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Young Professionals

Jasper Ivan Iturriaga

Process of Progress

The whole presentation is just about my journey in ministry.

I think I struggle a lot with this because I, I mostly like to go theoretical, but this morning I'm just, I just decided to maybe just tell you my story.

I was raised in a Christian home, a Seventh-day Adventist home, and many of you could relate to this, but I was raised in a nominal Christian family.

That means I became a Seventh-day Adventist, not because of my convictions, not because I had decided for myself to be a Christian, but became a Seventh-day Adventist because the culture demands me to become 1.

If you're Asian, probably you can relate to that because you're forced to become part of a religious culture.

And so I've become a very nominal Christian.

That means I go to church on Sabbath, but I don't really understand why.

I don't eat pork, I don't eat crabs and shrimps and the cockroaches in the sea, but I don't really understand why.

It's, LLY calls it respectable conventionality, a life professedly Christian, but lacking self-sacrifice.

I became a 70 Adventist because the culture demands me to become 1.

And so fast forward, now I'm 17 years old, I woke up in the hospital having this severe seizure, really bad seizure.

And so I woke up in the hospital and the doctor came up and said, hey, you have a seizure.

And then they have a little MRI scan of my brain.

They checked out my brain and they found a little something in my brain.

I don't know if you could see that picture, but there's something in my brain on the left side.

So we'll call it a tumor for now, because I don't really know and understand what it is.

But anyways, they found a little tumor in the left side of my brain.

I was 17, taking up biology, because I'm supposed to go nursing, because I'm a Filipino, because you know, every Filipino is a nurse.

A biology during that biology student during this time.

And my father came up and have this amazing plant.

It's almost like his face is so inspired.

I remember talking to him and he came up and said, Jasper, I think God is calling you to be a pastor.

I think God is calling you to be a pastor.

I hated the ministry and I don't want to do it.

But if you're Filipino, you really don't have a choice but to follow whatever your parents say.

But fast forward, when I was sent to boarding school, by the way, a boarding school is called Central Philippine Adventist College.

I took theology and I was forced to take that degree, but by God's grace, I found God there.

I was not searching for him at all, but I God found me there.

And it could resonate to what Ellen White said in the book Misery of Healing.

She said grace is an attribute given to undisturbing human beings.

We do not seek for grace, but grace was sent in search for us.

I was not interested in religion, but God found me in that school.

And I remember every 6 months we would go to the doctor and I would have my MRI scan and the doctor would come up every single time he had a checkup.

He would come up and he'd say, Jasper, that tumor thing is getting smaller and smaller.

At next 6 months, he would say, the tumor is getting smaller and smaller.

And when I was 22 years old, the doctor said the tumor is completely gone.

I did not change my diet during this time, so I was not a vegetarian, so I could not stand up here and say, oh, it's because of my diet.

It was all grace, an attribute given to undeserving human beings.

This was me when I was 22 years old doing your revelation seminars.

I work as an evangelist for Amazing Facts.

I'm very itinerant in my work as a speaker.

So travel around different areas doing work.

But just a little backtrack before we move forward to the ministerial story.

When I was a little younger, I have a video camera just like this, very old.

And my grandma has always encouraged me to take videos for memories, right?

So in the Philippines, we have fiestas and all that kind of stuff and this big celebration.

My grandma will always tell me, go film the fiestas, go film everyone's enjoying the party, you know, that birthday party.

So I would be there all the time filming it.

And I remember if there's a funeral, my grandma would tell me, go film people crying and all that good stuff.

So I really fell in love taking photos and videos.

But when I became a pastor and also I kind of like got rid of this desire to do films because I was addicted in playing video games.

But when I was a pastor, I remember, I already forgot filmmaking and all that.

And I remember holding a camera for the first time when I was 22 years old, in years.

And I felt that, like, it's almost like, you know, King Arthur getting a sword and it like it's all this nostalgic feeling.

I was like man I love this you know this feeling of falling in love with with a camera again shooting taking photos and videos That time I didn't know what I was doing, but this nostalgic feeling of holding a camera again.

And so I start taking photos, got this development of talent, you know, taking photos and videos around the world.

So I would travel, you know, while I'm speaking, I would travel around, also have a camera, taking photos from around the world.

I'd go to Iceland, Peru, photograph the Northern Lights and some places in the safari in Africa, mountains.

I love, I really love landscape photography.

And by the way, you can follow me on PSD or Jasper, if you have Instagram, just a little plug there.

But this was the struggle and this is where the progress goes and this is also the challenge.

When I was a pastor in Indonesia, I was debating if I should have a camera and focus on photography and filmmaking or I should stick in the ministry.

The problem in the Philippines, and I'm not sure if it's applicable in the U.S.

Too, is that in the Philippines, we may not talk about this a lot, but passively we think that the highest form of ministry in the Philippines is pastoral ministry.

And so if you are talented in speaking, if you know your Bible, automatically people will tell you go to ministry, go become a theologian, or go seminary, become a pastor, automatically.

And so the struggle is, the pressure is I should stick to this kind of ministry.

And there was even a time where I was told by my church members when I was a pastor in Indonesia, I love my church in Indonesia, if you're listening to this I apologize, but someone told me I should not be doing videography and photography because I'm a pastor I should stick to the pulpit and so I have this choice and even though I don't have to I was asked to choose between the pulpit and the pulpit and my cameras And there was a struggle during this time, but then I found a quotation from the writings of Mrs.

This is from the book Review and Herald, July 23, 1895.

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Series

Young Professionals

Process of Progress

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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