Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000022A
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00:22 Hello, and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now.
00:24 I'm Natalie Wood 00:25 and I'm here with my husband Jon. 00:27 Hello, love. Hi, darling, how are you today? 00:29 I'm doing fine. You look beautiful. 00:31 Oh, thank you. Where did you get that dress? 00:34 This is from India. Really? 00:35 And where did you get yours. 00:37 This is from India also. 00:38 All right. What's that called? 00:40 It's called a saree. 00:42 Yeah, this is a sherwani in some languages. 00:44 Yeah. 00:46 So are we talking about India today then? 00:48 We are talking about India. Right. 00:50 Yes and our viewers 00:51 that were watching on our previous show 00:54 know that this is part two. 00:56 Yep. 00:57 And we promised, in fact we gave 00:58 a little spoiler on that show 01:00 and we promised that we would share some more videos, 01:03 this time the story of a little girl 01:06 that goes to one of our evening school 01:07 so that video is coming up in a little bit. 01:09 Yep, in that video Jonathan 01:11 who is our foreign correspondent, 01:13 he actually went to her home as she went home from school, 01:16 the evening school, 01:18 and then he came back in the morning 01:20 and documented her getting up how she starts the day, 01:23 cooks the meal and works with her family 01:26 and then heads off to school. 01:28 Okay. 01:29 So it's going to be pretty amazing to see the life 01:32 that she lives and her family live. 01:34 Okay. This is an epic night. 01:36 This is an epic event to see, you know, 01:39 because how often do you get to go into somebody else's home 01:42 that's so far distant removed from us. 01:44 Right. 01:45 Let's see what it's really like. 01:46 Yeah. Yeah. 01:48 Well, I didn't get to be there for that. 01:49 I've gone into some of those homes, 01:51 but I wasn't there for that, 01:52 so I'm looking forward to that video. 01:54 Yeah, it's pretty amazing, pretty moving. 01:56 But first, we're talking about our evening schools. 01:59 Yes. 02:00 And for those of our viewers 02:01 that did not see the previous episode, 02:03 our evening schools we have, in the evening 02:06 tutoring in the local language, 02:09 the school work that they receive 02:10 from the local school, 02:12 and then a worship time 02:13 where they learn memory verses and sing songs 02:16 and hear character building stories, 02:19 morals stories as well as Bible stories, 02:22 and then they have a free meal. 02:23 That's correct. 02:25 And some, some of these kids don't actually go to school 02:27 during the day. 02:28 Some of them do and they get help in their studies, 02:30 other kids don't go to school, 02:32 so this is all they get. 02:34 Okay. So they just get a little bit in the evenings. 02:36 Yeah. 02:37 Yeah, but they do get that nutritious meal 02:38 which is so important in a country 02:40 where that has one third of the world's 02:43 undernourished people in it. 02:45 7,000 Indians die every day due to hunger. 02:50 And so the kids growing up, you know, 02:53 sometimes families have more than one child 02:55 or even one extra mouth to feed is a huge strain 02:58 on the family's ability to provide. 03:02 And so... 03:03 They make so little most of them. 03:05 There are so many that make a dollar 03:08 or just barely more or even less. 03:12 The schools also are to battle literacy of course. 03:15 Yeah. Literacy is a big challenge. 03:17 So what is the literacy rate in India, do you know? 03:20 According to the best statistics that we could find 03:24 37 percent of all the world's illiterate people live in India 03:28 which means that about 280, almost 300 million people 03:33 in India don't know how to read and write. 03:35 Wow. Yeah, that's huge. 03:38 Yeah, it is. 03:40 Can you ask him how he likes his work? 03:51 Since they don't have any proper job, 03:54 they hate to do this 03:55 but they still go ahead and perform the activities 03:59 of collecting the waste from the streets. 04:05 They consider this is their fate to do this. 04:13 If they had a proper job 04:14 they wish they do that job than this. 04:17 So he was picking through the trash and he'd gone 04:20 and collected it from the side of the road. 04:22 What was he doing? 04:23 He was like taking some pieces of it 04:25 and putting it in that other bag 04:27 and then some he put behind him I noticed. 04:29 Yeah, he's looking for things that he can recycle 04:31 that he can sell for recycling, so plastic things like that, 04:35 he can take it down to the local recycle shop 04:37 and sell it for money 04:38 and then that's how he can buy food 04:39 and survive through the day. 04:41 Okay. 04:42 The clothes that they wear, 04:43 the clothes that he wears right there 04:44 he found in the trash. 04:46 I saw, I saw a stack of clothes 04:48 that had bugs crawling all through it 04:51 and that was for the daughter not of this boy 04:54 but someone else's family, and this is what they have, 04:58 you know, whatever they can find is what they use 05:01 and whatever they can sell on the recycle 05:03 is what they run the family for the day, 05:06 and we did a episode of India face to face 05:09 from this particular settlement which is right near the river. 05:13 And this is one of the things that caused us 05:15 to really want to start the school 05:18 is this kid doesn't have the opportunities, 05:20 and so maybe if he had been able to go through our school, 05:24 we would have connected with him 05:25 and been able to help him find other, 05:28 other options in life. 05:30 And given him the hope and given him, you know, 05:32 what he needed to not just to survive, 05:35 barely survive through the day, 05:36 but actually you know go forward. 05:39 Right. And to know about eternity. 05:41 Absolutely. 05:42 Yeah that's the biggest thing obviously. 05:45 As Christians that we know 05:46 that there is a life beyond this life 05:48 and it isn't just another life like this one. 05:50 Right. 05:51 Or another thousand lives like this one, 05:53 but there is eternal life 05:55 without end and joy unspeakable. 05:58 Right, to share that with all these kids. 06:00 Yeah. That's right. That's right. 06:02 So our next video is the one 06:04 we've been telling everyone about. 06:06 Yes. 06:07 Where we follow Kalijavi home and see what her home is like. 06:10 Yeah. And it wasn't actually me going, it was Jonathan. 06:15 He's our foreign correspondent. Yes. 06:17 He's currently living at the moment in Thailand. 06:20 Yes. But he went to India with you. 06:22 So you'll hear his voice in the video 06:23 talking about his experience. 06:25 Okay. 06:30 Amen. Amen. 06:31 Bethel Evening Schools 06:32 have been helping children in India 06:34 by providing tutoring, a good meal, 06:37 and most importantly teaching them about Jesus. 06:41 Tonight, join me as I go home with Kalijavi 06:45 to see what her life is like at home. 07:06 It's customary in India to remove your shoes 07:08 before entering your home or church. 07:11 But when I got to Kalijavi's home, 07:13 I almost walked right in with my shoes on 07:16 because the floor of the hut was dirt just like outside. 07:23 As I watched Kalijavi study her homework 07:26 and get ready for bed, 07:27 I wondered what impact 07:29 the evening school has had on her. 07:32 It didn't take long to see one result 07:34 as she knelt down and prayed before going to sleep. 07:58 In a country where about one billion people are Hindu 08:02 and most homes have a Hindu shrine. 08:05 It was wonderful to see this girl and her parents 08:08 serving God in the midst of spiritual darkness. 08:32 It's a simple life this family lives. 08:34 They don't have many of the conveniences 08:36 that we often take for granted. 08:39 I mean, does your kitchen look like this? 09:02 Kalijavi's father is a daily laborer 09:05 which means he's hired on a day to day basis. 09:08 He drives 20 kilometers to work as a coconut husker, 09:12 and this is the tool he uses to remove the husks. 09:52 It was an incredible privilege 09:53 to step into the home of this family 09:56 and see what life is like in an Indian village, 09:59 and I'm so thankful that Kalijavi and the other children 10:03 in this village have the opportunity 10:06 to go to the evening school. 10:31 As Kalijavi leaves for school 10:33 and my time with her family draws to a close, 10:36 I can't help but think 10:37 how many other children in India 10:39 don't have the opportunity to know Jesus. 10:43 I hope and pray that more evening schools can be started 10:47 so that more children can hear about Jesus just like Kalijavi. 11:07 She is beautiful. Yeah. 11:10 Very different life though isn't for her. 11:11 It's very, very different. 11:14 And to provide just that little extra. 11:17 You know in the footage as we were, 11:18 as I was going through the footage 11:19 that Jonathan captured there, 11:20 you know, the morning breakfast. 11:22 She built the fire and then she put the rice 11:25 and she sat there for a long time, 11:27 it took a long time to do the vegetables and 11:29 so that was probably a 45 minute or one hour time 11:33 just to cook breakfast. 11:35 You know we come out of the morning 11:37 and pour bowl of cereal a little bit of milk, 11:39 in 15 minutes the whole thing's done. 11:42 Yeah. 11:43 So the kind of life pace is very different for them 11:47 and to be able to see that 11:48 and see you know with such, with such... 11:53 When you have this much 11:54 and somebody gives you this much, 11:56 it's not that much difference. 11:57 But when you have this much 11:59 and somebody gives you that much, 12:00 it's like a lot of difference for someone. 12:04 Yeah. 12:07 That's a privilege to be able to help them. 12:09 Yes, and a privilege to be able to be a part of their lives. 12:13 Yeah, that's neat. Yeah. 12:15 Well, we want to go to a joyful video 12:18 after this too 12:20 and that is reopening the Monotones school. 12:23 Now what's... 12:24 You know, you mentioned joyful, 12:26 to me this is even though it brings tears to my eyes, 12:30 I'm very happy for her she knows Christ. 12:34 You know, she... 12:36 Some people in this world don't have a very good life, 12:40 but we all have the opportunity 12:43 for a really good life in the next life. 12:45 And so if I can spend my life 12:48 giving that chance to other people 12:50 what better way to live. 12:52 Yeah. 12:53 And you, you get touched by Christ in a special way 12:57 when you're helping them. 12:58 Right. 12:59 Because it's just such a blessing, 13:02 to be a blessing to others it's such a blessing. 13:04 I see Christ reaching out to these people 13:06 every single day. 13:07 And if I can be a part of that then we become co-laborers 13:12 which is huge you know, 13:15 it's a blessing to work with Christ 13:16 that I believe this is what he calls his yoke, 13:19 his yoke you know where you team up, 13:21 the yoke is for two, 13:23 team up with him and work together. 13:25 And when I read the Bible, this is the way that 13:28 Christ has laid out to draw closer to him. 13:33 You know it's more than just a prayer and, 13:37 and Bible study, it's more than just those things 13:40 that we do in our minds by ourselves 13:42 but it's, it's entering into labor, 13:45 actual working with him to, 13:47 to help him accomplish his goals 13:49 and he has spirit, he needs physical flesh and blood 13:55 to do the work that he longs to do. 14:00 Yeah. 14:01 And, yeah, so that's why we love these schools. 14:05 We love all of our projects. Absolutely. 14:07 And we talk about all of them and... 14:08 Yeah, the missionaries that go out 14:10 and represent Christ in their own flesh and blood 14:13 and then the evening schools and the Bible workers and, 14:16 and all the opportunities where we see 14:19 Christ being made available and manifested to people. 14:23 Right, and especially to people that had no idea before. 14:27 And they think that all the gods are like them. 14:30 There's no help there, they go and pray and nothing happens. 14:35 They think the gods are angry. 14:37 They have to spend their life trying to appease the God's, 14:41 you know these things. 14:42 For the honest seeker his life is vanity, 14:46 life is a game and you live, you die, 14:50 repeat, repeat, repeat forever and ever and ever. 14:54 That's, that's and so this, this God for people that can, 14:57 they can see it, they can surrender and accept it, 15:01 you know, it means a lot. 15:03 Yeah. 15:04 The God that loves them and died for them. 15:06 Yes. Yeah. 15:08 Well, it is, it is so much a part of the joy 15:11 and we're told in scripture that 15:14 this fellowship with Christ and his sufferings 15:17 is the gateway to joy and, 15:20 and yet his fellowship his sufferings 15:23 or when he came here and he worked 15:26 and he sacrificed everything 15:29 for the sake of the lost which was all of us. 15:31 Yes. 15:32 And so to join with him in that is a great source of joy. 15:35 Yeah. 15:36 No matter how hard it is 15:37 or how inconvenient it is, whatever. 15:40 Yes. 15:41 It's worth being a part of Christ's joy. 15:43 Right. 15:44 And taking them the blessing of knowing Jesus. 15:47 Yeah. 15:49 And even, yeah, and even he was, 15:50 even Jesus was pursuing joy when he went to the cross. 15:54 You know for the sake of the joy 15:55 that was set before him, 15:57 he endured the cross despising the shame going after those 16:00 people that he would find great joy in. 16:04 I guess that's, that's what it is. 16:05 The purpose of the cross is to bring more people into 16:09 awareness of fellowship and back to the family of God 16:12 and that's where he finds his joy. 16:14 Yeah. So... 16:16 So we have a joyful event we want to share next. 16:18 And that is the opening 16:19 or actually reopening one of the evening schools. 16:23 We had a school in this church before 16:25 and it's going to be talked about in the video 16:27 but the roof was falling apart... 16:31 Yeah. 16:32 And they were afraid it would collapse on them, 16:34 and so they couldn't meet 16:36 there in the evenings to have the children they, 16:39 they weren't meeting there in the evenings 16:40 for the evening school, 16:42 they weren't meeting there for church. 16:43 Basically the building was unusable. 16:46 And now with your blessing Father, 16:48 we pronounce this place open. 16:55 In Jesus' name... 16:57 Amen. Praise the Lord. 17:01 Okay, they can go on inside. 17:11 Okay, so what you're witnessing and what just happened here was 17:14 the grand opening of the Marattukalam 17:16 or the reopening 17:17 of the Marattukalam evening school. 17:21 So I have Brother Israel here with me to explain 17:23 some of the history and some of the background of 17:25 why this place has to be reopened. 17:27 And first of all it has to do with the church structure. 17:30 Yes. 17:31 It was shut down because of the building, 17:34 because of the church structure... 17:35 The roof was... 17:37 Fully collapsed and when it rained 17:39 the water would just come inside 17:41 and not only that, 17:43 the roof was cracked and even the church members 17:46 were so frightened to worship inside so it was, 17:50 there was a time there when I came, 17:52 we had the Saturday worship here outside. 17:54 That's just right here in this little tiny spot. 17:56 Yeah, the members were gathered here 17:59 and then from there I spoke and it was, 18:01 you know, they were crying, they were crying, they said, 18:05 "We want a church." 18:07 We are scared to go inside. 18:10 We cannot have a peaceful worship. 18:13 Please do something. 18:14 You know Brother Israel, 18:16 my home church in America had a very similar problem, 18:19 is like an 80 year old church and the ceiling, 18:22 the roof was going like this. 18:24 And so it cost $160,000 to replace that roof. 18:30 How much did it cost to replace this roof? 18:32 $2,300 to completely take off this because 18:36 previously the roof was very low and 18:39 there was no ventilation, it was so low and 18:42 so they have completely taken out the ceiling 18:45 and now they have raised 18:47 nearly about four to five feet high 18:49 and they have put metal sheet now. 18:52 And there's good ventilation, air circulation, 18:55 so now the members are so happy! 18:59 And after they reopened the church they were asking 19:02 for the reopening of the school. 19:05 What happened to the school in the meantime? 19:07 Because we moved this school 19:09 to another village called Bahrady Nagar 19:11 because there they had been asking for a school like 19:14 this for many years and I said, "please pray, pray" 19:18 and God answered their prayer through this and they were... 19:21 With this disaster. Yeah. 19:22 And they got the school and they were enjoying. 19:24 So what would happen if we took the school 19:26 back from there and put it here? 19:28 Oh, they won't allow definitely. 19:32 I think the children, they won't, will not... 19:35 So then this school has been closed for a year. 19:38 Yes. 19:39 And tonight is the first reopening. 19:41 Yes, tonight is a first reopening. 20:20 Yeah, another school opened. That's wonderful. 20:23 Well, you guys also had a privilege 20:24 of getting a testimony of one of the young people 20:28 that used to go to our school. 20:29 He's grown up now, he doesn't go to the school anymore, 20:32 but thanks to the school. 20:34 Well, let's shed... 20:36 This is a beautiful thing because we often ask ourselves, 20:39 does a school really make a difference? 20:42 And I think this video answers that question. 20:44 Okay. 20:47 Do you think that this school helped your life, 20:49 helped you in your life? 20:54 Yes, it was. 20:56 What was the best part of it? The food or the teaching? 21:02 He loved to sing songs. She was his teacher. 21:06 He was this size when she came to teach him. 21:09 Wow. Okay. 21:13 He will recite Psalms 15 very well. 21:16 And kids at his age used to do what? 21:31 In this age the children are smoking, drinking 21:34 but sitting here and there teasing the girls 21:38 but he is very, very respectful even today, till today 21:42 he used to say, "Akah, how are you? 21:45 How is everything" very respectfully. 21:47 He has no bad habits now. 21:49 So do you think he learned a lot of that 21:51 in, in the school? 21:58 Yes. 21:59 All what he learned was from this school, 22:01 the Biblical thing really has helped him 22:03 to be a witness in this village. 22:06 So he'll be a success in life now. 22:09 Even now after his work, he used to come 22:12 and stand and listen 22:14 to the Biblical things even now. 22:16 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 22:18 What is your name? 22:20 Kali Muthu. Kali Muthu. 22:22 Well, praise the Lord. 22:23 Thank you so much for your testimony. 22:24 Romba Nandri. 22:27 What does that mean? 22:29 Romba Nandri? Yeah. 22:30 It means thank you very much. 22:31 Yes, and what does this mean? 22:32 That means yes most of the time. 22:37 That's right, so he was going like this 22:38 and she was going like that 22:39 and they were saying the same thing. 22:40 Right because she was talking American 22:43 and he was talking Indian. 22:47 So what does he do for a job? 22:48 He drives a backhoe with the shovel in the front. 22:51 They call it a JCB because most of them are made by JCB. 22:54 Okay. 22:55 So it's like, he's a backhoe driver, so... 22:57 So he's got a good job then. 22:59 Yeah, big, big time job. 23:00 Praise the Lord, and that's neat that he comes 23:02 after work to hear the stories of Christ. 23:05 Yeah, well he just dropped by 23:07 while we were done with the evening program. 23:09 He just dropped by and met his teacher. 23:12 By the way that teacher Jennifer, 23:15 she was baptized in 2007 23:17 when we did an evangelistic series. 23:19 She along with her husband who is now 23:21 the overseer of all the evening schools in that area, 23:24 they were both baptized 23:26 during that evangelistic series back in 2007. 23:29 So it's neat how the seeds are planted, 23:31 grow up some 30 fold, some 100 fold and you see this. 23:35 And the seeds sprout 23:38 and then those seeds start spreading seeds 23:40 and the work goes forward. 23:42 Yeah, it's exciting. Yeah, that's really neat. 23:45 And what's cool about these evening schools 23:46 is like one of the cheapest ways 23:48 to get involved with God's work, 23:50 $7 a month takes care 23:53 and provides education and food 23:55 for one child for the entire month. 23:58 Wow. Yeah, that's amazing. 24:00 Yeah. God is good. 24:01 That's about a quarter a day. Yeah. 24:03 Twenty five cents for education and meal event. 24:07 We have had people approach us and ask for a self-denial boxes 24:11 or make their own self-denial boxes. 24:13 A self do what? A self-denial box. 24:16 What's a self-denial box? 24:18 It's a box where you put the funds 24:21 when you deny yourself something that you wanted. 24:24 Like if you're going to spend a dollar on an ice cream cone. 24:27 A dollar? You would put... 24:29 Well, okay more than that, you would put that dollar. 24:32 This is a figurative, you know, 24:34 this is an example, there we go. 24:36 You would put that dollar in the self-denial box. 24:39 And then you would put that to the evening schools 24:42 or you know to the evening schools project. 24:44 Where do you get this idea? 24:45 It's from Mrs. White. 24:47 She actually says that every member of each household 24:49 should have their own self-denial box. 24:51 So instead of buying something for themselves, 24:53 they can put it in there. 24:54 Right. And what does that look like? 24:58 Well, we have one right here. 25:00 Ours looks like a little church, 25:02 and on it, it has instruction where to send the funds 25:06 when it gets full and it has a Bible text on it, 25:09 which text is on there? 25:11 This says, "In as much as you have done it 25:13 unto the least of these my brethren, 25:15 you have done it unto me." 25:16 Matthew 25:40. 25:18 So it's reminding us that God wants us to help 25:22 the least of these our brothers, his brothers. 25:25 Has anybody done this? Has anybody filled this up? 25:27 A lot of people have done it, and a lot of money has gone 25:30 to help these evening schools and our orphanage, 25:33 various children's ministries 25:35 because of these self-denial boxes. 25:37 I have people that come to our camp meetings 25:39 in the summer 25:40 and they bring the whole box crammed full 25:43 and they handed to me, 25:44 and I have Ziploc bags and I put it in the Ziploc bag 25:47 and I hand them back their church. 25:49 I remember carrying those things always. 25:50 What's in here? 25:52 Yeah, my suitcase is always very heavy after camp meeting 25:54 because of all the change but it's such a privilege 25:57 and people are amazed when they see 25:59 how much they actually saved 26:00 during the year for these children's projects. 26:03 Just dropping one quarter in here 26:05 will provide a meal and two hours of education 26:08 and maybe another memory verse for a child. 26:11 Yep. That's pretty cool. 26:14 So can people get these things can they... 26:16 Yes we have, we have, we have them, 26:18 we can share with people. 26:20 We have them, we can send out to people. 26:22 Okay, because these are nice 26:23 but you don't have to use one of these. 26:24 No. 26:26 We've had people that took a canning jar, a quart jar 26:29 and decorated the outside, 26:31 wrote a special thing, painted on it, 26:33 you know, in various ways of decorating it. 26:35 We had people that took little wooden boxes 26:37 and painted on them and put a sticker on them 26:41 saying what they were for 26:42 and that same Bible verse just to remind, to remind themselves 26:48 what it was for and to make it personal. 26:50 This is an excellent thing to do for your children 26:52 to teach them to start thinking about others 26:55 rather than themselves. 26:56 Yes, we've had Sabbath schools take them 26:59 and fill them in their Sabbath schools 27:02 and anyway it's a neat way to remember the children. 27:07 Yeah. 27:08 So this is an amazing way to help and amazing project 27:12 because we don't take anything out for overhead. 27:16 So if somebody sends a dollar for the evening schools. 27:19 How much do we send to India? 27:21 We send on the dollar. The whole dollar. 27:23 Well, whatever's taken out for like PayPal. 27:26 Yeah, any bank fees. Right. 27:27 But, but other than that everything goes. 27:30 Because we have made a commitment 27:32 to that a long time ago and the Lord has... 27:35 Matthew 6:33. Right. 27:36 "Seek first the Kingdom of God..." 27:38 "And he will provide for all of our needs." 27:40 Right. Yeah. 27:41 Praise the Lord. 27:42 If you would like to be a part of helping 27:44 God's other children, 27:46 you can send your tax deductible love gift 27:48 to Jesus for Asia PO Box 1221, 27:52 Collegedale, Tennessee 37315. 27:56 If you would like to call us 27:57 and ask for your free self-denial box, 28:00 you can call 423-413-7321 28:05 or check out our website at Jesus4Asia.org. 28:09 May God richly bless you until we see you again 28:12 on Jesus for Asia Now. |
Revised 2017-02-01