Participants: Jon & Natalie Wood
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000028A
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00:21 Hello, and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now.
00:24 I'm Natalie Wood and I have my husband Jon 00:26 here with me today. 00:27 Hello, love. Hi, darling, how are you? 00:29 Doing great. 00:30 Today we want to talk about your recent trip 00:32 to Assam state in India. 00:35 It's an amazing state. 00:36 We've had Bible workers there for over seven years 00:39 and yet I've never visited 00:41 because it's just so far out of the way. 00:43 And so we went up there 00:44 and visited some of our Bible workers, 00:46 not all of them could get there because it's such a large state 00:49 and it's not just a big state geographically 00:52 but getting from one place to another takes a lot of time. 00:56 Some of the Bible workers that came and visited us 00:58 and you'll see their pictures later, 00:59 they traveled 12 hours and they were the closer ones. 01:05 Let's show our viewers the map, 01:06 so they get an idea of what you're talking about. 01:08 Yeah, in this map we're looking at the big picture of the globe 01:11 on this side of the world, there's India in the center, 01:14 Southeast Asia on the right, Africa, Arabia on the left. 01:18 And as we zoom in, you'll notice, 01:20 India is kind of unique in that 01:21 one little piece goes up and over Bangladesh 01:24 and it's very narrow in certain parts there 01:27 but you go past Bangladesh 01:29 and you've got several states over there, 01:31 like seven states 01:32 and Assam is this big state in the middle. 01:35 And, but it's a big state 01:37 and not only is it big geographically 01:39 but it has, it takes a long time 01:40 to travel from one place to the other 01:42 because the transportation is slow. 01:45 And so some of our Bible... And are roads not good either? 01:48 Roads aren't very good, the trains are slow. 01:50 So some of our Bible workers, it took 12 hours to come 01:53 to the central place to have the meeting. 01:55 Then we flew into a town called Guwahati. 01:57 Okay. Say that again? 01:58 Guwahati. 01:59 Very good, you got a talent with languages, 02:03 but it took me a while to figure out 02:05 Guwaha, Guwaha what? 02:07 Yeah. 02:08 So that's the capital of Assam. 02:10 In that capital we have the headquarters 02:12 of the work for that state. 02:14 Okay, so let's do some statistics real quick. 02:16 Okay. 02:17 'Cause I know they're kind of overwhelming. 02:19 Yes. 02:20 And so then we'll talk about other things, 02:22 but how many people live in Assam total? 02:25 I am told 32.8 million people. 02:29 Okay. 02:30 So it's about 10% of the United States. 02:33 Population size. In population size, yes. 02:35 Okay. 02:36 And how many Adventist pastors are there? 02:39 There are four. 02:42 Four pastors? Four pastors. 02:44 Okay, so four pastors? 02:45 Yeah, and if we had the same number of pastors per capita 02:49 as we do in the States they should have 400 pastors 02:53 but right now they have four. 02:54 They have one in upper Assam, 02:57 two in the middle in the central Assam, 02:59 one of them is the ministerial secretary 03:01 and then one in lower Assam. 03:04 Okay. 03:05 So there's four and then... 03:07 Four pastors and there is a secretary, 03:10 office secretary and that's it. 03:14 Thankfully some ministries have stepped in 03:16 and have provided some more Bible workers for them. 03:20 Okay. JFA has 33 Bible workers. 03:22 Okay. 03:23 Other ministries provide 21 Bible workers. 03:26 So between JFA's Bible workers 03:29 and other ministries Bible workers, 03:30 so it's 53 Bible workers, 03:33 four pastors for 33 million people. 03:37 That's not a very good ratio. 03:39 It's hard not to cry 03:41 when I talk about those numbers. 03:44 Yeah and thinking that, you know, those are numbers, 03:46 but they're real people. 03:48 Real people with real names and God is living with them, 03:52 He woke up, I mean, He saw them wake up this morning, 03:55 He sees them go to sleep tonight, 03:57 He walks with them, 03:58 carries their burdens with them, 04:01 and He looks across the world looking for His kids 04:06 who have all the light, and all the knowledge, 04:07 and all the truth, and they're not there. 04:13 They're not there with those people 04:14 that they don't even know that the truth exists. 04:17 They don't even know that good news exists in the world. 04:21 Then the flipside of that 04:23 is that this is a huge opportunity. 04:25 Right and that's where we're gonna go from here. 04:27 Yes. 04:28 We want to talk about the opportunity, 04:30 and we want to share a little bit about 04:32 what's being done right now. 04:33 Yeah. 04:34 So let's start out with bananas. 04:38 We're talking about Bible workers today 04:40 and you give me a picture of bananas. 04:42 Well, a lot of times we kind of forget that 04:44 this is a physical world that we live in and we travel. 04:47 As we travel we deal with new things, 04:50 and exciting things, and challenging things... 04:52 Different things. 04:53 You know, it's not just pushup button 04:55 and make this work, there's effort involved, 04:58 there's sacrifice involved, and there's pleasures involved. 05:01 And one of the pleasures is these ugly bananas. 05:04 Ugly bananas, okay. 05:06 The ugliest, most hideous bananas I've ever seen. 05:08 They are really sweet. Yeah, they look like... 05:09 They got eaten by something. 05:11 Yeah, but you open them up 05:12 and they're just really wonderful bananas, 05:14 great flavor. Okay. 05:16 I'm not going to say they're my most 05:17 favorite bananas in the world, but they come close. 05:19 Okay, that's good to know. 05:20 By the time I got, you know, used to, 05:22 you know, seeing that skin I was like, 05:25 "Oh can I have some..." 05:26 I eat three or four in a meal. Okay. 05:29 And the next picture 05:30 is the Assam region office sign. 05:33 Yeah, so this is the sign right in front of the offices, 05:36 and the next picture will be the offices. 05:38 As you can see on the left, we've got the offices 05:41 and straight ahead the yellowish building 05:43 that's the church and then in the back 05:45 there's the living quarters 05:47 for the ministerial secretary and his family. 05:49 Okay. 05:51 This is the group they came to meet us the first day 05:54 and this isn't all of our Bible workers, 05:56 these are the ones that are closest. 05:59 But the ministerial secretary is on my right, 06:02 so the viewers left in the blue shirt 06:04 sitting next to him is his wife in the pink shirt. 06:07 And then to my left, 06:09 to the viewer's right is Israel Prasad, 06:10 our JFA India director, 06:13 and next to him is the office secretary. 06:15 We got to know them pretty well, 06:17 just loved the food, loved the people, 06:19 really enjoyed it up there. 06:21 Planning to go back. 06:22 In fact one of my dreams is to buy some motorcycles 06:25 and travel around Assam 06:27 because Assam is a beautiful place, 06:28 and you'll see this coming up in some of these pictures 06:30 as we travel through the countryside. 06:32 The first day though we spent, 06:35 had a meeting with the Bible workers, 06:36 encouraged them and also gave out some books. 06:39 Okay. 06:40 And we've got a video about that. 06:41 Yes. Shall we roll that now? 06:43 Absolutely. All right. Here we go. 07:00 This is Acts of the Apostles. 07:12 Today, we're in the northeast corner of India 07:15 in a little state called Assam, 07:17 and we have 33 Bible workers in the state, 07:20 and we've called several of them here. 07:23 Several of them had to come five hours on a train, 07:26 but the good news is that today we get to give out books. 07:33 It's not often that we come to a place 07:35 that has a bunch of books in stock 07:37 and we're excited about this. 07:39 This is the steps to Christ in Assamese. 07:44 And then this is Voice of Prophecy 07:48 study lessons, 07:50 so they can give these out to their study interest. 07:53 This is the Desire of Ages, you know the Desire of Ages, 07:56 look how thick this is. 08:00 I can't tell how many pages there are, 08:01 but it's over a thousand pages, 08:04 can't read it, it's in Assamese. 08:06 This one is a really good book. 08:11 I think it's the devotional, 08:15 daily devotional book from Mrs. White. 08:18 This one is Patriarchs and Prophets, 08:21 really awesome book for people 08:23 to learn about creation of the world 08:25 and everything and The Great Controversy. 08:28 So these books, each one of our Bible workers 08:30 is gonna ten of each of these books. 08:33 So they're gonna go home with the whole, 08:35 I don't know how they're gonna get it home honestly, 08:36 but when we asked them if they wanted to, 08:38 they were really excited. 08:40 I'm sure that these are, these books are hard to find. 08:42 I know many, many pastors that are asking for one, 08:46 our Bible workers, they're asking 08:47 for just one book, 08:48 and thank you to a donor who made this possible, 08:52 and we're gonna do this throughout all of India 08:55 and we're really excited. 08:56 If you want to get aboard and join, 08:58 there's other countries that need these books as well. 09:00 Some languages they're just now starting to translate 09:04 and print some of these books, 09:05 and many of the Ellen White books 09:06 are not in the local languages 09:09 and so there's a lot of work 09:10 to be done on the side of the book, 09:12 the book they're printing, publishing, 09:14 and this is really exciting 09:15 because this is gonna be source material 09:18 to go into their sermons, to go into their Bible studies, 09:20 to go into their understanding of who Christ is. 09:22 So we praise God today here in Assam 09:26 in Northeast corner of India. 10:55 Our Bible workers just left with all their books. 10:59 Many of them have six hours, some of them have 11:02 overnight travel to get back home 11:05 where they're supposed to be. 11:06 And then on Thursday we've got more Bible workers coming, 11:10 we're gonna give them more books. 11:15 Wow, they looked burdened, but they also looked happy... 11:19 Yeah. 11:20 That they would now have more materials to share. 11:22 Yes, that's right. So... 11:24 And so, it's amazing to see the kind of effort 11:26 that they put into carrying these books, 11:28 'cause a lot of them had many hours to go, 11:32 getting on the bus and however else they travel, 11:34 I don't know, train, whatever but it's not, 11:37 it wasn't an easy task for them to do. 11:39 Yeah. But they did it. 11:40 So then the next day you got to go traveling, 11:44 but there was a little bit of a mishap 11:47 at the beginning of the day. 11:48 Well, we were supposed to get going about 11:50 5 o'clock in the morning, 11:51 and so we got up and we took cold showers 11:53 and went downstairs, 11:56 and they had one of these sliding doors, 11:58 you know, like the garage doors that roll up 12:01 and they paddle locked it from the outside 12:04 so we were stuck in our hotel, we couldn't leave. 12:07 So we made all kinds of noise and finally the guy woke up 12:10 and he came over and unlocked and let us out. 12:13 And we were going to the nearest, 12:15 the absolute nearest Bible worker 12:16 that we could get to and that was like 12:18 three hours drive. 12:19 Wow. Three or four hours drive. 12:21 So we have to... How many miles was that? 12:23 It's only like a 120 kilometers, 12:24 so like 70 miles. 12:26 It just took a long time because we had to drive slow 12:29 because of the roads and the different things 12:31 that you see out on the roads and stuff like that. 12:33 Sometimes you run in, 12:34 like for instance here's the taxi stand... 12:37 Okay. 12:38 This is a bunch of taxis 12:39 waiting to take people on their rides. 12:41 You can see they're not gonna move real fast. 12:42 Where is the engine? The engine is absent right now. 12:45 It's a front engine vehicle. 12:48 We ran into heavy traffic. 12:50 Elephant. 12:53 Yeah. That is quite heavy actually. 12:55 Heavy foot traffic, 12:57 but as we go through the country 12:59 we see different things like this picture here. 13:02 I don't know what that is standing up, 13:03 it's either really tall weed 13:05 or maybe bamboo or sorghum, I don't know... 13:09 Yeah some... Tapioca... 13:10 Some sort of grain it looks like. 13:11 Yeah, maybe. 13:12 Maybe it's like hay bales, I don't know. 13:14 You know, what this does to me 13:15 is it makes me want to come back, 13:17 figure out... To find out more. 13:18 There's things in the world that I don't understand, 13:22 and so that traveling kind of puts that bug 13:25 in me to come back 13:26 and especially when we have people that are, 13:30 you know, committed to Christ. 13:32 Wherever you go, there's that bond, 13:34 there's that connection and so we have family. 13:36 And our viewing audience that are believers 13:39 has family on the other side of the world. 13:42 I just don't know them yet. 13:43 Not yet. Right. 13:45 That's one of the reasons we're such advocates 13:47 for foreign missions because it is our family, 13:50 you know, there's a scripture that says, 13:52 our own flesh is the term 13:54 that's used our own flesh and that's... 13:55 It's Isaiah 58. 13:56 Right, and that's the connection. 14:00 Yes. 14:00 You know, it doesn't matter who they are, 14:02 they are our own flesh. 14:03 Yeah. 14:05 There's one statement that I saw recently that said 14:07 that travel is dangerous to narrow mindedness, 14:12 selfishness, you know, greed, all these things, 14:16 and that's what we have seen when people come 14:19 and see other parts of the world. 14:22 You get a bigger picture, and can you imagine 14:25 how Christ must feel being, 14:28 you know, He wakes up with these people, 14:30 He, but He doesn't sleep 14:32 but He sees them wake up every day, 14:35 He sees them go through their day, 14:37 He sees them go to bed at night, 14:38 and He sees them living in darkness, 14:42 living without any concept that there is a loving 14:45 that they have a loving father that cares for them, no clue. 14:50 And then He, God looks over the corner 14:52 over the curve of the earth and sees 14:55 people that are, you know, 14:57 imbued and surrounded with the truth and light... 15:02 The light and truth. 15:03 The gospel, and so He sees these people here 15:06 and those people there, 15:07 and He's like if I could just get them together, 15:10 if I could just bring them over here, so these people... 15:11 So ones that know share. 15:13 Yeah, and there's another, you know, in the past 15:16 we used to put bumper stickers on our cars 15:18 but now we put like names, 15:20 bumper sticker on our Facebook page... 15:22 Yeah. 15:23 Yeah, and one of them said God, 15:26 God's, we are God's plan A for reaching the world, 15:31 He has no plan B. And that's true. 15:35 God's plan, His only plan for reaching the world is 15:38 through His Church and people say, 15:40 "Well, God's gonna, if we don't do it 15:41 then God will have another way." 15:44 And I don't, I mean that may be true in the long run 15:49 in the very end, God may bring in angels, 15:51 it's not prophesied that He's going to bring in angels, 15:53 it's prophesied that He's gonna have a people 15:55 that follow Him whithersoever the Lamb take it them. 15:58 Yeah, wherever the Lamb goes. 16:00 In other words, they're not going to be tied down 16:01 to anything, any personal considerations like 16:06 maybe they have a good job. 16:09 Well, I can't leave my good job, you know, 16:11 who will support, no, that's not a consideration anymore. 16:13 The only consideration 16:14 they have is where's the Lamb going. 16:17 Where does God want me? Exactly. 16:19 And you know God wants people where the need is the greatest, 16:23 that's where God is. 16:24 That's where He's feeling the most pain, you know, 16:27 because if it's not, we have this like cushion between us 16:31 and the people that are suffering in silence. 16:35 The people that, you know, 16:36 don't know that they have a heavenly Father, 16:38 there's a cushion because we don't see them every day. 16:40 There's no cushion between them and Christ. 16:42 Christ feels their pain, 16:44 and He longs to relieve that pain, 16:47 and He's happy when His kids help Him. 16:49 Right. 16:50 'Cause relieving those kids' pain, 16:53 relieves His pain. 16:55 Yeah, so as we travel we see more and more of God's kids 16:59 and our heart breaks for all these kids. 17:03 You know, like we said earlier, 32.8 million people, 17:08 four pastors. 17:09 Yeah. Thirty three JFA Bible workers. 17:11 And most of those people haven't had the opportunity 17:13 to hear the gospel yet. 17:14 Oh, no, no. Absolutely no. 17:16 So they're like unripe harvest and... 17:20 Yeah, it's awesome. Right. 17:22 So let's get back to your trip. Okay. 17:24 It's a beautiful country. 17:26 So it's very green and tropical there. 17:27 Yes. 17:28 Other parts of India are not like that. 17:30 No, not in the south, it's very desert. 17:33 But up here it's very tropical, very beautiful. 17:34 Okay. 17:36 And we had a little bit of a spy. 17:41 All right, so the next picture. 17:43 Beautiful flowers again, tropical paradise up there, 17:46 beautiful scenery, here's a river. 17:49 Now the vegetation blew me away. 17:51 This leaf, this is a really big leaf. 17:53 Yeah. 17:54 I don't know if it's edible, 17:55 but that would feed several people 17:57 but if it's not, you can still stand under it during a... 18:00 You know, use it for an umbrella. 18:01 Yeah. 18:03 And then we found a church out there, 18:05 one of our Bible workers is taking care of this church. 18:08 Then we kept going 18:09 and came to one of our Bible worker's houses. 18:11 There's two buildings there, the closest building, 18:13 the green one is the church. 18:14 And the one behind it is his house. 18:18 Okay. He has a special story on this. 18:20 This is our Bible worker who owns that property. 18:23 Many years ago he was part of a faith community, 18:25 they worshipped on Sunday and in a different town, 18:29 and for some reason somehow he got a hold of a tract 18:33 that talked about the seventh day 18:35 being on Sabbath. 18:36 Oh, okay. 18:37 Or the Sabbath being on the seventh day, Saturday. 18:39 And so he did went through the Bible study 18:42 that was in that tract and he accepted that truth. 18:45 And then when he started to share with his community, 18:48 the town and the pastor there, they got very upset with him 18:53 and they got very angry with him 18:55 and he wouldn't give it up, 18:57 he wouldn't give up this truth that he was holding on to, 19:00 and so they beat him up, and they beat up his wife, 19:04 and they beat up his kids, 19:05 and then they kicked him out of his own house. 19:07 Wow. 19:08 And told him you can't live in this town anymore. 19:10 So they chased him away from his town. 19:15 And he could have just given up the Sabbath 19:17 and come back to his house, come back to his town, 19:19 but he hung on to that truth. 19:21 Right. 19:22 And so he was excommunicated 19:24 so to speak from his own village. 19:27 Thankfully the nice thing, the only nice thing 19:29 they did was they let him sell his house. 19:31 So he took the money from the sale of his house, 19:33 and he purchased this property and built that house, 19:36 and then provided the space on the side of his property 19:39 for this church to be built. 19:40 Okay. Wow. 19:43 The things some people go through to hold on to truth. 19:46 Yeah. You know, we have it so easy. 19:48 Yeah, oftentimes we do. Yeah. 19:50 And so this guy is really hanging on to the truth 19:52 and so he's a full time Bible worker now. 19:55 His wife took a picture of him giving a Bible study, 19:57 and these are some of the people 19:59 that actually drove him from his town in the beginning. 20:05 And so they saw how he didn't hold bitterness 20:07 or a grudge against them. 20:09 He had Christ like love towards them. 20:11 He stayed in contact with them. 20:13 And after many years they started to soften, 20:16 and so they started to be curious about 20:17 what he believes. 20:19 And so now he's giving Bible studies to the very people 20:22 that kicked him out for holding the faith that he has. 20:25 Wow. That's awesome. 20:28 Yeah, but you notice a thing 20:29 that's hanging on the porch right there. 20:32 Yeah. There's a closer up picture. 20:34 This is, this is like filled with pictures and it's printed 20:39 but look at the material. 20:41 Yeah, it's cloth. Yeah, this is printed on cloth. 20:45 Do you ever seen a picture roll, 20:47 or something like this, a chart printed on cloth? 20:50 No. 20:51 I've never seen that but down in the corner, 20:54 check this out, copyright 1908. 20:56 1908. 20:57 Review and Herald Publishing Association. 21:00 Wow. 21:02 This is the tool he uses to do Bible studies with. 21:04 Wow. 21:05 And he says, "Do you have any more of these?" 21:09 We've never see this. I've never seen on. 21:10 And he's like, "Do you have any friends that have these? 21:12 Can you buy these anymore?" 21:13 I'm like... 21:15 No. I'll look. 21:16 So if there's anybody in our viewing audience 21:18 that has any of these, 21:20 there's some Bible workers in Assam 21:22 that would love to get some more copies. 21:24 Yeah. 21:25 His is getting a little tattered 21:26 'cause he's been using it so much. 21:28 Wow. From 1908... 21:30 That's over a 100 years old. Wow. 21:32 And he's using it out there. Wow. 21:34 So what he's got? 21:35 Hope nobody takes it and puts it in museum. 21:38 Exactly, exactly. 21:41 So this is a gathering of some men. 21:43 One of these guys is the pastor 21:45 that actually kicked him out of his house and town. 21:47 Wow. 21:48 And that beat him, 21:49 and now they're doing Bible studies together. 21:51 Wow. 21:52 God is good, He brings things full circle. 21:54 Well, this is, this is what, 21:56 this is how the gospel goes forward often is the God 22:00 allows persecution to happen to people 22:03 so that His truth 22:05 and His character will shine forth. 22:08 And there becomes a testimony. Exactly. 22:10 And there becomes an example. Exactly. 22:12 And this shows the reality of God's presence 22:16 and His blessing on those that take hold of His truth 22:19 and value that more than family, kindred, houses... 22:23 Friends... Whatever, yeah. All these things... 22:25 Yeah, so that's a beautiful testimony. 22:27 Right. 22:29 So you didn't get to witness 22:30 these next pictures firsthand either, 22:32 but they shared them with you 22:33 because they wanted you to know what they'd been doing. 22:35 Yeah. 22:36 And so what are these pictures of? 22:38 Some of the young people that came to get the books 22:40 that was in the last video, 22:42 they gave me some pictures off of their flash drive, 22:45 and you can see they're really into evangelism. 22:49 So there's a lot of pictures of them doing evangelism, 22:51 different groups, day, night, check this out, 22:55 okay, it's raining there, you can barely see the rain 22:58 in the picture but they're under umbrellas. 23:00 Instead of going home, 23:02 they just pop out their umbrellas 23:03 and sit in the rain listening to an evangelistic series. 23:07 Wow. 23:08 And he's standing there with a microphone in his hand. 23:10 And a powered speaker. Oh. 23:13 That speaker might be powered by battery but it looks like... 23:16 But still, it's still power. 23:18 Yeah, so... He could still get a zap. 23:20 Yeah, so this group, they are on the lower Assam, 23:23 and they say that there's a lot of interest 23:25 compared to other places 23:27 and so they're just going like gangbusters. 23:28 These are the Bible workers 23:29 that have requested a projector. 23:32 Okay. Okay, so that they could show. 23:34 As you can see they're also sharing 23:36 the sanctuary message... 23:38 Right using the felt set. Yeah. 23:40 Which is nice. 23:41 And here's the team, this is a lot of the Bible workers 23:44 from different districts all gathering together 23:46 to do this evangelistic series and check out that guitar, 23:48 it's massive. 23:49 That's really big, really big. 23:52 Yeah, looks like a guitar from the Mariachi band or something. 23:55 Yeah, but at least they had music. 23:56 Yes. That's really nice. 23:58 And then, of course, the baptisms. 24:00 Right. Yeah, beautiful baptisms. 24:02 The president is the man on the left, 24:04 far left with his hand up raised. 24:06 Okay. 24:07 They are four, remember they got four pastors 24:09 in all of Assam. 24:10 The president is the man in the white shirt 24:12 in the very center. 24:14 His wife is at his left side, and all the baptismal people 24:18 that were baptized are standing behind him. 24:21 Okay, that's really neat. Yeah, just some more baptisms. 24:25 There's a lot of pictures of baptisms 24:27 with that these guys gave me, I only put a couple in here, 24:30 but with this final slide, the sunset, 24:34 you can see out across the field, 24:36 you can just barely make out the outlines of the Himalayas. 24:39 You know, this is in the north, just right next to Bhutan, 24:42 right next to Sikkim, 24:43 right across from Bhutan is China. 24:46 So we're right up there in an area 24:48 that is very resistant to the gospel. 24:51 And the more we can do in this state, 24:55 then it starts to spread, 24:57 and so our goal for Assam 24:59 is to double our work force this year. 25:02 At least. Right. At least double our workforce. 25:04 Now, it costs about $90, it used to cost $50 25:08 when we first started Jesus for Asia. 25:10 Fifty dollars a month for a Bible worker. 25:12 Right. But the cost... 25:13 And then it was $60. Yeah. 25:15 The cost of living has increased so much... 25:17 And the exchange rate has gone down. 25:20 Now it's up to $90 but still, 25:21 can you imagine living your whole family on $90 a month? 25:25 No. 25:26 I don't even know how they do it over there 25:29 but they do, 25:30 and so they for $90 a month, you can sponsor, 25:34 anybody can sponsor a full time Bible worker. 25:36 Wow. Yeah. 25:38 That's awesome. Yeah. 25:39 It's a real privilege. Right. 25:41 But not everybody can afford $90 a month. 25:43 Right. So what do they do then? 25:45 Well, if they can afford $10, then they give $10 25:48 and that adds with someone else's 25:50 $5 or $10 or whatever, and the Lord adds it up, 25:53 and it becomes $90 to sponsor one worker. 25:56 Yeah. 25:58 Now we don't actually give like, 26:00 some people when they sponsor a Bible worker 26:02 in some other ministries, 26:04 they get a picture and name 26:05 and a bio and all that kind of stuff. 26:07 Right. 26:08 We haven't chosen to do that 26:09 because of the administrative requirements 26:12 because it would make the cost of having 26:14 a Bible worker increase 26:15 so much to pay someone to keep track of them 26:18 and other people to take pictures 26:20 and whatever to get the stories and everything. 26:24 So we've chosen not to do that at this point 26:26 because of the cost increase it would cause 26:29 but 100% if someone does give $90 26:32 or when there is $90 to send, 26:34 it all goes to the Bible workers, 26:36 nothing is taken out here for administrative and... 26:40 So all the $90 if somebody gives, 26:42 none of it goes to administration. 26:44 No, not here. Not in India. 26:45 Yeah, 100% goes directly to their salary. 26:48 Right. Right. That's a good deal. 26:51 Yeah, it's awesome, and it's great to see 26:55 to be able to pay them every month, it's so awesome. 26:58 Yeah. Absolutely. I love it. 26:59 We've had many times 27:00 where we couldn't pay them full salary. 27:02 Yeah, and I thought they would leave. 27:04 And it's so heartbreaking. 27:05 Yeah, there were several years 27:07 that they were getting two-thirds of a salary 27:09 or half salary from time, it would fluctuate... 27:10 And it wasn't even a $90 salary. 27:12 Right. It was 60 at that point. 27:14 Yeah, but they stayed there 27:15 and I've asked them several times, 27:17 why did you stay? 27:19 And they said, "God first, money second." 27:22 So they got their priority straight. 27:24 Right, and God blesses them and He works with them. 27:27 Yeah. And He helps them. 27:28 Yeah. That's awesome. 27:30 It is. It is. It is beautiful. 27:33 Well, I would like to invite you... 27:35 Actually I'd like to challenge you 27:36 to be a part of their ministry by praying for them. 27:40 And if you would like to be a part financially also 27:42 of spreading the gospel through native Bible workers, 27:45 please send your tax deductible love gift to Jesus for Asia, 27:49 PO Box 1221, Collegedale, Tennessee 37315. 27:56 Call us at 423-413-7321, 28:01 or checkout our website at Jesus4asia.org. 28:05 Thank you for joining us for Jesus for Asia Now. 28:08 May God richly bless you as we work together 28:11 to prepare for Jesus' soon coming. |
Revised 2017-10-16