Participants: Jason Bradley (Host), Eric Camarillo, Lo-Ammi Richardson
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000218A
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00:01 Stay tuned to meet two young guys who recognized the need
00:04 in the community and are doing something about it. 00:07 My name is Jason Bradley, and you are watching 00:09 Urban Report. 00:35 Hello and welcome to Urban Report, 00:37 my guests today are Lo-Ammi Richardson and Eric Camarillo. 00:41 Lo-Ammi is the Harvest Director for SALT, 00:44 and Eric is the Founder/ President. 00:46 Welcome to Urban Report Eric and Lo-Ammi. 00:49 Alright, so our viewers love stories, they love testimonies, 00:55 and we want to learn about your background before we 00:59 dive in to SALT and what it's all about. 01:02 Alright, so let's start with you Lo-Ammi. 01:05 Where are you from? Have you always been 01:08 Seventh-day Adventist? And I know that you have a testimony. 01:12 Yeah. And I know you have a testimony too Eric 01:14 and we want to get a little bit of that. 01:16 Well yeah, I grew up a Seventh- day Adventist, but as I go older 01:19 I eventually left the church. Um, my passion... 01:22 I had a background in basketball...I loved to play 01:25 the game of basketball and I was kind of pursuing a career 01:27 to play semi-professionally in Puerto Rico and uh, 01:30 was involved in hip-hop in the Rap culture and I got caught up 01:34 in smoking and drinking and just street violence 01:37 and all of those things and getting myself into trouble. 01:39 It wasn't until about six years ago, um, five, six years ago 01:43 that I went to the conference, it's called GYC in Louisville, KY 01:46 and there heard a powerful message by Mark Finley that 01:50 really changed my life man, and ever since then I have been 01:52 in the ministry and seeing how the Lord has kind of guided me 01:56 and nurtured me throughout the way, so that's kind of my... 02:00 Wow! GYC, that's where I met you guys. Yeah, yeah. 02:02 Laughing. That's right, that's right, GYC, not that GYC, 02:06 but I did meet you at a GYC. 02:08 And what about you Eric? 02:09 Well, I was raised...I wasn't raised Adventist. 02:13 I was raised culturally as a Catholic. 02:15 I didn't necessarily believe in all the doctrines or even 02:19 necessarily believe there was a God, sometimes I would, 02:21 but sometimes I wouldn't. Um, but a, yeah... 02:25 I mean, I grew up in Chicago... I was mixed up...I actually had 02:30 a break-dancing crew in High School. Wow! Yep! 02:33 A lot of people don't know that about me but yeah, 02:34 I had a break-dancing... Of course I was in the hip-hop 02:36 scene as well. Um, you know and, and you know a lot of those 02:40 things were temporary fulfillments. 02:44 It only filled me temporarily and then the feeling would go 02:48 and I would bounce on to the new thing you know and it would be 02:51 moving to a new thing, new thing, until I finally got off a 02:54 relationship that was a... Where that person was 02:58 my god, or filled that God hole, but that was only 03:01 temporary. That ended and I felt this gap, this vacuum 03:05 and I decided to pick up a Bible and start reading and 03:07 and the rest is history from there. 03:09 You know, I called up some people I knew were Christians, 03:12 started studying the Bible and now I'm here, so... 03:15 Praise the Lord. You know it's interesting because 03:20 Christ is the only one who can fill that void, and we have 03:25 access to Him but we search everywhere else for something 03:28 to fill that emptiness that only He can fill 03:31 and so we get to running around and trying to fill it with 03:33 everything else until we finally, eventually, hopefully, 03:38 Lord willing, um, come to realize that He was there 03:42 all along and that's what we were missing. 03:45 So, I am so excited to have you guys here because 03:49 I really, really am appreciative of what God is doing 03:53 through you guys and through your ministry. 03:56 Tell us a little bit about SALT, what does SALT stand for? 03:59 So, SALT is the acronym for "Service and Love Together." 04:03 So SALT outreach, not to be confused with the one at 04:06 Southern. Uh hu. But SALT outreach and...so we are... 04:10 you can call us...you can think of us as an umbrella 04:12 organization that have three outreach projects 04:15 under the outreach section, that work that we have 04:19 and we six growth groups under our growth group network. 04:22 Um, so that's kind of...and we are just continuing to 04:25 build that network and build the outreaches and growth groups 04:28 that we have in that network. 04:30 That's kind of I guess the easy way to explain it. 04:33 Um, the umbrella we provide for our growth groups 04:37 and for our outreach we provide planning, voluntary management, 04:40 media relations, public relations... 04:42 So we have leaders in the umbrella portion that support 04:45 the outreaches, support the growth groups, and we continue 04:49 to add to that so... 04:50 Wow, so this is like a big time operation type of deal. 04:55 Well because none of us... It's all volunteer, 04:59 so none of us get paid, so something that we have to do 05:04 to make up for that is have a bunch of leaders 05:07 to separate the responsibilities so that way it can be feasible 05:11 for lay people to take on responsibilities and 05:14 do them well. Yes. We have about 25 to 30 leaders 05:17 right now that we are working within these different areas. 05:20 Nice. Describe the three out- reach sections. 05:25 Um, so we have our homeless outreach which we create 05:30 relationships with the homeless, provide their needs, 05:33 and eventually we want to lead them to Christ so 05:37 we're doing some projects with that. 05:40 That's probably our biggest outreach project right now, 05:41 which we can go into more detail later, 05:43 this program we are developing as well. 05:45 We have our kids outreach which will be in that Section 8 complex 05:48 now for about four and a half years... 05:50 So created relations with the kids and the parents in 05:53 this Section 8 complex... 05:55 And then we also have our hospital outreach which is 05:58 geared towards singing and praying with patients 06:00 and creating relations with them if they choose, 06:02 because we can't ask them because of Hippa but 06:05 if they choose, they want to create a relationship with us 06:07 then we will do that with them. 06:10 Man, that is amazing. 06:13 Lo-Ammi, how did you get involved? 06:15 Well Eric and I kind of met maybe four years ago 06:18 actually at the church that I grew up in had an AY program 06:24 and they was inviting all the young people to kind of just 06:27 talk about the ministries that they are involved with 06:29 and so Eric was representing SALT and during that time 06:32 I was working for GYC as part of their Evangelism Committee 06:35 and more specifically, Service Projects. 06:37 So, he kind of mentioned about SALT and I kind of mentioned 06:40 about GYC and from there, we kind of developed a friendship 06:43 over the years, and we've always talked about 06:46 working together and it just so happened I was never in 06:49 Orlando, I was always traveling to Miss...I was working in 06:51 Mississippi and in Michigan, and all these different places. 06:53 So this past year I finally, the Lord impressed me to go back 06:57 home and that's where I was able to come back, 07:00 and we talked about incorporating and evangelism 07:03 compared to a Harvest Director so basically all of the programs 07:06 that through SALT is planting a seed and my job is to 07:09 harvest them and do an evangelistic series 07:11 so that's how our both strength's...ah, yeah. 07:15 Nice. It's a milestone for SALT is when he was with GYC 07:19 you know and so we partnered together to do service projects 07:23 at GYC. I believe it was 2013 in Orlando. 07:27 So we took ten of the buses and we were able to take them... 07:30 I mean GYC I don't think had ever done anything like that... 07:33 The year prior, in Seattle we had service projects and 07:36 when we came to Orlando, that was kind of the emphasis of GYC 07:41 was evangelism. That's why I was able to share my testimony, 07:43 that's when I was able to work with SALT... 07:46 and we did the service project's component and it really added 07:49 an element to GYC that was very exciting because it wasn't just 07:52 knocking on doors and giving survey's and passing out 07:54 flyers, but actually, impacked in the community by giving out 07:58 food and you know taking care of the sick and shut-in 08:02 and so forth. So that was something kind of put SALT 08:05 in the forefront and continue the vision that we see now. 08:08 See, that's one of the things that I love about what you guys 08:11 are doing, is because you are meeting people's needs 08:15 and it's Christ's method. 08:17 I remember in the Sabbath School Lesson, 08:19 I forgot which one, but it was outlining Christ's method, 08:23 and you are carrying out practical Christianity 08:28 cultivating relationships, getting to know the people, 08:32 finding out what their needs are, meeting those needs, 08:36 and then, hitting them with the evangelism component 08:40 and leading them to Christ. Follow me. 08:44 I mean that is amazing. So I want to know more. 08:48 We have some graphics, some pictures. 08:52 We want to take a look at some of those pictures, 08:54 and then as we are looking at those pictures, 08:57 just give us a brief description of what's in each one of those. 09:02 Ok, sounds good. 09:04 So this picture right here, kind of outlines how SALT 09:10 is structured. 09:11 So you see, we have our growth groups and our outreach projects 09:14 there on the bottom. We have a table salt 09:16 and we have socials. 09:18 The table salt events are geared toward having a real conversation 09:22 with people. We rent out a secular venue 09:24 and we have people come and we talk about things like 09:28 human trafficking, homosexuality, in the church. 09:30 Things that the church doesn't typically talk about 09:33 but attracts a young adult crowd. 09:35 Then we have the socials obviously to gather everyone 09:37 involved in our growth groups, all of our volunteers 09:39 in the outreach projects. 09:41 Everyone that comes to our table salts, altogether to do... 09:43 to really create a community. 09:45 One thing that's really important for SALT, 09:49 the reasons we started was to emphasize unity. 09:52 In Orlando and in churches around the world 09:56 young adults are dwindling in the church. 09:58 There might be two here, three here, four here, 10:00 five here, but if there is something neutral 10:03 that can bring the two here, three, the five together, 10:06 now you have a young adult community that can draw 10:08 other young adults. 10:10 And it's not just hanging out, we are actually doing 10:12 outreach and making a difference. 10:14 And in the middle there you saw the evangelistic series 10:17 of being at the center, because all of that 10:20 is planting the seeds necessary so that every year 10:23 we can have the series and be able to harvest those seeds 10:27 that were planted. 10:28 Man. Ok, so, what inspired... like where did...when did you 10:37 come up with this idea like oh, I want to start SALT? 10:40 What led to that? 10:42 Ok, well, to briefly describe it, um, you know when I 10:48 first came into the church... It was about a year or so 10:50 after I became Adventist, there were some 10:53 things I was noticing. A lot of division in the sense of 10:56 the church divided by culture, um, we had also 11:00 further division with the two conferences, right, 11:03 one conference will have one event, another conference 11:05 will have another event. But rarely things would happen 11:07 together. Nothing consistently on a regular basis together 11:11 so we wanted to bring unity... The other thing is we saw 11:16 lack of community outreach, practical Christianity being 11:18 done in the community, so we wanted to include that. 11:22 The other thing was Relational Evangelism, 11:24 not just having a homeless outreach giving them food 11:26 saying, getting our Jesus points for that day 11:29 and see you later, but no, but actually giving food 11:32 and having a conversation with them and learning their needs 11:35 and going. So those were the three things that really 11:37 sparked the idea to have something like that in the area. 11:40 So planting the seed, nurturing it all the way through 11:45 and then developing that relationship and evangelize. 11:52 That is absolutely wonderful. 11:54 We have another picture. 11:55 What is going on in this? 11:58 What is being described in here Lo-Ammi? 12:00 So here are our Growth Groups, so our small groups that we have, 12:03 right now we have six ongoing small groups and we have 12:07 one specific Bible Study each day of the week 12:09 so from Monday through Friday we have one Bible Study... 12:12 The ones that we do Friday night is that we've been 12:15 covering the book of Leviticus and it generates 12:19 anywhere from seven to the last Bible Study we had 12:22 maybe about twenty people coming out to this Bible Study. 12:25 So we have the small groups are really the... 12:28 or the growth groups are really the driving force behind SALT. 12:33 Because what we have realized at least when we are planting, 12:35 we do this evangelistic series here during the summer. 12:37 Um, we always rely on the Bible Worker and the Pastor 12:42 to kind of...alright, we need to follow up with these members. 12:46 Well with the small groups it is easier to plug in 12:48 young adults into a group in which they are interested in. 12:51 So if they like running, we have a small group for running. 12:54 If they like to study more about practical Christianity, 12:56 we have a small group for that. If they want to know more about 12:58 Bible Prophecy, we have a small group for that. 13:00 So really creating small groups to pique the interest 13:03 of where I would like to fit in and from there they could 13:06 build that community and then plugging those small groups 13:08 into the churches because now it is easier for someone 13:11 to say, we're having an event in our church... 13:13 Well, it's easier for me to invite someone who I have been 13:16 having a relationship with in a small intimate setting, 13:19 than it is having a random Bible Worker coming in 13:21 and knocking on a door and inviting you to a church where 13:24 there's no relationship from the beginning. 13:25 Absolutely. I want to add really quick too. 13:28 One thing I really like about the small group... 13:31 This is a new initiative, we just started it the last quarter 13:34 of last year. But the cool thing about it is when we look 13:37 at the other church started, it was still small groups. 13:40 And so, Orlando has tons of churches, 13:42 there are tons of small groups going on but there is no 13:44 network connecting them together. 13:46 So we have six...the graphic that was shown, showed four. 13:51 We just came out with the new one this quarter 13:52 that has six now and so we are hoping to continue to 13:55 grow that number and we are creating things like 13:57 an Agape fund. So if anyone has need of those groups 14:01 then people from those groups will give to that person 14:03 to help them with any need that they need. 14:06 We had someone, a couple that was struggling and they 14:09 didn't have a job...Someone gave $10 from this small group, 14:14 another gave $15 from this small group, someone gave groceries 14:16 from this small group, and at the end, that person had $250 14:20 and groceries to help them get through that hard time. 14:22 And so, in Acts it says if anyone had need, 14:26 they were provided because they were working together 14:30 and so that's what I really see driving, you know, 14:33 the evangelistic series is going to drive our volunteers 14:35 for our outreach...It's going to be really an important aspect 14:39 of SALT. That's it man, how we need that in the world today, 14:44 I mean, like across the country. 14:45 We need that everywhere across the country. 14:48 You know a lot of people think that they have to go to some 14:51 far off place to be a missionary, but we have enough 14:56 things that we need help with right here in America. 14:59 You know, mission work starts in the home. 15:02 So, don't neglect the home, take care of your home first 15:07 and then take care of your neighbors and 15:09 everybody right here in America and the people abroad. 15:12 You know, get out, get active in the community, 15:16 that is absolutely wonderful. 15:18 Lo-Ammi, what are some powerful stories that you can 15:23 share, where you've seen people's lives touched? 15:28 Yeah, just the impact that we have seen so far, 15:31 at least with our homeless ministry, coming back home 15:34 being intentional in going out to our outreaches 15:38 just to see, actually we went to a game, to an event 15:42 and after the game we went... and this was downtown Orlando, 15:46 and one of the guys that we minister to noticed Eric 15:51 and he said what's up Eric, how are you doing and 15:53 here we are, we're having a conversation and everyone is 15:56 kind of walking around... kind of like who, why are you 15:57 talking to this homeless guy... And you know he was just 16:00 expressing how much... how he missed us and 16:03 man, how you guys are doing... I will see you guys on Saturday. 16:07 and then we concluded that conversation and I love you guys 16:10 and he walked off and everyone was kind of wondering like, 16:12 you actually took time to talk to this person and... 16:15 How do you know him? It was because of the outreaches 16:17 that we've had that when people see us walking 16:20 across the street, they recognize us because we've 16:23 created this relationship with them and um, 16:26 it's crazy and amazing to see that when we just go down town 16:29 Orlando, how many of us... how many of those people 16:32 remember Salt and remember the volunteers who came out 16:36 to help them and service their needs. Right. 16:38 Yeah, some other stories, I mean we... 16:41 The homeless outreach, is like I mentioned, is our biggest 16:44 outreach right now. So we've seen stories like 16:46 um, there was a woman who was... who had a mental disability, 16:51 right, and she was homeless and as you know, she, she, 16:55 didn't really know what was going on...It was a guy that 16:57 kind of tricked her or manipulated her to coming out, 17:01 and now she's homeless, the guy got rid of her 17:04 and now she doesn't know what to do, she didn't know how to 17:06 reconnect with her family. 17:08 So two of our volunteers kind of took her on as a project. 17:11 They are like ok, let's go on Facebook and let's see if we 17:14 can find her family on social media. Found her dad, 17:17 her dad's like, thank God you found her, 17:19 he drove over to down town, picked her up and took her 17:22 back home and we took a picture with her right before 17:25 she left, and it was a blessing. That's a big thing, it's 17:29 reconnecting, we've seen a young homeless guy 17:33 had a pregnant girlfriend who was 21, he was 28. 17:37 We were able to help him, he need showers and he needed 17:41 clothing and we were able to help with that, 17:44 we even got them a membership to YMCA. 17:46 so we are run by the principle of empowerment. 17:50 So, YMCA charges $50 for membership, so I'm like okay, 17:53 there is a little thing you can fill out, 17:55 if you fill this out and you turn this in to YMCA, 17:58 they will cut your membership in half and we'll cover 18:00 the other half. So we empowered him to do that, once he did that 18:03 we covered the other half. 18:05 So he was able to take a shower, he could put his stuff in a 18:07 locker during the day so he can go do what he needs to 18:09 look for a job, and he was able to find a place 18:12 and get off the street and it was good. 18:16 It was good for him, he transitioned back into 18:18 a normal like, he had his baby, so that was good. 18:23 Wow! That is such a blessing, I mean, people need help 18:28 finding a job and here was a guy that was on the streets, 18:32 and you help them get re- habilitated and get out there 18:37 and get gainfully employed. 18:39 What are some of your needs? What are some of SALT's needs? 18:43 You guys are a non-profit organization correct? Right. 18:46 So tax-deductible donations. Yes. What are some things 18:51 that you currently need? 18:53 So, we just finished fund raising for our 18:56 clothing trailer, so now we are the only non-profit 18:58 providing dress clothing in downtown Orlando. 19:01 We figured out that was a need through survey's and 19:04 talking with them. So now that that is fund raised for, 19:08 that's being worked on, we are also going to be working 19:10 on a shower trailer. It is illegal for the homeless 19:13 to use the bathroom...Yes, it's the graphic right there. 19:16 They can't use the bathroom for anything other than 19:19 washing their hands. If they are shaving in there, 19:22 or doing anything else in there, then they can get 19:24 arrested and get kicked out, that's the way that they treat 19:27 the homeless in downtown. 19:29 So, if we had a show trailer, they could get cleaned up, 19:31 get shaved, get whatever, they could go to the change trailer, 19:35 calling it the change trailer, and they can get dressed, 19:38 and then we can provide trans- portation to a job interview, 19:41 or to somewhere they have to go where they have to look nice, 19:44 to be ready. Yeah. Um, so that's kind of a big project, 19:47 the shower trailer, it's $35,000, 19:49 but we have a location where we are going to set it up. 19:53 I mean everything is planned, we just need the funds for that, 19:56 and the evangelistic series is another thing we are 19:59 fundraising for as well. Right. So one of the that um, 20:01 that I'm involved with in my job is to... 20:03 we are going to do an evangelistic series 20:05 once every summer. So that graph that we saw before 20:09 with the four arrows, the center of it all is the 20:11 evangelistic series. So from our small groups, 20:13 our outreaches, as well as our table talks 20:17 and everything else that we do is centered around this 20:20 Evangelistic Series. So obviously we need money for our 20:23 venue, right, and um, so finding a location, 20:27 a venue as well as providing the necessary funds 20:30 to support the Evangelistic Series, 20:33 um, so when we do the Evangelistic Series... 20:36 What's going to make this series unique is going to be 20:39 a typical three week Evangelistic Series, 20:41 but we are incorporating the small groups into it as well 20:44 as the service projects. 20:45 So when you come to an Evangelistic Series, 20:47 the night's that you are off, we'll be focusing on 20:50 having those small groups meet up. 20:52 So on Wednesday night's we'll have a Healthy Cooking Class, 20:54 Thursday's those small groups, that they sign up when they 20:57 register for the series, they'll be able to meet those 20:59 Thursday night's. Friday night's when we do our presentations, 21:01 we'll be able to invite the community and say hey, 21:03 we want you to come out and feed the homeless with us. 21:06 We want you to come out and support, and minister 21:09 to these kids. So now the Evangelistic Series 21:11 isn't just a place you come and hear the word, 21:13 but they can actually practice the word. 21:15 And one of the major things we want to do 21:17 we eventually want to raise money for is a food truck. 21:20 Um, we've got the funds for it, and this food truck 21:23 is going to be able not only provide foods for the community 21:26 but as people come to this Evangelistic Series, 21:29 they will be able to taste the food, 21:30 and when they taste the food, they come in to get the 21:33 free food right before the Evangelistic Series 21:35 now they are fed physically, and they are now going to be 21:37 fed spiritually and now they can go work out 21:40 the food that they ate... out and serve the community 21:42 so I think this Evangelistic Series we're going to do 21:44 this summer is going to be... it's going to, I believe, 21:47 revolutionize the way we have done Evangelistic Series 21:49 because of the model that still have implemented. 21:51 so that is some of the things that we do need 21:53 funds for the venues and our projects. 21:56 Absolutely, you guys got me excited, I hope our viewers 21:59 are getting excited and will support the cause. 22:03 Now, the next question is how do they support, 22:07 where do they go to help you with some funds? 22:11 So, the easiest way is to go to our website. 22:16 When you go to that website, there will be a donate button 22:19 on the top right, just click Donate and you can donate 22:22 on there. Um, we are definitely, you know a lot of this work... 22:27 The difference it will make in the community is going to 22:29 require some funds. You know, no one is full time like 22:34 I mentioned, so all the money donated is going to you know, 22:37 you can be assured it is going straight to the community. 22:39 Uh, we are going to try to figure out a way to implement 22:42 that we can create these programs and make a 22:44 measurable difference. Absolutely. 22:45 And one of the things we say is the gospel is free, but the 22:49 delivery method is not. 22:51 Ok, the delivery method costs. 22:54 Um, so that will be wonderful when people start pouring 22:58 in some funds to reach all these people in the community 23:02 and have a positive impact for Christ. 23:04 You were getting ready to say something earlier before. 23:07 Oh, I was just going to mention, we actually did have an 23:09 Evangelistic Series about two years ago uh and uh, it was 23:14 before Lo-Ammi was on board, but we had a... 23:17 It was at the Section 8 complex, it was actually 23:19 for GYC you know. Lo-Ammi helped us get those funds 23:21 and the sense of getting the partnership together. 23:23 But the GYC went house to house fund-raising for SALT, 23:27 to have an Evangelistic Series. So we have some experience 23:30 in that realm as far as you know, we've used that money... 23:34 we had a Bible Worker at that time, and this one we are not 23:37 planning to have Bible Worker, but we had a Bible Worker 23:39 at that time that we hired... Five people were baptized 23:42 from that community that we work in the section 8 and 23:45 complex, and then two more were baptized later on. 23:48 Um, and we reached out to the contacts that GYC 23:51 also generated. Um, but you also have some experience 23:54 working I think. Yeah, when I first got him into ministry, 23:58 one of the things that I did was I was a Bible Worker 24:00 Coordinator, so I had to coordinate the 24:02 Evangelistic Series, so I was always behind the scenes. 24:04 This past summer I was able to intern with Taj Pacleb 24:07 with Revelation of Hope and really see, ok, what's the 24:10 in's and out's of preaching... I've been blessed to do 24:12 seminars and Week of Prayer but I've never done an 24:14 Evangelistic Series, you know. Of course I've taught 24:17 Bible studies, but there is a difference between 24:19 making the right appeals, and after that summer 24:21 after the internship, I felt impressed of what they did 24:24 and just incorporating their model and implementing what 24:29 SALT did and combining the thing together and do this 24:31 Evangelistic Series, so we are excited, but most importantly 24:34 we know that this is what the Lord is leading us to do. 24:37 Cause just the way that He has intervened to allow us 24:40 to mesh together has been... We are seeing the benefits, 24:43 we are seeing the blessings. 24:44 We tell people about SALT and instantaneously 24:47 they don't want to be a part of it, they want to donate, 24:48 they want to be involved as early before... 24:51 Um, so, we are just blessed to be in this opportunity to 24:54 share this vision with others and hopefully inspire them too 24:56 to go out in the community too. Praise the Lord! 24:58 Now there are people at home who will have the question 25:01 how did you know what was God's calling on your life? 25:05 What would you say to them? 25:06 You know what, um, and I think Lo-Ammi can speak for this 25:12 as well but really it's the Word in action. 25:16 You know, I knew, in knew deep down that 25:21 we need to be the leaders in doing things in the 25:26 community. We need to be the ones that are leading that so 25:30 creating something like SALT and implementing that 25:34 and getting and encouraging other people to get involved 25:36 in it is something that the Bible teaches, 25:39 you know the Bible teaches us, that yes, we can pray, 25:42 we can study the Word, but we need to practice what we learn 25:44 so that's, like you said, practical Christianity you know, 25:47 so. You know for me it was always trying to find 25:51 what my calling was in life. You try to find that 25:54 out in the world, is it through basketball, is it through 25:56 partying, is it through drinking, and when 25:58 I gave my heart to God, He says He will give you the 26:00 desires of your heart, and for me, I didn't know what that 26:03 meant, and I really didn't you know, so throughout my 26:05 years of ministry for the first time, I can honestly say 26:08 this is exactly what the Lord wants me to do, 26:10 this is something that I am passionate about 26:12 and He has just opened up so many doors that I couldn't even 26:15 imagine Him opening. 26:16 So I know for a fact that this is what God has called me to do 26:19 because one, I'm passionate about it, 26:21 two, I've seen the results, but most importantly, 26:24 I'm seeing how it is impacting my life and transforming me 26:26 into loving people the way that Christ intended 26:30 people to be loved you know. 26:31 So that's why I know this is what God has called me to do 26:33 most definitely. Praise the Lord. 26:35 And what advice would you have for the young person 26:38 that's at home that wants to get involved in some kind of 26:41 a ministry? 26:42 We only have like a minute and some change left. Yeah. 26:45 That they want to get involved in the ministry... 26:47 Into ministry period, Help and Helping other people. 26:52 Yeah, um, my advice would be you know... 26:56 Your church might not have any...when I was in the church 27:00 when I was first converted, it was nothing really 27:02 I felt like I could get involved in that was 27:04 community service oriented, and so somebody had to start. 27:07 You know, instead of sitting there and complaining 27:09 we have to start something. I would encourage you 27:13 if you are at home, you are looking for something 27:14 to get involved in, you can't find it, then pray. 27:17 Study the Word and ask God to send His spirit to guide you 27:21 on how to start something in your community. 27:23 We are going to be offering a program called Pinch of SALT 27:25 where a church can fly us out even, and we can help develop 27:29 something at their church, so that is an option as well. 27:32 Praise the Lord. 27:33 Thank you guys so much for joining us today. 27:35 Thank you for joining us as well. 27:38 The Bible says in Matthew 5:13, You are the salt of the earth, 27:42 but if the salt loses it's saltiness, 27:44 how can it be made salty again. 27:46 It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out 27:49 and trampled underfoot. 27:50 How are you reflecting Christ in your community? 27:53 It is my prayer that everyone will take an active roll 27:56 in their community and let the light of Christ shine 27:59 through them. 28:00 Well, we've reached the end of another program. 28:02 Join us next time, and remember, it just wouldn't be the same 28:04 without you. |
Revised 2017-05-04