Adventist
Children's Ministries turns 25,
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a Global Mission
pioneer in Zambia,
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and the sights and
sounds of Singapore.
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All that 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 country of Singapore,
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on the southernmost
tip of the Malay Peninsula.
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Singapore is a city state.
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And by that we mean
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a country that exists
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within the
confines of a single city.
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And there's only three remaining
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city states in the world.
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One is Monaco,
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and the other is
the Vatican City.
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On today's program,
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we'll be learning
more about Singapore.
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But first up,
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let's learn about
Children's Ministries.
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My guest here in
Singapore is Pastor Thum.
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And I wanna thank you
so much for joining us.
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And I'd like you
to please describe
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a little bit about the ministry
that you're involved in?
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Thank you for having me.
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I'm currently working as
a chaplain of this school
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called San Yu Adventist School.
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Yes.
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It's a mission school
with about 600 students.
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About 40% of the students
come from Mainland China
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Forty percent?
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Yes, that works out to be
about, you know, about 400,
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300 to 200 plus students.
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Well, now, why
are these students
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coming from Mainland China?
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They looking for
a better education
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and also an English
speaking environment.
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And, you know,
Singapore is the education hub.
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And so, and it is
much nearer to China.
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So this is a good stepping stone
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to places like
Australia, England, USA,
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in the future for
the tertiary education.
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Yes.
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So tell me how do you
interact with these students
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and with their mothers?
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What do you do?
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The students who are here,
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they study in
from grade one to 10.
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And, but
especially for children,
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who are in the elementary,
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the mothers
actually here with them.
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And these PRC mothers
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would send their
children to school every day.
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And so we try to
interact with their mothers.
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And what we do is we offer
them some very practical help,
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for example, English class,
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where we teach them
conversational English.
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And then from there, we
get to know them as friends.
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And they are very interested
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with what the
children are studying here,
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especially Bible is
something very new to them,
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Bible as a subject,
and they go to the church,
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Thompson Chinese
Church for the chapel classes,
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and we make friends with them.
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And we invite them
slowly to our Sabbath school
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to our children class,
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and they come
for worship together.
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Now, when they come here,
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do they realize that
it's a Christian school?
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Yes, before they
decide to register with us,
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we tell them very openly
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that their children
will be taught Christianity,
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or rather moral
education, through Christianity,
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and they like it
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because the children
are learning good values,
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especially the
characters in the Bible
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that Daniel,
Jesus Christ, you know,
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and children will go by
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and tell their
mothers the story.
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And for students
who are in high school,
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they will have
personal Bible study with us
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after the gospel week,
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where we invite them
to get to know Jesus.
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So every year we have
baptisms of the students
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and the mothers.
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Wow.
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And they then go
back to Mainland China
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and they have the opportunity
to share when they go back?
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Precisely.
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How many years have you
been doing this, Pastor?
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I have been in
this field of education
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for the past 26 years.
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Wow.
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But the work with PRC or
people from Mainland China,
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are the most recent, 10 years.
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Okay.
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What particular challenges
do you face in this ministry?
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I think the challenge will be
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how to have the mother
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to be able to also relate
the new faith to the fathers,
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because most of them
their husbands are in China.
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Right.
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And usually before
we have their consent
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to have baptism to join
us as a big family of God,
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we would ask their fathers,
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and even though
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they may not become
Christians immediately,
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and they are happy
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with what the wives
and the children are doing,
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and they give us the permission,
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and we invite them to
come to witness this big day.
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Wonderful.
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Can you give me
perhaps a story of someone,
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a child or a parent
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who has come to know
Jesus through the school?
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All right.
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This year, we
have had two mothers,
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especially I have
about 10 students,
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the mothers of these
students studying with me,
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and two of them decided that
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they want to join us
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as a family of
God through baptism,
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somewhere in
September this year.
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And this mother,
her name is Ventel
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and she shared
this with her husband.
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And the husband actually
got more excited than her
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and he got baptized
in the month of July
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in Chengdu, in China,
first, before his wife.
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Wow.
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You know, and the
children are still young,
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one in grade one
and one in grade three,
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but they love
the story of Jesus,
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and as they grow in the faith
in Jesus Christ and His love,
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and when they go
to the high school,
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I believe they also become
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a family of God through baptism.
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Fantastic.
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So these
children are coming here
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with no knowledge
whatsoever of the Bible?
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Precisely.
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There is a piece of blank
paper and we write on them
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"the love of God."
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Well, it's a
wonderful opportunity.
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Yes. What a privilege!
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Yes.
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And also from the church,
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there are people
who are here to work.
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They are the labor
force for Singapore.
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And we have those people
that come into the church,
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as a result of, for example,
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The Hope Channel,
The Amazing Facts,
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and they wanted to find a church
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that actually
worship on the Sabbath.
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So they came and as a result,
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we will be able
to study with them
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and recently,
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one of these
workers from Chingdu,
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his name is Tenson Sing.
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He was baptized
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after the series
of evangelism meeting
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and followed by
personal Bible study.
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Wonderful.
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Well, Pastor Thum,
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thank you so much
for what you're doing.
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May God continue to bless you.
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Thank you.
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Viewers at home,
please pray for this ministry.
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What a wonderful opportunity
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to share with young minds
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the good news about Jesus
and with the parents as well.
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We'll be right
back after this break.
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