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San Gabriel Academy

Ted N.C. Wilson

Building the Church

What a privilege it is for Nancy and for me to be at the White Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And I was assured by the president of the Southern California Conference that I can't see the clock, so I can continue.

What a privilege it is to be here, right on the campus, also, of the White Memorial Medical Center.

Thank you for the wonderful introduction and welcome and for the meal that is promised.

And it is true, Nancy was born right over there.

And so this is kind of a homecoming for her.

She also took physical therapy at Loma Linda University and spent I think at least 3 months at LA County which is just within eye distance of this place.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has turned its attention to the great cities of the world because we passed a very fascinating landmark just recently.

More people live in urban and city areas in the world than in rural districts.

The first time that has ever happened in the world's history.

And it will only accelerate if the Lord does not return within the next 20 years or so.

Can you imagine the great mission that we have to reach people in the cities?

Yes, we like country living, we enjoy the beauty of nature, but it is the cities where the people are.

And I challenge you all, including young people, understand God's precious message.

To have us enjoy a country setting, to enjoy being reinforced as Enoch was in the mountain fastnesses, but then to go down into the cities and meet the people.

The Southern California Conference, Pastor Salazar, and I thank you so much for your welcome, for your hospitality, you and your officers.

Thank you for the privilege of being in this conference.

You who are seated in this lovely sanctuary today, representing many different churches across this conference, you are not only actually working towards mission in the cities, you are in mission to the cities.

Los Angeles, 1 of the great cities of the world, thank you for the missionary work that all of you are doing.

Thank you for the burden that the Lord will place on your heart, which you will accept, to reach the people of the cities." It's been a great privilege to be with the San Gabriel Academy last evening.

We had a marvelous time with the faculty and then with the students and the faculty and the parents.

I was so impressed with the spiritual tone of that Academy and by God's grace I know that this is the same kind of spirit that can exist on all of the Academy campuses in this conference.

And I'm so glad to see the list of all of these schools in the Southern California Conference.

What a privilege to be part of God's great work and to build his church.

1 of the best ways to build the church is to invest and build in the characters of young people in Seventh-day Adventist educational systems.

What a blessing to have dedicated teachers.

I was thrilled to see that video this morning.

Crook, and all of you, Brother Willis, wherever you are, and others who are participating in helping to have young people find meaning in life.

You know, that little video that we watched this morning, it was powerful, especially at the end with that diminutive little girl.

Couldn't have been more than 7, 6 or 7, and you know that wonderful thought that she left us.

If young people can understand that Jesus, the 1 who is soon to return, and I'm delighted that this beautiful painting that is being provided through Heart Research Institute to so many people across this division and educational institutions.

And we have a very large replica of this in the General Conference.

When you visit it, you will see that it is essentially at the end of a wonderful journey that people take at the General Conference now of Eden to the new Eden.

I invite you to come to your General Conference headquarters and see that beautiful depiction through images, through beautiful pictures showing God's hand in the lives of people.

Jesus is why Seventh-day Adventist education exists.

It is why you are giving of yourselves to try and help young people to attend Seventh-day Adventist institutions.

Let it never be said that Seventh-day Adventist educational institutions are the same as any other public institution.

May there always be a special element, and that is that we lift up Jesus and his character so that young people will learn to become missionaries for him, whether it's in Los Angeles or whether it's in China or India, or wherever it may be.

What a privilege to be here this morning.

I have to tell you, I have been thrilled with the involvement of so many academies and institutions here this morning.

Jennefell and Debra and Heidi who shared with us about literature evangelism, and Angela Nair and David Olivares, the superintendents who govern this wonderful system here, Alan Chase and Paul Negrete, so many who are part of this and so many activities.

Now let me just share with you that Nancy and I, let's see, 3 Sabbaths ago, we were in Erbil, Kurdistan, in Iraq.

And you might wonder, why in the world would the General Conference President go to a church where there are 25 members.

Let me tell you, we're all part of 1 great family.

But the Middle East North Africa Union asked us to go there.

We were to dedicate a church there that is being built, And I have to tell you that the Kurdistan region of Iraq is giving wonderful support to religions and freedom of religion in that area.

I want to ask you to pray for our dear people.

We actually had about 70 people there that day.

They were enthused with the prospect of receiving God's beautiful love into their hearts.

As Seventh-day Adventists and others, ADRA helped with those many, many refugees and internally displaced people.

Let me tell you, this world is falling apart.

Everywhere you look, things are disintegrating.

I don't care whether it's politically, economically, socially, culturally, ecumenically.

We are seeing such advances today and such changes today.

I can only say, based upon God's great truth in his scripture, in Daniel and Revelation, and what we know in the spirit of prophecy, that Jesus is coming soon.

And I want to urge each of you here in the great Southern California Conference to keep that in mind as you focus not only about Seventh-day Adventist education, but on your own mission to share Jesus with others.

Well, 2 weeks ago we met with about 600 of our Seventh-day Adventist members in Jerusalem.

We have about 800 members in the entire country, and about Three-quarters of them were there to pray for God's work in Israel.

In about another 2 weeks, we will be in Japan, meeting with our church members there to try to re-infuse evangelistic activity.

The average age of our church members in Japan is 68.

Pray for our people in that great mission.

The next Sabbath will be at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, IAS as we call it, in the Philippines.

The day before, we will have, by God's grace, met with the Southern Asia-Pacific Division and chosen a new name to recommend to the General Conference Executive committee for president of that division.

On the Sabbath, that is about 3 weeks from now, we will meet with our people on the campus of IAS and we will honor the memory of Pastor Alberto Gulfan and Pastor Leonardo Asoy, division presidents who have died within about 3 months of each other.

Pray for the Southern Asia-Pacific Division.

But you know, sandwiched in between all of that, I got a message from Bonnie Iverson.

Bonnie is the Director of Advancement for San Gabriel Academy, and a dedicated teacher who has served there for many, many years.

And she sent me an email, we would love to have you come to our school.

And I didn't even dream that we would have such a fine group here today where we would be focusing upon Seventh-day Adventist education as an entire conference.

This was quite some time ago, and I tried to figure it out, and so we have sandwiched it in between Loma Linda University Board and Andrews University Board and constituency where we will be on Sunday and Monday.

Because you see, you and Seventh-day Adventist education are vital to the mission of the Church.

I want to thank you for the opportunity of being here.

The marvelous music that we have heard this morning represents this conference.

This is only a small image of what I'm going to receive, that's good.

This beautiful picture shows the vitality, the ingenuity, the creativity, the mission-minded spirit of the Southern California Conference.

My brothers and sisters, don't let anyone take your eyes off the mission of the church.

I don't care what subject it is, what topic you may be discussing, what the devil may use to divide us, don't let him do it.

Keep your eyes on the heaven-born mission God has entrusted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, to proclaim the love of Jesus, his salvation, his soon coming, and the 3 angels' messages that will prepare us for that great day.

You know this music that we've had today, I tell you, all these academies that have provided music, I thank God for every single 1 of them.

You know, my eyes got moist when I heard that song earlier, James Brown and Lilibeth, we shall behold him.

What a beautiful forerunner of this presentation of this particular painting.

But 1 of these days soon, my dear friends, we won't be looking at just a painting.

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Building the Church

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