Karen Bible Camp

ยุคสมัยของเรา…ในคำพยากรณ์

“We have just experienced what was probably the most wonderful week in our two-year experience in Thailand.  We were called by the Buddhist Study Center to video a four-day series of seminars on how to reach the non-Christian people of Asia.  We were thrilled to hear stories from missionaries who virtually have sacrificed everything to minister to the unreached people groups of the world.  We were not allowed to film many of the presentations, as the security of the speakers might be jeopardized, and their lives put in grave danger.  We even learned of a person who was executed because he was identified in one of our Church’s periodicals.  We came away with a new appreciation for those who have made the Gospel commission the priority of their lives, and for the evidence that God is taking the final work into His own hands and soon we will be going Home.”

See how beautifully he writes.  He truly has a gift. I will now share some of the other happenings of recent days.

Ian Adams, an Australian, who is married to the director of I.C.C., (International Children’s Care) has recently lent us a DVD/CD duplicator. It is capable of duplicating 15 copies at a time.  We are thrilled with his offer to use his machine.  We have able to duplicate over one thousand DVD sermons by Pastor Phamor about our 3 Angels Message, for the Karen group.  Right away, these DVD’s were distributed at a Karen gathering near the refugee camp along the border of Myanmar.

Because we are not ready for television production yet, having the ability to duplicate on site programming is a tool that has blessed many so far.  It’s hard to imagine, because we American’s take our literature and Christian television programming for granted.  There are very few EGW books that have been translated, and those that have been, have not recently been re-printed, so they are not available to buy at the Adventist Mission.  Needless to say, there is zero SDA Thai TV programming available.

I wanted to tell you a story of how the first studio set build was put in motion. Ian Adams, as mentioned above, has experience in welding and likes to work with metal.  He had offered to build some tables for us, strong durable tables, to use here in the studio to hold equipment.  We got to discussing the grid that was needed for our first set build from which to hang the lighting.  This conversation was just what God had in mind.  Ian does fund-raising in Australia and sometimes people want to give of their time as well as their means.  He had such a family willing to come for 2 weeks to help where they could instead of going on their usual family vacation.  Ian put the husband and two strong teenage boys to work building a lighting frame for the first studio set.  They worked hard, sanding, painting, welding and hoisting this frame up in the air inside the studio. You cannot image how excited Bill and I were over this event.

Soon after that Steve Rawlings and others gave of their time and talent to building the rest of this first set. Here’s a slideshow of the activity:

http://youtu.be/wUXAQ61DD4A

Our focus at the All Asia Media Center for the next year will be on our beautiful health message.  Dr. A, who lives in Bangkok, is a good lecturer on anatomy and physiology broken down to laymen terms. She has agreed to come and film at the studio. We would like to be able to distribute this series to all of the northern SDA churches.  So many of the Seventh-day Adventist in Thailand, have never even heard this message.  We believe that it truly is the right arm of the gospel, and as members get excited about a new life style, they will be eager to share this with others in their community.

The next step will be to follow up with a series of vegetarian cooking classes so that those who are accepting the Health Message will have encouragement and know how to practice this new life style. (We have to build the kitchen set next in order to do this.)

And then of course, we will be bringing in speakers from the first eight language groups on which we are focusing:  English, Thai, Karen, Hmong, Akha, Yao, Burmese and Mien.  These individuals will be able to reach their people groups in their own language and from their own cultural perspective.  We believe God is moving to quickly assure that the Gospel truly will go to every “nation, kindred, tongue and people.”

This next week we will be filming a weeklong series of training sessions for Thai Bible workers.  An Australian evangelist will present them.  We will barely have time to catch our breath, and then it will be off to the Karen camp meeting, April 2-7.  We are sorry that we have not been able to meet all of the requests that have come to us.  There have been scheduling conflicts and a lack of funds.  We trust God will provide in both areas.

Many visitors coming through the All Asia Media Center over the past month have blessed us. One individual by the name of David Fam, has especially given us encouragement. He would like to see us duplicate his efforts of producing short 10-minute segments that portray the pillars of our faith through real life experiences.  His ministry, Aenon, in Malaysia has been successfully doing this for a while. It is sort of the same concept as digma.com that the Ty Gibson’s group has been producing. Of course our productions will need to be in the Thai language, or one of the many other people group languages.

So in order to get started with these types of programs we have started a team. We will be adding to this team as God sees fit.   You have probably discerned that this team will have to consist of those who can speak the various languages that will comprise our focal points.

All of these efforts require funds to operate, if you’d care to share with your means in these efforts click the “Donate” button at the top of the page.

A line or two from home is always appreciated and lifts our Spirits like little else can do.  And most important of all, please pray for us every day.  We are so unqualified to do what we are doing, but claim our favorite promise that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

We have just completed construction of our first television set.  With the help of some faithful friends here in Thailand, and the donations that we received from family members and friends, we were able to purchase needed materials.  Last Friday morning I was standing on the laminate floor that had just been laid, when an overwhelming feeling of gratitude came over me.  I wept as I thought of how many souls will be won because of the programs that will be produced on the set where I was standing.  Not only do we have the set, but we had just purchased the equipment that will allow us to “stream” live, to actually be able to produce DVD’s 15 minutes after the speaker has finished. To have all the editing process expedited because of the ability to “switch” between cameras and Power Point presentations through the software supplied with the equipment.  The last purchase had come at the expense of the funds we had laid aside for our return trip to Thailand next year.  Now we are in the hands of the owner of the universe and have never felt safer.

We were able to get business cards printed because we now had commitments for speakers and programs in six different languages.  Our card states that we will be doing programming in English, Thai, Karen, Hmong, Akha and Yao.  The first day that we received one thousand cards they were outdated as we received commitments for two more languages, Burmese and Mien.  I don’t know if anyone has ever tried to do what we are trying to accomplish and maybe that is where our naiveté is actually a blessing.  The prayers of those of you in our behalf are being answered on a daily basis.

It is now that we need your help.  For us, the “well has run dry.”  Becoming a fund-raiser is not what I want to do.  But as I see the potential to reach virtually millions who have never heard the name of Jesus, it becomes almost an obligation for me.  How much value is there in a soul?  I believe that it is certainly more than my pride.  So all I ask is that you consider carefully my next words.

Over the years it was so easy for me to ignore the work in the mission field.  Without much thought I would drop my dollar in the Sabbath School mission offering every week and think that I was fulfilling my obligation as a Church member in good standing.  Apparently I was not alone.  My friend Jon Wood recently brought to my attention that sixty years ago for every $10 given for tithe, an additional $6 was given for foreign missions.  Now that number is 28 cents.  The average SDA member gives $25 a year for foreign missions.  (I wonder how much is spent for entertainment).  Is it no wonder that there are a thousand people groups where there is no Bible, Christian, or missionary?

I do not want to use our Divine counsel as a hammer to drive a point, but is it no wonder that words like this are repeated hundreds of times in the Spirit of Prophecy.  “There is a class that are represented by Meroz.  The missionary spirit has never taken hold of their souls.  The calls of foreign missions have not stirred them to action.  What account will those render to God, who are doing nothing in His cause,–nothing to win souls for Christ.  Such will receive the denunciation, ‘Thou wicked and slothful servant.’”  Historical Sketches, 290.

I challenge you to search the EG White writings using the words “foreign missions.”  Some may question whether this is all that important, but I will guarantee you that if you do so, your attitude cannot remain the same.  If we want our home missions to be successful, support of foreign missions will open the way.  “The home missionary work will be farther advanced in every way when a liberal, self-denying, self-sacrificing spirit is manifested for the prosperity of foreign missions for the prosperity of the home work depends largely, under God, upon the reflex influence of the evangelical work in countries afar off.  It is in working actively to supply the necessities of the cause of God that we bring our souls in touch with the Source of all power.”  CET 222.1.

So what am I asking of you?  Venie and I, and the work in this part of the world need your support.  We do not ask for personal support, but donated funds for the studio work specifically.  Just prior to our saying good-by to our Kettle Falls Church family, a brother that I love and respect, an Elder in the Church, told me that the people of Kettle Falls needed to get behind their missionaries and support them in their work.  Divine counsel mandates this.  No one can question our loyalty to our Church.  We have always tried to lift our Church, and to never bring reproach to its name.  We want to be the hands and feet of our Church family bringing the Gospel to a dying world.  So of course, you are the first people to whom we make our plea.  We want our cause to be your cause.

For those churches who know us and are always so kind to us, we also solicit your help.  We have had a friend in the Portland area that has sent us $10 a month since we have arrived.  We believe that there will be souls in heaven because of her systematic support.   We also believe that by her commitment, her gift has been multiplied several times over as God has used what she has cheerfully given.

There is so much more I want to say.  But let me close with this thought.  It would do each of us well to examine our commitment to the Present Truth cause and the Three Angel’s Messages.  We want to go Home to be with Jesus, but have we become to comfortable in this life to hate this world so much that we would do anything and everything to hasten that event, even to sacrifice everything for the cause.  My favorite song is “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold.  I’d rather be His than have riches untold. I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands, I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hands.”  I hope that is the prayer of each of us.

We need funds to continue our work, funds for DVD’s and CD’s, funds for a projector, funds for labels, funds for all that comes with media production.  What can you do personally for us?

• Go to your Board of Elders and plead our cause.  Perhaps your Church could adopt us as your foreign mission outreach ministry.
• Suggest to your Pastor that a month be given to study the work of foreign missions in our Church as delineated in the Spirit of Prophecy.
• Organize your Sabbath School class to become part of our team.  We would be happy to send you a “Mission Spotlight” every quarter chronicling the work that is being done because of your gifts.
• Pray!  Fast and pray if necessary.  God is going to finish this work, but He allows us the opportunity to be a part of it.
• If you would like to come to Thailand for a short-term mission trip, let us know.  Your lives will never be the same again.  The comforts that we feel we must have will become not so important to us anymore.
• Measure the value of a soul in the eyes of Heaven.  Brothers and sisters, we cannot allow the loss of eternal life because no one has ever told the people of SE Asia that there is a Savior for them.

As always you can go to our website and click the “Donate” button at the top of the page.  If this is impossible for you send your gift to:

The Osborn Project

Jesus For Asia, Inc.

PO Box 216

McDonald, TN 37353

Perhaps for some reason you may not want to support our project.  That’s o.k.  But please find a foreign mission project somewhere and support it like you have never done before.  God will bless you, and the work will soon be done.

With our love,

Bill & Venie Osborn

I was reflecting on these thoughts while laying in bed on Christmas Eve.  The rats in our ceiling had awakened me.  The injury to my shoulder from my motorcycle accident was bothering me, and I had contracted an upper respiratory infection that made my throat and lungs ache.  I was thinking that it would be nice to be home, or just about anywhere away from here.  I couldn’t imagine any circumstances that could possibly be worse.  While entertaining these depressing thoughts, it suddenly occurred to me that my plight was not all that bad.

There was a “Christmas season” just over two thousand years ago.  We read the story to Dominic for our worship that very evening.  In my mind I related to the angel who proclaimed the “Christmas message” to those shepherds watching their flocks that night.  His Christmas Eve was certainly not all that special either.  For a being that spent most of his time in the presence of the God of the universe, in heaven where all is beauty and perfection, it must have been very difficult to come to a world of darkness, and sin.  And, to have to look upon the Creator of the universe, the Essence of love, the object of his affections, lying there as a human babe, surrounded by farm animals and all the filth that comes with them.  It must have been very difficult indeed.  But…he had a message to give!

“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Those two sentences haunted my thoughts for hours.  Christmas that night was not about the messenger.  It was not about the circumstances or the surroundings.  Christmas was the “message.”  It was a message of great joy, the Gospel, if you please.  It was a summation of all of God’s dealings with us sinful mortals.  It was the hope of every honest, Messiah seeking person that had lived for 4,000 years.  It was the reality that every sincere God-fearing person born for the next 2,000 years could hold on to, no matter what the circumstances around him or her.  It was God’s Word become flesh.  It was God’s character defined in just two sentences.

“Born to you this day in the city of David is a SAVIOR.” “It is good tidings…to ALL people.”  Just what does that mean?

It means when you are down and out, and you can’t see the sunshine for the shadows, there is a Savior.

It means that when all hope is gone, there is a Savior.

It means that though your body may be ravaged by disease or cancer, there is a Savior.

It means though all have forsaken you, there is a Savior.

It means when the most precious thing to you has slipped from your grasp or has been taken away, there is a Savior.

It means that no matter what the circumstances, there is a Savior.

And as good as that news is, it gets even better.  The angel said that his message was for ALL people.  That means you and me.  But not only for you and me, its for the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Hindu, the Communist, the Christian, the Atheist, the “whomever your are” person.  If you have ever had breath in your body, there was a Savior born just for you.  Friends, that is good tidings of great joy!  That is the gospel news.  That is the Christmas story.  It is the story that we are bringing to the people of Southeast Asia.

I am not feeling sorry for myself anymore, and don’t you feel sorry for me either.  You see God has given me the privilege of giving the gospel story every day of my life.  In other words, every day of my life is “Christmas.”  What could be better than that?

Merry Christmas to you and may the new year bring you closer to your Savior.  The ultimate sacrifice was His gift to you.

Pastor Phamor – Medical Missionary Training Seminar

Pastor Luesak                           ศาสนาจารย์ ลือศักดิ์ กวินยั่งยืน

คำพยากรณ์แห่งพระคัมภีร์ส่งมอบความหวัง

Revelation Offers Hope – Emanuel Baek

คำพยากรณ์แห่งพระคัมภีร์ส่งมอบความหวัง

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