Invitations by Royalty Are Never Declined | Pr. Austin Goodwin

even though it's hot outside it's comfortable inside it was hot last night when i was trying to pump up the mattress that i was sleeping on very hot i sweated like crazy but then the cool shower felt so nice afterwards and uh but you know i'm i'm used to this when i travel extensively in africa there's uh this is a luxury to have running water you know you don't have to run and get it it runs by itself we used to live in one mission mission in wessie it was actually right on the border of right on the right on the equator the crater run ran through the mission and uh it was 6300 feet elevation even there were often nights when a fire felt good in the fireplace okay you think of africa being cold you know but it was cool up there not cold like here but cool and the homes aren't heated so people at 50 degrees [Music] they're shivering they put the jackets on 50 degrees because they're not used to the temperature and uh so we would we would uh have our fire in the fireplace and so on but we didn't have running water we had to run and get it we actually hired people to do this people would go down to a spring down the mountain and they would fetch water and then they would bring it up and put it into the into the catchment so that we had water but but we didn't have connect it was not connected to our source you had to bring the water and put it in there or some of the water came from the rain brain source but so it's a luxury to have to have running water even if it's cool in fact cool water actually feels good most of the time i don't i don't eat the water in africa when i travel i just take cool bath because it's not that cold it's refreshing well our topic today is invitations by royalty are never declined we'll get to the story at the end i'll hold you in suspense till the end a very exciting story about when my parents were invited to meet the queen mother of england when she came to africa back in the early 60s for the for the dedication of the kariba dam project in zambia which was at that time called northern rhodesia invitations by royalty are never declined i'd like to introduce you to my family just yesterday we had a new addition our our eighth grandchild was born yesterday afternoon and so we have eight grandchildren now four children eight grandchildren three uh two son-in-laws and one more in january the second will make three son-in-laws and one daughter-in-law so we have the small goodwin tribe now small goodwin tribe we're developing our own tribe and uh what a blessing they are all of them are involved in the church and all of them are committed christians so we appreciate that on the left on on your right rather the far right ambassador luis mancebo he's a spanish spanish-speaking pastor from from dominican but now he's in new york and he he speaks in a multilingual he passes a multilingual church there multi-ethnic not not multilingual but multi-ethnic church he wanted to show that it's not just because you're a spanish pastor that churches grow but that is because you focus on evangelism and so the first year he was there in this 500 members church they baptized i think 43 people into the family of god you see it's not it's not so much what ethnics you are it is the focus of your life is your focus on sharing the love of jesus with others next to him is our daughter heather she's a physician then there are three little boys there and then leaning up against the tree is our daughter jennifer she's going to be getting married uh in on the 2nd of january that's her daughter betsy bay my wife and i joanne is my wife of almost 50 years 49 years in august next year will be 50 years and then our son and his wife standing and they are the parents of our latest grandchild emma born yesterday afternoon in raleigh north carolina and then sitting down there is uh my daughter and her family her husband and her two children and the little baby there so this is our small tribe but you know it's before the grace of god i would not be that was my car on october 7 last year i had been down to youtube pines i'd gone over to see my daughter in mississippi then i came up to tennessee and i came home and i i missed the last the exit on top of the mountain 299 and i went and and then went into a overlook for where the it was overlooking the memorial of those who have died working on the interstate on the on the roads right there near top of mountain and i evidently went to sleep i don't remember anything i was in a coma for some time but i'm thankful to be alive i think god still has a purpose for me i want to take you i'm going to combine two mission trips and i hope that today if a fire is not yet burning in your heart for missions that it will begin to burn that's my job i'm recruiting for the kingdom of god and for the mission work that needing to be done around the world i grew up in africa as a child went there i turned seven on the boat going over from new york to bay road on the far side of africa and mozambique it took us six weeks and two days from new york to baver we came down along the united eastern part of the united states down to miami across to ascension island then we stopped at different ports around the bottom of africa finally we got to beira and as children you know i was just i turned seven on the boat my sister was was uh three almost four my brother was four years older than me the three of us we were we were expecting as soon as we got to africa we're going to see animals and and african huts and all these things but these big cities we were all disappointed you know what's the matter with this we come all this way and there's no african hearts no but we saw plenty of african house after that and we saw plenty of animals in the game parks but we were disappointed because our idea was the african was some place that there's only animals and things like that you know but you know many of you have the wrong picture of africa too i know because i've talked to some of you you think africa is a dangerous place you know it's not as dangerous as chicago it's not as dangerous but it's baltimore it's not as dangerous as washington d.c africa is a wonderful place if i can't convince you after today i don't know what i can do i just don't do i'm going to do my best i want i need your help in africa you see because god's given us a plan to reach the youth of africa and to recruit train equip mobilize and empower an army of youth you know this is how ellen white the messenger to our church has told us god's work would be finished and she says if you look in that little brochure that i gave you she says right here she says with such an army of workers as our youth rightly trained might furnish how soon the message of a crucified risen and soon coming savior might be carried to the whole world how soon might the end come the end of suffering and sorrow and sin how soon in place of a possession here with this blight of sin and pain our children might receive their inheritance where there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away now in that one paragraph she uses the word soon four times one is superlative soon coming but the others are soon now you know anytime i would say to somebody in one paragraph soon and then soon and then soon do you think i mean soon i think i mean soon but you know this was written over 100 years ago we never listened to the council that's our problem that's why we're still here do you know that we're still here because we never followed the divine council we never trained that army of youth we got into building institutions but we lost our sense of mission and vision by and large today we are mostly an institutionalized church we have lost our sense of early primitive godliness and early primitive passion for souls you know what ellen white says in the book desire of ages she says in comparison with the value of one soul worlds sink into insignificance is that powerful or not you see god can make a world out of nothing everything will be functioning doesn't need seven days he can do it in a moment just like that a fully functioning world with everything running perfectly but there'll never be another you there'll never be another you another another one of you another one of your children all of us are unique we're designed for eternal fellowship with god and if you are not in god's kingdom there will always be an empty spot in his heart for you we we walk by by people and we forget the value of a song heaven went bankrupt to save souls it would have gone bankrupt to save one soul even to give that opportunity to be saved whether or not they chose to be saved do you know that jesus would have died for one but we don't give we don't give the time of day to people we walk by them every day i hope that now you can begin to pray that god will help you to have mission eyes that you receive vision a new vision see the value of every soul you know the scripture says so clearly for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son but it's not just a big world it's so you could put your name there for god so loved sandy that he gave his only begotten son he would have given him for just you and for me you know we sing that song love divine all loves excelling joy of heaven to earth come down there's nothing like the love of god another song if we if we could with the ocean feel and where the part of the skies are parchment made where every stalk on earth are quill and every man a tribe scribe by trade to write the love of god above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole they'll stretch from sky to sky god's love for every person on this planet i don't care who they are i don't care if they're mentally handicapped i don't care if they're blind i don't care if they're crawling on the ground because they have no ability to get around he loves everyone so much he would have given his son jesus christ for anyone we need to pray for the eyes of god for the lost there are billions of people on this earth that don't know jesus never never really had an encounter with someone that know jesus a million billions and we sit and be happy in church from week to week and we forget the value of the soul heaven is concerned about souls i'm going to take you on two mission trips combined into one one was six months one was supposed to be two months but it ended up being 11 months so this 17 months in africa in different countries this is in kibera slum the largest slum in kenya one of the largest slums in africa and you know when i went to queber islam i had some misconceptions that you know somehow maybe it was a dangerous place but you know what i found wonderful people in giber islam wonderful adventist people this is in the adventist this is this is this is a group of uh this is a train that's coming right through kibber islam and sometime after i was there it derailed one of the trends derailed but fortunately no one was injured or killed look at that beautiful condition there and i i believe that adventists as a church we need to be focusing on these kinds of places because if jesus was here that's where he would be amen he wouldn't be in heartland he wouldn't be in washington dc in in since ligo he wouldn't be in some other fancy church as you know pioneer memorial church in michigan he would be in the slums that's where he would be that doesn't mean it's not nice to have places like this but that's not where jesus would be jesus would be there with the greatest needs are that's where jesus went that's where he wants us to go he's calling us there just the other sunday i went with some lady a lady sandy sandra richards down in in hampton virginia and she has a ministry that she works with the homeless people there and whether to deliver some food to those people and what a wonderful experience that was you see if you go where jesus is working you're going to get excited about missions you're going to get excited so this is the pastor and his wife that it was it was there at the time pastor moses and you see his wife had a little business she would set up and sell some little fruits and things like that besides the besides the path where people would go past besides the road very humble and beside her was another adventist lady that would sell some greens this was the adventist one of the adventist church this was in a slum pub this used to be a pub it's just been converted into a church because they they really don't want them building new churches and new buildings inside the sun because eventually they want to tear down those old things you see so this is an old pub that was converted into this into a into a church and the same walls and the same except the ceiling and so on the same walls were the same as the pub and that's this is you see it's not the place it's the spirit in which we bring to worship that god looks at he doesn't care about the place and they took me to see another pub that they wanted to buy because they wanted to they were spreading they were growing so they wanted to grow another pub there's the nameless pub and we got a little soft drink there we didn't drink any of the hard stuff we just dropped we drank a little soft drink and i don't know for sure if what happened if they were able to buy that but they wanted to buy that as another place because they had multiple churches there in the slum doing a wonderful work that's inside the pub that they wanted to make into a church the seventh day adventists have a wonderful school there in kibera slum it's elementary school and also high school or secondary school adventist jeremic adventist academy and we have a lot of supplies that we're going to be sending to different schools and in shipping containers in short and certainly in the future here's some of the children beautiful children many of them from the slum and being from the slum they don't have a lot of money you know so they just struggle for that school to survive because they don't have a lot of income coming in because most of the students don't have much to pay and and so it's difficult for them to come to school to support their school this building here that for the elementary school was built by adra australia the audre the development agency over in australia they funded the building of this building but you know it's getting run down and it needs new glass and some of the windows and there's a lot of upkeep they just don't have the funds to operate properly this is a secondary school the high school and many of these students are muslims some number of these are the students in the in the school are muslim now i was interested he took me to see a church this is up in in kenya now and this is up some distance from nairobi in an area called marimonti i've done outreach in this area more than once with the division uh president before before before he became division president him and his wife and afterwards they had me come to do some help with tmi total member involvement later year but here you see the donkey back in the background this donkey helps to haul the water and they had the supplies here they were building a new church because for 15 years they had met under this tree okay now how many of us would meet for 15 years under a tree and be faithful members then they built a very humble mud and stick church that i visited and preached in in fact my my uh my projector when i was showing video i mean showing a program powerpoint in there it burned up because the little generator that they were using was underpowered so my projector began to smoke it ruined my projector but i don't care but here now here's some of the people the two on the outside the elder and his wife and look at the nice basketry that they make and she she also made this one here they make beautiful things and then in between between there james he's a young man that's really good with farming and so on he took training with wildwood when he came over to africa and the other gentleman that went around with me here's a wonderful ministry called the everlasting gospel bicycle outreach ministries this was started with pastor blasius rugby and his wife who is now the president the third the third term president of the east central africa division he and his wife one day were visiting in their home up country home near mankau area near marimonti in the saraca district in kenya and one day there was a knock at the door and they went to the he went to the door and there were some young people and he invited them in i'd have to tell you real quickly this story and uh they they came in there after some small talk they wondered he would ask them what they wanted they wanted legs he looked at them they had legs they wanted bicycles because they wanted to be more effective in doing their missionary work so when they left his wife said you know now i know i've been saving that little money they've been saving some little money for maybe a vacation holiday or something and she said now i know we've been saving this money and so with that the seed money that they had they were able to purchase 20 new bicycles for the everlasting bicycle of everlasting gospel bicycle outreach ministry and later when he told me about it one day when i met him up in general conference after i met went to history hotel and he told me this story i videotaped it on my way back from general conference i stopped in waynesboro virginia and uh a man there wanted to maybe move down in the area where i was living down in the southwestern part of virginia in the mountains and so after supper i was going to be talking to them after supper asked him if i could show this little video about the everlasting gospel outreach ministry he went into the other room he came back with a pen with a pen and a checkbook he was writing a check he gave me a check for eight thousand dollars i didn't even stay because i knew god was in this i got back into the car loaded my things back four o'clock in the morning or three o'clock knocking on pastoral goodies door up in maryland gave him the check for eight thousand dollars when we went over there december january we dedicated another 50 bicycles to the everlasting gospel bicycle outreach ministry if you want something exciting in your life get involved in missions folks this is the most exciting thing if i was to do it over again i would never be a traditional pastor i would be involved in full-time training of youth worldwide i believe that's what god is calling us to in these last days now this is traveling along from south africa coming up to malawi this is uh some baobab trees these are interesting trees they have water inside of them if you need water you can go deep enough in there drill in there you can get some water out of it this is a zambezi river you've heard of the mighty zambezi river it feeds the victoria falls which is uh known as the smoke that thunders some of the beautiful mountains this is transportation now people will actually ride on top of that thing too okay it's dangerous because it's heavy it's already overweight and so it could easily turn over going around some of those corners but people will actually climb on top of that and hold on because they're so anxious to have some way to don't have to walk someplace there's some of the dugout canoes down from a bridge that we stopped and here's some precious ladies that's how they make their income selling sugarcane and sweet potatoes now you know you can't get rich on that because the sweet potatoes and and the sugarcane here you see all this sugarcane where people have chewed it and then they spit out the old the you know they spit they just get the juice out you know they don't swallow the inside stuff then you speed it down so you say all over the ground here is where people have been eating the sugarcane that they're selling there but that's the way people make make money and in the country of malawi many people most of the people the poor people the normal people they they live on a dollar a day how can you how can you i don't know how they i don't know how they can survive on a dollar a day but somehow because they work hard and they they're careful they're able to live on a dollar a day this is a blind school there in in in malawi and uh brother jimmy strickland there he he took some some musical instruments and a p8 little pa system there for them and now these blind people were playing with it with the instruments there there's jimmy strickland with joint with a creative global relief a wonderful ministry i took him to africa for the first time in 2004 he and another elderly gentleman 70 year old gentleman and jimmy strickland that was my first time back to africa since i came back to the u.s in january of 1970. this was in july 2004. so 34 years later and uh we went over to africa and he fell in love with africa he and his wife started this ministry created global relief and now they've been back to africa 15 times since 2004. they would have gone this year or had not been for the the pandemic but they'll be going next year if you get go to africa it's going to get in your blood in fact i would be there now if i didn't have to get ready these shipments of containers to africa africa is a wonderful place this gives you the stats for the for the um blind school at that time 106 all together 32 boys 32 girls in the one level 16 24 48 58 a total of 106. now a wonderful ministry that they have is these treadle foot pumps this helps people to be able to grow more more or crops because they can have a way of getting them irrigated by treadle foot pumps it can pull water up from 23 feet deep and can then they can spray it out around the water and fill and be able to grow things maybe get three crops instead of maybe two otherwise this pastor willie boyd from the norfolk church he loves to go over with creative global relief and uh the pastor in the louisiana area where we used to live he took me to see this elderly pastor this elderly pastor was over 100 years old and he remembered my father who used to pastor there at lewis's mission in northern northern malawi.com when we were there called nyasa land here's a typical way of getting water you have to again run and get it it doesn't have running to your house you have to go get it at a water supply take it home and then be able to wash your clothes and do your cooking this is the camp meeting just down the hill from where we used to live there at the wazi mission in northern part of malawi and you see the nice stage there and plenty of children there's the pastor in the front porch of the house where we used to live i have so many memories of this uh it brings back so many memories i could write a book i need to write a book on this and here's a here's an iron you put the charcoal inside and you close it down and then you carefully iron your clothes you can also use the the kind of irons that you put on top of the soap wood stove and get them hot or you and we also had there that mission uh one that had benzene or white gas in it you could put it in pump it up and make a fire inside of the inside of the iron different ways and we had a we had an electric we had a motor motorized washing machine and we had a a kerosene operated refrigerator so we had some luxuries but they were different there's some of the beautiful children there and here's the son of the man who used to take care of our garden our what we called the garden boy his name was siobhan he wasn't a boy as a family he had a family but here's his son i met him there and we we had a little fellowship together there's the pastor's wife doing cooking out behind the house and now now there's shibani's grandson son and grandson our former cook boy and i mean a garden boy and his grandson his grandson volunteers at the adventist clinic there and mary is the nurse so we're sending supplies to to these different missions and as we speak they've been making blocks to develop our first training center for skills training in in africa we're developing that they're making blocks cement blocks and so that but in december when we go over we'll be building this facility and one also in isuzu where we have the conference office here's uh some balls made from the the rubber rubber and here now is the process of making bricks they were making bricks to build a new church and so they they find a place that has suitable soil a lot of clay in it they'll mix it up with water and then they'll they'll put it into little forms and this will be then put into a brick kiln that they they build it in such a way that they can put wood inside of it and then they seal it with with mud on the outside and it burns for so long and it hardens that mud so it becomes like you know permanent permanent bricks and so it's a way that they're able to make bricks very cheaply this is the church that they had there and this was the foundation of a new church but they didn't have any money for cement so what created global relief was able to help them now ladies i know you you folks are very very careful about being very um discreet and very you know careful about things but this is the outhouse you can wave with your friends from inside yeah outside and they can if they look carefully they can see what's happening inside so you want to be hopefully that they're not too interested in that but this is the facilities there outside of the church and you can see that there's plenty of fresh air comes in but you know you have to take that in stride now don't let this scare you any of you folks okay now some of you were scared to one lady was scared today about staying in the tent but but this is i hope this doesn't scare you i'm not trying to scare you i'm trying to inspire you to be involved in mission and we can always make better facilities you know we can build better facilities this is outdoor carpentry shop you know we're trying to get people who have skills to teach young people the skills that they have so that those young people can then be productive and this is the type of thing we'll find people like this who have professions and that they can be able to teach and if any of you have some skill i talked to one man who who was a elementary school teacher he's interested in maybe one of your group here interested in maybe coming over to help us i talked to other people another one who was a was a english teacher and so i hope that you'll you'll sign up on that little white sheet let me know your interests and let me know what kinds of backgrounds you have so that we can get your involvement this is a man who's a tailor this outdoor tailor you find tailoring a lot of times provides an income for people there's people always interested in getting things made pastor willie boyd again this is the group down at the union office at that time now they've moved it up to le longway the capital but the group that was there with created global relief patakuyama the president of the union there and this is the matandani mission one of the more remote missions in malawi here we have um a group that was with us and then the the couple that is second from the right the ladies second from the right and the man behind her they're from rome they were they were from romania and romania missions was doing a special outreach there in that part of malawi my folks actually were went to this mission sometime after they had come back on permanent return back in the 80s they went back to matadoni my dad went to be the farm manager beautiful beautiful area there and then this is lakeview we have avenue seminary there at other facilities for training young people in malawi and when i was there i met this couple elder and mrs fred wilson fred and marilyn wilson this was his second wife his first wife had died but fred wilson was overseeing over 60 people in building and phil building facilities there at this mission i couldn't believe this man at his age overseeing over 60 people come on now this is amazing but you know you're never too old to be involved in god's work if this is god's work it's worth sacrificing for now i'm 70 years old but i hope that as long as i can walk as long as i can get around that i'm doing all that i can for the work of god this was interesting they have uh the creative creative global relief has a ministry for children and mostly children and for helping them with schooling and so on so on like that each year they have a special project where they go back and they take them little gifts and they they take them from the outing here at this particular year they went to the parliament there in the long way the capital of malawi this is some of the gifts that they had for the young people wrapped in yellow and yellow banks there that is uh plastic that they can use for the roofing of their homes to help be more secure this is on sabbath look how crowded that is and uh this is certainly under construction now you wouldn't be allowed to meet in that church here because you have to get inspection and everything but here they were still under construction you can see the the pile of gravel and power bricks inside the church they're still under construction but as soon as they can get in there they're in there and the busy meeting this is atlantica a wonderful mission beautiful facility down uh down the mountain there from zuzu area and uh we met there with some of the students and and young people did some training and this was changing the light bulb they need a ladder i'm going to send a ladder over there for for them so there's more less dangerous there's you see that's that's dangerous on top of those chairs like that trying to change the light bulb it's inside the church to give some training that's the beautiful thing about africa here i have difficulty getting the attention of young people let alone their involvement but in africa i can have hundreds or thousands of young people that are anxious to be involved our dream is to recruit train equip mobilize and empower one million youth across africa over the next 12 months it's possible in the country of malawi alone we have over 334 000 young people that we can minister to but we didn't know that god was going to open the door the government wants us to do our training program in all of the secondary schools of the nation 884 schools approximately 360 students in each school they want us to do the training program in every school of the nation now we're scrambling for people to help us to do that training and to develop the curriculum because we want to develop a four-year curriculum that will actually be part of the official curriculum for the nation god is opening doors in unique ways that we never even dreamed possible i thought we might be able to do an afternoon voluntary program where people could come and be a part of a club or something to get training but now that government the new new government there in malawi is anxious to do something for the youth because they have no 70 percent unemployment among the youth 70 percent unemployment the traditional education program is not working they need something that is meeting the needs of young people helping them to develop marketable skills that can be able to support themselves rather than come out of school and most of them can't go on to university and when they come out of university with a degree doesn't mean they'll get a job most of them don't get a job when they come out of university so we have to rethink education and be much more what ellen white says he should be balanced education is the harmonious development of the head the hand and the heart it's not just the head it's the hand and the heart too those are all part of true education so these young people on top of the mountain here i believe are very have great potential i remember the first time that i went to to this place back in 2004 when jacob we had a we had a bunch of little bibles little new gideon new testaments with the psalms in it we gave it to some of the girls and they were dancing around bible bible b-i-b-l-e bible they were so excited and some of us have multiple bibles and we don't read them shame on us you know we need to be what we need to be students of the word we need to be filling our minds with the word of god so that god can use those things that we store in the mind to help us in our battle against the evil one thy word if i hid in my heart that i might not what what sin against god you see god wants us to be men and women of faith men and women of vision a part of his closing work this is there in the office of the principal there at lanzhika and this is how i travel a lot not say a lot this is how i travel even like this in the back of a vehicle i travel in every way you can think of in buses many buses and so on i don't have my own vehicle that's one big dream that i have that one day i'll have my vehicle in africa that we can accomplish so much more if we have that here's again the romanian mission there with the people from matandani i was able to ride back with them then this is down in the southern part of the state of the country there at uh it was actually this was a an adventist group getting training i was able to give some training to them nazarenes they were wonderful people and on my way back up to lo to the long way the capital i met with the lady there who is the first the fifth from the left the kind of radish here she is a paramount chief she's the chief over the other chiefs these men and these other men she has ten chiefs under her she's the paramount chief her father had been the paramount chief or the chief chief okay and when he died they asked her to become the chief chief now she's a very unique lady she not only is a paramount chief but she's also a person that works with forex which is a currency exchange and she also has her own catering business she has a wonderful lady and so she met me there and i i had the bus drop me off there and she met me there and we were able to meet with the people and then they took it out to this unique place where they were growing 24 people were working under the leadership of of an individual they were working together here in growing cooperatively garlic what i found the secrets in africa for for success in agriculture is water and working together with others those are the two secrets for success we've seen this repeatedly in different parts of africa that those are two areas of success now ladies would you like to be able to carry loads like that on your head you know my neck would break but these ladies have a necks like you wouldn't believe and they carry heavy loads on top of their necks like this and sometimes they can just balance and walk along you know they'll be balancing that thing i don't know how in the world they do it some of you may have heard of riverside that is a self-supporting facility uh mission there in zambia and this is on the beautiful grounds on riverside they have a lifestyle center there have also a large farming area and have training center for young people much like heartland but it's a beautiful facility not far from the river as you see and pretty flowers there growing on the facility some of the young people there and i thought this pod wasn't it bean pod beautiful looks like something autumn time beautiful bean bean pods inside and there you have the unusual fruit and when i was uh in another location they brought me a nice bunch of fruit when i was in likasi congo i went to lycasa congo to help from zambia to lee cassie congo to help to hold some evangelistic meetings for elder wilson general conference president they wanted him to come because he used to be a missionary there in congo but because he couldn't come the division president asked me if i would hold the meetings and so we had we had an opportunity to hold evangelistic meetings there one of the young ladies uh that i and now we're setting up for the evangelistic meetings we're making a frame to put our uh cloth on for rear-view projection there's some of the one of the choirs they love to sing they have many choirs here's the people baptized 157 people baptized now that wasn't because of just the meetings they did work beforehand this was just a harvesting mostly meetings and then this is the evangelistic meetings but unfortunately when the wind would come it would just tear things up they'd have to repair again you know it was it was like almost regular time having to repair things that were damaged by the wind because it was in a very open place a market open area but at the end on the final sabbath there was the the baptism of these individuals not the best water but still it was done and then the conference president they're presenting the the um certificates of baptism and we also gave each one of them a bible in in their language while i was there also i thought it was interesting i would make friends with the with the little motorcycle drivers and made friends there with them and they had this other group this was a sabbath-keeping group they looked like some sort of uh of uh greek orthodox or something but it's not it's it's a local localized religious group that's a sabbath-keeping group and the morning after our final meetings i went up to the site to take down to take off the cloth off of the frames that were used as our prescriptions and here on the ground i found a bunch of young people lying on the ground sleeping and they were street boys i'd heard about street boys but i hadn't met them and so i became acquainted with these little young men and they were wonderful the young man the second from the right is a 15 year old boy and he was like the daddy for the group he looked after them and and helped them and i saw such beautiful spirit among these street boys that that were you know we should have that kind of a wonderful spirit among us as christians as well we bought them uh we bought them a a ball we bought them a a basin that they could get wash their clothes in because this is where they got their water from a broken pipe they were able to get water for bathing and for washing their clothes so we made able to make contact with them one of the wonderful young people and in congo there's an animal called okapi it's kind of a looks like a cross between a zebra a zebra and a uh antelope but it's it's it lives in the forest an unusual animal endangered animal then back up to tanzania another country here we have an adventist school catering to the albinos in africa albinos are sometimes seen as having magical characteristics and sometimes people will eat them they will they think there's magical things that by eating a flesh from an albino or or organs from an albino that they'll somehow get some magical things but of course that's foolishness but this school uh deals with helping the albinos to have a safe place where they're where they're cared for and where they're educated we're able to distribute bibles we have again thousands of bibles we're getting registered to send six thousand bibles that were donated from the review and six thousand of these books the christian service books that were donated by the review before they closed they were sending over then this was a more recent trip over to the country of kenya went over to help with tmi total member involvement and there they were again dubbed they were again dedicating some new bicycles for the bicycle ministry even had some ladies involved but they i think they need ladies bicycles for the ladies they shouldn't have men's bicycles for the ladies these are difficult to get on and off so hopefully in the future we can get some ladies bicycles for them some of the young people on the the now they have an interesting practice there when they're going to have an event they'll have a big event where they get the attention of the community so they'll have a parade they'll have motorcycles they'll have cars anything they can do to make a lot of noise and get people's attention to invite them to come to the evangelistic meetings this is tmi or total member involvement and so that's what they were doing they were trying to involve people here you see the parading along on bicycles on motorcycles however they can get attention these are some of the young people that i worked with i was able to take some some resources some tour some toys and so on to a deaf school that they have there in marimonti and this is a resource center that we have that we want to develop into a training center for the young people there in that district this was on the final sabbath of the tmi program you can see a full house there parking lot outside not too not much not much of cars mostly bicycles or motorcycles many people there they travel in what we call lego mobile have you heard of a lego mobile your legs most of them travel by lego mobile when they get there and if you'll notice in the baptism the big baptism at the end this was bringing in people from different sites where the tmi the total member involvement evangelism had been done you notice they're predominantly young people notice that most of the young people most of the people being baptized here were young people as you can see even in the young ladies they're mostly young they're mostly young people this is a wonderful school in tanzania that we're working on developing we have seven shelters that have been built by kibidoula which is another self-supporting facility there in the country of tanzania these seven seven sites seven shelters we hope to develop into a training center that will include trades and skills training for secondary school level they have we have uh 60 acres that the conference had and then we were able to purchase to purchase 20 extra acres so we have 80 acres there now have a good water source the water source here is is about six feet deep you hit water very very shallow now it's not the best for drinking you have to boil it before you can drink it but it's good for irrigation it's good for bathing and so on it's good for other sources than than just for just for drinking now when you go to the store and you buy a coconut remember that somebody may have put their life in their hands to get that coconut you remember can you imagine climbing to the top of that tree to fetch a coconut it's dangerous your life you could fall from there and die now this was a very interesting here we had uh some training that had been given a two-week training with pastor jeffrey and bona the division one of the northern one of the general conference of vice presidents he's from tanzania he had gone over to do training there he's done it several couple of years now and this was as a result of the training he trained people in uh to think outside the box to think on a new level and then they organized themselves together one week training and then another week organizing themselves together looking at different possibilities and then they would organize themselves into groups according to their interests some went into farming one group went into welding one group into some groups into tailoring and so on but this is the this was in now january after the training that they got in september and look at the beautiful things that are being produced in this garden i couldn't believe it i mean this looks like a professional garden and they're just doing amazing things this here was another another another farm 27 acre farm down by the river that a group mostly of most of them were jobless before and now they were producing on a professional level 27 acre farm with all done by hand all this work done by hand and then by irrigating it another interesting thing we found right in the in the in the city of dar salam a city of 4.5 million people we were walking along one day near the american embassy and we noticed these patches of greens that were growing this young man was there he told us that he had this patch of greens he had a patch and there were nine other people that had patches what they would do was that they would each plant a little bit different time so like one plant today three days later another would plant three days later or another would plant so that they always had fresh greens because they would be growing from seed to harvest in 30 days what they had to do was to plant them prepare the ground plant them and then they had to water them twice a day morning and evening and then give them a little bit of of uh of fertilizer some chicken manure when they were a little bit high but what was incredible was fifteen thousand shillings to rent the ground around his lot fifteen thousand shillings to pay for the water had another fifteen thousand ceilings for the seed and then some little bit maybe ten thousand shillings for the chicken manure so let's just say that's forty five fifty five thousand but they was able to sell this every month now listen able ever to sell this every month his patch of greens sell these greens for 250 000 shillings i said what else can you ever find that kind of increase you invest 55 000 and you sell it every month for 250 000. that's five times and and so people would become there they love this is a type of greeting that people really love so you find something like hibidullah kibidoola has a variety of avocado that's better than all the other people in the area and so people like how we do keep your little avocados they don't like the other people they want to keep a dollar you see you need to find something that's unique to you that's better than anybody else has shouldn't christians be having the best to offer to people we should do that you see and these people are doing that and i said well this is wonderful because this young man he could he could go to school he could have another job he could hire somebody or they could take turns rotating around among the ten of them to ten sites to take turns and watering it one one one week one person could water them all next week another one could do it you see there's a ways of doing this thing so that everyone could be productive there's no reason for anyone in this world to not be productive i don't care if you're handicapped we can find ways for you to be able to do something that god will help you to do something to be productive and contribute rather than to be someone that's just always asking for help now in congo in in the kinshasa congo there's a there's a pastor a young pastor he used to be a conference president in north kibu and he's doing amazing things with a program that is called train them to fish rather than giving a person a fish you train them how to be productive he's doing amazing things i'm hoping he hoping he'll be here after the first of the year to uh to help us to to promote the needs of africa but we want to do a big free medical clinic in kinshasa early next year so if any of you are in the area of medical field sign on with that on that little sheet that i have inside there sign on and let me know how it is that you want to be involved and what other things you might be interested in helping us with because we need your help we cannot see 1 million young people in training by the end of 12 months if we don't have help but each of those young people when they receive the free training are going to agree to something and that is that they're going to tell share with five other people what they learned so the end of the second year we have what six million and then 36 million then 150 million you see it can grow like that if we just have a vision as it is now we're thinking inside of a box we're thinking in a small way rather than thinking in terms of the big way and with the technology that we have now it's amazing what can be done i don't need an office anymore all i need is this i can organize those million young people off of one phone one phone now i won't do it myself i'll be like moses what did he do he had people over ten he had people over a hundred you see that's how you organize yourself and so that there's a there's a connection between the different levels and everyone can be connected and network together to complete the mission of christ you see our job is to networking the body of christ to complete the mission of christ the mission of christ is clear what is it jesus said all authority has been given unto me in heaven and in earth universal authority and then what does he say go go you therefore and teach all nations or make disciples of all nations these are marching orders nothing else qualifies the marching orders of our of the commander-in-chief is this what do you say say with me go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost teaching them to absorb all things whatsoever i have commanded you and lo i am with you alway even unto the end of the world amen that's our marching orders it's clear it's very concise but it includes every one of us if any one of us are unfaithful to those marching orders he cannot say good and faithful servant when he comes he'll say depart from me into what everlasting fire depart to prepare for the devil and his angels that's what he has to say because it's either we have a heart that beats a unison with his heart for the loss or we're on the other side there's only two sides that we can be on we see the satan's side or god's side and we must with god's help be faithful to the commission that he has given us or we will miss out on that beautiful future that jesus has prepared for us quickly just going through i want to show you some more pictures here my my favorite place in africa is zanzibar zanzibar 99 pure muslim but i've never seen a more receptive place in all of my ministry than zanzibar i've been there seven times in these few years since 2019 seven times to zanzibar it's a wonderful place we met with this outreach for muslim people by muslim people and we've learned how to network with them to see how we can minister and build relationships you know ellen white says christ's method alone will bring true success in reaching the people what was his method he mingled among men as one who desired their good he ministered to their needs showed them sympathy won their confidence then he invited them to follow me we get it all backwards we say follow me follow jesus but we haven't done all the homework and we wonder why people don't don't become a part of what we're doing it's because we're not following the simple methods that jesus left us she says christ's method alone will bring true success there's no other method that will bring true success unfortunately other methods will bring some measure of success but not true success there's only one method that will bring true success she says if we would humble ourselves before god and we were kind merciful tenderhearted and pitiful these are all action words there would be 100 conversions to the truth conversions not additions conversions to the truth were now there's but one in other words instead of 10 10 additions to your church there would be what a thousand can you imagine it can you imagine pentecost happening again in your church in your community it can but we have to follow the method and we have to follow jesus jesus said what i'm going to send the holy spirit he will teach you all things he'll bring into your remembrance the things that i've taught you so that the law will be your law jail and makes sense he's anxious to do that dear ones it's too late to play the game of church it's too late to go through the routine that we've always been going through for all of our lives you see i came back to this country i came back to this country knowing the needs of africa in january of 1970 and for 34 years i did zip to help missions i did nothing but to tell tell some stories and to give some offering nothing of significance i did not become personally involved but then our three daughters went from southern adventist university to south america to peru as volunteer missionaries one year my wife and son and i went down to visit them over christmas new year's vacation and i knew it was not a voice but a strong impression you must become involved in missions and so the following july i started going back to africa since then back many times there is nothing like missions to bring life to the church without missions your church is dead because it is not obedient to the command of jesus you cannot fulfill his mission if you're not doing what he told you to do so this is on zanzibar island wonderful place oh that's interesting many of the streets are very very narrow in stone town one of the main towns on the island why because narrow streets provide more shade and also they provide protection for enemy armies coming in because they can't navigate through the streets very well that's why they're one of the reasons why they have narrow streets we're working with look at the beautiful artwork there in this door that beautiful carving working with the the with the uh young people with sports but also there are many health health health groups on the island outdoors place where they're doing carpentry visiting one of the places where a man was showing us about how they grow coconuts they put the coconuts bury them in the sand like that and then as they grow they'll be able to grow and transplant them this is a interesting one there then you have the that's it that is the plant for uh what is that uh that vanilla that's a vanilla plant that they're very expensive the original manila this was interesting another another place there in dar salaam area adventist group meeting together with others that were handicapped there trying to help people that are deaf and other needs that people have bhagamow area this was very interesting there's a man whose name is john sagama he when he was a child he was fired from school because his parents couldn't pay 20 shillings and so he has a burden for the education of young people and he's developing a training school that will be university as well as trade school where people can come for free and then they work on his thousand acre farm nearby to be able to provide for their education there's the first part of one of the buildings he has two lakes that have been built there they've been dug there one is deeper there than the than the uh harbor there in the where the ships come in in darsalam tanzania health health outreach wonderful outreach there at oyster point this is traveling up to morogoro area kenya and darshan tanzania beautiful area beautiful mountains and then back down to malawi where we helped with the eye clinic free eye clinic in a refugee camp where there's 10 000 people from six different countries and we were able to to fit 437 people with with eyeglasses some eyeglasses that were donated by lions club you see there's something for everyone can do something everyone can do this is going to a very remote mission they wanted me to visit one of the very remote missions and this is this is a dormitory for the girls they deserve better than that i believe they deserve better than that but they're happy they're in the dormitory we need to help them to have a better facilities they have 27 acre farm there that has a lot of potential with a little vision school so you get a picture but my appeal to you is this do something for local missions and global missions because the work is not finished anywhere until it's finished everywhere it's not finished anywhere until it's finished everywhere do all you can what i call it local missions global and local is local global missions we need to be involved in missions everywhere because missions is the reason for our existence as a church there's no other legitimate reason for us to be a seventh-day adventist unless we're fulfilling the mission no other legitimate reason we're illegitimate if we're not fulfilling the commission up front here you can see some of the things that i've collected from different countries um some of the beautiful things this is from bagamoya one of the places there two two colored wood that's been carved this is hippo ivory hippo tufts some of these from the maasai people in kenya this is maasai warrior very interesting people very interesting group and here we have uh from ethiopia some elderly people there from one of the countries this is from the country of kenya made out of sisal which is a natural natural fiber made into a nice purse for women some of the other things you can look at it later but i want to read you these words in closing this these thoughts in closing i love this book how many have this book my favorite book when it comes to learning about serving god if you don't have it i have six copies with me i'd be happy to share with you but uh some of you if you want to get them but read this book let me read through here christian service christian service best book that i know of it's a compilation wonderful book listen to these words it's a section called aim for a heavy crown aim for a heavy crown we not we must not become weary or faint-hearted it would be a terrible loss to barter away enduring glory for ease convenience and enjoyment or for carnal indulgences a gift from the hand of god awaits the overcomer not one of us deserves it it is gratuitious or generous on his part wonderful and glorious will be this gift but let us remember that one star difference from another star in glory but as we are urged to strive for this mastery let us aim in the strength of jesus for a crown heavy with stars now what does that stars mean a star in your crown represents a person you've brought to jesus you see there'll be nobody in heaven without at least one star no one would be in heaven without at least one star because you wouldn't belong there you see you wouldn't belong you wouldn't be comfortable there you wouldn't be happy there if your heart was not beating in unison with christ's heart for the lost you would not be happy in heaven you'd be chipping off the streets of gold and putting it in your backyard you're not going to be there he's not going to have anybody to do that okay he's going to have people there that are converted that are have a passion for souls and that are using all their energy to win souls for christ that's why we're here then she says they that be wise shall shine as the firmament and they that win many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever now you know when we sing that song will there be any stars any stars in my crown when it evening the sun goeth down when i wake with the blessed in those mansions of rest will there be any stars in my crown there must be at least one okay then but what's really exciting is this i love this i mean i didn't always understand this but more recently i read this this is too good to be true you must read this book if you do you mark every page it's all good it's all good it's all good because it's inspired it's different from other books i have to pick and choose from other books but this book i don't have to pick a jews i know it's all good okay now notice this why do we not become enthused with the spirit of christ why are we so little moved by the painful cries of a suffering world do we consider our exalted privilege of adding a star to christ's crown can you believe it everyone you bring to jesus you put a star in jesus christ can you imagine how exciting it will be one day you'll be saying hey look look at that star in jesus christ look at that one that's something i watch jesus that's why we crown him with many crowns right he has so many crowns you can't one crown won't fit all the stars because he has many crowns crown him with many crowns it represents all those people that have been saved how good how good and then this tell you know how much does it pay how much am i going to get if i take this job serving god i want to tell you something maybe you don't already know it you've already been paid i'll read it for you right here she says the lord at his coming will scrutinize every talent he will demand interest on the capital he has entrusted by his own humiliation and agony by his life of toil and his death of shame now listen now christ has paid for the service of all who have taken his name and professed to be his servants i've already been paid thank you you've already been paid with the infinite the infinite price one person says heaven went bankrupt when jesus died for us god gave what he has only one of his son only one son now i have three daughters and one son but i don't love anybody enough to give my son i'm sorry i just am not there yet but god loved the world so much say it with me for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for god sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved do we catch the vision of god's heart his heart going out over every individual on this planet that made in his image made for eternal fellowship if anyone is ever as if is not in his kingdom there'll always be an empty spot in god's heart for that person that's the kind of love we have now you know that last story right about invitations by royalty are never in decline when we were at luwasi mission between where we lived and in cottage bay there was a low-lying area a very very swampy-like area and there was an unusual animal that lived there that the local people called ufiti it was the unidentified subspecies of a chimpanzee family larger than normal chimpanzees but smaller than the gorilla there were no other animals similar to this for 1500 miles around how did it get there nobody knew and they still don't know how did rafiti get there well my dad is he would travel back and forth between our mission and in carta bay where we often would get our mail he would sometimes he was an avid photo photographer he loved animals and stuff to take animal pictures he would take pictures he could sense he'd be i can still remember seeing you know uffiti up in the tree made her nest up in the tree it was a female and um so as he would take pictures he would got some very nice pictures he would even develop and print his own pictures he had a little lab that he would do with in the house in the sink in kitchen sink and uh second here that's one of my daughters in africa i have to call her back not my real daughters but i adopt young people kind of like help them so he would take these pictures and there was a game ranger named ollie carey who was the english uh come on i'll have to call you back i'll call you back later call you back this is mary marimba i'm bringing her over to the states here to visit to help us raise awareness of the needs of missions and so he he was friends with ali kerry who was the english game ranger in the area and so together they wrote an article for a wildlife journal the queen mother in england was an avid connoisseur of wildlife she read the article and so when she came to when she was coming to the caribbea dam to to to inaugurate or to dedicate this new damn project in in in northern rhodesia now called zambia she wanted to meet my father and so when she came to msuzu which was just 17 miles away from the mission a short time before that happened we were traveling in the yiki plateau high elevation area in in the in northern malawi and it was on a i think sunday morning we were traveling early on top and it was a narrow road came to the top of a hill and we had head-on collision with another car exactly like ours 403 pujo same color same model look just like us looked like a running into a mirror serious accident totaled the car my mother my brother's arm was broken didn't have seat belts back then his arm was broken my mother was banged up she was expecting my younger brother at the time my father was banged up and so they didn't feel like they were in any position to see the queen mother because they looked like they'd been through the war you know they were banged up and stuff black eye and some like they had been in the war or fight or something and so they sent a message to the district commissioner or the governor of the area letting them know what had happened and that they didn't feel they wanted to still see her from a distance but not be presented to her and this is what he said back he was sorry about the accident but they needed to understand that invitations by royalty are never declined he would provide a vehicle to pick us up and take us there they would be there it was not a choice and so the dake arrived and these are short distance away 17 miles we were there waiting aircraft comes in and the airport never got more work than they got before that before or since that airport was got more work before the queen mother was coming than any other time in his life i'm sure so the aircraft comes in then the motorcade comes to the place us children we were some distance away we were not presented so we were there but we were not able to be presented and so then finally they come down and they have the receiving line and my mother and father had been told you know don't be nervous because you just watch the people in front of you because you know there's a protocol you're supposed to curtsy in a certain way you're supposed to not extend your hand if you're a man before the the royalty extends their hand it's a certain protocol and they were nervous but what happened was they were the first in line because they had received a personal invitation they were first united had no one to watch what are they going to do and so my dad says you know at first when he was so nervous you know but when she extended her hand and was so gracious mr goodwin when he when he was introduced to her and he got talked to her about the mission work that they were doing short distance away at the adventist mission and about the animal she was interested even in going to see the animal oh yes he was happy to go with her if possible but didn't work out of course didn't know no way that you would know the animal would be there you know it wouldn't be it makes sense and so it was a highlight of their mission experience now what's interesting to me is this invitations by royalty are never declined but we can say no to jesus this is this is invitation matthew chapter 28 in matthew chapter 11 verses 28 to 30 come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and lord of me for i'm meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls my yoke is easy or it means fit it fits right and my burden is right my burden is light you can say no to that invitation did you know that but i hope you won't i hope you'll say yes you'll say yes to that invitation but with that yes there then becomes there comes a commission you've got to tell somebody about that wonderful savior it's like that woman at the well remember after she had that divine encounter with jesus and she recognized that he was the messiah she had to tell somebody she goes running into town come come i want you to meet a man who knows all about me but he still loves me could he be the messiah and there was something about her that was so different from what she'd ever been before that the whole town comes out not only to learn to know jesus but to ask him to stay by an extra day to tell him more about his love that's the way he wants to use us if you have had an encounter with jesus you must you are morally is responsible to tell somebody your mission is clear go ye into all the world and preach the gospel jesus says to every creature every man woman and child on this planet needs to hear this message of hope before jesus will come there's a work to do and we need these young people involved those of us that are older we need to be in a supportive role we need to see god's work soon finished so that jesus will come there's not a moment to lose this pandemic has helped me to see there's not a moment to lose everything could close up overnight so that we could no longer travel internationally we could no longer do now we can do now as jesus said i must work the works of him that sent me while in his day the night cometh when no man can work the night's coming folks this isn't to inspire fear but it's to inspire a sense of urgency we have no time not a moment to lose and playing the game of religion no this is serious life and death issues we're involved with so those of you that have sensed god speaking to you today those of you that have heard the invitation of jesus to come unto him and he will give you rest those of you that want to respond and say yes lord i want to make myself available that's all he asks he doesn't say you have to get special degrees or special education or special special experience he just says i'll make yourself available i'll use you you see human effort combined with divine power becomes omnipotent elohim there's nothing to fear we're plugging into the source of universal power all power jesus said all authority those of you that would like to respond to this invitation of jesus today to come unto him and he'll give you rest those of you that want to say i want to make myself available to however you want to use me i'd like you to stand where you are would you just stand where you are as we close with prayer and please take time to fill in this little brochure a little insert of the brochure so that we can know how we can use your talents and gifts i can use anybody with any talent to help in finishing this work that god's given us to do let us pray father in heaven you're so good so gracious to want to use us as sinful human beings to be your ambassadors to a dying world lord please take us and make us into what you want us to be fill us with your holy spirit fill us with the love of jesus that we will see in every person someone to share your love with forgive us lord for being focused on other things that were not eternally important and may we focus on what is most important the winning of souls for your kingdom when jesus comes we know that you're going to basically ask us two questions you're going to say where's your family and then you're going to say who else did you invite to come that's the basic was all about it's not so much about all the theory and all the doctrinal things there may be a lot of things we don't under even understand fully but those two things are critical where's your family and who else did you invite lord we want to have a lot of people that we've invited and of course they have to make the choice we want to see them in your kingdom lord may we just invest ourselves as jesus did unselfishly living a life of service and ministry so that one day soon when we stand before your smiling face we'll hear these words well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a few things now i will make you ruler over many things enter into the joy of thy lord and may it be our wonderful privilege then to be your personal ambassadors to the universe telling the story of how you have worked in our lives how you've had mercy on us and how you've saved us in your kingdom may the day be soon when we can stand with you on the sea of glass and sing that song of moses and of the lamb a song of victory the victory that jesus accomplished on the cross may that day be soon now bless us as we continue through the hours of the sabbath and enjoy this wonderful fellowship keep us in your will until we face a face-to-face communion with you in heaven one day soon in jesus name we pray amen now in closing i want you to sing a little song with me i'm not a very good singer you sit down you sit down it goes like this lord prepare me to be a sanctuary pure and holy tried and true who with thanksgiving i'll be a living sanctuary lord for you now just change it to missionary lord prayer you

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Length: 75min 9sec (4509 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021