Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000049A
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00:21 Hello and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now.
00:24 I'm Natalie Wood, and my husband Jon 00:25 is joining me today to share with us an inspiring project. 00:29 Hello, darling. Hi, darling. How are you? 00:31 Doing fine. Awesome. 00:32 You know, I know that we've shared a lot of things 00:35 on this show, very statistics and stuff like that, 00:38 and what we're going to be talking about today, 00:40 we've actually shared a little bit of it 00:42 on our Christmas special recently. 00:43 Yes. 00:44 And we just want to share a little more in-depth 00:48 with our viewers and let them see 00:50 a little more about the project. 00:51 Right. 00:52 Yeah, well, there's a huge problem 00:53 in the in our foreign mission program 00:56 because, you know, the statistic is that 00:58 over 90% of all Christian giving worldwide 01:02 goes to ministry to the 8% that speak English. 01:06 Yeah, I know we've shared that statistic before. 01:08 And it's always very sobering to think about 01:10 all the people that don't speak English. 01:12 And there's 10% or less, 01:14 actually one missions organization 01:17 told us it was 96%, so that's 4% 01:20 or less of Christian giving worldwide 01:23 that goes to everyone else. 01:25 Right. 01:26 And what does that look like on the front lines? 01:28 You know, we've got very few resources, 01:32 very few books in print, very few Christian literature, 01:34 things like that that are not able to communicate the Gospel 01:39 to a vast number of people in foreign countries. 01:43 We take things for granted, how many versions of the Bible 01:46 do we have an English, and then how many languages 01:50 don't even have a Bible at all or if they have a Bible 01:53 that might be very inaccurate, or... 01:56 So there's a lot of challenges in foreign countries that we, 02:00 living here in America, aren't exposed to, 02:03 we don't have to deal with, so that's one of the reasons 02:05 why God has asked us to do shows like this 02:09 is to bring awareness of the needs 02:11 not because, you know, "Oh, that sounds terrible, 02:14 oh, you know, I have to go do that..." 02:16 Beat ourselves up or something. 02:17 Right, but it's like wow this is an opportunity 02:19 where we actually can make a difference. 02:22 Right. Right. 02:23 And that's the exciting part. Yes. 02:25 It's that it doesn't take very much 02:27 to make a huge difference. 02:28 Right. Right. 02:29 And some people may think, 02:30 "Well, there's so much need out there. 02:32 Where can I fit in, what can I do? 02:34 What difference will I make?" Right. 02:37 But just one soul is worth Jesus Christ dying for. 02:44 And so if we can just gain one soul, one more soul, 02:48 it's worth... It's all worth it. 02:49 Yeah. Absolutely. That's right. 02:50 Yeah. 02:51 It reminds me of what Mrs. White said, 02:53 over 100 years ago about needs in the mission field, 02:57 "Unless your hearts are touched in view of the situation 03:00 in foreign fields, the last message of mercy 03:03 to the world will be restricted, and the work 03:05 which God desires to have done will be left unaccomplished." 03:10 The sad thing is that over the last 100 years 03:12 that prediction has actually played itself out. 03:15 And so we look at our mission program throughout the world 03:17 and it's not anywhere near where it could be 03:21 or even where it should be. 03:23 And so God is calling us to make a difference 03:27 to redeem the time and do what we can 03:30 in the little time that we have. 03:31 Right. Right. 03:32 So today, we want to talk about Thailand. 03:35 Now Thailand in particular has some unique challenges. 03:39 There's over 70 languages in the country of the Thailand. 03:42 Yeah. Can you imagine? 03:43 I know that's really a huge, huge task right there. 03:48 Right. Yeah. 03:50 And many of those languages don't have any resources, 03:53 spiritual resources, some of them don't have Bibles, 03:56 some of them don't have any missionaries, 03:58 vast walls of Thailand that have 04:01 no Adventist presence whatsoever. 04:04 In fact, the majority of the church in Thailand 04:07 is in the minority groups and the Thai themselves 04:12 are pretty much unreached, 04:14 statistically they're not reached. 04:16 And so this is what has been a huge burden on our hearts 04:20 for many, many years. 04:21 Right, and you know Thailand is still somewhat open, 04:24 there's still religious freedom. 04:25 Correct. 04:26 And so there's a lot of people there, 04:28 and we still have an opportunity 04:30 to do more broad reaching type of evangelism 04:34 so to say, so to speak. 04:35 And like for instance, India. 04:37 India has had an open door for many decades, 04:39 but now we see that door closing, 04:41 and it's closing hard. 04:42 And so it's getting much more difficult to work in India. 04:47 But Thailand we still have some time, 04:48 it's starting to get a little tighter, 04:51 but it's not like some of the countries 04:52 that are really closed 04:54 and takes very creative ways to get in. 04:56 We still have the opportunity in Thailand. 04:59 But if we do it in Thailand, then it spreads 05:02 through these other language groups 05:03 into other parts of the countries and stuff. 05:06 Right. 05:07 So the project that we want to talk about today 05:09 is the Love For Asia Foundation, 05:12 and the seeds of that were actually planted in 2009. 05:14 Correct. 05:16 And the current team that we're working with 05:18 came together starting in 2012. 05:20 Yes. 05:21 And so we're excited to be able to share, 05:23 I know we've shared a bit about it before, 05:25 but we're excited to be able to share the current status. 05:27 Yeah, and I put together this little tiny video, 05:30 it's only 30 seconds long, but it just gives people 05:32 a sense of the environment, 05:34 the area that the office is based in. 05:37 Okay, let's watch that now. Okay. 06:45 Well, that's a beautiful location 06:47 for the office. 06:48 I know. I love it up there so much. 06:50 Papaya, mango, 06:51 right on the trees growing there, 06:53 rice fields, it's just really beautiful, 06:56 and it's warm all the time. 06:58 Yeah, that would be a blessing, wouldn't it? 07:00 Yes. 07:02 Well, that team is led by a volunteer Daniel Bair 07:05 and his wife Tesha and three children. 07:08 They've been in Thailand for five or six years now. 07:11 And so it's really neat to see 07:14 how their family is doing over there, 07:17 but the majority of the team is made up of Thai people. 07:20 Correct. 07:21 And various tribes within that, 07:23 but they are all born in Thailand, 07:26 natives of Thailand. 07:27 So on our team we have people that speak Hmong, 07:31 Korean, and Thai. 07:35 But there's many other language groups 07:37 in the area also that we work with like Lahu 07:40 and different groups like that that we try to work with 07:45 and develop material for. 07:46 Right. 07:47 So we have another video, and that's a walk through 07:50 of our office and then we'll talk a little more 07:52 about what the team is doing. 07:54 Okay. 08:12 Right now we're going to the office 08:14 where our team works day in and day out 08:17 developing resources for the Thai people 08:20 here in Thailand, and the Hmong people, 08:22 and the Mien people, and the Korean people. 08:25 People say, "Why do media?" 08:27 because two reasons, number one is expensive 08:30 and number two you can't hug people with a TV. 08:34 Well, it's expensive if you look 08:36 at the actual operating cost, but if you look at, 08:40 I mean, as an individual unit. 08:41 But if you look at the cost of reaching people 08:46 on a purpose and basis, this is actually 08:48 one of the cheapest ways, 08:49 the most cost-effective ways to reach people. 08:52 We find that media is a very effective way 08:54 to reach the masses. 08:56 And if you look at the number of people that are out there, 08:58 I mean, 65 million people here in Thailand, 09:00 and there's maybe 14,000 SDAs for 65 million. 09:06 And probably 12,000 of those SDAs 09:10 are foreigners or minority tribes. 09:13 So how are we going to reach the other 65 million people 09:16 that don't have access 09:19 and don't have a way to meet, you know. 09:21 So we've got to do it both ways. 09:22 I see the Bible workers as the ground force. 09:26 And the television and radio as the air force. 09:30 So send in the air force, send in the ground force, 09:33 you do it both, you're going to do it all. 09:35 So I'm excited about this. 09:37 And right now, we're going to go into the office 09:39 and I'll show you around in there. 09:46 So this is our office at Love for Asia Foundation. 09:50 And the foundation is like a nonprofit 501c3 in America. 09:55 It's a legal entity that we can hold 09:58 property through this, we can have bank account, 10:01 we can have a board of directors 10:05 that kind of oversee and make decisions, 10:07 and we can do operations, we can help people, 10:10 a lot of things that we can do through this foundation. 10:12 And I'd like to show you around inside our office. 10:15 This is just a regular workday, we did not clean up, 10:18 we didn't do any preparation for this filming. 10:20 But I figured that you'd rather see it the way it is. 10:23 But let's come on in, this is where they have 10:25 the morning worship, and they sing 10:27 and pray together, go over the day's plans, 10:29 this is where we have our board meetings 10:31 for the foundation. 10:32 And over here, we have a lot of the material 10:35 that they developed. 10:37 You can see all these DVDs ready to be passed out. 10:41 And different languages, the Hmong language, 10:44 and the Thai language is what we've done 10:47 the most of so far. 10:48 And then we've got, here's the Steps to Christ, 10:51 which is pretty amazing. 10:53 Sometimes they run out, 10:54 sometimes the whole country runs out, 10:56 and there's no Steps to Christ available at all. 10:59 Here's a recently translated Ellen White book. 11:02 Here's our office where Gop works. 11:05 Gop, say hi to the camera. Hello. 11:09 And he does the lot of the music, 11:13 and audio production, and audio sweetening work 11:16 for our production. 11:17 And also has been spending a lot of time 11:20 putting all the paperwork together 11:22 with his wife for the foundation, 11:24 and the videos and things like that. 11:26 So he's on the board, one of the board members, 11:29 and a part of the administration. 11:31 And so we really appreciate him and his wife 11:34 and what they bring to the table 11:36 because without them we wouldn't have a foundation. 11:38 So Frame, this is where she sits. 11:41 And she's been doing some translation 11:43 of Ellen White books. 11:44 They just finished an Ellen White devotional 11:46 which they haven't had 11:48 in the Thai language up until now. 11:49 She's also agreed just in the last couple days 11:52 to help with the translation of "Man of Peace," 11:55 which is the condensed version of Desire of Ages. 11:58 Over here is another office 12:00 where we have some more workers. 12:03 Brother Suet, he's our video editor, 12:05 he sits here. 12:06 And Bawbaw, who does our Quran language work, 12:10 sits here. 12:11 And this is where Wanida sits, and she is Hmong, 12:15 so she does a lot of the Hmong work. 12:16 She's right now doing a live radio broadcast 12:20 at the local Christian radio station in Hmong. 12:24 So this is where we work. 12:26 And this is where our team comes every day 12:29 and does the best they can. 12:31 Please pray for our team because working in a country 12:34 where there's less than 1% Christian, 12:37 there's a lot of challenges. 12:38 So thank you for your support and for your prayers. 14:01 So that is our rented office, that's a rented house 14:05 that we're using as office space. 14:07 Right. 14:08 And it's kind of gets crowded in there sometimes. 14:10 Very crowded. 14:11 There's extra people there in this video 14:13 because we have interns that come in the summertime. 14:16 But since we've filmed that, 14:18 we've hired several more people, 14:19 so it's crowded all the time. 14:21 Right. 14:22 And you know it gets very hot there in Thailand. 14:25 And before we had air conditioners, 14:27 we had equipment failing, and we had candles that melted 14:32 and hard drives failing. 14:34 Yeah, these big old candles and they just went like that 14:38 just from the heat in the office. 14:40 And hard drives were failing from overheating. 14:43 Right. 14:44 So we're really thankful that a donor made it possible 14:47 that helps the people 14:48 as well as helping the equipment. 14:49 Right. Yes. 14:51 So we do have need to have our own office 14:53 and an actual studio for this team to work in. 14:56 Yeah, we need to build something larger 14:57 and there aren't very many houses 14:59 in the area to rent. 15:01 Right. 15:02 Much less large enough to hold a growing team. 15:04 Right, there is a local donor in Thailand that has given 15:07 land for us to build an office and studio for this team. 15:10 Yay! 15:12 So we're very excited about that. 15:14 And you've seen the property. Yup. 15:15 It must mean that God wants us to go forward 15:18 which is going to be another leap of faith to start building 15:21 because as you know, this project gets 15:25 very little funding directly of its own. 15:27 Right. 15:28 Very few donors actually mark their donations 15:30 specifying that to go to this media team. 15:33 Correct. 15:34 And so most of the funding for this team 15:36 on a monthly basis comes from the general fund 15:39 of Jesus for Asia, so donations that are marked 15:42 for some other project or some specific need 15:45 will go to help pay for this. 15:47 And so it's a huge leap of faith 15:48 to start another large building project like that. 15:51 Correct. 15:52 So but it seems like if it's God's will, 15:54 then God will provide. 15:55 That's right. 15:57 And the truth is that this is such a strategic project, 16:01 you know, we've got projects that seem to be really massive 16:05 and flow like our Bible Workers Project, 16:09 you know, it's something easy to understand and to support. 16:12 But this project, not many people 16:14 really understand the impact of it 16:16 and yet it can impact millions of people. 16:19 Right. Right. 16:20 And we've got another video that you talk a little bit 16:23 in the video, I think, about the impact 16:25 and how far reaching it can be. 16:27 And so let's look at that video now. 16:29 I do want to say that you were there last June, 16:32 and you were sick. 16:33 I was sick. 16:35 I've been pushing really hard, and it just caught up with me. 16:37 Right, so you sound very croaky in this video, but it's okay. 16:41 That's all right. All right. 17:07 Okay. The Holy Spirit is being poured out here. 17:10 You know the Holy Spirit is poured out through His Word, 17:12 whenever His Word is preached, whenever it is shared 17:16 with people that don't know His message 17:18 or have heard it before, but it's all fresh to them 17:21 through the Holy Spirit is being poured out. 17:23 And this is an area of course in Thailand 17:26 where less than 1% is Christian. 17:28 This academy has a real mission outreach 17:31 probably less than half of this Adventist academy 17:34 is actually Adventist. 17:37 And many others are Buddhists, some are Christians 17:40 from other denominations, but with this evangelistic... 17:44 It's not really evangelistic series, 17:45 this is a seminar on Righteousness by Faith. 17:48 And I'm actually quite amazed at how much the kids 17:50 are tuning in because these are high school kids 17:53 and this is a college professor talking about 17:57 Righteousness by Faith. 17:58 So it's a pretty high concept. 18:00 But you can see these kids are like sometimes 18:03 they get tired, but a lot of times, 18:04 a lot of them are just like really focused on the message 18:08 and writing down the scriptures and stuff. 18:09 And we're going to have baptism this Sabbath. 18:12 I'm very excited about that. But it doesn't end here. 18:16 If this was just an evangelistic series, 18:19 this would be all that happened. 18:22 But we're filming this, we're doing 18:24 a five-camera production plus PowerPoint. 18:28 So we have six sources in and we're doing it, you know, 18:32 in a way that's more engaging the people who want to watch, 18:35 high quality, we're going to send it out. 18:37 And this series will live on in Thai forever. 18:42 And what's cool is that other pastors 18:44 will listen to it, and they'll use 18:47 some of the illustrations, some of the concepts 18:49 in their sermons so we'll continue to go on, 18:51 continue to grow. 18:52 And a lot of these countries, they don't have 18:56 the resources that we do. 18:58 You know, some of the things we take for granted like 19:00 concept of righteousness by faith 19:02 is not always clear in a country that is dominated 19:05 by a religion that says, you know, 19:09 you have to earn your way to salvation 19:11 and earn your way into heaven. 19:13 So this righteous by faith is really exciting. 19:17 And it's awesome that people like us 19:19 that are more like behind the scenes 19:21 that wouldn't preach a series like this, 19:24 get to help in the part of multiplying it 19:27 across the world. 19:28 Thailand is one country, there's other countries also, 19:32 So there's a lot of work to be done, 19:34 but God is behind it and He's pushing for it. 19:38 And if we give it our all, then He will come a lot sooner. 19:42 So thank you for joining us right here in Chiang Mai. 20:35 That's really wonderful to think about 20:36 the multiplication factor. 20:37 Oh, yeah. 20:39 You know, this was a special event, 20:40 but the special event is available now to anybody 20:44 that wants to watch it that has access to the Internet 20:46 because it's on the website, it's on our YouTube channel, 20:50 and it's available in DVD or VCD 20:52 whichever they're using now. 20:53 Right. 20:54 And it's really cool because it's another tool in the hand 20:56 of like a Bible Worker. 20:58 Somebody going door to door, or let's say, 21:00 they're having a Bible study, or a church, 21:02 something to give out to visitor, 21:05 something in their hand, 21:06 and that might not sound like much, 21:08 but in the country, there was a time 21:10 when I was there in Bangkok living there, 21:12 and I met somebody that was a Christian, 21:13 but didn't know much about Christianity. 21:15 I wanted to give him Steps to Christ, 21:17 I couldn't find one at the headquarters 21:20 of the church in Thailand. 21:22 So that's... 21:25 Yeah, to have materials available is a huge thing. 21:28 Yes. 21:29 And this can overcome illiteracy. 21:32 If somebody doesn't know how to read 21:33 or doesn't like to read, just listen to something. 21:36 Right, writing all the materials there 21:39 in their own language. 21:40 Yes. So what a blessing. 21:42 Now this foundation is fairly new. 21:44 Yes. 21:46 And you want to share a little bit about 21:48 where it came to be or how it came to be. 21:50 Oh, we've always wanted to have our own foundation. 21:52 So with a foundation, you have a legal standing in Thailand. 21:55 So you can own property, you can kind of like 22:00 set something up that's more permanent. 22:03 And it's been like almost impossible to do that. 22:07 But just in the last few years, we found out that 22:10 now the doors are open and it's possible especially 22:13 to have a foreigner on the board. 22:16 And so we started moving forward with it, 22:18 weren't sure how it's going to work, 22:19 we saw a lot of people trying it 22:21 and not really working out or taking years, 22:24 and years, and years to do it. 22:25 So we went ahead and when Gop and Frame, 22:31 his wife, when they came on board, 22:33 they started connecting with the government 22:35 in a way that the government started helping us, 22:37 telling us what to do. 22:39 Yeah, that's huge. Yeah. 22:41 That's what opened the door for us to have it now, 22:43 the foundation, the benefit of the foundation 22:46 is we didn't realize this when we were 22:48 first setting it up was that the laws have 22:52 changed for people staying in Thailand. 22:54 So a lot of the missionaries that were staying there 22:56 on a certain type of visa were no longer allowed 22:59 to stay there on that visa, but with the foundation, 23:04 they were able to provide them with a different kind of permit 23:08 that they were able to stay long-term. 23:10 So God raised up this foundation just in time 23:14 to provide continued presence 23:17 of quite a number of missionaries in Thailand. 23:21 So I feel like God brought this into being 23:24 for such a time as this. 23:26 Wow, that's awesome. Yeah. 23:29 What a vital project. I know. 23:31 Can you see why I'm so passionate 23:32 about this project? 23:33 Yes. 23:35 But the sad thing is a few years ago, 23:36 we almost had to close the program 23:38 just due to financial constraints. 23:41 And I said, "God, you know what? 23:43 I'll give my life for this program to continue." 23:46 I don't mind going on record and saying that I would 23:49 give my life for this program to continue and to grow. 23:52 Why? 23:53 Because there's so many people that don't know Christ, 23:55 and for them to not have even have access 23:59 and have the resources... 24:01 It's just this has to happen. Right. 24:04 And so that's why we're so passionate 24:06 about this particular project. 24:08 And it's not so exciting visually, you know, 24:11 people sitting in their office, working on a computer, 24:15 you know, that's not something that we can like see the need, 24:18 like poor starving children in the slum 24:21 or something like that. 24:22 But it's vital, it's a vital necessity 24:26 for this project to go forward. 24:28 You know, we talk about witnessing to people 24:30 that don't know Christ, the other part is like 24:33 you talked about in that last video encouraging 24:36 and strengthening the believers that are there 24:38 and enabling them to know more 24:41 so that they even have more to share. 24:42 Yeah, this is an amazing concept 24:44 that a lot of our churches in other countries 24:49 that haven't had that wealth of Ellen White material 24:52 or spiritual or religious material. 24:56 They don't really understand what it's like 24:58 to live a Christian lifestyle. 25:01 It's kind of strange, but the vegetarians in our church 25:06 in other countries are like really 25:09 kind of super conservative, and kind of weird, 25:12 and kind of, it's not a norm, it's not an accepted norm. 25:16 And so that's because there hasn't been this groundwork 25:19 and these resources that people have been able 25:22 to get into and really understand 25:25 because it's not just information, 25:27 being a Christian isn't just knowing 25:29 a bunch of information, 25:30 it's living a life that's Christ-like. 25:33 Right, and this is especially important in a country like 25:36 Thailand where there's less than 1% Christian. 25:38 Absolutely. It's vital. 25:40 Yes. 25:41 And so there's so much distance between where someone 25:45 that doesn't know who Christ is moving them all the way 25:48 into being a fully understanding 25:52 Christian Seventh-day Adventist believer. 25:54 That's a long ways. 25:55 And there's very few bridge materials, 25:58 majority of the Christian material even is quite details, 26:02 little details about this, and this, and this. 26:05 Whereas there like, "Who is God? 26:08 Why did He have to send His Son?" 26:10 Right. "What does salvation mean? 26:12 What does the word saved mean?" 26:13 They don't have a reference point. 26:15 Exactly. 26:16 You've mentioned they don't know the word saved 26:17 and that's because of their world view, 26:20 they believe in reincarnation. 26:21 So if you don't do well in this life, 26:23 then you pay for it in the next life, 26:25 but you will have another life... 26:27 Karma. 26:28 And many and thousands... Yes. 26:29 Of lives to look forward or to dread thousands of lives 26:34 and ahead until you may be in turn of honor. 26:39 And so the idea of being saved, either you get one life 26:42 and it's either uncomfortable or it's very comfortable, 26:47 you know, that or you are bound 26:49 to lose your life. 26:51 And thus Jesus comes in and saves you 26:54 and then you have eternal life. 26:56 So that concept is based on a Christian worldview. 27:01 And so that's where we really need to put this extra work 27:04 into to provide them the introduction to Jesus. 27:09 And teaching materials, and growth materials, 27:13 and introductory materials even. 27:15 So introductory materials for nonbelievers 27:18 and then growth materials for believers. 27:20 Right. Yes. To be encouraged. 27:22 Like for instance, our high calling 27:25 is going to be the very first Ellen White 27:28 Daily Devotional translated into Thai ever. 27:32 And the team is doing that. 27:34 They're almost done. Wow. 27:35 That's exciting. Yeah. 27:37 Isn't it amazing to think that we can be 27:40 a part of sharing the Gospel with these people? 27:43 It's such an amazing project 27:45 that we've just shared with you today. 27:47 And if the Lord is impressing you to be a part of this, 27:49 you can send your tax-deductible love gift 27:52 to Jesus for Asia, PO Box 1221, 27:55 Collegedale, Tennessee 37315. 27:58 Call us at (423) 413-7321 28:02 or visit our website at Jesus4Asia.org. 28:06 May God richly bless you 28:07 until we see you again next time 28:09 on Jesus for Asia Now. |
Revised 2018-04-24