The purpose of this seminar is to: 1) Raise awareness that the Mission Fields have come to America Michigan in the form of immigrant and refugee groups. 2) Learn HOW to identify immigrant and refugee groups next door to you and your church. 3) Learn how to use the Reach the World Next Door (RWND) Kit. 4) Be inspired and informed by DVD reports.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

<p>The purpose of this seminar is to: 1) Raise awareness that the Mission Fields have come to America Michigan in the form of immigrant and refugee groups. 2) Learn HOW to identify immigrant and refugee groups next door to you and your church. 3) Learn how to use the Reach the World Next Door (RWND) Kit. 4) Be inspired and informed by DVD reports.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Reach the World

Terri Saelee

Reach the World- Part 1

Father in heaven, thank you for the gift of life and for bringing us together this morning.

Convict others to come to this room, increase the curiosity factor as to what this is all about.

And bless our time together, Bless Elder Mercado as he shares from his experiences as a pastor and how you gave him a vision to reach out to those that you brought to his community.

So, Elder Mercado is Vice President of the Lake Union and Director of Multicultural Ministries.

Let me just start out by explaining what happened to me when I was pastoring in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I was pastoring in Fort Wayne for about, I had pastored for about 7 years, and 1 time when I was in my office in Fort Wayne, I got a call.

I just happened to be at the office, not there very often, by the way, but just when I was there, the phone rang and I answered the phone.

And they said, they asked, is this the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

And they said, well, I'm the pastor for the church.

And they said, this is, we're, I now don't remember the name of the organization, but they said, we're a refugee resettlement agency in Indianapolis, Indiana.

And it so happens that we have a, and we are ones that are assigned to be able to work with refugees who are coming from overseas to come to the United States.

And she went on explaining, the reason I'm calling is because there is a refugee family from the Karens.

Well, they're a certain group of people in Myanmar.

And they have been accepted, they have been processed and vetted quite a bit, and they've been accepted to go ahead and come to United States.

And they have asked if they could be settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I said, they say they want to be with the church, associated with the Seventh-day Adventist church, because they say they are Seventh-day Adventists.

I'm thinking for a moment, I said, are they pulling my leg?

You know, I mean, here I am, a lady from Indianapolis who is saying she has a family that are in a refugee camp in Thailand and that they have been through a process of vetting and looking through and they have been accepted to come to United States.

And they said, and I said, why Fort Wayne?

You know, I mean, there are bigger communities and cities and so forth.

And she said at the time that Fort Wayne happens to have the largest population of Karen in the United States.

But back then, she said Karen are the largest population of Karen refugees are in Fort Wayne.

They have an association and that kind of thing.

And there are several different religious groups that support them.

And I said, okay, would you consider hosting this family?

Would you consider, and there's some funding from the government to help with this type of thing, but we need a family that will, a church that will associate themselves with them and help them acclimate into the new culture." So I said, okay.

And so I said, I have to consult with my church members and so forth, that we understand.

And so she gave me her name and phone number and where to call and that kind of thing to return or call back.

I had never really thought about refugees per se.

I hadn't, you know, I was just in my own world as far as working with people from different groups other than Hispanics.

And nothing at the seminary prepared you.

Being Hispanic, I pastor Hispanic churches.

I had been at 1 time even Hispanic coordinator for a while, but outside of that, of course, Southeast Asia was kind of out of my picture.

So the thing I did, I talked to my head elder, and he said, well, let's get the other elders together.

We got the elders together, and we talked for a little bit, and they said, you know, this is a really good, this is an open door.

This is an open door, this is an opportunity.

And so they said, let's talk with the board.

And so we had a board meeting and we had quite a bit of discussion.

And so happened that the board meeting was scheduled for that particular for the following Sunday so let's put it on the agenda.

So we presented the story of this family who were coming from Thailand, from Ratchee Camp in Canada, who had lived in Myanmar but because of circumstances there and so forth, they had been living in Thailand in the camp for several years.

And So we presented this situation to the board members and they had a lot of questions as you can imagine.

So the government will do this and so forth.

We have to be giving them the support that they need, especially the spiritual support that they need.

And 1 lady stood up and she was community services director and she says, they are family.

If they're Seventh-day Adventists, they are family.

And so she really made a strong push for that.

And so I said, well, I believe the same thing.

And so the board voted to go ahead and start a system of support, prepare them for their long journey.

Can you imagine coming all the way from Thailand to Fort Wayne, Indiana?

We talked with the agency and they said, this is what you can do and so forth.

We also talked with some people who were Karen.

I mean, it says, okay, this is something we're going to put up on, let's go for it.

And they said, well, how are we going to pay for it?

And the community service lady says, well, we can use from my budget, plus we can make an appeal.

And so on Sabbath, we explained the story to them, and we made an appeal.

And boy did they respond as far as the financial support to get it going.

And so they got the, we started the process And the process basically was preparing, of course, they lived in a tent, if you can imagine that, all these years.

And so we set up an apartment, and we said, we need donations for furniture.

And then they said, well, we need to stock it with food.

And so it so happens we didn't know it either, but there was a store in town that serves stuff that's particularly geared for Karen.

I didn't even know they had a restaurant there for that matter, but there is a restaurant there in Fort Wayne too as well.

And so we got all the information together and so forth and boy they worked hard.

They painted the apartment and they got everything all set up and finally the day came in which we were to meet them at the airport.

And they explained that the journey would be very long and very exhausting.

If you can imagine all the stops coming in, perhaps maybe, Terry, you've been over there.

So it's quite a journey from, I don't know, how long is it itself when you think about it.

About 24 hours once you leave Bangkok for the refugees they usually come from a refugee camp way up on the border, down to a transit camp, and then they have to travel to the airport, and then 24 hours to the main airport here, and then they usually have to go to a different place.

So there's a lot of stops, that's bottom line, and it's a lot of stops.

Reach the World- Part 2

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning, for waking us up.

Thank you for this faithful brothers and sisters that are here to learn of how we can be more effective in reaching the world for Jesus.

Lord, we pray that you bless us this morning, that you open our hearts and our minds and that the Spirit speak to us.

And as we open your word, may it encourage us and strengthen us.

I want to share briefly a scripture that you are, we are all very familiar with.

And that is, and the reason I'm sharing this is because I feel like I have new light from this passage.

And that is in Matthew chapter 20, excuse me, Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 and 20, well 21.

And you know this by heart, and you hear this every time, not every time, but when there's an offering to be picked, and you hear the scripture read, right?

It says here, Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust does corrupt, where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

For the longest time, for the longest time, I personally felt like God needs me.

He needs me in order for him to accomplish something.

But today, this passage speaks, but recently, I should say, that this passage speaks to me in a different way.

It says, lay not for yourself treasures on earth, but in heaven.

And I was thinking, what is the treasure that Jesus is talking about here?

Is it like when we give our offering to the, when we give our money into the offering plate, that that money somehow get transferred wirelessly, somehow into heaven's treasury.

I used to think like that, well when they give to God, when they give to God, does it transfer somehow, transfer to heaven?

But in heaven we don't need money, right?

We don't need gold, we don't need anything, we don't need any riches.

So in reality, it's not the material that we're talking about, but it's the people.

It's the people because we can't take anybody, we can't take anything to heaven, according to the scripture, right?

Our friends, our neighbors, our family, basically people.

That's only, those are only thing, those are only thing that can go to heaven with us.

And so when Jesus laid up for yourself, lay not up for yourself treasures on earth, not to invest on the earthly things, but to invest in people because that's the only thing that we can take to heaven is ourselves and others.

And so coming back to, I used to feel God needs me.

You know, there's no Laotian pastor in America at the time when I was coming into the church.

As a matter of fact, now we have, there's 2 of us in North America, Laotian, North, Seventh-day Adventist pastors, there's 2 of us in North America.

And, but when I first started it, there was no Laotian pastor.

As a matter of fact, there was no Laotian church anywhere in the world except a small, small church plant that Terri and her team was involved in.

And so when I came to the church, I felt like, you know, I need to, I need to be involved, you know.

And that is good, I think, at that time, for the understanding of a young man that comes into the, and caught the fire.

But as I grow more and more, I come to realize, you know, in reality, God doesn't need me.

Because he can do so many things well without me, probably better, right?

If he sent the angel to do the work, they probably do better.

Why is it that he wants me to be involved?

It's not so much that he needs me, but it's the fact that I need him.

It is the process of being involved in his work that has strengthened my faith, have saved my own soul.

If I had not caught the passion of sharing the gospel with my people, I don't know where I would be at this point.

I remember, Terry, there were 30 plus young people at 1 time.

There were many, many young people that comes into the church, that came into the church and studied the Bible and were baptized.

There were a handful of us that are still in the church today.

1 of my best friends in Washington, D.C., he's working for ADRA, he's involved in the ministry, myself, involved in church plant, another young man who's involved in the church in Holland now, and another young man who is also later became, he came later on, who also now is a pastor, a Laotian pastor.

And so as I can see, God's leading, it's not so much of He needs me to be in power, He needs my help, but it's that I need Him.

It is for my own good that I'm involved in God's work.

It is a process of saving my own soul, you know, and that's God's grace.

He could have chosen some other means to reach the world as soon as possible, rather than using our human, fragile, sinful human being, right?

He could have used angels to do it, but it is because he wants to bless us, he wants us to be a part of that for our own blessing, for our own growth, so that when we get to heaven, when we get to heaven, we can live with, we can, we can enjoy the treasures with the, with the joy, living in heaven throughout eternity with the joy that yes, look at the treasures that, that God have blessed us with and that have, have, that we have brought into the kingdom.

And so that's a thought that I want to encourage you with.

It is God's grace that we're here, that we're actively involved in his work.

And I'm so thankful that I am a part of this, of this reaching out to the world, reaching out to the people, reaching out to our neighbors, reaching out to my family.

And I'll share with you more later how God has blessed me in the process of how he has helped me want my family, my mom and my dad and my siblings into the church.

As you know, I was coming from the Buddhist background and I was the first Adventist, the first Christian in my family.

And that process, it was not an easy process, but I'm standing here today as a testimony of God's goodness.

We're here today as God's gracious goodness for allowing us to be a part of this important work.

So, at this time I would go ahead and turn the time to Terry and I will share some more tomorrow.

I didn't mean to share this, but I'll share it real quick.

1 time, and you know, the devil does have power, I just want to bring it out.

When my father was serving as the spirits spokesperson, I remember 1 time somebody got cut really bad from the field.

And they came and they brought flowers, some flowers and a basket of like to honor the spirit.

And my father would talk, he would be like, whatever he said, you know, he said his thing.

And I'm like, after a few seconds, after a few seconds have gone by, I could see that the blood stopped flowing.

And that's part of the things that he does as a spiritual healer type of person in our community.

And there are many other events, you know, somebody would get sick and they would come to him, what should I do, what have I done wrong, how have I displeased the spirit?

And they would say, well, then he would go into some kind of prayer mode, speaking to himself, you know, and then he would say, oh yeah, that's what you did the other day.

You violated this spirit by doing this, so and so, this is what you need to do.

Take a chicken or a pig or something like that and go to the spirit house there and just ask for forgiveness and things like that.

And there were, and the spirit in my village, we didn't have a temple, although sometimes the Buddhists, the monks would come from a different village, but we had, we always had this spirit house.

And every time that's, every time someone has, and a different spirit house for different spirits in different parts of the town.

And so if you do something wrong in a certain part of the town and your family gets really, really sick, That person has to go ask my dad, it was my grandma before that and it was my dad, they had to ask my dad to see what's wrong, you know, what violation have that person have done, and they would go and ask and they would get healed.

Reach the World- Part 3

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you once again for this morning for a new life that you've given us.

Thank you that each new day is a new opportunity to serve you, Lord Jesus.

We pray today as we learn, as we look at different ways, different approaches, different ideas to help us to reach the world next door to us.

We pray that you give us wisdom, clear minds, and understanding so that we can put into practice what we will hear here, so that we can tell more people about Jesus, so that you can come very, very soon, Lord Jesus.

Bless us this day and be with the presenters and will you guide their thoughts and their words in Jesus name.

Yeah, I am, am SV Ngai Chin from Burma and working in the Zombie Advantage Company.

Today I would like to thank God and also I would like to thank Pasa Seng and the ASAP Ministry and they allowed me to do a presentation.

I served the Lord as a school principal and a church pastor for 10 years in Burma with mission, I think, mission conference.

And also a pastor, again, for the Zomie Adventist refugees in Malaysia for 2 years.

And I'm currently work at the Waya Company, as well overseeing the Grand Rapids, Myanmar, SDA Company and Barakik SDA Group, SLA Parcet.

So we are Zomi, so you can pronounce it underneath Zomi.

So the Zoumi means that are hill people and it is 1 of the minority ethnic group in Myanmar, also known as the Burma.

Then, Zomie people speak Thaddeum language, we call, we say that Zopao.

Zo me people are seeking refugee in US primary in the last 10 years ago.

So because of the Burmese ruling gender due to religious and racial persecution.

Many have come from the refugee camps from Thailand, Malaysia, and India and are seeking a new life here in USA and Australia, some other countries in Europe.

So the population of Zomie is estimated 0.5 million in the world, but 20, 000 in the USA right now.

And the Seventh Adventist came to our Chin State in 1950s.

Since then, we are the second largest people group in the Adventist Church in Burma until today.

So in USA, our Zomi Adventist members are like this, in Atlanta, 120, something like you can see down, see all on the table.

But We have over thousands total memberships in the U.S.

And 2 organized churches and 3 organized companies and 4 mission groups and 10 future groups and 1 full-time pastor and 5 part-time pastors paid by their conference and 11 lay pastors.

So in Grand Rapids, in 2011, before my family arrived in USA, some Zomie Adventists started their Sabbath school lessons, attending at the Wyoming Church, SDA Church.

And in 2012, my family arrived in USA and our first VESPA service started with 22 people, membership I mean.

Then our group grew up and in 2014 began our first device service and advanced youth programs at Wyoming Church.

Until that time we were worshipping with an English speaking Caucasian church, though many of us understand no English, which lead us to worshipping in our God-given language.

Then in 2015, I started working with Battle Creek Group, and in Battle Creek Group we have around 75 and 80 Adventist members.

Many of them are needing, need nurturing of faith because they are working on Sabbath.

So as a group, we have been having combined worship in summer and fall seasons, once in a month, encourage each other in faith.

So this is the Barakut group, a youth group.

Last week we had combined worship and they sang a prayer.

So this summer I'm planning to give Bible study to these young people during their summer holiday.

Then also I would like to share that 1 pastor in Barakik, a Baptist pastor, he wanted to know about the rapture.

So in 2016, January, the Grand Rapids ZOMI Adventist group started renting the Methodist Church Because of the language barrier, we need to separate from the Wyoming church.

And May 21, we were organized as a company by the Michigan Conference.

And also that now we are called Grand Rapids Myanmar SDA Company because We need, since we want to reach out to the other ethnic group apart from the Xomi, so that we change our name instead of Xomi into the Myanmar.

So our community outreach is a Christ method, like Bible study, a home visit, a small group, and Myanmar community services.

He said that you're going to have all the other groups from Myanmar, like the Nipuni, do they speak the same language as the Zomie?

We can speak, what is it, common language, yeah, Burmese.

We can speak with each other with Burmese language here.

So we had Bible study with our young group and then in 2017, oh sorry, in 2013 we had 2 baptisms on 14th, 2014, 4 people and 2015 1 that was in Barakir And he is from, what is that?

We try to visit our church members at least once a month, and also non-Adventists too.

And about 2 years ago, 2, 3 years ago, the Village Church, Village Church, Alethin Sabah School in Barakik came for interculture ministry experience.

So they came and share some foods and some presents for the refugees.

And before that, the SFB ministry also came every year along with the Andrew University students.

And also they share foods and presents for the Chris Marks to the recent coming, I mean the refugees for the new refugees.

In January 2017 we started with 2 groups.

As of September 2017, we had 4 groups that met every week.

Then now we are planning more groups to be working with.

MCS means that Myanmar Community Service.

So MCS working with the communities around us, with the communities around us, like Kachin, Gorin, and the other Chin ethnic groups.

We are Zomi, the other groups are like Falam, Hakha, and Matupi, something like.

So the community services give about interpreting, transportations, and application for the application And what they need is DSS, like food stamps and Medicaid.

And the MCS conduct language classes in summer and share clothing, shoes, utensils, and food.

Series

Reach the World

Reach the World- Part 2

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

03 Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

51m

ASI 2009 Seminar: Reaching Your Marketplace

From Professional to Professional Missionary

1h

Pastor/Physician Team Seminar

Using Automated Internet-based Programming to Extend Lifestyle Counseling into Patient Homes

51m

Reach the World Next Door

5. How to Join the Death & Resurrection of Every Culture

54m

Young Professionals

A Call to Urgency

40m

How to Give a Bible Study?

49m

Occupy Wall Street with Jesus

1. The Case for Reaching W3s

1h 6m

Talking Points 4th Quarter 2023: God's Mission My Mission

08 Mission to the Needy

30m

Talking Points 4th Quarter 2023: God's Mission My Mission

10 Mission to the Unreached Part 1

30m

Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

05 Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

1h 5m

Reach the World Next Door

4. 144,000 Attractive Ways to Witness

1h

In Every Tongue

33m

Sound Doctrine