Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000110S
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00:00 (bright vibrant music)
00:22 - Hello and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now. 00:24 I'm Natalie Wood, 00:25 and today my husband, Jon, and I, 00:27 want to share with you some miracle stories 00:30 and a cause for rejoicing. 00:32 Welcome back, dear. 00:33 - Hi, it's good to be back. 00:35 - Now when I say welcome back, 00:36 it's not just because this is another show, 00:38 - Right. - But it's because 00:40 you were gone. - Yeah, 00:41 which is like the first time I've been gone 00:43 in over a year and a half. 00:44 - Right, because of, 00:46 - COVID, yes. - COVID, right. 00:47 - Uh-huh. - Right, 00:48 and we have an exciting report 00:50 that you're bringing back to us. 00:51 - Oh yeah, I had to go there 00:53 and what God has done there is, 00:55 I'm just very thrilled to be able to tell our viewers 00:58 and you, so I've already told you. 01:01 - Yeah, but some of these pictures, 01:03 I don't know that I've seen them before. 01:04 - That's true. (laughs) 01:05 - So I'm excited too. - Yeah. 01:07 - So, okay. 01:08 So start us on this journey. 01:10 You went to Thailand. 01:12 - I went to Thailand. 01:13 It was the most difficult trip I've ever attempted, 01:18 not the actual physical part of going, 01:20 but getting ready to go, 01:22 all the new requirements, and the quarantine, 01:26 and the tests, and all those kinds of things, 01:28 so complex. 01:30 - Figuring out. 01:31 - Figuring out. - What you had to do 01:32 in what order and making sure you actually did it. 01:35 - [Jon] Uh-huh, yeah. 01:37 - I remember when we went to the airport 01:39 and we were still waiting, 01:40 we were sitting in the parking garage, 01:42 waiting for the COVID test result. 01:44 We had the printer set up in the van 01:46 so we could just print it. 01:48 And sure enough, it came 01:50 about 20 minutes before you were supposed to check in. 01:53 - Well, a little bit later than that 01:55 because they want you to be at the airport 01:56 three hours ahead of time. - That's true. 01:58 - But it didn't come until 11:40, 01:59 and my flight was at 1:45 p.m., 02:01 so two hours before an international flight, 02:04 we're sitting in the airport printing out. (laughs) 02:07 - Yeah. - Praise God though, 02:08 - It came. - because it came, yes. 02:10 - And it was negative, but it came. 02:12 So yeah, - We like negative. 02:13 - We were very thankful for that. 02:14 - This is the first time in my life 02:16 I like hanging out with negative people. 02:18 - (laughs) I know, I know, 02:20 (Jon laughs) you keep saying that, 02:21 it's pretty funny. 02:22 So then you went to Thailand and you flew through, 02:25 where did you fly through on the way there? 02:27 - I flew through Switzerland. 02:28 - Okay. - So Atlanta, 02:30 Switzerland, Bangkok. 02:31 And they picked me up. 02:33 I got in at six o'clock in the morning. 02:35 They picked me up. 02:36 They're all dressed out in their plastic suits, 02:38 put me in my little cubicle in the taxi, 02:41 drove me to the hotel, separated me from my baggage. 02:44 They cleaned up the baggage, sent me straight to my room, 02:47 and then a few minutes later, 02:48 my baggage joined me all sanitized, 02:50 and I stayed there for the next 10 days straight, 02:53 one room, windows didn't open, no balcony. 02:57 I went outside, I think, three times during those 10 days. 03:00 - They let you go on the roof. 03:01 - Yeah, I had to go up and get my COVID test. 03:05 - Wow. - So let me go up on the roof. 03:06 That's where they 03:08 - Do the testing. - took the swab, yeah. 03:09 - Good thing it wasn't raining at the time. 03:11 - No, it was so nice. 03:13 It was amazing, the air quality, 03:16 fresh air is just really fresh. 03:19 - That's amazing in Bangkok. - In downtown Bangkok. 03:21 - Yeah, that is amazing. (Jon laughs) 03:24 - Yeah. 03:25 So if you had left, when you were scheduled to, 03:27 you were originally scheduled to leave a week earlier, 03:30 if you had left, when you were scheduled to, 03:33 you discovered another piece of paper that you didn't have. 03:35 - Yes, this was- - And it took, 03:37 it took extra days for that to come back, 03:39 longer than it should have. - Right. 03:41 - And so you had to postpone a week. 03:43 - Right, but God blessed there too, 03:45 because in the week that I had to postpone my flight, 03:51 they reduced the COVID quarantine requirements by four days. 03:55 So I actually only lost three days 03:57 by postponing a week. 03:59 - Instead of a week, full week, extra in quarantine. 04:01 - Yeah, so that was a blessing. 04:03 - Yeah. - One of the nice things 04:04 about flying during quarantine, 04:06 is I got the whole row to myself. 04:09 First time in my life, I actually laid down, 04:12 kind of stretched out and slept during the flight. 04:15 - Wow. - So that was a privilege. 04:17 - Yeah, what a blessing. - Yeah. 04:19 And this is where I spent 10 days, 10 days straight. 04:22 And you know, quarantine was actually a blessing, 04:25 because there are some really big decisions 04:28 that we're making 04:29 - That's true. - here in our ministry, 04:30 and I really needed that time with God 04:33 to just really find out is this what you want, 04:36 which direction do you want? 04:38 And during that time, 04:39 he built a lot of courage into my inner man, 04:43 into my heart, to make the big decisions 04:45 and to go forward by faith. 04:48 Because, you know, 04:50 it's one thing to say, yeah, we should do that, 04:51 it's a whole 'nother thing to do it. 04:55 - Right, that's very true. (Jon laughs) 04:57 - And sometimes it takes a lot of courage, 04:59 and that's why God talked to Joshua 05:01 and told him, be courageous, be strong, 05:04 be of good courage. 05:05 I'm am with you, just go forward, 05:08 do this work. 05:10 You know, and so that's a lot of what 05:14 the Lord's work is like when we really get involved 05:16 and the stakes get higher and higher. 05:19 - A lot of time to pray. 05:21 - That was awesome. - Make sure that we're doing 05:23 what he wants us to do. 05:25 - Right, and it gave me a lot of time to get over jet lag, 05:29 which for some reason doesn't seem to be getting easier. 05:33 (Natalie laughs) the more I do it. 05:34 - No, I wouldn't think so. (Jon laughs) 05:37 - Seems to be getting harder, but that's okay. 05:39 - Yeah, your body rebels. 05:41 - Yeah, well the downside to doing jet lag this way 05:43 is that I could sleep any time I wanted to. 05:46 - That's true. 05:47 - And so I got to the end of 10 days 05:49 and I still hadn't fully converted over 05:51 'cause I didn't really need to. (laughs) 05:54 So anyway, little confession there. 05:56 - Yeah, so while you were in quarantine 05:59 you had a little bit of food brought to you 06:02 - Every day. - every day, three meals, 06:04 they brought you, and thankfully your quarantine 06:07 wasn't so bad for food 06:09 as some other stories we've heard. 06:11 But one of the things they brought you was this fruit. 06:15 - Yes, and this is a special fruit to us 06:18 because it is the... - Sign of a miracle. 06:20 - Yes. 06:22 - It's called lamyai. - The lamyai fruit, yeah. 06:24 And we've talked about this miracle in a past show, 06:28 but this is the actual fruit. 06:29 It's a little tiny thing. 06:31 'Cause it grows on trees, 06:32 it's really hard to see in the picture that we have. 06:34 It's a little tiny thing. 06:35 And in some languages it's called a meyan berry, 06:38 and meyan means eyeball. 06:41 And as you can see, 06:42 it's a little thing 06:44 and you take the peel, - The peel off. 06:46 - you peel the skin off, and then you get this fleshy thing 06:50 and then you take a little bit of that flesh off 06:51 and you can see there's just a seed, 06:53 and it kind of looks like an eyeball there. 06:55 - Yeah. (Jon laughs) 06:57 - But it's very delicious, 06:58 and we have a little video of how this lamyai 07:04 featured in the decision to go forward 07:07 with building an office and studio 07:09 for our foundation in Northern Thailand. 07:11 - Okay. 07:12 (gentle piano music) 07:19 - This land has been given to us by Ian and Buaket, 07:21 by the generosity and their faith in God. 07:24 They want to see God's work moving forward, 07:29 and with this piece of land, 07:31 they have donated to Love for Asia Foundation. 07:34 This land have lots of stories. 07:36 As you know, the devil hates every move. 07:41 When God's children are trying to do something for Him. 07:45 He tries to block every way, 07:47 but as you see, this is a miracle. 07:51 - This land that you see behind us 07:54 was planted up with, with the longan, 07:57 or we call in Thailand, lamyai tree, fruit trees. 08:01 And they gave good fruit, 08:03 every year, we fed the children with them 08:06 and we had an abundance with God's blessing. 08:09 And one day Buaket and I were talking. 08:13 We were very concerned about the foundation, 08:17 Jesus for Asia foundation, 08:18 not having a permanent premises in which to operate 08:24 and produce God's Word 08:29 in CDs, and DVDs, et cetera. 08:32 And we thought, well, we need to do something. 08:36 And we're very blessed from God, 08:39 so we said, let's give a block of land and let them build. 08:45 We were concerned they were paying rent where they were, 08:47 that's like a hole in the bucket, 08:49 it's just leaking out all the time. 08:51 They need their own facility. 08:53 So we said, okay, we'll do that. 08:55 And then we thought, well, 08:56 what a shame we're gonna have to cut out a lot of trees 08:59 and lose a lot of fruit. 09:02 And we thought, well, wait, that's no problem, 09:04 we're gonna do it. 09:05 And when we officially handed the land over 09:09 and the paperwork was done, signed, sealed, delivered, 09:14 it was the season for fruit 09:17 and all our trees on our existing land 09:19 gave a tremendous crop of fruit. 09:23 But all the trees on the Asia Foundation land 09:27 did not give any fruit. 09:29 It was just like a sign to us 09:31 that God had his hand over it, 09:34 that those trees could come down. 09:36 We weren't losing anything because they weren't fruiting, 09:39 and now, as you can see behind me, the trees are gone, 09:43 the land has been leveled and we're ready to start building. 09:47 So we look at things as signs from God. 09:50 God's working every day and I'm so thankful 09:54 and I'm so happy for the foundation 09:55 that they can now move forward 09:58 and work for the Lord day by day here. 10:02 It's gonna be terrific. 10:03 Super excited. (laughs) 10:07 (speaking in foreign language) Thank you, Lord. (laughs) 10:11 (gentle music) 10:18 - [Jon] So it's totally amazing, isn't it? 10:20 - Yeah. 10:21 - It's so cool to have a miracle like that 10:23 because, you know, we were unsure 10:25 whether we should build a studio 10:27 - Right. - and office. 10:28 And when we saw that miracle, we're like, wow, 10:30 God's in this, we should move forward. 10:33 - Right, right, 10:34 and you know, their heart to share 10:39 what they've been given from God, 10:41 it's so beautiful. - Yeah. 10:42 - So kind. - Yeah. 10:43 No, I had met Ian way back in 1996. 10:48 In fact, this land has another aspect 10:50 to the story that is really close to my heart. 10:53 Because in 1996, I went on a trip with another ministry 10:59 as a photographer, 11:01 and the first part, the first five days was in Cambodia, 11:04 and the second 10 days was in Thailand. 11:07 And that trip was my conversion experience. 11:13 I came to a near death or not really a near-death, 11:15 but I heard my- 11:16 - There was a possibility of death. 11:18 - Right, and so that made me realize 11:20 that I'd rather be serving, 11:22 I'd rather die in God's will 11:23 than continue living in my will, 11:25 doing what I wanted to do. 11:27 And so during those days of wrestling with God, 11:32 with my internal besetting sins, you know, 11:38 the lies that I lived- - Ways of thinking. 11:40 - Exactly. 11:42 A lot of that took place in Ian's house, 11:45 which is right across the street from that studio. 11:48 - Wow. (Jon laughs) 11:49 - From that piece of land that they gave us. 11:51 - God gave you a reminder. 11:53 - Yeah, and every time I go back there, 11:55 I just go back and this is where I was, 11:57 this is where God finally got through, 11:59 this is where he finally tapped me on the shoulder 12:02 and I finally stopped long enough to see who he is 12:06 and say, hey, you know. 12:08 and what's amazing is when I finally gave everything up 12:11 and realized I'd rather serve him, 12:13 I had more joy than I'd ever experienced 12:16 anywhere else before. 12:18 And so it's been non-stop ever since then. 12:21 - Wow. - Yeah. 12:23 - (laughs) I know. 12:24 (both laughing) 12:26 - Yes, we were married at the time, 12:27 so you saw what God has done. 12:29 - Right. - Yeah. 12:32 - Well back to our story. - Okay. 12:33 - This is a picture that our donors may have seen before. 12:37 And this is showing the fence line 12:39 and looking down the fence line, you can see the trees on- 12:42 - The right side is the trees on the land 12:44 that they didn't donate. - Right. 12:46 - And the left side of that post is the trees 12:49 on the donated property. 12:50 And as we zoom in, you can see the little berries 12:53 all over that tree that was on the non donated property. 12:59 And on the donated property, 13:00 you can see there's no berries. 13:02 - [Natalie] Right, on the same tree, but. 13:03 - [Jon] On the same tree. 13:05 - I mean, there were other trees and it was the same way, 13:07 but that one that hangs over the line, 13:09 it was very clear. 13:11 - Yeah, and so they cut, 13:12 they cut that branch that leaned over 13:14 our, the donated property, they cut that branch off, 13:17 and that's the same tree right there. 13:19 - Wow. - And now we've got a studio 13:22 and office right there. 13:24 Now this building fulfills three purposes. 13:27 One is the TV studio, 13:29 another one is translation work, 13:31 which is a huge need in Thailand, 13:34 and the third one is that it provides 13:36 a legal presence in Thailand, 13:40 allows us to hold property as well as to grant 13:43 work permits for missionaries. 13:45 So it provides legal status for our missionaries 13:48 to remain in Thailand. 13:50 - It's just so beautiful to think about, you know, 13:52 God opening this door and making it so clear 13:56 and then making the way. 13:59 A number of donors came together, 14:01 and it's almost completely paid for. 14:03 - Yeah. 14:04 - There's a little bit left that's not paid for, 14:06 but it's so beautiful how different people 14:10 God impressed to give little bits and large bits to help. 14:14 - [Jon] Right. 14:16 - And it was just, it was just a beautiful, beautiful 14:18 - Absolutely. - co-laboring 14:19 kind of situation. 14:21 - Yeah, yeah. 14:22 When they first donated the property, we were like, 14:24 "Ah, I don't know if we should build, 14:25 that's a lot of money." 14:26 And then it took two years, 14:29 because the property had to be rezoned and then donated, 14:32 and donating to a foundation is a lot more complex 14:34 than just like selling it. 14:36 And so it took two years. - A lot of paperwork, and... 14:39 - Yeah, and just waiting for the government, 14:41 back and forth, just a lot of things that had to happen. 14:44 - [Natalie] Submitting different things. 14:45 - It finally did happen in 2021. 14:49 And that's when we started to see the miracles happen 14:52 and God saying, yeah, let's do this. 14:54 - Wow, that's awesome. (Jon laughs) 14:56 - So getting towards the end of my quarantine, 14:58 you know, when I was back in America, I thought, oh yeah, 15:00 quarantine, not a problem. 15:02 I'll just really enjoy that time. 15:03 And I got to the end of my quarantine, 15:05 you know what I started doing? 15:07 I started looking at for sale ads, 15:12 looking for cars for sale. (Natalie laughs) 15:15 'Cause if my guy that was gonna pick me up didn't come, 15:18 I was gonna buy a car. (laughs) 15:20 - [Natalie] So you'd get out of there. 15:22 - I was gonna get out of there. 15:23 (both laughing) 15:25 - Well it's funny because I remember you texting me 15:26 saying you were thinking about extending your quarantine. 15:29 And I was just like, no, he's totally joking. 15:31 (Jon laughs) 15:32 There's no way he's telling the truth. 15:34 - I mean, it was a good time. 15:36 And it was really, I learned a lot 15:38 and I really had a good time with God, 15:39 but I was, I was ready to go- 15:42 - To get some work done? 15:43 - To get some work done. (laughs) 15:45 - Okay, well this is a shot of you in the truck 15:48 on the way north. 15:49 - Yes, very happy. 15:51 Rodney picked me up and we started driving north, 15:54 drove about 10 hours that day, ended up at the studio. 15:58 This is my first seeing the studio in person. 16:01 It is really hard to, they're asking me what about this, 16:05 what about that, and I'm like, I don't know. 16:08 I can't see, I'm not there. 16:10 Making decisions from the other side of the world 16:13 was hard- - Right, without ever seeing 16:14 the building it's going into. 16:15 - Yeah, and my- - And they're like, 16:17 what color do you want? 16:18 And you're like, ah... 16:20 - You choose. - Yeah. 16:21 - Frame had better taste than I do anyway, so. 16:24 - And it's been beautifully done. 16:26 - Oh, they've done a great job. 16:28 But to actually show up and see it, it's like, wow. 16:31 It looks different in person than it does on camera. 16:34 For one thing, it's much taller than I was expecting, 16:38 but they've done a really good job and very proud. 16:41 But when I first got there, as you can see, 16:42 there's no windows, no doors. 16:45 There's still a lot of construction stuff lying around. 16:48 It was a mess. 16:49 There was a long way to go 16:50 before we could actually dedicate this thing. 16:53 - And you gave yourselves a week. 16:55 Didn't you get there and then you had a week? 16:58 - Okay, so I only had less than three weeks 17:01 total time after quarantine in Thailand. 17:05 So we had to get ready for the dedication, hire people, 17:11 train them, get them functioning, 17:13 and in the right direction. 17:15 And be quick, yeah. - Outfit the studio, 17:17 - All that stuff. - Finish the studio, 17:20 everything. - Before I left. 17:21 And then I had to come back home 17:23 'cause I had prior commitments at home. 17:24 - Right. - Yeah. 17:26 - So we have more pictures. - Okay. 17:27 We not only built a studio, but we built a guest room, 17:30 two guest rooms behind the studio, and the kitchen, 17:33 because every office that I've been in 17:36 that had a kitchen in the same building, 17:39 it's like the smell just permeates, like if somebody 17:41 is popping popcorn. - Oh yeah, I know. 17:43 (Jon laughs) 17:44 - So one of the kitchen- - Somebody fries onions 17:46 or garlic and you're, - Yes. 17:48 - you're smelling it for days. 17:49 (Jon laughs) It seems like anyway, 17:51 everybody else in the office is going, 17:52 oh, I'm suddenly hungry. 17:53 Isn't it time for lunch? - Yeah. (laughs) 17:56 And in Thailand they cook, they fry chili, 17:58 the red hot chili, and it's pretty dramatic. 18:03 - Right, it's very permeating. 18:05 - Yeah, and so we decided we'd build a separate guest room, 18:09 two guest rooms. 18:10 And so like if we bring, call a pastor up from Bangkok, 18:14 - Or somewhere else. - yeah, 18:16 - they can come in, they have a place to stay. 18:19 They can shoot all day, two days, three days in a row, 18:21 they have a place to stay right there. 18:23 And so I stayed in that, in that guest room. 18:25 And this is the view, first thing in the morning, 18:28 it's really a beautiful location. 18:30 It's just tropical, 18:32 and I just loved being there. 18:34 The fresh air, the breeze, and it got warm, 18:38 but that was the cool part of the year, 18:39 so it wasn't like super warm. (laughs) 18:42 - Okay. - Yeah. 18:43 So next morning I came in and this is the studio. 18:46 Praise God, they'd already put in 18:48 the lighting grid, - The lighting grid, 18:49 - so we can hang the lights from, but it was very echoey. 18:53 You say something and you hear, 18:54 wah, wah, wah, wah, like that. 18:56 It's just not, - Studio. 18:59 - quality. (both laughing) 19:00 - Exactly, so also didn't have air conditioning. 19:03 We've got a slide showing why we need air conditioning. 19:07 - Okay. - We'll show that 19:08 a little bit later. 19:09 So we started looking, 19:10 where do we find foam? 19:12 - Foam for- 19:13 - [Jon] Foam for the sound absorption. 19:15 - Okay. - Because you gotta put 19:16 foam on the walls so that the sound doesn't bounce off 19:19 and create that echo. 19:20 It absorbs it and just like deadens it. 19:23 - Okay. 19:24 - And so we started looking around, 19:25 we found a company in downtown Chiang Mai, 19:28 which is about 50 minutes from the studio, 19:30 that grows their own foam. 19:33 - Grows it. 19:34 - They grow it and then they cut it, 19:36 and see that block of yellow foam there? 19:39 - Uh-huh. - They have the chemicals 19:42 and they just have a big 19:43 - Vat thing. - vat, yeah, 19:45 and they put the chemicals in there and it grows up 19:47 and makes foam. 19:48 So you can order the type of foam, 19:50 the density of foam, 19:51 the color of foam and all that kind of stuff. 19:52 - Everything you want. 19:53 - And then they cut it to the width 19:55 or the thickness that you want. 19:56 - Wow. 19:57 - So we got two types of foam. 19:58 We got the flat foam like that, 20:01 and then for the main part, 20:02 like a two inch part thickness, 20:06 and then we got like an inch and a quarter 20:07 of the egg crate foam to put that on top of that. 20:10 - Okay. - And so, 20:11 but we didn't get yellow. 20:13 (Jon laughs) - No. (laughs) 20:15 - We got the gray. 20:16 Yeah, and so you can see them here now putting it up. 20:19 That's us trying to figure out 20:21 how to put it up on the ceiling. 20:22 - [Natalie] Right. 20:23 - And it was a little bit difficult, 20:25 so we turned it over to the professionals. 20:27 And then they started putting the foam up on the ceiling, 20:30 put the foam on all the walls 20:31 and made such a huge difference. 20:33 It's actually, it actually sounds good in there now. 20:37 - Nice. 20:39 - It's a little history of our media team, 20:40 it's always been difficult to find people 20:43 that did media, that did video production. 20:47 Number one, it's hard to find somebody 20:49 that's really into that. 20:51 And number two, 20:52 it's hard to find somebody that's really good at it. 20:54 And number three, 20:55 it's even harder to find somebody 20:57 that has had some experience or training in it. 20:59 - Right, and number four, 21:01 it's hard to find somebody who wants to do it for God. 21:03 - Exactly. - The kind of wages 21:04 that you know, ministry can afford. 21:07 - Exactly, and so we, you know, 21:09 we were really praying about that. 21:10 I'm like, Lord, we've got this studio coming together, 21:13 but who's gonna run it? 21:15 You kinda need that. 21:18 And so last May, there was a young man with a family 21:21 that was teaching in another part of Thailand 21:24 and we hired him, sight unseen, 21:27 to come and learn the software 21:29 and maybe thinking he would be our only production person. 21:35 And during quarantine, 21:37 Sitisak emailed me a list of candidates. 21:41 People that had contacted him, 21:43 expressing an interest in working in the new studio, 21:47 four of them and I'm reading through their bios, 21:50 and two of them had experience. 21:55 - Wow. 21:56 - And one of, both of them had training 21:58 and one of them that was their major in college. 22:03 I'm like, wow, what's God doing? 22:06 So after we drove up there and we spent the week 22:10 putting the studio together, 22:11 on that Friday, we interviewed all four of them. 22:14 And some of them had to drive a long ways, 22:16 take time off work, and all that kind of stuff. 22:18 Came together, I interviewed all four of them 22:20 on that Friday. 22:22 And I'm like, this is a God thing. 22:24 I hired all four of them. (laughs) 22:27 One of them, the young lady 22:29 still had work for another week. 22:31 And says, you know, you have to give two weeks notice. 22:34 She says, "Oh no, just one week." 22:36 So she gave a week's notice and then joined us after that. 22:40 This is some of our team. 22:41 This is the four guys that started to work for us. 22:45 Joseph on the left. 22:46 He was the one that we hired in May. 22:48 And then the other ones you'll meet later on, 22:50 but we started intensive training. 22:53 These are cameras. 22:54 This is how you work it. 22:55 This is where you put the card in. 22:56 This is how do you get the right exposure 22:59 with all the details and the technical side stuff. 23:01 And, you know, that's my background. 23:03 I have a two year degree in photography. 23:06 - Right, and lots of experience. 23:09 - Experience, (laughs) yeah. 23:10 So we really enjoyed that. 23:12 And we just really crash course, 23:17 spent the whole week just putting things together. 23:19 And we got them into the studio and you can see 23:21 the foam is still going up on the walls, 23:23 and we're still doing construction, 23:25 and we're doing training, 23:27 and we're in there shooting some test videos 23:29 to get some experience before I leave. 23:32 And another shot of the studio. 23:34 And now this is the reason why we have air conditioning. 23:38 (both laughing) 23:39 This candle- 23:41 - Those candles are like the four inch ones. 23:43 - Uh-huh. - They're big. 23:44 - [Jon] But it wasn't sitting outside. 23:46 - No, it was inside. - In the office, 23:49 and it did this. 23:51 That's how hot it can get, 23:52 - With no air conditioning. - with no air conditioning. 23:54 Can you imagine what it does to your hard drives? 23:56 - Oh. 23:57 - Exactly, and our computers. - And cameras. 23:59 - Exactly. 24:00 So we got good air conditioning. 24:02 Now with four new people, 24:03 I'm like, we gotta have editing computers for these people. 24:10 So I had to go down and by faith, step out and by four max. 24:15 What was amazing is 24:16 that we went to the official Apple store. 24:17 It wasn't like Apple Apple store, 24:19 it was like official... - Apple Authorized Retailer? 24:22 - Yes. - Okay, reseller. 24:24 - Yeah, and they don't, 24:26 they said, "Okay we can order one, 24:28 but it'll take a month to get here." 24:30 (Jon sighs) 24:31 So Gop called around and he found a place 24:33 that had four in stock. 24:35 So he went down and we bought them all. 24:38 - Wow. - And this is it. 24:40 The big brown thing, that's a water cooler. 24:43 Okay. - That's not in the back. 24:44 Had two iMacs and two Mac Minis in there. 24:48 And I praise God, these low cost, low end, 24:52 budget-friendly computers, 24:55 there's just been a brand new revolution in computing 24:59 in the Apple world. 25:01 - Right, so you get speed- - A lot of speed. 25:04 - Like the beefy, like you need for processing video, 25:08 all the beefy functionality and all that kind of stuff. 25:11 - Right, which - Processor I should say. 25:12 - Two years ago, that level of processing, 25:14 one year ago, that level of processing power was 25:18 probably twice, more than twice the cost as what it is now. 25:22 Right. - So praise God, 25:24 we brought that up, 25:25 hung the lights, set up all the computers. 25:28 And we also had to buy a bunch of furniture. 25:32 And so Gap, and Frame, and I, 25:34 we went downtown and we bought the computers, 25:36 we bought the lights, we bought the furniture. 25:39 I mean, we dropped a lot of money. 25:41 - Hmm, I know, we got the bills. 25:43 (Jon laughs) 25:45 - But that's what you need, you know, 25:47 to sacrifice for God's kingdom, 25:49 it's gotta be done. 25:51 And then, so we worked hard 25:53 and this is the night before the dedication. 25:57 - Now I notice in this photo, there are windows. 25:59 - Oh, yes. 26:01 - Now there was something going on with the windows, 26:02 because the windows we had ordered for the studio 26:06 were ordered from Bangkok, and they were custom. 26:09 - Double pane. - Double pane 26:10 to keep the heat out, and the cool in, 26:12 - Right. - and they weren't there yet. 26:15 - That's an amazing story 26:16 because the windows and the glass doors 26:20 were all back-ordered. 26:22 They weren't due in for like the week after the dedication. 26:25 But Jack, our builder, 26:28 who was an Adventist, really great guy, 26:30 he just bent over backwards and he says, look, 26:33 I've got another job, it's got windows, 26:35 we'll take those windows and install them here 26:39 for the dedication. 26:40 And then when you're windows come in 26:41 we'll take out the other windows 26:43 and put your windows in at no extra cost. 26:45 - Wow. 26:46 - Yeah. - Wow. 26:48 - So he bent over backwards, and that's why we have windows. 26:50 And we wanted windows because 26:51 we were gonna put equipment in there. 26:54 We don't just want them, you know, somebody- 26:56 - Open to the air, or anyone else. 27:00 - Exactly. - Wow. 27:01 - So Jack really did a nice thing for us. 27:04 - Right, wow. - So I'm thankful for that. 27:06 - And, we are out of time. 27:09 - Oh. 27:10 - So we're gonna have to save the rest of those stories 27:13 for the next episode. 27:14 - Okay. 27:15 - So people will have to stay tuned, 27:17 or tune in again, I mean. (Jon laughs) 27:19 People will have to come back 27:21 to see the dedication ceremony. 27:23 - Yeah. 27:25 - Thank you for sharing your story with us, dear. 27:27 And I would like to invite you to pray for this team 27:29 at Love for Asia Foundation, 27:32 the Jesus for Asia Foundation in Thailand, 27:34 that this new studio will be used to God's glory 27:38 and the translation 27:39 and everything that's going to happen there, 27:42 will be leading people to know God. 27:45 If you would like to be involved, 27:47 you can contact us at Jesus for Asia, 27:49 PO Box 1221 Colledgedale, Tennessee, 37315. 27:56 Call us at 423-413-7321. 28:00 Or visit our website at Jesus4asia.org. 28:04 May God richly bless you 28:06 until we see you next time on Jesus for Asia Now. 28:09 (bright vibrant music) |
Revised 2021-12-09