Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000121S
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00:01 (gentle music)
00:21 - Hello and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now. 00:24 I'm Natalie Wood and my husband, Jon, is joining me today 00:27 as we talk about a project where it's been in existence 00:31 for quite some time, but God has exploded it. 00:35 Hello, love. 00:36 - Hi, darling, how are you? 00:38 - I'm doing well. - Awesome. 00:39 - I'm looking forward to this program. 00:41 - Yes, it's amazing. 00:42 - Yes and it's a surprising thing to us 00:45 and even more so to the missionaries. 00:47 - Yeah, I mean, what happened, what God did, 00:49 it's obviously of God. 00:51 They've been there for quite a while 00:53 and they've been trying to do stuff, 00:55 but I think all along God has been setting him up 00:58 for just such a time as this. 01:00 - Because they've met people, 01:01 they've been able to witness to people 01:03 over the years and things. 01:04 It's just now it's like their ministry is exploding. 01:08 - Yes - So who are we talking? 01:10 - It's the Sharon family. 01:12 They're living in Northwestern Thailand. 01:15 They moved there. 01:16 Well, the first person of the Sharon family. 01:20 Now the Sharon family is two parents, four boys. 01:24 And the first boy went with us. 01:27 When was that? 01:28 - 2007. 01:29 He went on a vision trip with us. 01:31 - A vision trip? 01:32 What's a vision trip? 01:34 - That's what we call short-term trips, 01:36 where we go to other countries 01:38 and we see what it's like there. 01:42 And we see how they live. 01:44 And we see a larger glimpse of God's reality. 01:49 So we don't call them mission trips around here. 01:51 Because you can't do a lot in a few weeks or a month, 01:55 but you can see a lot. 01:57 - But in the vision trips, 01:58 we actually conduct evangelistic meetings. 02:00 - Yes, usually we do. 02:02 - So people get a taste of what it's like to not only see, 02:06 but actually to do something. 02:07 - To serve. - To serve, exactly. 02:09 So he went on this trip, we went two weeks in Thailand, 02:12 a month in India and another two weeks in Thailand. 02:15 And towards the end of the second two weeks in Thailand, 02:18 he came to you with. 02:20 What did he say? 02:21 - He said he couldn't go home. 02:23 And I said, what does your mom say? 02:28 Because he was barely 18 and he was still living at home. 02:32 And so I told him he needed to make sure 02:34 it was okay with his parents. 02:36 But he said he couldn't go home 02:38 knowing that there were people out there 02:40 that didn't know anything about God 02:43 and that needed to know. 02:45 And they have a right to know. 02:47 - Great, so he stayed there. 02:50 And after a year or so, came back and got his two- 02:53 - Next younger and the younger- 02:55 - Two more brothers- - The next two brothers. 02:56 - Brought them over. 02:57 And Andrew, the second, 02:59 Ben was the oldest, Andrew's the second oldest. 03:02 He went to Cambodia and helped into medic school. 03:05 But then Jason stayed in Thailand 03:09 for quite a number of years. 03:10 And then finally, their parents- 03:13 - And the youngest brother, Travis, 03:16 went over on a short-term trip. 03:17 They were gonna be gone for three months 03:20 and they also saw the need. 03:22 - And now it's been- 03:23 - They've been over there around 11 years, 03:25 more than 10 years. 03:27 - And so this three months trip turned into over 10 years. 03:32 What was it that kept them there? 03:35 - Well, God started sending them babies to take care of. 03:39 Little children whose parents couldn't take care of them, 03:42 who had lost one or both parents. 03:45 And so they've had several girls. 03:48 It's interesting 'cause they had four boys of their own 03:51 and then the Lord gave them several girls. 03:53 - I asked Lisa, what was the first thing you thought of 03:56 when you were handed your first baby? 03:59 And she thought 20 years. 04:02 She says, "I'm gonna have to be here for another 20 years." 04:05 And she's like, Lord, can I do this? 04:08 And she's like, yeah. 04:11 So I see the spirit of the Lord taking people and saying, 04:14 I want you to serve. 04:16 And people saying yes to God's call 04:19 for a lifetime of service. 04:21 However long you need me here I am yours. 04:24 When Lisa and Leroy first went over there, 04:27 Travis was with them. 04:28 And then Travis felt the call of starting a school 04:31 on his own. 04:32 And so he got out of wonderful school going 04:34 and then times changed and the needs changed 04:37 and he went away from that project. 04:39 In the meantime, Jason had started a school in the jungle 04:43 and Lisa and Leroy had joined him there. 04:47 But then times changed again and they had to move 04:49 and then Jason got married. 04:51 And so he and his wife Shoshanna 04:53 moved to a different village. 04:55 So in the more recent years we've had Sharon families 04:58 in three different locations. 05:01 We've had Lisa and Leroy with their daughters 05:03 and then Jason and Shoshana with their family. 05:07 And then in a totally separate village, 05:09 about eight hours drive away was Travis and Becky 05:15 who had set up a brand new location. 05:18 And so they're all in the same area, 05:22 but separated by quite a number of hours. 05:24 - So they've been doing outreach among the people, 05:27 but then they started to see the lack of understanding, 05:30 lack of knowledge of Bible truths, 05:34 about who God really is and the lack of understanding 05:38 and the lack of resources. 05:40 They started to feel a burden. 05:42 Travis had a burden 05:44 that there needed to be more literature there 05:46 in their local language for these people. 05:48 Simple literature that just explained one thing, 05:52 one simple concept that they could understand. 05:55 And we think literature is widely available anywhere. 06:00 We have Christian bookstores, 06:01 we have Christian literature in Walmart 06:04 and all the other stores, it's readily available. 06:07 And even in lots of little convenience stores 06:09 where you stop to get gas, 06:11 there might be spiritual literature available there. 06:14 Or you could even buy the whole Bible there. 06:16 But they don't have that where they are. 06:19 They don't have that pretty much anywhere in Thailand. 06:23 - There's very few books that have been translated. 06:26 Even fewer books that have been authored 06:28 in the local language. 06:29 And then even those books that have been printed 06:33 they're either out of print 06:34 or they're just not distributed widely, not available. 06:39 And this is one of the results of the fact that 92% 06:42 of all Christian giving worldwide is given towards ministry 06:46 in the English language. 06:48 Which means 8% of all Christian giving worldwide 06:51 is spent in all the other languages of the world combined. 06:56 - For any purpose. 06:58 And so you get this situation where there's almost no books, 07:01 there's almost no books available to the general public. 07:04 You might be able to find some books in Thailand 07:08 that have a Christian background, 07:09 but you have to go searching for it. 07:11 It's not on the local bookshelf. 07:14 There's no place, there's no- 07:16 There's nothing in the local supermarket convenience store. 07:18 There's nothing like that available. 07:21 And so the Sharons have been there long enough 07:23 to see the results of this lack. 07:26 And the burden has been growing on their hearts 07:28 for many years to somehow see this taken care of. 07:33 - So we have a video where they talk about some of this. 07:36 - Okay. 07:37 (gentle music) 07:46 - In America we have literature that we can pass out. 07:49 But over here through the years of working, 07:53 we haven't had anything in the local language 07:58 other than like one or two or three, Ellen white books. 08:02 (gentle music) 08:06 After we moved up from the school, 08:09 I was deeply impressed that we needed to get the message 08:14 before the people. 08:15 And I was impressed that we needed to write. 08:19 And so I sat down and I tried to write and I couldn't, 08:22 I couldn't write, I couldn't figure out what to say. 08:25 And I felt convicted to do it, 08:28 but I didn't know what to do with it. 08:31 (gentle music) 08:35 - We've been here for 12 years now 08:37 and since I was raising children, 08:40 children grow up situations change. 08:43 And so I found myself in the very strange situation 08:47 of not having anything to do. 08:49 And I don't speak the language 08:51 'cause I've spent all these years raising children 08:53 that learned English, I was just kind of looking around me 08:57 saying, "Lord, what do you want me to do now?" 08:59 I had no clue. 09:02 I mean, I can keep my little house clean 09:04 and I can work in my garden, 09:06 but that feels really pointless, 09:08 especially in the times in which we're living. 09:11 (water gushing) 09:17 - So actually, when it started it was Jason, actually. 09:23 He had been impressed that he needed to write. 09:26 And he had written a small book 09:28 and he asked if I would help out with the printing of it. 09:31 So I offered to type it out on the computer 09:34 and get a printer so that we could start publishing it. 09:39 - Then one day Jason called me and he said, 09:42 "Hey mom, I need you to go shopping for me 09:47 'cause we're trying to print all these books 09:49 and I don't have the supplies I need, 09:51 but you could get them right there in Mesa." 09:53 And so I was like, "Wow, something to do. 09:57 This is so exciting." 09:59 And so we dropped everything. 10:01 We ran to town and did a bunch of shopping for them 10:04 and got all the stuff he needed and went up to their place. 10:08 And we sat down with them and helped them make books 10:11 for a couple of days. 10:12 And that was really fun. 10:15 I was really, really excited. 10:16 I was like, this has been needed. 10:18 And we know this has been needed for so long. 10:21 And I couldn't believe that Jason and Travis 10:26 were writing books 'cause that's not like their talent. 10:32 So then on our way out, I thought, well, what about Travis? 10:36 If they're working this hard down at their place, 10:39 I wonder if they need help too. 10:41 So well, he needed a new printer, 10:43 so it was like a big shopping trip. 10:46 And then we loaded all the stuff up and we went down, 10:50 we came down to Travis's place. 10:53 And we figured, 10:54 well, they're probably gonna need a little help 10:56 to start with. 10:57 So we decided to stay a while to help them. 11:01 But once we got started, we realized there was no way 11:05 they could do all this work by themselves. 11:10 So we just set up our tent and stayed. 11:16 And we've been making books ever since. 11:19 (dramatic music) 11:24 (cricket chirping) 11:27 - So when Lisa mentioned that Jason was short on supplies, 11:30 they were printing 1,000 pages per day. 11:33 And so they're going through an entire toner cartridge 11:36 every single day. - Everyday. 11:38 - And so they're needing big boxes of toner cartridges. 11:43 What was amazing to me is that this started happening 11:47 in all three places at the same time. 11:50 It wasn't just Travis doing it, but all three- 11:52 - 'Cause Leroy has felt a need for this for quite a while. 11:55 In fact, he's had some books translated 11:57 and he's had some printed and he hired the Bible workers 12:00 and they started working, 12:02 but it wasn't anywhere near the volume that it is now. 12:05 And it wasn't the little booklets 12:08 that they're putting together now. 12:10 - And they kept thinking, somebody should write books 12:14 for our people. 12:15 Travis seemed to have that burden. 12:16 And then Jason just started writing something. 12:20 - And like over the course of many years, 12:23 they thought we need more books in the local language. 12:26 We need more books. 12:27 And finally they're like, 12:28 "Well, if no one else is gonna do it, I guess. 12:30 - I guess we have to. 12:33 So let's watch the next video. 12:34 - [Jon] Okay, all right. 12:36 (gentle music) 12:42 - The need, I think is very great for simple literature, 12:50 easy to understand, but I guess directly to the issue 12:54 to be put into people's hands. 12:56 And so what we want to do is create books 13:00 that portray the good news of salvation 13:06 to these people very simply. 13:08 (gentle music) 13:10 - I was really excited about this project 13:12 and I thought we need to have a book 13:14 that kinda gives like the whole story in one little thing 13:19 so that if they only see one thing, 13:22 they'll have the whole picture 13:23 and they can make a decision for themselves. 13:25 And I tried. 13:27 I'd sit down with my computer 13:29 and it was like I just couldn't write. 13:33 It just wasn't coming to me and I'd write an outline 13:36 of what I thought it should be. 13:37 And then I'd look at it and I'm like, 13:39 "Ah, this isn't working." 13:41 And so finally, once my husband told me, 13:44 he says, "You have to sit down and write." 13:49 He said, you just have to do this. 13:51 So, I sat down and I prayed 13:55 and I've never really experienced anything quite like it, 14:01 but that book just flew out of my fingers. 14:04 It was like done within an hour or two 14:07 and it was not at all what I had written down on my outlines 14:12 or what I thought about. 14:13 It was totally different 14:15 and I just felt like the Holy Spirit wrote the book for me. 14:18 All I did was write it down. 14:20 And that's the way to do it anyway. 14:21 I don't want my own words anyway. 14:24 (gentle music) 14:27 - The cost of printing was kinda high on our desktop printer 14:33 and it was also very slow and tedious. 14:37 And the demand was so high for literature 14:40 that we decided to invest in a bigger one. 14:43 - When we got down here and we set up this new printer, 14:46 I started to see the bigger picture. 14:48 Just to write a book and then send it to Travis, 14:51 I thought that my job was done, 14:53 but that's a lot more work than you imagined. 14:57 'Cause he has to have it all translated 14:59 and then he has to format it and put it all in a computer 15:05 and do all this stuff. I don't know what he does, 15:07 but it takes hours and hours and hours of time. 15:09 And then you have to get the computer 15:11 to talk with the printer and get the printer 15:13 to do all the stuff it's supposed to do. 15:15 Then you have to staple 'em and then fold them 15:19 because then it goes to the cutter 15:22 'cause you wanna cut the edges of the book 15:24 so that it looks nice and neat when you're done. 15:27 And all we had was a paper cutter. 15:28 So you stick in your little book and you cut it. 15:32 Well, you do like a thousand of them. 15:35 The one cut, and then you have to go through it again 15:37 and you have to do the second cut a thousand times. 15:40 And then you have to put it in again 15:42 and you do do the third cut. 15:44 But the amazing thing was, 15:46 God sent us extra money this last month 15:50 and so we were able to buy this little booklet maker 15:53 so that it does the staple and then it folds it for you. 15:57 It's still a lot of work, but it's a lot easier than it was. 16:00 And then we bought a guillotine. 16:02 And so you can do like 20 or 30 books at a time 16:06 and it's just pushing a button. 16:08 So it's like so much easier. 16:11 We can do about a thousand books a day 16:13 without wearing ourselves out too terribly bad. 16:15 (gentle music) 16:19 - [Travis] When we started printing them 16:21 and we started sending out these books 16:24 and pamphlets and things. 16:25 - It didn't take very long before we realized 16:28 that the demand for literature was a lot higher 16:32 than our printer could provide. 16:35 And our Bible workers were so excited. 16:39 They started taking hundreds of books at a time 16:42 and it only took them like a day to pass it all out. 16:45 - [Travis] The people started coming to their houses, 16:48 asking for the books because they wanted to read the books. 16:52 And so it's been amazing 16:55 to see how receptive they are to it. 16:58 - Because there's so little literature actually out there, 17:02 even the Baptists are very excited about this. 17:06 And a lot of our Baptist friends are encouraging us 17:10 and like, "Oh yes, we, we want this literature. 17:12 Well, we'll pass it out." 17:13 - My vision right now is like, 17:15 we gotta get these books out there, 17:17 but we also need to pray for more Bible workers 17:19 in other areas because we've got certain areas 17:23 pretty much covered, but this is a big area. 17:28 You can't have more than just a few people. 17:30 And at the same time, the energy to keep up with the demand 17:35 because it's a lot of work making 'em. 17:38 (gentle music) 17:42 - I love that story that Lisa shared 17:44 about how she wrote that booklet. 17:46 Because she tried, she made outlines all this stuff, 17:50 but it never flowed until she sat down and she said, 17:53 "Okay, I'm gonna pray." 17:55 And she prayed, and then God wrote the story. 17:58 And she just had to write down. 18:00 - In like an hour. 18:02 A whole booklet. 18:02 And so these- 18:04 - After struggling with it for some time. 18:07 - These booklets are in such high demand. 18:09 People are so hungry for them 18:10 that at the filming of the show today, 18:14 I got the word that they've passed out 18:17 around an estimated 30,000 booklets, 30,000. 18:23 This is just their family 18:25 and the Bible workers they work with. 18:27 30,000. 18:29 That's probably the most literature that's been distributed 18:32 in the whole country in the last 20 years combined. 18:35 - Wow that's a lot. - It's huge. 18:38 - That's a lot. - It's huge 18:39 - And sometimes we pass out things, 18:41 and Mrs. White uses the term, the leaves of autumn. 18:44 Our literature should go out like the leaves of autumn. 18:47 Which means it's all over the place. 18:48 I mean, right now- 18:50 - It should be readily available. 18:51 - Right, exactly. 18:53 And sometimes we get to know 18:55 that there's fruit from literature. 18:57 And you have a story 18:59 that's not from this particular literature, 19:01 but from some other literature. 19:04 Do you wanna share that story? 19:05 - Sure, well, you may wonder 19:08 it's such a small, small little piece 19:10 of such a small booklet, but we need the big book 19:14 for people to really get an idea of what Christianity is. 19:17 But in the show that I shot in Bangkok back in 2010, 2011, 19:22 I interviewed a guy that when he was like 14 years old, 19:25 found a flyer, talking about Jesus Christ. 19:29 And he held onto that flyer for 10 or 12 years 19:33 until the next time he came in contact with a Christian. 19:38 He kept that flyer and now he's a firm believer 19:41 and he's bringing other people into the faith 19:42 because of just a little single page, one sided flyer 19:47 talking about the gospel. - Wow. 19:50 - When I was in the Philippines, in Mountain View College, 19:52 I met a couple of young guys. 19:55 There was a Christian organization 19:58 that just put these little one-page flyers 20:01 in the back of their truck and went down the road 20:03 and they blew out like trash. 20:05 And so this guy picked it up, read it, 20:08 and from that one little one-page flyer, 20:11 found his way to the Lord, was converted. 20:14 And his father was the chief of the village 20:16 and pretty much the whole village became believers. 20:18 - Wow. 20:20 And he and his friend were in Mountain View College 20:22 in the Philippines studying to be theology 20:24 from one little flyer. 20:26 So 30,000 booklets with this good message 20:30 is there's gonna be fruit. 20:33 Christ says, "For as the rain cometh down, 20:35 and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, 20:38 but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, 20:42 that it may give seed for the sower, and bread to the eater. 20:46 So my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, 20:50 it shall not return unto me void, 20:52 but it shall accomplish that which I please, 20:56 and it shall prosper in a thing whereto I sent it." 20:59 So just sending out God's word, 21:01 we have no idea what's gonna happen with this, 21:03 but I can guarantee something- 21:05 - There will be fruit. 21:06 - [Jon] Yes. 21:08 - Amen, amen. 21:09 Well, as the Sharons have seen this expanding 21:13 and the requests for it just exploding, 21:18 they have a sense of urgency that they never had before. 21:22 And we have a video from them sharing about that. 21:25 - Okay. 21:26 (gentle music) 21:35 - It's amazing how God has provided 21:39 in our whole endeavors to get started here. 21:44 Buying the equipment to start printing 21:46 wasn't necessarily cheap, but God has provided 21:49 every step of the way and it's been amazing 21:52 to see God's hand at work. 21:54 - If you asked me who should start a publishing thing 21:59 in Asia, I would not say us. 22:02 We are not qualified. 22:05 It's crazy what we're doing. 22:09 But when God tells you to do something, 22:12 he also gives you the ability to do it. 22:16 He can use nobodies. 22:20 You don't have to have a lot of education 22:22 or a lot of experience, or a lot of anything. 22:25 You just have to have a willingness to do something. 22:27 (gentle music) 22:30 - We know that we are living in the last days right now. 22:35 And to me, it's like, I'm seeing prophecy being fulfilled 22:40 before our eyes. 22:41 And we can see that the second coming of Jesus 22:46 is right upon us. 22:49 - We could sit back and say, 22:50 "Oh, well, it's probably another 10 years, 22:53 maybe another 100 years. 22:54 We could sit back and say that. 22:57 I'm not setting dates by the way. 22:59 But by sitting back is what I'm talking about 23:05 and letting time pass. 23:07 That's not being urgent about it. 23:09 As I see these things happening, 23:12 the blood needs to start flowing within our hearts. 23:15 If you're a true Christian, 23:17 you should be excited everywhere in the world today. 23:23 And you can talk about nature. 23:24 You can talk about governments. 23:26 You can talk about diseases. 23:28 You can talk about earthquakes. 23:29 You can talk about every single thing in the world today 23:34 and that will tell the Bible student 23:38 that Christ is coming very soon. 23:41 - I especially have just been really impressed 23:43 with the urgency of getting this done 23:47 and getting it out there. 23:49 We never would have believed two years ago 23:52 that we would see the things that we see in our world today. 23:56 And I know that Jesus is coming really, really soon 23:59 and we don't have a lot of time to work. 24:02 (gentle music) 24:07 - Well, there will come a time when no man can work. 24:11 We don't know how long 24:13 we will be able to do what we're doing. 24:17 Because as we see how at any time, 24:20 governments can shut things down, 24:22 things can be changed overnight. 24:26 - Whatever we're gonna do, 24:27 we need to do it quickly 'cause it's just gonna get harder. 24:30 And especially as we seeing what's happening 24:32 just across the border right here, there's wars going on, 24:37 there's people being killed every day. 24:39 Sometimes I can lay out here in my tent at night 24:42 and hear the fighting. 24:45 And I don't know how that would affect other people, 24:48 but that, it's a pretty sobering thing to me 24:51 to know that there's somebody on the other side 24:53 of those bullets. 24:54 - Just yesterday I heard about 40 people burned up 24:58 in a truck because of a war. 25:01 That was the end of their probation. 25:05 People are dying without the gospel. 25:08 (gentle music) 25:17 - Jesus is coming soon. 25:19 And even to have a little teeny weeny part in that 25:22 is so exciting. 25:25 And I'm hoping that God's people all over the world 25:29 are feeling this sense of urgency 25:31 because now's the time to be working while we still can. 25:36 (gentle music) 25:44 - I have a theory. 25:46 It's based on Matthew 24:14. 25:48 And that is that the world will continue to get worse 25:51 and worse, suffering will increase until the gospel is taken 25:56 to all the world. 25:57 And everybody has a chance to make a decision. 25:59 And so our lack of urgency 26:02 is actually prolonging this world's misery. 26:06 - Right, right. 26:08 And so many times we want Jesus to come 26:10 because we want our suffering to end. 26:13 We don't want any more suffering for those that we know. 26:16 But what about those 40 people in the truck 26:19 that Leroy talked about? 26:21 Did they have a chance to know? 26:24 - And so we're praying that the winds of strife 26:26 will be held back a little longer 26:28 then more people will get a chance to learn about Christ. 26:32 Because the second coming is gonna be amazing 26:34 for those that know him. 26:36 For those that never had a chance, 26:40 that sense of urgency Lord bless us with a sense of urgency. 26:44 - Right. 26:45 Help us to realize the value 26:47 of all the souls that we don't know. 26:50 Because he knows them. 26:51 - Yes, he does. 26:52 - And we get a chance in eternity to know the ones 26:57 that we have part of telling. 27:00 - I just learned recently that the Moravian missionaries 27:03 used to have a saying. 27:04 And I'm gonna slaughter this, but it's something like this, 27:06 Lord help us to win the reward of the suffering of the lamb. 27:11 Even Paul talks about completing the suffering of Christ, 27:14 filling up the suffering of Christ. 27:15 And what is that? 27:17 Christ suffered enough, didn't he? 27:18 Yeah, but the reward of that suffering is still out there. 27:24 I just got a word from Travis this morning 27:26 that they're leveling out a place to build a building 27:30 where they can have their printing operation. 27:32 - Wow. 27:33 - It's getting a little too big for their kitchen 27:34 and living room. 27:36 - Wow, well, praise the Lord. 27:37 - Yes, he says they're doing it by faith. 27:39 - Amen. - God's able. 27:40 - Yep, He is. 27:42 If you would like to help get the word out 27:44 to people who have so few spiritual things to read, 27:47 you can contact us at Jesus for Asia, PO box 1221, 27:52 Collegedale, Tennessee, 37315. 27:55 Call us at (423) 413-7321 28:00 or visit our website at Jesus4asia.org. 28:04 May God richly bless you until we see you next time 28:08 on Jesus for Asia Now. 28:09 (gentle music) |
Revised 2022-01-25