Urban Report

Raised 19th Century in the 20th Century

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Yvonne Lewis (Host), Rachel Williams-Smith

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Series Code: UBR

Program Code: UBR000111


00:01 Stay tuned to meet a woman
00:02 who was born in the 20th Century
00:04 but raised in the 19th Century...
00:06 My name is Yvonne Lewis and you're watching
00:09 Urban Report...
00:32 Hello and welcome to Urban Report...
00:34 My guest today Dr. Rachel Williams-Smith...
00:38 Chairwoman of the Department of Communications
00:40 at Andrews University, and author of "Born Yesterday"
00:45 in addition to being a very accomplished woman,
00:48 Ms. or Dr. Williams-Smith has a very interesting story
00:52 to share... welcome to Urban Report
00:54 Dr. Williams-Smith... Thank you for having me...
00:57 May I call you Rachel... Please... okay, that's who I am
01:00 Okay... good, good, good... Rachel, your story
01:04 is so compelling... I have heard bits and pieces
01:07 and I know a little bit about it
01:10 but I want... and our viewers love
01:12 a good story... so, I want you
01:15 to share with us your background...
01:18 because your background is really, really interesting...
01:22 So, the questions most people would ask me then
01:25 in relation to my background is, "Why does your book title say
01:28 that you were born in the 20th Century but raised in the 19th?"
01:30 So start there... that would be a good
01:32 starting place... that's a good starting place...
01:35 so, my background is that up until the age of 5,
01:38 my life was fairly normal... but at around 5-years-old
01:44 my parents... when I was about 5-years-old
01:46 my parents had been doing a lot of reading
01:48 and they began to make changes in our lifestyle...
01:50 so it was a process that happened over...
01:53 just a few years... it started with our diet
01:56 and then it moved to dress...
01:58 my mom told me that
01:59 she had been reading about how women should wear their
02:03 dresses down to the foot,
02:05 and how Jesus wore a robe down to the foot...
02:08 so, that was the first thing... and then...
02:11 And this is an Adventist home...
02:12 this was an Adventist home... so she was telling me
02:14 that she had read in the writings of Ellen G. White...
02:16 two to three inches from the floor...
02:17 Jesus wears a garment... Revelation Chapter 1...
02:20 down to the foot... so, I wanted to be like Jesus
02:24 so I started wearing the dress, the long dress...
02:27 and then it was the diet... and I still remember my
02:31 mother said that she was going to fix us
02:33 one last... really good meal... and then...
02:34 we were going to go "all healthy"
02:36 and we did... I didn't like it...
02:38 Wow, it's interesting because it was not a gradual shift...
02:45 it was an... just an immediate shift?
02:47 It was a gradual but intense, it was not gradual...
02:51 it was a series of things... Kind of incremental...
02:55 Yes, but it all happened very rapidly
02:58 and one on top of the other... so, first, the dress...
03:01 the diet and then the next thing was...
03:04 my parents began to feel like they needed to separate us
03:06 from the worldly influences, and at this time...
03:09 we were living in Huntsville, Alabama...
03:10 near Oakwood College... it was... at the time...
03:13 and my brothers were attending the Annanite Elementary School
03:16 Yeah... I went there too...
03:17 Did you really? I did... I did...
03:19 for a couple of years... All I ever got to do was visit
03:21 my brothers there one time, to see where I was
03:24 supposed to go next year, and my parents decided
03:27 at the end of that school year that they were not
03:29 going to re-enroll my brothers in school...
03:31 because they felt like they were being exposed to
03:33 too many worldly influences...
03:34 so, they decided to homeschool us...
03:37 but this was in the very, very early 70s...
03:40 about 1971 or 1972... somewhere there...
03:43 and homeschooling was not legal in the State of Alabama...
03:46 so the city ended up...
03:49 we were reported to the City
03:51 and the City ended up giving my parents an ultimatum
03:54 they either enroll us in either Annanite
03:57 or one of the Public Schools or we'd be taken away...
03:59 my father said, "I have a different...
04:01 I have a different option... " Exit... Stage Left...
04:05 so he bundled us up whisked us off to Arkansas
04:08 and then we began a kind of nomadic life
04:11 we ended up living in a bus that had been converted
04:13 into a mobile home, and we lived in Tennessee
04:17 and then we moved to a State Park
04:19 we lived in a State Park for a year,
04:21 and finally we bought 50 acres
04:23 out in Tennessee
04:27 the Central, Southern part of Tennessee...
04:29 and it was among a range of hills...
04:31 it was difficult to get to, several dirt roads
04:35 removed from the nearest paved road
04:36 no electricity, running water,
04:39 we were pretty much isolated up there
04:44 and by this time, we were also wearing bonnets...
04:46 that started when I was about 8- years-old...
04:48 we began wearing bonnets, my mother and I,
04:50 so we were in bonnets and long dresses...
04:52 living out... in the middle of nowhere...
04:54 and our modern convenience was a car...
04:56 and so we did have that...
04:59 and we had a chain saw for cutting trees
05:01 so we didn't just use the hand saw...
05:03 we had a chain saw there...
05:04 Now, let me just ask you something... were you...
05:07 did you have any other friends around...
05:10 did you have... was it just the family
05:13 in isolation or did you associate with other
05:16 like-minded families? It's a cross between the two
05:20 it depended on the time of the year and what was happening...
05:23 so, in the summer, in the spring and summer
05:25 sometimes people of like-mind would come
05:28 and either stay with us or stay with the Moreland family
05:32 which lived a mile up the road,
05:33 so it was just he and his wife...
05:35 but sometimes, they would...
05:36 people would come and stay on his property
05:38 in little campers and wherever they could live
05:42 or sometimes in his home with him
05:43 and we also brought people to stay with us
05:46 from time to time... they'd stay anywhere from
05:48 days to weeks and a few stayed for a month
05:51 or a few months, there was one family,
05:54 Sister Martha as I called her and she ended up
05:57 in the later half of the time I was living on the hill,
06:00 she ended up pulling up her mobile home
06:02 and she was up there on a piece of property
06:05 at some distance... so she had two younger children
06:08 so my closest companions were about 4 and 5 years
06:12 younger than me... and that was a period of
06:15 probably the last two years that we lived on the hill...
06:18 Can you remember what you were thinking during that time,
06:21 it seems like the adjustment must have been so...
06:26 it was such a rigid way to live, do you remember
06:29 how you were thinking then... was it just something that
06:32 you were hating, or were you just thinking
06:35 it was normal? I knew it wasn't normal
06:37 for other people's lives, but it was normal for mine...
06:40 it was... remember I never started school...
06:43 so, I never really did... I was right at the age where
06:47 the social life was about to happen
06:49 and then it didn't happen so, it was normal for me
06:54 pretty much... I knew that other people didn't live
06:59 the way we did... but the way they lived
07:01 seemed strange to me... and foreign...
07:05 so, I couldn't relate to it... Why?
07:07 I could only relate to our lives...
07:10 What was going on with your parents...
07:14 that they went from a moderate way of living to extreme?
07:21 Well, first they weren't trying to be extreme,
07:25 what they were trying to do is what a lot of Christians
07:29 and Adventist parents often tried to do
07:32 which is to live out everything that they believe is right...
07:35 but they had probably been reading more
07:37 than the average parent about all the reforms,
07:41 and they got focused on the reforms...
07:43 one thing I've learned in life is that...
07:46 what you focused on and emphasized...
07:49 is always more important
07:50 than what you say is more important...
07:52 Hmmm... unpack that a little bit...
07:55 Okay, so, they did believe in salvation by faith
07:58 in Jesus Christ and all... you know...
08:00 righteousness by faith, they believed
08:02 in all of these things... but the focus became about
08:06 what we knew and what we did... Hmmm...
08:09 and that's not unlike a lot of people you know...
08:11 Hmmm... their focus is on what they know
08:13 and what they do... and they tend to focus on
08:15 the details... so the number of inches from the floor...
08:18 you know... the width of your bonnet brim...
08:22 we kept New Moons and Feast Days...
08:24 and that became an issue because, you know,
08:27 do you observe the New Moons according to when the moon
08:30 is completely black and can't be seen like one segment
08:34 of the Jews believe, or do you observe the moon
08:37 New Moon Day according to whether there is
08:40 this little fingernail of a sliver... like another segment,
08:44 and see what would happen is, if you believe "this"
08:47 the black moon... and I believe in the little
08:49 sliver fingernail of the moon, then I can't worship with you
08:53 you can't worship with me,
08:54 so, there are very few people... anyway
08:56 that held our beliefs and then, so often, it was like,
08:59 "Get off my property and don't come back...
09:00 you're teaching error... " you know,
09:02 so I know I'm kind of going off of your question
09:05 but this is what... when you begin to focus on
09:08 details... there is no limit to how small those details become
09:11 because they all seem to be important...
09:14 Yes... what an interesting point...
09:16 as you're talking... I'm sensing... I'm feeling like
09:21 this was such bondage... we are to be free in Christ
09:26 and this is... nothing personal...
09:29 Sure... I understand... you know what I'm saying,
09:31 yeah... it's not anything against your
09:33 family or your journey... I understand...
09:36 but I'm just saying that the bondage involved here
09:40 has got to be so off-putting, you are such a...
09:44 as I interact with you... and we as interacted prior
09:47 to this Program... I mean... you're warm and you're friendly
09:50 and you're... you know... and you seem free
09:52 and I praise God for that...
09:54 I'm going to find out how that happened...
09:55 but prior to whatever happened
09:59 to turn this situation around, you were in such bondage...
10:04 I really was... you know, Jesus says,
10:07 "These things you ought not have done... "
10:09 and He is talking about the Pharisees paying tithe on mint
10:12 and anise and cumin... okay... He says,
10:15 "These things you ought to have done...
10:17 but not... these things you ought to
10:19 have done but not let the other undone. "
10:21 it's good that you want to get all the details right...
10:23 but you can't focus on all the details and the big
10:26 things at the same time...
10:27 you literally have to focus on what is most important first...
10:31 and the little details can fall into place...
10:33 more naturally... and yes... you are right...
10:36 I feel so amazingly free...
10:39 it's a place in my life
10:41 that I've wanted to be for a long time and I'm here
10:43 and I've been here for a while and it's a freedom
10:46 that comes in Jesus and understanding too...
10:49 there's a picture of me... at some point
10:51 you'll probably show it,
10:53 I'm dressed in a bonnet
10:54 and you can't see much of the dress
10:56 but I'm holding a Bible in my hand
10:58 and I'm looking so pious
11:00 and even though, by that time in my life
11:02 I had had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
11:05 my mind-set was so filled with rules
11:09 and laws and obligations...
11:11 that I didn't know how to be free,
11:13 I didn't know how to be spontaneous
11:15 you know... righteousness was not about love
11:19 which is what it is about... Right...
11:21 instead it was about being right
11:22 in every exact way...
11:24 and that's why we couldn't, we had to live in seclusion
11:27 in our own little outpost as it were...
11:29 that's what we used to refer it to...
11:31 "Outpost on the Hill" we had to live like that
11:34 because there was no way we could have
11:35 maintained that life in mainstream society...
11:38 we had to separate... and yet, Jesus says,
11:40 that you are the light of the world...
11:42 you are the salt of the earth,
11:44 I want you to be in the world
11:46 I just don't want you to be of it...
11:47 Yes... right... right... but I have to say,
11:48 "I'm all up in this world... "
11:51 I'm not just of it... because the world is not
11:53 filled by love, and God has put love
11:55 into my life, you're supposed to be asking
11:57 my story and I'm preaching you a sermon...
11:59 No... preach... we love that...
12:01 I just have to say, "I have been set free... "
12:02 it's an amazing thing...
12:03 We can see that... we can see it in your countenance...
12:06 you are free... and you're free because of the
12:09 love of Jesus... it's not propelled by law...
12:14 it's propelled by love...
12:16 Yes... and relationship and that's
12:18 what you're showing... so, let's go a little bit more
12:21 into your journey... so we can find out how you
12:23 did the turnaround... so, so, okay...
12:26 so you're five-years-old... you're off to this outpost,
12:30 you lived there for how many years?
12:32 So, by the time we actually got out to the
12:36 hill in Tennessee... I was nine... by that time...
12:38 so just a few years of living in a bus and all that...
12:42 and then out on the hill and I was there until I was 16
12:45 heading towards 17... So you're a teenager now...
12:48 living... like that... where was your head
12:53 about the Lord... were you resenting all of this
12:56 all of these rules and... restrictions...
12:58 No, the funny thing about children and I've seen
13:01 other children raised in extremes like this
13:03 they kind of take the day-to-day some of the hardest things
13:06 are like hunger... when you are always hungry
13:08 I wasn't always hungry, my mother did her best
13:11 to feed us... both our parents did their best
13:13 to feed us... but there were times
13:15 when the food ran scarce and they'd tell us,
13:17 "You know what... time to exercise your survival
13:19 skills... go out and find your food today... "
13:22 so, there were those times but for the most part
13:24 they did try to feed us, but we only ate 2 meals a day,
13:26 another reform... see, I don't think we had it
13:28 in balance because I'm sure Ellen White meant that
13:31 young growing children should eat two meals a day...
13:34 right... so... going to bed hungry...
13:36 it was a routine thing...
13:37 I didn't even think of it as being hungry,
13:40 because you just drink cold water and go to bed...
13:42 it's not something you can do anything about...
13:43 I really have a hard time
13:46 answering questions about how did I feel...
13:49 because I think one of the things that I
13:51 learned early was probably not to feel so much...
13:54 Hmmm...
13:55 because it's just the way it was
13:58 and you don't necessarily question it...
14:00 Hmmm... hmmm... now I had an older...
14:03 the younger of my two older brothers
14:05 he did start questioning, and so... he had his eyes
14:10 wide open... long before he left,
14:12 but I was more of a gullible one I just... this is the way
14:16 it's supposed to be... and I'm ingesting it...
14:19 but yet the Lord was showing me things
14:21 after I gave my heart to him at 14...
14:23 He began to show me things that just didn't add up
14:25 to His character... Hmmm... now let's go back
14:28 and unpack this a little bit, how did you...
14:31 what happened that you decided to give your heart
14:34 to the Lord at 14? I had felt the drawing
14:37 since I was little... toward the Lord,
14:39 I even felt like He chose my name...
14:41 my name, Rachel Elizabeth, Rachel means "Ewe lamb"
14:45 and Elizabeth means "Consecrated one"
14:47 so I thought of myself as a lamb consecrated to God,
14:51 and I felt like
14:53 He had chosen my name... I had always felt
14:55 like I was special to Him in some way...
14:57 but at 14... what happened is there had been some people
15:02 had a number of families, probably about
15:05 five families total... when I say families
15:07 I mean it loosely because some were like
15:09 one person living in one unit, and then maybe
15:13 a single mother, a couple of children
15:15 and then another family here and there...
15:16 so there was a total of about five families that were
15:19 staying on the hill... in various mobile homes
15:23 and makeshift living facilities
15:25 between our home and Brother Moreland's home
15:27 which was a mile up the road, and so... for me it was like
15:31 an extremely social atmosphere, I actually had people
15:34 to be around from time to time and so, I was enjoying that
15:39 then they all moved... because as the fall turned
15:43 toward winter, nobody wanted to be up there
15:45 in that environment because it was very harsh...
15:48 No heat, no electricity...
15:51 right, exactly, they didn't want it...
15:53 so they all moved... and so I felt...
15:55 utterly alone, my only brother Mo
15:56 even he and his wife went to stay somewhere else
15:58 during the winter and so it was just
16:00 him living up the road by himself and then my family
16:03 and I felt so utterly alone after that little tease of
16:07 socialization... and that's when I began to realize
16:10 I can't control anything in my life...
16:12 I don't have the ability to make people be
16:14 around me... I can't break out of this environment
16:17 that I'm in... I don't have control
16:19 of anything... I need to give my life
16:21 over to one who does have the control...
16:24 and so... I surrendered my life to God
16:26 kind of strange way of coming there...
16:28 but feeling utter despair sent me to the Lord...
16:32 Amen... and you know God knew what you needed,
16:36 Yes... and always does know what
16:39 we need... and so you were in utter despair
16:41 and it seems as though
16:43 He just revealed Himself to you even more.
16:45 Yeah, I think that, you know, I mentioned that
16:47 I learned not to feel... but at that time I could not
16:50 keep the sense of isolation and loneliness and aloneness...
16:54 it was so profound... I was just completely
16:57 in despair... and that's why I had to
16:59 turn to the One... who would never leave me...
17:01 And that's so beautiful... and so how did...
17:05 how did that play out... after you did that...
17:08 where did you go from there?
17:10 I began to pray...
17:13 after I accepted the Lord,
17:15 I began to read the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy
17:17 in different ways to really understand
17:19 for myself... is what I was learning about God...
17:22 really what God was... because some things just didn't
17:24 seem right... and the more I read... the more I prayed
17:27 the more I read... the more I began to pray
17:30 and asked the Lord, "Let me leave that environment"
17:33 because I realized that even if I was not on the
17:37 right path... I wasn't free to change...
17:39 Hmmm... there was no option to change
17:41 and most of all, I wanted education
17:43 I wanted to go to school so badly
17:45 and I was tired of just being alone... learning alone
17:49 and I couldn't learn... so I began to pray
17:51 and the answer to that prayer came in the form of
17:53 my father leaving... he just left...
17:57 he took my older brother, they went to build houses
17:59 in Texas... and it was supposed to be something
18:02 they would be gone for a few months
18:03 and come back with some funds
18:05 because we were very low on funds...
18:06 but... on the way...
18:09 getting ready to leave...
18:10 he told me that he wasn't going to come back
18:11 and I was shocked... and I could tell
18:13 that my mother didn't know and she was standing
18:15 by the car getting ready to say goodbye
18:16 and her first warning of it was when she went
18:19 to give him a goodbye kiss he turned his head away
18:21 and then he ended up saying some words to her
18:23 that I hadn't heard before and, you know,
18:26 he was like... he was leaving...
18:28 and he had already told me he was not coming back...
18:30 and that turned out to be the case...
18:32 he didn't even stay in Texas for more than a month
18:34 he ended up going back up north to his hometown
18:37 and began trying to create a life for himself...
18:40 and the only thing I could think of was that
18:42 everything about the lifestyle he set up for us
18:44 was all focused on Jesus coming by the end of that decade
18:48 which was the 1970s... and now, we were into 1980
18:52 and '81... and heading into '82, and Jesus still hadn't come
18:56 so, he left... my mother and the younger of my two older
19:03 brothers and I... went through a horrible winter
19:05 I write about how my heel froze and... it was just...
19:10 it was incredibly cold we didn't even know if we'd
19:12 survive that particular winter but we made it
19:13 and I'm still not answering your question... I'm so sorry...
19:17 No, you're doing great... you're doing great...
19:19 no, I'm just thinking here's the...
19:22 it's kind of... blowing my mind because you have a situation
19:27 where the whole point is to live according to what
19:33 God would have you...
19:34 the way He would have you live...
19:36 down to every jot and tittle...
19:38 Yes... of reform...
19:40 Yes... but when it came to staying
19:44 with your family... you just... it's over, it's done...
19:48 and you got to make it the best way you can...
19:51 how devastating was that event to your mom, to you...
19:56 how devastating! Well, it really was...
19:58 because I had no... nothing in my mind that could
20:04 understand what was happening because everything had been...
20:07 you have to understand... my environment was so saturated
20:10 with religion... and God and religion... everything
20:14 that the concept of my parents' breaking up
20:18 was not there...
20:19 I mean, the family that prays together... stays together...
20:22 we prayed together 3 times a day... one hour each...
20:25 and we had one-hour worships 3 times a day...
20:29 okay... we prayed together, we did...
20:32 we had training,
20:34 everything... Bible... the whole idea of just...
20:37 this happening... wouldn't have occurred to me
20:39 but it happened... Right...
20:41 and so... then in the end
20:43 my younger brother went to join my older brother
20:48 because he was extremely restless...
20:49 and he wanted to leave, he wanted to get out...
20:52 so he ended up joining my older brother
20:54 and then... it was just my mom and I...
20:55 there was no way we could make it on our own
20:57 you know, the manual labor involved in daily life
21:01 we're talking about washing clothes,
21:03 even washing dishes... you got to haul the water
21:06 to wash dishes... you know, I often use the
21:08 illustration of making a... getting a glass of milk,
21:11 if you want a glass of milk, you reach in your refrigerator
21:13 pour it and drink it... we had to take the soy beans,
21:16 soak them... grind them up...
21:17 rinse them out in cheese cloth into water...
21:19 boil it on the stove, but boiling on the stove means
21:22 you have to have cut your wood and gather kindling
21:25 and gone through a whole process just to be able to lay a fire
21:29 and then you're going to burn a fire...
21:31 year-round to boil your milk because...
21:34 or whatever you're fixing... every day of the year
21:36 we had to create a fire except on the Sabbath,
21:39 because we didn't cook on the Sabbath...
21:40 but other than that, it could be 90 degrees...
21:43 it could be a 100 degrees you still have to use
21:45 the stove to cook... so, you know,
21:48 so there's all of that, and then, when you finally
21:50 get done making your glass of milk...
21:52 and it's boiled... because you can't drink raw
21:55 soy beans... you have to boil it and you cool it...
21:58 because there's no ice that you can add to it to cool it...
22:01 it's naturally cool for a few hours
22:02 and you finally drink your glass of milk...
22:05 the rest of it... you can't just put in the
22:08 refrigerator... That's right...
22:09 so you either have to can it, which means more heat
22:11 in the summer... if it's during the summer...
22:13 or you could put a little bit in a jar
22:16 and store that in the stream... overnight and that was about it
22:20 otherwise... so... think about that...
22:22 that's just a glass of milk... every process was so manual
22:25 we couldn't do it... so my mom ended up writing
22:28 someone who had been corresponding with my father
22:31 and they had been trading magazines and she had come to
22:34 visit us once before... and she was planning to come
22:38 that summer... and my mom just took a chance
22:40 and wrote her and said, "Would you send us two
22:41 one-way tickets instead of coming on a round-trip
22:44 a round-trip ticket because we need to leave,
22:47 we don't have anywhere to go...
22:48 so, she did... and I was determined...
22:51 I just knew one thing... I wasn't coming back
22:53 without going to school... that was the thing...
22:55 I knew that God had given me a way to go to school...
22:58 Hmmm... hmmm... and I ended up going to
23:00 Fountainview... it was a Farms back then
23:03 and now it's Fountainview Academy
23:05 I feel like I'm a racing train running away with your interview
23:08 I'm sorry... No, no, no, no... believe me
23:10 if I have a question, I will ask...
23:12 I'm just loving where you're going with this
23:15 because you're really tracing your journey for us,
23:18 and so... who knows better than you do...
23:21 my question, now though, is so... you said something that
23:27 I wasn't aware of and that is...
23:29 your family was basically living like that
23:33 in expectation of the return of Christ...
23:37 and when that didn't happen, when your dad thought it would,
23:41 he became disillusioned... I guess... with everything...
23:45 You know, I really want to comment on that...
23:47 you're right in your observation,
23:49 I really want to comment on that because I think there are
23:52 a lot of people, have you noticed...
23:53 there is this fervor... you know Jesus is coming again...
23:56 and... got to be ready... let's get out there and share
23:58 the truth... and tell the world and warn the world...
24:00 "He's coming, He's coming... " people will drop out of school
24:03 they'll make changes like... to use all their
24:05 retirement funds for a particular project...
24:08 that kind of thing... and I am not condemning
24:10 anybody's choice to do those things
24:12 but it's clearly based on the idea
24:14 that Jesus is coming so soon,
24:16 that I don't need to do these things...
24:18 I don't need to prepare to stay here...
24:20 I don't need to occupy till He comes...
24:22 I don't need to occupy... and then, often, if you try
24:24 to say something to people like that... they will say to you...
24:26 "You're just not serious about Jesus' coming... "
24:29 Hmmm... but what I noticed...
24:31 even though Jesus says to watch the signs...
24:33 He never said to live by them day by day...
24:35 Hmmm... He said to watch them,
24:36 observe them... Hmmm... hmmm...
24:38 but He also... if you look at the
24:40 focus of the Bible... it's on the certainty of Christ's coming
24:43 and the unexpectedness of His return...
24:47 not on the nearness... Hmmm...
24:48 not on the nearness...
24:50 Which is not to say
24:52 that it's not near... it is to say that
24:56 the emphasis has to be in the right place...
24:59 And the reason why I'm bringing this out
25:02 is if you're living on expectancy of Jesus'
25:05 coming within a short time, based on your understanding
25:08 of "short" and "long" it can create an urgency
25:11 in your life which cannot sustain itself...
25:15 Hmmm... there is an urgency that God
25:17 can place in your life that runs from day to day...
25:20 so, I'm aware every moment, that I'm ministering
25:23 whether I'm talking to one individual
25:24 or I am talking to thousands, I'm aware, every moment,
25:28 that God is going to save somebody...
25:29 God is trying to use somebody,
25:30 I'm also aware of the fact that I won't appreciate others
25:33 to become a castaway... and there's an urgency about
25:35 what I do... everyday... but it's not related to
25:37 whether Jesus is going to come in 2016
25:40 or whether He's going to come in you know... you name it...
25:44 it's related to the fact that every moment
25:46 is a moment that's been given us
25:48 and tomorrow is not mine... Hmmm...
25:50 so I can only do what He's asked me to do... right now...
25:52 Hmmm... hmmm... you see... and I guess I want
25:56 to say to people who are running on the
25:58 "Second-return fervor" sometimes it's not sustainable
26:03 and if it is sustainable for you... great...
26:05 but it's not sustainable for everybody around you...
26:07 and it wasn't for my father...
26:09 because everything was based on the fact
26:10 that the world was not going to continue...
26:12 and then the world kept going... obviously it's still going...
26:15 Right... right... right... and even though,
26:18 we feel closer to His return, we are closer than we've ever been
26:21 We're always closer... yeah...
26:23 but you still... it does need to be sustainable
26:27 and your focus has to be on that relationship...
26:31 and sharing Jesus with others, that's really the bottom line...
26:35 Every moment that God gives you...
26:37 is a moment that you won't have again...
26:39 That's right... whether He comes tomorrow
26:41 or whether He comes a thousand years from now...
26:42 the moment you have right now, is all you actually have...
26:46 Hmmm... yesterday is gone...
26:47 tomorrow may never be... the urgency is always to live
26:51 fully in the moment...
26:52 That's right... right now...
26:53 Live in the moment... that's absolutely true...
26:56 Tell us... in 30 seconds what you're doing now?
26:59 I can't believe our time is up, this is so good
27:03 you've just given me such great information...
27:05 I lost all perspective of time... so...
27:06 but I'm... I'm... I'm it's amazing this young lady...
27:10 this child who was kept away from media and the world
27:13 and kept at home...
27:14 now, I am the Chair of a Department
27:18 in which I'm able... I feel called to this place
27:21 and at this time... to help with young people
27:25 being able to re-shape media so that it can appeal
27:28 to other young people... I find that our young people
27:32 are not watching our Adventist Programming
27:34 and I'd like to see that change and that's a mission
27:36 that's on my heart... Well we need to talk
27:38 because this is a Network here Dare to Dream...
27:42 and we are looking to make a difference with young and old...
27:45 Thank you so much for being with us...
27:47 It was a blessing to have you... Thank you for having me...
27:50 Make sure to pick up a copy of her book, "Born Yesterday"
27:53 well thank you so much for tuning in...
27:55 join us next time... because you know what?
27:59 it just wouldn't be the same, without you...


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Revised 2015-04-10