Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY230050A
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00:05 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:17 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:25 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:36 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:57 ♪ ♪ 01:07 Hello and welcome to 3ABN Today. I'm Jason Bradley. I'm so glad 01:12 that you've decided to join us. We have a wonderful power-packed 01:15 hour in store for you and this is going to be so exciting 01:19 because there's a lot that's taking place in the North 01:24 America Division and you are going to find out all about it. 01:27 So make sure you stick with us through this whole hour. You 01:30 don't want to miss a second of this. My guest is Derrick Lea 01:35 He is the executive director of the North American Division 01:40 Adventist Community Services. Welcome to 3ABN Today. 01:43 Pleasure to be here. Thank you so much. 01:46 Yes you know we have so much to talk about. You know as we were 01:50 conversing prior to sitting down here today I found out a lot 01:55 about your background and all of that stuff and I'm excited 01:58 for our viewers and listeners to find out all about that. And 02:03 we're going to dive into that, we're going to go into all the 02:06 Adventist Community Service stuff and what's taking place. 02:08 But before we do Derrick, we're going to be blessed in song 02:12 and Gene McDonald will be singing The Love of God. 02:16 ♪ ♪ 02:31 ♪ The love of God is greater far ♪ 02:37 ♪ Than tongue or pen could ever tell ♪ 02:41 ♪ It goes beyond the highest star ♪ 02:49 ♪ and reaches to the lowest hell ♪ 02:55 ♪ The guilty pair bowed down with care ♪ 03:01 ♪ God gave his Son to win ♪ 03:07 ♪ His erring child he reconciled ♪ 03:13 ♪ and pardoned from their sin ♪ 03:18 ♪ Oh love of God how rich and pure ♪ 03:24 ♪ How measureless and strong ♪ 03:30 ♪ It shall forevermore endure The saints and angels song ♪ 03:44 ♪ ♪ 03:50 ♪ Could we with ink the oceans fill ♪ 03:57 ♪ And were the skies of parchment made ♪ 04:03 ♪ Were every stalk on earth a quill ♪ 04:09 ♪ And every man a scribe by trade ♪ 04:15 ♪ To write the love of God above ♪ 04:22 ♪ would drain the ocean dry ♪ 04:27 ♪ Nor could the scroll contain the whole ♪ 04:34 ♪ Though stretched from sky to sky ♪ 04:39 ♪ Oh love of God how rich and pure ♪ 04:45 ♪ how measureless and strong ♪ 04:51 ♪ It shall forevermore endure The saints and angels song ♪ 05:05 ♪ Oh love of God how rich and pure ♪ 05:13 ♪ How measureless and strong ♪ 05:18 ♪ It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song ♪ 05:31 ♪ The saints and angels song ♪ 05:46 Amen, amen. Thank you so much for that wonderful song 05:51 Brother Gene. You know it's right on time talking about the 05:57 love of God. We're going to see God's love through his people. 06:00 Derrick tell us a little bit about your background. What were 06:05 you doing before you got to Adventist Community Services? 06:07 Sure. Well I worked in the fire service for many years, about 20 06:14 years as a matter of fact in a place called Prince George's 06:16 County just outside of Washington, D.C., north of 06:19 Washington, D.C. I worked in a very active department. I think 06:24 my last year we ran right over 150,000 calls. So it was a very 06:30 busy active time there in Prince George's County and we enjoyed 06:34 it. Did some good things. 06:35 Yes. I know that you've seen a lot. What was it 06:38 like being a firefighter? 06:41 Hectic, I guess I could say putting it mildly. There were 06:46 some days we would go in and we would run over 40 calls, that's 06:52 a 24-hour time frame. If you can think about that; fires, 06:56 emergency medical calls actually medical was probably 75 percent 07:01 of the calls that we ran. And so it was a very active department 07:05 A lot of things going on there in Prince George's County and we 07:09 got an opportunity to be a part of that for 20 years. 07:12 So that was a good time. 07:14 And you climbed up pretty high in the ranks. What was the 07:17 highest rank that you had? 07:19 Well when I left or retired I was deputy chief over operations 07:24 And if you can imagine a department that busy. It was an 07:29 extremely daunting time for me. I know when I would go to bed at 07:36 night, and my wife will probably speak to this, I would go to bed 07:38 with the walkie-talkie right next to my head because things 07:43 were always going on and I wanted to make sure that we 07:47 could hear what was going on in the county so that if something 07:52 happened we were abreast of that So it was a very involved time 07:58 for me during those 20 years. 08:02 So what were some lessons that you learned in your position 08:10 maybe as it pertains to ACS? 08:11 Sure. Well it's interesting how God prepares you. Prince 08:19 George's County is what we call a combination system, 08:22 combination meaning made up of volunteers, probably 50 percent 08:26 of the department there and also what we call career people. 08:30 People that are paid to do the job. And we have to work 08:35 together in that environment. If you can imagine the 08:39 individuals that are paid to do the job, well then you got 08:41 volunteers who are doing it for the love of doing it. And so 08:46 trying to figure out how those two entities work together was 08:49 part of the responsibility of the leadership which I became a 08:54 part of at a certain period of time and working with volunteers 08:59 was an integral part of that particular job. I did not know 09:05 that all of those years I was being prepared for what 09:10 ultimately I was going to be asked to do that was work with 09:13 Adventist Community Services. We are made up primarily, 90 09:17 percent of our participants are volunteers. And so there's a 09:23 certain skill set that you need to have if you're going to be in 09:27 a position of leadership over those types of situations. And so 09:34 certainly my time at Prince George's County prepared me for 09:37 what was to come and that was working with Adventist Community 09:40 Services, so... 09:42 Now in your time with Princes George's County did you have any 09:46 encounters where your faith and working as a firefighter, did 09:53 they kind of clash for a second or what took place? 09:57 There were some challenges. The fire department is a 24-hour day 10:02 seven-day-a-week operation and so there are some times when 10:08 some of the things that the fire department gets involved in 10:11 could be considered conflicting with, for instance, the keeping 10:15 of the Sabbath. Now I had no problem helping people on the 10:21 Sabbath and so when, for instance, since my shift would 10:24 fall on a Sabbath I did not have a problem going to work tending 10:29 to some of the needs of individuals and the community. 10:32 And I did that for many years. But there were some things that 10:37 I would not do in the fire service and one of those was 10:42 taking a test for promotion. In order to be promoted in the 10:47 fire service you have to take a competitive test and that test 10:51 happened to be given on the Sabbath. I didn't know it during 10:55 my preparation time to take the test but when they came out with 10:59 the notice that they were going to have a test for the rank of 11:08 sergeant there in the fire service they sent it to me and 11:12 it said Saturday at noon. And I thought to myself wow you've 11:15 been preparing for the last couple of years, studying for 11:18 this thing and now here it is and it happens to be on the 11:21 Sabbath. And I did not, I'll be honest with you, I wasn't 11:26 exactly sure how I was going to respond to that. After some 11:32 prayer, some discussion with my wife and my family I came to the 11:37 conclusion that come what may I was not going to take that test 11:41 on the Sabbath. 11:42 And you had been preparing for the test for the last couple 11:45 years. 11:47 Let me tell you. I had been preparing month after month 11:49 after month with the idea that when that test came I wanted to 11:53 be ready. And so, yes, I had been preparing for that test 11:57 When I saw that it was on a Saturday, I wrote up a letter 12:02 and sent it to the chief's office. We used to call it the 12:06 palace. So I sent it to the palace. And I sent them the 12:09 letter and basically explained to them, I was a practicing 12:12 Seventh-day Adventist and as such did not have a comfort 12:16 level taking a test for myself for my own personal benefit. I 12:21 did not have a comfort level with doing that on the Sabbath, 12:25 during the Sabbath hours. So I sent that letter to the chief's 12:28 office not knowing how they would respond to that. As it 12:34 turns out about a week, week- and half later the chief 12:38 actually showed up at my station He wanted to know what was going 12:41 on here in the fire service. We have been charged with always 12:46 trying to get away with certain things and so I'm certain that 12:50 in the chief's mind his thinking was what is this firefighter 12:53 trying to get away with? And so he showed up at my station. And 12:59 I remember we went into the office there, just me and him, 13:03 and he said what's going on here And I said well to put it quite 13:10 bluntly when you all are giving the test creates a problem for 13:14 me. And I explained to him why it created a problem. Because he 13:20 didn't really understand because he said, well I looked at your 13:23 schedule and he actually went back and looked at my schedule 13:25 and when he saw that I had worked on the Sabbath before 13:30 and I explained to him, yes but I view that as direct help to 13:36 individuals and I said if you checked into it a little further 13:40 you would find most of the Sabbath hours that I had been 13:44 assigned I would generally get off and do something called a 13:48 swap and someone would generally work for me. But there were 13:52 times when I did work on the Sabbath. So he was correct on 13:54 that front. And so I explained to him that I view that 13:59 different than the taking of a test which was really just for 14:03 my own personal benefit and therefore I did not feel 14:07 comfortable doing that and would not take the test on Sabbath. 14:12 So that created a wonderful witnessing opportunity to the 14:17 chief. So what ended up happening after that? 14:19 What ended up happening and I'll be honest with you I don't know 14:22 that I did it to witness, to be perfectly honest with you (okay) 14:26 From my standpoint, I was doing it because I did not feel it was 14:31 appropriate for me to take a test on the Sabbath. What ended 14:35 up happening, I got a letter in the mail about a week-and-a-half 14:40 later and it laid out that the department had decided that they 14:46 were going to change the date of the test and the test was 14:48 going to be on a Sunday as it turned out. They didn't explain 14:53 why. And within the department we have this thing called the 14:55 grapevine. People just started to talking. How could they 15:00 change the test. You know this thing had been set, now they 15:02 changing it. They don't do that. Well the word went out that the test 15:06 was being changed because this firefighter Lea from down at 15:10 station 32 had requested that they changed the test which was 15:15 not true. I had not requested that they change the test. I 15:17 simply stated that I was not going to be able to take the 15:20 test on that particular day. And they ended up changing the test 15:26 and that was the first opportunity I had to take a test 15:30 to promote within the Prince George's County Fire Department. 15:34 See that's huge because you know again as we were conversing off 15:37 set before you told me that you were content with staying in 15:43 that same position as long as you remained loyal to God. That 15:48 was your number one thing you wanted to be, remain faithful to 15:51 God and you didn't feel comfortable taking that test 15:53 That's powerful. 15:54 That's right. And I had come to the conclusion that whatever the 15:59 decision was that the chief was going to make, of Prince 16:01 George's County was going to make I would be comfortable with 16:04 that. If they decided well firefighter Lea this is when the 16:09 test is and we'll see you there or you won't take the test, if 16:13 that was the response that they had given me, yes I would have 16:17 been disappointed, I'll be completely honest with you. 16:19 I would have been disappointed but I would have been okay with 16:23 that response. So that's the way I kind of looked at it. The fact 16:27 that they ended up changing the test was not even something that 16:32 I asked, you know. And so I was overjoyed when I heard what they 16:36 had decided to do. And from that point, I'll be honest with you, 16:41 when I showed up to take the test it was incumbent upon me to 16:43 pass that test because they had made some real adjustments here. 16:47 And so I had a little bit of pressure for me to perform after 16:51 making a change like that... 16:55 Yeah. The beautiful thing that I see in that story is that you 16:58 know when you take a stand for God he stands for you. I mean 17:02 you look at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When they said you 17:05 know we have no need, they were speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar 17:09 we have no need to answer you on this matter. Whether or not 17:12 out God delivers us from your hand, okay, you know, we're not 17:17 going to bow down and worship your statue. We're going to 17:20 serve our God. And they were in the fiery furnace; Jesus came 17:25 down and stood with them in the midst of their trial. 17:27 No question and what's interesting about that and 17:32 even you situation you bringing they're obviously a different 17:35 level of standing up which they did but I think I do understand 17:38 their confidence. When you make a decision like that and you're 17:44 in connection with God, it gives you a certain amount of 17:48 confidence. I'll be honest with you. When the chief came in and 17:50 the chief had never spoken to me before. He's the chief, I'm the 17:53 firefighter, (stutters) a young firefighter at the time and had 17:58 never spoken to the chief before but I was speaking to him with a 18:03 certain amount of confidence which I think he saw, not 18:06 arrogance but a certain amount of confidence that basically 18:10 said whatever you decide I'm going to be okay. And I have a 18:15 feeling that's the same confidence that the three Hebrew 18:20 boys had. You know the king has a decision to make and they're 18:22 basically telling him you can decide whatever you want to do. 18:27 And having that connection with God gives you that type of 18:32 confidence that allows you to go forward come what may and 18:38 that's the feeling that I think I had (inaudible). 18:42 So Adventist Community Services. What do they do? 18:48 That's an interesting question. It varies. And what I mean by 18:53 that is what Adventist Community Services is doing in New York 18:57 City is going to be a little different than they're doing in 19:02 Bozeman, Montana, and rightly so. There are different needs in 19:06 Bozeman, Montana. And it would be foolhardy for Adventist 19:10 Community Services to be the same in New York City as it is 19:13 in Bozeman, Montana. That would not make sense. And so Adventist 19:17 Community Services is what the community needs wherever it is. 19:22 And so part of the challenge that we have in Adventist 19:25 Community Services is identifying what are the needs 19:30 in the community where we are. And so what that means is we've 19:35 got to be a part of the community. You've got to be out 19:37 in the community. We've got to be talking to the community. We 19:40 can't keep ourselves holed up within the four walls of our 19:45 churches. No, we got to be out there in the community 19:50 connecting with them, engaging with them so that we have an 19:54 understanding for what are the needs, what are the strengths 19:56 in the community. And once we figure those things out 20:00 determining how can we now be a resource for that community 20:04 where we are. 20:07 And so as you're out in the community are people connecting 20:12 with the locals, are they networking, are they...you know 20:15 it's like Christ's method of evangelism and that's what's 20:19 taking place. What are some relief efforts that have taken 20:22 place? 20:23 Oh goodness. All different kinds of relief efforts. They're all 20:29 over the place. We do everything from disaster response which we 20:34 did most recently in Mississippi Mississippi. We were able to 20:41 respond to a tornado that had devastated a couple of small 20:46 cities there in Mississippi. We've got a South Central 20:51 Adventist Community Services conference there that is very 20:57 responsive to the needs of the community there. That particular 21:02 situation, the one that I'm telling you about, that storm 21:05 took place around two o'clock in the morning, two o'clock 21:08 Sabbath morning of all things. Sabbath morning that thing took 21:12 place and within a couple of hours our Adventist Community 21:18 Services Disaster Response Team was able to be on-site with 21:24 product that they were delivering to individuals within 21:28 the community that had just gotten devastated by a tornado 21:32 that came through, including ourselves, let me be clear. 21:35 Our local Seventh-day Adventist Church is actually no longer 21:39 standing Amory, Mississippi. The church itself was actually blown 21:43 away during that tornado activity that took place there 21:48 in Amory. But even as we were struggling and going through 21:52 we were still able to be of support to that community. 21:57 That's beautiful. Well you know we actually have a video that 21:59 shows a little bit of the relief efforts taking place. Let's take 22:02 a look at that right now. 22:03 All right we're here in Amory, Mississippi. I need to see 22:10 people here coming through for help. These are people that live 22:13 in the affected community that was struck by the recent tornado 22:19 And you can see we got various supplies, things from water to 22:25 clean-up kits to hygiene items to Pampers of some of the 22:35 children (inaudible). So that's the type of help that we are 22:39 able to give as individuals try to recover from this most recent 22:45 series of tornadoes that came through a little over a week ago 22:50 (inaudible) 22:55 Wow, praise God. How were you able to mobilize so quickly 23:01 especially with the devastation that just took place to the 23:04 church and all that? How was the team ready to move so fast? 23:08 Well, thank you for that question. The only way you can 23:13 respond in that way is that you be ready before the event. We 23:20 have a saying with Adventist Community Services, You need to 23:23 get ready during the blue skies when nothing's going on because 23:27 if you wait until a tornado or hurricane takes place it's too 23:30 late. You need to get ready. And so in that case you saw some 23:35 of the distribution that was taking place there. At two 23:42 o'clock in the morning the team members got calls, they have a 23:48 call tree set up. They started getting calls, Hey we've got 23:51 something that going on here we think we may have to mobilize. 23:55 So they already started putting in place a disaster response plan 24:00 within an hour of that situation taking place there in Amory. 24:05 And so based on that they were able to go and visit one of 24:09 their local warehouses where they were able to pick up 24:12 product that had already been stockpiled, put that product in 24:16 pickup trucks and vehicles and headed towards Amory. I say to 24:22 folk all the time about that situation, they got that call 24:27 around three o'clock in the morning. By 11 o'clock hour 24:29 11 o'clock hour, think about that Sabbath morning. What 24:32 generally happens at 11 o'clock hour? Most of our people were in 24:35 service. They're at service, but they're in service right there 24:40 in Amory. Three o'clock in the morning. By 11 o'clock they were 24:43 distributing to that same community that was affected by 24:46 that tornado. 24:47 That's beautiful. That is huge. You know they had all kinds of 24:52 tangible items, things that they were going to need. Even took 24:55 care of the kids. So what came about after that, you know? How 25:01 did the community, how receptive was the community to the 25:05 Adventist church as a result of the response in their time of 25:08 crisis? 25:10 Well I'll say this and I was talking with some of the 25:13 citizens from that affected community. I had an opportunity 25:16 to wake up early one morning and I went out and just walked 25:20 around the community there that was still trying to figure out, 25:24 you know, what they were going to do and I talked with them and 25:27 they said an interesting thing. They said, These people care 25:32 about us even though they're going through something. And I 25:35 thought to myself, isn't that something. You know what kind 25:38 of seed is that that we are planting in the minds of 25:44 individuals in this community that are experiencing this 25:47 devastating time. The fact that they know that that local church 25:52 down the street is really concerned about us. You know, 25:58 in my mind, that's a ministry that we are involved in. What 26:04 type of benefit is that going to pay? I don't know. But I know 26:08 that it's in their minds that that church cares for them and 26:12 our hope is that when they come to us, they see the love of Jesus 26:17 in us that compels us to do the type of work that they see us 26:22 involved in. 26:25 Amen. Absolutely. What are some other response efforts that have 26:28 taken place? 26:29 Well we do more than just disaster response and that's 26:34 what I'll share with you. And that's one of the challenges 26:37 that we have within Adventist Community Services is getting 26:41 the word out there as to what is Adventist Community Services 26:44 doing. We do, yes, emergency response, yes, but we also do 26:51 community development. We also do emotional and spiritual care. 26:55 There are so many other things that we get ourselves involved 26:59 in based on what does the community need, what are the 27:04 strengths in the community. One that comes to mind, one of 27:07 the challenges that we have seen and been dealing with out west 27:13 primarily, no solely but they're dealing with it at a level is 27:18 homelessness. We have found that the homeless community has risen 27:24 the numbers have risen especially out west in places 27:27 like California, Oregon and Washington state. They are 27:32 struggling with trying to figure out what can we do about that? 27:36 And so Adventist Community Services have been struggling 27:41 with that as well. One place in particular, a place called 27:45 Tillamook, Oregon. They have been sitting back thinking to 27:50 themselves Wow, we've got an awful lot of homeless in our 27:53 community. What can we do? And one of our directors, a young 27:57 lady by the name of Donna, Donna Parks, she was thinking one day 28:02 and she was looking around their property there at the church and 28:08 she said you know we don't do anything all of the parking lot 28:12 that we have. Maybe we could take a portion of the parking 28:16 lot and do something for the homeless. And so she got to 28:19 talking with people in the community and they ended up 28:25 coming up with something called little homes and they went about 28:32 building little structures, little homes that they actually 28:38 put in a section of their parking lot. And they did that 28:41 about two years ago. And I was able to visit with them and take 28:45 a look at these little homes. They house two people in these 28:49 little homes. They're able to stay there for a period of time 28:53 Now the goal is to transition them out and so we have case 28:57 workers that work with them. They do job training, they're 29:02 able to take advantage of the little thrift store that we have 29:04 on-site there. So if they need to go for a job interview 29:08 they're able to get some clothing there. We got a food 29:12 pantry there that they're able to take advantage of. Again 29:17 looking at the needs within that community they said that's 29:20 something we can do and it's a fabulous opportunity that we 29:27 have to serve the community right there in Tillamook. 29:31 Absolutely. And you know what? We have a video of that and so 29:33 let's take a look at how they stepped up to the plate and the 29:37 difference they're making. Let's look at that now. 29:39 So this is our micro shelter project in the backyard of 29:44 Adventist Community Services here in Tillamook and it has 29:47 been having...it's been occupied for about two-and-a-half years 29:52 now. It is managed by Cares. Case managers take care of the 29:57 individuals that stay in each one of the shelters. The 30:00 shelters can take two people. There's two bunks, a heater and 30:04 a light, refrigerator, microwave They use our bath house 24/7. 30:10 There's not really any room to expand with the number of people 30:15 that we have using our small bath house. So we have dreams 30:19 of expanding with a dedicated bath house for the micro shelter 30:25 project and use this piece of property along the K line to 30:30 to have at least a few family size micro shelters that can 30:37 house more people. There's lots of things, we could innovate. We 30:40 could have RVs in there a huge lead in Tillamook County and a 30:45 lot of other placed I'm sure where the RVs don't quite meet 30:51 the criteria of the parks that people are trying to get into. 30:54 But the micro shelters have been such a positive program. There 31:03 have been approximately 34 people move through this shelter 31:09 project in two-and-a-half years. And it's just amazing, amazing 31:16 to be a part of it. 31:19 Wow, that's incredible. I mean imagine going from off of the 31:23 street and then having a roof over your head and having case 31:30 workers working with them. I mean that is amazing because now 31:33 they're being put into a position where they become 31:36 employable and all of that stuff How do they get their mail? 31:40 Wow, thank you for asking that. Let me be clear, no one person 31:48 can do all of this. Our Adventist Community Services is 31:51 actually working with our local church there. And so in addition 31:57 to the local church, we have other partnerships within the 32:01 self-same community. And so if those individuals need to get 32:07 mail they can actually...they have a system worked out where 32:10 they can receive it right there at the thrift store. And so mail 32:14 can come so they get an address which is a real help to many of 32:18 these people. Because if you're living on the street that can be 32:22 challenge. Where are you ever going to get mail. Well in this 32:25 case they have an address. And so they're able to take 32:28 advantage of the actual physical address right there at the 32:31 church. 32:32 Yes. How did Adventist Community Services get started? 32:36 Well we started way back in the late 1800s. Some members of our 32:42 church, some ladies, got together after a fire had taken 32:48 place. So they said wow, the community had some needs. And so 32:53 based on those needs they started serving there and 32:56 Adventist Community Services has been running ever since. We just 33:01 had an anniversary celebration last year in Texas, in Dallas, 33:11 Texas where all of us got together and came from all over 33:15 the North American Division. You know COVID was still a thing 33:20 and many of our people were thinking about that but were 33:26 able to come together. We were masked up and you know took all 33:28 the precautions that we could but, yeah, we've been involved 33:33 in this work since the 1800s and continue to do that in 33:37 communities all over the North American Division. 33:39 That's wonderful. You know we said the North American Division 33:41 but who's all represented in the North American Division? 33:45 Ah, North American Division. North American Division and this 33:49 is a challenge for us because many of our members don't 33:52 understand what the North American Division is. The North 33:56 American Division geographically includes the United States, 34:00 Canada, Bermuda, Guam, and the Micronesian Islands. That is the 34:07 North American Division. 34:09 So do you ever have to travel to Bermuda? 34:12 Well, we do. They pulled my arm a little bit. Yes we do get over 34:17 to Bermuda and I can tell you our teams over in Bermuda are 34:23 doing fabulous work. Dora Baker who's our ACS director there 34:26 is really leading an effort there. You can't go to Bermuda 34:32 and not hear about Seventh-day Adventist Church because 34:36 Adventist Community Services is so engaged in Bermuda. 34:39 ACS, do they only help Adventists? 34:44 (Chuckles) Some people think that believe it or not. We help 34:50 communities, that's what we do. Now there are times when 34:53 Adventists are part of the community and so we help 34:58 Adventists then. But no, we help everyone that is affected by 35:03 either crisis events or have some challenges. We help the 35:06 community as a whole, yes. 35:08 Now this is...it has to be expensive, going in and 35:13 mobilizing the troops last minute like this and supplying 35:16 all of these needs, meeting all of these needs. Has to be 35:21 expensive so does ACS, do you guys charge for these services? 35:25 Actually, we do not. We do not. We are a ministry of the Seventh 35:31 day Adventist church and as such we are supported by our members. 35:37 We have two offerings that take place every year, in May and in 35:42 December and that enables us to do some of the real positive 35:48 things that we're able to do and so we do take donations. And so 35:54 we would love to get donations some of your viewers as they are 36:01 able to. But it is our membership, our members of the 36:05 Seventh-day Adventist Church that enable us to do all the 36:08 positive things that we're able to do out in the community. 36:11 Absolutely. How has being in your role and being a part of 36:15 Adventist Community Services, how has that strengthened your 36:18 faith? 36:20 Oh my goodness. It has reinforced my thought that if 36:30 you are connected this way everything else will take care 36:37 of itself. And I have always believed that, but in this role 36:44 I'm actually able to see it in action. You know. I've seen some 36:48 really horrific things that have taken place down through the 36:52 years and the fact that ACS is able to come in and be a 37:00 resource to individuals that are struggling, all individuals that 37:05 are struggling really does reinforce my thought that God is 37:10 ultimately in control even when things seem out of control. He 37:16 is able to be that steadying force regardless of what you're 37:20 going through. 37:21 And it's beautiful because I look at ACS and I see a light 37:25 in a dark room, you know. There's a light in a time of 37:28 darkness. So many people are going through this despair and 37:32 you know after a disaster like a tornado, or a hurricane or 37:35 something like that where you don't even know how you're going 37:39 to rebuild, to see a group of people out there that are 37:44 suffering alongside of the other people providing and 37:49 meeting those needs. I mean that's powerful as you mentioned 37:52 earlier. 37:53 It really is powerful, it really is. And you know being involved 37:58 in this work there are times when people will approach me and 38:03 say you know does that ever get you down? You know seeing so 38:07 much devastation, seeing so many people struggle through 38:12 various challenges in the community. And I say to them 38:15 No, it doesn't get me down because I know there's an answer 38:20 to all of that. You know and if we look at him he's going to see 38:25 to it that we get through. And don't get me wrong. I don't want 38:28 it to appear as if I don't ever have questions, you know, 38:34 because there are times when I have questions but ultimately 38:37 I know where to look for the answers. He's always got them 38:39 for me. 38:41 Amen. What would you say are some of the greatest challenges 38:45 that ACS faces? 38:47 Chuckles. This may strike you as strange but one of the 38:53 challenges we have is getting the word out there that we, the 39:02 Seventh-day Adventist churches are involved in the community. And 39:07 the reason I say that may strike you as strange, we've got people 39:11 that are out there doing the work but we have a problem 39:18 telling that story sometimes. I struggle with my folk, my ACS 39:25 folks, sometimes and I tell them Hey make sure that you post that 39:31 you did such and such. And they say, they look at me as if I 39:35 don't have time for that. You know, we're spending time on the 39:39 real work. And I say well I get that but we've got to spend a 39:45 period of time on getting the word out there because it might 39:49 encourage someone else to get involved, the fact that we're 39:53 doing some of these incredible things that we're doing. We've 39:56 got to share that story. And many times I get comments like 40:03 how come the Seventh-day Adventist church isn't out there 40:05 like the Red Cross or some of the other help organizations 40:08 that you generally hear about. Well we don't spend a lot of 40:12 money publicizing what we are doing and I'm not knocking some 40:18 of the others who may spend you know a great deal in getting the 40:24 word out there. We don't do that and that's something we've 40:27 got to do a better job of. I'm not saying we have to pay to get 40:31 it out there but we've got to do a better job of being more 40:35 intentional on letting people know some of the good that we 40:38 are doing out there (inaudible). 40:41 Absolutely. Well I can say that I'm happy you're here on Three 40:44 Angels Broadcasting Network getting the word out. We're 40:47 going to get the word out by God's grace. And it's exciting 40:51 to see the things that are taking place with ACS. What is a 40:57 typical day...now this is a crazy question because I'm sure 41:01 that you don't have a typical day but what does a typical day 41:05 in your life and in your role look like? 41:06 You know you say typical. That's an interesting question. It 41:14 really does adjust based on what's taking place. What I mean 41:19 by that is first of all I laid out for you what the North 41:22 American Division is, the sheer expanse of the North American 41:27 Division which means there is always something going on. Just 41:34 this morning as an example I got a call from our friends with 41:40 FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency and they 41:43 reached out to me because they are interested in us sending 41:48 some teams over to Guam because they know we have forces over in 41:53 Guam, we have some resources over in Guam and we have 41:57 supported them previously over in Micronesia and so they wanted 42:02 to know if we could again send some teams over there to help in 42:09 a rebuild program that's going to be taking place over in Guam. 42:12 And so before that, I had not planned on doing some work on 42:19 that particular thing but based on the call, I reached out to 42:25 some of our team members who have assisted us previously at 42:28 a rebuild and they are now standing up a team that's going 42:32 be ready to go probably within the next month and will be 42:35 headed back over to Guam to support the good people that are 42:40 over there. That may not be typical but that's what took 42:44 place you know within the last 24 hours which kind of adjusted 42:50 what we were doing. And so each day things come up and you try 42:56 to deal with them, you try to prioritize what's going to be 43:01 going to need to be dealt with. And that's what I find myself 43:06 doing each and every day is trying to support the entirety 43:12 of the North American Division which sometimes can be 43:16 challenges. Then you of course got the basic meetings that 43:19 go on each and every day that you try to deal with as well. 43:22 And so we every day try to start the day by starting with the 43:30 most important thing as we view it and you go down that list 43:34 You never come to the end of the list because it keeps getting 43:39 added to, but we do the best we can try to address some of 43:47 the needs that are in various communities all over the 43:50 Division. 43:52 Absolutely. What about, you know as we talk about communities, 43:55 what about the prison community, incarcerated community? 43:59 Hmm. Well I can tell you that is you know the Seventh-day 44:05 Adventist church has a ministry a prison ministry that is a part 44:10 of the church. And we were thinking, amongst ourselves, the 44:16 Adventist Community Services that that had been an area that 44:19 we had not done a lot about. We hadn't done a lot about. And the 44:24 reason it makes sense for us to get involved with a prison 44:27 ministry is because once those people finish doing their time 44:33 in prison, they're going to be coming out to the community. 44:36 Which means there is a role that we should be playing with them 44:42 while they are in there. And so we have over the last month or 44:48 so been meeting with our Prison Ministry Department and we're 44:55 going to try to figure out how can we collaborate together with 45:00 our prison ministry. As a matter of fact just this morning I had 45:04 a meeting with our prison ministry department and we 45:09 talked with them about collaborating together and so 45:14 we're going to be doing that over the next little bit and 45:17 connecting up my Adventist Community Services team with 45:20 our prison ministry leadership and figuring out how can we be 45:26 a better resource, because we have not done a good job as it 45:30 relates to that heretofore. But that is going to change. I had a 45:35 conversation with my vice President, Calvin Watkins, just 45:39 recently and he said we are going to make these changes and 45:44 so it's in place, discussions are in place and my hope is a 45:49 month maybe two from now we will have some real live programs 45:54 that we are working on with prison ministry. 45:57 Absolutely. They either come out and have crime or Christ. 46:00 That's beautiful. (We prefer the latter) Exactly. We want to 46:05 mirror Christ and we want that transition to be as smooth as 46:09 possible. If someone wants to get involved. I know they can 46:14 do it in their local communities but how do they get involved 46:17 locally and then how do they get involved outside of their local 46:21 community? 46:23 Well let me tell you how you do it because the answer is the 46:26 same. The way you get involved is do so locally and once you 46:31 get involved locally, that connects you with the system, 46:36 the Adventist Community Services system. Every local church is in 46:41 some conference every conference is in some union, every union is 46:46 in the North American Division. And so based on that I met with 46:50 my conferences every single month, every single month and 46:55 so if you're a local church there is an ACS director that 47:01 you can work with directly. That gets you engaged in and 47:04 involved with overall Adventist Community Services so it comes 47:09 through the local church. So that's the challenge that I give 47:11 to anyone that says they want to get involved. Do so from your 47:15 local church. This is an official ministry of the Seventh 47:18 day Adventist church and as such you're a part of that. So get 47:23 engaged and involved with your local church that connects you 47:25 with the system and now you're a part of us which means you 47:30 have access to resources. Take a look at our website 47:36 AdventistCommunityServices.org That will connect you with us 47:40 and enable you to be involved in the activity that takes place. 47:43 Give us that website one more time. 47:44 AdventistCommunityServices.org (repeats) 47:50 Okay absolutely. So they can get involved that way. Now explain 47:55 to me the difference between ADRA and ACS. 47:58 All right, yes! I'm glad you went there because I can't tell 48:03 you how many times people come up to me and say oh you're with 48:07 ADRA. And let me be clear. We love our brothers and sisters 48:12 with ADRA. They're a fabulous organization but understand this 48:15 about the Seventh-day Adventist church. The Seventh-day 48:17 Adventist church has two humanitarian organizations. One 48:23 of them is ADRA the other is Adventist Community Services. 48:28 Now within the North American Division is the responsibility 48:33 of Adventist Community Services to serve the community. ADRA 48:40 works outside of the North American Divisions so when there 48:46 are events that take place in a place like Haiti that's going to 48:50 be at the responsibility of our friends at ADRA. If something 48:54 happens within the North American Division that going to 48:59 fall on Adventist Community Services. Now let me be clear. 49:01 If our resources are maxed out like let's say for instance 49:05 something like a hurricane Katrina takes place. That's 49:10 going to take all of the resources that we have and so 49:12 when that happens we reach out to our friends with ADRA and say 49:17 Hey, can you assist us here? Conversely, if something takes 49:21 place that overwhelms their resources they're able to reach 49:25 out to us to assist them. And so we're in constant communication 49:29 I generally meet with them three or four times a year just to 49:34 make sure we're on the same page I sit on their board. I sit on 49:38 the board of ADRA. Their president sits on the Adventist 49:43 Community Services Board and so he's able to listen to what's 49:48 going on within Adventist Community Services. Conversely 49:50 we're able to keep up with what's happening with ADRA at 49:54 their board meetings. And so we're in close communication 49:58 but geographically we serve different areas. 50:02 Yes that's a beautiful thing to be able to work together like 50:05 that and to stay in the know and know what's going on with the 50:11 different organizations like that. What type of training does 50:15 one need to get involved with ACS? 50:17 Well we do have a training program. We don't just send 50:21 people out there. Generally speaking we have people 50:27 get training and we offer training all over the 50:30 North American Division. 50:31 Every conference has a training program 50:35 that they offer to individuals that want to get involved 50:39 in this work. I just got back from Michigan 50:44 Conference where we were able to give a five-day training 50:49 program to volunteers. We had about 40 volunteers that 50:54 came together and were with us every day for five straight days 50:58 getting training on how can they be of support to their 51:01 community so we offer that training all over. 51:05 If you are interested, reach out to your conference director 51:09 let them know you want to get some training and we'll 51:12 let you know where the closest training is that you can 51:14 take advantage of. 51:16 That's wonderful, what's the length of the training? 51:18 It varies, we do it based on what will the community bear? 51:23 Okay...We don't want to offer something that is going to be 51:26 too onerous on people so we base it on, what do they tell us 51:31 works for them. The training that I mentioned to you 51:34 in Michigan, they suggested they wanted the training for 51:38 five straight days and so that's how we did it. 51:41 I know that we got some people that want to get involved 51:43 and we're going to show you how you can get involved 51:45 and how you can reach out to Adventist Community Services 51:48 and then we'll be right back. Don't go anywhere. 51:52 If you would like more information about Adventist 51:56 Community Services you can write to them at: 52:14 you can call them at: 52:19 You'll find them online at: 52:24 or you can email them at: |
Revised 2024-06-04