Participants:
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000987
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01:21 Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
01:29 Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; 01:38 Weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen, 01:47 Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. 01:55 Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, 02:11 Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. 02:32 Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting, 02:40 Waiting the penitent child to receive; 02:48 Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently; 02:56 He will forgive if they only believe. 03:43 Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, 04:00 Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. 04:18 Someone is out there, looking for the reason, 04:34 Someone is trying to find a way to pull 04:41 to be the one to be with Lord. 04:52 Rescue the perishing, duty demands it; 04:59 Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide; 05:07 Back to the narrow way patiently win them; 05:15 Tell the poor wand'rer a Savior has died. 05:50 Good evening to ASI family. Good evening. 05:53 It is my distinct and real privilege to invite to ASI 05:59 tonight my friend Bill Knott who is presently 06:03 serving as editor of the Adventist Review. 06:07 We are grateful for his service and he has the 06:13 privilege also on Sabbath evening of bringing our 06:16 key note address but tonight we are going to 06:18 talk about the Adventist Review. 06:21 And Bill can I ask you some questions? 06:22 You may in fact. The Adventist Review is 06:25 one of the longest published papers in the 06:28 Adventist Church. What role has it played 06:30 as the church has developed? 06:33 I was trying to describe not long ago the role of 06:36 the Adventist Review as sort of being the center 06:39 pole of the Adventist Church for the last 161 06:42 years, it's where you go to get the best information 06:46 to get doctrinal materials, to read about mission. 06:49 It's a place of gathering and always has been in 06:51 the life of the church we see ourselves as 06:54 committed to the central cord, not only of the 06:56 teaching of Adventism, but of the people of 06:58 Adventism. My wife and I happen to 07:00 have the privilege of being at GC a few weeks 07:03 ago and every morning when we came down the 07:07 long walk way from the hotel to the meeting. 07:10 There would be young folks handing out flyers, 07:12 that showed us what happened and most of the 07:15 days there was a new edition of the 07:16 Adventist Review. How in the world did you 07:19 manage that logistically? Well that way, that's one 07:22 of the things we spend five years 07:23 getting ready to do. When you try to turn out 07:25 a 32 page four color magazine every 24 hours 07:29 for about 8 days. The challenge is especially 07:31 when you're publishing house is about 700 miles 07:34 away are events. Everyday we would 07:37 send the content digitally to Hagerstown, Maryland 07:39 under the Review and Herald Publishing 07:40 Association about 6:00 pm. They would plate it 07:44 and print it and bind it and box it and put it on a 07:46 private charter plane by 2:30 in the morning in 07:50 Hagerstown. It would arrive in Atlanta at 5:00 07:52 and it was sitting on the table of the steering 07:55 committee by 6:30 am and we walked in for 07:57 breakfast. I have to admit that was one of those 08:00 moments that a huge team of people contributed to. 08:04 I have said and I will say again publicly, 08:07 an enormous thanks to the good folks at the Review 08:09 and Herald. Who made that possible by 08:11 literally staying up all night. 08:13 Now, I believe you're rolling out some of those 08:15 issues to regular subscribers aren't you 08:17 too? I think I have seen them in the mail. 08:19 In fact, all eight special daily bulletins are in 08:22 addition to the normal 36 that you get in 08:25 annual subscription in 2010 and in every GC year 08:29 Now, Bill you are an editor right? Yes, and that 08:32 means you make some decisions. 08:35 Do you print everything that comes to you or 08:37 you exert some kind of editorial prerogative? 08:40 I don't want to discourage people by giving away 08:42 the actual percentage of what we print or what 08:44 comes in the mail. But, I can tell you that 08:46 we would look at every article with the point of 08:49 view that asks how will this build up God's people? 08:52 How will it teach them? How will it instruct them? 08:54 How it will encourage them? If it doesn't passes 08:56 those tests. We thank the authors and send it back, 09:00 but if it meets those tests. We publish those things 09:02 working carefully with authors to make sure that 09:05 the impact of the ideas the Lord gave them really 09:08 get communicated to the Church. 09:10 We believe that your policy as you reply today 09:12 is representative of mainline traditional 09:15 Seventh-day Adventist. Absolutely, we're 09:17 committed to those values as persons as an 09:19 editorial team. We take council regularly with 09:22 the leadership of the church both lay and 09:24 administrative trying to make sure that we 09:26 stay on balance. That we stay focused on the 09:29 mission of the church that we note the essential. 09:32 I have seen in our local conference paper that you 09:34 were a speaker of one of our camp meetings. 09:36 You are out on the circuit, you are on TV. 09:38 Why are you out so much? Out and about? 09:41 One of the things you have to do when edit a 09:43 magazine in today's culture is help people 09:46 understand what value it has for their lives. 09:49 I get to look at people in the eye and say you read 09:52 this magazine your faith will be strengthened. 09:55 You read this magazine you are gonna fall more 09:57 in love with Jesus. Read this magazine your 09:59 children are gonna grow up maturing in the Lord 10:01 Jesus Christ. This evening when you walk out here 10:04 you're gonna get your copy at the door, test that 10:06 out see if I am telling the truth. 10:10 My wife and I read the letters to the editor. 10:13 And some, some of them more interesting 10:15 conversation or points of view are expressed there 10:19 sometimes it's back and forth. Sometimes it's not 10:21 always commendatory, sometimes it's critical. 10:25 Do you have any particular themes of 10:28 letters or particular experiences with letters 10:31 that you like to share? A lot of our writers send 10:35 very encouraging notes and if we printed all 10:38 those, everyone would think we are only about 10:40 self congratulation. What you read in the 10:42 letter section at the Adventist review is 10:44 frequently just a sampling usually reacting to the 10:47 content of previous issues. Most of the time people 10:51 write us to say, do more of this, print more of that 10:54 kind of things. Sometimes we have honest voices 10:56 who say, I don't think you got it right here. 10:58 We listen carefully to those, and if you are one 11:00 those who is written a letter we try to respond to 11:03 your letter personally as well as publish the most 11:06 useful ones that we think the church is gonna be 11:08 helped by. Would you be willing 11:10 to let us take a hand poll here of how many people 11:12 read and or subscribe to the reviews 11:14 that what you say? You're welcome to do 11:15 and in fact I hope more hands keep going up. 11:18 How of you receive the Adventist review on a 11:21 regular basis? So, you're in friendly territory 11:25 Adventist now you are anonymous. 11:26 Well you know that means I still have work to do. 11:28 That's why I come to places like ASI and GYC. 11:31 I go to camp meetings continuing to put the 11:34 word out. This magazine has been and continues 11:36 to be the center pole of the Seventh-day 11:38 Adventist church. We want you to come 11:40 gather here and, and learn what God is 11:43 gonna do with this people. 11:44 Now, if you're one of ASI members and those in 11:47 the 3ABN audience to have a take away point 11:49 of view what would you want us to know or think 11:53 or have an impression about the Adventist review? 11:56 I want you to trust it. As a place that you can open 11:58 up on Sabbath or Friday evening that's the way 12:00 I grew up reading the Adventist review, little 12:02 knowing that someday I would be responsible 12:04 for the words in those pages. I want you to 12:07 know that when you come away from these 12:08 pages your faith is gonna be built. 12:11 That's been my story so many times as I've gone 12:13 back in the archives of this magazine I get the 12:16 privilege to see what God has done through the 12:18 pages of this journal. Hundreds of thousands 12:21 of people have been won to faith and strengthened 12:23 in their faith by what God has put in the pages of 12:26 this magazine. It began with a prophetic vision. 12:29 I think we are still following that vision of 12:30 sending like, like streams of light around the world. 12:33 Thank you very much Bill. Thank you. 12:45 Just a few minutes ago you heard a beautiful 12:47 rendition from Wayne Atwood. 12:51 You know 8 years ago Wayne decided to pull up 12:54 sticks from the United States and go to a foreign 12:56 country. When he moved to this foreign country 13:00 he realize that there was something missing 13:03 in his life. There was no ASI family and he began 13:09 to dream and pray, and wished and hope that 13:13 he could interact with ASI family in a day to 13:16 day basis in this foreign country. Well, two years 13:22 ago something happened, a series of events took 13:24 place that would change everything and bring to 13:27 fruition his dream. Wayne, tell us about it. 13:31 Well, I am very excited to share this with you this 13:33 evening because as Ramon said it's true that I found 13:37 it a little bit difficult to be where there weren't 13:39 many Adventists and where there wasn't a 13:42 thriving group like ASI. And so it took a while to 13:46 kind of you know adjust to the move and to a 13:50 different culture because I live in Quebec, Canada. 13:52 So, its French speaking, so first of all I had a 13:55 language to learn and then second of all a few 13:57 cultural things to learn as well. But, about a couple 14:01 of years ago the conference president 14:03 his name, of the Quebec Conference his name is 14:06 Dragan Stojanovic. And he approached me 14:09 and he told me about an experience that he had 14:12 when he was a Pastor in Michigan. 14:14 And that experience how to do with ASI. 14:17 ASI was involved in an evangelistic project there 14:20 in his church. And he was so impressed to see the 14:24 way they lay people work together with the church 14:27 that he said we have to have ASI here in Quebec, 14:30 Canada as well. And that story really touched my 14:33 heart because I felt here is an individual that the 14:36 reason he wants ASI is because he's 14:38 experienced ASI. And those of you that 14:40 have experienced ASI you know that, that's the 14:43 thing that we should have everywhere, where lay 14:45 people are working hand in hand with the 14:47 organized church to be able to share the gospel 14:50 and work in many different ways. 14:52 So, it took a little bit of time. 14:54 But, we, we worked together, together with 14:56 the conference president and together with some 14:58 supporting ministries that are there in Quebec. 15:01 And together of course with business people to 15:03 try to form a first board in order to really be 15:07 pioneers to bring ASI to Quebec. 15:10 That's the way NAD would respond 15:13 spontaneously to start chapter. That's true. 15:14 ASI is always programmed within the environment 15:17 of the church and we're part of the division. 15:19 The North American Division that covers 15:21 Quebec. So, Wayne got in touch with us once 15:24 he had his group in place, we came to a strategy 15:27 session and once it was clear that you guys were 15:30 in the spirit of ASI, you had groups and you 15:33 were doing what the ASI does. We wrote it as an 15:36 ASI board to bring you into our fold. 15:40 That still wasn't the end. I had to contact Dan 15:43 Jackson who was then president of the Canadian 15:45 Union and he had to take it through his union board 15:49 and they had to approve it which he did. 15:52 No one knew I'm sure he didn't know he would be 15:54 the president of the division, but months ago 15:56 this year they approved the organization of the 16:00 Quebec chapter and so you are now formally 16:02 a part of the North American Division ASI. 16:06 When you mentioned the language challenges what 16:09 other challenges did you face up there? 16:12 Well, you know they are a lot of challenges and 16:14 one of the challenges that we face is just how small 16:17 the church in Quebec. They are less than 3000 16:20 members in the whole province. 16:23 And there are about 8 million people that live in 16:26 the country of Quebec. And you know we can 16:29 look at it from the side that oh they aren't very 16:31 many but I choose to look at it from the side that 16:35 ASI is going to have such an impact in Quebec. 16:39 Because everybody knows each other and 16:41 once they catch the vision of what ASI is all about. 16:44 I believe that it's going to really change that church 16:47 in Quebec. In a way that will really get lay people 16:50 involved in on fired to do something and so that's 16:53 what I'm really excited about to see how people 16:56 are getting on board and they're wanting to see 16:58 thing develop and I know it's gonna be 16:59 a positive experience. So, it's on fire in Quebec. 17:02 What about the rest of Canada? 17:03 What's your dream, your vision for 17:04 the rest of Canada? Well, of course as you 17:07 mentioned it is for Quebec and so we are 17:10 gonna be French speaking in, in the chapter that 17:12 we are developing of course we're also 17:14 providing English translation. 17:15 But, it's primarily for the French. And so the 17:18 English people need something too, Amen. 17:20 It's unusual that the French people start 17:21 things, usually it's the English people that 17:22 started things. But, the French people, 17:24 the English people need things as well, 17:26 so my encouragement to any of you that are 17:29 Canadian members or any of you that are interested 17:32 in becoming Canadian members to get organized 17:35 as well. There is plenty of room for everybody, 17:37 Canada is so vast it's much larger then the 17:40 United States but the population is so small 17:42 that it makes a lot more sense in the ASI board 17:45 agreed that it makes so lot more sense to organize 17:47 by sector and in order to more efficiently work 17:50 together and collaborate. But, we wanna 17:52 communicate all together and so I encourage those 17:54 of you that are Canadian let's get organize 17:56 and let's do something. And so, that's means 17:58 likely a chapter west of the Rockies somewhere 18:01 in British Columbia at chapter somewhere 18:04 perhaps in Ontario and we are open to it. 18:07 We want it to happen historically there was an 18:09 Eastern and Western chapter in Canada so 18:12 it is time to revival. Now, Wayne I understand 18:16 that you involved with a ministry also, tell us 18:18 about it? Well, Sabbath you gonna be talking 18:20 about it right? That's right. Can you give a little 18:22 preview what you gonna be talking about? 18:24 Well, we are involved in Media Ministry it's called 18:26 better living. And that's true on Sabbath afternoon 18:29 we will be talking about it so be sure to come back 18:31 and here it but we believe that media is one way to 18:33 reach this very secular people. We are gonna 18:36 share with you all the things that we are doing 18:38 try to reach non Adventists for Jesus 18:40 so come back. Amen. Thank you. 18:53 Hello ASI. Hello. I love this part of the 18:57 program. We have some wonderful stories here 18:59 I have with me Meiring and Juanita and they are 19:03 from Riverside, Riverside Farms Institute. 19:07 That's right. And Meiring tell me about yourselves 19:10 and where are you from and little bit 19:11 about what are you doing? My wife and I are from 19:14 Riverside Farms Institute as you said from Zambia. 19:17 And we have been working there for 9 years now. 19:20 And Riverside is supportive ministry of 19:23 the Seventh-day Adventist church member 19:25 of OCI, Outpost Centers International, yeah. 19:31 Okay, okay Juanita now you have an 19:34 evangelism department is that right? 19:37 That's quite correct. So, what does that entail? 19:40 We are the coordinates for the evangelism 19:42 department for Riverside farm. We work in Zambia 19:46 and in the countries around where we go, 19:49 we do some teaching of some lay people, 19:52 we teach them evangelism, we teach 19:53 them health. At the same time we do evangelistic 19:56 series. We also have Global Bible workers 20:01 that we work with at Riverside. We have about 20:04 120 of those at Riverside that work with Riverside 20:08 currently, but only 65 of those are actually donor 20:12 paid the others were sacrificially but they 20:14 do give reports to us. Wow, wow that's 20:18 exciting. So, now how do these pioneers reach 20:23 people of Africa, what are they doing? 20:26 We realized the role that the lay people have to 20:28 play in these last days you know to bring the 20:30 message of Jesus Christ to the people and we use 20:34 these lay workers, we train them, we send them 20:38 out to the furthest parts of the Zambia and even 20:41 across the borders of the Zambia. And they really 20:43 go to places where you and I cannot go. 20:46 They understand the language, they understand 20:47 the culture and so we work together with them. 20:51 Actually we see ourselves as a team. 20:53 My wife and I visit them four months out of the year. 20:57 Sleep in a tent, we visit them, eat with them, 21:00 sleep with them. Encourage them to do the 21:02 work and we use a specific method that 21:06 I wanna speak about that tonight. 21:09 And that is using literature in a very 21:10 powerful way. We found that, that literature 21:15 works very effectually within Zambia. 21:19 In Africa there is a hunger for spiritual things. 21:23 So, if people are hungry we want to feed them. 21:26 And especially I want to mention Light Bearers 21:29 Ministry and even Remnant Publishers that 21:31 have given us a lot of material and specifically 21:35 Light Bearers have given us Bible lessons which 21:38 are called the voice of prophecy lessons. 21:40 And we use those lessons to increase the Bible 21:43 studies with these pioneers within the field 21:47 as we train them. So, they come once in a 21:50 year in January. We give a seminar to them. 21:53 We train them, we tell them what to do, we work 21:55 as a team, we make a plan for the year. 21:58 And then they go out to every single part that we 22:02 can think of. They go to marketplaces, they go to 22:06 hospitals, they go to schools, they go to 22:10 prisons, we have a pioneer that is only 22:13 working in prisons. He goes into the prisons, 22:16 he has full authority to go into any of the state 22:19 prisons and he goes in doing these Bible lessons 22:24 with the prisoners and then have a full 22:26 evangelistic you know meeting with them inside 22:29 the prisons and we find that we have increased 22:34 not just a number of baptisms, but also the 22:36 number of Bible studies that one person can give. 22:40 And through this training the pioneers actually train 22:44 others also to be involved in us. 22:46 And we have found that at the moment they, 22:50 we have abut 3000 to 4000 baptisms in a year. 22:54 And more than 20000 people are studying these 22:58 Bible lessons, so, Amen. God has helped us to 23:01 increase, not just a one on one but people 23:04 can just find these lessons, study them and 23:06 they are ready for baptism. Amen, can you say 23:09 Amen? Amen. So, can you tell me a story about 23:13 one of these pioneers a testimony story? 23:16 Yes, I can do that. One of our pioneers was sitting 23:19 in his office one day and he was busy working 23:23 when he looked up and a mad man walked 23:25 into his office. And he politely just said sat down 23:28 and the pioneer didn't know how to get rid of 23:30 this man. And he wanted to give him money 23:32 because he thought well may be if I give the man 23:34 money he would leave. And the man refused the 23:38 money he looked around the office and saw a stack 23:40 of Bible lessons lying there. And he said he 23:43 wants these, the pioneer wanted to just get rid 23:46 of him said it's fine, take it and go. 23:49 The man walked down the street and he saw a 23:51 lady on the other side crossed over the road. 23:53 And he went to her and he gave her the 23:56 whole stack of lessons. She didn't know what to 23:59 do with the mad man, so she just took the lessons 24:01 to get rid of him. She walked down the road 24:05 and she saw that there was a telephone number 24:07 for the pioneer written behind and planning to 24:10 give him the lessons later. She started looking at 24:13 them and getting really interested in some of the 24:15 titles. She went through all 26 studies, contacted 24:20 the pioneer and said she is ready for baptism. 24:24 Wow, that is incredible. Well you must have an 24:28 incredible budget to sponsor and to work with 24:32 all these people. What is it cost sponsor a pioneer? 24:36 Is about $80 in a month to sponsor pioneer. 24:40 $80 a month, wow. Yeah they live from very 24:43 little you know sometimes we eat with 24:45 them and you get a bowl of rice for breakfast, 24:48 that's what you get. So, that's what they live on. 24:51 That is, that is incredible. Well, thanks so much for 24:55 your time. Do you have anything else that you 24:57 wanna add? Thank you very much for 25:00 the time that we could share with you. 25:02 Thank you. And we really want to 25:03 invite people to come to the booth 25:04 and pray with us. Get to know, get to know 25:06 these people there in the exhibit hall and you'll get 25:08 to, be able to know them a little bit and ask them 25:11 some tough questions okay. Alright thank you 25:14 so much. Thank you very much. 25:23 That's wonderful now I have a special, special 25:27 friend here that I want you to meet. 25:30 And these, these folks are very dear to my heart. 25:34 Rarely will you meet someone with so much 25:37 joy in the Lord. And this is Geoffrey and Martha 25:41 Ngige and they are here from Kenya. 25:45 And Geoffrey tell me something have you 25:48 always been blind? I was, when I was a child 25:56 I could be seen very perfectly. I was born as 26:01 an Anglican and raised up as an Anglican and 26:05 when I was a youth I go to this message of the 26:10 Adventist and I was on fire, I wanted to make 26:15 sure that everybody had known this message and 26:20 I continued doing Bible study, house to house. 26:24 And I was so amazed. That God could save soul 26:30 you see me just a new believer and I really 26:34 develop that anxiety of preaching. I started even 26:40 preaching in the street and many people started 26:45 coming to listen to the message and many people 26:49 after every session I could call, I call out and people 26:53 could come out and I could introduce them to 26:57 a nearby church in Nairobi and they're 27:00 baptized. And, at this time I had been 27:04 diagnosed with a retina problem and the doctor 27:09 showed me that I gonna be blind but I didn't take 27:14 it and I knew I was preaching about the living 27:17 God and I knew that he could live us this or he 27:22 could help me not to continue being washed. 27:27 But, eventually, unfortunately I started 27:32 experiencing that I could not read the Bible. 27:35 I was very angry with God, I was very bitter. 27:39 But, I was inspired because you know 27:43 every time you fight with God. You are lose, you 27:45 are fighting a losing battle. God warned me 27:50 and I accepted my faith and I had a lot of question 27:54 which had no answer. If I get blind and I am just 27:58 a young man, would I cease from preaching, 28:02 oh where will I ever get a wife to marry. 28:06 You know in Africa when you are blind you are 28:08 condemned to be in the street begging money so, 28:12 I knew this was the end of my life but the good Lord 28:17 inspired me because he is the one who knew better 28:20 than I. Paul inspired me in Romans 8 verse 28. 28:24 When he say, all things to those who fear the Lord 28:26 work for good. I could not comprehend this 28:30 and I could not know how blindness 28:33 could be of any good. But when I accepted 28:37 this message, when I accepted the reality that 28:40 good Lord started hearing my heart, he started 28:44 binding my wounds and you know, he started 28:47 performing great miracle, that's the great question. 28:51 I was asking where would I get a wife, he gave me 28:55 this wonderful lady here. Amen. Amen. 29:03 So, Geoffrey what, what happened, what happened 29:08 next, what happened and how did your life turn 29:11 around for the good. Then my life turn alone 29:15 for good because I was thinking that was the end 29:18 of my preaching. But, after the good Lord 29:23 gave me this beautiful wife here. 29:25 She started helping me to come and preach 29:30 through memory. And I was back in this street 29:33 again. Preaching and many people accepted 29:37 Christ and there after I can experience the benefit 29:42 of the good news and how it can transform a 29:47 hopeless man like me. And I tell you now I am 29:51 experiencing a good wife, two children. I'm running 29:55 a ministry by the name Passing the Light 29:58 Ministry and I'm so excited that I'm part 30:02 of God's work. Amen, Amen. 30:11 You know Geoffrey turned to me and he was 30:16 telling me about when he went blind how 30:17 depressed he was and he turned to me and he said 30:21 but, who knew that people would flock to 30:25 hear a blind man preach. Amen. And Geoffrey has 30:29 planted 15 churches and 100's of people baptized 30:33 he's trained Bible workers in Kenya. 30:36 And, and they've even started another little 30:39 program but tell me, I'm gonna tell you a story 30:43 cause we have just a second here, but you 30:46 know I'm, during the political unrest in Kenya, 30:51 they had some real trouble and I got an e-mail 30:54 from a lady that was over there telling about the 30:57 violence and how they were attacked by mobs 31:00 and their car was beaten and windows were 31:02 broken out and over and over they would drag 31:05 Geoffrey out of the car and try to make him 31:08 speak because his dialect would tell them where he 31:11 was from and they would have kill him. 31:13 And the mobs killed a lot of people they say mobs 31:16 and one village after another. 31:18 God delivered them and she told me this 31:20 harrowing story and I, so I started calling Geoffrey, 31:24 calling Geoffrey and finally I got Geoffrey on 31:26 the phone and I said Geoffrey, Geoffrey you 31:29 need to come back to the States and I said, 31:32 you have trouble there. He says oh, the Lord is 31:34 good, the Lord is blessed us. Amen, Amen. 31:37 And I said but you have trouble Geoffrey. 31:39 And he says the Lord takes care of us, we had 31:41 a little trouble but the Lord is good, we baptize 31:44 35 more people. And I said but Geoffrey you 31:48 should come home until the political unrest settles 31:51 down. And Geoffrey says Mark, I'm determined to 31:57 be spent for the gospel, amen. 32:00 And he stayed there and he had another evangelist 32:02 campaign and baptized more people. Amen, 32:06 Amen. So, Geoffrey and Martha have started an 32:11 orphanage and from, there are a lot of orphans 32:15 from this political unrest and from AIDS there 32:18 and so you need to stop by their booth and get to 32:21 know them a little bit. Can you say Amen? 32:22 Amen. Thank you two, both so much 32:25 for being here, Amen, thank you, thank you. 32:34 Next I have doctors and Chris and Lela Lewis and 32:40 they're here to talk to us a little bit. 32:42 And can you tell us a little bit about yourselves 32:44 and you are up to what you are doing in our ministry? 32:47 Yes thank you Mark, we are both graduates of 32:51 Loma Linda University School of Medicine. 32:53 I'm a general surgeon and Lela is an OB-GYN. 32:56 Together we found it Right Arm of Love which 32:59 is a non-profit organization which 33:01 provides free health screening and free health 33:03 counseling in Phoenix, Arizona. Also we are 33:06 heavily involved in health media and we've recently 33:09 founded the medical and surgical 33:11 Health And Healing Institute. 33:13 Since our ministry's origination in 2003 33:15 by God's grace we've distributed over 20,000 33:18 peaces of present truth literature, generously 33:21 donated by project restore. To God's grace 33:24 we've provided 20,000 individuals with free 33:27 health screening and by God's grace provided 33:30 15,000 Bible study context to the Seventh- 33:33 day Adventist church. Wow, Amen. Praise God, 33:37 Praise the Lord, can you, can you tell me though 33:40 how you went from health screening to health media. 33:44 Well, in 2005 we began doing a teaming up with 33:49 pastors and evangelists and with combining our 33:52 health lectures with full blown 33:53 evangelistic seminars. The results were 33:56 absolutely astronomical. The Lord opened 33:59 amazing doors with Trinity Broadcasting 34:01 Network, CBS and NBC where we were actually 34:04 filmed for free air time. And addition to that the 34:07 Arizona Government gave their full support as 34:09 in the executive branch of the Arizona government, 34:12 as well as multiple evangelical church support. 34:15 Also the health lectures opened doors for the 34:17 television show Practical Living which is produced 34:20 by Loma Linda Broadcasting Network. 34:22 And Practical Living is currently re-aired in 34:25 Phoenix on Good New Television that's a local 34:28 Seventh-day Adventist TV station. 34:29 Of course the most exciting results were 34:31 those seen by those individuals who gave 34:33 their heart to Jesus, on the screen you'll see a 34:35 picture of Mr. Bob Bradley, Mr. Bradley 34:38 actually became acquainted with 34:39 Adventism through coming to the Arizona 34:42 State Fair Health Board. He then followed up 34:44 coming to the booth going to a health lectures 34:46 series and then an evangelistic series 34:49 and praise God he give his heart to Jesus. 34:51 He is just one of many people who have given 34:53 their heart to Jesus through health evangelism. 34:55 Praise the Lord, and you know I know the Lord 34:59 uses lifestyle medicine and lifestyle care but you 35:03 are both acute care providers. 35:05 Can, can the Lord use that to lead people to Jesus? 35:08 Absolutely Mark, on the screen you will also see a 35:11 picture of Mrs. Antoinette Venega, she was a patient 35:13 of mine when I was at Loma Linda. 35:15 Antoinette had something called a Placenta Percreta, 35:18 which is where essentially the Placenta acts like a 35:20 cancer, it grows through the lining of the uterus. 35:23 It goes out into the bowel the bladder and even the 35:25 blood vessels and as you can imagine it's a life 35:27 threatening emergency because the patients can 35:29 bleed to death. As such we plan ahead, we plan 35:33 for a cesarean hysterectomy, which is where you 35:35 deliver the baby by C-section and then 35:37 you immediately followed by taking out 35:39 the uterus. These patients are often admitted to 35:42 the hospital from months on end even and this is 35:45 exactly what happened to Antoinette, we were 35:47 watching her very carefully during this 35:49 period of time she was not the least but interested 35:52 anything spiritual. And then the dreaded day 35:55 arrived. And she started bleeding, we were racing 35:58 her down to the operating room and on the way 36:00 down there, everyone was crying the nurses 36:02 Antoinette, I clasped her hands and I said 36:05 Antoinette, can I pray with you please. 36:07 And she agreed, I specifically prayed 36:09 dear Jesus please guide our hands as surgeons 36:13 and also please bring her through this very, very 36:15 dangerous operation safely. We proceeded 36:18 with the C-section and delivered a very healthy 36:20 baby boy and then proceeded with the 36:22 hysterectomy and taking out the uterus and we 36:24 noted Placenta had gone into the pelvic side walls 36:27 and everything bleeding profusely there was 36:30 nothing we could do to stop it. Finally the 36:32 anesthesiologist leaned over the curtain and said 36:34 something that a surgeon never wants to hear. 36:37 He said you need to start chest compressions now. 36:40 I said, oh you've got to be kidding me, at which she 36:43 said no. At this point I start crying out the 36:46 Lord aloud, I would previously been crying 36:48 you know speaking to him silently in my mind 36:51 and now I'm like Lord please help, please help, 36:53 as 30 some people are running around the room 36:55 and all chaos is breaking news. 36:58 We called for something called a co-black, which 37:00 is where we accept all uncross-matched blood 37:02 in the entire hospital, this is at Loma Linda 37:04 University. 78 units of packed red blood cells, 37:08 54 units of fresh frozen plasma and 38 units of 37:11 platelets layered by God's grace he miraculously 37:14 saved her. He brought her through that operation 37:17 and by God's grace as soon as operation was 37:20 over and she was recovered, I went to 37:21 her bed I said Antoinette, Jesus brought you 37:24 through that operation he has a special plan for you 37:27 Jesus has a plan for you, when she was discharged 37:30 from the hospital I send her home with a 37:31 magazine on the Sabbath and one that describes 37:33 what happens when we die and I'm so happy to 37:36 tell you today by God's grace she and her 37:38 husband both have given their heart to Jesus and 37:40 were baptized. Amen, Amen. God be praised, 37:44 God be praised. Praise the Lord, well 37:46 I understand you have a plan to blend lifestyle 37:50 medicine with acute care can you tell me 37:52 about that briefly? Yes, we believe that these 37:55 two are just completely intertwined, there are so 37:57 many situations where like a patient I had we 38:00 call him John. He had severe Crohn's and after 38:03 I performed his surgery for his complicated 38:05 Crohn's disease I was able to share with him 38:07 God's lifestyle plan for him and today he is 38:11 symptom from his Crohn's. He is off all of 38:13 his Crohn's medications so praise God for that, 38:16 that's why we are planning to start a 38:17 Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital combined with 38:21 lifestyle center on the outskirts Phoenix, 38:24 Arizona. Amen. Wow, well I know 38:29 it's often difficult to sustain lifestyle centers. 38:34 How do you planned over come this? 38:37 The Holy Spirit impressed us to start 38:38 the Medical and Surgical Health and Healing 38:41 Institute. The acronym is actually MSHHIN 38:45 pronounced mission. As in the great gospel 38:48 commission to use Jesus, Three angels messages 38:51 using his health message to turn those people to his 38:54 Three Angels messages and a life with Jesus. 38:57 What the physicians at the mission and tell they 39:00 accept and reduced significantly 39:02 reduced salary. Those safe salary goes 39:05 into a trust fund at the Arizona conference and 39:07 then those salaries are then utilized to purchase 39:10 the land, the building then self sustain the institution 39:13 in it's entirety, both the lifestyle center and the 39:16 acute care setting. The Lord has provided 39:18 amazing opportunities because we feel this is 39:21 the Holy Spirit's leading. We actually have an 39:23 appointment to meet with the Governor of the State 39:25 of Arizona in the next couple of months to 39:27 discuss these issues as well as we will be 39:29 re-filming with Trinity Broadcasting Network 39:31 starting August 27th. Wow, have you seen any 39:35 evangelistic success from these new efforts. 39:39 Well, we've just opened our doors for a medical 39:41 practice but already we're already seeing God 39:44 producing fruit. We send out 37,000 flyers to the 39:47 surrounding homes. We've had a number of 39:49 calls of people that wanna come to our practice 39:51 simply because they recognize something 39:53 different about our practice. In addition 39:55 several have come or have schedule 39:57 appointment specifically because we are a 39:58 Seventh-day Adventist practice and many of 40:01 them are non-Adventist. We are really, really 40:04 happy that the Lord is allowing us to participate 40:06 in with him as we attempt to spread his Three angels 40:10 messages to the world. We solicit your prayers 40:12 and we also want to encourage each and 40:14 everyone of to follow Jesus leading and 40:16 I guarantee you will not be disappointed. 40:19 Amen, Amen. Well get to know these young people 40:23 at the exhibits, so I appreciate it, God bless. 40:32 And please tonight to introduce you my dear 40:34 friend Reuben Dias and he is from Portugal. 40:37 And I had the privilege to meet Reuben at first time 40:40 in at this ASI convention in 2007. 40:44 And Reuben, you asked Don and I to come over 40:46 and help set up an ASI chapter in Portugal in 40:49 2008. And so Don and I went and got in car 40:53 with Reuben and we took a 3 hour drive. 40:56 And it was one of those what I call Henry Martyn 40:59 would call divine appointment. 41:00 Because at that time Reuben you asked us how 41:03 ASI had changed our life and we told you our 41:06 family story about how ASI has changed our life 41:10 and our family and given us what we have today 41:12 and the joys that we have of service. 41:14 And what happened when we talked? 41:17 Well, you touch our heart because actually you 41:19 wanted to experience that, we came to ASI before, 41:23 we heard stories and we thought this has to 41:27 happen in our lives. So, when you told about 41:30 this and specifically about the DVD program, 41:33 I was touched and I remember that I asked 41:36 you Denzil, we wanna do something like this. 41:39 So, you did before, tell me who to do it 41:43 and find me a place. And I ask you what 41:46 county you want to go to. And I remember I said 41:48 you know I don't care about the country. 41:50 Okay just let's think about it, let's pray about it and 41:53 whatever comes up we just go. 41:56 Okay and I told you that I be think and pray about 41:59 this and I said give me a couple of weeks. 42:01 What just so happen he has took us to his 42:03 fantastic vegetarian restaurant and just as 42:06 we sat down I got a phone call and it was from 42:08 Pastor Mark Finley. And he said Denzil, 42:11 I've just got back from Cuba. And you can't 42:14 believe the exciting things that's going on 42:16 in Cuba right now. We need to get down 42:19 there and get involved in doing DVD training and 42:22 training the lay people to be involved in 42:24 evangelism. That's right. And I said, I think 42:27 I know just the person, I let you know. 42:31 And I hang up the phone, and I told you about it. 42:33 Yeah there was about while you were in the 42:35 phone about 10 minutes, yes, you came back and 42:37 you told me listen I have the country for you 42:40 and I asked you what is the country, that quick, 42:42 yes. What country is it right? 42:44 And I said Cuba. And I said, oh that's good 42:46 because I have been there before I know the 42:48 language my parents were missionaries in South 42:50 America and I learned Spanish and I said lets go. 42:54 Yeah, and I though was even better because you 42:56 live in Portugal and America we have a 42:58 tough time getting into Cuba. 43:00 That's right so as you said it was a divine 43:02 appointment and both of us were really 43:04 shocked by so was a quick of an answer. 43:07 We were it was just amazing. 43:09 And so happen after that? Well, we went together 43:11 actually we went together and with another about 43:14 eight members of ASI and that was in 2009. 43:18 It was a fabulous experience. 43:20 We actually took Ramon our ASI executive 43:23 secretary and Ray, Herald and several other 43:27 people and it was Dwight, Dwight and we went. 43:30 And we went and what do we do? 43:32 Well, we were a great team blessed by the Lord 43:34 and what happened was tremendous. 43:36 Was it first time that I experienced that in 43:38 my life. Again I saw before with another 43:40 people but then I experienced myself. 43:43 We went there and it was scheduled to be training 43:46 1000 people. 1000 members and you know 43:50 what 1000 showed up exactly nobody missed 43:54 so 1000 were trained and equipped in that 2009. 43:57 And I think we have some pictures to 43:58 see on that don't we? Yes, we do we can bring 44:00 up some pictures it's amazing how people 44:04 react in Cuba to having the opportunity 44:07 to share the message. And what was exciting 44:09 to see is the faces the people when they realize 44:12 they can do more to tell other about it, look at the 44:15 face of this lady right here. 44:16 This is an example where you handle the 44:18 equipment and after the training you are so 44:21 amazed you know initially they were 44:23 frightened, they think they can do it but at 44:25 the end they are so involved with the Holy 44:27 Spirit that they just want to go right way and do it. 44:30 Okay and then you went what happen after that 44:32 you went did it again? Well, I call this the chain 44:35 reaction because you know I was impact by 44:38 somebody else by you Denzil where you were 44:40 inspired of the Holy Spirit and others inspired of 44:42 you. You know and then went again in 2010 this 44:45 year so we did another 1000 with a pretty much 44:49 the same team we have another dear friend from 44:53 Portugal, Carlos also Randy, Bevins is here 44:58 and other friends so we met another team and 45:01 we met another 800 family and more than that 45:04 showed up so we had about 2000 families 45:07 now trained in Cuba. Now, Reuben I know that 45:09 you could tell stories all day long to our ASI 45:12 family, yes, tell us one quick story. 45:14 You know one thing that was really shocking 45:17 was that in this training when I was giving the 45:21 training at the end the local pastor came to me 45:24 actually the responsible person responsible for 45:27 the personal ministries, he came to me and said 45:30 listen we have surprise are you prepared for the 45:32 surprise? There is one person right now that 45:36 he is prepared for baptism he has gone through the 45:38 studies and he wants to be baptized right now. 45:41 What do you think about it, I said sure let's do it. 45:44 So, and this persons particular person was 45:48 a pastor of another domination. 45:51 And you know what was incredible what happen 45:54 afterwards was that he was baptized and I had 45:58 this blessing this incredible opportunity 46:01 that I handover to him his DVD player for him to do 46:06 the work afterwards, Amen. So, let me get this 46:08 straight, a layman gave him, led him to the Lord 46:14 down Cuba. A layman from Portugal gave him 46:17 the equipment, so that this pastor can now teach 46:20 the Adventist message to other people in Cuba. 46:23 Yes, and you know that we have reports actually 46:26 I received an email 2 days ago that another pastor 46:30 of another domination also happened the same 46:32 thing and specifically what happen was that 46:37 five of his congregations that have now been 46:40 baptized in the Adventist Church. Amen, amen. 46:42 So, more then 200 people already have been 46:45 accepted the message. But, it didn't stop there 46:47 did it? Because we have some 46:49 more pictures to show you 46:50 from what happen next? Yes, really quickly, you 46:52 know this is stop here, we came back to Portugal 46:55 and we thought this has to happen in Portugal 46:57 also so, right now in Portugal we did the 47:00 same training process so again the chain reaction 47:03 and we have 480 families that were trained and they 47:08 are ready and they are run their own small groups. 47:10 Amen. But then not only did that happen what 47:14 did you decided to do personal? 47:15 Well, myself and Carlos we are officers of ASI in 47:19 Portugal, we though listen we cannot talk about it if 47:22 we don't do it. So, this was a big challenge for us. 47:26 So, we decided to set up our own group. 47:27 We have a photo here and you know we don't have 47:30 any visits, any visits initially so we prayed 47:33 about it we just thought our two families and what 47:35 happen afterwards was tremendous. 47:38 Because now we have eight visitors attending 47:41 our small group. So, we are a totally of 25 47:44 people of four different families 47:46 running the small group. ASI family did you hear 47:49 that now you understand that the DVD program is 47:52 something that you have generously given to and is 47:55 now had an impact. Not only does it have an 47:57 impact here in North America it has a huge 47:59 impact in Cuba, it has a huge impact around the 48:03 world. And with your offerings and your 48:05 financial support you have been able to help 48:07 this grow and millions of people have heard our 48:09 message through this program. 48:12 And its just exciting to be a part of it and you'll be 48:14 able to play another part of that in our 48:16 offering this coming this Sabbath, Amen. 48:18 So, thank you very much. |
Revised 2014-12-17