Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY230055A
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00:04 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:15 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:26 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:36 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:56 ♪ ♪ 01:08 Hello friends. Welcome to 3ABN Today. My name is John Lomacang 01:10 and the woman sitting next to me that's matching my tie is my 01:14 lovely wife Angela. Always good to have you hon. 01:16 I'm happy to be here. I'm glad that you've tuned in. You're 01:19 going to be blessed by today's program. I was. 01:22 That's right. 01:24 When I say I was is because I was speaking to them backstage 01:27 so to speak. 01:29 Yeah, we kind of know what you're going to find out about 01:30 You know sometimes you think about plans that you might have 01:34 and you realize that you're plans dwarf in comparison to 01:37 God's plans. And so today the couple that we're going to 01:39 introduce you to in just a moment stepped into God's dream 01:43 which is way bigger than they anticipated. God said I know the 01:46 plans I have for you. And this plan it took decades to get to 01:51 this point but God's plans know no haste and absolutely no delay 01:56 And you'll find out...we discovered that the place that 01:59 this dream is coming to pass is a place on earth that the name 02:03 is duplicated nowhere else. That's how unique God chooses a 02:07 uniqueness and connects to the things he dreams about. But 02:11 before we introduce our couple we want to thank you for your 02:13 prayers and your financial support of 3ABN Television and 02:16 Radio. 02:19 Where my wife is employed. But before we go any further we have 02:21 some music for you today and who do we have Honey? 02:24 We have Ginger Pitchers and Tim Parton sharing a wonderful 02:29 rendition of Surely Goodness and Mercy. 02:33 ♪ ♪ 02:40 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 02:46 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 02:50 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 02:55 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 02:58 ♪ Both goodness and the mercy of the Lord my God ♪ 03:02 ♪ are right behind me every step I trod ♪ 03:06 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy going to follow me ♪ 03:11 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 03:13 ♪ The Lord is my shepherd a comfort to my soul ♪ 03:17 ♪ When I lose direction I trust the one who knows ♪ 03:22 ♪ The pastures and valleys restoring my faith ♪ 03:26 ♪ Guiding myself for the glory of his name ♪ 03:30 ♪ My cup runneth over My strength is renewed ♪ 03:33 ♪ Shout hallelujah! There's nothing he can't do ♪ 03:39 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 03:44 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 03:45 ♪ God said it and I heard it it's settled in my mind ♪ 03:50 ♪ Every day I walk with Jesus new mercies I find ♪ 03:54 ♪ I follow the leader and his Spirit follows me ♪ 03:58 ♪ Protecting my soul from what I cannot see ♪ 04:02 ♪ He goes before me and he walks beside me ♪ 04:06 ♪ Great God Almighty, I've got angels all around me ♪ 04:10 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 04:16 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 04:19 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 04:24 ♪ eternally ♪ 04:26 ♪ And I will dwell in the house of the Lord ♪ 04:31 ♪ forever and ever and ever more ♪ 04:35 ♪ Oh surely good and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 04:41 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 04:43 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 04:49 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 04:51 ♪ The goodness and the mercies of the Lord my God ♪ 04:55 ♪ are right behind me every step I trod ♪ 05:00 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 05:05 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ Let's tag it 05:07 ♪ Surely goodness and mercy is going to follow me ♪ 05:13 ♪ everywhere I go ♪ 05:24 Well thank you so much for that wonderful song, Surely Goodness 05:29 and mercy and there was a little bit of Ginger in there. 05:30 Yeah, nice and lively. 05:32 Nice and lively and when we talk about surely goodness and mercy 05:35 let's meet our guests right now who understand what that really 05:39 means. Jason and Annette Fornier Good to have you here at 3ABN 05:42 Thank you. Yes. Yes. 05:45 You know before we go any further...(Antionette) 05:47 Is it Antionette or(Antionette, right?)(guest nodding head) 05:50 Now see something a woman would know. 05:54 Well we want to welcome you both and before we move on to the 05:59 wonderful mission stories, story that you have, let's talk about 06:04 who you are and where you're from, and the name Fornier. 06:07 That's right. It's connected with the former president of ASI 06:11 Frank Fornier, yes. 06:13 This is his son. 06:15 Yeah, so my name is Jason and I'm from Kibidula in Tanzania 06:19 and this is my wife Antionette. 06:23 So I'm from South Africa originally and Jason's from 06:27 Canada originally but we were both 19 when we moved on to 06:30 become missionaries where we met married and are still living in 06:34 the same house today 22 years later. 06:37 Wow. So Jason you spent most of your adult life in Africa. 06:42 Yeah, so my parents actually brought me to Africa when I was 06:44 14 and we lived in Zambia on the Sutu. And then I left Riverside 06:50 when I was 19 and went to Kibidula. 06:54 Oh you sent straight to Tanzania to Kibidula. 07:01 I like that. And that's the name that we talked about by the way 07:04 if you were watching the program or listening that's the only 07:06 place in the world where the name Kibidula, at least to our 07:10 knowledge exists. But let's just kind of...This story is so rich 07:15 when it kind of gets some good foundation on it. Give us some 07:18 of the backdrop into the history and the miracle of Kibidula. 07:23 Well in colonial times there was a farmer, he used to work for a 07:27 large tea company in Tanzania and he purchased a farm that he 07:34 planned to retire. And this was a large farm, 4776 acres. And 07:43 unfortunately or fortunately but when Tanzania got its 07:47 independence they were not friendly to South Africa, they 07:53 were not in a good relation to South Africa and this farmer was 07:58 South African and he had to leave. Now he was not a 08:03 Seventh-day Adventist but his wife was. And when they had to 08:07 leave his wife convinced him to legally transfer the title of 08:13 that farm to the name of or into the hands of the church. And so 08:18 he did that. And it reminds me of Matthew 6:21 where it says 08:27 where your treasure is there will your heart be also and he 08:32 gave his treasure to the church and a few years after that he 08:36 also gave his heart to Jesus and he became an Adventist. 08:41 Amen. That's wonderful. And so now given the backdrop because 08:44 they seem to have been...there seems to be a lot of time 08:50 between him giving that property and then it getting into your 08:53 possession. Just give me some of that backdrop there. 08:55 Well the church it had this farm now and they really didn't have 09:00 the manpower or the means to do anything with it. So they sat 09:05 with this farm almost three decades. They requested 09:10 Riverside Farm in Zambia because they saw a successful program 09:14 there if they could do something with it in 1975. And Riverside 09:18 was unable at that time to do anything. But again when the 09:22 call came in 1989 could Riverside put together a team 09:28 and do something with this farm Riverside accepted the call and 09:33 Daniel Butler with the team of a doctor named Joshua Mopongo and 09:39 and an agriculturist named Gachi Chabala, they joined 09:46 together and went to Kibidula and started what we know today 09:50 as Kibidula Mission. 09:51 That picture we just saw was the team of individuals? 09:55 That was the team that started it. 09:56 For those who are familiar with Butler's Soy Foods, Soy Curls, 10:00 that's the Daniel Butler and his family that went to Kibidula so 10:04 many years ago to pioneer the work there. 10:06 Really, I have some Soy Curls at home. 10:08 So when I eat them now they're going to take on a different (it 10:13 is) different flavor. (Yeah) And so the team there started a work 10:19 that...Begin to tell me the direction of that work. How did 10:22 it unfold? 10:23 The idea was to have a self supporting mission so 10:27 agriculture supporting mission work, outreach evangelism. 10:29 Which is not a new idea to Adventism for those of you who 10:33 are familiar with the Madison training program. Madison has 10:37 many missionaries going from that program which started 10:40 the branches of ministries and Wildwood Sanitarium was one of 10:44 those. Wildwood gave birth to Riverside Farm in Zambia and it 10:48 is Zambia who started the sister project of Kibidula Farm in 10:50 Tanzania. So it's based on a work/training program training 10:55 the whole person. 10:57 But it proved to be more difficult to do the self 11:01 supporting part than the mission part. The climate is cold, and the 11:08 dry season is very long and dry, the economy at the time was 11:14 depressed. It wasn't easy to get business or agriculture going. 11:19 But the mission activities you know took off. A clinic was 11:24 started. An agriculture training school was started. An outreach 11:29 was going on. There was almost from the very beginning baptisms 11:33 were happening on a regular basis. And the church growth 11:37 just took off in that area. 11:39 And it was a small and a humble beginning because the 11:43 missionaries back then and I have to say even till today pay 11:45 their own way to come to the mission field. We pay very small 11:49 stipends, just to cover living expenses like eating and staying 11:52 there. So it's a very self sacrificing work but the Lord 11:55 has blessed and so from very small, very humble beginnings we 11:58 are very excited about what's happening right now and the 12:02 growth that we are seeing. 12:04 That's wonderful. How many people work with you, the staff, 12:05 and things like that. 12:08 By today if you take staff and students together all the 12:14 workers we are about 400 people. 12:17 Wonderful. 12:18 That's good. And when you talk about the large land you have 12:20 covering to be able to...now is all of that farming, or how did 12:25 parcel that. 12:28 Yeah. So for many years the farm didn't do much. We had some 12:32 gardens and some personal fields or small acreages but we focused 12:39 after recognizing that agriculture was not easy to do, 12:42 we focused mainly on our mission activities. 12:47 Which the focus on the mission activities is mostly education 12:50 We have a primary school where we have the children trained in 12:55 English and it's a significant issue because in Tanzania right 12:59 now children, and especially in the rural areas receive their 13:03 primary education in their mother tongue which is Swahili 13:05 and then when they switch to high school it all switches to 13:09 English which is a very big challenge to the children. So 13:11 giving our children an advantage ahead of time in the English 13:14 language is very valuable. We also run an agricultural 13:17 training center for at-risk youth, it's children who had not 13:23 progressed on to high school due to poverty or discrimination 13:26 against the sexes, abuse and they stay with us for three-and- 13:28 a- half years where we teach them agriculture and vocational 13:32 training and the goal behind that is to protect them for 13:35 three-and-a-half more years until they are more mature 13:37 enough to be able to be safe when they go out into the world. 13:41 And then we have a Bible school where we train lay missionaries 13:44 and our lay missionaries go out into un-entered areas of the 13:48 country and currently we have 42 We're very excited that some of 13:51 our lay missionaries also go on to get their pastoral training 13:55 and are active pastors in the Tanzanian church. 13:58 Wow. This is good. What's the nearest Adventist...Where is the 14:02 nearest Adventist college to you? To Tanzania where you 14:07 you are. 14:08 In Tanzania, there is an Adventist College in Arusha and 14:12 it's called The University of Arusha, but that's about a 15 14:19 hour drive from where we are. 14:20 The church in Tanzania is growing very fast. I'm sure if 14:25 you look at a map right now of East Central and 14:29 Southern Africa, it's 14:30 very green. The Adventist growth is happening very rapidly. And 14:33 so I remember there was a time in Tanzania where there were so 14:38 few pastors there were too many churches for one pastor. And I'm 14:41 thankful that it has changed and improved right now but there's 14:45 still, a need to train lay missionaries, people who are out 14:48 in the field, who can't afford to become pastors and that are I 14:53 have to say the majority of the workers out there bringing 14:55 people into the faith and those are some of the people that we 14:59 target and train. 15:00 But the fact is there's still a very large area especially in 15:03 the southern part of Tanzania where there are no or almost no 15:07 Adventists. Whole areas you know where you get villages that have 15:12 no Adventists and never heard the Adventist message. So 15:16 sending out missionaries that are trained a Kibidula into 15:21 these villages where they rent a home, they start living there 15:26 and then over time because many of these villages are Muslim. 15:31 You can't work fast in Muslim areas. But over time, two or 15:36 three years, then you start to build relationships with people 15:41 and you start building. 15:45 These are the lay missionaries that are the real pioneers. When 15:50 people look at us they think we sacrifice a lot but it's when I 15:53 look at my brothers and sisters out on the front line, they 15:56 sacrifice a lot. When a wife just gave birth to twins and 15:59 they both passed away because of inadequate care. I remember 16:04 at that time someone sent me a little care package with the 16:08 lotions and things that I really treasure and I sent it on to her 16:12 And just little things like that touching her. Someone remembered 16:18 her in her grief. You know I can go on with many stories but 16:23 those missionaries out on those front lines they're the ones 16:25 that are really raising up the church of God in Tanzania. 16:28 So you have a picture of a church that is there. Is it in 16:32 your community? 16:34 Um, no. So when we send out these missionaries from Kibidula 16:39 they end up in various places around Tanzania and they end up 16:45 raising congregations. And then the local communities or 16:54 congregations have the ability to like make brick, build a 16:58 building, but the roof is the expensive part, the part they 17:02 cannot afford and so some years back a project was started 17:08 through ASI called Roofs Over Africa. And through that project 17:13 we were able to roof over 2000 churches in Tanzania, Malawi and 17:18 Uganda and this is one of those. And that's one of those. We also 17:23 did the one-day church program and so we built an additional 17:28 1000 churches from Kibidula in Tanzania. 17:32 And I would like to say a very big thank you to all our 17:36 Adventist brothers and sisters especially in North America who 17:39 sponsored this one-day church program because there's 17:42 something that not everyone realizes. So there was a budget 17:46 attached to every church to be built and my husband was part of 17:52 the team building these churches in the Tanzania area, but every 17:56 penny that we saved of that budget went to support the 17:58 mission. So my husband and his team would sleep on the ground 18:01 or on the truck at night, not taking guest houses or lodging 18:05 and that project helped keep the mission floating a few more 18:09 years until God helped us figure out a way to become more self 18:12 supporting. 18:14 You know when you think about a church without a roof how is it 18:18 looked upon by the community? You're at a high altitude too. 18:22 So one of the amazing things is you know often the Catholic 18:26 churches have very nice church structures and other 18:30 denominations. And then if you have a very small new church 18:36 started in an area with no roof or no church built yet it's a 18:41 little bit...you know the church is a place where you know 18:45 weddings happen and you know it's a community center and 18:49 joining a church that has no structure is a little bit scary 18:53 like who are they? But once a church is built it's actually a 18:58 tool for evangelism because if they have a home to go to it's 19:04 a welcoming place and we have found that church membership 19:08 grows much quicker where there is a church than where there 19:10 isn't. 19:12 Because I know people have wondered like well if we give 19:14 money and we have churches built we don't want them to sit empty 19:18 and we can testify today that these churches don't sit empty. 19:21 It's the fact that there's a church, there's a church behind 19:24 this building that's legitimate and it draws people to come and 19:29 fill these churches. 19:31 And people can still be involved today. Just $1000 will roof a 19:38 church. And so contributions toward that project will help us 19:44 put up more churches. 19:46 Yeah we'll talk about that before the program is done and 19:47 we'll reach out to those watching. 19:49 A thousand, that's not a lot. Cause I know my sister she needs 19:51 a new roof and she said it's $20,000 to get a new roof. 19:56 That's 20 roofs on your church. 19:59 And we talk about that. We have been to Zimbabwe where we were 20:05 in a community many years ago where the people were meeting 20:08 under a tree that had a blue tarp on it. One of the old church 20:12 sisters (a deaconess) a deaconess, she had a little blue 20:15 and white. While we were building she was standing by 20:18 this tree and she was so excited We said what for. She says I 20:21 have prayed for this day. And when that whole complex was 20:27 built even the local police...We thought oh we're in trouble the 20:31 police are coming. But they came to enroll their children in the 20:34 school because it becomes a testament, like you said, to the 20:37 community. And that was with Maranatha. You know the roof 20:42 over Africa, is that what you call it? I saw the video at a 20:46 recent ASI where Garwin McNielus introduced that and they lowered 20:51 the roof, that was the project you talked about. (Yes) That was 20:55 interesting. But now you're reaching out to the people there 20:58 but then how are you getting through to them because you have 21:01 to educate them. How is that happening because you know are 21:05 there materials readily available for them to read in 21:08 their language? 21:10 Right. So we realized that education was going to be the 21:12 main way that we can reach and build up a community. So we run 21:16 three schools at Kibidula like we mentioned, the primary school 21:19 to reach our children when they're young. It was originally 21:22 started to reach our young children of our staff in the 21:26 community so they don't have to go off the boarding school when 21:28 they're only six or seven years old. And then we have the 21:33 agriculture training school for at-risk youth which we already 21:36 talked about as well. And then we have our evangelism school 21:39 And so bit by bit by sharing our needs, sharing our story, people 21:43 partner with us and they have helped us build these buildings 21:47 and I believe it's not just been a blessing for us on the 21:51 receiving end but it has been a blessing also for those involved 21:53 when you see these young people grow up and being able to live a 21:57 productive and self-respecting life witnessing for the Lord. It 22:00 pays off. 22:02 Wonderful. I have a question. Are these teachers accredited? 22:05 Where do you get these teachers from to teach the children? 22:08 Our teachers are well-trained and educated as required but we 22:13 we are not just restricting our possibilities to those who are 22:17 well trained. We have a few teachers on staff who have not 22:21 the academic qualifications but you could not find a better 22:23 teacher when it comes to love and educating and disciplining 22:26 these children so we do try and look at the character, love for the 22:30 Lord, devotion to the mission and ability. 22:33 (Wonderful) Something else happened there in this process 22:36 of growing because I talk about the bookstores and the printing 22:40 aspects of it because providing books, some ministries partnered 22:44 with you. Let's talk about that. 22:46 Yeah. Back in the 90s, we had one of our staff named Rudy Harnish 22:50 and he just had a burden for the literature work, getting 22:54 materials into Tanzania and he began importing containers of 22:58 books through the help of Light Bearers and other 23:03 individuals. They purchased books, filled containers brought 23:06 them to Tanzania and began distributing and even selling 23:10 books around Tanzania. And then we began getting people to 23:16 translate some of those books. And we're printing them in 23:20 Swahili and of course there is a huge demand for Swahili books. 23:23 And that outreach has really grown over the years. 23:31 So Kibidula has a very unique partnership where we work with 23:33 the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tanzania. Everything that we 23:38 translate gets edited and approved by the church first 23:41 and then once upon approval we then have permission to go ahead 23:45 do the graphics, do the layout and we partner with a sister 23:49 ministry in Poland called Springs of Life and they print 23:52 the high-quality booklets for us at low cost which we import then 23:56 and sell through the church system and colporteuring system. 24:00 Dr. Hans Diehl who unfortunately has recently passed, Dr. Hans 24:06 Diehl worked with us and translated his little book You 24:08 Turn. It was a best seller. People are so interested in 24:13 health. And the interesting thing about Tanzanians is they 24:15 love literature. They are not as blessed to have literature in 24:19 abundance like we do here. So they treasure what's given to 24:23 them in pamphlet or book form and so when we are able to bring 24:27 in these small colorful professionally printed booklets 24:29 at an affordable price people want to buy and pass on to 24:33 others. 24:36 That's interesting. What's going through your head? 24:38 No I like that. They're doing mission work just passing on 24:41 those books and yeah. 24:44 Like leaves of autumn. 24:45 Leaves of autumn, there you go. He's going to say something. 24:48 About 2012 I was going to Young but actually an elderly 24:56 gentleman from Idaho. He had a small printing press business 25:00 and he decided to donate his whole shop, print shop. So the 25:09 press and the tools and the guillotine, the thing that cuts 25:14 all the papers, all that equipment. He loaded it into a 25:17 container and sent it to Kibidula. 25:20 And his name is Mr. Bill Bosay and he didn't just donate his 25:24 whole shop. He closed his shop, moved to Africa and even though 25:28 he couldn't speak a word of the language he started our printing 25:32 work in that garage that you just saw. And though it was a 25:35 very small beginning today we are breaking ground for a second 25:40 additional building, a large building because our printing 25:43 presses after printing and distributing five million Glow 25:46 tracts in Swahili and many other tracts and Bibles, we cannot 25:51 keep up and so by God's grace we are now preparing and 25:54 receiving new presses to let the work grow and go on. 25:58 You need funds for that don't you? 26:01 Exactly. So we have actually cleared the ground, prepared the 26:06 foundations, but we still need to build a building and there's 26:09 a couple more pieces of equipment that we would 26:11 eventually, like to obtain to make our work more efficient. 26:15 We're looking for a paper sheeter that would be able to 26:20 take rolls of paper and cut them into sheets and that would be 26:23 much cheaper than importing already sheeted paper. 26:26 Okay. Somebody's listening. I want to reiterate: A paper 26:29 sheeter (yeah) that cuts the roll into sheets of paper. 26:34 Because we can import rolls much cheaper. It's called raw 26:38 material and sheeted paper is a finished product and so they tax 26:44 differently, if it's sheeted or rolls. (Okay) 26:47 Unfortunately, Mr. Bill is no longer with us. He passed away 26:51 last year. But his work continues and I'll always 26:55 remember Mr. Bill and him just coming and giving all that he 26:59 had. He would go around serving people's needs, dental needs or 27:02 medical needs. He would get paid with chickens. 27:05 He gratefully accepted them and so I'm reminded of Revelation 27:09 14 that says and their works will follow them. 27:12 Their works will follow. Think about the power of one. I was 27:16 just thinking from Idaho to Kibidula, Tanzania. That's a... 27:22 that's not something that you just wake up in the morning and 27:24 say I think I want to do that. That's a divine appointment to 27:27 be able to invest, as we saw in that picture there, his whole 27:31 printing outfit all the machines That's a lot to transport. So he 27:35 invested himself and then he ended up moving there to really 27:39 get it off the ground because I could imagine all this equipment 27:42 arriving and people said, So what do we do with it? 27:47 That's why he had to be there. Were you there when it arrived? 27:49 I was there when it arrived. And you know it wasn't his 27:52 original plan to go back. He donated, he began thinking and 27:58 it's like it's back to that same verse I quoted earlier: Where 28:00 your treasure is there will your heart be. And he followed his 28:04 treasure and gave his whole life to the work of printing. 28:06 Just like the one that donated the land. (Yeah) 28:10 That's true. It's amazing how God works. You know the people 28:14 that have something like the Lord asked Moses, What's in your hand 28:17 And we're seeing that what's in our hand can be used by the Lord 28:21 He can divide those loaves and fishes, yeah. 28:24 And there's an email address and a website on every Glow 28:30 tract, every book printed. And as we distribute it people can 28:33 call us and contact us or look on the internet for further 28:38 information. And we get hundreds of thousands of visits to these 28:45 sites looking for more Bible studies or other materials and 28:50 one thing about the literature work, you don't always know what 28:53 the results are because they're not immediate and they're not 28:55 close to you. But we hear stories all the time of people 29:00 having on the street, picked up a piece of paper and the next thing 29:05 you know they're a church member. So we don't know what 29:10 the impact is of this work. But we know that one day in heaven 29:13 we will meet so many people who are there because of Bill Bosay 29:20 and his giving his life for this work. 29:25 Reminds me of that song, "Thank you for giving to the Lord for a 29:30 life that was changed." 29:33 We can't sing right now, but that's true. You don't know the 29:36 impact of it until you look back And I like that because all 29:37 those thousand, no you said millions, of pieces of 29:42 literature are going out. They will get that information. 29:44 You're planting seeds and then the resource that could come 29:48 back. We got this...We've heard those stories through the years. 29:50 And it's not older people alone that give themselves to the work 29:54 The power behind, or the movement behind that five 29:57 million push for Glow tracts is a young man who joined our team 30:01 about seven years ago. He is from Missouri, a farmer's child 30:06 (from Missouri?) Yes. He has never been anywhere else but 30:08 Missouri and he felt God's call to come and join us at the 30:12 mission field. He refuses to accept any pay. He is a 30:16 volunteer but he is a driving force behind so much of what's 30:19 happening at Kibidula today. And when I look at that young man it 30:23 keeps inspiring me to keep going and God's blessing and I just 30:27 want to encourage young people out there. If God is laying it 30:31 on your heart to join the mission field just pray about 30:36 it and ask God to open a way for you because when you look back 30:39 years later it may have been just the start of many amazing 30:43 things. 30:44 Are you accepting new missionaries? 30:49 Yeah, we're always looking for people. Mm-hmm. 30:52 Do you...where do you house them 30:53 So we have several houses on Kibidula and they are filling up 30:58 But we are looking for God's providence to keep expanding 31:00 just like I'm sure here at 3ABN. As the work grows you have to 31:03 keep up and yeah. 31:06 Now we talk about some of the things, the challenges that some 31:09 of the young people face there. Because we know wherever God's 31:14 work is being done there's always some kind of spiritual 31:16 challenge, community challenges. What are some of those 31:18 challenges that some of the young people face in your area? 31:22 I think the biggest thing that the youth of today face in 31:26 Tanzania in our area is poverty. And with poverty comes a lack of 31:31 education and opportunities which leads to boredom in the 31:35 villages. And so what we try and do is provide educational 31:39 opportunities for them. So the young people that come to our 31:43 schools don't have to pay tuition because we realize that 31:45 their parents are not able to, but they are agreeing to work. 31:49 They do plant and harvest their own staples for their own food 31:53 and in addition to agriculture they are learning vocational 31:57 trades like carpentry and tailoring with some basic 32:01 academic subjects. And our hope is that they can truly build-up 32:04 some self-respect when they realize their identity in Christ 32:07 that he made them with a purpose and that they can be a 32:12 blessing to many people. And also, our goal is that they be 32:15 ready to meet him. And so it's been a privilege to see 29 of 32:19 these young people give their lives to Jesus just the last 32:22 year and a half and be baptized. 32:24 Praise the Lord. Twenty-nine; that's the seed that came to 32:28 fruition, wow! 32:29 And we're just so thankful to our staff back at Kibidula. We 32:33 work with local staff and they realize that Kibidula is not 32:38 just a place for employment but that they are called to do 32:40 mission service whether it's in a school or in an office or on 32:44 the farm. 32:46 And so now something happened back in 2003 that helped 32:53 strengthen the educational system there. Talk about that 32:54 for us. 32:56 There was a lady in Colorado. She was quite advanced in age 33:00 and as she felt end approaching she was looking for a worthy 33:05 cause to invest some of her money. And through the ministry 33:09 of Eden Valley, she heard about Tanzania and Kibidula Mission 33:14 and our need to start a primary school because our teachers were 33:19 forced to send their little children to the nearest 33:20 government school. It was a little distance away and they 33:23 were still young, five, six years old. And so when she heard 33:26 that there's a need she invested $20,000 and that helped us to 33:31 start the Iva Werner Primary School and that was the birth of 33:35 the primary school. 33:36 What's the name of it? 33:38 Iva Werner. (Iva Werner) 33:39 Is it named after her? 33:40 Yeah, named after her. (Beautiful) 33:42 You know I'm looking at the cadence here, Idaho, Missouri, 33:46 Colorado, Canada. God pulling people from all different places 33:51 to funnel into the dream that he had. You want to share something 33:55 Well the Lord is not restricted in his resources. He owns the 34:02 cattle on a thousand hills and while he doesn't force our 34:05 hearts he does give a call to us and so when the Lord calls 34:10 his people answer to a large extent and through these people 34:15 all over the world 34:17 the work is going forward. And I believe Jesus will come soon 34:21 because of it. Also in the same year we were able to start that 34:25 agriculture school and it targets these school dropouts. 34:30 It's kids who didn't finish primary school or dropped out of 34:38 secondary school. They're the ones who end up into crime, sex, 34:46 alcohol and joblessness because they don't have a training. And 34:54 so going through our agriculture school, that gives them three 34:56 and a half years of protection and training. They come out the 35:01 other side with a skill that they can depend on and also they 35:08 become upstanding citizens. And through that school many of our 35:13 staff and the workers are former students in that school who've 35:18 graduated and they've become dependable. 35:20 So the staff that you saw in the previous picture with the 35:23 printing process, they are students in the agriculture 35:27 training. We have staff in our avocado pack house that used 35:31 used to be students as well because when they learn about 35:35 Jesus, it gives them a purpose higher than just living for 35:39 themselves. So often they want to continue with Kibidula and 35:41 ministry. 35:42 Beautiful. Now the agriculture. What fruits and vegetables do 35:47 you grow? 35:49 Yeah. So that dream of becoming self-supporting never left us 35:52 and even though we had a hard start eventually we did notice 35:57 that one thing that grew well was avocados. The avocados in 36:01 our gardens were like well better than the avocados you 36:04 taste anywhere else in the world and they grew prolifically. They 36:08 like that cool dry weather (non GMO) non-GMO yeah. And so 36:16 eventually, I thought you know why don't we grow avocados? And 36:20 we started planting. I had a big dream, I thought it was big. It 36:23 is like we're going to do 10,000 trees. And so I started planting 36:27 preparing the land and we received a donation to put in 36:32 some irrigation and I had asked for money to do about 30 acres 36:38 of irrigation. And then I worked really hard and made that money 36:45 go further and we ended up putting about 60 acres of 36:49 irrigated avocados in. (Wonderful) (Okay) And that 36:54 caught the attention of some people who were interested in 36:56 what we were doing and they partnered with us and we were 37:02 able to grow that you know from 10,000 trees. Now we're at about 37:07 78,000 avocado trees. It's a 500 acres avocado farm. Most of 37:12 the trees are still quite young. (There's a picture of it there) 37:15 There's a picture of it. 37:16 So those are avocado trees in the background? 37:18 Yeah. Some of the young ones. (Okay) And 500 acres is a big 37:22 area and this year from our pack house we are exporting about a 37:31 thousand tons of avocados to... mostly to India but also to 37:37 Europe. (wow) 37:40 How long does it take an avocado tree to grow? 37:41 One avocado orchard, one avocado tree. 37:44 Yeah an avocado tree will start producing in around three 37:50 years but it's you know a pretty small tree. Five to seven years 37:54 is when they reach a pretty good production. 37:57 That is interesting because when I look back at that picture the 38:03 people that were standing in front, are those the workers? 38:06 Yeah. I was in that picture too but it's our avocado team. 38:11 The wonderful thing about this whole avocado miracle is that 38:15 he always used to say, Honey, if I just had a million dollars 38:19 we could do so much more work and that's just an impossible 38:23 dream for poor missionaries. But then at the right time, 38:26 according to 38:27 God's providence people partnered with us and the dream 38:31 became a reality. Today we have three dams that we have built on 38:35 the property. The water is on the farm. There's no one down 38:40 stream from us. We are at a high altitude so we harvest at a 38:44 different time than the regular market season in the world. When 38:47 I look at the providences and I see how God has made this happen 38:51 Kibidula is God's farm. I have no other conviction but that 38:56 this is God's farm for such a time as this. Again when I look 39:00 at that map of Africa and I see how red it is up north of us and 39:04 there is no Adventist presence I'm asking myself at a time when 39:08 it was difficult to invest in God invested in Kibidula. At a time 39:12 when our colleagues were not believers, couldn't sleep at 39:16 night, we slept at night. We didn't know fully what God was 39:20 doing and I don't fully know yet what he's going to do but I know 39:23 God may use Kibidula to reach the rest of Africa to bless our 39:27 place. (Wow, wow) 39:29 Can you imagine what you could do with a million dollars. Wow! 39:32 the work that could be done, it's beautiful, the Lord owns 39:38 everything. 39:39 We're going to appeal to our viewers and listeners here. Just 39:43 describe the location of Kibidula because in the picture 39:46 we saw a young man with a coat on and when people think about 39:49 Africa, they think heat, you know desert (the climate) the climate 39:54 exactly. 39:55 Yeah people think of Africa as a place that's very hot and dry 39:59 like desert and...Tanzania has a lot of high-elevation areas. So 40:05 we live on a high plateau. The weather is cool. It can even be 40:10 frosty part of the year but not so frosty that it damages the 40:14 trees. (No snow?) No snow. But it never gets hot either. It's 40:18 cool summer and winter. We always wear jackets there. 40:23 There's very few days that you can get up in the morning and 40:26 say I don't need a jacket. 40:28 So what's the average temperature like? 40:30 On warm days we can get up into the 80s but often in the winter 40:38 months it's 50s and 60s and then 70s and low 80s is common. 40:45 You know I think of some of the practical questions because we 40:49 have so much conveniences here in America. What are some of the 40:52 conveniences that you don't have I'm thinking things like 40:57 internet, communication. How do you...Because it's so far away 40:59 from so much. Talk about some of those things. 41:04 Yeah. When we went to Kibidula there was no electricity and no 41:08 telephones. You used to have to drive two hours to the nearest 41:12 phone. 41:14 And remember we would wait until 8 p.m. when the satellite 41:16 was passing overhead so you can catch it and quickly send an 41:18 email. Later we advanced and we use formula milk cans from house 41:23 to house to send a satellite signal. And then we kept 41:28 progressing till now we all have cell phones and unfortunately my 41:31 husband does his office work while he's lying in bed. So 41:34 technology has caught up with us 41:38 (unclear)Now it's caught you. 41:42 But we're still a little bit remote. The nearest airport is a 41:49 town that's two hours from us. And there's no international 41:53 fights there so it's a 12 hour drive to an international 41:56 airport. (wow) We live on dirt roads but not so far you know. 42:05 It's only 45 minutes to the nearest little town and so... 42:11 As a wife maybe the thing that I missed most was homeschooling 42:15 my children. When we come on furlough every two or three 42:18 years, I have to buy curriculum for the next two or three years 42:21 And I can't sell it on eBay if it doesn't work for us. So I 42:26 remember spending a lot of time in prayer saying Lord, my girls 42:28 are growing, they're outgrowing some things. Please help me, 42:33 guide me to the right materials and I'm just so amazed because 42:38 we basically volunteer so we didn't have the money to know a 42:42 year ahead how we were going to fund their schooling but Jason 42:45 and I have always believed if we live by the fact that God has 42:48 promised to provide for our needs which he has and 42:50 every year he 42:51 has provided for our children's education. That's just one 42:54 example of a convenience that would have been nice if I could 42:57 have had access to a book store or take my girls to some 43:02 extracurricular class or something like that. 43:07 You know that's...We think so conveniently in America here and 43:11 when we go places and realize look north, east, south, and 43:15 west. Ah it's going to be awhile before we get to where we're 43:18 aiming to get to. 43:19 But Pastor John it's okay. You know I have learned and what we 43:22 strive to be an example to our team is that we need each other. 43:25 We need people who have the means that we need people in the 43:29 Un-entered areas of the world, one giving service and one 43:33 giving means to partner together and that's how we can finish the 43:36 work together. If we were just keeping to ourselves because we 43:40 understand each other better rather than to try and figure 43:42 other cultures or other people out, we severely limit ourselves 43:46 we severely limit our faith, we severely limit and retard 43:49 the work. And so it's a team effort coming together cross 43:53 culturally many times to further the work. 43:56 Are you able to watch 3ABN? 44:00 We don't actually have a TV. We can pull it up on our phone 44:04 though. (Okay) 44:07 So every now and then by kids would see Auntie Linda,_ 44:11 3ABN (when they were young) when they were young. (Right) 44:15 And so we think about...I don't know if we showed that last 44:19 picture of the avocado in the factory being packaged up. I 44:23 didn't see that one. Maybe I missed it. 44:25 Yeah, they showed...Packaged? Did you show that one? 44:28 The Package House. 44:29 Really interesting to know that India and Europe are benefitting 44:33 from those avocados. So you didn't bring any with you did 44:36 you? (Chuckles) 44:37 Unfortunately, America doesn't allow us to bring avocados. But 44:41 we are negotiating right now with the U.S. government and 44:44 hopefully within a year Kibidula will see that possibility of 44:49 bringing avocados to America. 44:51 Yeah. We don't know how it's going to pan out right now but 44:54 it's one of those interesting developments that are happening 44:57 He was not exaggerating when he was saying we grow superior 45:01 avocados. It really is true. People are seeking after them. 45:04 So we're excited about possibilities we're seeing where 45:07 that one may lead. 45:08 Yeah that's true because the better the avocado the better 45:11 the guacamole. Now talk about some of the needs you have. 45:15 Some of the specific needs because I want our audience 45:18 listening. As you mentioned Idaho, Colorado, a printing 45:23 press, all these things. Talk about some of the specific needs 45:27 that you have and I believe that God will move on the hearts of 45:30 those who are watching. 45:32 Well we always covet your prayers and you know thinking 45:40 about us, we need people to support the work in Africa. But 45:44 specific financial needs that people can partner with us on 45:47 is training the lay missionaries the Tanzanians who go through 45:53 our training course. It costs about $400 to train one 45:58 missionary. That's a five-month course. And then we send them 46:04 out into un-entered areas of Tanzania and that costs us about 46:08 $100 a month to maintain a family in an un-entered area. 46:12 That's only a hundred a month?! 46:15 So we sponsor them part-time with the understanding that half 46:19 a day they work for us and half a day they work to support 46:22 themselves. But we contribute $100 toward them so that they 46:25 can cover their basic needs. So people could partner with us to 46:29 keep our evangelism training center going at $400 per student 46:32 for a five-month course, or to help us support our lay 46:35 missionaries after the training at $100 a month. 46:39 And then like I mentioned earlier we are building a new 46:42 printing press, the foundation has been started and we do need 46:47 help to finish that building so that we can move our new 46:52 equipment which is almost in Tanzania. It's on the 46:54 way. And be able to print more tracts, more literature, more 47:01 Bible studies and, of course, books. 47:03 And then we mentioned the church building program. So if anyone's 47:08 willing to partner with us through ASI the church Roofs 47:11 Over Africa project. For $1000 you can put a tin roof...No I 47:15 need to not say tin roof because we are no longer living in the 47:18 days of the tin roof. The technology has become so much better now 47:22 It's an Aluzinc combination that they use now and these 47:26 roofs have lasted for decades now. When people work together, the ladies 47:32 and the men work together to make their own bricks and they 47:35 can build the walls. But the struggling aspect for them, the 47:37 stumbling block is the roof itself. It's very expensive and 47:42 so for $1000, you can help a congregation to put a roof on 47:45 their church. 47:47 That's right. The banner over me is love as the children used to 47:49 sing that song and as I'm looking at this I'm thinking 47:54 how could our viewers and our listeners you know partner in a 47:58 significant way as we, Antionette and Jason, as we 48:04 listen to what God in the life of Kibidula Farms. Let me ask 48:09 another question. If people want to volunteer, if people want to 48:13 come there, how do you do that? 48:14 Right. So we love young people Student missionaries are always 48:20 welcome whether they come through a university like 48:22 Southern Adventist University or just by themselves. They are 48:25 welcome to contact us and start dialoguing with us. If they're 48:29 looking for an opportunity for six to nine months to come and 48:32 volunteer in any of our schools or on the farm or in our PR 48:36 department or in the offices. We would love to dialogue with 48:39 them and welcome them. For some other people who would like to 48:42 some and help us, we have some building projects going on right 48:45 now. We are actually looking for someone who could oversee a 48:49 building project for us for the next several months. If someone 48:54 would like to help us in our office with administration, we 48:57 do need someone to help us just organize our office and run it 49:01 so that we can keep up with the demands. We are looking for just 49:08 anyone who's willing to even partner with a wonderful 49:10 ministry called Child Impact. Child Impact goes around the 49:16 world to save young children from the trafficking business 49:21 and vulnerable at-risk children. I had a wonderful opportunity 49:27 to meet with Child Impact at ASI And that's why ASI's so 49:31 wonderful because you can network and make connections 49:33 The Child Impact has been willing to work with me to 49:37 sponsor some of the girls in our agriculture training program 49:40 So people supporting Child Impact is indirectly also 49:44 supporting ministries like Kibidula. 49:47 Okay. And so if you were to say the most urgent need you have 49:51 how would you respond to that? 49:54 Well the thing that's really on my heart right now is getting 50:00 that printing press building complete. 50:03 Just give us an idea the cost upper cost in your estimation. 50:07 Building in Africa is a lot cheaper than building in 50:11 America. You know when I say a figure in America it would be 50:15 hard to build a house in some places but you know about 50:21 $200,000 would build us a substantial building and so 50:25 that's what we think we need for that building at this time. 50:28 The other thing also and one of the reasons we are in the U.S. 50:31 for a few weeks is not just to give donor reports but also to 50:35 ask for people who are going to partner with us because even 50:38 though we started the avocado exporting business we're not 50:41 quite making a profit yet. The business is still in it's 50:45 infancy and while it's going well we still need support 50:49 for another year to keep the mission operations going and 50:52 then it's our goal as soon as the business has enough profit 50:55 that we can support our mission but then also expand the mission 51:00 work across Tanzania and beyond and support missions. 51:02 Do you have a church pastor? 51:04 No, we...we're... 51:07 We're under the care of a district pastor and then 51:13 dependent on our own staff as well. So we could use a chaplain 51:16 if there's someone out there with a heart to keep 51:19 missionaries and staff motivated and grounded in the love of 51:22 Jesus, please, do communicate with us. 51:25 Wow. What a program, what a program. We're going to talk 51:28 about some more on the other side but as you think about what 51:31 God can do in your own life just think about Kibidula Farms and 51:35 you may be located somewhere in America or somewhere around the 51:38 world we're going to give you information that you need to get 51:40 in touch with Antionette and Jason there at Kibidula Farms 51:44 and become a partner by advancing the work in Tanzania. 51:48 We'll be right back after this short thought. 51:51 If you would like to contact or know more about Kibidula Farm 51:57 you can do so in the following ways: You can write to them at 52:01 P.O. Box 17, Mafinga, Tanzania, East Africa. You can call them 52:06 at +255 (756) 993-336 You can also contact by 52:19 Whatsapp. You can send them an email at kibidula@gmail.com or 52:24 visit their website at kibidula.org |
Revised 2024-07-24