Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY018071A
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:19 Removing pain 00:23 Lord, let my words 00:30 Heal a heart that hurts 00:35 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:46 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:11 Hello and welcome to 3ABN Today. My name 01:14 is CA Murray. Allow me once again to thank 01:16 you for sharing just a little of your, no 01:19 doubt, busy day with us; to thank you for 01:21 your love, your prayers, and your financial 01:23 support of 3ABN. As for these past 33+ 01:26 years, we have joined together in lifting up 01:30 the mighty and matchless name of Jesus. What 01:32 a wonderful 33 years it has been. You 01:35 will forgive me if I'm a little giddy 01:37 this very day. I'm happy because of the 01:42 subject matter, and I'm very pleased 01:45 because of the friends that have come to share 01:48 what is going to be a wild ride, dare I say, 01:51 for the next hour as, together, we recount 01:55 some mission exploits. If you are one of those 01:58 persons-and I was always this way-who 02:00 love mission stories and who love to hear 02:02 stories of people coming to the Lord 02:04 in far-off lands and the constellation of 02:08 miracles that attends tends that kind of 02:11 first-line work, then hold onto your seat 02:14 today. Grab whatever pharmaceutical of choice 02:17 you may be Ritalin in, be it Prozac, 02:21 whatever- or may I just suggest a glass 02:23 of warm herb tea and prayer, because we've 02:27 got the AWR gang here with us. They always 02:31 come loaded with stories and loaded with mission 02:34 exploits, and you really want to tune into 02:36 this. This is kind of the ones you may 02:38 want to get a DVD of to play over and over 02:41 again. If your experience is fatiguing just a 02:44 little bit, you want to play this one; I 02:46 know. I can say that in advance because 02:48 of what you are going to hear, 'cause I've 02:50 heard a little of what you're going to hear 02:52 (and a lot of it I have not heard yet), 02:53 so I will be just as excited as you are. 02:55 We have Duane McKey, president of Adventist 02:58 World Radio. These several years- not 03:02 so many years, but it's some wonderful 03:03 changes you've made. Good to have you here, 03:05 man. - Good to be here, CA. - The Lord has 03:07 blessed you. - You better tell them why 03:08 I have a beard. - You know, I was coming 03:09 to that. We were going to go and just say 03:11 that you're also assisting Elder Wilson 03:14 with TMI, and you've kind of merged those 03:16 two in a marvelous way...but yeah. You 03:19 better tell us about the beard. - It's AWR 03:21 360 that's emerged. The beard is- the 03:24 General Conference is having meetings this 03:25 fall at Battle Creek to look at our roots, 03:29 some of the pioneer things, 03:30 so we're all trying to look like pioneers. 03:33 Anyway, Kathy said, "Shave it off as soon 03:36 as it's over." [laughter] - I'm the slightest 03:40 bit envious; not totally. 1) Because 03:43 I'm not a beard person, and second, I can't 03:44 grow a beard. I get a little here, a little 03:47 there, a little here, some here, but I 03:48 can't do that. - It's three weeks old. 03:50 - That's just three weeks' worth of work. 03:52 That's impressive. We praise the Lord. Better 03:55 introduce the rest of the gang. Your wife, 03:58 Kathy McKey, social media and outreach 04:00 coordinator for presidential, so that 04:02 means you spend a lot of time on the 04:04 computer. I've heard how you bring the 04:06 computer to bed with you sometimes. You 04:08 gotta stop a lot of people from doing that. 04:10 [laughter] Happy to have you here as 04:14 always. - Good to be here. Thank you. 04:16 - Sue Hinkle. I was going to say our 04:19 buddy from Romania, but then they would 04:21 think you're Romanian, so we can't say that. 04:23 We met, first of all, in Romania... I met 04:27 you in an airport in Japan the first time, 04:30 and Sue in Romania. Sue is the outreach 04:33 manager for AWR. Before we get too deep into 04:37 this, I want to ask you what each of these 04:38 titles mean in the real world. Last is Cami 04:42 Oetman, who is the- Oot-min? Out-min? 04:45 - Oot-min. - See, I got it right! Oot-min. 04:48 Praise the Lord. Adventist World Radio 04:49 vice president for advancement. I think 04:51 I first met you here. - Yeah. [laughter] 04:53 - The most pedestrian of places. Now, let's 04:55 go back through this and just put some legs 04:58 on these job titles. You have combined 05:02 AWR with TMI, so it's kind of all working 05:06 together. It comes under the umbrella 05:08 of the whole new title or the whole new 05:09 direction that you're taking AWR in. - AWR 05:11 360 Broadcast to Baptism. - Which I love. 05:14 - So we're doing something together 05:16 as that's part of the TMI. Mrs. White says, 05:19 "The Lord won't come until all the church 05:22 members rally together with the pastors and 05:24 the church elders," so we believe in that, 05:26 and AWR, to work together to make 05:29 something that- one of my buddies, he's a 05:31 president over in Europe. He said, "I just used 05:33 to think that AWR was up there hovering 05:35 around someplace;" but now, the Broadcast 05:38 to Baptism, we're targeting. That's 05:41 what connecting the dots... AWR: Broadcast 05:45 to Baptism, TMI, is all about. - Praise the 05:47 Lord. And you went out and you drafted 05:49 some good players. This one, you decided 05:52 to marry. She got a little head start. 05:55 - She's the best. - Well, Kathy, what 05:58 is your job and how? - The thing that I 06:03 love is outreach. When we have big 06:06 projects, the focus from the General 06:08 Conference... Like this year, we had 06:10 Japan; go and do the pre-campaign preparation 06:17 and that type of thing and work closely with 06:21 the speakers. Also, for social media, I 06:24 work closely with Elder Wilson. - Amen and 06:26 amen. The two of you guys log a lot of frequent? 06:29 - We do. We do. Just got back from India 06:33 and Philippines and Korea. - And we'll 06:35 talk about them. [laughter] And Sue, 06:37 for AWR in particular? - Yes, I'm the outreach 06:41 manager, which means I am assisting Duane 06:44 with different outreach projects. That's 06:46 international projects; I'm working together 06:49 with Kathy, as well, on some of these TMI 06:53 AWR projects. I also help coordinate the 06:57 rallies that we have in the fall. We have, 07:02 right now, I believe it's 52 volunteer 07:06 ambassadors for AWR all across North America. 07:11 I help give support to them, as well. 07:13 - Yeah. Well, we've had several of them 07:15 here. As volunteer ambassadors, these 07:17 are maybe former pastors, former 07:19 conference workers, people who have a feel 07:21 for the church-certainly some techs here-and 07:23 can go out and speak well for AWR. Well done. 07:25 Of course, Cami does EVERYTHING else. 07:27 - Well, I don't know about that. [laughter] 07:30 Wherever I'm needed, that's... I love, love 07:32 what I get to do. I get to tell the world 07:37 the miracles that God's doing through AWR. 07:40 You just can't beat that. That is so 07:42 exciting. Every day is new, every mission 07:45 that we go on, and to be able to document 07:47 these miracles and these different people 07:49 and how AWR has changed their lives- the Holy 07:52 Spirit has reached through the radio 07:54 and has changed their lives, as well as the 07:56 evangelism that we bring into the different 07:57 cities... The AWR 360 is so encompassing 08:02 that it just touches everyone in some way. 08:05 We can't wait to tell you all the 08:07 stories. - Yeah. I'm going to lose and let 08:08 you go. Let me pay you a compliment, my 08:10 dear friend, because I was among that number- 08:13 we had talked about this a little bit ago- 08:14 that kind of thought, AWR, was kind of just 08:17 out there, floating in the heavens, but 08:20 you have brought an energy to it, and can 08:22 I say an earthiness? You kind of put it on 08:24 the ground-boots on the ground kind of 08:25 thing where it is much more eminent, 08:28 much closer, much more part of the overall 08:30 thrust of the church. You've got some good 08:33 people on the team, but I feel a change 08:35 in the energy at AWR. - Amen. It is so 08:39 exciting to see what is happening. As we 08:42 go around the world and work with projects, 08:43 work with conferences, unions, churches, 08:45 church members... The stories start happening 08:48 and people get excited and say, "We can do 08:50 this by God's grace." The work can be 08:52 finished. Jesus will come. - Comes a time, 08:54 comes a man, so the Lord has put the right 08:55 person in the right place at the right 08:57 time. - Praise God. - I salute you for 08:59 that. Of course, marrying that with 09:01 TMI, you carrying both of those portfolios, 09:03 really is a match made in heaven (I believe). 09:05 - Thank you, CA. - So let us now, because I've 09:08 heard some of the stuff- I don't know 09:10 who's going to take it. Let's launch out, 09:11 because you're doing some great stuff and 09:12 the Lord is blessing in a marvelous way. 09:15 - Yes. We wanted to show you, actually, how 09:18 the founders, the ones who were there at 09:21 the beginning, the Steeles, and how 09:25 they see AWR 360 now today in comparison to 09:29 when it began, but 45 years ago... - 1971. 09:34 - So, yeah. We have a video to share with you 09:37 first to get things started to show you 09:39 exactly where the ministry was and is 09:43 going and how God has led the whole way. 09:45 - Actually, there are ambassadors now for us 09:48 in New Mexico. They're working with us; 09:50 retired, but ambassadors. We're excited about 09:53 what's happening. - All right. Let's take a 09:54 look. - Hi! I'm Cami Oetman, and this is 09:58 your AWR 360 Moment. Adventist World 10:04 Radio has been carrying the voice of hope to 10:07 the unreached people groups of the world in 10:09 their own languages. AWR started over 45 10:15 years ago in 1971, and the vision today is 10:20 just as strong as it was back then. Meet 10:24 the Steeles, the first employees of Adventist 10:27 World Radio. - So Allen and Andrea, 10:31 tell me a little bit about your background. 10:33 How did you first become interested in 10:36 radio? - Well, for me, I was out of university. 10:40 I was part of the radio station on campus, and 10:44 we had a very special guest come to the 10:47 campus and talk to us. That was H.M.S. Richards, 10:50 the real pioneer of radio for the Adventist 10:54 church. He gave us a vision that really 10:58 caught with me. That was, we can reach 11:01 the whole world with radio, and he said, 11:05 "You have got to do it." I took it personally. 11:08 Ever after that, that was my goal-to get 11:12 into that type of ministry for the Lord. 11:15 - The General Conference decided to start 11:17 this radio project, and you were chosen 11:20 to be the first employees. Tell me 11:23 a little bit about that. - That was a very 11:27 exciting time, of course. This was the 11:32 vision that I had had- that we would, somehow, 11:35 be able to spread God's message around 11:38 the world. I offered. I said, "? 11:43 Send me! I'll go," and the first assignment 11:48 was in Lisbon, Portugal. As we were planning 11:52 to go, they said, "Now, we need to 11:53 warn you that we only have enough 11:56 money to keep you there for a year. 11:58 Do you mind going just for a year?" 12:00 We said, "Sure, we'll do that." Well, it 12:03 turned out that the next year, while we 12:06 were there, they said, "Can you stay another 12:08 year?" We said, "Okay, we'll stay another 12:10 year." And this continued on for 5 years. - I 12:14 think that the church leaders were delighted- 12:17 maybe surprised a little bit-when articles 12:21 began to come about the results that we 12:24 were getting from those broadcasts. We had 12:27 20 languages 12 hours a week was all, and 12:31 they began to make donations for it. 12:33 In fact, after one article, enough money 12:36 came in for the next year. I think that's 12:40 when the church leader said, "Okay. This is 12:42 important. The church members want it. Let's 12:44 do it." - As you're aware, Adventist 12:47 World Radio is expanding the ministry, and we're 12:50 calling it AWR 360' from Broadcast to 12:55 Baptism. We're still doing what we've done 12:58 in the past and increasing, but now, 13:01 we've added this dimension, trying to 13:04 reach out to the listeners that are 13:07 listening to the broadcast, connecting 13:09 with them, and getting them into a local 13:12 church. What do you think about this 13:15 expansion of the ministry of AWR? 13:20 - This new vision of AWR 360 has just 13:23 totally fulfilled our dream of what might 13:27 happen with this special ministry. It's a 13:30 completion of what I call the circle of love. 13:33 You give the message, then you follow through, 13:38 then you bring people to a family of God 13:43 that can nurture them and help them. It seems 13:46 to me that it's just the natural way that 13:49 things should have developed and perhaps 13:51 should have been done long ago if it were 13:53 possible. So, it completes. It's an 13:58 exciting aspect that completes the circle 14:02 of not only giving the message, but then 14:05 bringing the people to God and helping 14:08 them to be part of the family of God. 14:13 - I'm sure that, all over the world where 14:16 we have radio studios, when people write to 14:20 Adventist World Radio, those messages are 14:22 always sent to the country of origin 14:24 as well as being answered by AWR, then 14:29 they're sent a Bible study card. So, they're 14:32 able to sign up for Bible studies, then 14:34 they work with a Bible study office 14:37 right in their own country. This 14:39 follow-through of having people actually 14:42 go and do evangelistic meetings, now in the 14:45 different countries, is the connection. It's 14:47 a natural thing for it to be happening, 14:49 and it's wonderful that it can be happening 14:52 in so many parts of the world, and that 14:54 people in any country, such as the US or any 14:58 place, who are excited about Adventist 15:01 World Radio, who perhaps made contributions 15:03 to help it keep running-that's so 15:05 important-but who might like to be involved 15:07 can actually be involved in some of these things, 15:09 so they can actually meet some of the 15:11 listeners. That's one of the most beautiful 15:13 things is to meet someone who has had 15:17 their life turned around because of what 15:19 they heard on the radio. - This new 15:22 vision of AWR 360 has just totally fulfilled 15:26 our dream of what might happen with this 15:30 special ministry. - Isn't it amazing 15:33 that 40 years later, the Steeles' original 15:35 vision of Broadcast to Baptism is being 15:39 carried out by AWR 360 today and countless 15:42 lives are being changed thanks to AWR. But 15:46 there are many who still need to hear 15:48 about our loving Savior. Won't you 15:50 join us in the final work of the Lord? 15:53 This has been your AWR 360 Moment. 16:07 - That is so nice to get some of the history. 16:09 Let me just tap the pause button 16:10 and ask you a quick question. Two things: 16:12 the idea Broadcast to Baptism, which seems 16:16 like a natural evolution to me- was that 16:18 something that came in a committee room? 16:20 Something that the Lord sort of just put 16:22 on your soul-kind of came into your 16:24 heart? And secondly, give us just a touch... 16:27 Anyone can pick this up. Shortwave radio... 16:31 What you do is not like regular AM/FM radio. 16:34 Talk to me a little bit about the broadcasting 16:36 and how it differs, because there are 16:37 some who just don't know. - Okay, good. When 16:40 they first asked me to do this, right after 16:43 that, we were in Romania. I accepted 16:45 the challenge from the General Conference 16:47 to lead out in AWR. We were thinking, 16:50 "Well, what can we do to make this-" for me, 16:53 personally, I kept thinking, "Just 16:54 broadcast; broadcast. Where does it go? 16:56 Who's listening? How do you know?" 16:58 So, the Lord just gave it to us, I 17:00 guess. Broadcast to Baptism; AWR 360... 17:03 It just kind of came and said, "Wow. That's 17:05 what God wants us to do." - Praise the Lord. 17:08 - Same thing. When it's different folk, it's maybe 17:09 completing the circle, making it more- well, 17:12 I think fulfilling the gospel commission, 17:14 which is our mission. - Now, what you do differs from 17:18 the regular radio station we just 17:20 turned on during the day. Your broadcasts 17:22 are somewhat different. - Right. We have the 17:24 shortwave from Guam. What is it- about a 17:27 third of the world we connect with? 17:29 And we have a lot of areas around the world 17:31 which are very difficult to reach with AM/FM. 17:33 We also have AM, FM... We have internet, we 17:37 have-I think Cami came up with the idea 17:39 where it's broadcasting on all media platforms. 17:43 So, that's what we're looking at. We'll 17:45 talk about some of those platforms as we move 17:47 on today: cell phone evangelism, internet 17:49 evangelism, what we can do to reach the 17:52 modern age with comprehensive 17:55 health evangelism. A lot of different 17:57 things that we can put together. We feel that 18:00 we're not just broadcasting-we do 18:02 that-but also, we want to complete the circle 18:05 and do other things, as well, and reach as 18:07 many people as possible for Jesus. 18:10 - But your broadcast day, though, is broken 18:12 up into many languages. So, if you're covering 18:14 a number of countries, everyone at sometime 18:16 will hear something that they can relate 18:18 to in their own language. - Yes. We have 100 18:20 languages. Actually, the Adventist church 18:23 has, I think... Kathy, do you remember 18:27 numbers? Almost 1,000. - 900 and some languages. 18:31 - 970 languages we operate in, but we 18:33 only preach in about 90-100 languages and 18:36 AWR's only about 100 languages, so a new 18:39 challenge they were looking at is, "Hey! 18:41 Let's broadcast in 1,000 languages around 18:44 the world!" That's a whole new concept, 18:47 how we can start broadcasting in more 18:49 languages, 'cause why should a person who 18:51 speaks-his mother tongue is Ciluba- 18:55 sit in a church and have to listen to 18:57 French? - Yeah. - So, let's get into the 18:59 Ciluba, as well. - Praise the Lord. 19:01 Well done. Cami, I guess back to you. 19:03 - What we've really been excited about is 19:07 the donors' feedback about the new perspective 19:11 of AWR 360. We get a lot of feedback 19:13 saying, "Oh, we just love the fact that 19:16 you're not only in the air, but your 19:18 boots are on the ground." that whole concept. 19:19 So, I think it's really catching. We 19:26 actually applied this combination in Japan. 19:29 We have a wonderful clip we wanted to show 19:32 you regarding President Obara and his story 19:36 and how he was used by the Lord in how AWR 19:42 played a role. - Before we show that, Sue, 19:45 tell us; you asked him. We took the 19:47 Japanese to the Philippines. They don't 19:51 do evangelism there, and they haven't ever 19:53 done it. We took a bunch of them. How 19:55 many? 50? - 48. - 48 of them to the Philippines 19:58 to preach their first evangelistic meetings 20:00 a year ago, so you were talking to Pastor 20:03 Obara. - I was. This is a conference 20:04 president, so I ask him, I said, "Have 20:08 you ever preached an evangelistic series 20:10 before?" He said, "No; never." - So he's 20:14 in Tokyo. He's the conference president 20:16 of the largest conference in Japan. - That's right. 20:18 He never preached a campaign or evangelistic 20:21 series, and he said in his entire life, 20:23 he had only attended one evangelistic 20:26 meeting when he was younger. - Wow. - He 20:28 was about 12 when he did that. - Yes! He said, 20:33 "We just don't do evangelism like that 20:35 here in Japan." I said, "Well, so what 20:39 do you do?" He said, "Well, we do weekend 20:41 events. We have health programs, 20:45 family programs..." I said, "Well, so you 20:48 don't do anything like, doctrinal?" 20:50 He said, "No." I said, "How is that 20:52 working out for you?" He said, "It isn't." 20:55 And actually, they had a negative loss in 20:59 membership that year. - Now, is this a 21:01 government prohibition or just a cultural 21:03 thin of churches- sort of just developed 21:05 along those lines and we just don't do it? 21:07 Is the government saying, "You cannot," 21:08 or... - No, no, the government will let 21:10 you do anything we want to. That's not 21:12 a problem there; they're just- the latest field, 21:15 "We're going to try other ways and other 21:16 means," but, like we said, it's not working. 21:18 The church is dying. - Last time you were 21:22 here-I'm sorry, Cami- the last time you were 21:23 here, you were pre-this, so now we're post-this? 21:26 - Yes. - Okay. Very good. Yeah, 'cause 21:28 we didn't know what to expect. - Yeah. 21:30 We went and we preached, and Pastor 21:32 Obara preached his second series. His 21:34 first series in Mindoro, his second series in 21:36 Tokyo. - All right! - And fantastic results. 21:40 Yeah. Duane, actually, he preached in Okinawa. 21:44 Why don't you tell us a little bit about 21:47 Steven? - Steven? Okay, good. - I 21:50 think we have a picture of him. - Do we have 21:51 a picture of Steven? - Mhm. - Yeah. Steven 21:54 was a marine, and he was in the Afghan 21:56 war and was a sharpshooter. After 22:00 a while, that kind of got to him. It just 22:03 really bothered him, so he started drinking. 22:06 He started drinking so much that the 22:10 marines kicked him out. - Oh, wow. - I mean, 22:12 you gotta drink a lot. He just wanted to 22:14 bury this stuff. The emotional trauma is 22:17 going on, in his heart, so he ends up 22:19 in Okinawa and he finds this young 22:22 Japanese lady. They get married, 22:25 have a couple kids, but he has this 22:28 struggle. He drinks and drinks, and he's 22:30 working on the base (but he's not a 22:32 marine anymore). One day, he just turns 22:35 on the TV and he sees a little video clip. 22:42 ? radio. It's a partner with us; 22:44 it's one of our partners that does 22:46 YouTube evangelism. He listens to this, 22:49 and he gets so excited. He listens again 22:53 and again. So, my friend who's doing 22:56 the YouTube evangelism in Dallas, Texas- 23:01 Mark Fox-and Mark calls me up. He says, 23:05 "You won't believe this. This young man 23:07 in Okinawa, an ex-marine, wants 23:10 to become a Seventh-Day Adventist. He's been 23:12 listening to our partnership with him 23:15 on YouTube evangelism there in Okinawa. 23:17 He said, "Mark, you won't believe this. 23:19 I'm going there in two weeks to have 23:20 a series of meetings." [laughter] - And it 23:22 turned out to be at the church that he'd 23:24 been attending! - Oh, wow! - Isn't that 23:26 awesome? - Yeah. - Here, this young man- 23:28 he volunteered and he wasn't even 23:30 baptized yet, volunteering to help 23:31 out around the church. I mean, his whole 23:32 life is changed. So Duane got to know 23:35 him, and Kathy. - Yeah. We studied 23:37 with him. Summer, he came to the 23:38 meetings and he was baptized at the 23:39 end of the meeting. - That's how you 23:41 got such a big smile on your face. Praise 23:43 the Lord; what a great story. So, he is 23:46 baptized in the church. - Uh-huh. 23:48 Is his family with him? Are they... 23:49 - His wife is studying. I had a call that came 23:52 forward, and Kathy... - Well, his wife 23:56 seemed very serious, so I went up and 23:59 put my arm around her, and she started 24:01 to cry. So, we sat down together and 24:04 I said, "Would you be interested in 24:07 getting baptized?" She said, "I'm not 24:11 ready yet." But she came to Steven's 24:15 baptism and was so supportive of him. 24:21 - Those tears are indicative of something. 24:24 Bring that picture up one more time, guys, 24:26 if you will. Yeah, see, I don't know who's 24:29 smiling more. [laughter] He's happy and you're 24:34 pretty happy, too. - Very happy. - Praise 24:36 the Lord. - He is the pastor's right 24:38 arm. He does everything in the church. He's 24:40 so involved. He's an ex-marine. He says, 24:44 "You're supposed to be here 15 minutes 24:46 before, not on time." [laughter] - Okay. 24:49 He's going to stay active. He's a keeper. Praise 24:52 the Lord. Well done. That's a great 24:54 story. - Yes. So, should we move onto 24:56 Zambia? - Sure. - We have so much to share. 24:58 - Oh, my. - So, after the wonderful results 25:02 in Japan-and they're on fire now-next, 25:05 we went to Zambia where we had the 25:09 radio go beforehand, of course-the messages. 25:12 I'm going to share the piece that I 25:14 was very much involved in. We, through our 25:19 AWR local producer there, he had arranged, 25:24 by God's grace, for us, our media team, 25:27 to get into the highest maximum 25:30 security prison there in all of Zambia. I'll 25:36 get to how this works out, because as we 25:38 arrive, immediately, our equipment's 25:41 taken away and we're put in a room. The people that were 25:43 working, the guards that were on staff that day could 25:46 not believe that any media would ever be 25:48 allowed-not a president, not a dignitary... 25:52 Oh, I mean- excuse me. Only a president or 25:54 a dignitary can ever get in; not any other 25:56 media of any kind. Should we show the 25:58 video, actually? Let's show the video first, 26:01 because I think that this explains a lot, 26:03 then I'll add in to meet. - I'm a little nervous about 26:05 this. This is a male prison, and Cami is 26:10 going in. - I'm not worried at all. I 26:15 request the best bodyguards there 26:17 are. Not worried; no. If we could play 26:22 the Zambia prison video, that would be great. 26:26 Hi, I'm Cami Oetman, and we just spent 26:29 the day in prison. This is your AWR 360 Moment. 26:41 As the thief hung on the cross, he 26:42 must have thought about his life, the 26:44 choices he had made. He knew that his 26:47 crimes were deserving of this punishment, 26:49 yet the man next to him was so peaceful 26:52 and kind. He even prayed for his 26:54 persecutors. The thief was convinced this 26:57 man was the Son of God. In his last act, 27:01 he only asked to be remembered. Jesus 27:03 assured the thief that he would be 27:05 redeemed. From that moment on, he died 27:08 with the hope of salvation. Today, 27:11 there are many in prison awaiting 27:12 their final punishment of death, yet like 27:15 the thief on the cross, hope still remains. 27:18 Miraculously, Adventist World Radio just 27:21 visited Zambia's highest maximum 27:24 security prison. This is unprecedented. 27:27 No other media has ever been allowed 27:30 besides presidents and dignitaries. 27:32 However, God made a way. Out of 250 27:36 death row prisoners, more than 50 have 27:39 been baptized into the Seventh-Day Adventist 27:41 church. Over 800 inmates have become 27:44 Adventists largely due to hearing our gospel 27:47 radio messages. As our video team entered 27:50 their worship service, we were overwhelmed 27:52 with joy. Only a portion of the inmates 27:55 were attending that day, and their happy, 27:58 smiling faces said it all. They have the hope 28:01 of Jesus. This has been your AWR 360 Moment. 28:15 Wow. A number of things come to my 28:17 mind. Forgive me, 'cause I know you 28:18 1) the 360 moments are 28:22 a little feature now that you've moved 28:24 into. - Yep. We do those on Thursday 28:26 nights - short ones. - Yeah. On all of 28:29 our social media- YouTube, Facebook, 28:30 all of it-it's Thursdays. You can tune into 28:33 a new story, a new miracle every week. 28:35 - Now, you baptized a fairly significant 28:38 number of people who are on death row, 28:39 which means they'll never come out. 28:41 - That's right. - They're going to 28:42 die in prison, but they've given their 28:44 hearts to the Lord. - That's right. - 870 28:45 Adventists in prison now. But...they weren't 28:49 Adventists when they went in. - That's 28:51 right. [laughter] Let's make that 28:52 point. What was amazing is, that 28:55 very day, that day, we knew that there 28:59 was 800 in that prison. However, 29:01 we found out that the AWR local team 29:04 was coming there and they were 29:05 baptizing 70 more the next day, because 29:07 they are listening to the gospel on the 29:09 radio. They are just hungry for the Word 29:12 of God. We're thinking, "How is it that we 29:16 were allowed access?" What happened was 29:19 is that the general commissioner of 29:22 Zambia, he sees a change in his prison. 29:25 Can you imagine why? Out of 2,400 prisoners, 29:29 over 870 of them are now Seventh-Day 29:34 Adventists, loving Jesus, wanting 29:36 eternal life... They are calm, cool, 29:39 collected, peaceful men. What a change. 29:42 That's- what? A third of the prison? - A 29:44 third of your prison population is under 29:46 new leadership; of course there's impact 29:48 on the prison. - That's right! We're very 29:51 welcomed there. We want to actually give 29:55 more radios out. - So they're allowed, Cami, 29:57 to have radios in prison? - Yes. - They're 29:59 allowed; okay. Praise the Lord. - Because 30:01 of us. - Uh-huh. Nice. - There's a 30:03 little lady. What's her name? She's a 30:05 precious little lady. She goes there every 30:08 week, takes radios and gives them to prisoners... 30:10 - They call her "Grandma." She gives them the 30:13 hugs and the love. - Praise God. - does 30:17 Bible studies with them. It's wonderful. 30:20 - So, I imagine any time that you knock 30:21 on a door, they're ready to open and 30:22 let you come back in. - Yes! - Praise the 30:24 Lord. - It was so exciting. Lots of 30:26 exciting things happened in Zambia. I want to 30:28 share another story with you. I call it 30:30 the "Small Radio Story." There was this young- 30:33 we can show the pictures throughout, 30:35 if you'd like. There was this young woman 30:37 who fell in love with a man. She herself 30:39 was a Seventh-Day Adventist and he was 30:40 not. He had said to her that she could 30:43 keep her religion; no problem. He'd 30:45 keep his and it'd be no issue. So what they 30:48 did is they got married, and it was 30:50 a short time later that he said, "No, 30:55 you must come with me to my church. You 30:57 can't go to your church anymore." 30:58 This created quite a strain and a stress 31:00 on the marriage. It then escalated into 31:03 abuse and...not a good scene. One night, 31:07 this young woman was laying in her bed. 31:09 She had a dream. This dream was of a radio- 31:14 a small radio. She woke up out of the 31:16 dream and she was like, "What was that 31:18 about?" She fell back asleep. Again, this 31:21 dream of a small radio. She woke up and she 31:24 realized, "This must mean something. I 31:26 don't know what it is!" So she got up 31:28 to do her daily chores. She's in the 31:29 kitchen. The next thing she sees is her husband 31:32 had left earlier that morning. The next 31:36 thing is he walks through the door 31:37 with a bag in his hand. He comes over to the 31:40 kitchen table and he sets it down. He's 31:42 like, "I'm so excited! I had this wonderful 31:44 idea. I went out and I bought us... Ta-dah!" 31:47 What do you think it was? - A radio. - You 31:49 bet it was. A small radio! So get this- 31:53 this is the climax of the story. - You're 31:56 not going to believe this. This is incredible 31:58 what God has done here. - Our God is 32:00 amazing. Isn't He amazing? - He is. 32:01 - This man, who's very against Adventism, 32:04 he turns on the radio. What do you think 32:07 played? "Lift up the trumpet-" I can't 32:09 believe I'm singing on TV. What am I doing? 32:11 I can't sing! [laughter] Anyway, AWR! He didn't 32:16 like that. He was mad; turned the knob the 32:17 other way. All the other way! "Lift up 32:20 the trumpets-" AWR! He turns it again. 32:23 Oh, he's so upset! The radio would only 32:26 play AWR. Amen? [laughter] That's 32:29 such a miracle. He's upset. He walks away. 32:32 This woman-this wife- she's ecstatic! She 32:37 now has her home; her heart is full! So she 32:41 listens all day long. Doing her chores 32:43 around the house, she's listening to AWR. 32:45 What she didn't realize, her husband 32:47 was around the corner, listening as 32:50 well. - Ah... Wow! - She didn't know this! 32:53 A day came where he summoned her in, and 32:55 she'd never been summoned by him. She 32:57 was very scared, because she didn't 32:59 know what he was going to announce to her. 33:01 He called for her. She's like, "Is he 33:03 having an affair? What's going on?" 33:05 So she comes in all shaking. He says, 33:08 "Wife, I have something to tell you. Your 33:14 radio has taught me that the Adventist 33:18 message is the truth." - Bless his heart. 33:21 - "This Sabbath, you will be going back to 33:24 your church." But there's something more. 33:26 "I will follow you there." - Amen! 33:29 - Amen? So now, they are together, they study, 33:33 he's baptized, they have a wonderful 33:36 Seventh-Day Adventist home, all because of 33:38 the little radio that would only play AWR. 33:43 - That is a fabulous story. - It's awesome. 33:45 - It really is. - But during the time 33:49 this was going on, we were doing meetings 33:51 in Zambia. Our idea was, like we had 33:54 taken Japanese last year to Mindoro to 33:57 get excited about evangelism and go 33:59 back home and do the same, we brought 34:00 Europeans to Zambia to preach and get 34:03 excited. We had how many? Do you remember? 34:05 50? - Around 50. - Around 50 altogether, 34:09 wasn't it, to Lusaka, Zambia? I told you 34:12 about this last year. We had asked the 34:14 pastor how many meetings they would 34:15 do. We kept talking to them, talking to them, 34:17 and finally, they would do a thousand 34:18 meetings. That really happened. - Oh, it did! 34:21 - A thousand. That's the most meetings 34:24 ever done in any- - That's just one 34:27 city. - That's one city! - One city at 34:29 one time. Connect the dots. - Wow. 34:34 - Before that, we had done broadcasting, 34:36 all the health messages, all the Bible messages 34:39 into the city. So we're broadcasting, 34:41 we have these meetings, the Europeans are 34:42 preaching a thousand meetings at one time, 34:44 we send them a thousand video projectors, 34:46 brand-new ones... So here, they're 34:48 preaching with video projectors, they're 34:50 doing the health message, the churches 34:52 are full, however... Kathy, do you remember- 34:56 the Union president told us ahead of time, 34:59 this was not going to work because... 35:02 - It's the winter there. June is the coldest 35:07 month of the year. In fact... - That's 35:13 relative. It's like, 70. [laughter] 35:16 - We had set the days for the meetings, 35:20 then he calls up Duane and says, 35:23 "You have to change the dates." Duane 35:25 says, "It's impossible!" - It's a GC calendar. 35:29 You can't change it! - Yeah! We can't change 35:31 the dates. - He said, "Well, it won't work!" 35:33 "Well, no; let's try." So, they told us 35:36 later, they said, "We thought you might 35:37 have..." - 2,000 baptisms, maybe. 35:41 - At the most. 1,000 meetings plus the 35:43 other meetings in Livingstone. The Lord 35:45 blessed. Do we have pictures? - You could 35:48 show the video while- yes. I was just going 35:49 to say, would you please roll the video 35:51 of Zambia? - It's amazing. Look at that. 35:55 - Oh, wow. That's impressive. - That's 35:58 just in Livingstone. - We had many more 36:03 in Lusaka. That's the Livingstone one. 36:07 - Duane was baptizing there. - We had 70 36:11 meetings in Livingstone. - But altogether, 1,075, 36:18 I think, was it...across Zambia. - Yeah. - And 36:21 the Lord blessed another 2,000 baptisms. - Mm-mm. 36:24 Not 5,000. - Almost 18,000 baptisms. 36:30 - Praise the Lord. - Yeah. Just unbelievable. 36:32 One of the vice presidents of the Union 36:36 said to me, "We've learned this. God is 36:39 a God of the season." [laughter] - He works 36:43 year-round. - Amen! - From now on, we're 36:46 going to do meetings in June, we're going 36:47 to do them in September. - Now, give me some 36:49 sense. This is the one you brought the 36:50 European guys. - Uh-huh. Right here. They 36:53 were baptized. Can you imagine a guy 36:56 who's baptized two or three people all 36:57 of his ministry? Now all of a sudden he's 36:59 baptizing 100 people? [laughter] - And 37:02 several of those Europeans were with 37:04 ASI Europe. They are on fire for evangelism. 37:07 - Praise the Lord. - They saw what could 37:08 be done. They're wonderful people. I know they're 37:11 just going to do some amazing things. - They 37:13 said, "We can do that back again." - Praise 37:14 the Lord. I think that's such a blessed idea 37:17 for people who have particularly hard 37:19 territories to work in and don't have 37:21 the pleasure of baptizing large numbers of people- 37:24 to give them that experience to take that 37:26 back and sort of enthuse them to go back to 37:28 work in that area. - Yeah. They go where 37:31 the fires are burning, they touch the coals, 37:34 and they bring the coals back home. 37:37 - Sometimes we have the shyest of people 37:41 that come. I remember I was in Livingstone 37:43 at that time. There was one of our AWR 37:47 employees, just very shy, very soft-spoken. 37:50 He went out, he did it, and God blessed 37:54 him so remarkably. It just empowered 37:59 him like, "I can do something for God 38:02 in a public way!" - You have to understand, 38:04 all three of these ladies are experienced 38:07 international evangelists. They 38:09 have done this just like Irma. [laughter] 38:12 So they feel it. They know the power and 38:14 the energy. - And a lot of times, it's not 38:16 shyness as much as it is- in Irma's case, 38:19 she just didn't know what to do. You want 38:22 to do- she's not a shy person, but the 38:24 thought of evangelism kind of just bulls you 38:26 over. Then once you kind of dive in there, 38:28 it's like, "Oh, that's not so bad." - That's 38:30 right! Every single one of those baptisms 38:33 was absolutely important and precious. 38:35 There was one in particular that hit 38:37 very close to home in a very special way. 38:41 Duane, maybe you want to share a little 38:43 bit about that, because this lady... - Yeah, we 38:45 share last year a little bit about, we're 38:47 finding this lady who was listening to- 38:49 well, we had gone to her hotel kind of by 38:51 mistake way out in the bush. It was by 38:54 Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia. 38:56 We had ended up there, and she's Afrikaans. 39:00 The day we're leaving, Kathy, you saw her 39:03 there. - That's right. She was studying 39:06 her Bible, and she had coffee there and a 39:09 cigarette. I went to thank her for their 39:14 wonderful hospitality, and she said to me, 39:16 "You know, I just love prophecy." Then 39:19 she went on to say, "I told my husband. 39:22 We were raised going to the church on the 39:25 wrong day of the week. Saturday is the day 39:28 to go to church. - Now, she did not know you 39:32 were Adventist at the time. - Well, she did. 39:34 - She did then. We had no idea. - She said, 39:40 "Every Saturday morning, my uncle 39:45 sends me a message. I started asking 39:50 questions, and so he said, 'You need to 39:52 get in touch with Neville Neveling.'" 39:55 I said, "Hm. Who's Neville Neveling?" 40:00 I said, "You need to give me the contact 40:03 information, because I'm sure Duane would 40:05 be very interested in talking to him." 40:10 - I called him immediately, and Kathy remembered 40:12 the name. He had gone, when we were in 40:14 Romania, he had gone to Georgia and preached 40:18 his first evangelistic meeting. He was doing 40:21 Sabbath school and church with his cell 40:22 phone with WhatsApp. He learned how to do 40:27 that, and he thought to himself, "I could 40:28 do evangelism." So that's what he started 40:31 doing. He's doing evangelism on WhatsApp. 40:34 It's amazing what the- we're going to go 40:37 there in just a second. The Lord 40:39 blessed in such a way that, just in June, I 40:43 baptized her right there. - Oh, wow. 40:45 That's exciting. - We should have 40:46 a picture of that I'm thinking of, but that's 40:49 the video clip. - She's so happy. - Antoinette. 40:52 - This is incredible. In Africa, the Dutch 40:57 people- these are Afrikaans, and they're 40:59 Dutch people. They're Dutch Reformed. They're 41:04 hard to win. They're tough, so it was just such 41:09 a blessing. - Praise the Lord. - But Duane, 41:11 remember? That same Sabbath, there was a 41:13 young lady, Reatha, that walked into a 41:17 church in Pretorius, South Africa. - And 41:20 she said, "I want to become a Seventh-Day 41:22 Adventist," and they said, "Who are you?" 41:25 [laughter] She said, "I'm Reatha, and I 41:28 have a PhD; I have two masters. For 41:31 22 years, I've been searching the Bible 41:33 and going to different churches, trying to 41:35 find the truth. My father is a Dutch 41:37 Reformed pastor of theologian for 41:40 the Dutch Reformed Church, so I've 41:42 been talking to him. I cannot find the 41:44 answers. All of a sudden, I started 41:47 getting these messages on my cell phone." 41:49 On WhatsApp. "And I started reading these 41:52 messages, and I have found the truth. I 41:55 want to be baptized." - Ellen White talks 41:57 about putting new life into old methods 41:59 and new methods altogether. WhatsApp 42:01 ministry. Who knew? Who'd have thought? 42:04 - That's right. And if I may say so, we 42:08 do have half-hour programs on 3ABN all 42:10 about cell phone evangelism. Check them out. 42:12 - Praise the Lord. So many ways to get 42:15 the gospel out. - You were talking about- 42:18 some people are behind the scenes, like Irma 42:20 was a little shyer, or some people don't 42:23 know what to do- this is the perfect 42:26 ministry for many people to use their 42:29 cell phone. They can sit at home and send 42:32 out these Bible messages, their 42:35 audio messages. It's incredible. Neville 42:39 and his team right now- what is it? 42:41 50,000? - Well, I just saw the new 42:43 numbers. It's closer to 100,000. - 100,000 42:46 people every week that they're sending. 42:48 - Around the world, on every continent 42:50 except for Antarctica. The penguins in 42:53 Antarctica, you know they don't use cell 42:54 phones in Antarctica. [laughter] Every 42:57 continent. Can you imagine? - And anyone 43:00 can do it. We actually featured a story on 43:03 a young woman who's blind, and she's 43:07 winning souls to the kingdom through her 43:10 cell phone, through AWR 360's cell phone 43:13 evangelism. - One of our friends- we were 43:15 just up in northern India. We just came 43:17 from India; we're trying to reach India 43:18 for next year. He's up in a little state 43:22 called Sikkim. I had never heard of it. 43:27 It's a little state. Until 1975, it 43:30 belonged to Nepal. So, it's right up there 43:32 kind of like a highway going through. It 43:34 goes from Bhutan to Nepal to Tibet, so 43:39 it's all connected there. He found out 43:41 that most of the people there are Christian 43:42 in that little state. - Oh, wow. - And it's 43:45 a highway between these countries that 43:47 we can't reach. And, everybody is using 43:50 WhatsApp and Facebook, so we're going to 43:54 move in there and forge this cell phone 43:57 evangelism so we can have a bridge to 43:59 connect these countries! - The door is cracked 44:01 if they're already on Facebook or WhatsApp. 44:04 - Wow, that's exciting stuff. - The 44:06 Lord is just opening more and more doors. 44:09 He's wanting to come! And we are so anxious 44:13 to help him in any way that we can, so 44:16 it's exciting to see these new developments. 44:19 - Yes, it really, really is. And it's exciting 44:21 to see the miracle-moving hand 44:22 of the Lord when you do these "when you 44:24 can't, He can." When you see a little opening 44:27 and you step through, the Lord opens the door 44:29 all the way. Fabulous. - And what's exciting 44:31 to see, too, is that laypeople are getting 44:34 interested in becoming involved 44:35 and being on fire. "Oh, this is something 44:38 I could do!" I mean, there was the shyest 44:40 man in all the church in South Africa. This 44:43 man hadn't spoken much other than "Hello," 44:46 or "Happy Sabbath," at the most in the 44:48 two years he had been attending. The cell 44:52 phone evangelism was presented- the idea 44:54 was presented to the Sabbath school class. 44:56 The person up front, he said, "How many of 45:00 you would like to become involved in 45:02 cell phone evangelism?" This shy guy-who's 45:05 precious, by the way; he's fabulous and 45:07 his name's Skulk- he raised his hand. 45:10 The guy up front knew him and he 45:12 said, "Oh, no, no, no. Skulk, I don't think 45:14 you understood what I said. This is 45:16 evangelism." [laughter] He said, "Now, how 45:19 many of you want to be involved and do 45:21 cell phone evangelism? Reach out to others 45:23 and tell the..." He raised it higher! 45:27 So, come to find out, he said, "This is the 45:31 way I can reach my Catholic family. I 45:36 can't talk about it, but I can send them 45:38 these messages much more easily." So he is! 45:40 He has a whole downline, per se, on WhatsApp 45:44 of people that he is- and he's the shyest 45:47 guy in the church. - Praise the Lord. 45:49 - We were joking, because the one man, 45:51 the Sabbath school instructor that had 45:53 asked me, he said, "Maybe next time, 45:55 you can give a big amen in Sabbath school!" 45:57 And he goes, "Mmm... Maybe not yet." 45:59 [laughter] But he's winning souls, you see? 46:04 So, any age group, any type of personality 46:07 can forward the message, and that, I really 46:11 believe-and what I have been seeing 46:13 around this world for the last year through 46:16 this AWR 360 cell phone evangelism- 46:18 I really believe this is a forefront of how 46:20 God's going to finish the work. How many 46:22 of us have cell phones attached to us? 46:25 Everybody. - When I noticed you guys 46:28 walking around when you come here, you 46:30 never quite touch the ground. You're 46:32 just a little above the ground, and this 46:34 is why. When you're constantly fed a diet 46:36 of this stuff, you're high all the time. 46:39 I've walked through cities (as we all have), 46:41 and you wanna, "How is the Lord gonna 46:43 do this?" You know? God has provided 46:46 the technology platform to get this 46:48 stuff done to reach hundreds of thousands 46:50 of people! - Amazing. - So much so that 46:55 Neville Neveling... You were able to 46:57 present quite the... Yeah! - Yes! You 47:01 have that picture up there? - Yeah, I think 47:03 we have a picture. - We're at?. 47:05 That was in the communication department, that was in the GC 47:08 each year. They give two awards to outstanding 47:11 people who are doing special work in 47:14 evangelism, or social media, or something. 47:16 They show us two laymen this year. One was in 47:20 Brazil. He's doing Facebook, and Neville. 47:22 That's Neville there. Ted is praying for us- 47:24 Elder Wilson. Elder Wilson kind of grew 47:26 a beard. - Yes, indeed. - We're praying for 47:30 Neville. This is Neville here. Right now, actually, 47:33 he's in India teaching people to do cell 47:35 phone evangelism. - Oh, wow. Praise the 47:36 Lord. - It's just amazing, the thousands 47:39 and thousands. It just multiplies and multiplies 47:41 and multiplies, 'cause you just share a file. 47:43 - Neville mentioned that-I think the 47:47 statistics are-57% of the people they 47:50 send these messages to will send it to 47:53 at least 4 other people. Just exponentially 47:57 spreads. - What was really interesting 48:00 is that, what? A few weeks ago with Japan, 48:02 how he put together just a real short 48:04 clip of what was happening in Japan, 48:06 it was a flooding and some devastation. 48:10 People, of course, are wondering what's 48:12 going on in this world and searching at that 48:14 moment when there's something like that 48:16 happening, and he took advantage of that. 48:18 I think God gave that to him to then post 48:20 on Facebook this little sort of infomercial. 48:24 "What's happening in the world-in Japan 48:26 here? If you want to find out reasons..." 48:28 - Too exciting. - Yeah! "Then all 48:31 you do is sign up with this WhatsApp 48:33 number, and you can receive the biblical 48:37 reasons of what is happening in our world." 48:40 Does anybody remember how many... - 14,000 48:43 as of two weeks ago. - Isn't that incredible? 48:50 In Japan! And it was in English! 48:55 - The infomercial was in English! - But 48:58 the sermons are in Japanese. Somebody's 49:00 there who's passing them back and forth. 49:02 It's just amazing! This is the place 49:04 where we had these meetings, and it's 49:06 so hard. We baptized quite a few, but still, 49:09 all of a sudden, 14,000! - He advertised 49:13 that for three days. - And that's it. 49:17 You see how fast this could go? - Amazingly, 49:20 people have been saying to him, or whoever's 49:24 sending out the messages, "Why hasn't 49:27 someone told me this before?" It's phenomenal. 49:35 - We're accountable. - Agreed, Sue. Very 49:38 much so. One could be led to think... 49:41 We've... I don't want to say "stumbled 49:42 on something." The Lord has led us into 49:44 something. If you can get those kinds of 49:46 numbers in Japan, aggressively secular, 49:48 not really- well, sort of not into 49:50 western Christianity. To get those kinds 49:53 of numbers, the Lord is trying to say something. 49:55 He really is! Praise God. Our time- 49:59 when you're having fun, man, stuff goes so fast. 50:02 I want to go to the address roll, then 50:07 what I'm going to do- I'm instructing my crew 50:10 here-let's go to the address roll and then 50:12 straight to the news break, then come back 50:15 and want to give us some time to sort of 50:17 put a little bow on this and wrap this 50:18 up. Should you want to make contact... 50:21 You may want to get involved in any 50:22 number of ways. Certainly, they can use your 50:24 finances, they can use your prayers, 50:26 they can use your body and your mind and 50:28 your mouth and your legs and your arms 50:30 and your feet and your toes and your everything 50:31 else to come and do one of these meetings. 50:34 Should you want to make contact, here is 50:35 the information that you're going to need. 50:41 If you're interested in supporting the work 50:43 of Adventist World Radio, please visit 50:46 their website, AWR.org, to find out more. 50:50 That website, again, is AWR.org. You may 50:55 also call them at (301) 680-6304. 51:00 That's (301) 680-6304. You may also email 51:07 cami@awr.org, or write them at Adventist 51:12 World Radio 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver 51:16 Spring, Maryland 20904. |
Revised 2018-11-12