12:50 and he joined the Adventist movement 12:52 as a result of having a dream 12:54 and our team, they're in the city, 12:56 you know, doing a campaign 12:58 and so, whether we also see other signs 13:01 where we have our entrepreneurs preparing to say, 13:05 how are they going to set up in the world's largest city, 13:09 that one of the places 13:10 where even a square meter of real estate 13:12 is over a million dollars. 13:14 So how are we going to have centers of influence 13:17 in that great city as well? 13:18 So we see that different parts 13:20 of our Adventist family working together. 13:23 And that's what I'm excited about this Mission Unusual 13:26 is the opportunities that this has for us. 13:28 Wonderful. 13:29 Thanks, Doug, for sharing with us. 13:31 Viewers at home, this is really exciting. 13:33 This is an opportunity to work 13:37 under the guidance of the Holy Spirit 13:38 to build up God's kingdom 13:40 in, you know, in the Book of Jonah, 13:43 God finishes that book by saying, 13:45 "Should I not be concerned about this great city?" 13:48 And we're concerned about Japan 13:50 and already donors have been stepping up. 13:53 We are pledging from Global Mission 13:54 to put millions of dollars into this project, into people, 13:58 not just into buildings but into people 14:00 who will make a difference for God's kingdom. 14:02 Thank you for your continuing support. 14:03 We'll be right back after this break. |
Revised 2020-09-18