Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000084S
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00:01 (inspirational music)
00:21 - Hello, and welcome to "Jesus for Asia Now." 00:24 I'm Natalie Wood and my husband Jon is here with me today 00:26 as we go back to India. 00:28 Hello, dear. 00:29 - Hi, darling, how are you? 00:30 - I'm doing fine. 00:32 I'm really excited about our story today. 00:34 - Yes, this has some really good memories 00:36 and makes me very warm in my heart. 00:40 - Okay, so where are we going today? 00:42 - Going to a place called Garo Hills. 00:44 - And there's something very unique about this place. 00:47 - It's known as the wettest spot on Earth. 00:50 - Really? - Yep! 00:53 This is the way that it kind of came about 00:55 and we see God's hand in this. 00:59 I don't know what I was doing, I heard somehow, 01:02 that Garo Hills was the wettest spot on Earth. 01:05 And I'm like, "That can't be the wettest spot on Earth. 01:08 "I thought that was in Hawaii or some other place." 01:11 So I went up on Google and did a search 01:15 for the wettest spot on Earth, and as you can see by 01:18 this graphic, that the wettest spot 01:20 on Earth is a town called Mawsynram, 01:27 something like that. 01:28 - Synram, Mawsynram. 01:30 - And it's very close to Garo Hills. 01:36 And I just, out of a whim said, 01:38 "Lord, if we could ever have Bible workers 01:41 "in the wettest spot on Earth, that would be so cool." 01:46 And within a month we had sent one of our teams up 01:51 to Guwahati in Assam. 01:54 Assam is the state in Northeast India, 01:56 it's got 32 million people, four pastors, 02:01 and JFA has 33 Bible workers there. 02:05 So one Bible worker per million people. 02:08 - Wow! 02:09 - I figure the state is reached already. 02:10 - No. (laughing) 02:12 I hate to break it to ya! 02:13 - Right, well, they were having a meeting there 02:15 and they were actually handing out bicycles, 02:17 some of the leaders came all the way from Garo Hills. 02:19 It's like a 10 hour bus ride, to meet our team 02:24 and request for 10 Bible workers. 02:26 - Wow! 02:28 - And I'm like, "That's a God thing!" 02:30 - Yeah, for sure. 02:33 - And so I said, "Yes." 02:34 And soon after that we had a very famous 02:36 and wonderful violinist, Jamie George, 02:39 do a concert benefiting Bible workers 02:42 and our children's orphanage. 02:45 And so out of that concert we sponsored 02:50 these 10 Bible workers into Garo Hills. 02:53 - Yeah, it was really awesome! 02:56 - Yeah, and so three years later we send a team back 03:00 to find out what's the report, 03:02 what has happened in Garo Hills? 03:04 Has it made a difference in God's church... 03:10 To have those Bible workers there? 03:11 - Right, and we found out that it has. 03:13 - Oh, yes, big time! 03:15 - [Natalie] Okay, so we've got a map here, 03:16 can you explain to us what we're looking at? 03:18 - [Jon] Okay so, in this map you will see India on the left. 03:22 You'll see Thailand on the right along with Vietnam, 03:25 Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and then in the center, 03:32 you'll see that red dot, that's where we're going. 03:35 That's Garo Hills, right underneath that, 03:37 and to the left of that is Bangladesh. 03:39 So Bangladesh is like a nut in a, I dunno-- 03:44 - [Natalie] Almost surrounded. 03:45 - It's almost completely surrounded by India. 03:47 So Garo Hills is in the state of Meghalaya, 03:51 right to the north, like the majority 03:53 of it's border is touching Bangladesh. 03:56 So it's right up in there. 03:57 Wettest spot on Earth. 03:58 - Okay, now we've got another map here, 04:01 can you explain to us what we're seeing on this map? 04:03 Or is this just a closer view? 04:04 - [Jon] Yeah, it's just a closer view. 04:06 You can see Garo Hills is right there, 04:08 right on the north side of, just north of Bangladesh. 04:11 - So you can see on this closer map that it's just north 04:15 of Bangladesh and just south of Assam, 04:18 which is also just south of Bhutan. 04:20 So it's very small section of India 04:23 there between two countries. 04:25 - Yeah, you can see it's very mountainous there. 04:29 A lot of hills and valleys and a lot of rain. 04:33 - Yeah, it looks very green from the satellite perspective. 04:36 - It is very green up there, 04:37 they get almost 500 inches per year. 04:40 - Wow! 04:41 - Like 450 or something like that. 04:43 It's like, "Wow, who's counting?" 04:46 So our team went there in the dry season 04:51 and so the video that we'll see is, you don't see any rain. 04:55 I wanna go there when it's raining just for that experience. 05:01 See what it's like. 05:02 - Okay, let's play the video now. 05:04 - [Jon] Okay. 05:05 (gentle music) 05:12 - In a village there a lot of prejudices. 05:15 They always to oppose when we try to talk about the message, 05:21 and they don't want any religion 05:22 to come into their villages. 05:25 (gentle music) 05:34 One way that we can approach the people is 05:36 through personal ministries. 05:38 So these volunteers are really very much helpful to us 05:41 because they do the home visitation, 05:44 and they make friends with them. 05:46 And that is how we are able to share the message with them. 05:50 (gentle music) (speaking foreign language) 05:57 (speaking foreign language) 06:02 - After giving Bible study, 06:04 he's able to help 71 people take a stand for Christ, 06:09 and they took baptism. 06:11 (speaking foreign language) 06:14 He comes across one man, and initially, 06:18 he was not willing to listen to the Bible study. 06:20 He refused to listen and he was not very receptive. 06:24 But he made friends with this man 06:27 and this man slowly began to accept the Bible truth. 06:31 And now after accepting the Bible truth, he took baptism 06:34 and he is now a very faithful member of the church. 06:41 - We are very happy 06:42 that the Jesus for Asia volunteers are with us. 06:46 And through them we are able to penetrate 06:50 to those areas where we have not entered. 06:52 (gentle music) 06:57 We have about 159 who have taken baptism 07:03 and were added to the church because of their work. 07:06 (gentle music) 07:13 We don't have much budget for evangelistic work, 07:16 so JFA is really helping us, 07:19 for which the Garo section is very much thankful to them 07:23 for the donors and for the assistance they are giving 07:28 to do the work here in Garo section. 07:31 (gentle music) 07:39 - All right, so then you can see the thankfulness 07:42 that the President of the Garo Hills section has 07:45 for these volunteers. 07:46 They're called volunteers. 07:47 - Yeah they call them volunteers, 07:49 we call them Bible workers, it's just a similar term. 07:53 - So a lot of these places, 07:56 you look at the commission, the church is called 08:00 to reach the entire area that they're in 08:02 and many of them don't have the resources to do that. 08:06 Very often we're able to sustain what has been built. 08:09 It's very difficult to go beyond that. 08:15 The budget is usually very small 08:17 and so these Bible workers are able to then extend the reach 08:22 of the church into areas that 08:24 they wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. 08:26 In fact, there is studies that show that majority 08:30 of the growth of the church 08:32 in the last few decades has been by 08:34 these national Bible workers. 08:39 And they do a powerful work. 08:40 - Right and their really just aren't enough pastors. 08:45 That's the reality. 08:46 So they need help and by having 08:48 these lay people working alongside them, being enabled, 08:53 it just really makes a difference for the church. 08:55 - Yeah and you look at Assam, 33 million people, 09:00 32 million people, and four pastors. 09:04 All of a sudden those Bible workers become very important. 09:08 - Right, it shows the need for the help. 09:12 - Now, what's cool is that we were able 09:16 to talk to some of these Bible workers. 09:17 - Right, we have some of their stories, yes. 09:19 - We're gonna hear a testimony from another Bible worker 09:23 who's life was threatened for sharing the truth. 09:28 (gentle music) 09:40 (speaking foreign language) 09:43 - His name is Senwhat Marak and he has been a Bible worker 09:47 for three years and six months. 09:50 From the time he began his work he was able 09:53 to baptize 31 people to the Seventh-day Adventist church. 09:59 (gentle music) 10:04 (speaking foreign language) 10:08 He began his work in this community called Kemdigri, 10:12 and as he was going for conducting Bible studies, 10:15 one man stopped him at the door and he pointed at him 10:19 and he threatened him. 10:22 (speaking foreign language) 10:25 Our volunteer said, "Well, if you do not allow me 10:28 "to conduct Bible studies, I will not conduct them, 10:30 "I will go away." 10:33 But then this man says, "Since today you have come, 10:34 "you conduct Bible study." 10:36 After listening to this Bible study for a few minutes, 10:41 he called all his son-in-laws and his children 10:44 and he told them that, "If all you are going 10:47 "to accept this religion, 10:49 "I will send you away from my house. 10:53 "I will not give you the property 10:55 "that you are supposed to get." 10:57 (speaking foreign language) 10:59 Our volunteer told to this man, 11:02 "Before we talk all about these things, 11:05 "let us listen to God's word first." 11:07 And they agreed, and so our volunteer began 11:10 to give them the Bible studies. 11:12 And so after he heard the message that evening, 11:15 he came forward to volunteer 11:17 and he asked for forgiveness saying, 11:19 "I have spoken harsh words against you, please forgive me." 11:24 Our volunteer says, 11:25 "Since you did not know well, you spoke harsh words, 11:28 "but we forgive you." 11:30 "So now, will you be able to allow us 11:32 "to conduct some more Bible studies?" 11:34 So this man says, "You can come once in awhile 11:37 "so that we can study the Bible." 11:39 (speaking foreign language) 11:42 This man told, "If we accept your religion, 11:45 "I think the village will also remove us 11:48 "from this community." 11:49 But this man's son-in-law and the daughters told 11:55 that they would continue to take Bible studies. 11:58 (gentle music) 12:02 On the third evening, from a distance, 12:04 there was someone listening and this person shouted 12:07 and he was also threatening our volunteer. 12:11 And so our volunteer replied saying, 12:13 "If you do not want me to conduct Bible studies, 12:16 "I will not conduct them, I will go back." 12:18 But from the group who wanted to listen, he defended saying, 12:24 "It is not you who is going to listen, 12:25 "it is me who is going to listen. 12:27 "Why are you disturbing?" 12:29 (speaking foreign language) 12:33 Since the threatening was quite severe, 12:36 our volunteer told this individual who wanted 12:39 to study the Bible, "This place is not safe for us 12:43 "to conduct Bible study. 12:44 I will contact you with the nearest organized church. 12:48 "I will make arrangements for you to come to that church." 12:51 And so this individual came to that church 12:53 and they studied the Bible together. 12:56 (gentle music) 13:01 This man told, "Though we did not have full Bible study, 13:07 "we are learning about God." 13:10 And they said, "We will continue to study the Bible." 13:14 And through the help of the church members they were able 13:17 to study the Bible deeper, and very soon after that, 13:22 Pastor Tamsang came and baptized this individual. 13:26 (gentle music) 13:32 - Wow, that's powerful! 13:34 - I know, he was not discouraged and he was not deterred. 13:37 He's like, "I'm going forward. 13:39 "I have to tell people about Jesus." 13:42 - And what's cool about 13:43 this is the way God has arranged this. 13:45 Is that it's put partnerships together 13:47 from opposite sides of the world. 13:50 - Right, we have a great privilege to be able to help them. 13:53 - We do, yes. 13:54 From all they way from here in America, 13:56 we can make an impact on the other side of the world 13:58 that we'll never see until-- 14:00 - Heaven and I'm looking forward to that. 14:03 - It's gonna be good. 14:05 - We've got another Bible worker and he shares his testimony 14:09 and he sees the power of God in his life. 14:14 (gentle music) (speaking foreign language) 14:24 (speaking foreign language) 14:27 - In 2016, he had the opportunity to conduct Bible study 14:34 and during the Bible study several people came 14:37 and they threatened him 14:39 They threatened to take away his life. 14:41 They threatened to send him away from that place. 14:45 But despite the threatening messages, 14:49 he was able to withstand and God allowed him 14:53 to continue the Bible study. 14:55 And at the end of the Bible study, 14:57 two souls accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. 15:01 (gentle music) (speaking foreign language) 15:08 Now he is able to work better 15:10 because he is visiting the members, visiting the people. 15:16 And when they are sick he takes care of them 15:19 and he does a lot of social work. 15:22 And as a result many people are falling 15:25 in love with his work. 15:27 So his work, right now, is improving. 15:29 (gentle music) (speaking foreign language) 15:35 (speaking foreign language) 15:39 He wishes that all the believers around the world would pray 15:45 for him that he would be able to minister 15:47 to the people more effectively. 15:49 He believes in prayer and he says, "Through experience, 15:53 "I truly believe that prayer is the key 15:56 "for ministry in God's work." 15:59 (gentle music) 16:04 (speaking foreign language) 16:07 Our volunteer is very unfortunate 16:10 because his parents were not well to do, 16:13 so he did not go to school. 16:15 But as he grew up he realizes that he needs to learn. 16:19 And so, for one or two years he attended school. 16:22 And with that education he joined the work for God 16:29 and he believes that it is not his skills, 16:30 it is not hos power or ability, 16:34 but he believes it is God who has been helping him, 16:38 who has been teaching him 16:39 and who has been guiding him in this work. 16:42 (speaking foreign language) 16:46 (speaking foreign language) 16:49 He's very grateful to the donors in America 16:52 for their assistance, for their help, for their prayers, 16:57 because it is because of their help that he's able 17:00 to serve God in this capacity. 17:02 However, he requests all of them there to kindly pray 17:07 for him because he is not educated. 17:10 He finds difficulty in understanding 17:13 and he knows that he is not qualified, 17:15 but he wants God's help so that he will be able 17:19 to serve God more effectively. 17:21 (gentle music) (speaking foreign language) 17:26 - Now he's complaining about his lack of education 17:29 and how he has to rely on the Lord. 17:32 He brought in-- - Well, he's not complaining 17:34 about relying on the Lord, we want to be clear on that. 17:36 - That's true. 17:37 - But he is saying that he feels very inadequate. 17:41 - Yeah, but his relying on the Lord, 17:44 he's brought more people into the Kingdom than anybody else. 17:48 71 people in the last three years, he's brought to the Lord. 17:53 - Right, so when God is relied on, God does the work 17:57 and it's a good work. 17:59 - Though I have to say, that all these that we've been 18:02 in that in at Garo Hills for just over three years, 18:05 so all of the 159 baptisms, from our 10 Bible workers, 18:11 have taken place in just the last three years. 18:13 - Yeah that's pretty amazing. 18:15 - That's wonderful. 18:16 - Yeah, God is very, very good. 18:18 - Yeah the other cool thing is that, so you have Assam, 18:22 and this is Northeast India, you have Assam in the middle. 18:25 You have a bunch of states around. 18:27 You've got Meghalaya, you've got Tripura, 18:30 you've got Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, 18:34 and Arunachal Pradesh, as you can see on this map. 18:38 We have Bible workers in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, 18:44 Mizoram, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, 18:48 we don't have any Bible workers in Nagaland. 18:50 Now I did a little research into Nagaland. 18:52 That's like the frontline of the frontline. 18:55 It is jungle. 18:56 It's crazy out there. 18:58 But we've just recently received requests 19:00 for Bible workers in Nagaland. 19:02 - Wow, so God is opening an opportunity 19:07 to help out there too. - Yes, absolutely. 19:10 So I'm excited about that. 19:11 And I'm praying and asking God, 19:13 "Lord, we need more Bible workers." 19:17 Because the need is great. 19:18 And you can see the signs that are happening 19:21 in the world today. 19:22 We don't have much time. - No. 19:24 - I'm really convicted that the door is closing 19:27 on our ability to take the gospel to some of these countries 19:32 that have been open for quite a number of years 19:34 and we have not done as much as we could. 19:37 So with the little window that we have left, 19:40 it's like we gotta give everything that we have. 19:44 We've got to put everything that we have 19:45 into taking the gospel to these little unknown, 19:49 unentered areas that are so open to the gospel. 19:53 There's people out there that want to learn. 19:55 They're open to the gospel and it's just a matter 19:58 of someone going and telling them. 20:00 And so as they're thinking, us in the United States, 20:07 the people that are donating the funds 20:08 to keep them going full-time, the gospel work, (coughs). 20:13 And honestly, I think my throat is being harassed 20:16 because Satan doesn't want this message out, 20:18 he doesn't want people to get involved 20:20 and take away and threaten his kingdom. 20:23 - Right, because he has had free reign in these areas 20:27 where the gospel is not there. 20:29 It's his land and he knows it 20:31 and he does not want the gospel to go there. 20:34 - But you know what? 20:35 He is a defeated foe. - He is! 20:37 Jesus has already won. 20:38 - That's right, and so with Jesus' strength 20:41 we will do everything we can in these last few days 20:44 of Earth history to grow the population of heaven. 20:48 - Right because Jesus died for them, he loves them. 20:53 He came down here for them too, not just for us. 20:57 So this is an awesome opportunity. 21:00 - It's time to grow the ranks of the heavenly choir. 21:04 - Well we've been focusing today on Garo Hills, 21:07 but I know there are stories, short stories, 21:10 about some of the other places where we have work. 21:13 So lets just share maybe another story, 21:15 maybe we'll have time for two. 21:17 But how did we get Bible workers in our Arunachal Pradesh? 21:20 - Oh yes, so I have some friends that are working 21:23 in India in the division there at the church. 21:26 They have actually come to some faith camps 21:29 and they're related to some very good friends 21:31 that are missionaries also. 21:34 They have been traveling around India quite a bit 21:38 and they've discovered, 21:39 they went up to visit Arunachal Pradesh. 21:42 And this is a unique state because if you look at the map, 21:46 there's a good portion of the state 21:49 that China claims and India claims. 21:53 So it's like-- - Contested. 21:55 - Yeah, so the frontiers. 21:57 And so they just got up there and visited this place, 22:01 they came back with there request for five Bible workers. 22:04 And so we're like "Okay." 22:06 By faith we stepped out and said yes. 22:09 And by the way, we get requests for Bible workers 22:12 almost everyday from all around the country. 22:15 - Yeah some places need more, some places don't have any, 22:18 like this one and Garo Hills. 22:21 - Yes and we have a system where they have to check 22:24 in with us every single month and tell us 22:27 how many Bible workers are working 22:29 and what their status is 22:30 and if there's any changes, stuff like that. 22:32 So we keep in touch with all these different. 22:34 But some of these fields are so far out there 22:36 we haven't even visited yet. 22:40 And so we just heard that they, yeah, 22:42 so we gave them the five and then just a few months later, 22:45 they're like, "Okay, this is a real blessing. 22:47 "Can we have 10 more please?" - Wow. 22:50 - And so they caught us, that message came in at a time 22:54 of a unguarded moment of faith... 22:58 (laughs) and I said yes. 23:01 We said yes and so just a month or two later, 23:05 we got a request, "Can we have just one more?" 23:07 - Aw. - So now, 23:09 there's 16 JFA Bible workers in Arunachal Pradesh. 23:13 - Wow, praise the Lord. 23:14 - Which is exciting. 23:15 - Yeah, God is good. 23:17 - Yes, so Tripura. 23:21 Ya know, a lot of times you're not sure, we get requests, 23:25 "Can you please send Bible workers here? 23:27 "Can you please send money here?" 23:29 A lot of time they're independent workers 23:32 and we just don't know. 23:33 And even if they're not independent, 23:36 a lot of times we're just not sure. 23:38 We've been-- 23:40 - Burned a few times. - Almost everybody 23:42 that I know, exactly. 23:44 A Facebook friend, who I didn't realize at the time, 23:47 but you say you know her. 23:48 - Right, I've known her my whole life. 23:50 She was a good friend of my Mom's. 23:52 - And a teacher that taught your mom? 23:54 - She was a Dean or something at Union College. 23:56 - Wow, okay, so she started talking to me on Facebook 24:00 about this young that she's known a long time 24:02 in India from Tripura. 24:04 He's in Spicer College right now, 24:06 getting his Theology degree. 24:08 So she put us in touch with him and he started sharing 24:11 with us his passion for his state of Tripura. 24:15 So few pastors, so few.. 24:18 And the pastors that are there, there are maybe one 24:22 or two others that have had an education in the entire state 24:27 and the rest of them, we have 10 Bible workers 24:29 in that state now. 24:30 Which is just recently been divided, 24:32 it used to be Mizoram, Tripura were together. 24:36 And the head office was in Mizoram. 24:40 So recently they've separated and so now it's on it's own. 24:45 But he was saying how little resources they have. 24:49 No schools, and he's one of the only ones from his state 24:53 that's getting a Theology degree. 24:55 He says, "Can you please sponsor me with a team 24:59 "from Spicer College to go to my state during 25:03 "my summer vacation?" 25:04 So with your mom's friends character reference-- 25:07 - Right, we knew that he was a trustworthy gentleman. 25:10 - Right, we said, "How much is it going to cost?" 25:13 - He says, "$250." 25:15 For two weeks of straight on evangelism with, 25:17 I think he had a group of eight 25:19 of his friends that went there. 25:21 They did Bible studies, they did sermons, 25:24 they did week of prayers, they did VBS's for the kids, 25:30 they worked with the schools that were there. 25:32 And did all this work for two weeks and he was just like, 25:35 "Please, can you help us more? 25:37 "We need help, can you come and visit? 25:40 "Can you come and do evangelism? 25:41 "Can you come and do training? 25:42 "Can you come and do all this stuff 25:44 "in this state that's just brand new?" 25:48 - So they need help. 25:50 - They need a lot of help. 25:52 - There's a lot of need for Bible workers out there. 25:55 There's a lot of need for people to go 25:57 and encourage the church and lift up the church. 26:00 - Yeah, you know a lot of people say, 26:01 "Well, I don't need to go, 26:03 "I can just sponsor Bible workers that are over there." 26:06 The truth is that it's a partnership. 26:10 So what's cool about this partnership is that when we go 26:13 and we do evangelism and we do training, 26:17 it's like a partnership where we not only encourage them-- 26:19 - And we also teach them things 26:21 that they didn't realize were in the Bible. 26:23 Because so many of these people are untrained workers. 26:27 And it also encourages the believers that they're not alone. 26:33 That this is a worldwide church, there are a lot 26:35 of other people from other lands that believe the same way. 26:38 And it encourages them because all they see 26:41 in their life is their small church, their small village. 26:44 - Feel like their all alone. - Right. 26:46 And so it just brings them a lot more encouragement. 26:50 - Yes and it's nice for us 26:51 because when we go there they introduce, 26:53 they are the ones that bring us into their society. 26:55 They're the ones that introduce us into the towns 26:57 and villages that they're working in. 26:59 So it's a really beautiful partnership 27:02 that God has set up in these End Times. 27:04 - Right, well our time for today is all gone. 27:07 But I appreciate you coming and sharing these stories. 27:10 It's so encouraging and it's wonderful to hear 27:13 that these Bible workers are gonna do it, 27:15 no matter what people threaten them with, 27:17 no matter that they don't have the education. 27:20 They're just gonna serve God with their whole hearts 27:23 and it's just so awesome. 27:24 - It encourages me so much when I hear their testimonies. 27:27 It makes me want to dive deeper into my personal devotions 27:30 and Bible study and witnessing in my own life. 27:32 - Yeah. 27:34 Please pray for the Bible workers we've heard about today 27:36 as they go forward no matter what. 27:38 Persecution, lack of education, 27:41 they just want to tell people about Jesus and his love. 27:44 And if you would like to sponsor one of these Bible workers, 27:48 you can contact us at Jesus for Asia, P.O. Box 1221, 27:52 Collegedale, Tennessee, 37315. 27:56 Call us at 423-413-7321 or visit our website 28:02 at jesus4asia.org. 28:03 May God richly bless you until we see you next time 28:07 on "Jesus for Asia Now." 28:09 (inspirational music) |
Revised 2020-05-27