Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220017A
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00:05 ♪I want to spend my life mending broken people.♪ 00:15 ♪I want to spend my life removing pain.♪ 00:26 ♪Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts.♪ 00:37 ♪I want to spend my life mending broken people.♪ 00:59 ♪ ♪ 01:10 Hello friends. Welcome to 3ABN Today. My name is 01:12 John Lomacang and I have my better half with me, my wife 01:16 Angela. Good to have you here, Honey. 01:17 So happy to be here. Glad that you have tuned in today. You're 01:21 going to be blessed. Aren't they, Honey? 01:23 That's right. I know...We know the guests that are here today 01:26 We'll tell you a little bit more about that in a moment, but it's 01:29 about missions, it's about impacting the world and the 01:33 singular word that kind of sums it all up is Maranatha! 01:37 Maranatha (singsong) 01:38 Jesus is coming. And you'll find it. If you don't know what that 01:39 means just stay tuned and I would really recommend you hit 01:42 your record button because this is a program that will inspire 01:46 you will challenge you, and will say to you there's something 01:49 that every one of you watching and listening can do to advance 01:53 the cause of God. But thank you for your prayers and your 01:56 financial support of 3ABN as we are going and growing, getting 02:01 ready for the coming of Jesus. 02:03 You know, Honey, Maranatha's one of my favorite ministries. 02:07 That's right. It is. I know hands down. 02:10 We have done Maranatha trips and Friday nights what's our 02:14 favorite program? 02:16 Maranatha, that's right. We look forward to it. And some of 02:19 our favorite people from Maranatha are here today so 02:21 let's just go ahead and introduce them. 02:22 Kenneth Weiss or Weiss. 02:25 It's Weiss but Weiss, I'll answer to that too. 02:29 Welcome. What do you do at Maranatha? 02:31 You know I'm on the leadership team. Well you know the title is 02:36 Chief Operating Officer but you know you get to do whatever God 02:40 puts in the path and get the privilege to be involved and to 02:44 be here with... 02:46 Oh my goodness. Twenty-six years over 26 years. 02:50 And you're getting younger. 02:51 Yeah, I started when I was five. (Laughs) 02:55 Do you have a family? 02:57 I have a family. I have twin boys. They're at Southern 03:00 Adventist University. I have a daughter at Loma Linda Medical 03:04 School. And you know their lives have been changed, the path of 03:07 their lives, because they've been involved again in Maranatha 03:11 trips all their life. Mission is a big part of it. 03:13 And we're going to talk about that, how young people can get 03:16 involved. We're going to talk about the ultimate challenge 03:17 and all that. We'll get back into that program but, hey, the 03:20 favorite couple of Maranatha... 03:22 (Laughter) Absolutely. 03:24 Laurna and Don Noble. Welcome. 03:27 Thank you. Great to be here. Always nice to come here. 03:31 Yes, how long have you been there? 03:32 Ah, this is year number 40. 03:37 What! You Grew up in Maranatha. (Laughter) 03:39 Something like that. Yeah, it's gone by in just a couple weeks. 03:44 Yeah, a long time. But it's been a great blessing, 03:48 a challenge so...And my good wife. 03:51 Yeah, and I've been with Maranatha for about 20 03:55 years I can't believe. So it's been, it has been a blessing. 04:00 Actually, I feel really 04:01 emotional about it if I think about it too long 04:02 so I won't go there. Yeah, God has definitely changed my life 04:07 through something I never would have imagined. So... 04:09 And Maranatha has...Oh we're going to talk about some of the 04:14 ways. I think that Maranatha's like that hub in the center of a 04:18 wheel and it's spokes go in so many directions. We're going to 04:21 try to cover as many as we can today. But it's really good to 04:24 have you guys here. It's fun to travel with you and to see you 04:28 break ground and take over entire hotels, I know what that 04:32 means. 04:33 Oh, I know. Yeah, we loved it didn't we? 04:34 Oh we enjoyed it and we've seen the youngest of people and the 04:38 oldest of people. I never forgot when we were in Maranatha, I 04:40 think it was in Zimbabwe or Zambia. There were two sisters 04:44 that were in their 80s and I said, How old are you guys, and 04:49 they unhesitatingly said I'm 80 something and she's 80... And I 04:54 said what are you guys doing here? And they said what? Do you 04:55 want us to sit home and die in a rocking chair? And they were 04:57 carrying a steel beam. 04:59 On some of the projects those would be the young people. 05:02 Oh, I tell you. And it was just such an energy to be a part of 05:05 Maranatha which I think you have more projects than you have time 05:09 to even accomplish. (Oh yeah) But good to have you here today. 05:13 For the benefit of our audience just the challenge of Maranatha 05:17 was something that all the ministries faced. Let's start 05:20 with how Maranatha continued to thrive and survive during COVID. 05:25 You know COVID has, of course, impacted all ministries one way 05:30 or another. I know it's impacted 3ABN, it has to. Maranatha, of 05:34 course, you take a look at it. A lot of what we do is travel. 05:37 Work with volunteers. Go to other countries. Now how do you 05:41 do that during COVID? How do you make that happen? The surprising 05:46 thing is the way God worked it out is we did about the same 05:51 number of actual buildings and projects during COVID as we did 05:55 before. Well you say how it that possible? You had the right 06:00 question, how's that possible? Well we have local teams in many 06:05 of the countries that we're working in and they were able to 06:07 just keep working in most places And people were supportive so we 06:12 were able to keep building even though for some time not too 06:16 many volunteers were able to go. But since COVID started we have 06:21 had about 2500 volunteers involved which is kind of 06:24 surprising that it's that many. (How many?) 2500 (Wow) just 06:28 during COVID. But we've drilled since COVID started 1100 water 06:33 wells, we've done 1700 projects, built churches for 75,000 people 06:41 That's all during COVID. (During COVID). During COVID. Yeah, so 06:46 God's blessed. You know the work has to keep going. You know you 06:50 don't stop because of COVID. You keep going and doing as much as 06:54 you can. Our goal was if we can do it, if the door's open, walk 06:58 through the door and make it happen. Because I think God's 07:01 leading it and as you look back I believe that that's true. 07:04 Now we're starting to see volunteers more involved in the 07:07 international projects. We had a lot here in the U.S. during 07:11 COVID. 07:13 And John, you said it earlier, God's work has not slowed down 07:16 at all, in fact, through COVID it grew and our requests are up. 07:21 You know. It's just been amazing to watch. People became more 07:27 faithful, they started worshiping in smaller groups 07:30 and each one of those groups then grew and became...then they 07:34 had another request. 07:36 So the perspective is people... when tragedies or, or you 07:41 know an epidemic or something like that, we do turn to God. 07:44 That's how we're built. And so there are some good things that 07:48 come out of that. When people ask us, what have you been doing 07:51 during this COVID thing, we've been doing the same thing we've 07:54 always been doing. We've been drilling wells, we've been 07:57 building schools, we've been building churches and in a sense 08:00 even more so even at a, like trying to kick up the pace, 08:05 you know. 08:06 And praying more, of course, because of the awareness of our 08:10 need has come out more. 08:12 And because I really believe this is God's, this is not our 08:15 organization. Just like 3ABN. It's not your organization. 08:20 It's God's organization and He said go and He hasn't said stop 08:26 yet. In fact, it's almost like, right you got to finish strong 08:30 because we look around and we see like hey things are 08:33 happening. What's going on here? Just keep going until there's 08:36 nowhere to go. 08:38 Well we're a responsive ministry and we don't do any proj...we 08:42 don't make up the projects. We respond to what the church asks 08:46 us to do. We can't do everything they ask us but what we can do 08:51 we want to do. So that's what it's been through COVID also. 08:55 We put together a map or a globe with a point of light and most 09:04 of the projects that Maranatha has built through its history 09:06 and we brought that here to show you guys. We can maybe talk 09:11 a little bit about that. 09:13 As a matter of fact, if you are part of the viewing audience 09:15 while we are looking at this globe that's going to be 09:18 rotating. Tell us what those yellow dots represent. 09:20 You want to go ahead? Don, go for it. 09:24 Well those dots, each one is a project. They look like blobs 09:28 because in some places it's hundreds and hundreds of them 09:31 that are in one location. But you know there's actually 09:36 probably 12,000 to 15,000 dots that are on the globe of 09:41 projects that we have GPS coordinates for and... 09:45 So a project is a school that may service a thousand, 09:50 1500 kids. That's one project. A project may be a church that 09:55 has 50 members. A project may be a water well that serves a 09:59 thousand people. So there's a lot of different things that are 10:02 going on there but each one of these points represents 10:05 something that Maranatha that is everyone, all those people that 10:10 are involved in Maranatha have done together as a group for God 10:14 You mentioned the water wells. You know Don mentioned the 10:19 number of water wells. It's probably one of the more recent 10:24 aspects of what Maranatha is doing to impact the community. 10:30 And water in Kenya at the ends of the earth. A really good 10:38 example. 10:40 Well this right now, I just mentioned I've been here for 40 10:43 years. I'm saying how could I be so dense to not realize this 10:48 issue about water? Because now it is huge and we now have taken 10:54 an action as the board of directors to drill a well at 10:56 every church and every school that we build anywhere in the 11:00 world if they need it. So this year right now we should be 11:05 drilling over 600 wells. And these are deep water wells 11:09 running probably averaging 200 to 800 feet deep to get to the 11:14 pure water. So it's not a small thing. One of the things that 11:17 we're facing right now of course in increased fuel costs, because 11:21 these rigs take a lot of fuel. 11:22 People ask like why water, why? Why would you put water by a 11:28 school or church or whatever. I mean what difference does it 11:33 make, right? And the thing is this is such a unique 11:36 opportunity because people need water more than they need money. 11:41 I mean, how long can you go? Not many days, not many hours 11:46 without water. You need air first, you know, right? But then 11:49 water's really the second thing. You can't go very long. 11:52 And there's so many people, boy I'll tell you what, that if that 11:56 doesn't get their attention and why did you do that for me? 11:59 The government didn't come out here; some other company didn't 12:03 come out here. It was Christians and it was Adventist Christians. 12:06 What are you doing? What do you believe in anyway? Because that 12:12 affected me, that affected my family, my children, my forever 12:17 yeah. 12:18 Yeah we're seeing major growth in the areas where we're doing a 12:19 lot of wells. The church is just mushroom growth. 12:22 When you think about it, it's the Biblical model, right? Take 12:26 care of the people's needs and then they become very, very open 12:30 exactly, to... 12:32 You feel their need, you heal their sickness and then you've 12:34 got their attention. 12:35 That's right, loaves and fishes. 12:37 What did you always say about fishes when they... 12:39 Well you know you can give them fish or teach them how to fish. 12:41 And we've gone to places around the world... Now we're going to 12:45 look at some video here in a little bit that is going to show 12:48 you how the impact is tremendous 12:49 Well yeah the video that we're showing is, it's actually a, 12:54 it's a 25-minute but this is an abbreviated version of that 12:58 so you kind of get an idea. But this is a place that's extremely 13:02 dry up in northern Kenya. It's one of the tough places. 13:05 It seems like we get asked to go to the real tough places. 13:08 Yeah but talk about getting their attention. 13:10 But that's the places that make the big difference, big, 13:13 big difference. Maybe we can watch that. 13:16 It's called, is that Illeret. 13:19 Illeret, northern Kenya. (Okay) 13:22 ♪ ♪ 13:31 In 2016, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in east central 13:34 Africa asked Maranatha to build churches in the extreme north 13:38 Illeret region of Kenya. Maranatha's One Day Church crew 13:42 made a five-day journey from the capitol city of Nairobi to this 13:45 land inhabited by the indigenous Daasanach tribe. The team 13:51 constructed four one-day churches in the area and while 13:54 there became aware of the people's desperate need for 13:57 water. Because of years of drought the only place the 14:02 Daasanach can find water is by digging down 15 to 20 feet into 14:07 a dry river bed and scooping the muddy water that seeps up from 14:10 the earth. 14:14 We had to come back and we began making plans right away to do 14:18 that. It's very difficult, challenging. It's logistically 14:24 difficult. Everything has to be brought up here, your machinery, 14:28 your trucks, your pipes, your fuel, your food, all the 14:32 leadership people. If you forget something you can't run down to 14:35 the store and pick it up. Everything has to come. 14:39 The return trek would take five days across long stretches of 14:43 barren landscape without any roads or repair shops to fix 14:47 mechanical breakdowns. For two days the convoy traveled on 14:52 paved roads from Maranatha's headquarters near the capitol 14:54 city of Nairobi to the town of Marsabit. From there the paved 14:59 road ended. 15:00 We could just go at a speed of maximum let's say 10 to 20 15:05 kilometers per hour, a convoy of 10 cars, full of dust. This 15:12 was very challenging. So the temperatures were 104 to 107. 15:18 It's unfortunate that most of our trucks don't have air 15:23 condition or maybe a blower. We were just running on open 15:27 windows. 15:29 Despite multiple mechanical breakdowns in triple-digit heat 15:33 the convoy made it through 15:34 the Chalbi desert and finally arrived in the Illeret area. 15:37 One of the villages they set to work in was called Ilbagosh. 15:43 Here technologically advanced reports like fracture trace 15:46 analysis indicated that there was little to no chance of 15:50 finding water. Despite the discouraging geological report 15:55 after two hard days of drilling the team hit water. 15:58 Man says there's no water here. God says there's water and there 16:05 was. And when you realize that you are living right in the 16:10 middle of something that's just as powerful as any Biblical 16:15 story. It's the same thing. It is a Biblical story. It's just a 16:20 modern Biblical story. 16:24 Although water was found, like much of the groundwater nearby 16:28 it was salty. It would still be welcome for bathing, hygiene, 16:33 cooking and even for watering animals. But there was a certain 16:37 degree of disappointment that it wasn't completely sweet. 16:39 So this is not without impact even if it stays salty. I mean 16:44 you can read the Bible and can see that God can change the 16:46 salty water to pure if that's His will but it's got to have 16:51 to be done for His glory and then it's obvious that He did it 16:54 That's what I think. And I don't know if that'll happen or how 16:58 it'll happen. It's an ongoing story. 17:01 Just hour later Noble received word that the water turned sweet 17:06 Earlier this morning, I said that the water here at Ilbagosh 17:11 in northern Kenya was going to be salty or probably salty. 17:15 But we come out here today and we find out that the water is 17:19 pure, drinkable and we are excited. 17:23 In total, five new wells in the Illeret area are providing clean 17:28 water to thousands of Daasanach people who no longer must walk 17:32 miles each day for muddy water. At the same time they are 17:36 increasing interest in the Adventist church. 17:38 It's miraculous. Since we didn't know what to expect and here's 17:45 the water that we've been thinking about ever since we 17:48 first came up here. It's hard to explain. It's impactful, big 17:54 time. If you're not impacted you're not alive. 17:57 To learn more about Maranatha's work around the world visit 18:01 Maranatha's website at maranatha.org 18:05 Praise God! 18:09 Now that is a Praise the Lord! He turned the salty to the sweet 18:14 That is amazing. Here you are... Just give us an overview of 18:18 how long it took to get out there. 18:19 Well it was a five-day drive for all those trucks and it was 18:25 severely challenging for all the guys that went up there. 18:28 Here's the interesting thing. A lot of our well crew were not 18:33 Christians that have been working with us for quite a few 18:35 years. These guys have seen a lot of what's happened with the 18:39 wells and the impact on the people. This particular trip 18:42 took them over the edge and six of them were baptized (Wow!) 18:45 on the project, the well drillers themselves as they saw 18:50 what happened. Because what happened here is so phenomenal 18:52 so in your face that it had to be God, it wasn't anything else. 18:56 It wasn't the fact that they were great drillers or that we 18:59 knew so much. It was absolutely God because the guys that were 19:03 checking out, telling us where to drill said do not drill here 19:06 drill over here but the locals said don't drill here because 19:10 that's way off by this old river bed and we don't want it over 19:14 there, drill here. So we said, what should we do God? 19:17 You know and the locals they don't have fracture tracing, 19:20 they don't have all the science and this, that, and the other 19:22 thing and they're like, it'd be a whole lot more convenient 19:25 here. Yeah, this would be nice, this would be better for us. 19:30 but they were praying. I mean, they believe in God, they 19:32 believed that God could do this thing. 19:34 We decided to drill there even though we knew there was no 19:37 water. We said, either they're going to find out that there 19:40 isn't or God's going to do a miracle. Fortunately the later 19:43 became true. And they hit water at 38 meters. It wasn't that 19:48 deep and as you saw, it started salty and it became sweet. 19:52 Yeah, then there's this huge disappointment like oh, it's 19:56 salty water. And you know you kind of like well, you know we 20:00 can still use that, I mean like that really changes your life 20:05 and so you kind of like try to pull yourself up. 20:07 The women of the village grabbed her and they were dancing with 20:10 her. I mean, you want to see excited people. They haven't 20:13 seen water. They had to dig their whole life. Here's water 20:15 coming out of a well. Life changer, complete life change. 20:20 I mean, when that turned sweet that was another thing... 20:23 Oh my goodness. I mean you just get down on your knees. And the 20:26 well drillers who...now these are people who drill wells, 20:29 that's what they do for a living It's not like they've never seen 20:32 a well before. It's not like they've never seen water come up 20:35 out of the ground. And they saw that water turn from salty to 20:40 sweet. 20:41 Let me do one follow-up. 20:43 They knew what was happening. They saw what was happening. 20:45 Let me do a follow-up on this. We drilled five...there's five 20:48 wells functioning today right now for those people that don't 20:51 have to go dig down into the, 15 feet down and then try to dig 20:56 water up. Those people have water. The church has come in 20:59 there behind us and they're doing health talks, they're 21:03 doing all kinds of Bible teaching, et cetera, et cetera, 21:07 and guess what? They're baptizing people by the 21:11 hundreds. (What!?) By the hundreds. 21:14 Praise God! Praise God! 21:16 Why not? And we've got to go back because we just found 21:19 another tribe that doesn't have any water up there, a bigger 21:24 tribe! 21:25 A bigger tribe! 21:26 But these are people. Got knows those people live there. They're 21:29 at the end of the earth. You know the Bible talks about that 21:32 and go to the end of the earth. Well we're pretty much sure that 21:35 we're close to that, when you're out there, right? 21:38 And if you think about the positive that comes from the 21:42 water there's the immediate water impact, right? Then you 21:46 have greater health because you have fresh water, you have a lot 21:51 more time, right? There's kids that aren't having to travel 21:55 five, six miles to go get water. The women have more time. Then 22:01 all of a sudden...There's some interesting things we learned 22:04 when Don and I were there this last summer. We went and we 22:07 looked at one of the locations. I think we even have a picture 22:10 of it. It's a place called Lukenpawnie. We learned that 22:14 with the freshwater that these wells are bringing the 22:17 productivity of milk from the cattle goes up. Well, of course. 22:22 We just hadn't thought of that. So economically it starts making 22:26 a difference. So not only do they move from nomadic, they get 22:29 established in one place, but the whole standard of living 22:33 goes up. So then you have a need for a church and then this place 22:38 where you just saw the video right, one of the first requests 22:41 they said is, We're ready for a school. 22:44 All of the churches that we built up there every single one 22:46 of them that we went to somebody in the group stood up and said 22:50 Got to have schools for our children. 22:53 Yeah, and it was an impassioned plea, actually. 22:56 From just the well. 22:57 Very interesting. You talk to these people about the water 23:01 that they're getting, and they're excited about it, but 23:03 you know what their greatest interest is? (What's that?) It's 23:07 the water for their animals. 23:09 Because the animals provide their food. (multiple 23:13 conversation) 23:14 That's their livelihood and now they don't have to be itinerant 23:16 out looking for water. 23:18 To keep their animals alive which is their food supply. 23:20 We've seen that when we were there their wealth is often 23:24 measured by how much cattle they have, how much sheep and how 23:26 much goats they have and that's their life-sustaining...They're 23:30 not driving to Walmart. They're not going to Raley's for those of 23:35 you who live in California. They're not driving to the super 23:37 market to find what cuts are available. It's in their back 23:41 yard literally. When we visited some families remember you know 23:45 we saw their pen outside which we probably would have dogs in 23:48 it, just household pets. But in that pen is not a household pet, 23:52 it's their sustaining food supply. Tell us about the 23:55 Econga well. 23:58 Ah, Econga, that's in Nucomboni. We have a picture of it. In this 24:03 last summer we had a volunteer project there. 24:05 A number of people went 24:07 and Don and I took a day. We went to go visit with the well 24:11 team and you can see a picture of the well rig. 24:13 It's on the screen. 24:14 Yeah, you have it on the screen. 24:16 What is the yellow? 24:17 So okay let me go to that. The yellow are buckets of water. 24:21 So that's what the women come and refill. And here was have a 24:24 picture of just...there are hundreds of ladies that come 24:28 and bring their...She's got a young child there. They'll pump 24:32 their buckets and then they'll go back. 24:34 They weigh about 40 pounds. 24:35 Yeah, I would like to challenge any woman, or man, to pick one 24:38 of those up and put them on their head for one mile and 24:42 these women walk for many, many miles a day with 40 pounds on 24:46 their head like that. I mean, it is tough. It's tough. 24:49 Well the picture's gone now but there's a church there right 24:54 next to the well and that's where the people come. 25:00 It's just the edge of the church 25:01 So this Econga well, going back, the active involvement of God 25:09 in doing miracles and taking salt water into fresh water, 25:14 here's another example. I mean, this is clear in the other part 25:17 of the country. And there are other wells in the area, so this 25:23 well was drilled...We become calloused right. We're seeing 25:27 this all the time. Well it's likely to be salty but at least 25:31 you'll get some water. Maybe you won't drink it but at least you 25:35 get it. Well, guess what. Members start praying and praying the 25:39 whole drilling process. So the well finishes and it's fresh 25:47 water and a well driller, a Marlin, says hey how come you 25:50 were so sure. It's like, well we've been praying for it, but 25:53 of course, it's going to be fresh water. We don't have any doubt. 25:57 So all their friends and neighbors are like why do you 25:59 have fresh water. Well we serve a more powerful God and that's 26:02 why and we've been praying for it. So the difference is the 26:06 praying. It's really amazing. Here's one for you. What if you 26:11 are in charge of a well drilling team and the well is dry? What 26:15 do you do? 26:17 The people doubt your God. 26:20 Yeah, and do you drive away if the decision is up to you? I 26:23 mean this is their livelihood. Right? I mean they're not going 26:27 to live as long. 26:28 Yeah, we do have some dry wells. We're not a hundred percent. 26:31 Not a hundred percent. 26:33 So those are tough decisions that our people have to do. 26:36 Yeah we did one in a place called Lorata there was a 26:40 picture but I'll just do it quickly. We drilled in I think 26:42 it was 2017. It was dry. It went down seven hundred and some feet 26:47 and didn't hit water. They finally pulled out. And they 26:51 were in the area again a couple years later and the people 26:56 begged them, literally begged them on their knees try again. 27:00 So they tried again. Try again. Try again. The third time just 27:07 what a couple months ago. Went back a third time. It's on a 27:10 main road so it wasn't hard to get to. Hit water at 140 some 27:16 feet, plenty of water, pure, freshwater. So the third time 27:21 they got water. That's crazy. 27:23 Prevailing faith. 27:24 Yeah let me say one more thing about wells before we get off of 27:28 wells. And that is, we have started a maintenance program 27:32 for the wells. Many of the wells that have been drilled 27:34 throughout Africa and even around the world are non 27:38 functioning after they've been put in. Over time the things 27:41 wear out, parts wear out. We have... 27:43 We're just talking about wells in general. All sorts of big 27:47 companies go out there and drill a well. But then what happens? 27:50 You go back 21 years later. Is it still working? Maybe, maybe. 27:54 But has it had any maintenance whatsoever. Probably not. 27:58 That's the maintenance side to revisit some of... 28:00 So we actually have a maintenance program now where we 28:03 visit each of the wells at least once a year or if they contact 28:06 us we'll come in a fix it. So I mean it's a shame. You put a lot 28:10 of money into a well and maybe for a $20 part, it doesn't work. 28:16 So we're going back and making sure that they not just work to 28:20 start with but they keep working 28:21 We're setting the bar as high as we can because guess what this 28:26 does for the Seventh-day Adventist church and the 28:28 membership everybody looks at. Over there it's not about 28:30 Maranatha. It's about the church It's how powerful is this God 28:35 that brought you water here. 28:37 And then they ask what do you believe? What do you believe? 28:42 Who is this God? And that really is the centerpiece. Who is that 28:49 God? 28:51 And that makes a difference. Now the next one we're going to talk 28:52 about is the... 28:54 Wait a minute. I have a question. 28:56 How do you find people you can trust to work out there? 29:01 Well, that's a good question. 29:04 We work through a lot of people before we get the good ones. 29:09 You know over the years we've worked in a lot of countries. 29:13 As we work there and you get to know the employees and the staff 29:18 there's some that are stellar and we keep taking them to other 29:22 We move them around where they become leadership. 29:28 Like the management team. 29:30 We got leaders that work in our countries around the world that 29:33 have been with us for 25 years. (Whew!) Yeah. 29:37 And that's amazing but I want to kind of move on and look at some 29:40 of the other things. Tell us about the Kuotine Campus. Now 29:43 this is a video we want to show. Is there audio with it? 29:46 I think we're just talking over the top of it. 29:49 When we first came to...We can show that Kuotine video. 29:55 There's a before and an after Kuotine. 29:57 When we first came to the Kuotine Campus we were 29:59 up hauled. This actually is a good video of the original 30:08 Kuotine Campus (on a good day) Look they've even done some 30:11 pretty plantings and whatnot. So this is not when we first came. 30:15 Um but the condition of that campus and they had a few 30:24 hundred students there at that time. 30:25 Those pictures make this look pretty good. 30:27 This is what it's changed to. 30:30 But now we're not done yet but you can see the change. And 30:35 we've rebuild virtually every single building and added a 30:38 boatload of buildings there. They had just like an outdoor 30:43 kitchen that they had a rice and bean mixture every day. The 30:48 condition of the dormitories was abysmal. The showers you 30:55 just take...This is young men and women and teenage boys and 30:58 girls taking showers outside, try to visualize this, with the 31:02 small wall around them with just mud and they're pouring a little 31:07 bucket of water over their head. There's two toilets for hundreds 31:12 of kids. Try to imagine the morning routine. 31:15 Oh, not a chance. That is terrible. 31:17 So now these kids are texting their friends. I mean, they 31:23 actually have phones. Who knew? But they're texting their 31:24 friends pictures and stuff like you've got to come here... 31:28 They're the marketers for the school. 31:29 There's a waiting list for that school. So the school has how 31:34 many kids at that school now? (A few hundred) Yeah, I mean 31:37 they've added like 200 kids to the campus and they have a 31:41 waiting list because they really can't take any more. So it's 31:44 just a huge thing. And again circling back, well what 31:47 difference. This is just sticks and bricks and mortar. What 31:51 difference does it make. It makes a difference in the lives 31:53 of those kids and a lot of them are going to meet Jesus Christ 31:57 and develop a relationship with Him. That's what it's really all 32:02 about and 10,000 years from now they're going to be in the 32:05 kingdom and that school is going to be a part of it. You know, I 32:09 mean that's the thing. 32:10 They used to use a third of their budget on water that 32:12 comes in with trucks 32:14 Now of course we drilled a well and they've got all the water 32:16 they can handle and enough to water the grass. 32:19 And the community comes and they get water there from all around. 32:24 So, everybody, I had a young lady come up to me as the grass was 32:27 growing and the...You know it's so beautiful the stuff. You know 32:31 we build the buildings but then what God does on the campus. 32:33 Like you put the grass in, you put the landscaping in. You know 32:38 God's ideas. He's such a great designer right? So one of the 32:41 young ladies came up to me and she said, Did you have any idea 32:43 that this would look so great? And I'm like uh yeah. (Laughter) 32:50 Some of our supporters they ask us so how do the kids do? What 32:53 goes on with that? Well look every time that you improve the 32:58 facilities and you have a place you're proud of to be, you feel 33:02 it's an honor to be there. They focus, they study, you attract 33:07 better teachers and now the kids coming out of that school are 33:09 scoring top in their region and their state and so all of a 33:13 sudden you move them from just being nowhere to being stars in 33:19 that country and then they become lights for God's work. 33:23 Beautiful. What about the Kai Jagdeo dorm. 33:27 Kai Giotto. What an amazing story this is. 33:32 That's a campus of rescue, a rescue campus for girls. 33:36 What do you mean rescue? 33:37 Well, Laurna will explain. 33:39 Well there's certain tribes in Kenya and really surprisingly in 33:45 many countries that have this female genital mutilation or FGM 33:52 and also early childhood marriage so they will be 33:56 married usually by the age of nine. (Nine! Unbelievable) 34:00 And their partner may be in his 20s, maybe in his 70s. (What!) 34:06 So it just depends on who contracted for that child when 34:09 they were born. (Who has the cattle) And it's a contract. 34:12 (That's terrible!) And they are basically a purchased item for 34:17 that man. And there are some young women, and many reasons, 34:25 many, many, many different stories decide they want to 34:28 escape that (Okay) How many do we have there? Over 200? 34:34 (Fully 300) Multiple voices... There was a bunch of Adventist 34:42 women who said...probably started with one or two and now 34:45 there's this huge school and while they've rescued these 34:49 girls they said why not give them an education. Well... 34:53 This probably is the most popular project that we have 34:56 anywhere in the world right now. It's been a huge project. It's 34:59 still going on, people can still go there, we're building a 35:02 complete new campus, Kai Giotto, about an hour from Nairobi so 35:07 it's easy to get to. 35:10 Multiple voices at once. You can see the girls there. 35:12 Yeah, we'll just talk over the top of this, but this is in 35:17 their dormitory and they're here with some of the volunteers 35:23 They just got a new dorm and beds. 35:25 Yeah. You won't believe some of the places they have been 35:30 housed. 35:33 These girls end up here. They learn, because you know 35:40 they start out with their tribal languages, whatever they are and 35:43 here they will learn to read and to write and then often they 35:50 express interest in different trades They're getting a rounded 35:53 education. By the time they come out and graduate from high 35:55 school then they can integrate back in society. It is really, 36:00 really a life changer. 36:01 We just added a secondary school to it. 36:04 A secondary? 36:06 And you know this is like a rolling...we're talking in 36:08 Africa, there's no snow in that particular area, but this is 36:10 like a snowball effect. Talk about the Sue Krueger School 36:15 because the effect is just continuous all over Africa. 36:18 Yeah, that's in India. 36:20 That's in India? Okay we're crossing the continent. 36:21 We're jumping around but that's okay because we're working in 36:25 India. Have been for many, many years. That school is what we 36:29 call an EEC or Educational Evangelism Center. It's got 36:35 classrooms. It's got a center area for...they do church, they 36:40 do meetings of all sorts in these buildings. We've done 36:44 about 125 of them. 36:45 It's like a giant auditorium with classrooms on the side and 36:48 it becomes the center for Christian activity... 36:53 Multiple voices...in that area. 36:55 Look at that. 36:57 And you guys are in there aren't you. 36:58 We were there that day, yes, at as they dedicated that school. 37:02 So they have a handful of students there as you can see. 37:06 (Laughter) And you know you think about each one of those 37:10 kids has a story and each one of them has a future and they're 37:13 going to have kids and they have something send to and teach 37:17 their children as well. So that, like you were saying, really 37:20 goes on and on and on, yeah. 37:23 It's a big outreach. I mean the families that send their kids 37:25 there, they're not all Seventh- day Adventists. They're all 37:28 walks of life. Multiple voices. 37:29 Are there Muslims? 37:30 There are Muslims, they're good Hindus. (Multiple voices) 37:34 But what they're hoping is those families, many of them, the 37:37 parents come there either every day or on a regular basis. 37:41 They're listening to their child say, Mom, why aren't we having 37:44 prayer? Why aren't we praying about this. What about this 37:49 verse in the Bible. You know, this sort of thing and so it 37:52 really is an evangelistic school Real Christian education is 37:57 evangelism. 37:59 You touched on something right there, the schools, the Muslims. 38:02 There's places in Cote d'Ivoire, lot of Muslims in Cote d'Ivoire 38:05 we're building a couple of schools there and the families will not 38:09 send their kids or themselves to any kind of an evangelistic 38:13 meeting. They won't do it. But they'll give you their kids at 38:16 the school. 38:18 Wow. A child shall lead them. 38:19 I'm assuming this next word is maybe Indian, Falakata. 38:24 (It is.) Did I say that correctly? 38:26 (Yeah.) About that structure that you're building. 38:30 It's the same thing as the Sue Krueger School. It's just under 38:33 construction right now. 38:36 Do we have a picture? (Yeah. I think we do.) 38:38 Oh, there it is. 38:39 This is kind of what it looks like. Construction, yeah, it's 38:40 going up, it's going up. 38:42 It's a little bit bigger. That one's 14 classrooms plus an area 38:46 in the middle that will seat 1250. 38:48 What grades? 38:49 Oh, it'll seat about 1250? 38:52 Yes, yes. That school goes from kindergarten to 12 I believe. 38:56 That particular building I believe they're going to 38:59 allocate to the elementary. 39:01 Wow! We were there when we saw that major campus that you guys 39:04 did in Zambia. 39:05 Remember the church, the outdoor church. 39:07 The outdoor church where they were meeting under a blue tarp 39:09 for many years and we met that church mother who said, I've 39:13 been prrraying for years, prrraying, prraying. That was so 39:15 exciting. And we say the police roll up one day. We said, Oh, is 39:19 there some problem here? And they were coming to enroll their 39:22 children. That inspired my wife because what did you do the next 39:25 year when we went out there? 39:27 I got clothes from the kids from our church. I had children bring 39:31 their old clothes and donations. People gave us money to help 39:36 More than $4000 to put kids in school. 39:41 From our church. 39:42 Indistinct words. 39:43 I think that's awesome. 39:45 You know in India we actually have three campuses going right 39:47 now and another one just like the Falakata, the one that's 39:50 under construction and a modular school also. Well we started to 39:55 do...You have to be careful because you want to make sure 39:58 the campuses are going to be successful. Sometimes in the 40:03 past if you don't really study into it deep enough you're going 40:07 make a mistake. So we won't build on any of these campuses 40:11 unless they already have an effective, ongoing program 40:15 that's doing well. They just need buildings. 40:18 Do you have a pastor too? 40:19 Pardon me. 40:21 A pastor, a minister? 40:22 It depends on the school. 40:24 I mean the churches, of course would need a pastor. 40:26 Sure the churches do. The schools like that one is a big 40:29 campus with 2000 students or something, Yeah, they'll have 40:33 not just one pastor. 40:35 But we also do schools for smaller...like we have a modular 40:39 school that so if they don't need a giant building like that 40:44 but you still...we have some photographs of what that looks 40:47 like. 40:48 Is it Immanuel? Immanuel? (Yes) Okay let's look at these two 40:51 photos from Immanuel. One... 40:52 Oh, look at that! 40:53 That's a beautiful campus. Now are those more modular? 40:55 Yes, they are. There's a cafeteria in there. There's a 40:59 couple of dorm buildings and classrooms. The place got our 41:03 attention because the girls' dorm burned down. (Oh!) And so they 41:07 says hey you know we really need help. So we've gone in there and 41:11 of course, replaced the dorm. (Look at that) That's a class 41:14 room right there. And now surprisingly there were some 41:20 donors that got excited about it and the fact that the staff had 41:23 to walk three or four miles each way to find a place to live. 41:28 We're building a number of really nice duplexes on the campus for 41:32 staff. 41:34 Well one of the things to just highlight that is if you don't 41:36 have great leadership at a school what happens? Right? 41:40 And if you can attract great leadership one of the things is 41:43 where are you going to live? You know if you have a better 41:46 place to live for those that are leaders you're going to have a 41:50 better school. 41:51 Absolutely. That's right. 41:52 So one of the things we're trying to do is on some campuses 41:55 where it's really called for we do housing. (Good) 41:58 Now there's a connection with 3ABN connection in this video I 42:02 want to show you right now that our viewers see. It's a 42:05 little more than two minutes and I want to have you highlight 42:07 what that is after we watch it. (Okay, okay) 42:10 Over the past three decades Maranatha Volunteers 42:19 International's Ultimate Workout has taken teams on mission trips 42:22 around the world. But in 2021 Maranatha organized an Ultimate 42:28 Workout in a very familiar location, the United States. 42:32 Each year Maranatha organizes nearly two dozen projects in 42:39 North America and they're a big part of Maranatha's annual 42:42 mission work. And in 2021 Ultimate Workout was part of 42:47 that work by organizing a project in Kayenta, Arizona. 42:51 Kayenta is a small town in the Navajo Nation and the community 42:54 is 95 percent Navajo? A portion of the population are members of 43:00 the Kayenta Seventh-day Adventist church. It was here at 43:05 the church where 77 volunteers camped and built the walls of 43:09 what will be the only Adventist school in the area. Volunteers 43:18 also participated in a number of outreach projects for local 43:22 members in need. While their days were filled with work their 43:32 mornings and evenings were spent in worship which is an equally 43:36 important part of Maranatha's mission, to grow the faith of 43:39 its volunteers. 43:41 The worships have been like nothing I've ever experienced. 43:45 They have been...like every night it's like you feel the 43:48 Holy Spirit that you know that God is in that place. You can 43:51 feel His presence and the music the speaking, just the whole 43:55 atmosphere when everyone has come together is just, it's 43:59 amazing. 44:01 By the end of the project 17 teens decided to commit their 44:09 lives to Jesus. 44:17 Lives always come back different and people are impacted forever 44:21 by going on a Maranatha project. But Ultimate Workout seems to 44:23 have a different impact because you're impacting the life of a 44:26 teenager who have their entire life ahead of them. 44:28 For more information on Maranatha's mission and how 44:32 you can help go to maranatha.org 44:36 Wow! It's a phenomenal video there. 44:39 You know that video you just saw that is a classic example of why 44:45 Maranatha exists. We spent a bunch of time talking about 44:47 buildings but there's a whole other piece and that is the 44:51 volunteer aspect. So here this is a project that's specifically 44:56 focused for young people, 14-18 year olds. And these kids go 45:01 their lives are changed. Sometimes we get a call back 45:04 after the project, says Hey what did you do to my little Johnny 45:08 or Susie because it's not the same one that I sent you. 45:12 And it's that big a change. They get a chance to kind of 45:15 remake themselves a little bit for two weeks or a week-and-a- 45:19 half. They get to experience work. Many of them maybe haven't 45:25 done that. And they move into this non-neutral environment 45:28 zone where their minds are open to the Holy Spirit touching the 45:34 heart and you saw on the video, 17 kids gave their lives to 45:38 Jesus. Some of these kids come from troubled backgrounds. 45:41 I mean they're not all you know the saints. There's a broad 45:45 spectrum there. So volunteering, touching, that is half of what 45:50 Maranatha does. 45:51 Ultimate workout 30 years, over 30 years now, we've been doing 45:55 that project. Now we have children of the parents who went 45:58 on Ultimate Workout when they were kids (growing up). So it's 46:02 pretty cool. Normally they've been international. This last 46:05 year because of COVID we did it in the United States for the 46:08 first time. 46:09 But we did it in the Navajo Nation. 46:10 They didn't know they weren't outside of the country. It felt 46:13 like they were outside the country. 46:14 When we were in Africa for example, I think it was in 46:16 Zimbabwe or Zambia, one of the two. There was a teenager there 46:19 and she talked about how year after year she went to a 46:22 Maranatha project and one year her mom took her to Disney World 46:24 and she said, I hated it. Here I am in Disney World, Mom's 46:27 wasting money and I said, I want to be in Africa. So for those of 46:31 you that have young people that want to give them...See mission 46:33 drives the message. Getaway from the video games. There's no 46:39 self-service, there's no Play Station three or four or five or 46:40 six. And they're out there making differences in people's 46:43 lives and when they leave they go back home and say I've got to 46:45 do this again next year. That's what Ultimate Workout 46:48 is all about 46:49 It gives meaning to your life. 46:51 Oh, it has meaning. 46:52 It did something for me personally. My mother, when I 46:53 was a kid, she was like, Oh you know...I was in my 20s...She's 46:56 like you got to go on one of these trips, you know. And I'm 46:59 like phew, I'm not going. Can I get my nails done there? 47:03 Mya, mya, mya. Then you go and this is something that God does 47:06 to all of us. When you look out and beyond yourself (Amen) that 47:13 is what's satisfying and God has all the keys to making us happy. 47:17 Right? And that's what people find. If they can find that at a 47:21 young age, better (snaps fingers). 47:22 And we have projects...Like this one's focused on young adults, I 47:28 mean on young people. There's some for young adults and then 47:30 another thing that we do, every year we have multiple 47:33 opportunities for families so they can go during the summer. 47:37 We have opportunities in Peru, in Africa, I mean there's lots 47:42 of them. And then Christmas time talk about...Oh my goodness, we 47:46 have many...(Very popular) 47:48 Multiple voices. You look out. 47:54 You do not look at you. 47:55 You become a...(Multiple voices) 47:57 And you get more than...I mean almost every volunteer we have 47:59 says, Oh I went to give but I got so much back. I mean I got 48:03 way more than, you know, I thought I was going to be giving 48:07 and they give me. So. 48:09 You know, it was on one of these trips that brought us to tears. 48:11 as we stayed in our hotel room realizing how blessed we are 48:14 in America. We gave away our clothes, our shoes, our pants. 48:17 I bought new shoes for the out back, I gave them away. My wife 48:20 gave away a lot of her clothes to the wife, we met there. 48:22 Your perspective changes. 48:24 Your perspective, yeah. 48:25 I mean what's the difference between us sitting here talking 48:29 about this versus having to be digging there for a little bit 48:32 of water, right? It's where we were born. 48:34 There's no age limit is there to be a volunteer. 48:37 No. We've had from babies to middle to late 90s that go. 48:44 It depends, yeah. 48:46 I want to kind of challenge you. There are people watching and 48:48 listening, they're saying how can I get involved. We have a 48:51 few more pictures we'll show maybe before we end the program 48:54 but, be specific. How can people watching and listening get 48:57 involved in Maranatha. It's phenomenal, it's life changing. 48:59 It's not going to end until Jesus returns. 49:03 We'll get the address in a moment. 49:05 You know there's a number of ways that...of course over the 49:10 years it's been volunteer and go And that's one very, very key 49:14 way. And if people can do it, they should. A lot of people 49:18 can't. They can pray. I believe that prayer is just as important 49:23 as if you give. God works through prayers. We've seen it 49:27 over and over and over again. 49:29 You have these $10 churches. 49:31 We have $10 churches, yep. That started actually from the dime 49:35 tabernacle I got the idea. Kind of bumped up the ten cents. 49:39 But not that's been over 30 years so maybe we ought to bump 49:42 it again, I don't know. But we build a couple three churches 49:47 every month with people that give $10. So people say well I'm 49:52 not giving much. Well combine it with a lot of people and it's a 49:55 big deal. I did want to mention we do build churches. We haven't 50:00 talked about it tonight. 50:02 Matter of fact, let's just show that picture of the Zambia 50:04 church. That was interesting. 50:05 So we build churches like this where it's very, very basic. 50:10 It's a basic church and we build them because if we see the next 50:14 picture when they build them wrong and they don't have the 50:18 right structural support you see what happens. So this is a 50:21 church that asked us to help them rebuild. This actually 50:24 killed a handful of people in the church. 50:26 Yeah, five people were killed there just a couple months ago. 50:29 We've already committed to rebuilding, well we didn't build 50:31 it in the first place. No. 50:34 So those buildings that look so basic are structurally 50:39 engineered and that is a big difference. But then the church 50:43 people will take them and you won't believe in some countries 50:45 what they'll do with those. We have pictures of that. 50:48 Well let's look at the one in India, the India church. This 50:50 is another example of how churches look when you're done. 50:53 And in India the power of your God gets judged by the solidness 51:03 of your church. So that's why it's important. 51:05 We have a few more pictures. 51:07 I want to see this one in Peru. This is phenomenal, a completely 51:09 different design. Look at that. Multiple voices. 51:14 It actually is a thin structure behind that wall. 51:17 But it's got different lipstick on. 51:21 And also Brazil. Let's look at the Brazil one. 51:23 It's a very similar. Yeah so they do something completely... 51:26 yeah. So it just depends on the church... 51:31 They're free to give a common look to the churches in the area 51:33 so people recognize the Adventist church. 51:35 And you have a planning team and architect. We'll talk about some 51:37 of that on the other side before we end our program. If you're 51:41 watching this program you know that this is something that 51:43 just ignited a flame in you and we'll let you know on this 51:48 address roll how you can get involved. 51:51 If you would like to contact or know more about Maranatha 51:56 Volunteers International you can do so in the following ways: 51:58 You can write to them at 900 Reserve Dr. Ste 100 52:04 Roseville, CA 95678 You can call them at (916)774-7700. That's 52:14 (916)774-7700. You can also visit their website at 52:21 maranatha.org. That's maranatha.org 52:25 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2022-07-18