ASI Conventions

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Series Code: ASIC

Program Code: ASIC000014A


00:01 ¤ ¤
00:21 Good afternoon and welcome to the Sabbath afternoon program at
00:25 the 70th ASI. We're delighted that you're here this afternoon.
00:29 This afternoon's program will be one in which we're going to
00:34 focus on the history of ASI and lay movements throughout history
00:39 that have impacted the world and impacted the Seventh-day
00:44 Adventist church. We'll talk about where ASI has come from
00:49 where we are going in the future and where we are today. So
00:55 Teenie pray for us.
00:57 Shall we bow our heads in prayer Our wonderful, most loving, kind
01:05 heavenly Father: We thank you first of all for who you are.
01:10 Such a great and awesome, loving and unselfish God. You've
01:16 done so much for each of us and we thank you for that. We thank
01:21 you for the way that you have loved us and cared for us and
01:25 guided us. And so we thank you for everything that you have
01:30 done. And now Father I pray that you would bless this meeting
01:34 this afternoon and each participant, each one I pray you
01:38 will give your power and Holy Spirit to. And Father we ask for
01:43 your presence here. We know that the Holy Spirit has been here
01:48 and is here this afternoon but we pray again for the outpouring
01:53 of your Spirit. So Father we will give you the glory and the
01:59 praise for everything also that ASI has done. We thank you for
02:05 the ministries of ASI. We know that it takes more than one
02:11 ministry, more than one person. It takes all of us working
02:16 together to really be unified to finish your work. So we pray
02:22 that you'd give us wisdom and power and your presence as we
02:26 worship again this afternoon with you. So thank you. We
02:30 praise you, we honor you, we love you and we look forward
02:35 to that great day when you will come again in the clouds of
02:39 heaven. Keep us faithful to that end, we pray in Jesus' precious
02:44 name, Amen.
02:46 This year is the 70th anniversary of ASI and
02:55 the 500th year celebrating the reformation. It was in 1517 that
03:03 Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the castle church wall
03:10 in Wittenberg. What do those two events have in common? What does
08:47 things that ASI has in common but there is one that I'd like
08:48 to focus on. The truth that dawned on the minds of many
08:49 during the reformation is found in 1 Peter chapter 3 or chapter
08:51 2 rather. Certainly the reformation focused on
08:52 salvation by grace, justification. Certainly it
08:53 focused on the authority of the scripture as above the
08:55 authority of priests and prelates and popes.
08:56 Certainly it focused on faith. But there was another aspect of
08:57 the reformation that dawned upon the minds of men and women,
08:59 another aspect that burst upon their consciousness and we find
09:00 that in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9. The Bible says: But you
09:02 are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his
09:03 own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who
09:04 called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. The great
09:06 truth of the reformation was that priests and prelates and
09:07 popes were not the custodians of the gospel but that God had
09:08 blessed average men and women with the knowledge of his grace
09:10 and the marvels of his love and that every Christian was to be a
09:11 witness. Every Christian was to be a priest of God. Every
09:13 Christian was to be an ambasador for Christ.
09:14 Witnessing is not a spiritual gift. Witness is the calling of
09:15 every Christian who God equips with spiritual gifts to witness.
09:17 God has blessed down through the generations and centuries lay
09:18 people. Matthew was a tax collector called by God who
09:19 chronicled the gospel. Peter and John were fishermen called by
09:21 God. And think of Peter's great sermon in Acts chapter 2 where
09:22 3000 were baptized after that prophetic sermon showing that
09:23 Christ was the Messiah. Peter was a lay person. Luke was a
09:25 physician, a lay person, called by God and joined Paul. Paul was
09:26 the first ASI member because when you look back you remember
09:28 in Acts chapter 18 verse 3 that the apostle Paul was a tent
09:29 maker in Corinth. Why was Paul a tent maker in Corinth
09:30 incidentally? Why did he join Aquilla and Priscilla there.
09:32 They were expelled from Rome when the Jewish persecution came
09:33 They were tent makers. Why did they go to Corinth. It was 51 AD
09:34 The ispanian games were coming in 52 AD. They had no hotels to
09:36 stay in. So Paul entrepreneurial tent maker began making tents
09:37 for the thousands that would come to the games so he could
09:39 make some money to support his ministry. Paul was an ASI member
09:40 an entrepreneur and he lit the world with the gospel. Thank God
09:41 for ASI members who like Willian Carey. You remember what
09:43 William Carey said? He said I cobble shoes to pay expenses
09:44 but soul winning is my business. The true spirit of ASI is one
09:45 who indeed set him self- supporting to do mission
09:47 for Christ. Time went on. Church and state united. The dark ages
09:48 came and the church had a different philosophy. It's
09:49 philosophy was this: Lay people are to simply pray, they are to
09:51 pay and they are to obey. But then the light of the gospel
09:52 broke through in the middle ages and as it did Martin Luther and
09:54 other reformers began to share the glorious truth of the
09:55 priesthood of the believers. Lay people again rose to preach the
09:56 gospel and out of that reformation as heirs of the
09:58 reformation the Adventist church grew and those early Adventists
09:59 often were lay people. William Miller, not an ordained preacher
10:00 but called by God as a godly lay person rose to preach the
10:02 gospel. Think of for example the Joseph Bates, a sea captain,
10:03 called of God. God has been calling men and women down
10:05 through the ages who are lay people, touching them with the
10:06 spirit of the gospel, changing their lives. Mission is part of
10:07 the DNA of lay people in the Seventh-day Adventist church.
10:09 Mission identifies who we are and mission was part of a lay
10:10 movement in our early history and young people propelled by
10:11 mission went forward to preach the gospel Charles.
10:13 That's right Elder Finley. Mission has been the very
10:14 driving force behind our church and we have found that in the
10:15 early portion of our church it was very intentional. It wasn't
10:17 accidental, it was very intentional what our leaders did
10:18 What do you mean it was not accidental but intentional?
10:20 They very much infused their young people with a sense of
10:21 mission. The fact that they were on earth for a purpose and
10:22 that purpose was to share Christ and his soon coming
10:24 with the world.
10:25 And that's the spirit of ASI.
10:26 That's exactly the spirit of ASI ASI is patterned after that very
10:28 attitude and that attitude was probably best embodied and
10:29 exemplified in the person of E.A. Sutherland. Who was E.A.
10:30 Sutherland. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that man
10:32 that was so fundamental, so basic in the foundation of ASI.
10:33 It will be my pleasure to do that. Thanks for letting me
10:35 share. E.A. Sutherland grew up in rural Iowa not far from the
10:36 Minnesota border and he learned hard work at a very early age.
10:37 You see even when he was a very, very young man, he and his
10:39 sister herded cows for an entire summer for a total of 35 cents.
10:40 He managed to hang on to that 35 cents over the winter and
10:41 with his father's encouragement he invested that 35 cents in
10:43 some onion sets and he tended those onions through the year,
10:44 sold them for a tidy profit at the end of the year and that was
10:46 his first, if you would, ASI business venture. You see, the
10:47 year after he graduated from high school he took a job
10:48 teaching in a nearby school house. He rode his pony Mouse
10:50 back and forth throughout the winter. In addition to teaching
10:51 many lessons, he learned one lesson that was critically
10:52 important and that critically important lesson was that God
10:54 called him to reach young people for Jesus through education. He
10:55 felt that he was poorly equipped however and he determined to go
10:56 and get additional college training to remedy that short
10:58 coming. Now his family, his father in particular, did not
10:59 agree with his college aspirations and he offered him
11:01 no support. So Ed Sutherland sold his pony Mouse so that he
11:05 would be able to make the trip to Battle Creek. He went there
11:09 to live with a couple of Aunts and he wasn't immediately ready
11:14 to enter college and so he spent a year studying rhetoric and
11:18 English with Professor Goodloe Bell. Professor Bell had some
11:22 rather different ideas about education. For example,
11:25 Professor Bell thought that the Bible should be the foundation
11:31 of all the principles that we communicate. He also felt that
11:36 in addition to head learning that we should be learning
11:42 practical things. So he and Ed spent half of each day out in
11:46 physical labor. Now in spite of his family's disapproval of his
11:51 pursuit of college, Ed determined that he should go
11:54 home and help his father on the farm the first summer after he
11:58 was in college. His muscles were soft, the work was hard and his
12:02 father was harder. Against the protests of his mother and the
12:06 rest of the crew, his father put him in the toughest job in the
12:10 harvest. It was called the straw monkey. But Ed sang and prayed
12:14 his way that harvest season without any complaint. The next
12:19 summer Edward spent colporteuring. He went to
12:21 Minnesota and he stayed in the home of Josephine Gotzian.
12:24 Josephine Gotzian put colporteurs up in her home
12:29 and some of the young men that had been there didn't have a
12:32 really good experience. Ed determined that he was going to
12:36 have a better experience with his benefactoress and so he went
12:40 out of his way to take care of her home and her carriage horse.
12:43 And he wouldn't know what benefits this friendship would
12:48 have in the future. Now when Ed returned to Battle Creek it was
12:52 for his junior year in 1888 and he met a new friend there. The
12:56 new arrival was Percy Magan. Percy Magan arrived from
13:01 Ireland and he had been invited to live in the home of the now
13:05 widowed Ellen White. Ed began spending more time with the boys
13:09 excuse me with Percy in Ellen White's home. Ellen White
13:14 referred to Ed and Percy as the boys. Ed and Percy referred to
13:19 Ellen White as Mother White as a term of endearment that they
13:23 used throughout their lives and it was no accident that placed
13:29 Ed Sutherland, Percy Magan and Ellen White together in 1888
13:35 This, as you recall, is when there was a renewed emphasis in
13:40 our church on righteousness by faith, what Mother White
13:45 referred to as the third angel's message in verity. Though
13:50 younger than Edward Percy had a number of things that he was
13:54 going to teach him. One of those things was the religious
14:00 experience that he enjoyed. Little by little Percy led
14:04 Edward into the same close walk with Jesus that Percy had
14:08 already enjoyed. The visits with Mother White and the long talks
14:14 with Percy brought Ed into that same relationship and Ed and
14:20 Percy were rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ. Through that
14:25 winter the boys also observed Mother White closely. They
14:30 learned to value the marvelous gift to the remnant that the
14:35 gift of prophecy bestowed by God on this gentle woman was and
14:39 they came to the conviction that those revelations were direct
14:43 from God and they needed to follow that guidance. They did
14:48 through the rest of their lives. In addition to his studies Percy
14:54 took a job in the college bakery He was soon the head baker and
14:58 in his spare time he went over to the machine shop to learn how
15:03 to use the tools that were found there. Ed, on the other hand, in
15:09 his spare time, played football and baseball. When Ed attempted
15:13 to recruit Percy to the baseball team Percy responded, I can't
15:18 regard any activity as recreation suitable for me
15:21 unless it confers benefit on someone else. Ed pondered his
15:26 friend's position and eventually he came to believe the same as
15:32 his friend. Around this time Ed noticed also a certain young
15:37 lady. Her name was Sally Gruillard. She was from Iowa
15:41 also. She was talented. She was educated in languages. She was
15:45 artistic. She had sterling character and they both wanted
15:49 to teach. The faculty gave their permission so that they could
15:53 date and at the end of the following summer they were
15:57 married. Ed and Sally took a call to Minnesota. Percy was
16:02 asked to interrupt his studies because the college had a
16:06 desperate need for a history teacher. Then they connected at
16:10 the end of that next school year at a conference, an
16:13 educational conference that was being held in Harbor Springs,
16:16 Michigan. The Seventh-day Adventist church educators were
16:19 getting together to finally consider the counsels that
16:23 Mother White had been sending on education. While they were
16:28 there Ed suggested they go fishing. Percy responded
16:33 vegetarian and before the day was over Ed and Sally were
16:39 vegetarian as well. Also while in Harbor Springs Ed was asked
16:44 to teach history, but this time at Battle Creek College. Before
16:48 he could even start teaching they changed the subject on him.
16:51 They gave him Old Testament Bible and he figured the best
16:55 place to start Old Testament Bible is in Genesis. You now you
16:59 don't have to go to far in that book and you start finding out
17:02 what the original diet was and soon the students were asking
17:06 for a vegetarian option in the cafeteria. It wasn't two years
17:11 later and Battle Creek was a vegetarian campus. After only
17:16 one year at Battle Creek Ed was asked to go and be the principal
17:21 of a new college. It's a place out in Washington State called
17:25 Walla Walla. The president for the college lived in Michigan so
17:28 for practical purposes it was up to Ed the get the school year
17:32 started. In his first five months he needed to attend camp
17:36 meeting in Seattle, create a curriculum for the college,
17:40 produce a catalogue, find and hire qualified teachers, recruit
17:44 some students, oversee the construction workers so that the
17:47 building got built and on December 7, 1892 they opened
17:53 school with 91 students, 10 teachers. By the end of the
17:58 school year enrollment was over 160. Now by contrast I want you
18:02 to understand: The University of Washington had already been
18:09 in operation for 30 years but only had 42 students. Things
18:14 were a bit rough however. The building wasn't finished when
18:18 school opened. Construction only progressed as funds were
18:22 available. Ed was insistent that they not be going into debt. The
18:26 only heat in the building was two stoves; one was a pot
18:30 bellied stove in the chapel and the other was a borrowed range
18:33 in the kitchen, which it turned out did not work when they first
18:38 tried to fire it. There was only one bathroom and one tub in
18:43 each dormitory. The staff wrote to the General Conference
18:47 describing the situation and asking for help. The reply that
18:51 came back was a set of detailed instructions on how you could
18:56 take a bath in a basin of water. The school promptly purchased
19:01 basins for the new dormitory. Ed was very intentional about
19:05 educating his staff. He held staff retreats where they would
19:10 study the testimonies that were coming from Mother White in
19:14 Australia where she was starting Avondale. The testimonies were
19:18 a constant topic of conversation on campus. The fundamental
19:21 question with every new letter of counsel was what is this
19:25 going to look like on our campus How will we implement this
19:31 principle. The second year Ed was given the title of president
19:36 and there was also a new staff member that came. Bessie
19:39 DeGraw interrupted her studies at Battle Creek very much
19:42 like Percy had done and traveled to the Walla Walla to help out.
19:47 She proved to be a dynamo. She wound up working with Ed
19:53 Sutherland for the rest of her life. That winter Ed presented a
20:00 report of what was happening at Walla Walla to the General
20:02 Conference. The conference also heard reports from Battle Creek,
20:05 which was struggling at the time with a debt of about 90,000
20:09 dollars. In today's currency, that would be about 2.6 million.
20:14 Clearly God had been able to bless Ed's leadership at Walla
20:18 Walla and so the General Conference voted to move that
20:22 leadership to Battle Creek, to the flagship educational
20:26 institution. At the age of 32, Ed with Sally and Bessie joined
20:31 Percy back at Battle Creek. Now Battle Creek was located on only
20:35 seven acres of property in the middle of the city. Ed and Percy
20:40 desperately wanted to move the college out into the country to
20:44 be in compliance with Mother White's counsel, but her
20:48 personal counsel to the boys was wait, the time is not yet right.
20:54 So they did. They waited but they weren't idle. While they
20:58 were waiting Percy started a debt relief organization. Ed
21:02 wrote a sizable book on educational history. Ed and
21:06 Percy went out and plowed up the tennis courts and the
21:09 baseball field to provide garden space. There was a great deal of
21:14 opposition to the reforms among the students, but there was a
21:19 great deal of support and a revival swept through the
21:22 college. Ed was getting letters from several churches requesting
21:28 teachers for children. He went to the chapel meeting with the
21:32 students with three letters of request and he asked if there
21:35 might be any students williing to interrupt their studies to go
21:41 and help these churches. No one replied. So the next day he made
21:47 the same inquiry and first one and then two more young ladies
21:53 stood up. By Christmas there were seven schools in operation
21:58 with students that volunteered to lead out. By March there were
22:03 13. During the next year 57 schools were organized. By the
22:09 fall of 1900, just two years later, almost 150 church schools
22:14 were in operation. In 1900, Mother White also unexpectedly
22:19 announced her return from Australia. She determined that
22:24 she would attend the February 1901 General Conference meeting
22:27 in part because of things revealed to her about problems
22:31 that needed to be met very firmly here in America. She
22:34 addressed that conference on several subjects and among them
22:38 was the relocation of Battle Creek. After her comments on
22:42 that subject the General Conference committee voted to
22:45 purchase rural property so that they could move the college. Now
22:49 Ed and Sally and Percy, they'd already been scouting out
22:52 properties and they knew just where they wanted to go. The
22:56 next year school started in a new location, a place called
23:00 Berrien Springs, Michigan and the new location called for a
23:05 new name, Emmanuel Missionary College. Since there were only a
23:08 few small buildings on the new campus classes that first year
23:12 were held in the recently vacated court house and jail.
23:18 Percy's wife gave her entire inheritance to help start the
23:23 construction on campus. Progress on the campus was obvious and
23:28 rapid but opposition to educational reform was also
23:32 strong. Percy's wife Ida had always been rather frail and
23:36 she took ill, in part from the stress over the criticism that
23:41 her husband was receiving. She dies during the union conference
23:45 meetings that May of 1904 leaving Percy with two small
23:51 children. Percy and Ed had had enough. They tendered their
23:57 resignations and they headed south. Ed met Mother White on
24:03 Edson White's paddle wheel boat called the Morning Star. They
24:07 started up river to pick up Percy but they had mechanical
24:10 problems along the way. Ed recognized the place. It was
24:14 Neemly's Bend near Larkin Springs not far from Nashville.
24:17 Mother White wished to see a farm that was nearby. Ed had
24:22 already seen it. He was not interested, but he agreed to
24:25 accompany Mother White. The place looked worse than Ed had
24:29 remembered. Mother White seemed enamored with it. It looks like
24:34 a place I've seen in vision and Ed's heart sank. No sooner had
24:39 they picked up Percy than Mother White called Ed and Percy to her
24:43 cabin. Well Brother Magan I saw your farm today and I walked all
24:47 around it. I am convinced God wants you and Ed Sutherland to
24:51 have that place. It's the kind of place that's been shown to me
24:56 in vision. What do you think of it? I think of it as little as I
25:01 can. It's too big. It's all run down. We don't have the money.
25:06 Well I'm sorry because it seems to me the Lord intends you to
25:12 have that place. A few days later Ed and Percy did return to
25:17 the farm. Ed shared with Percy Oh I wish we had some honorable
25:21 and Christian way to get out of the whole thing without showing
25:25 a lack of faith in the testimonies. They wrestled with
25:29 their decision for the rest of the day. But before the day was
25:35 out Percy summed it up like this Ed, we're in it and we're in it
25:41 voluntarily. Mrs. White is with us, God is leading us and he
25:47 will show us the way. They shared their decision with
25:51 Mother White and she showed great pleasure. She said, I'll
25:55 do anything I can to help you. You tell your story to the
25:59 people and they will help and I will recommend your work and if
26:05 you wish I'll come on your board Now that last statement bore
26:11 great significance. It was the only board that Ellen White ever
26:17 served on and she served on it until the year before she died.
26:22 Right away Ed went north to consult with his aunt Nell.
26:26 Nellie Druillard was know by most as Mother D. She was a
26:29 firey red head but more importantly she was a keen
26:31 business woman. They took the next train that they could back
26:35 to Nashville. A welcoming party met them at the train station
26:40 and that included Mother White. When Ed and Mother D heard that
26:44 the price had been raised on the farm by another thousand dollars
26:48 Mother D said well I'm glad we're not going to take it.
26:53 Glad, glad said Mother White, do you think I'd let the devil beat
26:58 me out of a place for a thousand dollars. It's cheap enough. She
27:04 then turned to Mother D. Nell, you think that you're old enough
27:09 to retire, but if you'll cast your lot in with these boys, if
27:13 you'll look after them and guide them and support them in what
27:18 the Lord wants them to do, the Lord will renew your strength
27:22 and you'll accomplish more in the future than you've done in
27:27 the past. Mother D immediately provided the down payment.
27:33 The signatures for the property were obtained that day, a fete
27:37 about which Mother White later would tell the boys, You will
27:43 never know how many angels it took. The owners didn't vacate
27:47 the property immediately. People had to stay wherever they
27:52 could find. The servant's quarters above the carriage
27:54 house were dubbed probation hall If you could endure it's riggers
28:00 you could handle anything Madison was going to give you.
28:04 Until the Fergusons left the downstairs household servant's
28:09 quarters held mules and horses and smoked hams and mice and
28:14 rats and flies and other vermon. The place was cleaned up and
28:18 over time all of the pioneers took their turns living in the
28:23 upstairs bedroom. The incoming students also frequently spent
28:29 time in there. The faculty voted themselves a stipend of 13
28:35 dollars per month. Ten years later they would go on record to
28:40 say that they had been richly blessed to still be getting 13
28:45 dollars a month even though that 13 dollars had depreciated in
28:50 value by about 20 percent. Following the pattern of what
28:54 had been done in Michigan by 1909 Madison sent out scores of
28:58 students into the south to propagate the education and
29:01 health outreach that had been begun on that campus. It was
29:05 decided to invite representatives
29:06 from each of what they called units to come to Madison and
29:09 share in the work that was going on there. It was such a success
29:12 that they resolved to continue to do that practice. By 1910
29:16 they had survived the worst of it. Ed and Percy went back to
29:20 school to get their medical degrees and then Percy was
29:24 called to the College of Medical Evangelists. Ed said this is
29:28 like tearing asunder bone and marrow, but as Percy was leaving
29:33 Lida Funk Scott joined the Madison family. For more of the
29:37 stories of God's providence I would love to be able to share
29:41 them now but our time is running out and what you can do is you
29:45 can get the book Madison, God's Beautiful Farm. For those of you
29:48 who are here at the conference it's available in the exhibit
29:52 hall at the ASI booth or at the Madison or the EASea
29:56 booths. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news but I'm
29:59 afraid I have to just as an amateur historian set the record
30:02 straight. While technically correct this is the 70th
30:05 anniversary of ASI, but since 1909 the units have been meeting
30:11 every year to encourage each other in service and this marks
30:18 the 119th gathering of ASI. ASI was formally organized in 1947
30:25 and was expanded and renamed to include the individually
30:30 operated ministries and businesses and Elder Finley
30:35 the units are still getting together as is evidenced right
30:40 here by ASI.
30:41 Thank you so much. You know one of the things that has deeply
30:48 impressed me about ASI is the sacrifice and the commitment
30:53 that ASI members have made as they travel the world to witness
30:58 for Christ. You know a number of years ago I was on one of our
31:01 self-supporting campuses and there were a number of broken
31:05 down cars there. So I was complaining a little bit to the
31:09 administer, look at all these broken down cars on your campus.
31:12 And he got this big smile and he said we like it that way. I said
31:15 what do you mean? He said when our students go out to the
31:18 mission field they're going to need to learn how to repair
31:21 broken down cars. That's right, yeah.
31:23 And you know it's that spirit of sacrifice and commitment that
31:27 has always impressed me. When you think of the thousands and
31:31 thousands of workers that have gone out to the ends of the
31:34 earth, heaven is going to be a wonderful testimony of that
31:37 sacrifice. That's absolutely right and
31:42 self-supporting workers, those who have in some way learned how
31:46 to supply their own means and the Lord has blessed, they have
31:50 been instrumental in bringing literally thousands of people
31:54 into this precious advent message. It's amazing how ASI
31:58 has spread all over the world. Just next month I'll be in ASI
32:03 Europe for their convention in Novosad in Serbia. I mean it's
32:09 a movement that is absolutely heaven born.
32:12 You have the fascinating background with ASI particularly
32:17 with Madison. Would you like to share that with us? It's a
32:21 fascinating story and I'll try and do it in the six minutes
32:24 that I have. If we can show the first slide. I want to talk to
32:31 you about William Henry Wilson and Isabella Scott Wilson. Now
32:37 like many people in the United States their origins were in
32:43 Ireland. In fact, they came from Donegal County. They immigrated
32:48 to the United States, got married in North America and
32:54 found their way ultimately out to the northern California area.
33:00 William was not a Seventh-day Adventist but Isabella, my great
33:07 grandmother, and great grandfather, of course,
33:09 Isabella became an Adventist and I want to tell you probably why.
33:15 She became very closely connected and so did William
33:19 with a wealthy dairy farming couple. Emilene and Nathaniel
33:29 Hurlbutt. They were visited in 1908 by Ellen White, that's the
33:38 Hurlbutts who were quite wealthy. They were visited in
33:43 1908 by Ellen White, Willie White, E.A. Sutherland, Sarah
33:48 Mclntefer, the secretary of Ellen White and another
33:51 individual and they were urged to move from California to
33:56 Georgia and to start a self- supporting institution. This
34:02 burned in the hearts of the Hurlbutts and they enlisted the
34:07 help of certainly my great grandparents but my great
34:13 grandparents' children. The had four sons. The Hurlbutts were
34:20 very instrumental in the Wilson family and in fact Mrs. Hurlbutt
34:26 was called Grandma Hurlbutt. They eventually moved to Georgia
34:32 Interesting the very place that they moved was in Reeves,
34:38 Georgia. Reeves has now become basically Calhoun, Georgia. The
34:43 property that the Hurlbutts started their special farm,
34:51 Hurlbutt Farm and Institute was patterned after Madison as were
34:55 many of those institutions in the south of the United States.
35:00 My oldest great uncle who was the senior brother of my
35:06 grandfather, Nathaniel Carter Wilson. In fact, Nathaniel
35:12 Carter Wilson, the first N.C. My father, my grandfather and I all
35:17 have these initials but different names. Nathaniel
35:20 Carter was named for Nathaniel Hurlbutt and Emilene Carter
35:26 Hurlbutt. These people had profound influence and certainly
35:32 an interested was generated in a great way in our family. Now the
35:36 picture that you just saw, if we can go back to that picture
35:42 is my grandfather Nathaniel Carter Wilson who with his new
35:48 bride Hannah, my grandmother, went on their wedding night on
35:55 a train to Reeves, Georgia to join his older brother in the
36:02 work. In reality he was following up on what his
36:08 older brother had done because his older brother died of
36:11 tuberculosis. So there they were working in the self-supporting
36:16 institution in Reeves, Georgia for probably about 10 months or
36:20 so. Family matters called them back to Lodi, California where
36:26 my great grandmother was living. From there in 1922 the two of
36:33 them went to Madison College along with my father and with
36:41 my aunt. There they spent about three years at Madison College.
36:47 My grandfather was the Bible teacher, he was the church
36:52 pastor and he was ordained as a gospel minister at Madison
36:58 College. They left for Africa after that and then on to India
37:03 and to a great extent Madison put its huge imprint on the
37:08 Wilson family. If we go now and jump a few years, when they came
37:15 back from mission service at that point, because they went
37:18 back again... If we can show the next slide. This is a picture of
37:24 my grandfather approximately at the time when he became
37:29 president of the North American Division. In fact, my father has
37:32 served in that capacity. My grandfather has served in that
37:35 capacity. At that time, he was elected in 1946, in 1947 or just
37:42 before that, I should say, he was elected also as the board
37:49 chair of Madison College. So he came full circle. He was then
37:55 the chair of that particular institution that was 180
38:01 patients strong, 500 students, food factory, farm, etc., etc.
38:06 The next year in 1947, March 4-5 in Cincinnati, Ohio 50
38:14 representatives and leaders from self-supporting instutitions
38:19 gathered and they forged greater ties to work together. Out of
38:25 that, 25 institutions formed the first Association of Self-
38:30 Supporting Institutions under the leadership of my grandfather
38:35 who had been so influenced by Madison College. My grandfather
38:41 is quoted as saying, it is a great day in the history of the
38:46 church, the Association of Seventh-day Adventist
38:49 Self-Supporting Institutions. Two years later in 1949, as I
38:55 have it, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Dr. E.A. Sutherland
39:00 was elected president of ASI and Dr. J. Wayne McFarland
39:04 who many of us know as the cofounder of the 5-day plan to
39:09 stop smoking was elected as the secretary. ASI's history is
39:14 rooted in Madison College and in so much of the outgrowth of that
39:19 incredible institution. Of course, in 1979, it was renamed
39:24 Adventist Laymen's Services and Industries, expanding it's
39:28 activity. I'd like to show you the next picture and it's a
39:33 picture of my grandparents in their later years.
39:36 My grandfather was the presedent of the Georgia-Cumberland
39:42 Conference in the early 1960s and just the change of that
39:47 decade and in 1959 while he was president of that conference
39:51 they had a session at the camp meeting that empowered the
39:55 Conference to work out details for the purchase of the Hurlbutt
40:00 farm from the Laymen's Foundation and that later became
40:05 the Georgia-Cumberland Adventist Academy. So my grandfather was
40:11 so involved in so much of this that was all founded in Madison.
40:18 You know Elder Wilson, as we look back at our backgrounds
40:22 these early experiences shape our lives. They help to shape
40:26 who we are in ministry. They help to shape us in who we are
40:31 in Christ and in witness. In a sentence or two how did this
40:35 background shape your life?
40:37 Madison College, the connections my great uncles working there.
40:42 Another wonderful person within our family, Billy Wilson, some
40:47 of you may know him. These individuals have helped to
40:53 create in my life a very profound understanding as to
40:58 what ASI and Madison College can do. I'll show you the next
41:03 picture of my parents and many of you will remember my parents.
41:07 They were tremendously influenced by ASI and Madison
41:14 College. This heritage will live in the hearts of people and in
41:20 the mission outreach until Jesus comes.
41:24 You know, just as you have been somewhat influenced by ASI,
41:29 self-supporting institutions early in my ministry I had a
41:34 great influence in that area.
41:35 In fact, I'm not the only one with a story, Mark, because you
41:40 have been so influenced by this connection with especially
41:44 Wildwood. Tell us what happened.
41:47 Well in the late 1960s I was a ministerial intern. I had been
41:52 in ministry for two years and I met Elder W.D. Frazee who was
41:57 the president of Wildwood at the time. My wife was teaching
42:01 elementary school in Hartford, Connecticut, I was a young
42:05 ministerial intern in Hartford and Elder Frazee came to have a
42:10 series of meetings on the sanctuary, the Lamb of God in
42:14 the Sanctuary, the Lamb who dies the priest who lives. Jesus'
42:18 ministry in the sanctuary. And I remember we were going through
42:23 that series and I was deeply impressed by the spirituality
42:28 of his meetings. Elder Frazee was not a preacher that was
42:34 bombastic or fascinating. When he got up to speak you sensed
42:40 that the Spirit of God was speaking through him. I had
42:43 never been in meetings before that I walked in and I sensed
42:47 that the lives of people were being changed. People were being
42:51 touched by the Spirit. As a young preacher I was really
42:54 impressed by that. I thought to myself, I don't want my messages
42:58 simply to entertain people. I don't want to be a fascinating
43:01 preacher. I want the Spirit of God to come down. I want some
43:04 heart to be touched, some life to be changed, somebody be
43:09 moved upon by the Spirit. I remember it was in February and
43:13 the snow was coming and I said to Elder Frazee and to our
43:16 senior pastor O.J. Mills, I don't know if we should have the
43:19 meeting tonight because every report is that it's going to
43:24 snow and snow and snow. And that Godly man simply said, my
43:28 brother let us pray. God is the God of the weather. And you know
43:32 there are some things that are indelibly etched on the
43:36 consciousness of your mine forever. Elder Frazee and Elder
43:40 Mills and I got down and he prayed. He prayed a simple
43:43 prayer. Dear Lord, you know those people and they need to
43:46 hear this message tonight and I pray you'd put your hand over
43:51 this city. It snowed that night all around us and it did not
43:56 snow in Hartford, Connecticut. All around us the roads were
44:01 icy. I said to myself here is a man that knows God and I
44:06 remembered what Dwight L Moody said when he said, the world has
44:10 yet to see what God will do in and through and by and for and
44:15 with a man that is consecrated to him. I want to be that man.
44:19 A number of months later Elder Frazee gave me an invitation to
44:24 become his associate. He said to me if you come to Wildwood I can
44:28 offer you nothing. I can't offer you a salary because we don't
44:32 have one. I can't offer you housing because I don't know
44:34 where you're going to live at this point; we'll have something
44:37 when you come. I can't offer you prestige but what I can offer
44:41 you is myself. I will share with you everything I know in
44:44 ministry. So I came to Wildwood as a young preacher. I watched
44:48 him make an appeal and I learned how to make them. I watched him
44:52 with testimony meetings and I saw the power of God change
44:55 people's lives and I learned how to have testimony meetings. I
44:58 watched him as he prayed with people after the meetings and
45:01 it was indelibly written upon my mind. One day, it was October 22
45:07 and Elder Frazee said to me... We often preached together.
45:10 He said, Mark you preach the first 20 minutes of the sermon
45:14 and whenever you finish I'll get up and I'll take up where
45:18 you left off and I'll preach the rest of the sermon. So I would
45:22 preach 20 minutes and he would preach 20 minutes. We'd choose
45:25 the topic together. He said Mark I want you to preach, it's
45:28 October 22, I want you to preach on the sanctuary. You preach on
45:33 the fact that of the 70 weeks, you nail down the facts of 27
45:38 AD, 31 AD - Christ's crucifixion you deal with the 69 weeks and
45:43 so forth. Now I was a young preacher and I thought about
45:47 that and thought about that. He said after you preach on the
45:50 sanctuary and you show that after 1844 Jesus want into the
45:54 Most Holy Place, then I will get up and say what is Jesus
45:57 doing now and I'll explain his ministry up there. Well the more
46:00 I thought about it the more I thought I've only got 20 minutes
46:04 to do that, I'm going to get confused. So I went to Elder
46:06 Frazee and said I don't think I can do this. You know that old
46:12 preacher at the time repected this young preacher. He said
46:15 Mark if your uncomfortable with it this is what I want you to do
46:17 I went to him on a Friday morning. We were supposed to
46:19 preach Friday night. He said, this is what I want you to do.
46:23 I want you to take your Bible and you go out today under the
46:27 trees and you pray all day and let God give you a message. I'm
46:32 going to do the same thing and you meet me tonight at 6:30 here
46:35 Our meeting starts at seven. We'll compare our notes. We
46:37 won't preach on the 2300 days but you go pray all day, I'll
46:40 pray all day. We'll come back. So I go out and pray all day.
46:43 About half way through the day I look at Philippians 2 and I
46:46 said, hey, I'm going to preach on Philippians 2. Came back to
46:51 Elder Frazee. It was about 6:30 at night and I look at him and I
46:56 say Elder, I'm going to preach on Philippians 2, the humility
47:01 of Christ. He said, Go over your sermon notes. I went over my
47:06 sermon notes. He sat there like this, praise God, praise God,
47:10 praise God. He handed me his sermon notes. We hadn't talked
47:14 all day and he had developed a sermon starting where my sermon
47:19 ended on Philippians the 2nd chapter. We knelt and prayed
47:24 together and that night the Spirit of God came down.
47:27 Incidentally if you want to hear that sermon it's called There's
47:30 Room at the Top and you can get it from Wildwood Recordings
47:34 today. I preached the first 20 minutes, he preaches the second.
47:37 Elder Wilson, what impressed me early in my ministry in my time
47:41 at Wildwood was that I needed to be a man of God. I could not
47:45 waste people's time in preaching In associating with Elder Frazee
47:49 listening to him make strong appeals for Christ changed my
47:53 life. Amen, and you know what really
47:56 marks the incredible aspect of the imprint from self-supporting
48:02 institutions and Madison College is sacrifice, sacrifice for
48:07 Jesus. That same sacrifice is going to be manifested at the
48:12 very end of time.
48:13 It is and there are plenty other stories as well that are so
48:18 similar to your story and to my story. Elder Wilson, I think
48:23 Charles had some other stories for us.
48:26 There are several stories that I think would be helpful for our
48:29 ASI family but we only have time for a few. The first I want to
48:34 share with you is about Elmer Brink. Now when the team began
48:38 to assemble on the old Ferguson farm, the program was far from
48:43 being a large and well-oiled program. In addition to a few
48:46 students there were only a few dedicated faces one of which I
48:50 cannot even show you and that one, mostly unknown, but
48:54 critically important is Elmer Brink. You see everyone had
48:59 their task to do on the place to get it up and running. Mother
49:03 D ran the skillet and the broom. Percy ran the farm. Ed ran the
49:08 butter churn. Bessie took the butter into town and sold it to
49:12 get a little bit of cash. But if it wasn't for Elmer taking
49:17 care of the cows that produced the milk that made the butter
49:22 that produced the cash they may not have made it through that
49:27 first year. What we know of now as Madison may never have come
49:32 to be. Elmer represents a multitude of dedicated skilled
49:36 workers that each sacrificially plyed their gifts and their
49:40 talents that God has given in whatever place of ministry God
49:44 has placed them. Undeterred by challenges that might arise they
49:49 faithfully do day by day the things that bring success to
49:53 ministry. Usually allowing others to step into the
49:57 spotlight, they're content to know that they've been faithful
50:02 in their place and that God has led them. This likely describes
50:08 the majority of ASI, whether an individual or an institutional
50:13 ministry. And you might remember that Ed Sutherland met Josephine
50:17 Gotzian when he was in her home canvassing. Well after spending
50:21 some time in California helping Ellen White to get the medical
50:25 work off the ground there, including helping to fund the
50:28 original purchase of the Paradise Valley Sanitarium
50:31 she made donations to the College of Medical Evangelists
50:35 and then she moved east to Tennessee. Her home was made
50:39 there at Madison and her house also housed the first sanitarium
50:44 patients. She provided the means for the contruction of some of
50:48 campus buildings and lived there at Madison until her death.
50:53 Aunt Nellie Druillard was a keen business woman and she did look
50:58 after the boys. She did not only dedicate the rest of her life to
51:03 the development of this God inspired school but she comitted
51:07 her personal financial resources to the down payment and to the
51:10 infrastructure of the place. Lida Funk Scott that we only
51:14 briefly mentioned earlier was an heiress to the Funk and Wagnalls
51:18 Encyclopedia fortune. After spending some time at Battle
51:21 Creek she thought she'd go south to see a school that she'd heard
51:25 about down there and she liked what she saw at Madison and
51:29 decided to stay. Though a wealthy woman she adopted the
51:32 very simple life style of Madison. She poured her
51:36 inheritance into the development of ministries like Madison and
51:40 Loma Linda and her personal outreach was encouraging the
51:44 units that were springing up from Madison by lending her
51:49 presence and her advice and her means. In 1927, she invested her
51:55 resources to establish the Layman Foundation to carry on
51:59 that mission and the Layman Foundation in turn launched the
52:05 E.A. Sutherland Education Association. It started in 2002
52:10 and it continues much of that work of encouragement and
52:15 support of the lay operated educational units. Now if you
52:19 were to try and measure in today's currency each one of
52:24 these ladies contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars
52:28 toward the establishment of Seventh-day Adventist
52:32 denominational and lay operated ministries and I believe these
52:38 ladies represent those here in ASI who contribute or manage the
52:44 resources that God has provided and that are critically
52:49 necessary to establish and to move ministry forward.


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Revised 2018-03-29