Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000156S
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00:00 (uplifting orchestral music)
00:21 - Hello and welcome to "Jesus for Asia Now." 00:24 I'm Natalie Wood 00:25 and my husband John is here with me today 00:27 and we're going to North India, hello, love! 00:30 - Hi darling, How are you? 00:31 - So I said we were going to North India, 00:33 but where specifically are we going today? 00:36 - We're going to the state of Assam. 00:38 And this is the Northeastern part of India. 00:42 You know how India kind of goes up into a kind 00:45 of a diamond shape, but then the eastern part goes, 00:49 a little arm goes up over Bangladesh and then into Assam 00:55 and a bunch of states around it. 00:56 - Okay, okay, so how many people live in Assam? 01:00 - There's 35 million people living in Assam. 01:03 - Wow. - Yes. 01:04 - Wow, that's a lot. (laughs) 01:05 - That's a lot of people. 01:06 That's more than many countries actually 01:09 just in that one state. 01:10 - So you said Assam used to be bigger. 01:14 It's now a bunch of different places, 01:16 but there's a Upper, a Middle and a Lower Assam. 01:19 - Assam used to include the states 01:21 around the eastern edge 01:23 and the southern edge, including a Arunachal Pradesh, 01:26 Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura. 01:30 And then on the south, Meghalaya. 01:32 And so the headquarters of that whole area 01:35 for the church is actually in Meghalaya, 01:38 but the country of India decided to separate those out 01:41 to kind of give tribes their own autonomy. 01:45 So there's a lot of different tribes in that area. 01:47 And so the different states, 01:49 like in Tripura, there's the Tripurese, 01:53 and in Nagaland there's the Naga, 01:56 and Manipur, there's... 01:58 It's just a lot of different tribes in there. 01:59 There's a lot more tribes 02:00 than actually represented by states, 02:01 but they tried to- - Break it up a little bit. 02:05 Give 'em a little bit of their own government. 02:08 - And we have Bible workers in every one 02:09 of those states now. 02:11 So that's kind of cool. 02:13 Some states are more new as far... 02:15 And more like freshly starting 02:20 as a church organization. 02:21 And so in another episode we're gonna be talking 02:24 about the different states and what's happening in in those. 02:29 - So how did we start out having Bible workers in Assam? 02:31 - About 15 years ago, 02:33 we got a request to train Bible workers, 02:36 or there was a training happening in northern India 02:39 for Bible workers in Assam, 02:42 and they trained 33 Bible workers, 02:46 and we then hired them all. 02:48 And that is how the work in Assam 02:52 for Jesus for Asia got started. 02:54 Before that, there was about five 02:56 or six pastors for the entire state of 33 million people. 03:02 So now there's 33 Bible workers, 03:03 plus five or six pastors. 03:05 So when we first hired them, 03:06 there was about one Bible worker per million population. 03:10 - Our first video is gonna be with the director 03:13 of the Assam region. 03:14 - Excellent. 03:17 (upbeat traditional music) 03:41 - Assam is a big place, it's quite a big state. 03:45 When you think of northeast India, 03:48 we have over 30 million people 03:53 and our presence as Adventists is very small still, 03:56 because we just have around 6,000 members. 04:04 Hello, I'm Pastor Deepak Boro. 04:06 Currently I work as a director 04:08 of Assam Region Seven-Day Adventists. 04:10 And we live in Guwahati from where we take care 04:14 of the whole Assam region of Seventh-Day Adventists. 04:16 We have seven pastors, ordained pastors, 04:20 and then we have four or five full-time evangelists. 04:25 And then other than that, 04:27 we have 32 JFA volunteers, the Bible workers. 04:34 And besides them we have also Global Mission Pioneers 04:38 and Gospel Outreach and few Cornerstone volunteers. 04:41 And then we have a few (birds chirp) 04:42 of the 1,000 missionary workers. 04:45 And these are the ones who are taking care of this field, 04:49 working to share the Gospel with the people. 04:55 I must say that Bible workers are the backbone 04:58 of the ministry 04:59 that is going on in Assam. 05:01 As full-time workers, there are just a handful of us. 05:04 We are few ordained pastors. 05:06 And we can see that we have quite a few of them 05:10 who are Bible workers. 05:12 And these are the ones who are working in the ground 05:15 and they're in the battlefield 05:16 and reaching the people, 05:18 conducting all the quarters' meetings 05:20 and evangelistic programs. 05:22 And whatever we are today, 05:25 I think it's mostly because of the Bible workers. 05:27 We are so grateful about them. 05:28 We are proud of them. 05:29 (uplifting orchestral music) 05:36 (group leader sings foreign language) 05:42 Bible workers are doing tremendous work, 05:44 and God is working, the Holy Spirit is leading them. 05:46 And people are understanding who the true living God is. 05:50 So we praise God for them. 05:55 We're very grateful to Jesus for Asia, 05:58 and we want to share our gratefulness to all the sponsors. 06:04 Those who are behind these force, 06:07 the people who are working in the battle on the ground here. 06:10 Not only here in Assam, many parts of India and elsewhere. 06:14 I believe many lives has been touched and changed 06:17 because of the work that Bible workers are doing 06:21 and also because of the people 06:23 who are willing to sacrifice 06:25 to give their means to support this ministry. 06:28 And it's our prayer that this miracle will continue, 06:31 the change of lives will continue to happen 06:34 in the places where the Bible workers are working. 06:37 Thank you so much for that. 06:48 - Didn't that give you joy? 06:49 - Yeah, that's really neat. - It's so neat 06:52 to see those people, 06:53 the simple people just moving out into villages 06:56 that hadn't had the Gospel before bringing light 06:59 and hope into those places. 07:00 - Yeah, and I'm so grateful 07:01 that the Lord has given us the ability 07:03 to be of help to them 07:05 to lift up the hands of these unit leaders 07:07 and the ordained pastors, 07:09 of which there are so few. 07:12 It's such a blessing to be able 07:13 to be a blessing to them 07:15 and bring that workforce to them, 07:19 enable the workforce for them. 07:20 - Yeah, and what does it cost 07:22 to support a Bible worker in Assam? 07:25 - In some areas, we've had to adjust a little bit 07:27 for cost of living, 07:29 but Assam is still at 07:30 about a hundred dollars a month, 07:31 depending on the exchange rate, 07:33 which is really very small. 07:37 - It's a sacrifice for them to live at that wage, 07:39 but they would continue to do that work 07:42 even if they didn't get that income. 07:45 They just start so dedicated to serving the Lord. 07:47 And this just gives them a little more free time 07:50 to be able to focus on taking the Gospel to the dark areas. 07:54 And also it keeps a lot 07:55 of the churches running and functioning. 07:59 - In our next video, we're going to meet? 08:01 - We get to meet one of the Bible workers 08:03 that's actually doing it, 08:04 because we say Bible worker, 08:06 it's kind of a general statement. 08:09 But now we get to meet one of the Bible workers 08:12 that's actually doing the work manually, 08:16 step-by-step, simple Bible worker, 08:18 and we get to hear some of his testimony. 08:20 - Okay, here we go. 08:22 (gentle piano music) 08:30 - Actually, first time I come 08:33 to know about Jesus Christ from my class friend, 08:38 when I came to my home district, 08:43 one evangelist proclaimed Gospel before me. 08:49 And after that I often go to the church. 08:54 I continue to study the Bible. 08:57 My mother hated the Christian people. 09:01 She warned me that if you'll go to the church, 09:06 then I will forsake you. 09:11 2001, actually, I have accepted Lord Jesus Christ 09:15 as my personal Savior. 09:17 There is two households, (birds chirp) 09:20 new believers in my surroundings, 09:23 and I actually got fellowship with them. 09:26 And after that I went here and there to proclaim the Gospel. 09:30 One person actually healed 09:33 from cancer disease when we prayed for him. 09:37 And after that he baptized. 09:41 And from that village, there were three families. 09:48 They came out, they also accepted Lord Jesus Christ 09:52 as their personal Savior. 09:53 And as it is growing, I want to plant a church. 10:01 So I have bought nine bighas of land, 10:05 and I established a church there. 10:08 At last there are 60 families 10:13 who have accepted Lord as their personal Savior and Lord. 10:18 (Raju sings foreign language) 10:24 So as I was continued my service, 10:27 I proclaimed the Gospel here and there, 10:30 and I run my ministry also. 10:33 But at that time, my friend called me 10:39 that two persons will come. 10:40 And actually he did not disclose me 10:45 about what is the denomination of that two persons. 10:49 But I went there along with my wife 10:51 and I met, first time, Pastor Deepak sir, 10:55 also one evangelist, Eldong Myena. 11:00 As they introduced themselves as Adventists, 11:02 I thought that there might be some horns in their head, 11:09 but whenever they told me the Bible verse, it's truth. 11:15 And actually I was astonished about that. 11:19 And after that, I looked at YouTube, 11:23 Dr. Ronald Robin messages and Mark Finley 11:30 and Pastor Doug. 11:33 So many messages I have got, 11:35 and I studied also from "The Great Controversy" 11:40 and other books of Ellen G. White. 11:45 And after that I decided to have baptism in 2021, 11:51 and I become Adventist. 11:53 (gentle piano music) 12:02 - Isn't that amazing? 12:04 - That's so beautiful, 12:05 because he was a Christian before, not an Adventist. 12:08 And he had a burden to share with people. 12:11 So he started sharing, he started praying for people. 12:13 Someone was healed from cancer and a church was planted, 12:16 all this before he learned the whole truth. 12:19 So it's just really neat to see 12:21 how God rewards the prayers of His people, 12:24 even when they don't know 12:25 or aren't keeping the entire truth. 12:27 - I love how he said rather- 12:30 - Nonchalantly? - Yeah, that we prayed, 12:33 somebody got healed of cancer. 12:35 It's like, that's kind of a big deal, 12:38 shows them that God's alive. 12:40 And then a lot of people came into the truth 12:42 or into the faith in Jesus through that miracle. 12:45 And then how he was open-minded to really see 12:48 how the Adventist message contains the truth, 12:53 and it's biblically based and- 12:54 - That there was more truth that he didn't realize. 12:57 - Right, and he followed the truth. 12:58 - Yeah, so we have more of his testimony here 13:01 in the next video. - Excellent. 13:04 (uplifting violin music) 13:15 - I know the truth, and I want to proclaim the truth. 13:22 So I decided to go here and there to the Baptist churches 13:25 and proclaim the Gospel, proclaim the truth. 13:27 I actually preach about the Sabbath. 13:32 What is Sabbath, actually? 13:34 In the Genesis 2:1-2, 13:38 there we find that God, (birds chirp) 13:41 He take rest and He blessed the day 13:46 and also makes it holy. 13:49 And on the other hand, 13:51 as we go through the New Testament, 13:54 then we see that Paul 13:57 and Jesus Himself keep the Sabbath, 14:01 and his disciples also keeping the Sabbath. 14:05 And on the other hand, 14:07 it is the fourth commandment of the law, 10 Commandments. 14:16 I want to teach them the real foundation 14:21 of our faith should be the Bible, on the Word of God, 14:26 not on the other traditional belief. 14:39 So one day I went to Rama Kanta, 14:43 I knew him earlier, he was the pastor 14:49 of Christian Revival Church 14:53 and also the General Secretary 14:57 of CRC District Association. 15:01 I know him, but Rama Kanta has asked me, 15:06 "Now what you are doing?" 15:08 I said that, "I'm doing the Ministry in Adventist mission. 15:16 "So Adventist mission is actually, 15:19 "they are keeping Sabbath, 15:21 "and they are keeping the law. 15:24 "We know that they are triple-six." 15:28 But I say to Rama Kanta, "We should keep the law, why? 15:34 "Because it is the commandment of God. 15:37 "We should keep the Sabbath, why? 15:41 "It is commandment of God." 15:43 So God takes rest and God makes it holy, 15:50 and God blessed this day, 15:54 as I told like that, then actually Rama Kanta, "Yes!" 16:01 He declared that, "Yes, it is true." 16:06 And one sister who is teaching in his school, 16:12 she got from somewhere a copy 16:16 of "The Great Controversy." 16:18 And actually she has given him "The Great Controversy." 16:22 And he read it. 16:24 And after that all together we prayed 16:28 and Bible study with them, and they decided to have baptism. 16:57 - Wow, that's beautiful. 17:02 It's amazing to me, 17:04 just going through my mind while watching that, 17:05 it's like, how long would it have taken for somebody like me 17:12 from America to go there and do the work that he just did? 17:18 They've got open doors. - It's not possible. 17:21 - They've got open doors 17:23 and just by giving a little bit of money every month, 17:27 we're able to sponsor people like him 17:29 to go into places like that 17:31 and to touch leaders 17:33 like he touched there, that's beautiful. 17:38 - And the willingness to be open for change in our lives, 17:44 the willingness to study, actually. 17:46 They thought the Adventists were the antichrist, actually. 17:50 (both laugh) 17:51 Anyway, so it's like to be willing 17:54 to study and look and see, 17:57 "Oh, there's something I didn't realize. 17:59 "There's something more, something deeper 18:02 "that I didn't know before," that's huge. 18:05 - So there's a work happening 18:06 in that state, that's beautiful. 18:08 And yet there's still so much more to be done. 18:12 It's like, we need more Bible workers, 18:14 more training, more schools. 18:17 - We have one more video from Brother Raju. 18:19 - Excellent. 18:21 (uplifting piano music) 18:31 - Bolo Hendrik, actually, I know him from earlier. 18:37 But when I go there, so I say to them 18:43 about the Sabbath 18:47 and say to them about the truth of the Bible 18:52 and regarding death also, I often go there. 18:57 (group sings foreign language) 18:58 And I have given them "The Great Controversy," 19:01 one copy of "The Great Controversy" to them. 19:04 And they studied "The Great Controversy." 19:09 Actually first time as I proclaimed gospel before them, 19:14 they make quarrel with me. 19:18 So many arguments were there. 19:22 But finally, they actually accepted the truth. 19:34 (Raju speaks foreign language) 19:44 Now I am very happy. 19:48 Before coming to Adventist member, 19:53 what we are following, these were not crystal clear. 19:59 But after being an Adventist, it's completely clear. 20:06 So now there is no doubt I can preach 20:11 to the other people without fear. 20:16 I'm now in my ministry. 20:19 I'm very happy to do this work. 20:22 I want to go everywhere of my districts, 20:26 of my state, everywhere. 20:29 And to announce these messages. 20:55 - While watching that, I'm just struck 20:56 with how simple they are. 20:58 And yet the vision comes into my mind is 21:03 what are they gonna look like 21:05 when Jesus is putting a crown of gold on their head? 21:11 - It was beautiful. 21:11 And I just love how he was like, 21:14 "Yeah, there were so many arguments." 21:16 But he didn't walk away. 21:19 It doesn't sound like he really argued back, 21:21 but he just tried to keep it, 21:24 the clear message coming through. 21:27 We weren't there, 21:28 we don't know what really happened, 21:29 but it's so amazing to me 21:32 that they came to become Adventist also 21:36 because they saw the clarity 21:37 and they saw the truth that he was sharing with them 21:40 that they weren't aware of before. 21:43 - And the joy in their faces at the end of the video. 21:46 That's those smiles of peace. 21:48 That's a beautiful thing. 21:49 You can't buy that. 21:51 - Right, right, so the unit is asking 21:53 for revival meetings and training, that kind of thing. 21:57 Both for church members 21:58 as well as for the Bible workers. 22:00 - And this is an area where we can cooperate 22:03 and partner with the local workers in coming there 22:07 and encouraging them 22:08 and giving them more in-depth insights into the stories 22:12 of the Bible and the doctrines of the church 22:16 and the life of Christ 22:18 and just pour in our passion into them. 22:22 And this is a place where people from this side 22:26 of the world can go and encourage 22:28 and really support the work in short-term missions. 22:32 - So you were able to go there 22:33 and visit a few years ago? - Yes. 22:35 I love the place, it's beautiful. 22:38 And one of the things that stands out to me in my memory is 22:41 that one of our Bible workers requested a copy 22:43 of a chart that he was using. 22:46 And this is the chart that he was using, 22:48 as you can see, it's cloth. 22:51 - Wow. - And he says, 22:53 this is such a great tool 22:55 for sharing the truth to my friends 22:58 and to village members in the area. 23:01 And then he asked for a copy, 23:03 do I have any other ones like this? 23:05 And so I looked at the date 23:07 that this was published, copyright 1908. 23:10 (both laugh) 23:12 - Yeah, no. - And I had to share 23:13 that I don't really have anything like that. 23:16 This is the first time I've ever seen one like that 23:18 that's made out of cloth. 23:19 So if any of our viewers has a chart like this, 23:23 maybe in the attic somewhere, or in the archives 23:26 or a museum, it's still needed out on the field. 23:30 - I wonder what it would take to print some more. 23:32 'cause they fold that up 23:33 or they roll it up 23:35 and they can just stick it in their satchel, or- 23:38 - It's very durable. 23:39 - It makes it so much easier to carry and-. 23:41 - Yeah, lightweight, doesn't get bent like paper does. 23:46 And it's obviously lasted a long time. 23:49 - Obviously. (John laughs) 23:51 - Over a hundred years, 23:53 that's the oldest one I've ever seen. 23:55 I know some people that would love to put it in a museum 23:58 because it's rarity now, 24:00 but I don't think that we wanna take it off the field. 24:04 Missions is not a museum. 24:07 We're not ready to put missions in the museum, 24:09 or Assam or Bible workers, 24:11 or any of the tools that they're using currently. 24:13 And these are people, 24:15 our Bible workers go simply. 24:17 They don't have a computer, they don't have a projector, 24:20 they don't have the fancy graphics and all this stuff. 24:23 And so they just go as you saw him sitting there, 24:26 singing a song, 24:29 and the song actually, as we appreciate, 24:33 sticks in our minds better and teaches, 24:36 as the people that learn the song 24:39 then sing throughout the day. 24:42 - Thinking about Assam brings to mind a friend of ours 24:45 that was a missionary there 24:47 for a long time. 24:49 And his love for the people just glowed. 24:52 He was in Nagaland, he gave us some clothing, 24:55 some cloth from there, 24:57 different things like that, 24:58 that it's just, his stories of the people, 25:02 just such a blessing. 25:04 And it just challenged me, 25:07 his faithfulness in witnessing and being a part of the work. 25:12 And he learned languages over there. 25:15 He was born in India, actually. 25:17 And so it just, I don't know, it just showed me 25:21 how much we can do as Western people, Western missionaries. 25:28 If we go to an area, if our heart is humble, 25:30 if we're teachable, if we're willing to sit 25:32 with the people and learn from them. 25:37 It's just such a beautiful thing to think 25:38 about that cooperation both in the field over there 25:42 like he did as a missionary, 25:44 and what we can do from here, 25:46 praying for these Bible workers 25:48 and sending funds to help them to be able to be free 25:52 to just do God's work full time. 25:54 - Yeah, I would just sit with him 25:55 and just ask him, "Can you please tell me stories?" 25:58 And his wife were like, "Oh, he talks too much." 26:01 I'm like, "No, I want to hear these stories." 26:03 And I'm so thankful for the stories that he told me, 26:05 because he's just recently passed away. 26:07 And he was born in India up in what he calls Shillong, 26:11 which is the capital city of Meghalaya, 26:13 which is just south of the Guwahati, which is in Assam. 26:18 And so in that time that he was there, 26:20 everything was Assam, 26:22 and didn't have the different states like that. 26:24 But he was born before World War II, in that area, 26:27 so before Bangladesh became a country, a separate country. 26:31 So he talked about what it was like during the war, 26:34 and even after he came home and retired, 26:36 he kept sending funds over there 26:39 and helped establish and build a very large church 26:42 in the Shillong city area. 26:43 So it was neat to see how he stayed involved 26:47 and stayed supportive of the work in that area, 26:50 even after he was back here in America and retired. 26:53 - Yeah, it's beautiful. 26:56 - And it was neat to hear him talk 26:57 about how the different tribes interacting 27:00 with the different tribes and the different clothes. 27:02 And he actually carried a table, 27:06 a beautifully carved table, hand carved, 27:11 that he bought in India 27:13 and carried it home on the plane, took the legs off, 27:15 and had it as carry on luggage. 27:17 - That's pretty amazing. (John laughs) 27:19 'cause it's not a small table. 27:20 - No, and he donated it to Jesus for Asia, 27:23 and it's now a centerpiece in our new office, 27:26 and we just love looking at it. 27:27 Every time I look at it, I think of him 27:29 and the sacrifice that he and his family made. 27:31 - We're running outta time, 27:33 and we do have more stories 27:35 from another Bible worker in Assam. 27:37 So if you would like to join us next time, 27:39 you'll hear those stories as well. 27:41 If you'd like to learn more about sponsoring Bible workers 27:45 in India and other parts of Asia, 27:47 please contact us at Jesus for Asia, 27:49 PO Box 1221, Collegedale, Tennessee, 37315. 27:55 Call us at (423)-413-7321, (uplifting piano music) 27:59 or visit our website at jesusforasia.org. 28:03 May God richly bless you until we see you next time 28:06 on "Jesus for Asia Now." 28:08 (uplifting orchestral music) |
Revised 2023-12-04