A Life in Mission

Hi again,

I had a good month of December at home with family and friends. Then last week I drove back down here to Weimar for Media Internship. I have committed till the end of June, after that I may stay, or maybe not, depending how God leads.  I would like to go back to the mission field soon, but I don’t know how God will lead.

Internship is fun. We just had busy weekend recording the Spanish GYC right here at the Weimar Chapel. It was enough to keep 4 of us busy between cameras, switching, PA, mics, powerpoint. . . well you get the picture! We kept very busy, I even picked up a few spanish words. I don’t know much of any spanish, but want to learn more as I can.    I’ve also been doing subtitling for the NewStart Now show that airs on 3ABN. Seems that 3ABN is now requiring subtitles on all the new programs that they air. I’m happy to hear this because of what it means for the deaf community.

I’m sorry I’m not writing more. I will try to keep this updated more faithfully (I know, it’s like ropes of sand!).

God Bless,

Daniel

Hi all,

I’m sorry I haven’t been very good at keeping this current. 

Our Revelation of Hope seminar series ended on Nov 14, and we had a number of people make positive decisions to follow Christ. It was rewarding when, the next sabbath those that made decisions were baptized. It was so wonderful to know that our hard work was paying off. Please pray for these new members, that they will grow closer to God, and grow to know Him personally. 

AFCOE finished up quickly after that. Graduation was on Nov 20th at Grass Valley. My parents drove down all the way from Washington for Graduation, bringing with them Jonathan  and Sarah Van Hee. It was good to have them there. Graduation went well, and then we went to Grass Valley for church on sabbath. Then it was Sunday morning and time to leave. Sunday morning when I was getting ready to leave in the dorm, there were only a few people there because everyone else had left already. It was hard seeing us all go our separate ways.  After 4 months together you make close friends and as a class I felt like we were close knit, to a great measure. I pray for each AFCOE student, that we will continue to grow closer to God. I pray for God’s leading in each of our lives. 

Then it was time to go home. We had quite a trip going home. The weather on 97 south of Bend was very snowy and the roads were quite slippery. There were several accidents. However we made it home safely, although it took about 16 hours instead of 12!  Since being home, I’ve been working on some different things. I’m getting ready to work on editing FaithCamp 09 for Jon Wood, and I’ve also been doing some work cutting firewood out of some big piles of Wild Cherry trees at the property of some friends of ours. 

Currently the plan is that I will go back to Weimar for media internship there. So I will be leaving January 3rd to go back to Weimar. 

Thank you for all your prayers it has really made a difference. 

May God Bless you all,

Daniel

Hi there everyone,

We had a good outreach day today, and had a very good study with Tina. Thank you all for your prayers.

Here is an entry from my outreach diary for today,

Sincerely, Daniel

Oct 11
Today we went and visited two missing members neither of which were home, so we left the gifts for them. We contacted a number of drop offs, and conducted one Bible study, with Tina.
The study went well, she seemed receptive to what we had to say for the most part. She doesn’t believe that the Bible as a whole is God’s word though, so we have to work with that as well. She liked to get side tracked and talk about these other things that she has experienced from the spiritual world, but I did my best to keep it focused on the lesson. At the end she was talking and stuff, and I was praying about how to tie it up well. As I did so, the Lord impressed me, and so I challenged her to read a little from the Bible each day, I said it doesn’t have to be very much, just one chapter, if she felt like it she could read more, but at least one chapter each day. She agreed to that, and we closed with prayer. After prayer I told her about the seminar, and gave her the flyer, and she reserved seating saying she is planning to come for sure. God Blessed greatly.

Hi friends,

well yesterday was the last day of regular outreach, taking surveys. Next week we are going out each day passing out the flyers for the seminar. We had some interesting experiences yesterday, I will let you read from the excerpt below from my outreach diary. Please definitely keep us in prayer.

Thank you for all your prayers,  God Bless

Sincerely,  Daniel

Oct 8
Today was our last day of regular outreach taking surveys, and we had a number of Bible studies scheduled, but some fell through, and we ended up only studying with one person. We had scheduled a study at 2pm with  JW, but they weren’t home.  Our next study was with a gentleman I will call Jeff, he has been having seizures for some time, but recently he has switched medications and he has still been having seizures and he’s been feeling drugged. Anyway, we went through the study, hitting the main points; but it came out that he wanted to say things but he wasn’t able to express them because he has had brain surgery, and often has trouble thinking. He even made the comment that he wasn’t giving us the right answers, and saying that he felt bad for wasting our time. Of course we don’t think of it as a waste of time. I feel that God gave me words to speak as I told him about the thorn in the flesh that Paul had, and how God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. But he made a comment that concerned me, that is he used the phrase “my God”. He has told us that he believes that God is in everything. Please pray that God will bless Jeff with understanding, and us with wisdom and the right words to speak.
We also had another interesting incident. We had been taking surveys, and we had finished this certain section of the appartment complex that we have been working in, so we looked at the time, and we had another 20 min or so until our last Bible study. So we were kind of divided in ourselves whether we should go do the next and last section, or whether we should not. So we decided that we could at least work on the last section since we had twenty minutes. So we went toward this part of the complex, and I asked Jared if he wanted to do the surveys but he said he didn’t care. So I decided I would keep doing them. As soon as I entered the section, I turned right to my right toward the first house, I can’t explain why I went that way. . .  When I knocked on the door, a man answered the door, and as we went through our canvass he was looking us up and down. Then he suggested we come in and do it with his mom. Come to find out, his mom is handicapped, and is restricted to a wheel chair. So we did the canvass with her. We found out that she wished there was some way she could get physical therapy–the closest place is in Auburn, and they don’t have the money to get tabs on her van, and for the gas to take her there. Part way through the survey this other woman came in, she looked like maybe about the same age as the man, and she said that she would listen in on the survey. When we got down to the question, “have you ever wondered about the Mark of the Beast or 666”, this other woman, her name is Tina, bumped in and started saying all kinds of strange things, like she just got back from a trip in which she met all the apostles, and all kinds of other things that I have never heard of before. She was very interested in the Bible studies though, and also in the prophecy seminar coming up next Friday. So I told her that we could come back next Thursday, we agreed on 6pm. But right before we were going to leave she said “we’ll see you on Sunday at 6pm”!! So I followed up and said, “Oh Sunday? Ok well we can come on Sunday”. So we are going back to study with her on Sunday at 6pm. But here is the clincher; before we left, she asked me if I knew anything about Quakers, what they believe, and what denomination they are. I don’t know much about the Quakers, so I just said that I didn’t really know. Then she said that that was her spirit guide talking through her, and sometimes her guide talks through her and she doesn’t realize what she is saying. . . Then she looked at Jared, and said that she thought that he was a Quaker in his past life. . .  Please pray for Tina, and pray for us as we study with her. Pray that she will come to the meetings, and that she comes to know the Bible truth.

Hi everyone,

Things are moving along here, the evangelistic series is soon to begin. We will be passing out brochures for the meetings next week all week, then the meetings begin on Friday night.

I haven’t had much free time so far, I’ve been kept pretty busy. Thank you for all your prayers, God Bless each one of you,

Sincerely

Daniel

PS below is a exerpt from my outreach diary for yesterday. It will give you a little taste of what we have been doing.

Oct 4
Today I felt a little discouraged and Jared was very tired, but we went out and tried to reach a couple of our DVD contacts for the follow up survey, one didn’t answer the phone, and the other said that they were sick and not to come today.
We dropped off all of our droppoffs about 12 in all for today. Some in the trailer park, and some elsewhere. The manager of the trailer park didn’t seem to be home today, or at least he wasn’t out and about.
We went to see Ronald and he was on baby sitting duty, so he said he didn’t want to study, and so we talked for some time, then later just when we were leaving, his wife pulled in. She had looked at the drop off Bible study that we gave him last week, and she saw that there was a whole series, and she wanted to get the whole series: she said that they didn’t have the number one number one and two studies anymore, so we gave her that one. As we came back from the car, we saw Ashley coming to visit them, and when we left she stayed and visited with them. Ashley lives just a few houses down accross the road, and she knows SDAs, and doesn’t agree with them for what ever reason, she didn’t want to get into it when we took the survey with her. She agreed to Bible studies but later flaked out. And today I asked her about it, and she just confirmed that she was not interested, that she was content with her church. But we are just praying that she doesn’t influence Ronald and his wife regarding the seminar coming up, we are praying that instead that Ronald and his wife may have a good influence on her.
We knocked on doors for a while also between Bible studies, and took two surveys and got two Bible studies! One drop off and one in home. Then we came back to the trailer park to study with  the JW that we had scheduled but it was dinner so we agreed to come back at 2pm on Thursday. He is my study, so I am definitely praying about that. . .
We also had the chance to talk with this lady that was also on our list to study with at 5:00, her name is Debra. She seems pretty open, and we were able to talk with her for some time until her father called, then we prayed with her and left, to knock on doors as above. Then later after the JW fell through for today, we were going back to the car and she was on her porch smoking, so we stopped and talked with her some more. She seems very open, and has looked for a church that keeps the Bible as the ultimate authority, and hasn’t been able to find one. We didn’t tell her that  we were SDA and I’m looking forward to studying with her very much, she is Jared’s study.
We went to visit another couple that we have been giving drop off Bible studies for 4 weeks or so now. He is very much opposed to Christianity howbeit some of his family is SDA, and they are always trying to talk to him. We have been able to talk to him also, I was able to share some of my personal testimony and reasons why I believe that God is real. We went there today and found out that her grandson was just killed in Afganistan yesterday, so they are getting ready to have the funeral in Penn Valley since that is where he grew up I guess. We told Richard that we would be praying for their family.
This Thursday is the last day of regular outreach before the evangelistic series starts. Next week we will be passing out flyers for the evangelistic series.