3ABN Today

Nairobi Evangelism 32 Year Review

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: TDY

Program Code: TDY190041A


00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people
00:12 I want to spend my life
00:18 Removing pain
00:23 Lord, let my words
00:30 Heal a heart that hurts
00:34 I want to spend my life
00:40 Mending broken people
00:45 I want to spend my life
00:51 Mending broken people
01:09 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
01:11 I am JD Quinn.
01:12 And we want to thank you so much
01:13 for joining us today.
01:15 We have an inspiring story and wonderful guest.
01:20 But we want to take this opportunity
01:22 from the bottom of our heart to thank you for your prayers,
01:25 and your love, and your financial support
01:27 of this ministry.
01:28 It's amazing how God uses this
01:32 as an evangelistic tool.
01:35 We have people, Shelley, calling all around the world,
01:38 looking for the closest Seventh-day Adventist Church.
01:40 God gets all the glory.
01:42 Amen, and amen.
01:43 And you know what excites me,
01:45 it's not just people who are discovering Jesus
01:48 for the first time,
01:49 but people who have left the church
01:51 and start watching 3ABN and return to church.
01:55 That's exciting.
01:56 They're missing that first love.
01:57 Yes. Amen, amen.
01:59 Well, before we even read the scripture,
02:02 I just want to tell you about our guests
02:04 because they are so special.
02:05 We have a true treasure with us today.
02:08 He has been president of Oakwood,
02:10 he's a pastor and evangelist.
02:12 When I first met him, he, I believe,
02:14 had already retired,
02:15 he was the vice president of the General Conference
02:19 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
02:21 and he pastored in Vegas for maybe 10 years afterwards,
02:25 was when I first met him.
02:27 But I'm speaking of none other than Dr. Calvin Rock.
02:31 Thank you.
02:32 Dr. Rock, thank you for being here.
02:34 Thank you for having us.
02:36 You know, the Lord has led you
02:39 on an exciting journey through your life
02:42 and you have such a distinguished record
02:45 of ministry and service for Him.
02:48 And we just, we want to thank you
02:50 for giving your all to God.
02:53 It's a pleasure to share.
02:54 Amen. Amen.
02:55 And we talked your lovely wife into joining us
03:00 just at that last second.
03:02 We kind of applied little pressure
03:05 and she has joined us on this set.
03:07 Sharon Rock, thank you for joining us today.
03:10 Thank you for having me.
03:12 Now, we're going to get back to their personal story,
03:14 then we're going to talk about an exciting thing
03:19 that the Lord is doing in Nairobi.
03:22 And I wanted to read this scripture to you
03:24 before we go to music.
03:27 You remember on the day of Pentecost,
03:30 3,000 people accepted the message,
03:33 and that was exciting.
03:35 Amen.
03:36 You know, the Holy Spirit was being poured out.
03:39 But I want to read to you from Acts 2:46-47.
03:45 Because it wasn't just the 3,000 and stopping,
03:50 but because the Holy Spirit was there,
03:52 listen to what Acts 2:46 says,
03:56 "So continuing daily,
03:59 with one accord," talking about the people
04:01 who had first joined the church,
04:03 "in the temple and breaking bread
04:05 from house to house, they ate their food
04:08 with gladness and simplicity of heart."
04:12 And here's the point, verse 47, "Praising God,
04:17 and having favor with all the people
04:19 and the Lord added to the church daily,
04:24 those who are being saved."
04:26 You know, when a group of people get together
04:29 and open up their heart to let God pour His love
04:33 into their heart by the power of the Holy Spirit,
04:36 a church is going to grow.
04:38 Amen? Amen.
04:39 And we're going to put that in steroids
04:41 on this particular session, aren't we?
04:43 Yes, that's true.
04:44 I mean, this is amazing how the Lord is working.
04:47 Amen. Amen.
04:48 But, honey, everybody loves music
04:50 and I know that you've got a special guest to introduce.
04:53 Yes.
04:55 He's also a treasure.
04:56 Yes, he is. And that's Wintley Phipps.
04:58 And he's going to be sharing with us,
05:00 "Coming Again."
05:37 Why stand ye gazing there
05:42 Up into the sky?
05:48 Be not discouraged
05:54 For we have brought good news
06:01 This same Jesus
06:05 whom we do magnify
06:11 Soon He will come again
06:17 For all to glorify
06:24 He is coming again
06:38 Son of the Father
06:44 He is coming again.
06:50 On Calvary
06:52 He claimed my destiny
06:55 Lord, I humble myself
07:05 To Thee
07:16 Lord, I want to see Your face
07:21 Just help me be strong
07:28 I know You will return
07:34 I know it won't be long
07:41 He is coming again
07:54 Son of the Father,
07:59 He is coming again
08:05 On Calvary
08:08 He claimed my destiny
08:11 Lord, I humble myself
08:21 To Thee
08:26 Lift up the trumpet,
08:29 And loud let it ring
08:31 Jesus is coming again
08:36 Cheer up, ye pilgrims,
08:38 Be joyful and sing
08:41 Jesus is coming again
08:45 Coming again, coming again
08:49 Jesus is coming again
08:54 Coming again coming again
08:59 Jesus is coming again
09:09 Amen and amen.
09:11 It's amazing.
09:12 He's an anointed singer and an anointed preacher,
09:15 and I believe Wintley was
09:18 one of your students, wasn't he?
09:19 He graduated from Oakwood while I was there.
09:22 I called him one of my boys.
09:24 And I think you call CA Murray the same thing.
09:27 CA is one of my boys.
09:29 Father Abraham has many sons and daughters.
09:33 Yeah.
09:35 Please, let's kind of turn the clock back.
09:39 Give us a little bird's eye view
09:41 of your growing up years
09:43 and just let's talk about your life,
09:46 how God has lead?
09:48 It all begins with my grandmother,
09:50 my mother's mother, my maternal grandmother,
09:53 who was baptized from The Morning Star,
09:58 the decks of the Morning Star,
09:59 the little boat that Ellen White's son
10:02 built that sailed down Mississippi River
10:06 and docked along the shores.
10:09 She was a girl of maybe 14
10:11 when she accepted the Adventist message
10:14 and was one of the original 16 students at Oakwood
10:18 Industrial Training School,
10:20 as it was called then, one of the original 16 in 1896.
10:24 So my family's been Adventist ever since.
10:27 But, let me ask you, Dr. Rock, when did it become,
10:31 I mean, we can come from generations
10:33 of Christian families but God has no grandchildren,
10:37 He only has children.
10:39 When did it become real for you
10:41 that personal connection with God?
10:44 I must have been 15
10:48 because I was born into the system
10:50 and the church and
10:53 had all my relatives Adventists.
10:56 My mother's side and several on my father's,
11:00 but at age 15 or 16
11:04 sometimes we say Jesus found me but I found Him,
11:08 He found me and I gave my life to Him.
11:11 Praise God.
11:13 And though I had been baptized
11:16 as a student in church school at age 12,
11:19 I was now truly converted,
11:22 and dedicated, and gave my life to Christ.
11:26 Amen.
11:27 So give us a little of your background
11:31 on your journey to the General Conference,
11:34 tell us how God used you or how He lead?
11:37 Well, after attending church school in Los Angeles,
11:41 high school and one year and 11th grade
11:44 at Pine Forge Academy in Pennsylvania.
11:48 Those were the war years, World War II,
11:51 and, of course, World War II defined my generation.
11:55 Hmm, very much.
11:56 And things were very, very rough in LA,
12:00 which is where we lived in Los Angeles.
12:02 My mother had moved from New York,
12:05 where I was born in 1930,
12:09 a long time ago,
12:10 and at age 11,
12:12 they'd taken us to Los Angeles to find a better living.
12:16 My father was from Barbados,
12:20 and he was here on a visa and something happened
12:23 I'm not sure yet what it was,
12:25 but he had to go back to Barbados.
12:27 I never saw him until I was 34.
12:31 And my mother reared us,
12:33 saw that we were kept in church school,
12:35 and it was love of her
12:38 and her love for the Lord
12:40 that really gripped me and held me
12:42 when a lot of my friends
12:43 were going in the other direction.
12:46 I loved my mother,
12:47 and I didn't want to do anything to hurt her.
12:50 And that had a lot to do
12:51 with my affection for the church
12:54 because she was very closely connected in her work
12:58 and her holding various offices.
13:01 But after high school,
13:02 I went to college at Oakwood, graduated.
13:07 Hated Oakwood for a while because I owed a lot of money,
13:10 and I was glad to get out of there.
13:14 But the president's daughter had caught my attention,
13:16 we later married.
13:18 And after a while, I learned to get over it.
13:22 And I paid my bills
13:24 and went to correspondence school,
13:27 I had finished through that process
13:30 and got my degree, had already become a pastor.
13:34 I left college early because I owed so much money
13:37 and I had to work so hard,
13:38 my mother couldn't do it all by herself,
13:40 and I couldn't work hard enough to pay all the bills.
13:43 But once I got over all of that,
13:45 I began to talk about Oakwood
13:47 as a place for my young people to go to school
13:49 and started a chapter down in Miami
13:52 where I was pastoring at the time,
13:54 went on and got an education in Detroit later on,
13:59 a master's degree in sociology
14:02 and after that in New York,
14:05 worked on a PhD in sociology which I didn't finish,
14:09 because by that time after 17 years
14:12 in pastoral ministry,
14:14 with a three year stint in the Southern Union
14:16 as the Associate Ministerial Secretary,
14:19 I was asked to be the President at Oakwood
14:21 in 1985 and...
14:27 1971 until 1985,
14:30 so for 14 years I was President there,
14:32 left there and became one of the six Vice Presidents
14:36 of the General Conference in 1985
14:39 and stayed there until 2002.
14:43 During that time, as you mentioned earlier,
14:46 I did serve on various school boards,
14:48 Andrews and Loma Linda in particular,
14:52 and shared the Loma Linda board for 11 years,
14:56 work with, I think,
14:58 the most dynamic female president
15:01 of a school we've ever had,
15:03 Dr. Lynn Barons and retired in 2002.
15:09 My wife was 65 years,
15:12 died in June of last year,
15:16 and in February of this year, eight months later,
15:20 I married Sharon.
15:23 The Lord brought her into your life, no doubt.
15:25 Yes.
15:26 Sharon, let's talk about you for just a minute.
15:30 Tell us how you grew up?
15:33 Did you grow up in a Christian home?
15:35 Yes, I did grow up in a Christian home,
15:37 but not a Seventh-day Adventist home,
15:40 I grew up in a Baptist home.
15:42 My grandfather and father were both Baptist pastors
15:47 and they pastored the same church for 66 years
15:50 and served as President of the New York State
15:54 Baptist Convention and Vice President
15:57 of the National Baptist Convention.
15:59 I then relocated to California
16:03 in 1975.
16:05 And I actually joined
16:08 the interdenominational choir.
16:12 And we were singing
16:13 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
16:16 under Zubin Mehta,
16:17 and it is there that I met some Adventists
16:21 who invited me to church, and that's how I really joined
16:25 the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
16:27 Okay, now let me ask you this question.
16:29 How difficult was it,
16:31 you know, I grew up in the Church of Christ,
16:33 and God just through personal study
16:36 lead me from that to a nondenominational
16:40 and then to understanding the truths of His Sabbath
16:44 and other things that opened the way for me
16:47 to join Adventist Church.
16:48 How difficult was it for you,
16:50 as a Baptist pastor's daughter to accept these truths?
16:54 It wasn't really difficult for me
16:57 because I loved the message
16:59 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
17:01 and the love of God
17:03 that the people with whom I was associating displayed,
17:08 and the observance of the Sabbath
17:10 and setting aside and having the focus
17:14 and the understanding
17:15 and I had a long talk with my dad,
17:17 and his advice to me was,
17:20 "Whatever you believe, live it."
17:23 And I believed in the message,
17:26 and that's what I've tried to do is live it.
17:28 Amen.
17:30 Now you have a son,
17:32 and what is your son doing?
17:34 Yes, my son is the pastor of the Mount Rubidoux
17:39 Seventh-day Adventist Church in Riverside, California.
17:43 And I understand, Dr. Rock, you said, "That is the church."
17:46 It is.
17:48 It is the church in the State of California,
17:51 especially for African-American Seventh-day Adventists.
17:55 Of course, the appeal is for everybody
17:58 and the membership is varied,
18:00 but that is a concentration
18:03 that is exciting and dynamic
18:06 and he's a charismatic young fellow,
18:09 I think 39 now, if I remember correctly,
18:11 soon to be 40.
18:13 But he receives accolades and support from Australia
18:17 and England, all around the world.
18:19 I'll tell you what, we love...
18:21 I've spoken in a number
18:23 of predominantly black churches,
18:26 and that's my favorite place to go.
18:28 You get amens.
18:29 They draw on the anointing,
18:32 I mean, it's a totally different experience
18:36 and I love it.
18:37 How did the two of you meet?
18:40 Well, let me begin,
18:43 Sharon will no doubt finish it.
18:45 She'll correct.
18:47 And keep me straight as I go along.
18:51 After losing Clara,
18:54 Clara Peterson her maiden name.
18:57 And Clara had an extended time,
19:02 did she not, toward the end?
19:04 Yes, yes,
19:05 she had been on hospice care for 10 months
19:11 and prior to that for about six years,
19:15 was suffering from osteoporosis,
19:17 and finally expired.
19:21 We did all we could to keep her home
19:23 which was my real, real passion.
19:25 I wasn't going to put her in anybody else's home,
19:27 but ours.
19:29 And she appreciated and enjoyed that.
19:31 But after the Lord saw fit to let her go to sleep,
19:36 I was confused
19:38 and just kind of had to see
19:43 about what to do next with my life
19:44 because she had been so much inspiration
19:47 and inspiration, and a guide and a companion.
19:51 But another one of my boys,
19:54 Dr. Baker, Delvon Baker who had been a Vice President
19:58 and was until last General Conference
20:00 in San Antonio.
20:02 Invited me to come to AUA, Adventist University in Africa,
20:06 where he is now serving as Vice Chancellor.
20:09 He's President
20:10 but in Nairobi as many other African countries,
20:14 the President of the country is the President.
20:17 And whoever we send as President
20:18 is Vice Chancellor,
20:20 so he's Vice Chancellor at this marvelous institution
20:24 that the church built several years ago,
20:28 to try to encourage our graduate students in Africa
20:32 to stay in Africa and serve.
20:35 Very often when they come to US or England,
20:37 they'll move to these countries and not go back very often.
20:42 So I stayed at AUA,
20:44 on that lovely modern compound for five weeks
20:49 in meditating and praying,
20:51 and going to church
20:53 and visiting churches,
20:55 and we're going to talk about them soon I believe,
20:58 that I had the privilege of starting some years prior.
21:02 And when I got back,
21:04 I spoke to after that hiatus there,
21:08 I talked to one of my nieces
21:11 in the Riverside area and said,
21:14 "Look, you know, you've got all...
21:16 Man was not meant to live alone.
21:18 Yeah.
21:20 I'm a widow,
21:22 now widower and I've got to figure out
21:25 what to do next in life.
21:27 And I had spoken to her and said,
21:29 "Look, if you have
21:32 some people around that you know,
21:33 a nice Christian ladies,
21:35 I'd like to expand my sphere of social acquaintance.
21:39 And who knows,
21:42 who knows,
21:45 the Lord may lead to something down the line.
21:50 And she told me a few weeks later,
21:52 Uncle Calvin, I've been looking around
21:54 and I have 21 names for you.
21:59 And, of course, after that bit of a shock,
22:01 I said, "Deborah,
22:03 her name is Deborah Austin now,
22:06 I said "Deborah, I don't need 21 names,
22:08 I'm just, you know, you've got two or three
22:11 you can recommend on the top of your list."
22:14 And she did and said, "Yes."
22:17 And the pastor's mother of the Rubidoux Church
22:21 is number one.
22:24 And I've never seen her, never met her,
22:25 didn't know her, but I said, "All right.
22:29 If she's number one," and her husband Jerry said,
22:32 "Yeah, yeah, doc, she's number one,
22:36 so the both of you agree?"
22:37 I said, "Yeah."
22:39 I said, "All right, well,
22:41 I'd like to call her."
22:43 So if you can get her phone number,
22:45 I'll call her.
22:47 And if you tell her I'd like to meet her
22:48 and she gives you her phone number,
22:50 I will call her.
22:51 So they met her at church
22:55 and told her that
22:58 I'd like to speak to her to meet her.
23:01 Again, I've never seen, I didn't know her
23:03 and I was a little bit a little bit shaky about that,
23:07 I said, Lord, we'll try it, see what the Lord does,
23:10 see what's going on.
23:11 And surely enough, she gave the phone number
23:15 and I called her and I said,
23:19 well, you don't want to hear all that.
23:21 The point is, I called her
23:23 and I asked
23:25 if I could take her to lunch or dinner.
23:30 I told her, I eat twice a day,
23:32 4 o'clock in the evening, 9 o'clock in the morning,
23:36 and I'd appreciate,
23:37 she said, "Well, you eat at nine?"
23:40 I said "Yes."
23:41 She said, "Well, let's do 9:30."
23:43 I said, "That's pretty good."
23:44 She doesn't want to come off real accommodating right away.
23:47 She's gonna make it 9:30
23:50 and that led to our brunch
23:52 and the beginning of a friendship
23:55 that turned into romance
23:58 that eventuated several months later
24:00 into marriage,
24:01 and we were wed on February 17 of this year
24:05 at her son's church in Rubidoux,
24:08 at the Rubidoux Church in Riverside, California.
24:12 I just have to ask her one question.
24:14 We don't have to have all the details.
24:16 But did you know Sharon, when you met him
24:20 that this could be a potential love interest
24:23 or life partner for you?
24:25 I did, because through the years
24:28 and the total number of years
24:30 that I've been single was...
24:33 I'm gonna turn so I can really hear this,
24:35 I like this story.
24:37 Thirty four years, and for 34 years,
24:40 I just wasn't thinking about marriage
24:43 or I never really thought I would ever marry again.
24:47 And so I did feel that
24:50 God had put me through a test
24:53 because I lost my sister last year
24:56 and I had to be gone most of the year
24:59 back to New York, I had three sisters,
25:02 and I had to take care of the two remaining,
25:06 one had to have brain surgery and that and,
25:09 so I got them along with my niece's help,
25:12 who is a physician in Virginia,
25:16 and she said, "I'll take them
25:18 and they can come and be with me."
25:20 So that meant getting them relocated,
25:24 and then getting our family home
25:26 put up for sale
25:27 and it took me most of the year to do that.
25:31 And I felt that that was one of the most challenging
25:35 and devastating times of my life
25:37 because even after my sister's brain surgery,
25:41 then she lost her sight,
25:43 because of the tumor and things like that,
25:46 and I knew that God was putting me through a test
25:49 but I really said to Him,?
25:51 "I want to be a vessel that You can use
25:54 and I want to be an example of your love,"
25:57 especially to my family
25:59 because I'm the only Adventist in my family.
26:03 And I feel He did that and at the end of that trial,
26:07 I felt, "Well, there's something
26:09 in store for me,"
26:10 and that something became a real blessing to my life
26:14 because when we had our first meeting,
26:17 and we were talking and all of the love
26:21 that was coming through, and the compassion,
26:24 and the love for God really, really impressed me
26:28 about Dr. Rock because I've always just admired people
26:34 who can have that love and not feel ashamed
26:39 or anything to express how much they love the Lord,
26:44 and what the Lord has done and worked in their lives
26:48 and our stories, sort of, were coming together
26:51 and matching a lot the challenges
26:53 that we've had in life and how God was leading
26:57 that whole time.
26:58 So I did feel that this could turn into something special.
27:03 Well, Dr. Rock, congratulations.
27:05 Oh, I love to hear that story.
27:07 Very well-articulated Thank you.
27:09 Amen, amen.
27:11 I know that now we're going to go into some multiplication.
27:14 We're gonna rewind the clock
27:17 all the way back to 1987.
27:21 Tell us what, how God led you in '87
27:26 because that's what we're going to be talking about today,
27:29 is seeds planted in 1987
27:33 that had just exploded.
27:37 Yes, in 1987,
27:39 I had been working as a General Conference
27:42 Vice President for a couple of years,
27:45 always wanting to get back
27:47 into evangelism and pastoral work.
27:50 When I accepted the call to Oakwood in '71, it was...
27:54 And I'm not sure
27:55 this should have been my chief motive,
27:57 but one of the chief motives was to get the school
28:00 to pay my way to get my PhD.
28:03 I would work so hard at Oakwood when I was a student,
28:06 I didn't study very much,
28:07 I didn't get the grades I wanted.
28:09 I wanted to study, so soon as I got a chance
28:12 later on in ministry, I started going back to school
28:14 and did the masters and so forth but,
28:17 now I have been at Oakwood,
28:22 they took care of the finances
28:25 I was now Dr. Rock,
28:27 which I needed to be to be the president there.
28:30 And not just that I wanted to get the tools
28:33 so that I could work for the Lord better
28:36 and do writing which I love to do
28:39 and have been doing for quite a few years.
28:44 I have several books published by Pacific Press
28:47 and Review and Herald,
28:50 Buy Morning Watch book by the way for 2015
28:53 something better as a one contribution,
28:56 but back to the substance of my answer,
28:59 I felt that it would be a disaster
29:04 if I couldn't pastor again.
29:06 And as I served as President of Oakwood,
29:09 it was with a pastor's heart,
29:11 and a lot of students got a lot of tuition money,
29:15 paid through special contributions
29:17 I garnered.
29:18 Because I remember those hard days
29:20 I had when I was at Oakwood
29:22 and I presided there as a pastor.
29:27 I went to the General Conference,
29:28 I was the Vice President
29:30 but down in my heart I was a pastor.
29:33 And I never understood
29:34 why when issues arose at the GC
29:37 that my brother and some of the GC brethren
29:39 didn't respond with a pastor's answer.
29:42 And I was always pushing Elder Wilson pushing,
29:46 pleading with Elder Wilson who was my first president
29:49 and the others remember the pastor,
29:53 remember, yes, the father of our present leader.
29:57 And I asked him, I said, "Look, elder,
30:01 you know, I'm a pastor,
30:03 I know I can pastor a church.
30:06 I'm not sure whatever else I can do,
30:08 but I can pastor.
30:09 So cut me loose. Let me do my evangelism."
30:12 He said, "Sure."
30:13 And I did evangelism in number of countries,
30:17 England and Romania,
30:19 and Russia, and Zimbabwe
30:22 and, of course, one that we're talking about,
30:26 among others, is the one in Nairobi.
30:30 And in 1987,
30:33 one year before the first
30:36 and I think only annual of fall council
30:39 the GC has had in Africa.
30:41 I went there and was sort of a preparation
30:45 for spiritual dynamics of the oncoming
30:49 General Conference annual council.
30:51 We wanted to get the nation,
30:53 the continent spiritually prepared
30:57 for what was going to happen.
30:58 So we poured a lot of money and had a lot of assistance
31:01 in this meeting,
31:03 and baptized 1250 some,
31:08 and had a follow up in '88,
31:11 just prior to the arrival of the delegates
31:14 and that added on.
31:15 But in 1987,
31:18 350 of the 1200 plus people
31:22 who were baptized were set aside
31:25 as the English speaking church for Nairobi,
31:29 the first I believe,
31:31 English speaking congregation in Kenya.
31:34 And that church which said,
31:37 "No, we will do English,
31:40 we're going to abandon Swahili,
31:42 and we're going to have an English speaking
31:44 Seventh-day Adventist Church,
31:45 New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church
31:47 has in the 32 years
31:50 since then exploded in membership.
31:54 It now has 4,500 members.
31:59 That's amazing.
32:00 It has started eight other congregations
32:04 and conducts 13 branch Sabbath schools.
32:08 Well, I think we have a graphic perhaps...
32:09 We do.
32:10 So let's look at that graphic just now.
32:14 So they started with 350.
32:18 Yes.
32:19 And there they have 4,150 in the New Life Church.
32:25 4150 is the addition
32:29 to the 350 with which they started.
32:33 And then they've added 6,350.
32:35 And the purple,
32:37 yeah, the purple bar represents the total number
32:41 of the churches that they have begun,
32:44 the eight churches.
32:46 In addition to the 4,150 that's going.
32:47 Right, one of those eight churches
32:50 and I visited all eight of them
32:52 during my five weeks stay in September last year.
32:57 Can we hold that up on the moment longer
32:59 that graph?
33:00 We'll return to that graph, sure.
33:02 We visited all eight of those churches
33:05 and I visited most of those Sabbath schools.
33:07 But the summation of it all
33:11 is that the aggregate addition
33:14 to the 350 is approximately
33:17 1,100 members that these 350...
33:20 Eleven thousand?
33:22 Eleven thousand, thank you. That's amazing.
33:23 Eleven thousand that they've added
33:25 to their own number.
33:27 And that's just
33:31 something that ought to be chronicled,
33:34 not anything I did, of course, I wasn't there,
33:37 I baptized, and I left and came home
33:40 and did all the other things we've been talking about.
33:42 But meanwhile, these members,
33:44 laity and pastors have preached,
33:47 and evangelized, and dedicated themselves
33:50 with fanatical obsession, to seeing to it
33:54 that the Word of God is preached and taught
33:57 and all of this is done in Nairobi with the guidance,
34:01 I must mention the name of Dr. Gregory,
34:04 who is the president of the division there now.
34:06 And by the way, he was my driver,
34:09 and my translator, when I was there preaching,
34:11 he did a lot of that for me.
34:13 And Dr. Paul Wangai,
34:17 a physician, Adventist physician,
34:19 who was an elder of the church,
34:21 who has been the real spirit
34:24 and the force that has held things together
34:28 in guiding this church in its development.
34:31 So I say, praise the Lord and thank God.
34:34 And there's only one explanation
34:37 for that kind of exponential explosive growth.
34:41 And that is,
34:42 these people are being led by the Holy Spirit.
34:44 It's just, you know,
34:45 it's not us who adds to the church really,
34:48 it is the Lord just as we read in Acts Chapter 2,
34:51 that He brings people in,
34:54 but I think when you were talking about
34:57 how your stories kind of overlapped.
35:00 You're seeing the love of God in Him.
35:04 Obviously something when you planted the seed,
35:07 the Lord, opened those people's heart,
35:09 they open their hearts to the Lord,
35:11 to receive that same kind of love
35:14 and that's why they're attracting so many.
35:17 I know you have a number of pictures,
35:19 and I think they're important to you,
35:21 and we don't want to get beyond the...
35:24 I mean, we don't want to end up out of time
35:27 without showing these pictures.
35:29 So let's go through those pictures
35:31 and where you can explain to us, all right.
35:34 This first picture is a picture of 8,000 people
35:38 who gathered on the...
35:41 one of the final Sabbath's of our seven week meeting,
35:45 six or seven week meeting we had there.
35:47 This would have been in '87?
35:48 In 87. Okay.
35:50 This is a Uhuru Park
35:52 and behind it you see the big hotel,
35:54 one of the large hotels in Nairobi, Kenya,
35:58 but there were 8,000 people there that Sabbath.
36:01 What amazing sight that was and what a blessing
36:06 and a thrill it was to preach to that group.
36:09 This is one of the first baptisms we had.
36:11 You see, number of ministers gathered there.
36:14 We had to have 15
36:16 or more pastors baptizing for an hour.
36:19 How many did you baptize?
36:21 in three week period,
36:26 or two three weeks,
36:28 but this is one of the first baptism.
36:30 Here you see,
36:31 at the extreme right Thompson K,
36:36 well-known in our church as the sign language guru.
36:39 He's talking to some of the hearing challenged
36:42 on the front there and the people behind him.
36:47 This picture was taken...
36:49 All of that was in '87, right?
36:50 Now you're dealing with last year
36:53 when I was there in September,
36:54 these people are all a part of the group
36:59 that was baptized in '87.
37:01 Some of them are their children,
37:03 but these are the originals
37:05 of the 4,500 members of that one church
37:09 that began with 350 people
37:11 of the 4,500 been at this group.
37:16 And so this is the New Life Church?
37:18 And this is the New Life Church,
37:20 these are deacons, and deaconesses,
37:22 and members who were there to greet us,
37:25 to greet me
37:27 and now you have one or two of the smaller churches
37:30 that they started.
37:31 So they've spawned, New Life Church spawned eight.
37:34 Wow!
37:36 We have a graph if we have time for that
37:38 but this is one of them.
37:39 One is...
37:40 This is the Kaloleni Church,
37:42 which actually still speak Swahili
37:46 and is from a satellite beginning.
37:50 Here is the New Life Church B,
37:53 they call it I believe it,
37:55 which has 2,500 members.
37:59 Praise God. Can you imagine?
38:01 starts a church of 2,500.
38:05 And this is that congregation.
38:08 And another shot, another picture
38:11 from another angle of that same congregation.
38:15 And here is one of the pastors and group as leaders.
38:20 And this is the pastor in the blue.
38:21 This is one of the pastors
38:23 of one of the eight churches they began.
38:27 And they're, of course,
38:30 working hard to see that
38:32 even they so that
38:35 not only has the mother church started,
38:37 but they who are the daughter churches
38:42 are trying to plant themselves and one of them is successful,
38:46 so that the beat goes on,
38:50 the ripples roll on out,
38:52 and the Word of God still spreads,
38:55 and if time should last I wouldn't be surprised
38:59 if in addition to the many thousands
39:02 that one church has begun,
39:04 there'll be many, many more.
39:05 Amen and amen.
39:08 How exciting to plant that seed in '87?
39:12 Yeah, as we were mentioning a little bit earlier,
39:14 just the planning of one little seed started this.
39:18 And then because of the work of the Holy Spirit
39:20 and their dedication,
39:22 and paying attention to how the Lord is leading now.
39:26 This is just a show of the beautiful fruit
39:30 that's been produced.
39:31 And we assume that this is a new day,
39:34 and that they will continue to fertilize the seed
39:38 and it may be five years from now,
39:42 this could be even tripled,
39:44 I mean, we're living in the last days
39:46 and we know that the Holy Spirit
39:47 is working hard in people's lives
39:49 and is dedicated as they are.
39:52 And why do you think,
39:54 you know, you see maybe a church
39:57 in the United States that has 150 or 350.
40:02 You rarely see this kind of growth
40:05 where, you know, in a few decades
40:09 they have spawned 10,000 people.
40:11 Why do you think it is different in Nairobi?
40:15 Good question.
40:18 Here's a preacher born to ministry?
40:24 Served all these years,
40:25 the greatest number of individuals
40:27 that I've ever baptized in the meeting
40:30 in the United States is 200, did that in Memphis.
40:34 In 1969,
40:36 a year after King's assassination,
40:38 the city was still reverberating
40:41 with those issues,
40:43 and it was a great time to preach 200 were baptized.
40:47 Same preacher,
40:49 several years later,
40:50 1250 and I had to ask myself, what's the difference?
40:54 The difference is, as Jesus told us,
40:57 the poor hear Him gladly, that's one difference.
41:01 And when you go to certain towns
41:03 in certain places such as Siberia.
41:07 I did a seven week meeting in Novosibirsk,
41:12 it was way about four hours flight from Moscow.
41:16 And the people
41:18 live with simple, fair,
41:22 the streets are so clean,
41:24 you don't see trash in the street
41:26 because they pick up every little piece of paper
41:28 and stick and they not just to keep
41:30 the streets clean,
41:31 but they make something out of everything.
41:34 And when you go to cultures like that,
41:36 you discover that your meeting is the biggest thing in town.
41:41 So I go to Nairobi,
41:43 and they have these English speaking,
41:47 it was in a theater,
41:49 but these English speaking people
41:53 and they are attracted to your diction
41:56 and to your accent
41:58 and they want to know more about America,
42:00 and you come in with certain advantages,
42:02 including the fact
42:03 that there's not that much else that really attracts them plus,
42:08 as Jesus says, "Those who really are oppressed
42:13 and who are without long and look
42:17 and are happy to hear about a coming kingdom."
42:20 The earth made new
42:22 and deliverance from these pains and sorrows
42:24 and people who are oppressed,
42:28 more easily accept and hear the gospel.
42:31 You know, the sad thing is when you said that,
42:34 you go there
42:36 and you're the biggest thing in town.
42:37 I wish everybody understood
42:39 that when there is an evangelism series going on,
42:42 it is the greatest thing going on in town.
42:47 In many cities, yeah.
42:48 You know, it's so sad we're so distracted
42:50 and we have so much
42:54 that it's much more difficult in the developed countries.
42:58 When Elder Wilson Sr. said, "Well, Calvin,
43:03 I wanted to go to St. Petersburg,"
43:06 as it was once called,
43:08 because I had heard so much about it
43:09 in World War II, I told you my generation
43:11 is defined by World War II,
43:13 and I know that's where the Germans returned back
43:16 by the Hardy Russians
43:18 and the General Winter defeated Hitler.
43:24 And I was afraid, not afraid, but I had some caution."
43:27 Why do you want to send me to Siberia?
43:29 I am a black Seventh-day Adventist
43:31 and they're saying,
43:33 "Yeah, you're going to have your evangelism
43:34 but go to Siberia.
43:36 I said, "Wait a minute,
43:37 I don't know how's that gonna look?"
43:39 You know, the first Seventh-day Adventist preacher
43:42 to do evangelism in Siberia, black Adventist preacher
43:46 and they're sending me to Siberia,
43:47 I don't know.
43:49 But my mother said, "Son, that's not the right attitude.
43:53 They're sending you there
43:54 because they know you can do it."
43:56 I went there, and the reception,
43:58 these people,
44:00 who could never had, as I understood it,
44:03 an Adventist evangelist,
44:06 to have somebody come in and to tell them
44:09 who're all wrapped up in this dark Russian orthodoxy
44:14 that had them in this bleak
44:18 kind of approach to religion.
44:20 And to hear the brightness of the Second Coming,
44:23 to hear people singing,
44:25 to meet people like Glenn Foster,
44:27 who was our health lecturer.
44:29 And Thompson Caius picture,
44:33 you saw on Brenda Spragens is saying for us and others,
44:36 Charles Cheatham,
44:37 who did our TV work,
44:40 visual aids.
44:42 It just exploded, they didn't have much.
44:45 They didn't, they didn't.
44:46 They never heard this.
44:47 And they talked about the wonderful things
44:51 and the promises of glory.
44:53 And they were so happy
44:54 that somebody came and preached to them
44:56 and that was the same dynamic in Nairobi.
44:58 And it's the same dynamic all over the world
45:01 where people have been oppressed.
45:02 So to answer your question, it is a matter of hope.
45:06 Amen.
45:08 It is a matter of hope in Jesus Christ.
45:10 And knowing that not only does He bring us
45:13 guidance for our living, but He's given us
45:16 His robe of righteousness,
45:18 so we don't have to work ourselves to heaven.
45:20 Hallelujah. Amen.
45:22 We're covered with His robe
45:23 and under His robe while we're still growing,
45:26 we're already accepted.
45:28 And He loves us and we,
45:30 it's that sweet message.
45:33 And when people hear that,
45:35 who are oppressed, especially even the rich,
45:38 there are some Joseph's of Arimathea,
45:41 and there's some Nicodemus's around
45:43 but the poor hear Him and they glow
45:46 and they're glad, and it's a joy.
45:48 I love that kind of preaching.
45:50 I wish I could spend the rest of my life doing it.
45:52 I think that there's nothing more exciting
45:55 than doing an evangelistic series
45:58 because you get to lay a foundation
46:00 and build on it and take people on that journey
46:05 as long as your focus is always on Jesus,
46:10 and the love of Jesus, and the righteousness of Jesus.
46:14 In His covenant of righteousness by faith,
46:16 I'll tell you it is exciting to watch people change.
46:20 Right.
46:21 Sounds like you've been there.
46:22 Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
46:24 And I know when we were recently, what?
46:27 Year before last when we were in Phoenix and we did the...
46:34 Not Nevada, we were in Phoenix
46:36 and we did an evangelistic series
46:40 and there was a little man who came in
46:42 and he was just angry, he was angry.
46:47 And it was interesting that he came back
46:49 the next night and he was angry.
46:52 And just over a period of 14 days,
46:56 you know, 14 nights,
46:58 watched him go from being this angry person
47:02 to where, I mean,
47:04 he was just filled with love and he was bringing me gifts
47:07 and he was,
47:08 I mean, he had a lot of physical problems,
47:11 but he fell in love with God
47:13 and watching God change him so quickly,
47:17 it just brings tears to my eyes even now.
47:20 And he had to be baptized and he was in a wheelchair.
47:23 Yeah. And so that...
47:25 He just wanted with all of his heart
47:27 to be baptized.
47:28 Yeah. Yeah. It was...
47:30 Nothing more satisfying than that.
47:31 That's right.
47:32 Nothing more satisfying than that.
47:34 Okay, so we only have a few minutes left
47:35 and we will come back.
47:37 We will be going to a break,
47:39 but we'll come back for a final thought.
47:41 So I'm not asking for a final thought,
47:43 I just want to know what you're doing now?
47:46 Right now you want to know that?
47:47 I mean, what... Or after the break?
47:49 Oh, no, go ahead and tell us now,
47:51 what's going on in your life right now?
47:52 Do you go out and speak still?
47:54 Are you writing? Oh, yes.
47:55 I take appointments.
47:57 I told you I have...
47:58 Father Abraham has many sons,
48:01 my sons call the old man to be with them once in a while.
48:04 And on this very trip when we leave here we'll be...
48:07 I think I mentioned,
48:08 at the South Atlantic Conference camp meeting
48:12 in Orangeburg, South Carolina,
48:15 then we'll be back home.
48:16 And I still do a lot of writing,
48:18 a lot of articles for our papers.
48:20 And I've got a couple of more thoughts for books
48:25 that I hope to be able to polish
48:27 and Sharon,
48:30 who has such expertise with that part of the world
48:34 of which I know nothing and that is computerization,
48:39 is a great, great help and assistance in that
48:44 and we're working together on some reports
48:47 and she's going to help me organize my materials.
48:50 I've already talked to Andrews
48:53 and Oakwood about my records,
48:59 papers, and things that I've collected,
49:02 which are of historical interest to the church.
49:04 Recently did a book
49:05 that was printed by Andrews Press
49:08 titled Protest and Progress,
49:12 the push for parity
49:14 in the Seventh-day Adventist Church
49:15 by black Seventh - day Adventist leaders.
49:18 And it's been an eye opening volume,
49:21 they tell me, and I've got other things
49:24 that I hope to be able to produce soon.
49:28 I don't know if I'll ever do another morning watch book,
49:30 like the one that went out in 2015 in San Antonio,
49:34 or at that time, but I have some...
49:36 Lot of work goes into something like this.
49:37 Some hopes of maybe even another morning watch book,
49:40 and certainly some other devotional thoughts.
49:43 So I do a lot of writing and play golf when I can.
49:47 Yeah. Amen.
49:49 Now there is no real retirement from ministry.
49:51 People will ask us when you're going to retire,
49:54 and it's just not in our vocabulary.
49:57 It is, it?
49:58 No, but golf does sound good.
50:02 How many years has it been since you had an opportunity
50:05 to play golf?
50:06 Well, what we're going to do right now
50:08 is we have an address role for Dr. Rock.
50:13 And perhaps that you've watched this,
50:15 you're thinking, you know,
50:17 I'd like to talk with this gentleman.
50:19 Maybe you have a spiritual question
50:23 or concern, or maybe your church
50:27 would like to invite him to come and speak.
50:30 This is how you can get in touch with Dr. Rock.
50:36 If you would like to speak with Dr. Calvin Rock,
50:39 or if your church would like to invite him
50:41 to come speak in your area,
50:43 you may reach him in a variety of ways.
50:45 You may call him at area code
50:47 (702) 597-5973.
50:52 That number again is (702) 597-5973.
50:57 You may also email him at CBRock@Cox.net
51:02 and if you prefer, you may write to him
51:04 at Dr. Calvin Rock 143 Cascade Lake Street,
51:09 Las Vegas, Nevada 89148.


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