Michigan Camp Meeting 2023: The Boldness of the Cross

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

How to Be a Missionary Without Moving Anywhere

Terri Saelee

How to Find Global Influencers

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2023 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you so much that you have a special work where we can cooperate with you and no more surely do you have a specific place prepared in the heavenly mansions than you have a unique place on earth where we can best serve you.

So Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit will be with us today, guide what we share, And Lord, please speak through me and if need be, despite me, Lord.

I pray that your Spirit will impress on each 1 of us what you want to tell us today.

So if at any point you can't hear me, just put your hand to your ear and let me know and I'll try to speak up.

I'm titling it, Reaching the World Rapidly.

So how to be a missionary, and how many of you came yesterday?

So I'm going to do a little recap of yesterday's because that's foundational, and then we'll dive into today's topic of how to find global influencers.

And you'll understand more of what I mean by that in a bit.

I grew up in Pathfinders with the motto, reaching the, getting the gospel to the world in this generation, amen?

And so in a nutshell, you know, Revelation 14, 6 and 7, has taken on new meaning to me in the ministry that I'm doing now.

The everlasting gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, right?

Well I wonder, you know in college I took a class on project planning and if there's 1 thing that we came out of that class knowing well is that a goal isn't even considered a goal without Identifiable objectives, quantifiable outcomes, and a time frame.

And I discovered that God gives us all 3.

So I thought, where are we in the process of reaching the world with the gospel.

So I looked, did a little research, and I found that as a church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a presence in 215 of the 236 nations and areas recognized by the United Nations.

So I tried to do some research on kindred And if you find something, tell me.

But I was not able, I have not yet been able to find any information, any research on how many kindreds are reached or unreached.

In fact, I didn't even really know exactly how much that meant until I met my husband who is Hmong from Thailand.

And there are about 300, 000 Hmong in the United States now because they helped our troops back home to try to keep communism out of the country of Laos, but when communism eventually did take over, many of them were killed.

Those who were not fled across the border hoping to be able to go home, but it wasn't that easy.

And so our government ended up honoring their service to us by bringing many of them to this country.

And so for Hmong refugees here, when they meet in the grocery line, their first question is not, oh what's your name, where do you live, where do you work, where do you go to school?

The Hmong language group, the Hmong people call themselves a people without a country.

Did you ever heard of a group with 12 tribes before?

It's amazing how many similarities they have to the Old Testament.

But when they meet in the grocery line, They say, which Hmong are you, which kindred are you, because that determines everything.

It determines how they refer to each other, what they call each other, how they relate to each other, how close they feel, and whether their children can marry each other.

So even though I have not yet found any research in the English language on this topic, thank you, I am amazed that God saw the term kindred as being important enough to put it right in the core of our mission statement.

So how many of you are familiar with the Joshua Project?

The Joshua Project is an extensive research project done by Christians in general, Christian researchers, on how many people are reached with the gospel.

In general, it's not specifically Adventist.

But there's extensive research and According to the Joshua Project, there are nearly 7, 000 unreached language groups.

Many of them don't even have a page of the scriptures.

I spent 4 years in Thailand and I could name people there and people who have come here who grew up not only never hearing the name of Jesus, but never even hearing the word used in the Bible for God.

And we'll unpack that more as we go along, but there are many, we wouldn't know it here, but there are many unreached language groups.

And so I wondered, how many people does that represent?

How many people are there in those unreached language groups?

And when we first launched this ministry in 2009, there were 2.9 billion unreached people among the unreached language groups.

Already, in less than 15 years, it's jumped to 3.15 billion.

What would it take to reach 3.15 billion people?

How many of those people would every Seventh-day Adventist need to reach on an average to reach all the unreached in this generation.

Every Seventh-day Adventist needs to reach on an average 165 unreached souls.

And of course we know that some people, some faithful Adventists are nearing the end of their their lives and they won't be able to reach that many so that puts a bigger responsibility on us.

Also, probably most of our members don't realize that they need to reach 165 unreached souls from outside their language group.

So just the fact that you're sitting here today increases our responsibility.

I'm gonna, I should separate this, but our church grew by about 1 million last year.

However, the world population grew by 75 million.

The longer we wait, the more, the bigger the task is.

So where are these unreached people groups?

Most of them are in the 1040 window and we'll have a picture of that in a moment.

Restricted nations where missionaries are not welcome.

Countries with little if any religious freedom.

Of course, and I don't know if those of you sitting in the back can see that the green, countries colored in green are predominantly Muslim, those in yellow predominantly Hindu, red Communist and orange Buddhist.

God has a plan and I believe that his biddings are enablings.

Whatever he asks us to do, it may seem impossible, but he has a way to empower us to do it.

And I found a quote that just gives us the specific direction in how, in God's plan for reaching these unreached people groups.

To me this quote was, it just is like a little excerpt from the minutes of God's strategic planning committee in heaven just somehow drifted to earth and we caught it.

It starts out, If we were quick in discerning the opening providences of God, we should be able to see in the multiplying opportunities to reach many foreigners in America, a divinely appointed means of rapidly extending the third angel's message into many, all, you caught it, all the nations of the earth.

Not many, not most, but all the nations of the earth.

This gave me goosebumps because I had gone to Thailand And as a missionary at age 20, I was just a newbie, but I got to rub shoulders with the seasoned missionaries and heard them talk about, you know, sit around and wonder when God would open, you know, or bring down the Iron Curtain in many Asian countries so that we could go in and preach the gospel freely as we were able to after the fall of the USSR.

But When I read this, I realized God does not have to change the politics in any other country.

In fact, God is turning the very curse of oppression in many countries into a blessing in a way.

He is not that God is causing the oppression but God is an expert of turning curses into blessings.

And the thinking people, the people of peace, the people that are visionaries and that want to see a better life for them and their families.

These are the people that are leaving the countries with fewer religious freedoms.

So, Perhaps during this, who can remember the Syrian refugee crisis?

During the Syrian refugee crisis, we were hearing that ISIS was sending terrorists with the refugees.

Well, ISIS did say that they were sending terrorists with the refugees.

How to Maximize Your Efforts for Optimum Effectiveness

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you for the privilege of being together today.

And I pray that you will lead and guide in our time together.

Lord, you know what each of us needs, And so I pray that you'll speak through me and or despite me as you need to.

Well, I'll start with I grew up in Adventist education, born in Wyoming, grew up in Nebraska, ended up, you know, went to Platte Valley Academy, Union College, and then stumbled into refugee ministries.

I love Bible texts for passwords because they have a special character.

They have letters and numbers, capitals and small special characters.

And ended up stumbling into giving rides to Cambodian refugees to a church service in their language done by Drs.

Neil and Ralph and Beatrice Neil at Union College.

We've been in Thailand for 10 years and I've had to deal with a lot of the criminals.

Yeah, so I ended up at the end of the school year, the details are the fun part, But I want to get to some of the nitty-gritty that you can take home and use, so I'll just kind of skip over the fun part.

Ended up accepting a call to go to Thailand.

Went for 6 months, stayed 4 years, loved every minute of it, like most of us that go to Thailand do.

And ended up working in refugee camps where I met many people who had never heard the name Jesus.

I met many people who had never even heard the word for God that's used in the Bible in their language.

But, I'll tell you story after story, but I ended up just trying to learn some of the language and they are so gracious in sharing their language.

Are you trying to get it on extended display instead of mirror?

So the issue before was, oh, well the size, but It seemed to be okay when we went ahead and...

It wasn't doing this back in the dorms, just when I hooked it up, but it seemed to be okay once I...

And then plug in, because it will automatically...

Yeah, it's detecting the screen of ours over there and trying to make them match.

I still love music, but there's nothing like being able to share the gospel with people who are hungry and thirsting for it.

Before I left, I was canvassing, and I was telling everybody, I was so excited that I was going overseas.

1 man said, why do you have to go and mess those people up?

They have their language, they have their culture, they're just fine.

You don't have to, why do you have to go mess them up?

Well, obviously as a Christian, I don't believe we're messing people up, but obviously he thought I was, and so I wasn't there to argue, and I didn't have, I didn't know an answer that would be helpful to him at that point, so I just tucked it away as, well, that's interesting that some people feel that way.

Little did I know that God would give me the best answer to that.

I was in the Napa refugee camp up in Nakhon Pahnom province in the northeast and a camp that I was told we could not go to, but we went anyway.

Prayed that we could go in and they let us, because we had some students that had been sent there from a camp I was authorized to teach in, and so we said we were teachers, we came to see our students and they said what are their names And so we had a list of names yay long and they said, well we can't call all those.

So they called a few, gave us 20 minutes to talk and say, okay time's up.

We had traveled 4 hours on 1 bus, switched bus another 30 minutes, then we walked another 30 minutes.

So it was like at least a 5 hour trip to get there, not counting waiting for the buses, and a 5 hour trip back, but we had seen some of our students.

Well, the next time we went, they let us stay an hour.

And the next time we prayed, we had a team member that said, I believe God will help us be able to visit them in their homes in the refugee camp.

And sure enough, God answered that prayer.

And by that time, they knew that we were going to come back and see them.

1 of my students had woven a little rice basket with his name in it for a keepsake.

And his name was Gat, which means sheep or lamb.

They just were eager to learn the gospel.

I had Actually, I had gone as a 20-year-old to teach English and share the gospel and kind of teach English as an entering wedge.

When I was there about 5, I'd been there about 5 months, and all of a sudden 1 day I came to camp and everyone was just, I mean, so sad that you could feel it in the air.

And I asked and they said, we just, they announced yesterday that we, most everyone in the camp will never have a chance to go to a third country, not to be confused with third world country.

In refugee resettlement terminology, the first country to which refugees flee is the country of asylum.

And then if they have the privilege, which less than 1% do, to be resettled in another country, then that's called the third country because their home country is the first.

The first country they flee to typically can't keep them long-term.

And so if another government reaches out and resettles them, that's called the third country.

And so the US and Canada and Australia, actually the US has historically welcomed more refugees per capita, No, more refugees in numbers than any other, than all of the other 9 countries combined, but Australia and Canada receive more refugees per capita than we do.

But I, yeah, when I was working in the refugee camp that day, they were just so sad.

They said they just, they announced that there was some mistake in the numbering and so almost all of us will not be able to go to a third country ever.

So we're probably going to be sent back eventually to our country, but until then, we're gonna be sent to the Nepal refugee camp.

And at that moment, the English I had been teaching them was valueless.

And I thought, it would make no sense for me to go on with English class today.

And I thought to myself, you know, the real purpose I came was to share Jesus.

Little did I know that my chance would end like they were gonna be gone in a week.

What did I think I was doing and I prayed.

So that day I had I had learned a Thai song.

Reaching Specific People Groups in Michigan

And I pray that you'll be with us as we discuss how to reach some specific groups that are here in Michigan.

Amen I'd like to just review our 1 of my favorite quotes on the topic of reaching the world rapidly, of course Earlier in the week we went through how I discovered that there are about 7, 000 language groups that are completely unreached by the gospel.

And within all those language groups, there are about 3.15 billion people.

So about 43% of the world's population has not been reached by the gospel.

Not only the Adventist message, but the gospel in general.

So, Wow, when I discovered that, I thought, wow, what would it take?

Because we're told that the gospel is to go to the world in this generation, in our generation.

And most of them are in unreached, I mean like the 1040 window, hostile nations or resistant nations.

But so It seems daunting, it seems impossible, but God's biddings are enablings.

And this quote shines a light on God's strategic plan, His method of how we can reach the world rapidly.

When I found it, it was just as though an excerpt from God's strategic planning committee in heaven just somehow drifted to earth and we caught it.

And it starts out, if we were quick in discerning the opening providences of God, we should be able to see in the multiplying opportunities to reach many foreigners in America, a divinely appointed means of rapidly extending the third angel's message into all the nations of the earth, not many, not most, but all the nations, including the hostile nations, including nations where you can't get missionary visas.

But God has a way to do it, and in his providence, he has brought them into our very doors and thrust them as it were into our arms that they may learn the truth and do our work we could not do in getting the light before men of other tongues." And so, in short, here are some of the terms that we use.

Refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, international students are God's way for us to reach the world rapidly with the gospel.

And So today we'd like to go into some specific groups in Michigan and some tips on reaching them.

So this is not an exhaustive list, but Michigan, when I researched Michigan, I found that of all the states, the largest refugee populations in Michigan speak Arabic, especially the Detroit area.

I grew up in Detroit, but I know there's a lot of people, colored people in Detroit.

There are more people from, it could be Iraq, don't quote me.

There's a country from the Middle East that has fewer of its population there than there are in Detroit.

So there's a huge Muslim population in Detroit.

And I'm not an expert in Muslims, but my colleague, my friend, Gabby Phillips, Gabriella Phillips, is, and so I will give you her information.

We're going to just touch on these briefly and then we'll go dive into each 1.

The Lao and Zomi are from Southeast Asia.

The Lao are from the most bombed country in the world, and we discussed it a little bit earlier.

During the Vietnam War, our government was bombing Laos because the Ho Chi Minh Trail that China was using to supply arms to northern Vietnam to try to keep Vietnam as communist, came through northern Laos.

So We, as the United States, was bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail to try to cut off the ammunition supply line to North Vietnam.

We were also trying to prevent the communists from getting to the left.

We sent a lot of conscripts to the mall and trying to supply them.

Eventually we left them all to cover the country from Japan.

And then they had the ball dropped on them.

Yes, I wish I could have gotten all that on the recording, but I will.

But basically he was saying that, yes, we were also making lots of promises to Laos and to the Hmong in Laos.

And when communism actually took over Laos, many of them were killed.

Those who could fled into Thailand, which is where I met them when I went as a student missionary working in refugee camps there.

But I actually, at Wisconsin camp meeting, I actually met the man, a man who had, before becoming an Adventist, He had been in the military in that area of Southeast Asia, and it was his job to actually go in and change the official records of where the...

The strikes were occurring for the bombing.

Actually we were bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail, but it was his job to go in and assign names of places in North Vietnam that we were supposedly bombing because the Vietnam War was not popular.

So, more about the Lao people in a minute.

The Zomie people are from Myanmar, former Burma.

And there are Zomie in primarily Grand Rapids and Battle Creek.

The Kinyarwanda people are from, Kinyarwanda-speaking people are from the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda.

And the Nepalese from Bhutan are what I believe from my research to be the most open and yet least reached refugee group in North America now.

But I'm going to do a little bit more of a deep dive here.

And when I went to Thailand to work, I was working in a Lao refugee camp, working with the Lao people.

They're sister countries, and so they're very similar.

And Thai and Lao people are very pleasant, they're fun to be with.

They will invite you to their homes, invite you to eat.

And A couple of things that I learned working with the Thai and the Lao are that, for example, they really value gentleness and humility.

And so it's most polite, for example, to position yourself lower than anyone older than you.

I remember there was a Thai girl from Isan, which used to be part of Laos.

So Thai and Lao are very intertwined in their history, their culture, and everything.

I remember going to, someone had brought me some food and they're always giving.

They brought us some food and I noticed that in their culture when someone brings you food, Like if you take them food in a container, they will fill the container with food when they bring the container back.

So, our neighborhood brought us some food, so I, I think I had fixed something, so I put it in the container, and I took it over to the neighbor.

I was so proud of myself that I was learning the culture.

I got back and the girl staying with me, Daisy, said, how could you do that?

And I thought, what do you mean how could I do that?

And usually they're not, Thai people are not typically critical.

In fact, she was Amharic and her father was American.

Her response to me is not typical for her culture.

I thought I was being very culturally appropriate.

She said, you just stood there at the door.

So but they're very understanding of us as Americans.

Welcome to the Network! The Family You Didn’t Know You Had!

Thank you for the opportunity to come together and contemplate how we can respond to your call for laborers.

Thank you for what you're doing to make it easy for us to reach the world in this generation.

Series

How to Be a Missionary Without Moving Anywhere

Reaching Specific People Groups in Michigan

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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