Participants: Jeff Reich
Series Code: LM
Program Code: LM000137S
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01:16 On this program we will be in the city of Chennai
01:19 in the Southern part of India. 01:28 All the years I've been to India about 18-19 years now. 01:32 I've see a lot of changes, 01:33 you know, there's lot of people walking around 01:35 with real modern looking cell phones 01:37 and lot more nicer cars, 01:38 the old taxes have gone from little old yellow taxes 01:42 to more modern cars. 01:44 You know there's just lot of changes 01:45 that you see here but at the same 01:47 there is still a lot of old Indian left. 01:49 I mean, auto rickshaws 01:50 with smoke building up from behind, 01:52 the vendors out on the streets, 01:54 the noise and the pollution, 01:56 people on the streets begging and sleeping on the sidewalk. 01:59 All those kind of things have stayed with India. 02:02 This is a Sunday morning 02:03 and they are cooking some breakfast 02:05 and this is pretty traditional in India, 02:07 you go different places even the major cities, 02:09 they are cooking different kinds of foods. 02:11 And what are these? 02:13 Vada, Vada. 02:14 Vada? Vada. 02:15 So different kind of vada, 02:17 it's like a breakfast kind of with chilies in it 02:19 and we have these kind of like pancakes. 02:21 What are these called here? 02:22 Dosa. Dosa. 02:24 I know what dosa is. 02:25 It's good, yeah. 02:27 And then have some hot oil here with they cook it? 02:31 I personally never eat at these kind of places 02:33 because you never know what could happen, 02:34 you know, short term and long term precautions. 02:45 One thing here in India 02:46 you can get a really great assortment of fresh fruit. 02:48 We're eating for breakfast like pomegranates 02:50 and oranges and the papaya, bananas. 02:57 I take some-- some bananas. 02:58 Three. Three? 03:00 Three? 03:02 Yeah, three and maybe four of these. 03:06 Four? Four. 03:08 Apple. No, no. 03:09 Is it four, is it three? 03:11 Three. 03:12 How much? 03:14 Three 10 rupees. Four 30 rupees. 03:18 Okay. 03:20 Three 10 rupees, 30 rupees. 03:22 Certainly 30 rupees. 03:26 Here you go. 03:35 You always have to bargain a little bit. 03:49 On many of the coastal areas of India men fish for a living. 03:53 Many of them still do it very similar to the way 03:55 fishermen did it back in Christ days. 04:19 The men take their nets on to the sea 04:21 by the use of the simple boat. 04:23 They make a giant loop out in the bag 04:25 bring the net around full circle. 04:30 Men on both ends of the net 04:31 start to labor it fast by pulling the net in. 04:44 You see the one man out in center, 04:46 he is trying to scare the fish into the net. 04:56 This catch was pretty disappointing 04:58 yet there is another kind of fishing being done in India. 05:02 These fishermen reminded me 05:03 of when Christ spoke to His disciples telling them, 05:06 "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." 05:12 In India, our fishing for men has been blessed 05:15 as we employed 24 Bible workers 05:17 to go into the streets of Chennai 05:19 looking for people to pray with and to open the Word of God too. 05:24 They make friends with a lot of people 05:26 and often get invited into educated 05:28 and high caste Indian homes. 05:32 Such was a case with this gated community. 05:35 They usually go two by two, 05:37 but today there having a special group Bible study at this home. 05:48 Before we begin any series of meetings, 05:50 our Bible workers go and do the ground work 05:53 and even for the television ministry 05:56 this has been a great help. 05:58 When they visit homes they meet many people 06:00 who watch our TV program 06:02 and it is easy for them to invite them for our meetings. 06:07 Southern part of Chennai 06:09 is a kind of high class people live. 06:12 So our ministry our Bible worker 06:15 mostly focus on the Southern part of Chennai. 06:19 We do ground work and it is not a one person giving baptism, 06:25 it is a collective baptism. 06:28 Our Bible study through the Bible workers 06:31 and the supervisors of our pastors 06:35 and then I will supervise, 06:37 then Pastor Shadrach will go and hold a meeting. 06:43 Now Bible workers 06:45 they do a lot of work to follow our program. 06:48 They go visit homes and they do the follow up, 06:51 encouraging them to keep coming to the church. 06:56 We had 17 meeting total, out of 17, 07:02 five major evangelistic meeting 07:06 in un-entered territory, 07:10 never heard the name of Jesus. 07:13 Out of 17 meetings 07:15 we were able to plan five new congregation. 07:20 In Laymen Ministry we won't give baptism like that, 07:24 our Bible study through the Bible workers 07:28 and the supervisors of our pastors, 07:31 so it is not just name sake baptism. 07:47 How many Bible workers right now? 07:48 They are 22. 07:50 Twenty two. 07:51 Jeeva. Jeeva. 07:53 Emily. Emily. 07:56 This is Emily. 07:58 This is his team. 08:00 We need to be able the have words of life. 08:04 ( speaking in foreign language ) 08:07 And that's what we're doing is, 08:08 in this work that we do is Bible workers as pastors. 08:11 ( speaking in foreign language ) 08:15 To bring a life to people. 08:20 I want to hear some experiences from last week. 08:27 ( speaking in foreign language ) 08:50 What's happening here is that, 08:52 while they are talking in Tamil 08:53 the Bible workers are explaining about 08:55 some of the different experiences 08:56 they've had like this past week. 08:58 When I come to countries like India, 09:00 we have Bible workers. 09:01 I like to understand 09:03 what's actually happening in their lives 09:05 and what some of the experiences are that they 09:07 and the challenges they face every day 09:08 when I go out. 09:09 And it's kind of a blessing, 09:11 listening to some of the stories 09:12 the just things that happened this past week. 09:22 Each one of the Bible workers has full file 09:25 where they keep kind of like a folder 09:26 with all their information. 09:28 This is like a yearly report and you can see like here, 09:32 this one Bible worker in January, 09:34 she worked 28 days in January, 09:36 she visited 290 homes and then signs that. 09:40 Each one of the Bible workers has a sheet like this 09:43 so that we keep track of exactly 09:45 what they are doing in their work, 09:46 how many homes they visit, 09:47 how many baptisms they actually have that month 09:50 and how many new churches were started 09:52 and new church members, 09:54 number of new church. 09:55 What is this mean number of new church here? 09:58 Here church of planting. 10:00 Church planted, that's like a how many new church, 10:03 one church is planted in January there, 10:06 and church planted that means 10:08 like a new group of people happen to study. 10:09 New group of people, yeah. 10:10 Okay. 10:12 From 2001 our role is a kind of in 95-2000 10:18 we were publishing, equipping lay people, 10:23 kind of preparing a ground. 10:25 In 2001 we started a television program, 10:29 then we are not only preaching in the TV 10:34 but mostly what we did is, 10:38 we preached so the seeding the TV through TV 10:43 then Bible workers, 24 active Bible workers, 10:47 not only Bible workers 10:48 we have some pastors supervising the Bible workers. 10:53 So my point is here the television evangelism, 10:58 Bible worker, then the evangelistic meeting, 11:01 then-- after the evangelistic meeting then follow of work 11:06 and nurturing and after the nurturing 11:09 it's buying a property, then building a church. 11:15 It's a Laymen Ministry evangelism, 11:18 it's not the only a television 11:21 but it is completely the package of the evangelism. 11:31 Since we have a center, 11:33 previously we don't have a place to store the book, 11:36 some time we will put it in the church 11:38 some time we will put it in the conference office, 11:40 some time we will send somewhere people come they take, 11:43 you will ask the record, we will not have a record 11:46 but now we can store as much as we print. 11:52 Even if you print one million we have a place now. 11:55 So right now we don't have Steps to Christ, 11:59 people are asking. 12:01 From France, Sri Lanka, Malaysia 12:05 released Desire of Ages, Great Controversy. 12:09 There are few books available now 12:12 but we have to print very urgently Steps to Christ, 12:17 Great Controversy, Desire of Ages 12:21 and Bible study lesson. 12:26 In Kerala in South India, 12:28 there is what is called backwaters. 12:35 This is a popular place 12:36 for newly weds to go to for honeymoons. 12:39 Yes there are hotels located on the water in some places. 12:53 These areas are teaming with bird singing their songs. 13:12 Along with shores of the water 13:13 where we came up on an elephant having his morning bath. 13:17 The elephant seems to be truly enjoying the scrub down. 13:28 This morning we're gonna go buy some things for the studio. 13:31 We're gonna take an auto rickshaw. 13:32 They called an auto rickshaw 13:34 because when they started putting motors in them 13:36 they started being like automatic rickshaws 13:38 because the old ones were like peddle rickshaws, 13:40 they got peddling them or even the old ones 13:42 were driven by a guy with two sticks. 13:44 This is definitely one of the best ways 13:46 to get around in India. 14:23 These autos are really great for getting in around traffic, 14:26 but get next to these big buses the dust comes rolling off 14:29 of all the exhaust fumes come inside of them. 14:31 By the end of the day you're not only exhausted 14:34 but you just covered with dirt and you take a shower 14:37 and you can see the black just rolling off the body. 14:58 Hi, nice to meet you, sir. 15:00 Here is Mr. Joseph. 15:02 Hi. Nice to meet you, sir. 15:04 And he is a one of-- he is born in Christian 15:09 and but in India he is producing unique studio lighting 15:17 and he is a graduate in the film industry. 15:20 So he entered into the lighting manufacturing place. 15:25 Well, I'm in his showroom with JAYA we are enquiring, 15:31 what kind of light we can have it in our new studio? 15:39 We were happy that this gentleman 15:41 gave us a great discount on studio lightening. 15:44 Shopping in India is a big different 15:46 than shopping in the lot of other countries 15:48 around the world. 15:49 For instance we needed some computer monitors 15:52 for one of our editing systems, 15:54 we were able to negotiate the price 15:56 then they dug around in a pile of boxes 15:59 till they found the monitors we bought. 16:10 Think I need to go get my lungs cleaned 16:11 out after that but I'm really glade that 16:13 we built a studio out in country and followed the council. 16:16 We are in the fresh air 16:17 and get away from all the noises of the city. 16:25 We're here in the hotel room in Chennai. 16:26 Right now we're actually going to take the computer out 16:29 and test it everything here first. 16:32 So this is a Mac Pro. 16:34 It's a quad core with a couple of graphic cards in it. 16:37 It's actually our old editing system 16:39 that we've used here at the last several missions videos with. 16:42 So actually we have a new system now 16:44 as we brought this one over here 16:46 for them to use in the new TV studio. 16:56 There are two new monitors. 16:59 We didn't bring these are from the States, 17:00 we just brought these 17:02 here to use with the new editing system. 17:15 Yeah, it will work fine. 17:19 We're on a way to the dedication 17:20 of our new television studio and training centre. 17:24 Here in India dedication is really a big thing 17:26 so it's gonna be interesting 17:27 and see what's gonna happen here. 17:28 And sometime I'm little uncomfortable 17:31 with too much popping ceremony 17:33 but the main thing I'm more interested in this 17:36 as this building will be used to glorify God 17:38 and just to show appreciation for everybody 17:40 that's been involved with allowing this to happen. 17:47 We arrived early for studio's training centre dedication. 17:51 This gave us sometime to visit with some of the people 17:53 who helping put the event together. 18:00 It is such a blessing that 18:02 this facility can be located out in country 18:04 and as I said in the car in India 18:07 they make a pretty big deal 18:08 out of a dedication service like this. 18:24 As the sun started to set the dedication service began. 18:29 In attendance was R. John's 18:31 with Southern Asian division president 18:32 who drove some four hours one way to attend the ceremony. 18:37 There was also the union secretary, 18:39 conference president 18:40 and many other people from the church. 18:43 Everything started 18:44 with the marching pathfinder band 18:46 then the various ribbon cutting ceremonies began. 18:49 ( speaking in foreign language ) 19:06 And I give short blessing as they open this, 19:10 the God let you bless the leadership professor Johnson 19:12 and the others who are connected to this. 19:15 May God bless us. 19:23 I opened the old center of our. 19:26 It's such a privilege to belong to here. 19:28 ( singing in foreign language ) 19:40 R. John's the division president 19:42 unveiled the dedication plaque for the building. 19:48 Thank you for all those that are attending here today 19:50 and we ask that you are blessed each one of them 19:52 in the special way. 19:54 And Lord, we just want to dedicate this building 19:55 to Your glory and to be used for Your work. 19:58 In Christ name, amen. 19:59 Amen. 20:11 ( speaking in foreign language ) 20:16 I'm a local conference president. 20:18 Nice to meet you. Yeah. 20:20 You have been involved with the lot of the work here 20:22 in this area 20:23 and we appreciate your work very much. 20:43 ( speaking in foreign language ) 20:58 I could tell this was going to be a long ceremony. 21:01 Even though I'm not much for these kinds of things, 21:03 I do appreciate the fact 21:04 that our ministry in India is appreciated. 21:08 ( speaking in foreign language ) 21:38 You're pioneer you're in supporting team ministry, 21:41 the person three of, 21:43 you go three the great inspiration 21:46 you are to all the laymen of our church, 21:48 the commitment member like you we can't search. 21:56 ( speaking in foreign language ) 22:25 A few months later we were back at the studio 22:27 delivering some new video production here. 22:35 For our two studio techs it was like Christmas 22:37 as they open the packages we brought. 22:40 We had a new HD video switcher 22:42 and some other gear to make video shoots easier. 22:48 It was real blessing to see 22:49 how the studio went from an empty concrete shell 22:52 to a fully functioning television studio. 22:56 The workers here are fully committed 22:58 to producing quality programs for television broadcast. 23:03 I'm Christo Samuel 23:05 working here as a graphic designer 23:07 and taking in charge of this studio. 23:09 I have been working here for like five months 23:13 from September till now. 23:15 This is the list of programs 23:16 that would be recorded on the year 2013 and 2014. 23:21 We could able to finish 23:22 like 76 programs on the year 2013 23:25 and till now on 2014 23:27 we could able to finish 28 programs. 23:30 My name is George Washington 23:32 and I'm involved in editing of this Laymen Ministries studio 23:36 and I'm taking care of camera work too. 23:40 This is actually our inventory list. 23:42 We have five rooms totally in our studio. 23:49 One is the main studio and this is the control room 23:52 and we have the editing studio 23:54 and top we have the bookstore 23:57 and the reception and everything. 23:59 So this is the total inventory system of the full equipments 24:03 that is available in the studio 24:05 and this control room and everything. 24:07 We are in nine different television network. 24:13 We are in JAYA TV. 24:15 JAYA TV its going around the world, 24:18 Alaska to Australia everywhere 24:22 and the potential audience is 95 million people. 24:27 Then we are in Tamilan Network. 24:30 In Tamilan Network the potential audience is 12 million people. 24:35 It mostly reaches in major cities of Tamil Nadu 24:39 and Middle East one country. 24:42 The next day Christo and Washington 24:44 wanted to show us a newly installed 24:46 HD videos switcher in our main control room. 24:49 They were getting ready to start recording 24:51 more programs that next week. 24:53 We're thankful that people 24:55 like you have made these purchases possible. 24:57 We've come a long way from way back in 2001 25:01 when we first started our television ministry. 25:03 We often rented studios using older antiquated equipment 25:07 and we were always at the mercy of those 25:09 who own the studio. 25:11 We praise God that in 2011 25:13 we brought ground for, 25:14 and started building our own studio. 25:17 Very quickly the building took shape 25:19 as well as the church behind our center 25:21 to be used for worship services and for training seminars. 25:24 Security walls went up and a white sealer coat 25:27 was applied to our building. 25:28 Today by God's grace 25:30 we have our own television production facility. 25:32 Pastor Johnson reflects on how our TV ministry started. 25:36 We were thinking about starting a TV program 25:41 because in India TV program means 25:46 a Christian television program, people like it. 25:50 Every religion, people like it. 25:53 So we wanted to start a television program very badly. 25:59 That day you came to one of our church member home. 26:04 So we all met them and it was a day 26:08 that we were sharing about you 26:10 that we want to have start a television program. 26:13 That was a first visit, first I mean, lot of visit, 26:19 it's as first meeting point between you and me 26:22 and they were two three church members out there, 26:25 they were talking about me to you 26:28 and you were convinced. 26:30 I feel its kind of Holy Spirit. 26:33 So that's a point in 2001 January 26:37 after Elder Mark Finley at 2000 meeting 26:41 it was a historical day for the India, 26:44 pioneering of television program in India 26:48 through Laymen Ministry. 26:50 In the television ministry 26:52 we have started it in the whole land of India. 26:56 This Laymen Ministry that started and it is growing 27:00 and we would certainly want to thank 27:02 all our donors for their great sacrifice and help 27:07 reaching out to millions and millions of people 27:10 in this great land of India. 27:43 Laymen Ministries had been working in India 27:45 for over 20 years. 27:47 We have seen our God has touched the lives 27:49 and hearts of thousands across India. 27:52 If you would like to help this ministries 27:54 contact us at this address. 27:56 You can also donate online at lmn.org. |
Revised 2024-07-08