Participants: Yvonne Lewis (Host), Rachel Williams-Smith
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000111
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00:01 Stay tuned to meet a woman
00:02 who was born in the 20th Century 00:04 but raised in the 19th Century... 00:06 My name is Yvonne Lewis and you're watching 00:09 Urban Report... 00:32 Hello and welcome to Urban Report... 00:34 My guest today Dr. Rachel Williams-Smith... 00:38 Chairwoman of the Department of Communications 00:40 at Andrews University, and author of "Born Yesterday" 00:45 in addition to being a very accomplished woman, 00:48 Ms. or Dr. Williams-Smith has a very interesting story 00:52 to share... welcome to Urban Report 00:54 Dr. Williams-Smith... Thank you for having me... 00:57 May I call you Rachel... Please... okay, that's who I am 01:00 Okay... good, good, good... Rachel, your story 01:04 is so compelling... I have heard bits and pieces 01:07 and I know a little bit about it 01:10 but I want... and our viewers love 01:12 a good story... so, I want you 01:15 to share with us your background... 01:18 because your background is really, really interesting... 01:22 So, the questions most people would ask me then 01:25 in relation to my background is, "Why does your book title say 01:28 that you were born in the 20th Century but raised in the 19th?" 01:30 So start there... that would be a good 01:32 starting place... that's a good starting place... 01:35 so, my background is that up until the age of 5, 01:38 my life was fairly normal... but at around 5-years-old 01:44 my parents... when I was about 5-years-old 01:46 my parents had been doing a lot of reading 01:48 and they began to make changes in our lifestyle... 01:50 so it was a process that happened over... 01:53 just a few years... it started with our diet 01:56 and then it moved to dress... 01:58 my mom told me that 01:59 she had been reading about how women should wear their 02:03 dresses down to the foot, 02:05 and how Jesus wore a robe down to the foot... 02:08 so, that was the first thing... and then... 02:11 And this is an Adventist home... 02:12 this was an Adventist home... so she was telling me 02:14 that she had read in the writings of Ellen G. White... 02:16 two to three inches from the floor... 02:17 Jesus wears a garment... Revelation Chapter 1... 02:20 down to the foot... so, I wanted to be like Jesus 02:24 so I started wearing the dress, the long dress... 02:27 and then it was the diet... and I still remember my 02:31 mother said that she was going to fix us 02:33 one last... really good meal... and then... 02:34 we were going to go "all healthy" 02:36 and we did... I didn't like it... 02:38 Wow, it's interesting because it was not a gradual shift... 02:45 it was an... just an immediate shift? 02:47 It was a gradual but intense, it was not gradual... 02:51 it was a series of things... Kind of incremental... 02:55 Yes, but it all happened very rapidly 02:58 and one on top of the other... so, first, the dress... 03:01 the diet and then the next thing was... 03:04 my parents began to feel like they needed to separate us 03:06 from the worldly influences, and at this time... 03:09 we were living in Huntsville, Alabama... 03:10 near Oakwood College... it was... at the time... 03:13 and my brothers were attending the Annanite Elementary School 03:16 Yeah... I went there too... 03:17 Did you really? I did... I did... 03:19 for a couple of years... All I ever got to do was visit 03:21 my brothers there one time, to see where I was 03:24 supposed to go next year, and my parents decided 03:27 at the end of that school year that they were not 03:29 going to re-enroll my brothers in school... 03:31 because they felt like they were being exposed to 03:33 too many worldly influences... 03:34 so, they decided to homeschool us... 03:37 but this was in the very, very early 70s... 03:40 about 1971 or 1972... somewhere there... 03:43 and homeschooling was not legal in the State of Alabama... 03:46 so the city ended up... 03:49 we were reported to the City 03:51 and the City ended up giving my parents an ultimatum 03:54 they either enroll us in either Annanite 03:57 or one of the Public Schools or we'd be taken away... 03:59 my father said, "I have a different... 04:01 I have a different option... " Exit... Stage Left... 04:05 so he bundled us up whisked us off to Arkansas 04:08 and then we began a kind of nomadic life 04:11 we ended up living in a bus that had been converted 04:13 into a mobile home, and we lived in Tennessee 04:17 and then we moved to a State Park 04:19 we lived in a State Park for a year, 04:21 and finally we bought 50 acres 04:23 out in Tennessee 04:27 the Central, Southern part of Tennessee... 04:29 and it was among a range of hills... 04:31 it was difficult to get to, several dirt roads 04:35 removed from the nearest paved road 04:36 no electricity, running water, 04:39 we were pretty much isolated up there 04:44 and by this time, we were also wearing bonnets... 04:46 that started when I was about 8- years-old... 04:48 we began wearing bonnets, my mother and I, 04:50 so we were in bonnets and long dresses... 04:52 living out... in the middle of nowhere... 04:54 and our modern convenience was a car... 04:56 and so we did have that... 04:59 and we had a chain saw for cutting trees 05:01 so we didn't just use the hand saw... 05:03 we had a chain saw there... 05:04 Now, let me just ask you something... were you... 05:07 did you have any other friends around... 05:10 did you have... was it just the family 05:13 in isolation or did you associate with other 05:16 like-minded families? It's a cross between the two 05:20 it depended on the time of the year and what was happening... 05:23 so, in the summer, in the spring and summer 05:25 sometimes people of like-mind would come 05:28 and either stay with us or stay with the Moreland family 05:32 which lived a mile up the road, 05:33 so it was just he and his wife... 05:35 but sometimes, they would... 05:36 people would come and stay on his property 05:38 in little campers and wherever they could live 05:42 or sometimes in his home with him 05:43 and we also brought people to stay with us 05:46 from time to time... they'd stay anywhere from 05:48 days to weeks and a few stayed for a month 05:51 or a few months, there was one family, 05:54 Sister Martha as I called her and she ended up 05:57 in the later half of the time I was living on the hill, 06:00 she ended up pulling up her mobile home 06:02 and she was up there on a piece of property 06:05 at some distance... so she had two younger children 06:08 so my closest companions were about 4 and 5 years 06:12 younger than me... and that was a period of 06:15 probably the last two years that we lived on the hill... 06:18 Can you remember what you were thinking during that time, 06:21 it seems like the adjustment must have been so... 06:26 it was such a rigid way to live, do you remember 06:29 how you were thinking then... was it just something that 06:32 you were hating, or were you just thinking 06:35 it was normal? I knew it wasn't normal 06:37 for other people's lives, but it was normal for mine... 06:40 it was... remember I never started school... 06:43 so, I never really did... I was right at the age where 06:47 the social life was about to happen 06:49 and then it didn't happen so, it was normal for me 06:54 pretty much... I knew that other people didn't live 06:59 the way we did... but the way they lived 07:01 seemed strange to me... and foreign... 07:05 so, I couldn't relate to it... Why? 07:07 I could only relate to our lives... 07:10 What was going on with your parents... 07:14 that they went from a moderate way of living to extreme? 07:21 Well, first they weren't trying to be extreme, 07:25 what they were trying to do is what a lot of Christians 07:29 and Adventist parents often tried to do 07:32 which is to live out everything that they believe is right... 07:35 but they had probably been reading more 07:37 than the average parent about all the reforms, 07:41 and they got focused on the reforms... 07:43 one thing I've learned in life is that... 07:46 what you focused on and emphasized... 07:49 is always more important 07:50 than what you say is more important... 07:52 Hmmm... unpack that a little bit... 07:55 Okay, so, they did believe in salvation by faith 07:58 in Jesus Christ and all... you know... 08:00 righteousness by faith, they believed 08:02 in all of these things... but the focus became about 08:06 what we knew and what we did... Hmmm... 08:09 and that's not unlike a lot of people you know... 08:11 Hmmm... their focus is on what they know 08:13 and what they do... and they tend to focus on 08:15 the details... so the number of inches from the floor... 08:18 you know... the width of your bonnet brim... 08:22 we kept New Moons and Feast Days... 08:24 and that became an issue because, you know, 08:27 do you observe the New Moons according to when the moon 08:30 is completely black and can't be seen like one segment 08:34 of the Jews believe, or do you observe the moon 08:37 New Moon Day according to whether there is 08:40 this little fingernail of a sliver... like another segment, 08:44 and see what would happen is, if you believe "this" 08:47 the black moon... and I believe in the little 08:49 sliver fingernail of the moon, then I can't worship with you 08:53 you can't worship with me, 08:54 so, there are very few people... anyway 08:56 that held our beliefs and then, so often, it was like, 08:59 "Get off my property and don't come back... 09:00 you're teaching error... " you know, 09:02 so I know I'm kind of going off of your question 09:05 but this is what... when you begin to focus on 09:08 details... there is no limit to how small those details become 09:11 because they all seem to be important... 09:14 Yes... what an interesting point... 09:16 as you're talking... I'm sensing... I'm feeling like 09:21 this was such bondage... we are to be free in Christ 09:26 and this is... nothing personal... 09:29 Sure... I understand... you know what I'm saying, 09:31 yeah... it's not anything against your 09:33 family or your journey... I understand... 09:36 but I'm just saying that the bondage involved here 09:40 has got to be so off-putting, you are such a... 09:44 as I interact with you... and we as interacted prior 09:47 to this Program... I mean... you're warm and you're friendly 09:50 and you're... you know... and you seem free 09:52 and I praise God for that... 09:54 I'm going to find out how that happened... 09:55 but prior to whatever happened 09:59 to turn this situation around, you were in such bondage... 10:04 I really was... you know, Jesus says, 10:07 "These things you ought not have done... " 10:09 and He is talking about the Pharisees paying tithe on mint 10:12 and anise and cumin... okay... He says, 10:15 "These things you ought to have done... 10:17 but not... these things you ought to 10:19 have done but not let the other undone. " 10:21 it's good that you want to get all the details right... 10:23 but you can't focus on all the details and the big 10:26 things at the same time... 10:27 you literally have to focus on what is most important first... 10:31 and the little details can fall into place... 10:33 more naturally... and yes... you are right... 10:36 I feel so amazingly free... 10:39 it's a place in my life 10:41 that I've wanted to be for a long time and I'm here 10:43 and I've been here for a while and it's a freedom 10:46 that comes in Jesus and understanding too... 10:49 there's a picture of me... at some point 10:51 you'll probably show it, 10:53 I'm dressed in a bonnet 10:54 and you can't see much of the dress 10:56 but I'm holding a Bible in my hand 10:58 and I'm looking so pious 11:00 and even though, by that time in my life 11:02 I had had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, 11:05 my mind-set was so filled with rules 11:09 and laws and obligations... 11:11 that I didn't know how to be free, 11:13 I didn't know how to be spontaneous 11:15 you know... righteousness was not about love 11:19 which is what it is about... Right... 11:21 instead it was about being right 11:22 in every exact way... 11:24 and that's why we couldn't, we had to live in seclusion 11:27 in our own little outpost as it were... 11:29 that's what we used to refer it to... 11:31 "Outpost on the Hill" we had to live like that 11:34 because there was no way we could have 11:35 maintained that life in mainstream society... 11:38 we had to separate... and yet, Jesus says, 11:40 that you are the light of the world... 11:42 you are the salt of the earth, 11:44 I want you to be in the world 11:46 I just don't want you to be of it... 11:47 Yes... right... right... but I have to say, 11:48 "I'm all up in this world... " 11:51 I'm not just of it... because the world is not 11:53 filled by love, and God has put love 11:55 into my life, you're supposed to be asking 11:57 my story and I'm preaching you a sermon... 11:59 No... preach... we love that... 12:01 I just have to say, "I have been set free... " 12:02 it's an amazing thing... 12:03 We can see that... we can see it in your countenance... 12:06 you are free... and you're free because of the 12:09 love of Jesus... it's not propelled by law... 12:14 it's propelled by love... 12:16 Yes... and relationship and that's 12:18 what you're showing... so, let's go a little bit more 12:21 into your journey... so we can find out how you 12:23 did the turnaround... so, so, okay... 12:26 so you're five-years-old... you're off to this outpost, 12:30 you lived there for how many years? 12:32 So, by the time we actually got out to the 12:36 hill in Tennessee... I was nine... by that time... 12:38 so just a few years of living in a bus and all that... 12:42 and then out on the hill and I was there until I was 16 12:45 heading towards 17... So you're a teenager now... 12:48 living... like that... where was your head 12:53 about the Lord... were you resenting all of this 12:56 all of these rules and... restrictions... 12:58 No, the funny thing about children and I've seen 13:01 other children raised in extremes like this 13:03 they kind of take the day-to-day some of the hardest things 13:06 are like hunger... when you are always hungry 13:08 I wasn't always hungry, my mother did her best 13:11 to feed us... both our parents did their best 13:13 to feed us... but there were times 13:15 when the food ran scarce and they'd tell us, 13:17 "You know what... time to exercise your survival 13:19 skills... go out and find your food today... " 13:22 so, there were those times but for the most part 13:24 they did try to feed us, but we only ate 2 meals a day, 13:26 another reform... see, I don't think we had it 13:28 in balance because I'm sure Ellen White meant that 13:31 young growing children should eat two meals a day... 13:34 right... so... going to bed hungry... 13:36 it was a routine thing... 13:37 I didn't even think of it as being hungry, 13:40 because you just drink cold water and go to bed... 13:42 it's not something you can do anything about... 13:43 I really have a hard time 13:46 answering questions about how did I feel... 13:49 because I think one of the things that I 13:51 learned early was probably not to feel so much... 13:54 Hmmm... 13:55 because it's just the way it was 13:58 and you don't necessarily question it... 14:00 Hmmm... hmmm... now I had an older... 14:03 the younger of my two older brothers 14:05 he did start questioning, and so... he had his eyes 14:10 wide open... long before he left, 14:12 but I was more of a gullible one I just... this is the way 14:16 it's supposed to be... and I'm ingesting it... 14:19 but yet the Lord was showing me things 14:21 after I gave my heart to him at 14... 14:23 He began to show me things that just didn't add up 14:25 to His character... Hmmm... now let's go back 14:28 and unpack this a little bit, how did you... 14:31 what happened that you decided to give your heart 14:34 to the Lord at 14? I had felt the drawing 14:37 since I was little... toward the Lord, 14:39 I even felt like He chose my name... 14:41 my name, Rachel Elizabeth, Rachel means "Ewe lamb" 14:45 and Elizabeth means "Consecrated one" 14:47 so I thought of myself as a lamb consecrated to God, 14:51 and I felt like 14:53 He had chosen my name... I had always felt 14:55 like I was special to Him in some way... 14:57 but at 14... what happened is there had been some people 15:02 had a number of families, probably about 15:05 five families total... when I say families 15:07 I mean it loosely because some were like 15:09 one person living in one unit, and then maybe 15:13 a single mother, a couple of children 15:15 and then another family here and there... 15:16 so there was a total of about five families that were 15:19 staying on the hill... in various mobile homes 15:23 and makeshift living facilities 15:25 between our home and Brother Moreland's home 15:27 which was a mile up the road, and so... for me it was like 15:31 an extremely social atmosphere, I actually had people 15:34 to be around from time to time and so, I was enjoying that 15:39 then they all moved... because as the fall turned 15:43 toward winter, nobody wanted to be up there 15:45 in that environment because it was very harsh... 15:48 No heat, no electricity... 15:51 right, exactly, they didn't want it... 15:53 so they all moved... and so I felt... 15:55 utterly alone, my only brother Mo 15:56 even he and his wife went to stay somewhere else 15:58 during the winter and so it was just 16:00 him living up the road by himself and then my family 16:03 and I felt so utterly alone after that little tease of 16:07 socialization... and that's when I began to realize 16:10 I can't control anything in my life... 16:12 I don't have the ability to make people be 16:14 around me... I can't break out of this environment 16:17 that I'm in... I don't have control 16:19 of anything... I need to give my life 16:21 over to one who does have the control... 16:24 and so... I surrendered my life to God 16:26 kind of strange way of coming there... 16:28 but feeling utter despair sent me to the Lord... 16:32 Amen... and you know God knew what you needed, 16:36 Yes... and always does know what 16:39 we need... and so you were in utter despair 16:41 and it seems as though 16:43 He just revealed Himself to you even more. 16:45 Yeah, I think that, you know, I mentioned that 16:47 I learned not to feel... but at that time I could not 16:50 keep the sense of isolation and loneliness and aloneness... 16:54 it was so profound... I was just completely 16:57 in despair... and that's why I had to 16:59 turn to the One... who would never leave me... 17:01 And that's so beautiful... and so how did... 17:05 how did that play out... after you did that... 17:08 where did you go from there? 17:10 I began to pray... 17:13 after I accepted the Lord, 17:15 I began to read the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy 17:17 in different ways to really understand 17:19 for myself... is what I was learning about God... 17:22 really what God was... because some things just didn't 17:24 seem right... and the more I read... the more I prayed 17:27 the more I read... the more I began to pray 17:30 and asked the Lord, "Let me leave that environment" 17:33 because I realized that even if I was not on the 17:37 right path... I wasn't free to change... 17:39 Hmmm... there was no option to change 17:41 and most of all, I wanted education 17:43 I wanted to go to school so badly 17:45 and I was tired of just being alone... learning alone 17:49 and I couldn't learn... so I began to pray 17:51 and the answer to that prayer came in the form of 17:53 my father leaving... he just left... 17:57 he took my older brother, they went to build houses 17:59 in Texas... and it was supposed to be something 18:02 they would be gone for a few months 18:03 and come back with some funds 18:05 because we were very low on funds... 18:06 but... on the way... 18:09 getting ready to leave... 18:10 he told me that he wasn't going to come back 18:11 and I was shocked... and I could tell 18:13 that my mother didn't know and she was standing 18:15 by the car getting ready to say goodbye 18:16 and her first warning of it was when she went 18:19 to give him a goodbye kiss he turned his head away 18:21 and then he ended up saying some words to her 18:23 that I hadn't heard before and, you know, 18:26 he was like... he was leaving... 18:28 and he had already told me he was not coming back... 18:30 and that turned out to be the case... 18:32 he didn't even stay in Texas for more than a month 18:34 he ended up going back up north to his hometown 18:37 and began trying to create a life for himself... 18:40 and the only thing I could think of was that 18:42 everything about the lifestyle he set up for us 18:44 was all focused on Jesus coming by the end of that decade 18:48 which was the 1970s... and now, we were into 1980 18:52 and '81... and heading into '82, and Jesus still hadn't come 18:56 so, he left... my mother and the younger of my two older 19:03 brothers and I... went through a horrible winter 19:05 I write about how my heel froze and... it was just... 19:10 it was incredibly cold we didn't even know if we'd 19:12 survive that particular winter but we made it 19:13 and I'm still not answering your question... I'm so sorry... 19:17 No, you're doing great... you're doing great... 19:19 no, I'm just thinking here's the... 19:22 it's kind of... blowing my mind because you have a situation 19:27 where the whole point is to live according to what 19:33 God would have you... 19:34 the way He would have you live... 19:36 down to every jot and tittle... 19:38 Yes... of reform... 19:40 Yes... but when it came to staying 19:44 with your family... you just... it's over, it's done... 19:48 and you got to make it the best way you can... 19:51 how devastating was that event to your mom, to you... 19:56 how devastating! Well, it really was... 19:58 because I had no... nothing in my mind that could 20:04 understand what was happening because everything had been... 20:07 you have to understand... my environment was so saturated 20:10 with religion... and God and religion... everything 20:14 that the concept of my parents' breaking up 20:18 was not there... 20:19 I mean, the family that prays together... stays together... 20:22 we prayed together 3 times a day... one hour each... 20:25 and we had one-hour worships 3 times a day... 20:29 okay... we prayed together, we did... 20:32 we had training, 20:34 everything... Bible... the whole idea of just... 20:37 this happening... wouldn't have occurred to me 20:39 but it happened... Right... 20:41 and so... then in the end 20:43 my younger brother went to join my older brother 20:48 because he was extremely restless... 20:49 and he wanted to leave, he wanted to get out... 20:52 so he ended up joining my older brother 20:54 and then... it was just my mom and I... 20:55 there was no way we could make it on our own 20:57 you know, the manual labor involved in daily life 21:01 we're talking about washing clothes, 21:03 even washing dishes... you got to haul the water 21:06 to wash dishes... you know, I often use the 21:08 illustration of making a... getting a glass of milk, 21:11 if you want a glass of milk, you reach in your refrigerator 21:13 pour it and drink it... we had to take the soy beans, 21:16 soak them... grind them up... 21:17 rinse them out in cheese cloth into water... 21:19 boil it on the stove, but boiling on the stove means 21:22 you have to have cut your wood and gather kindling 21:25 and gone through a whole process just to be able to lay a fire 21:29 and then you're going to burn a fire... 21:31 year-round to boil your milk because... 21:34 or whatever you're fixing... every day of the year 21:36 we had to create a fire except on the Sabbath, 21:39 because we didn't cook on the Sabbath... 21:40 but other than that, it could be 90 degrees... 21:43 it could be a 100 degrees you still have to use 21:45 the stove to cook... so, you know, 21:48 so there's all of that, and then, when you finally 21:50 get done making your glass of milk... 21:52 and it's boiled... because you can't drink raw 21:55 soy beans... you have to boil it and you cool it... 21:58 because there's no ice that you can add to it to cool it... 22:01 it's naturally cool for a few hours 22:02 and you finally drink your glass of milk... 22:05 the rest of it... you can't just put in the 22:08 refrigerator... That's right... 22:09 so you either have to can it, which means more heat 22:11 in the summer... if it's during the summer... 22:13 or you could put a little bit in a jar 22:16 and store that in the stream... overnight and that was about it 22:20 otherwise... so... think about that... 22:22 that's just a glass of milk... every process was so manual 22:25 we couldn't do it... so my mom ended up writing 22:28 someone who had been corresponding with my father 22:31 and they had been trading magazines and she had come to 22:34 visit us once before... and she was planning to come 22:38 that summer... and my mom just took a chance 22:40 and wrote her and said, "Would you send us two 22:41 one-way tickets instead of coming on a round-trip 22:44 a round-trip ticket because we need to leave, 22:47 we don't have anywhere to go... 22:48 so, she did... and I was determined... 22:51 I just knew one thing... I wasn't coming back 22:53 without going to school... that was the thing... 22:55 I knew that God had given me a way to go to school... 22:58 Hmmm... hmmm... and I ended up going to 23:00 Fountainview... it was a Farms back then 23:03 and now it's Fountainview Academy 23:05 I feel like I'm a racing train running away with your interview 23:08 I'm sorry... No, no, no, no... believe me 23:10 if I have a question, I will ask... 23:12 I'm just loving where you're going with this 23:15 because you're really tracing your journey for us, 23:18 and so... who knows better than you do... 23:21 my question, now though, is so... you said something that 23:27 I wasn't aware of and that is... 23:29 your family was basically living like that 23:33 in expectation of the return of Christ... 23:37 and when that didn't happen, when your dad thought it would, 23:41 he became disillusioned... I guess... with everything... 23:45 You know, I really want to comment on that... 23:47 you're right in your observation, 23:49 I really want to comment on that because I think there are 23:52 a lot of people, have you noticed... 23:53 there is this fervor... you know Jesus is coming again... 23:56 and... got to be ready... let's get out there and share 23:58 the truth... and tell the world and warn the world... 24:00 "He's coming, He's coming... " people will drop out of school 24:03 they'll make changes like... to use all their 24:05 retirement funds for a particular project... 24:08 that kind of thing... and I am not condemning 24:10 anybody's choice to do those things 24:12 but it's clearly based on the idea 24:14 that Jesus is coming so soon, 24:16 that I don't need to do these things... 24:18 I don't need to prepare to stay here... 24:20 I don't need to occupy till He comes... 24:22 I don't need to occupy... and then, often, if you try 24:24 to say something to people like that... they will say to you... 24:26 "You're just not serious about Jesus' coming... " 24:29 Hmmm... but what I noticed... 24:31 even though Jesus says to watch the signs... 24:33 He never said to live by them day by day... 24:35 Hmmm... He said to watch them, 24:36 observe them... Hmmm... hmmm... 24:38 but He also... if you look at the 24:40 focus of the Bible... it's on the certainty of Christ's coming 24:43 and the unexpectedness of His return... 24:47 not on the nearness... Hmmm... 24:48 not on the nearness... 24:50 Which is not to say 24:52 that it's not near... it is to say that 24:56 the emphasis has to be in the right place... 24:59 And the reason why I'm bringing this out 25:02 is if you're living on expectancy of Jesus' 25:05 coming within a short time, based on your understanding 25:08 of "short" and "long" it can create an urgency 25:11 in your life which cannot sustain itself... 25:15 Hmmm... there is an urgency that God 25:17 can place in your life that runs from day to day... 25:20 so, I'm aware every moment, that I'm ministering 25:23 whether I'm talking to one individual 25:24 or I am talking to thousands, I'm aware, every moment, 25:28 that God is going to save somebody... 25:29 God is trying to use somebody, 25:30 I'm also aware of the fact that I won't appreciate others 25:33 to become a castaway... and there's an urgency about 25:35 what I do... everyday... but it's not related to 25:37 whether Jesus is going to come in 2016 25:40 or whether He's going to come in you know... you name it... 25:44 it's related to the fact that every moment 25:46 is a moment that's been given us 25:48 and tomorrow is not mine... Hmmm... 25:50 so I can only do what He's asked me to do... right now... 25:52 Hmmm... hmmm... you see... and I guess I want 25:56 to say to people who are running on the 25:58 "Second-return fervor" sometimes it's not sustainable 26:03 and if it is sustainable for you... great... 26:05 but it's not sustainable for everybody around you... 26:07 and it wasn't for my father... 26:09 because everything was based on the fact 26:10 that the world was not going to continue... 26:12 and then the world kept going... obviously it's still going... 26:15 Right... right... right... and even though, 26:18 we feel closer to His return, we are closer than we've ever been 26:21 We're always closer... yeah... 26:23 but you still... it does need to be sustainable 26:27 and your focus has to be on that relationship... 26:31 and sharing Jesus with others, that's really the bottom line... 26:35 Every moment that God gives you... 26:37 is a moment that you won't have again... 26:39 That's right... whether He comes tomorrow 26:41 or whether He comes a thousand years from now... 26:42 the moment you have right now, is all you actually have... 26:46 Hmmm... yesterday is gone... 26:47 tomorrow may never be... the urgency is always to live 26:51 fully in the moment... 26:52 That's right... right now... 26:53 Live in the moment... that's absolutely true... 26:56 Tell us... in 30 seconds what you're doing now? 26:59 I can't believe our time is up, this is so good 27:03 you've just given me such great information... 27:05 I lost all perspective of time... so... 27:06 but I'm... I'm... I'm it's amazing this young lady... 27:10 this child who was kept away from media and the world 27:13 and kept at home... 27:14 now, I am the Chair of a Department 27:18 in which I'm able... I feel called to this place 27:21 and at this time... to help with young people 27:25 being able to re-shape media so that it can appeal 27:28 to other young people... I find that our young people 27:32 are not watching our Adventist Programming 27:34 and I'd like to see that change and that's a mission 27:36 that's on my heart... Well we need to talk 27:38 because this is a Network here Dare to Dream... 27:42 and we are looking to make a difference with young and old... 27:45 Thank you so much for being with us... 27:47 It was a blessing to have you... Thank you for having me... 27:50 Make sure to pick up a copy of her book, "Born Yesterday" 27:53 well thank you so much for tuning in... 27:55 join us next time... because you know what? 27:59 it just wouldn't be the same, without you... |
Revised 2015-04-10