A Seventh-day Adventist leader in the South Pacific Division (SPD) was touched by the needs of homeless children close to where he lives. He and his wife feed up to 36 homeless children every week and now involve them in witness to other people.
Another leader knows all of her neighbours in the apartment where she lives. She gives welcome gifts, stops to talk and listen, helps when she sees a need and recently was able to give a Bible in another language to one of her neighbours from a Muslim background.
An Adventist campground manager and his wife have joined local community service and sports groups. These interactions have led to their community friends recommending schools and other groups to use the Adventist facility. Casual social events run by the managers on the campground have led to Bible conversations and two new families are receiving Bible studies.
Another leader visited the sick in the local hospital. A lady from another faith appreciated the visit so much that she asked if the leader and his wife would come and preach in her church—a Catholic church. The leader obliged the following Sunday. The people appreciated the message so much they asked him to come back. The leader said he would but on the Sabbath. Now a group of people are worshipping on Sabbath in a Catholic church and the local bishop has allowed this.
A local pastor was starting a new church in a large secular city in our Division. He told God he could probably handle 12 Bible studies a week. Within six weeks of social mixing with people in the new area God had given him 10 people to study the Bible with.
The Church across the SPD has 65 programs that serve the public across 10 broad areas, including churches, conferences, schools, ADRA, health foods, media—they all are focused on our mission but nothing beats personal involvement in mission (Mark 5:19). I’m inspired by my colleagues’ personal examples in the process of disciple making.
