Benjamin D. Schoun
President, Adventist World Radio
This report is an update on the story that appeared in the spring issue of AWR's printed Transmissions newsletter entitled, "Ethiopia: Traveling to the Afar". The publication is also available on the Downloads section of our (AWR) web site.
A few days ago, I was sitting with an Afar chief on an elevated mat inside his hut. A small fire added heat to the hot sun of this arid land. Goats and sheep, cows and camels wandered freely about. Every man carried a long sheathed knife in his belt as well as a rifle over his shoulder. Afars are not hesitant to use those weapons if they perceive a threat. I was told about a man who was killed on the spot for running over a goat with his truck, so we drove carefully on our departure.
I was accompanied by the AWR speaker for our Afar language programs. He is an Afar himself, and knows many of these chiefs and their people personally. He had been born and raised as Muslim. They say that if you are an Afar, you are a Muslim, but there are exceptions, however. This young man had a dream that started his journey to Jesus Christ. A figure dressed in white clothing appeared and told him to go to town. He obeyed, and in town he met a Christian woman who invited him to attend a church. He was enamored by the music and the worship, and slowly he made the decision to follow Jesus.
He was punished and persecuted by his people for saying he was a follower of Jesus. On one of the occasions in which he was put in jail, he happened to hear an AWR broadcast in the Afar language. He contacted the studio with some suggestions on how to make the program better and more appealing to the Afar people. The studio staff invited him to come to the studio and help them, and he is now their regular speaker. He still owns about 110 camels and 68 cattle, which his brothers are herding for him.
The AWR speaker knew that this chief was listening to “Ago Dongolo” (“The Voice of Hope,” in Afar language). And the chief welcomed us and gave me a place of honor. As long as the chief welcomed us, we were safe with the other Afar men. We had brought with us about 20 of the solar/crank radios that AWR is giving out in isolated places like this where there is no electricity and very few radios. An AWR donor - who as a nurse years ago helped with a clinic among the Afar people - provided money for 100 radios for these people. Our speaker knew that the chief would know who would use the radios to listen to AWR and not take offense. Besides, receiving the radio from the chief carried with it permission and a blessing to use it.
Imagine the potential of this approach! The AWR Afar speaker says that “The Voice of Hope” program is “famous among the Afar people.” There are many listeners because it was one of the first radio broadcasts in their own language. I have been told that there are now about 150 Christians at one of the Afar locations, about half of whom came to Jesus through AWR and continue to be regular listeners. Heretofore, there has been no Adventist Church work at all in these areas.
Please pray for these people, whose hospitality to us was outstanding. Despite their reputation for being fierce, the chief sent someone off to bring a goat that they planned to slaughter and prepare for us to eat. We thanked him over and over, but were unable to stay that long. AWR
Worried About Your Funeral?
by Tom Steere, Grace & Truth magazine
From Grace & Truth Magazine, Danville, IL, USA. Used by permission.
Funerals are expensive, sometimes even more expensive than weddings. For instance, when the body of Emperor Hirohito of Japan was laid to rest on February 4, 1989, his funeral cost Japan 80 million dollars.
We prepare funerals and honor the dead as a sign of respect, and as a token gesture of our desire to keep them with us. But it’s impossible to do so. The Bible says this: “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him – the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough – that he should still live on forever, and not see decay” (Ps. 49:7-9 NIV).
Once a person dies there is nothing any of us can do to get him back; the price is too high. The Bible says, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). It also says, “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ ... Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God” (1 Pet. 1:18-21).
Can you claim these verses for yourself? Have you been redeemed by the precious blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ? The confidence of the Christian is that he has been redeemed from an empty way of life, will be resurrected from the dead and will spend eternity with the Lord (1 Th. 4:16-18). Do you have this confidence? If so, why worry about your funeral? If not, why not do something right now to gain this confidence?
Write to us and we’ll help you understand what God has planned for those who accept His Son as their Savior. SDA
LOOK HERE! LIHAT SINI!
Event: Visit & Concert by MISSION COLLEGE (Thailand) students
Date: Thursday, 19th April 2007
Time: 1930hrs (7:30PM)
Venue: this church
[Admission is free.]
Wikipedia's Story: The idea of developing a college campus at Muak Lek was developed by Church workers in consultation with the Thailand Adventist Mission to meet the needs of higher education among Thai Adventist youth. A rural setting was chosen because it was considered more conducive to study than a location in the city. Opened in 1988 as a branch campus of Mission College in Bangkok, the institution also incorporated the Thailand Adventist Seminary, which for some years had been providing a non-accredited ministerial training program.
Mission College, as it is today, represents a union of three Seventh-day Adventist institutions: Southeast Asia Union College, Singapore (est 1906), Bangkok Adventist Hospital School of Nursing (est 1947) and Mission College, Muak Lek Campus (est 1988).
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS :: SERIOUS ABOUT CHRISTIAN EDUCATION ::
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