Lost in a Foreign Land - Adventist Volunteer Service

26 Pages·2008·4.55 MB·English

From Everywhere to Everywhere vvoolluummee 1100 •• nnuummbbeerr 33
Lost in a Foreign Land
departments
4 Postcard
5 Reflections
6 Editorial
30 New Volunteers
32 Volunteer Opportunities
features
8 Twenty Tons of Gravel for Nothing
The God who delivers rocks for nothing.
12 The Best and Worst Year of My Life
I can’t help but marvel at a God who could
bring me to my lowest low only so He could lift
me to my highest high.
c o n t e n t s
16 A Volunteer Interview
Irrespective of how little you might feel you
have to offer, offer it anyway!
18 Life in Mission
Elmita prayed for God to show her where to
go. He sent her to one of the most remote
places on the planet.
24 A Gift of Blood
Sonya prayed, “Please make my veins bigger.
Be with the surgeon, the nurses, the woman.”
26 Sirina
Sayuri went to the street with nothing, not one
single tenge (penny).
28 A Pohnpeian Rescue
Getting lost on a tropical island.
Cover: Scenic view of Pohnpei. Read about Jeffrey
Veness’ volunteer experience on the island of
Pohnpei on page 28.
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missionpost
GENERAL CONFERENCE VOLUNTEER STAFF
Vernon B Parmenter | DIRECTOR/EDITOR
Donna Rodill | SR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT/LAYOUT & DESIGN
Theresa Berry | ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Candace Renk | AVS VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
Joanne Stango | AVS ASSOCIATE COORDINATOR
Jill Walker Gonzalez | AVS ASSISTANT COORDINATOR
J John Wycliffe | OFFICE ASSISTANT
DIVISION VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS
Hudson E Kibuuka | EAST-CENTRAL AFRICA DIVISION
Gabriel E Maurer | EURO-AFRICA DIVISION
Michael Kaminsky | EURO-ASIA DIVISION
Faye Reid | INTER-AMERICAN DIVISION
Jose Rojas | NORTH AMERICAN DIVISION
Akeri Suzuki | NORTHERN ASIA-PACIFIC DIVISION
Marly Timm | SOUTH AMERICAN DIVISION
Robert Bolst | SOUTH PACIFIC DIVISION
Julian Hibbert | SOUTHERN AFRICA-INDIAN OCEAN DIVISION
Rose Christo | SOUTHERN ASIA DIVISION
Gary Rustad | SOUTHERN ASIA-PACIFIC DIVISION
Paul Tompkins | TRANS-EUROPEAN DIVISION
John Enang | WEST-CENTRAL AFRICA DIVISION
We welcome unsolicited manuscripts, letters to
the editor, volunteer tips, postcards, and stories.
Send all editorial correspondence to:
Adventist Volunteer Center Publications
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600 USA
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: [phone]
Website: www.adventistvolunteers.org
Mission Post (ISSN 1528-235X) is published four
times a year by the Adventist Volunteer Center of
the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Printed by the Review and Herald Publishing
Association, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown,
MD 21741-1119. Copyright © 2001, General
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. For a free
subscription, send your name and address to
Adventist Volunteer Center Publications, 12501 Old
Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600 or
send an email to: [email protected]
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P o s t c a r d
Dear Friends,
W
e are from the Philippines and are ccuurrrreennttllyy
volunteers at East Pasco Adventist
Academy, which is located in
Dade City, Florida, USA. Florida is a beautiful
place. The people are nice and friendly, and
the beaches are so relaxing. We are provided
with free food and housing.
Both of us are helping with whatever is
needed. We help teach lower elementary pianoo
lessons, P.E., music and computer classes, and
we assist the teacher in Pre-K and Kindergarten..
We have also joined the church choir and a singgiinngg
group.
God has blessed us in so many ways. His blessings are
overflowing and we can’t resist sharing those blessings with
others. God has provided us with everything we need and
He has given us good health.
We serve the people of God because they are our brothers
and sisters. Psalm 107:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for Hee
is good! His faithful love endures forever.” There are many ways
to give thanks, and one is showing people love as God has done
for us.
Your brother and sister in Christ,
Muzzel & Nely Abdulmajid
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Vernon B Parmenter | Editor, Mission Post | Associate Secretary, General Conference of
editorial
Seventh-day Adventists | Director, Adventist Volunteer Center
Goodbye
Friends!
A
fter more than ten years of each of the thirteen divisions of the world,
serving as Director of the who have shared the vision of engaging our
General Conference Adventist church members in the unfinished task of
Volunteer Center, it is time for me to retire sharing the Gospel with those who do not
and return to my homeland, Australia. know Jesus Christ. I also wish to pay tribute
What a thrilling ride it has been. God to all those who have served with me over
has filled these years with times of joy my ten years in the Adventist Volunteer
and sadness. It has been exciting to see Center. There are too many to name, but
this new department grow from very the program would not be where it is today
small beginnings to the point where we without their commitment to the task.
have thousands of volunteers serving in And finally, I would like to pay tribute to
innumerable roles all over the world. On my colleagues in the General Conference
the other hand, I have also experienced Secretariat who have supported and
the sadness of seeing volunteers lose their encouraged me when the going got tough.
lives in active service. I look forward to the Most of all I want to pay tribute to those
Resurrection Day when we will see those volunteers who have left the comforts of
who made the ultimate sacrifice. home and family. To those who have gone
I am indebted to my Adventist Volunteer into lonely and difficult places and made a
Service Directors and their assistants, in difference for Jesus Christ: you have your
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reward. And to those, whose experience out over the crowds, his heart broke. So
may not have been entirely positive, I confused and aimless they were, like sheep
pray that you have learned to walk closer with no shepherd. ‘What a huge harvest!’
with your God because of it. Despite their He said to His disciples. ‘How few workers!
experience in service, I believe that most, if On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”
not all, would testify that serving God as a The Message. When we look at the crowds
volunteer is a life-changing experience and, who do not know Jesus, I pray that our
as such, the volunteer is the one who is hearts might break and that we will become
blessed the most. HisHands.
As I look back, I could point to many
milestones on this journey but there is one
in particular that I pray will continue to
grow and blossom under the direction of
the Holy Spirit. The HisHands program is
still in its infancy but continues to amaze us
as it develops in so many wonderful ways.
HisHands takes us back to the definition of
true volunteerism. The need for volunteers
is now greater than it has ever been. The
need is for volunteers, who, in the true spirit In the words of Paul, I say, “Goodbye,
of sacrifice, are willing to pay their own way friends. Love mixed with faith be yours from
or at least find sponsors so that the financial God the Father and from the Master, Jesus
burden does not rest on the mission field. Christ. Pure grace and nothing but grace
The unfinished task is beyond be with you all who love our Master, Jesus
comprehension. Millions have not heard the Christ.” Ephesians 6:24, The Message.
name of Jesus Christ and yet the harvest is
ripe and ready. The signs of the end stand
out in stark reality. The laborers are few.
Matthew 9:37, 38 says, “When He looked
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MMMMMMMoonnggoolliiaa
Twenty Tons of Gravel
forNothing!
By Coral Camps
In Mongolia, gravel is about 10,000 tugruks a ton—
about $10 Australian. But with God’s help, we got 20
tons ($200 worth*) for nothing!
W
ith the coming winter That’s when I prayed. How was I
temperatures, which supposed to find out where to get the
drop to minus 40 degrees gravel and how to get it delivered back
Celsius in Mongolia, it was important to to the building site? I had no interpreter,
protect the footings of the new church and, at this time, my knowledge of the
building at Bulgan. If water from the Mongolian language was still scant.
melting snow seeped down and turned to Besides, who would I even ask?
ice, it could crack the foundations of the I did know that the road construction
newly-built church. company seven kilometers away
So, my husband, Doug, was about to manufactured mountains of gravel. Earlier
surround the church with a wall of concrete. in the year, however, Peter Koolik, a friend
This would slope outwards 250mm (10 of ours who had come to build the church,
inches) and then drop down to a one-meter had been unable to convince them to give
wide, 100-mm (approximately four inches) him a little of their massive stores due
thick strip right around the building. To mix to an unresolved dispute between the
the cement, Doug would need gravel, and it government and the company. I guessed
was my job to get it. that by now this dispute would surely be a
* $200.00 AUD = $159.00 USD
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Unloading the gravel
and there—sure enough—was an old
Russian truck, a bit of a dinosaur, but just
what we needed!
After this, we headed toward the
gravel quarry. When we got there, the
security guard at the gate would not
let us in. We were told that the relevant
personnel were all at lunch, so we
just sat there and waited. Suddenly,
thing of the past, so I took with me a young Alyosha pointed to a group of cars on
Mongolian named Alyosha who spoke very the roadside up the hill a bit and a group
little English, and off we went. of people standing by them. He said one
At the bus station, Alyosha checked out word, “Director!”
the bunch of taxi drivers all vying for our We headed up the hill fast. I approached
attention and suddenly turned to one who one of the men with the customary
seemed to have appeared from nowhere. greeting, “Sain Bain yy!”
When he heard what we were looking for, He replied in English, “Hello. How are
the driver, who was heading out of town, you, and why are you speaking to me in
inquired if we would need a truck. He said Mongolian?”
his brother had one. I was quietly excited. Then, I realized this was a Korean company!
I had the feeling God was answering my I hoped I hadn’t insulted him too much!
prayer already, because I had no idea how “What do you want?” he asked.
to get a truck or even where to look for I said I wanted gravel.
one. It’s not like you can just look up truck “Who are you and what do you want it
rentals in the Yellow Pages. If you could for?”
even find a phone book, you would be I answered that I had a friend from
hard-pressed to understand it! Australia named Peter Koolik who came
Now in the taxi, we were heading toward here last year to build an Adventist church
the river. Finally, we parked right beside it, in Bulgan.
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MMMoonnggoolliiaa
“Yes!” he said. “I remember that man.” this man who was obviously a vital link in
He asked if I could come to the office the chain allowing me to get gravel that
tomorrow—Sabbath. I said, “No.” day—indeed—that week.
“How much gravel do you need?” he We went immediately to Mr. Cha (this
asked. time the gate opened for us), who agreed
“Twenty tons.” to provide the gravel if we had our own
“Do you have a truck?” truck. Yes! We had a truck!! We would get
“Yes!” I said, so thankful that the Lord it right away!
had already provided On our return, we hardly got inside the
one for us by premises when we saw in the distance a
leading us to huge front-end loader heading straight for
that particular us. It only took minutes to load on 10 tons
taxi driver. with his four-meter (approximately 6 tons)
The Korean man bucket. Alyosha’s eyes nearly popped out
immediately got on his of his head. He just looked upwards and
cell phone and talked for a pointed to the heavens.
minute. Then he pointed in the The old Russian truck groaned and
direction of the prohibited struggled up the hill towards Bulgan. Then
area. the driver turned off the engine and we
“Go and see Mr. coasted for four to five kilometers down
Cha,” he said. the hill into town. On the second run, the
“Are you the same thing happened. With 10 tons of
director of the gravel behind us, I wasn’t sure what would
company?” I inquired. happen if we had to stop suddenly without
He said, “No.” He was just a the engine running.
worker. The director of the company was in Before we’d left the company the second
one of the cars about to head to Korea. time, I had offered to pay Mr. Cha for the
We had arrived not a minute too soon, gravel, but he refused, saying something
or we most certainly would have missed about the office in Bulgan. I had no idea
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