Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000005A
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00:21 Hello and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now.
00:24 Today we want to talk about our Bethel Evening Schools, 00:25 but first I want to share with you 00:28 the shocking statistic that 16,000 children die every day 00:32 for malnutrition and starvation. 00:34 Honey, how does this happen? 00:37 Well, the vast majority of them 00:38 do happen in third world countries, 00:40 countries that basically have a really difficult time 00:44 to provide enough food and nutrition 00:46 for their children to grow properly. 00:48 And that's mainly because of poverty. 00:51 Absolutely. 00:52 There's a lot of different aspects of poverty 00:54 that we living in the west don't really understand. 00:57 In the United States, when you're really poor, 00:59 a lot of times, you're still quite overweight 01:00 and we actually spend as much in the United States 01:03 on weight loss as it would take 01:07 to actually feed the rest of the world, 01:09 and eradicate poverty, and malnutrition completely 01:10 but the truth is malnutrition happens 01:14 when there's not enough money to buy food. 01:16 There's not work, 01:17 there's not some kind of system to provide for them 01:20 when they get into hard times, 01:21 and so these kids just go into malnutrition. 01:24 They can't get enough food, 01:25 they can't get enough of the right kind of food. 01:27 So part of it's that they're poor. 01:29 Absolutely. 01:30 Part of it's that in some places 01:32 they can't find jobs, 01:33 and part of it's that the jobs they do find 01:35 don't pay enough to provide. 01:36 Right. 01:38 And what's happening today is that lot of people 01:40 are migrating to the cities. 01:42 And even in the rural places if you get a drought, I mean, 01:45 some places their whole existence 01:48 depends on next year's crop. 01:50 And if there's a drought 01:51 or if they get the wrong kind of seeds, 01:53 and things don't produce, 01:54 then they end up in a very difficult situation. 01:57 So which countries are we looking at here 01:59 or what country, 02:00 because today we've got particular project, 02:03 the Bethel Evening Schools and that is in India. 02:05 Yes. So what about India? 02:07 I've seen the statistic online 02:09 that India has the third of the world's poor, 02:12 just in that one country. 02:14 There's a lot of child death in India due to poverty. 02:18 Even if it's not death, there's a lot of other things 02:21 that happen to a child 02:23 when they don't get enough nutrition, 02:24 even if they don't die, they may end up 02:26 being stunted in their growth, 02:28 stunted in their mental ability. 02:30 Yeah, I remember reading an article 02:32 that was talking about that, how the children, 02:34 because they weren't getting enough to eat, 02:36 they couldn't learn. 02:37 They became unable to learn. 02:39 Right. And so that is part of the cycle of poverty. 02:43 If you're unable to learn, 02:44 you're unable to get an education, 02:45 you're unable to do very good work, 02:47 you're then unable to provide for your family 02:50 and so therefore the cycle of poverty continues. 02:53 And it's a downward spiral. 02:55 The two biggest challenges, actually three as Christians 02:59 for children in poverty situations 03:03 in order to grow and thrive, 03:05 number one is getting enough nutrition. 03:08 Hmm. 03:09 Okay, if they don't get enough nutrition, 03:11 they can't get an education, they can't go forward, 03:14 they can't develop. 03:15 And there's a lot of people 03:17 that don't get that kind of nutrition, 03:19 like you said 16,000 people die every day, 03:22 children from malnutrition, they're dying, 03:26 even today because of malnutrition, 03:29 lack of food. 03:30 So what do we do about that? 03:32 Well, the best thing is to give them more food 03:36 to feed them. 03:39 And the second biggest challenge 03:40 that they have is, 03:41 the challenge of getting an education 03:44 so that they can think different, 03:46 so they can even see themselves getting out of that situation 03:49 because when you've been living day-to-day 03:51 all your life, that's just what you'll expect. 03:54 And so, thinking outside the box shall we say. 03:57 And then the third one is this system of poverty 04:02 is actually, entrenched in their religion, okay. 04:06 Hinduism has a caste system 04:08 where if you are born as an outcast shall we say, 04:12 then that's your place in life for the rest of your life 04:16 and there is no getting out of it. 04:18 And your children's lives, and their children's lives, 04:20 and on, and on, and on. 04:22 Yes. Never ending. 04:23 Yes, exactly. 04:24 And so there's four main castes, 04:27 there's the Brahmin and the... 04:29 so that I forgot all of them but, then there's the outcaste, 04:32 okay. 04:33 And so, if you're born in one of the lower caste 04:35 or one of the outcaste, you can't change that. 04:39 And unless you change religions. 04:42 And it's amazing this concept of the gospel 04:44 that all men are created equal, that's a Christian concept, 04:48 you don't find that anywhere else. 04:50 That everybody is of equal value. 04:53 Yes, that is a Christian concept. 04:55 And so when we share that Christian concept, 04:58 and when they accept Jesus into their lives, 05:01 now all of a sudden all kinds of doors start opening up. 05:03 Doors like education, "Oh, I can get an education. 05:06 This system that keeps me, 05:08 you know, under the thumb is wrong. 05:11 Really? 05:12 Oh, I'm of value to God just as I am? 05:15 Wow!" Mm-hmm. 05:18 "Well, my families are of value too, 05:21 so therefore, I have the right to go 05:23 and pursue an education to learn 05:25 and to get a job just like everyone else." 05:28 But, don't we have something to show, 05:31 to show the viewers what it's like there? 05:33 You ask him how he likes his work. 05:41 Back around 2001, I was videotaping in a slum. 05:45 I came across thing young man 05:46 who was sorting through recyclable trash. 05:49 And he looked like a college age student. 05:51 I asked him, you know, I was videotaping, I asked him, 05:53 "Do you like doing this? 05:55 Would you like to do something else? 05:55 What's you career?" 05:56 And he said something and the translator said, 05:58 "This is all he can do. 06:00 He's an outcaste." 06:02 So he didn't have any choice. 06:03 He didn't have any options. 06:04 Had no options at all because of how he was born, 06:08 that dictated who he's going to be, 06:10 what he can do, where he can go, 06:12 that he can't get an education. 06:14 I mean by law, he's supposed to get an education 06:16 but in reality it's very difficult 06:19 to get a decent education 06:19 that will lift him out of that, 06:22 or give him opportunities to get out of that situation. 06:23 To me he looked like a bright, intelligent, happy young man. 06:28 Why would he be denied opportunities to grow 06:31 and to do something else with his life? 06:33 Coming from a culture where that is important 06:36 to lift yourself up with your own bootstraps, 06:39 get an education, move your life forward. 06:41 Have it so that your kids have a better life than you had. 06:44 All these wonderful dreams and aspirations that we have, 06:47 for that to be denied a young man, 06:50 so that he doesn't even have an opportunity to do better. 06:53 Hmm. No option. 06:54 No option. No option. 06:56 To me that's just wrong. 06:59 And for me to go back to a regular life 07:01 and say thank you God for everything that I have 07:03 and ignore his life, that's... I can't do that. 07:07 Don't try and not try to do anything. 07:08 I cannot do that. 07:11 So you went back to that slum? 07:13 Yes. A few years later? 07:13 Yes. 07:15 And you followed a man that did that for a living. 07:17 Yes. He went and picked up trash. 07:19 Yes, Bhaskar. I ask... 07:21 We have a little video... Yes. 07:22 From that to show. 07:24 I asked my translator if we could go there 07:25 when they do their... 07:26 'cause they go early in the morning 07:27 'cause if they go later in the morning, 07:29 then all the recyclables are gone. 07:32 Somebody gets them before them. 07:33 Yeah, so they have to go early in the morning. 07:35 So I got there 4:30 in the morning. 07:37 And I found all these people sleeping on the sidewalk. 07:49 It's 4:30 in the morning 07:52 and I'm here at one of the slums in Madras, India. 07:54 I've gotten permission through Pastor Samuel, 07:56 to follow a trash collector named Bhaskar 07:59 on his morning route. 08:04 They are all rag pickers. 08:06 They pick some papers, and old things, and tins, 08:10 and bottles from the garbage, and they take it to the shop 08:15 and sell them, and get some money out of that. 08:17 And then they try to buy some groceries, 08:23 rice, and cook and eat. 08:24 I asked a question: "Why are they sleeping here?" 08:39 So they say, when the flood came 08:42 their houses were washed away to the other side, 08:45 so they lost all their huts and the belongings, 08:49 you know, other things, so they have nothing, 08:54 so they are sleeping on this platform. 09:01 So how long will they think that they have to stay here? 09:11 They will continue to stay here as long as they live 09:15 because they belong to a lower caste of people, 09:18 so they don't have any proper houses 09:24 or any proper care from the government. 09:28 They are requesting: "Our children are not studying, 09:30 can you do some help for them?" 09:33 For what? To get some education. 09:34 Oh, education. 09:36 Are there schools they can go to? 09:41 They have a Government school 09:42 but they don't treat the children well, 09:46 the teachers don't come to class 09:48 to take care of them. 09:49 So they're not going to the school properly. 09:54 Two-three small children of his went to the school, 09:57 but nobody came to take care of them, 09:59 no teachers, or anybody. 10:00 So they all stopped, 10:03 the parents stopped the children 10:04 from going to the school. 10:06 And so, what amazed me is that they didn't ask for money, 10:10 they didn't ask for their tents to be rebuilt, 10:15 or utensils for them to cook with, 10:17 they asked for one thing, they asked for an education. 10:21 For their children. 10:22 An education for their children, 10:23 because they know that this is the only way 10:24 that these kids will have a better life. 10:27 Hmm. And not be trapped. 10:28 So, because of that video and because of a burden 10:32 that God laid on the heart of our director in India, 10:34 we have Bethel Evening Schools now. 10:38 And what are the Bethel Evening Schools? 10:39 What do we do there? 10:40 Well, when we started the first one, 10:43 we had our Director in India 10:44 go into a village and do a survey. 10:47 How many of you could read? 10:47 How many of you could write? 10:49 How many of you were getting an education, 10:52 all that kind of stuff. 10:53 And even though they were given an education 10:54 at the government school, 10:55 out of 62 kids that they interviewed, 10:59 12 of them could read and write. 11:01 So, that means... 11:03 That's not a very good large percentage. 11:04 Fifty kids could not read or write. 11:07 That's like wow! 11:08 Yeah. 11:10 Just to give you an example of what this looks like. 11:12 They need to go downtown or some place else in the city, 11:16 they go to a bus stop and they have to ask somebody, 11:17 "What does that bus say? 11:19 Is that going where I need to go?" 11:21 And if the person is nice, and tells them right 11:23 then they can get on the right bus, 11:24 but if nobody's at the bus stop, 11:27 or if they're, you know, 11:27 kind of playing a trick on them, 11:29 they end up in the wrong part of town. 11:29 End somewhere else. Yeah. 11:32 They don't know what's happening 11:33 with their bodies, they don't know anything 11:35 what to do, to go to the doctor. 11:37 Some people are unfamiliar with money, 11:39 they don't know how to count. 11:40 We were at an evangelical series once 11:42 and a lady came up asking for some money, 11:44 so we gave her a 500 rupee note. 11:48 And she... Paper. 11:48 Yeah, paper. 11:50 And she went walking around and she was asking her friends, 11:53 "Why did they give me this paper? 11:53 I need money." 11:55 And they're like well, that is money. 11:57 Really? This isn't money. This is just paper. 12:00 She'd never held paper money in her life. 12:03 She lives in such poverty all of her life 12:04 that she'd always been dong everything with coins. 12:07 Wow. 12:09 But I think back in her life, 12:11 what if somebody had given her paper money, 12:13 and she didn't know what it was, 12:15 what did she do with it? 12:16 Did she throw it away? Hmm. 12:17 You know, a little bit of education 12:19 would have made such a difference in her life. 12:22 When she found out how much money that was, 12:25 I mean, it just blew her, 12:26 I mean, she just broke down and cried in tears 12:27 because she'd never had, I mean 500 rupees, 12:30 that's 10 bucks. 12:31 Yeah. Ten bucks. 12:32 Another time, this is in Indonesia. 12:33 I went and visited a family there, 12:35 just on the side of the river, we just dropped in unannounced, 12:37 and asked them 'cause I was videotaping, 12:41 I wanted to see how they cook in their home. 12:42 So she let, they let me in into the little family, they ate, 12:45 and on the way out I gave them 10 bucks, you know, 12:48 they didn't ask for it, but I just wanted to. 12:50 And they were blown away, and as I was leaving, 12:53 the translator, the friend that I was with says, 12:54 "Enough to feed them for 12:57 probably one week or two weeks!" 12:59 Ten dollars. 13:01 Out of this came a dream, 13:02 what can we do if these people 13:05 that are on the edge of starvation 13:07 with their houses swept away 13:07 or asking for education for their kids, 13:11 that's what we need to give. 13:13 But not just education, 13:14 but we need to provide something for them to eat. 13:18 Our director in India came up with this idea 13:21 which was brilliant in my mind 13:22 because it provides two of the most basic needs 13:23 of these children that are growing up 13:25 in poverty situations. 13:26 Number one is an education, number two is the nutrition, 13:30 okay, and that's the evening school. 13:32 And what's the third thing it provides. 13:34 As a Christian it provides the means, the actual, 13:37 the thing that they really need the most 13:37 that they don't understand. 13:39 They don't know that they need this the most 13:41 but access and knowledge of the true God. 13:44 That can really help them on a day by day basis 13:47 that is with them, that cares about them, 13:48 and that sees great value in them. 13:51 Okay, so we have, we have education. 13:53 Education. 13:54 So they bring their school work from the government school, 13:57 and they have teachers there that tutor them 13:59 in their school work from the government school. 14:01 And make sure they are learning how to read, you know, 14:05 it's not so easy to learn Tamil. 14:07 They've got like 230 characters in their alphabet. 14:11 Yeah, or more. Somewhere around there. 14:12 You get different numbers from who you talk to. 14:14 We got 26, they got over 200. 14:16 But they make sure that they learn how to read, 14:18 they make sure they learn how to do Math, 14:22 so they can count their money, 14:23 and make sure they're not getting ripped off. 14:25 And make sure they learn how to do the writing, 14:27 and they can move forward in life. 14:30 And then they provide a free evening meal, 14:31 which is got not only rice, but it also has vegetables. 14:35 And they make them eat their vegetables. 14:37 Yes. 14:38 And some of them are really reluctant at the beginning 14:40 to eat their vegetables. 14:40 Yes. Yes. 14:42 But it sticks with them a lot longer, 14:44 if they eat the vegetables and not just the rice. 14:46 Well, that's where the nutrition is. 14:47 Right. 14:48 I've seen kids, and this is a short clip here 14:50 of a child having his daily meal, 14:52 and what's in that cup 14:54 is just some rice in the bottom with a lot of water, 14:57 and you can see him drinking. 14:58 That's his normal meal. 15:00 And if he goes out begging, 15:02 whatever he can find in the street, 15:03 from people, or whatever people throw out, 15:06 he might eat some of that. 15:08 But with the second meal, 15:10 I mean, with just the one meal that we provide in the day, 15:11 that's the second meal. 15:12 Mm-hmm. 15:14 And so you see kids that have been 15:16 going to the school for a couple of years, 15:17 and you compare that to the kids 15:19 that don't go to the school, it's a huge difference. 15:21 Their skin is glowing and shining, 15:23 they had light in their eyes, they're eager. 15:25 You can just see though, 15:26 that desire to learn in these kids' eyes. 15:28 It's such a thrill to see these kids grow. 15:33 Now, we have some stories from some of the evening schools 15:36 about how they, how they've used the knowledge 15:39 that they've gotten. 15:40 You want to share one of those stories? 15:41 We've got one story of a child that had been coming to our 15:44 evening school for a year or so. 15:46 He went home one day and his mom was lying in bed, 15:50 couldn't get up, couldn't make the meal, 15:52 couldn't take care of the family 15:53 because she had a big headache, 15:54 I mean, it was one of those debilitating headaches. 15:57 Hmm. 15:58 And he said, "Mommy, what's wrong?" 16:00 "Oh, headache, oh, I just can't get over this headache." 16:02 And the little boy says, "Why don't we pray to Jesus?" 16:05 Hmm. 16:06 And this is a home with all the Hindu Gods. 16:09 The pictures that they worship, and the little shrine up there 16:12 with the incense, and the little boy said, 16:15 "We need to pray to Jesus." 16:16 And the mother said "okay." 16:19 The little boy knelt down and prayed like 16:21 he'd learnt at the Bethel Evening School, 16:23 "Dear Jesus, please heal my mommy, 16:25 make the pain in her head go away." 16:26 Boom! It was gone. 16:28 She got up made the meal, 16:31 and then she took her son down to the school, 16:33 and said this is what your God did for me. 16:35 There's some extreme radical Hindus 16:39 that kind of come in 16:40 and they're upset about what's happening. 16:41 Anything that has to do with Christianity, 16:43 they try to shut down. 16:45 So they got a little group together, 16:46 and they were gonna come, and they were gonna 16:47 go into the school, 16:48 and they were gonna beat up the school master. 16:49 The local neighbors, they got together 16:53 and came out and said, 16:54 "No, these people, they're helping our children. 16:57 They have done nothing here but help our children to learn. 17:01 They're feeding our children, they're good people. 17:04 You leave these guys alone. 17:05 Go away." 17:06 And they protected him. Absolutely. 17:08 And so, this is in a neighborhood 17:09 where normally you'd have a high prejudice 17:12 against anything Christian. 17:14 But the school has been in there, 17:15 they've been serving the children, 17:17 they've been helping the children, 17:18 and the barriers have broken down 17:20 and now there's a bond. 17:21 And the people in the neighborhood 17:23 are appreciating this ministry 17:24 and they don't want to see the school close down. 17:26 So the first school has been going on for eight years. 17:29 Now these kids have been spending eight years 17:32 learning about Christ and reading and growing. 17:34 And some of them are gone now, out of the school there too. 17:37 Yes. 17:38 And we haven't had a chance to track them 17:39 to see what's happened in their lives, 17:41 see what differences it's made. 17:42 But it's this kind of thing 17:43 much more than a big evangelistic series 17:46 that talks to them for maybe eight days 17:48 or even a month 17:49 but this is a daily, daily, daily thing, 17:52 and what a powerful impact this is gonna have 17:55 in the long run. 17:56 I'm totally excited about this. Right. 17:58 So they learn memory verses, they learn songs, 18:01 they learn different things, 18:02 they hear character building stories 18:05 from the Bible and other sources 18:07 that encourage them to live a morally upright life 18:10 and to learn about God and what He can do. 18:12 And their families appreciate that. 18:14 Yeah. Absolutely. 18:15 Well, we want to talk a little bit briefly 18:16 about the "Saving the Lives" ministry 18:18 that James and Mary Ann started. 18:19 Well, you know, when my daughter was 18:21 four years old, and my son was six, 18:23 I was thinking, how do we get our kids 18:25 excited about what we're doing, 18:27 because the truth is that we're making sacrifices 18:31 doing this work. 18:32 Daddy's gone quite a bit. 18:33 We don't have the same kind of, maybe clothes. 18:37 We don't have the same kind of cars 18:39 that other people might have 18:40 because we're putting all this money, and resources, 18:43 and time into this project that we're so in love with. 18:47 Well, how do we get our kids involved? 18:50 My daughter was four, my son was six. 18:52 We got a whole group together with six different teams. 18:55 We went over did a massive evangelism series 18:57 in six different places. 18:59 Mm-hmm. 19:00 And we took our kids, four and six. 19:03 I'll never forget we were standing 19:05 in one of these little churches. 19:07 James is surrounded with kids, it's noisy, 19:10 they're playing and James leaned up against the wall 19:13 and says "Daddy, this is what I want to do with my life." 19:16 And they caught the vision, and then on the way home, 19:20 when we got home, Mary Ann, four years old came up with, 19:23 "let's start our own club. 19:24 We'll call it Saving the Lives. 19:25 She came up with this idea. 19:27 Right. 19:28 And they wanted to be helping the children 19:31 in India and Thailand 19:32 because we'd also been to the Thailand that trip. 19:35 But they realized that kids need to be involved 19:38 in helping other kids, 19:39 and they wanted kids helping kids. 19:41 It's part of their, you know, their plan, 19:43 and so it became a passionate thing 19:47 for them to do different things. 19:49 For example, every Christmas 19:50 they like to make cookies to sell. 19:52 And one year they were selling 19:54 cookies and hot chocolate on the side of the road 19:57 in the middle of winter to fundraise, 19:59 so the kids could have Christmas presents. 20:01 It's called Saving the Lives Club, 20:03 because that's what we're doing. 20:05 It's not just a program that we've got going. 20:07 We're actually saving lives. 20:09 Right. It actually saves lives. 20:12 It saves them for now and for eternity. 20:14 And for eternity, which is more important. 20:16 Right. Yeah. 20:17 They saw the poverty, they saw the need, 20:19 and they got excited about it. 20:22 And, Mary Ann, 20:23 our four years old came up with, 20:24 let's start our own club, we'll call it Saving the Lives, 20:26 their own ministry. 20:28 Yeah. 20:29 So they've done different projects 20:31 through the years and there is, 20:33 there are people that we have these 20:35 little self-denial boxes. 20:36 Self-denial box? What's a self-denial box? 20:38 It's a box where you put the money 20:41 that you would've spent on yourself. 20:43 You put it and you give it as an offering. 20:45 So instead of that five dollar ice cream 20:47 or that two dollar ice cream... 20:48 You would put the money in the box. 20:51 And then you would... But what can two dollars do? 20:53 What can two dollars do? 20:54 Well at our evening schools, for example, 20:57 we got these self-denial boxes at one point, 20:59 and we gave them out, 21:00 and other people have made their own 21:02 since then because we didn't have enough. 21:04 But basically what they do is 21:07 if they're gonna spend money on themselves, 21:09 instead of spending it on themselves, 21:11 they choose to put that money, 21:13 that two dollars or that five dollars 21:14 in the self-denial box, and then they send it, 21:17 and it goes to feed the children 21:19 in the Bethel Evening Schools, 21:20 or it goes to help with the orphanage, 21:21 depending on where the need is greatest that month. 21:23 And so we have these children that got involved 21:26 and there are still people that have those churches 21:29 or have the self-denial boxes, fill them up 21:32 and then send all the money at once 21:34 so we'll get these bags of coins. 21:36 We encourage people to get it converted into a check 21:40 because it's safer than sending money. 21:41 But if we see them, they bring us the church 21:43 and they empty the church right there 21:45 and then we have the bags of coins to carry around, 21:47 but, until we get to the bank. 21:49 But, it's such a neat thing because, you know, 21:52 anybody has five cents, ten cents, or a quarter, 21:54 whatever and it adds up to quite a bit. 21:56 The size that we have calculated 21:58 that it cost seven dollars a month 22:00 for one child to go to the Bethel Evening Schools. 22:02 So that translates to about a quarter a day. 22:05 So if you think about it that way 22:07 all these coins that people collect 22:10 in their self-denial boxes or the two dollar ice cream 22:11 that they denied to themselves 22:13 and put that money in there instead can do a lot. 22:17 That one two dollar ice cream, that's eight meals 22:21 and 16 hours of education for one child. 22:24 Right. That's crazy. 22:26 Right. 22:26 And it's amazing, the blessing that it is. 22:28 Yeah. 22:29 And it makes a huge difference. 22:30 Yeah. 22:31 Now you have a story of a starfish 22:32 that you'd like to share with us, I know. 22:34 You know, when we were first starting this ministry, 22:36 we were looking at the huge numbers, 22:38 it's like, my goodness, 120 million people 22:41 under the poverty line. 22:42 Now the poverty line 22:43 is different from country to country. 22:45 In America the poverty line is 22:47 if you make less than $1000 a month. 22:49 Okay? 22:51 That equals to about what $30 a day? 22:53 A little more about $33 a day in America? 22:56 If you look, make less than $30 a day, 22:58 you're considered under the poverty line. 23:01 In India the poverty line is $1.26 a day. 23:05 Okay. So... 23:07 That's not very much. That's not very much. 23:09 And you got 120 million people under that poverty line. 23:13 Wow. 23:15 And when we started thinking about starting this ministry, 23:17 it's like my goodness, 23:18 how are we gonna affect 120 million people. 23:21 How are we gonna fix that problem. 23:23 That's impossible, so just these ways of discouragement 23:27 were coming over us, 23:29 thinking how can we even make a dent 23:30 in a problem of that size? 23:34 And then this story, I found this story 23:35 that just made all the difference to me 23:38 and it's about this father and son, 23:39 they are walking down this beach, and they see, 23:43 during high tide, millions and millions of starfish 23:45 have been washed up on the beach, 23:46 and the tide had gone out, 23:49 and they were stranded up there. 23:49 They were dying. 23:51 And so the little boy picked one up and threw it in, 23:54 picked another one up and threw it in, 23:56 picked another one up and threw it in, 23:58 and the father says, "What are you doing that for, 24:00 you're not gonna save all these. 24:02 There's thousands of starfish out here, 24:03 you're not gonna be able to make it done 24:06 in all this number. 24:06 What are you even trying for?" 24:08 And the little boy says, 24:10 "I may not make all the difference in the world 24:12 but for this one 24:14 I will make all the difference in the world." 24:16 And he throws another one in. 24:18 He saved that one life, 24:20 and so that's been such an encouragement for us. 24:23 So we may not be able to save 100 million people, 24:26 but if we can save one, my goodness, we save, 24:32 we've done the world for that one child. 24:35 We may not be able to do something for everybody, 24:37 but for one 24:39 we can make the world of difference, just one. 24:44 Just one. 24:46 And since we started there's been over 24:48 200,000 meals served for these kids. 24:52 And that gives me such joy. 24:53 I mean I used to be into cars. 24:55 I used to have a Fiat Spider, 24:57 and then later I got a Alfa Romeo Spider, 24:59 and I had a Saab Turbo. 25:02 I used to like to drive fast 25:03 and I got pleasure out of those cars driving fast 25:06 and now I don't have those. 25:07 Top down and all that stuff... 25:08 Oh, absolutely. 25:09 And, but now I've got evening schools. 25:14 We were just there last year, 25:15 went down in some of these evening schools, 25:17 and these kids screaming at the top of their voices, 25:19 Jesus loves you. 25:21 You know, Sada Shiv Om Bhole. 25:21 You know, whatever the, 25:23 I'm not very good with that song 25:24 but it's like I got so much joy out of that. 25:27 Hmm. 25:27 Much more than those cars. 25:29 And also there's that joy of looking forward that hope 25:32 of maybe one of these kids or some of these kids, 25:36 or bunch of these kids will be in heaven some day 25:37 and we get to spend an eternity with them. 25:40 Yeah. Wow! 25:41 That, that's cool. That's really cool. 25:44 So before we close, we're almost to the end, 25:46 but I know that cost have increased a little bit. 25:49 It used to cost us about 400 to open one 25:51 and about 300 to maintain it every month. 25:53 But because of the cost of fuel and everything have gone up. 25:56 It's about 450 a month to open a new school 26:01 and about 350 a month to maintain it. 26:03 And that varies, we say an average of 350, 26:06 'cause some of them are less expensive 26:07 because we can hold them in local churches. 26:10 Yes. 26:10 And then the rent is less, 26:12 or they don't even charge us rent. 26:14 It just depends on the location. 26:15 Depends a lot on how many kids come from the community. 26:17 Right, right, If we have to rent a place 26:18 because there's too many children 26:20 or because there's not a local church, 26:23 then it costs quite a bit more. 26:23 So it's not that expensive. 26:26 And we had a kindergarten class in a church 26:28 that actually raised the $400 at that time 26:31 to open a new school. 26:32 And they were so ecstatic. 26:34 And then their church got into 26:36 providing monthly for that school. 26:38 And it was awesome to see them provide. 26:41 At this point, we have four schools. 26:42 And we have so many requests for more. 26:44 It's just heartbreaking to think of 26:46 how many more places would like to have these schools, 26:50 but we're not able to offer them 26:51 or we haven't been able to offer them to date. 26:54 So that's one thing that the Saving the Lives Club 26:56 has been doing is been fundraising 26:58 to open a new school. 27:01 And then, they will be fundraising every month 27:02 to try to support it. 27:04 But, you know, these kinds of things, 27:06 it's not that expensive, 27:06 considering how much other things cost, 27:08 and how much it cost us to live here. 27:11 We can make a huge difference for the children there, 27:15 and it's a lot of children at the time. 27:17 I mean, in some of these villages, 27:19 we have 30, 40, 50 kids coming... 27:21 Sixty, eighty, hundred. Yeah. 27:24 One school got so big they had to have it 27:26 in two locations now. 27:27 So the older children are in one place, but... 27:28 Right. 27:30 Anyway, we just want to remind our viewers 27:33 that you can make a difference, 27:35 a major difference in the life of one, 27:38 just by helping with these evening schools. 27:41 And it doesn't cost very much. 27:42 It's actually a pittance compared to how much it cost us 27:45 to live here. 27:47 So I just want to encourage you to be a part of the changes 27:50 that God wants to make of the witnessing 27:53 that God wants to do in the world today. 27:55 And may God richly bless you, 27:56 as you choose to make a difference 27:57 in the life of one. 28:00 You may send your tax-deductible gift 28:03 to Jesus for Asia, PO Box 1221, Collegedale, Tennessee 37315. 28:08 Or you can call us at 423-413-7321. 28:14 You can also find us on the web at Jesus4asia.org. |
Revised 2016-06-14