11 July 2015 | San Antonio, Texas, USA [Victor Hulbert, tedNEWS] Catching the after-lunch attention of any audience is not easy. For delegates who have patiently worked through a 10-day agenda, and for the many visitors who joined them for the weekend and are looking forward to the Saturday evening Mission on the Move, it may be even more of a challenge.
Who could keep an audience not just awake, but engaged and motivated? As it turned out, none other than Sam Gungaloo and Ana Costescu of Sabbath Sofa and World Youth day fame. Travelling from the UK they shared youthful humour, a little technology, and a passion for Jesus.
Starting with a ‘selfie’ photo, which Ana described as ‘a bit slanted and a little boring’, they managed to get the whole audience involved and excited at the idea of ‘The church in Mission’. Then, taking a leaf out of GC Executive Secretary NG Ng’s book, they shared a quiz that demonstrated how the mission of the church has grown over the years, and even how frequently a new church is being organised around the world. You can get the statistics from the Secretariat report. Sam cheated and got the answers from his script.
Music is always an important part of the afternoon programme, perhaps again to keep the audience awake, or to give them a break from Ana and Sam’s hosting links. This afternoon was no exception, the first item being a beautiful children’s choir singing ‘Arise, Shine’ in Spanish but climaxing in English, with the now most familiar music line of the day, ‘Jesus is Coming again’.
Video clips highlighted Adventist Volunteers in Mission around the world and the work of Global Mission pioneers around the world. “Church Planting”, they said, “is the most effective form of church growth.” A church planting clip showed how it can happen in San Antonio with a health expo, or the other side of the world in Singapore where care is shown to vulnerable families.
We heard of a restaurant in very secular Finland that offers not only very good food, but also simple health treatments along with health and spiritual advice. The initiative has been well received. A similar tale came from Jakarta, Indonesia where a store with meeting rooms above has become a centre of influence within their own culture.
For the Trans-European Division, the major focus hit Ireland as Pastor Mark Finley invited Irish Mission president, David Neal to the platform to show how the spirit of Mission to the Cities could make a different to a city like Dublin. Fifteen years ago the Irish Mission had barely 200 members. Fifteen members of the Dublin church prayed and asked God to send a way to evangelise their city. God answered their prayer in a surprising way – though immigration. Today the Adventist church in Ireland has grown to a thousand members and is heavily involved in outreach.
Pastor Finley has invested his own time and energy in Ireland running schools of evangelism, and last year, two evangelistic programmes. Pastor Neal reported that forty were baptised by the end of the year. Meetings continue with follow-up being very important. Currently the main church in Dublin is open every day of the week sharing health and spiritual programmes. “People who used to pass by the door of the church now come walking straight in”, Pastor Neal stated. He was passionate in sharing how evangelism has drawn the church family together and allowed for making an impact.
Sister Wang in China was up next, with Pastor Folkenberg Jnr. interpreting for her. She had moved to an island where there were almost no Seventh-day Adventists. That was no problem for her. She planted ten churches. “I look for young people and others who have needs and invite them to my home”, she said. “I open the Bible and give them Bible studies”, she said. Having gained their trust, about 500 have been baptised.
The programme moved on to comprehensive health outreach and the impact of the Adventist health message on filmmaker, Martin Doblmeier.
Martin is a man of faith, though not an Adventist but he explained that he appreciates Adventists because of “the commitment they have to help people in remote communities around the world.”
What better way to share the health message than by means of electronic media. Brad Thorp shared out the 11 million AWR podcasts – the most popular of which are in the key languages of Mandarin and Arabic.
Brad then got very excited announcing the official opening of no less than eight new Hope Channels:
The Africa channel – for the indigenous languages; the South East Asia internet channel for languages such as Cambodia; North East Asia with Korea launching on a social media news channel; Japan; and then two channels in the South Pacific Region with New Zealand beaming into every single home from August this year, while Papua New Guinea’s starting weekly and then building up to full-time. The final two channels will cover the French Antilles – which will also benefit Quebec, French speaking Africa and France and a multi-language deaf channel reaching out to a whole new community.
Sam and Ana may have been both loud and eloquent in their hosting, but as they handed on the baton to the Youth Department things got a whole lot louder with a Pathfinder drum corps performing at the front of the hall. Security rules forgotten, cameras were raised and at least 50 would-be photographers rushed towards the front of the hall. That led to moving presentations on the Adventist Volunteer service, Global Youth day where ‘being the sermon’ became a world-wide theme, a report from the impact programme across San Antonio this week, and a final, moving act of worship with a modern rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ from the North American Division.
That just about gave people time for a break before the evening programme, a thanks to GC personnel heading into retirement, and then the traditional ‘parade of nations’ – except it wasn’t! Rebranded ‘Mission on the move’, Garrett Caldwell (GC Communications, Public Relations) and Audrey Andersson (TED Executive Secretary), hosted a moving programme that led participants through a history of Adventist mission introducing each country according to the date when the Adventist Church was established there. National costumes and flags paraded across the stage while cheers and clapping erupted from various corners of the auditorium in what was clearly a ‘national spirit for mission’.
The end of a long day and, finally, the end of ten days of mission reports, committees, votes, high points and disappointments. 70,000 Adventists now leave San Antonio for their homes across the globe, but very clearly with the theme, ‘Arise, Shine, Jesus is Coming’ fixed in their hearts.
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tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujić, director; Deana Stojković, editor
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