Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000133S
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00:01 (dramatic music)
00:22 - Hi, love. 00:23 - Hi, darling. How are you? 00:23 - Good. good. 00:25 I'm excited about the story we have. 00:27 It seems like it's a miracle story. 00:28 It started with a miracle and it just keeps on, 00:31 God keeps doing more and more miracles. 00:33 - Yeah, absolutely. 00:34 - It's just, it's awesome. 00:36 - Yeah. 00:37 And I love it because it's like, 00:38 it really touches where my heart is, you know, 00:42 I've always been into video and cameras and stuff like that 00:46 and the Lord started us in this ministry 00:49 with Bible workers and evening schools 00:51 which is a good thing 00:52 because those are really joyful 00:54 and really, I love what our Bible workers do 00:57 in the mission field 00:58 and how powerful they are 00:59 and the stories we get back from them 01:00 and so inspiring in faith. 01:02 But this story is about television studios. 01:05 - So, where are we starting today? 01:07 - We're gonna start with a story of a little fruit. 01:10 - A little fruit. 01:11 - Yes. 01:12 (laughs) 01:13 Here's a picture of it in my hotel room 01:15 and they serve me this lamyai fruit. 01:16 My kids call it the eyeball fruit. 01:19 - Yeah. You can see why. 01:20 - Yeah. 01:21 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 01:23 But we had been praying about setting up a TV studio 01:25 because, you know, in Thailand, 01:27 they don't have 3ABN in the local language. 01:29 - Right. - And they deserve it. 01:31 - Right. 01:32 - And so, we've been praying for many years, 01:34 but always really hesitant because they're not super cheap. 01:37 - Media is always expensive. 01:39 - And so, finally a couple donated some property to us. 01:43 So they asked us, can we wait until harvest comes in 01:46 so they can get the cash from the fruit. 01:48 But what the miracle was 01:49 is that when the fruit came in, 01:51 when the harvest came in, 01:52 what happened? 01:53 - God drew a line 01:56 at the property boundary. 01:58 - [Jon] Yeah. 01:59 - There was fruit on their side, 02:00 but on the property that they had donated, 02:03 there was no fruit. 02:04 Even where there's a branch that hangs over, 02:07 only part of that tree had fruit on that branch. 02:11 - Yeah. 02:12 - The other side, no fruit at all. 02:13 - And this was such a miracle to me 02:16 and also the donor. 02:18 Every time he mentions it, he just breaks down. 02:20 He's like, wow, God really stepped in 02:22 and made it clear that this is his land. 02:25 And so, when we saw that miracle, 02:26 we knew God was in it. 02:28 - Right. 02:29 - Our team over there led by Gop and Daniel Bayer, 02:31 they started building 02:33 and by the time I got there, 02:34 this is what I saw. 02:36 - Right. 02:37 It was almost done. 02:38 Our viewers may recognize this story 02:40 because we did share this when you came back. 02:42 - Yes. 02:44 - But there's additional story that came out of the story. 02:47 - Yes. 02:48 - After that, the fruit miracle started a series of miracles 02:50 that God has done. 02:51 - Yeah. 02:53 And the other miracle that I remember was 02:54 when I was in quarantine, 02:55 I was praying, Lord, 02:56 we don't have anybody that can film stuff. 02:59 And you know, that's not easy to find 03:01 in a church with so few members. 03:05 - Right. 03:06 - Not very many people are interested in video 03:10 and have those skills. 03:11 - Right. 03:12 - And while I was in quarantine, 03:14 I got an email from our Thai director, Gop, 03:16 who said, "Hey, we have four candidates to interview 03:20 for the job." 03:21 - Right. 03:22 - And I'm going, "Are you kidding me?" 03:23 - Wow! Four. 03:24 - Wow! And so, I thought, 03:26 okay, well, maybe we'll get one good one out of the four. 03:29 And we interviewed on a Friday morning these four workers 03:34 and I was blown away by the quality of these people 03:37 and the motivation, their heart. 03:39 They really wanted to serve God. 03:41 - Oh, that's awesome. 03:42 - And so, after interviewing four of them, 03:44 I hired, guess how many. 03:46 - You hired all four. 03:47 - Yes. - But I know the story. 03:48 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 03:49 - Exactly. 03:50 And so, I would ask them, you know, 03:52 why do you wanna work here? 03:54 And they're like, 03:55 I wanna serve God. 03:56 - [Natalie] Yeah. 03:57 - I wanna serve God. 03:57 - That's awesome. 03:59 - In fact, one young lady had graduated from the university 04:02 with a degree in television production. 04:05 - Right. 04:06 - And so, she came and joined us 04:08 and after a week and a half 04:09 she says, I feel like I've come home. 04:11 - Wow! 04:12 - We've got a little bit more of her story also. 04:14 - In a little bit. 04:15 - So, then a few months later, after it was finished, 04:17 I went back to see how it was going 04:19 and to do some more training with my team. 04:23 And I just was amazed at the beauty of the location 04:27 of that studio. 04:28 - [Natalie] Yeah. 04:29 - [Jon] It's such a beautiful, quiet, natural spot. 04:33 - Right. 04:35 - We're already talking about expanding it though. 04:36 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 04:37 Because that we got a little more property. 04:39 There's some property behind the studio 04:41 that we're praying will come up for sale, 04:43 so we can build an audio recording studio, 04:46 so we can record Christian godly music 04:49 for the church in the country. 04:52 As I met with a team 04:53 to figure out what kind of training we're gonna do, 04:55 I was impressed with how much they're doing already. 04:59 They're so creative 05:00 and they're so passionate about what they're doing. 05:04 It's like, "Wow, this is amazing." 05:06 And while I was there, 05:08 we went out shopping 05:09 because one of the things that is a challenge to them 05:11 is we don't really have a budget for production 05:15 as far as buying set material and things like that, 05:17 so they just make do with whatever they can find. 05:20 - Right. 05:21 - So, we went shopping and we bought lights 05:22 and we bought a little bit of furniture 05:23 and we bought some plants and stuff like that 05:25 and designed a show that's gonna be a continuing series. 05:29 And we set up the show 05:30 and you can see we brought in the local pastor. 05:32 He's gonna do like a pre baptismal bible study series 05:37 and stuff. 05:38 But I loved their creativity and everything. 05:40 And the crew has actually grown. 05:44 One of the crew that was one of the original hires 05:46 moved down to Bangkok 05:48 because he had a girlfriend down there. 05:50 - Okay. 05:51 - And so, Cindy, her boyfriend, 05:54 had been helping out in the studio 05:56 and so we offered a job to him. 05:59 - Now, Cindy was the one that was a Christian 06:02 but not an Adventist. 06:03 - Correct. 06:04 - And had graduated with television broadcasting 06:06 - Exactly. - from a university. 06:08 - Right. - Okay. 06:09 - So, her boyfriend had been helping out in the studio. 06:11 He was Adventist, doesn't speak a word of English. 06:14 Maybe he knows Hello. 06:15 - Okay. 06:16 (laughs) 06:17 - But really nice guy, very musical. 06:19 His big dream was to get hired on in a big music company 06:23 because he's a guitar singer, musician. 06:26 Really, you know, top quality musician. 06:29 And so, at the same time that we offered him the job, 06:32 he got his dream job offer 06:34 from a big music production company 06:37 with a huge sign on bonus and everything. 06:40 And he prayed about it and thought about it 06:43 and decided, you know what, I wanna work for God. 06:46 So, he gave up the big income to work in our studio. 06:51 - Wow! Praise the Lord. 06:53 - Big time. - That's awesome. 06:54 - Yeah. 06:55 And while I was there, I got to watch Cindy get baptized. 06:59 - Wow. 07:00 - And then two weeks later, 07:01 I got to watch her and her boyfriend get married. 07:05 - Wow. 07:06 (laughs) 07:07 - So, even if the studio was built just for her, 07:11 it'd been worth it. 07:12 - Yeah. 07:13 - But it's doing so much more than that. 07:15 - Yeah. 07:17 - And now, our team has grown even more since then. 07:19 - Okay. 07:20 - So, here's our current team. 07:21 It's changed a bit and grown, 07:23 but these people work full time at our studio every day. 07:27 And they're turning out material 07:30 that's affecting thousands of people's lives. 07:32 In fact, our construction contractor, 07:35 he became more settled and really dedicated 07:39 because of the sermons that had been recorded and shared 07:43 and the bible studies that had been recorded and shared. 07:45 He'd watched them on his phone 07:47 and that had really settled him into the faith. 07:49 - Wow! 07:51 - Where he was an Adventist before, 07:52 but just not so sure about it, you know? 07:54 And so, now he's just like really on board and great guy. 07:58 - [Natalie] Wow! 07:59 - So, we see the fruit all the time. 08:00 - [Natalie] Yeah, yeah. 08:01 - [Jon] You know, this is Cindy's baptism. 08:03 Such a high day, you know, such a beautiful thing. 08:06 This doesn't happen very often 08:08 - [Natalie] Yeah. 08:09 - [Jon] in Thailand. 08:10 So, we're just really pleased for her. 08:11 After we finished the studio, 08:14 we came home and we showed the show on 3ABN 08:18 and one of our donors emailed us 08:21 and said, "How much did that studio cost?" 08:24 How much was the truck? 08:25 How much are the, everything included? 08:28 And so, we told them what the amount was 08:33 and they said, "We've been praying..." 08:36 This is the wife saying, 08:37 "I've been praying 08:38 that the Lord would develop some kind of income 08:41 that was not our normal flow, 08:44 not the normal way that we could use for God's work. 08:48 And it looks like he is providing that. 08:50 - Wow. 08:51 - And so, we have funds. 08:53 We would like to sponsor another studio." 08:56 - Wow. 08:57 (Jon laughs) 08:58 - But they says, "We're not sure we have it. 09:00 We think we have it. 09:01 Looks like it's gonna work. 09:02 But we will let you know as soon as we're sure." 09:05 And so, I went back to Thailand. 09:08 While I was stuck in quarantine for 10 days, 09:12 we got the message that it was coming. 09:15 - That funds were coming. 09:16 - [Jon] Yes. - Yeah. 09:17 - And so, I've been praying, 09:18 Lord, where do you want this second studio? 09:22 And my dream had always been 09:23 to have four or five studios in Thailand. 09:27 And people might wonder, 09:29 why do you have so many studios in one country? 09:31 Well, how many studios does Satan have? 09:33 - Yeah. That's true. 09:34 - You know, tons. 09:36 - Well, and how many languages are there in Thailand? 09:38 - Actually, there's about 73 languages 09:41 represented in Thailand. 09:43 73. So, I think there's room for many studios. 09:47 - Yeah. 09:48 - And a studio can only pour out so much content at once. 09:51 So, if you have multiple studios, 09:52 you get different flavors, 09:53 you get different shows, 09:55 you get different content. 09:56 And we have to build up a certain amount of library 09:58 before people start taking notice 10:00 that, oh, this stuff is out there 10:02 and oh, this is interesting, 10:03 oh, and I can listen to this and this is helpful. 10:06 - Right. And I can share it with my friends and my family. 10:08 - Exactly. All right. 10:10 And so, I started thinking about 10:12 I'd like another studio in Thailand, 10:14 but where would we put it? 10:15 Because, you have to have somebody that oversees it, 10:18 they can drive it, 10:19 they can keep it running 10:20 because I don't have time to be there full time, 10:22 although, I would love to. 10:24 (Jon laughs) 10:26 So, I thought of Travis Sharon. 10:31 He's the youngest son of Leroy and Lisa Sharon 10:34 who've been living there for over 12 years. 10:37 - Yeah. 10:39 - Travis knows the Karen language very well, fluently. 10:42 He's married. He just has a brand new baby boy. 10:46 And he and his wife are living up on the border 10:49 near Mae Sot. 10:51 - [Natalie] Okay. 10:52 - And so, I thought, maybe we should set this up in Mae Sot. 10:54 And so, I talked to Travis about it. 10:56 He says, you know, it's a really good idea. 10:57 We need to do this. 10:59 We can build a studio, but that takes six months to a year. 11:03 We gotta find the property, 11:04 we gotta find another contractor like Jack. 11:06 - Yeah. In that area of the country. 11:08 - So, what if we just buy a house? 11:10 But the big problem is that all the houses in Thailand 11:13 are built on the four meter or the 12 foot square template. 11:19 So, even if you have a huge house, 11:21 all the rooms in there are like 12 feet wide. 11:23 - Or multiples of 12 with columns in them. 11:26 - Exactly. - 12 Feet. 11:27 - That's just annoying 11:28 because it's not quite big enough 11:29 to set up cameras. 11:31 - Right. 11:33 Because you don't get the right angle. 11:34 - [Jon] Yeah. 11:35 - There's always gonna be a column in one of your angles. 11:37 - Exactly. 11:38 So Lord, please help us find a house that's big enough 11:42 that we can start production in right away. 11:44 But how's a piece of land 11:46 that we can then build a regular size studio room 11:50 when we need to, 11:52 but we wanna start producing right away. 11:54 And so, Travis started looking with his family 11:56 all over the place. 11:57 So, I finally get out of quarantine on a Monday, 12:00 drive up there, 12:01 we see one house Monday evening. 12:03 Tuesday morning, we see four other houses. 12:05 And then, we look at this house. 12:08 Okay. 12:09 And we toured that house 12:10 and one wing of that house on the far side 12:14 is actually five meters wide. 12:16 So, 15 feet wide. 12:18 And it had a room just big enough 12:20 that we could actually start production right away. 12:22 - [Natalie] Wow. 12:23 - And so, we bought it 12:25 - Wow. 12:27 - that afternoon, we signed the papers. 12:28 - Wow. 12:29 - And then, that's like, okay, we have another studio, 12:32 who's gonna run it? 12:35 It can't be just Travis by himself. 12:36 - Right. 12:38 - You know, his son is a little too young. 12:39 Six months. 12:40 - Yeah. He can't run camera yet. 12:41 - Not yet. 12:43 Give him a couple of years. 12:44 - Yeah. 12:45 - And his wife's busy with... 12:46 So, it's like, where are we gonna find a team 12:48 to run the studio? 12:50 But we just move forward by faith 12:51 knowing that if God was leading, he would provide. 12:54 - Right. 12:55 - So, then GOP calls his friend 12:56 who is running a prayer ministry virtually, online, 13:01 and she gives us a list of names and contacts them 13:04 and says, hey, we're all gonna meet here at this one place 13:07 at this one time. 13:08 And so, I drive down there and I sit there 13:10 and I meet these people. 13:11 They were fantastic. 13:13 - [Natalie] Wow. 13:14 - [Jon] Some of them we couldn't hire 13:15 because of their immigration status. 13:17 - [Natalie] Right. 13:18 - But some of them we could. 13:19 And so, we hired a team. 13:21 - Wow. 13:22 - And so we have a team. 13:24 It's like some of these people are just so excited 13:26 and I'm so excited, I'm like, Lord, you're really leading. 13:29 Okay. So, now we need cameras. 13:32 We need computers. 13:34 There's some cameras at the original studio. 13:35 I had brought cameras for them. 13:37 And so, we got the old cameras 13:39 and brought them to this studio, 13:40 and we need computers. 13:42 And so, I looked and sure enough 13:43 there's an Apple store in Bangkok. 13:46 So, I hop in the car 13:47 and I drive all the way down to Bangkok 13:49 and I go into this store 13:51 and I was a very popular man 13:54 (Natalie laughs) 13:55 when I bought five iMacs. 13:57 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 13:58 - Yeah. 14:00 - And I hauled it back up to Mae Sot 14:02 and we scheduled a training session 14:04 and we did a full week of training. 14:06 Basically, three college courses in four days. 14:10 Taught them lighting, taught them camera, 14:11 how to run the camera, how to do exposure, 14:14 how to do color balance, 14:16 and then how to edit, how to do graphics, 14:17 how to design a show, 14:19 audio, all that stuff in one week. 14:23 And you can see the team just working feverishly, 14:25 trying to figure out now was much more difficult 14:28 because we have three languages. 14:29 - [Natalie] Right. 14:30 - I would speak in English 14:31 and then Travis would translate into Karen 14:33 and then somebody else would translate into Thai 14:35 and then somebody else would translate into Burmese 14:37 from the Thai. 14:38 - Wow. 14:39 (Jon laughs) 14:41 - One statement would take three iterations 14:42 to get through, 14:44 and still, they stuck with it all week long 14:46 and they didn't give up 14:47 and they just really pursued this. 14:48 And I just got the sense 14:50 that they really wanted to serve God 14:51 but they didn't know how. 14:53 - Right. 14:54 - They didn't have the right skills 14:55 or they didn't know the right people 14:56 to get hired to serve God full time. 14:58 And this job gave them that opportunity. 15:01 - Wow. 15:02 - And it just really fed their souls. 15:03 Their favorite time of every single day was worship. 15:08 And so, I would get in there 15:09 and we'd start at eight o'clock in the morning with worship 15:12 and I would say, Okay, we're gonna go 20 minutes. 15:15 Around nine o'clock, 15:17 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 15:19 we'd start wrapping up 15:20 because they were so into it. 15:21 You know, it's like we take for granted 15:23 so much of the gospel, 15:24 so much knowledge of the Bible. 15:26 But you go to these other places, 15:28 they don't have those kinds of insights 15:30 that have been developed 15:32 over the course of, you know, 15:33 centuries of living in a Christian country, 15:36 Christian worldview. 15:38 You go into some of the basics about the gospel 15:41 and who God is 15:42 and how he sees us 15:43 and what's his plan for us. 15:45 Just eating it up. It just feeds our soul. 15:48 - That's awesome. 15:49 - At the end of three weeks, 15:51 we did our first filming. 15:53 This was a Friday 15:54 and our first filming was done in Thai. 15:57 - Okay. 15:59 - [Jon] Our first filming was done in Karen. 16:02 - [Natalie] Okay. 16:03 - [Jon] And then, our first filming was done in Burmese. 16:05 - [Natalie] Wow. 16:07 - So, we went from nothing, from no... 16:08 - No facility. 16:09 - No studio, 16:11 no team, 16:12 no equipment 16:14 except, you know, the used stuff, 16:16 to a studio, 16:18 a team, 16:19 doing their own production, 16:21 filming in three weeks. 16:24 Three weeks from zero to production. 16:26 - That is insane. 16:28 That is totally a God thing. 16:30 That's why we said 16:31 this is miracle after miracle after miracle. 16:33 - Yes. 16:34 - Because it was a miracle that you found that house 16:37 - Yes. 16:38 - that it was wide enough. 16:39 - Yes. 16:40 - It was a miracle 16:41 that he helped you to get the equipment. 16:42 It was a miracle that he provided the workers. 16:44 - Yes. 16:45 - Their heart to serve him is a miracle. 16:47 - Yes. 16:48 - Yeah. (Jon laughs) 16:49 So many beautiful miracles. 16:50 - One miracle after another. 16:51 - Yeah. (Jon and Natalie laughs) 16:53 - And so, this is our team. 16:54 On the left is Travis and his wife, Becky, 16:57 and their brand new baby boy, Judson. 16:59 He's such a sweetheart. 17:01 - Cutie. 17:02 - And next to them is Tiku. 17:04 He speaks Burmese. 17:06 And then, there is in the front, Pado, 17:09 and her husband in the back, is Jay. 17:11 He speaks Thai. 17:13 And then, to his left, in the front row, is Jasmine. 17:17 She speaks Karen. 17:18 Behind her is Tutu, 17:21 and the girl in the front is Momo 17:23 and the one behind her is Week. 17:25 And the young man on the far right is named Ocean. 17:29 - Okay. - Okay. 17:30 So, he speaks excellent Thai. 17:31 He's fully Thai as well as Jay. 17:34 He and Jay are full Thai, 17:35 which is very unusual. 17:37 - Right. 17:38 - Still, their daily routine is 17:40 first thing in the morning, 17:41 they dig into the word. 17:43 This feeds the whole program. 17:46 - Right. 17:47 It keeps it on track. 17:49 - [Jon] Yes. - It encourages them. 17:50 - [Jon] Yeah. 17:51 - It gives them the spirit connection 17:52 that they need to listen to God 17:54 to do the shows the the way he wants. 17:56 - Absolutely. Absolutely. 17:58 And same with our team in the first studio. 18:01 - [Natalie] Right. 18:02 - They do a daily morning devotional. 18:04 - Yeah. (Jon laughs) 18:05 That's awesome. 18:06 - So, now we have a little video 18:07 that was shot while I was there 18:09 to show you a little bit more about what's happening 18:11 and what it looks like. 18:12 - Okay. 18:14 (dramatic music) 18:20 - We are here in Mae Sot, Thailand, 18:22 and the Lord has just provided us 18:25 a brand new to us house 18:28 in which we can start doing video production. 18:31 This particular city is a unique city. 18:33 It's a border town. 18:35 And so, it can potentially reach into Myanmar 18:39 through Karen and Burmese languages 18:41 and we have people here 18:42 that we're hiring that speak those languages 18:46 and we're looking into satellite distribution 18:50 so that we can get up onto the satellite 18:52 and a lot of places 18:54 that don't really have good access to the internet 18:57 and stuff, 18:59 they have dishes, they can start watching. 19:00 (dramatic music) 19:03 Our target audience is Thai, Burmese, Karen. 19:06 There's two kinds of Karen, S'gaw Karen and Pwo Karen. 19:10 So, that's what we're gonna be working on. 19:12 And the Lord's brought a really interesting mixture 19:15 of people here 19:16 with each of those language abilities. 19:22 We hired a young man and his wife. 19:25 He's from central Thailand. 19:28 There's very few Adventists from central Thailand. 19:32 Most of the congregation in the Adventist church in Thailand 19:35 is the minority. 19:36 The hill tribes on the border up in the north, 19:40 very, very few actual central Thai. 19:43 What that means is majority people group. 19:46 Very few of them are actually believers. 19:48 And I was talking to him 19:50 as we were going out 19:51 purchasing equipment for the studio yesterday. 19:54 He is so excited 19:57 to be able to serve God with his life. 19:59 (speaking in foreign language) 21:09 (dramatic music) 21:12 - That is so amazing 21:13 to have somebody like that 21:15 to be able to reach the central Thai, 21:17 which is our major target group, 21:20 really, because there's so little work that's being done 21:23 and has been done. 21:24 It's not very successful. 21:26 The central Thai are very satisfied 21:28 with the religion that they have 21:29 and the life that they have. 21:30 They're not looking for anything else. 21:32 And so, to have somebody that understands who Jesus is 21:35 and is excited about him, 21:37 this whole project, just for that one person, 21:40 it's really worth it. 21:41 And I'm excited to see what God's gonna do through him 21:44 to reach more Thai 21:46 that are unaware of their deep need 21:50 and love of their father. 21:53 (soft music) 22:01 - That's Jay. 22:03 I mean, when I was talking to him... 22:05 He doesn't speak any English at all 22:06 and I don't speak any Thai, 22:08 so it was a Google translate talk. 22:10 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 22:11 And he was saying 22:12 that his heart was beating out of his chest, 22:14 just going like this. 22:15 - He was so excited. - So excited. 22:16 He couldn't sleep all night. 22:17 - [Natalie] Wow. 22:19 - And he couldn't eat food all day 22:20 just because he was so excited to be serving God. 22:23 Now, he had a good regular, steady job 22:26 at a big cable installation, 22:28 fiber optic cable is what he was installing. 22:31 You know, real stable job. 22:32 And he was very happy to give that all up. 22:36 - Wow. 22:37 You know, when these guys, when we first interviewed them 22:39 and you know, things were just coming together, 22:41 I was like, 22:43 well, are you guys interested in doing this job? 22:44 This is how much we're gonna pay you. 22:45 It's not a lot. 22:47 But they're all like, yeah, let's do it. 22:50 I was thinking we'd hire two or three, 22:53 we had a budget for four, 22:54 so I thought we'd hire four maximum, 22:57 and here we go, hiring seven. 23:00 But they're all, even from the beginning until now, 23:03 they're all there working and we added one more. 23:06 - Wow. 23:07 - And Leroy Sharon, 23:08 who's been there for, you know, over 12 years, 23:10 he says, "Man, I've been trying 23:11 for the last three and a half years 23:13 to hire just one or two good workers 23:16 and I've really struggled finding them. 23:19 And you come in and you hire six or seven right off the bat. 23:22 How do you do it?" 23:23 (laughs) 23:25 - [Natalie] Only by the grace of God. 23:26 - By the grace of God. He knows... 23:27 - [Natalie] A lot of prayer. 23:28 - Yes. - God provides. 23:30 - Yes. 23:31 And they see the vision, you know. 23:32 - Right. - The vision. 23:33 And they see God moving. 23:34 We just praise God for what he's done. 23:36 - Yeah. 23:38 - The team is still working as we speak day after day, 23:40 just plugging away, putting programs out there. 23:43 Their Facebook and YouTube following 23:45 is just growing by leaps and bounds. 23:47 There are over 5,000. 23:48 I mean, it's just amazing what they're doing. 23:51 - Yeah. 23:52 - [Jon] And they've just begun. 23:53 - Wow. 23:54 - We're still looking for a satellite. 23:55 The laws there are rather restrictive. 23:57 And the first bid we got was like 15,000 a month. 24:01 And so, we're still looking for other options. 24:04 - Well, at least right now, they can have things on YouTube. 24:07 - [Jon] Yeah. 24:07 - You know, that's still open. 24:08 - Yeah. 24:10 - So, they're putting their programs on YouTube 24:11 all the time. 24:12 - Yeah, yeah. 24:13 I met somebody from the Arakan tribe. 24:15 Her and her families, 24:16 like the only Adventist in the hood entire tribe. 24:18 - Wow. 24:19 - So, record her 24:20 and let's get this out there in their language. 24:22 And so this is the potential 24:25 of this medium. 24:27 It's just so powerful. 24:28 - Right. 24:29 - And then, guess what happened? 24:31 - I don't know. You know, maybe another miracle. 24:34 - Yep. 24:35 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 24:37 - When we came home, 24:38 that same donor says, 24:39 "The Lord has blessed us, we wanna do another studio." 24:43 - Wow. 24:44 - So, now we're praying and can't wait to get back to Asia 24:48 to plant another studio. 24:49 - Wow. 24:50 (Jon laughs) 24:52 Yeah. That's really opposite of what normally happens to us. 24:54 - Yeah. 24:55 - Normally, God gives an idea 24:56 and then we have to pray and pray 24:58 and plan and plan and pray and pray. 25:00 And the funds come in over time. 25:03 Well, sometimes we stress, sometimes we don't. 25:05 We just have to pray a lot. 25:07 Like, Lord, you gave us this idea, 25:09 is this really your will? 25:10 - Right. 25:11 - Because there's no funds for it, 25:12 but then the funds slowly come in. 25:13 But this time, it was opposite 25:15 that you had the funds first 25:16 and then you were like, 25:18 I gotta be a good steward with these, 25:19 you know, we can't take for granted 25:21 that we have enough money 25:22 because everything's gonna cost more than we think it will. 25:25 - Right, Right. 25:26 So, it was a different kind of stress. 25:27 - Right. 25:28 - I don't wanna blow it, you know. 25:29 - Right. Right. 25:30 - But the Lord just led so clearly every step of the way. 25:34 It felt like it was taking forever, 25:36 but when it was all done and they were filming 25:39 and they were on their own, 25:41 I'm looking back thinking, that all happened in three weeks. 25:45 - Right. 25:46 - From nothing to studio in three weeks. 25:47 - Right. 25:49 And in reality, from receiving the donation here 25:51 until studio or production was about a month. 25:55 - Yeah. 25:56 - So, it wasn't very long. 25:58 We got the money just before we had to pay for the house. 26:02 - And usually, that's the amount of time it takes 26:04 for the previous owner to move out of the house. 26:07 - Right. They also moved out really fast. 26:09 - [Jon] Yeah. In about a week. 26:10 - Yeah. Which is highly unusual. 26:12 - So, it was just a miracle all the way around 26:16 and just the way things came together. 26:18 I just love that area, 26:21 love Mae Sat, 26:22 love Travis and we're so thankful for him. 26:25 The value of long term missionary, it was so clear. 26:31 I'm not worried about him wanting to come back to the states 26:34 or him getting tired. 26:35 - Or you mean the project in the middle. 26:36 - Or getting caught up with, you know, culture shock. 26:42 He's been there long enough, he's got no culture shock. 26:44 He's not planning on leaving the country 26:47 to return back to the states. 26:48 He's, you know, solid and we've known him for so long. 26:53 - Yeah. - It's just a fantastic, 26:55 just the way God put this all together is perfect. 26:58 - Yeah. Just miracle upon miracle upon miracle. 27:01 - Yep. - Wow. 27:02 - For the sake of his kingdom. 27:03 - Yeah. 27:04 Well, it has been an encouraging show to me. 27:08 I always love hearing the stories of what God is doing. 27:10 And when he does story upon story upon story like that, 27:13 miracle upon miracle, 27:14 it's just so awe-inspiring 27:17 and it makes you wonder what more God would do 27:20 if we said yes every time. 27:21 - That's fantastic. 27:23 - [Natalie] Yeah. (Jon laughs) 27:23 - Well, God is good. 27:24 - Amen. All the time. 27:26 (Jon and Natalie laughs) 27:27 - Well, I would like to invite you 27:28 to pray for these teams there, 27:30 that the materials they produce 27:33 will lead people to Christ, 27:35 to the one who loves them and gave his life for them, 27:38 and that they will be saved for eternity 27:40 and we will get to meet them there. 27:42 If you would also like to be a part of providing financially 27:46 for any of this television work, 27:47 please contact us at Jesus for Asia, PO Box 1221, 27:52 Collegedale, Tennessee, 37315. 27:56 Call us at (423)413-7321 28:00 or visit our website at www.jesus4asia.org. 28:04 May God richly bless you 28:06 until we see you next time 28:07 on Jesus for Asia Now. 28:10 (dramatic music) |
Revised 2022-10-25