ADVENTIST YOUTH AND ADULT QUARTER 3 MISSION MAGAZINE 22008008 NORTH AMERICAN DIVISION featuring: OWNER OF THE SKY pg 8| FAITH FULL CIRCLE pg 24 www.AdventistMission.org 1 www.AdventistMission.org C ONTENTS On the Cover: Born out of a movement in what is now the North American Division in the 1840s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church sent its first missionary overseas in 1874. UNITED STATES 4 Truth on Late-Night TV | July 5 6 Biker Rides for Christ | July 12 8 Owner of the Sky | July 19 10 The Accidental Church | July 26 CANADA 12 Youth Forge Modern Ministries | August 2 14 The Little Station That Roars | August 9 UNITED STATES 16 Mission Field at Home | August 16 18 The Sabbath Test | August 23 20 A New Beginning | August 30 22 Mission in My Backyard | September 6 24 Faith Full Circle | September 13 26 A Passion Shared | September 20 RESOURCES ights re ® - All r served. | September 27 tists 28 Thirteenth Sabbath Program ven Ad ring, MD 209 ay er Sp 04 -d Silv th e, rg 31 Resources en ik sion.o v P Mis e ia ist S b nt f m ve o lu d e o .A 32 Map and Projects c C n w e d w r l w e O f - n 1 o 4 0 C 2 5 l 8 2 a 5 r . 1 e 8 n 4 e = stories of special interest to teens 6 G . 0 8 0 0 8 0 2 © Dear Sabbath School Leader, Welcome to a new quarter and a new world of radio almost 80 years ago, and division on which to focus our attention television outreach began in 1950. and our prayers. Today, satellites, the Internet, and other technological advances have created North American Division new avenues through which we can The North American Division share God’s love with people. Media can includes Canada, the United States, the reach people who might hesitate to enter island nation of Bermuda, and several a church or attend evangelistic meetings. island possessions. In spite of modern strides in The Adventist Church was born technology, radio continues to be a and nurtured in North America. Early powerful force in people’s lives. Christian Adventist believers sacrificed to send programming can reach significant missionaries to Europe, India, Africa, numbers of people who might never be Australia, and Asia. Today the church reached by other means. This quarter’s ministers in some 200 countries around Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will focus the world. on broadening our reach to people across But growth of the church in North the division via radio. America, like much of Europe and While Canadian law does not allow Australia, has slowed. Today North special-interest radio stations, it does America has just over a million allow low-frequency radio stations to members. Millions across North rebroadcast another station's signal in America have never heard the areas where few other media outlets Adventist message. Today less than exist. Long before Newfoundland 8 percent of the church’s 15 million became part of Canada, an Adventist members live in North America. radio station began broadcasting This quarter the division that cradled there. This station was permitted to Adventism will use the Thirteenth continue broadcasting. Today about 20 Sabbath Offering to expand evangelism rebroadcast sites on the Atlantic and through radio. Pacific coasts of Canada send radio station VOAR’s Adventist message to towns and rural areas across the nation. Radio Outreach Part of the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering The Adventist Church entered the will establish more of these rebroadcast stations across Canada. LifeTalk Radio is a network of more O PPORTUNITIES than 70 radio stations across the United States. These stations have generated This quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help up to 5,000 telephone inquiries a ¾ place rebroadcast radio stations in day. People are listening. Part of our communities across Canada; Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help ¾ expand the reach and expand the reach of LifeTalk Radio. www.AdventistMission.org effectiveness of LifeTalk Radio across the United States. 3 UNITED STATES TRRUTHUTH OONN LAATETE--NIIGHTGHT TV July 5 | Told to Mission by Ben, Charles, and Josh Reitman. ur lives changed forever while said was the truth. Owatching late-night TV,” says Ben shared what he was learning with Ben Reitman. his brothers. Josh wasn’t interested, and Ben and his brothers, Charles and Charles was skeptical about the programs Josh, were teenagers who lived with and worried that Ben might be getting their parents. Ben worked the evening involved in a cult. But when Charles shift at a local department store. At the watched the program for himself, he end of his shift one night, he turned realized that the preachers’ statements on the television and began flipping were biblical. Still, he wavered. through channels. The brothers learned that the TV reception was poor, but as Ben television programs were sponsored by flipped through the channels, he found the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a station that caught his attention. “A and eventually they decided to visit the man was preaching on the dangers of local Adventist church. spiritualism,” Ben recalls. “I was curious As God worked on their hearts, the and watched the entire program.” brothers made changes in their lives. The next night Ben again turned They were heavily involved in playing on the television and watched another video games, but were convicted that the preacher speak. This began a nightly games had to go. “You can’t hear God’s routine of watching sermons on late- still small voice as easily when you are night TV. filling your minds with other things,” Josh explains. Growing Conviction Ben had been raised in a Christian First Big Test North American Division home and recognized that the speakers’ Charles was the first to keep the ISSION words were backed by the Bible. As he Sabbath. Josh soon followed. It wasn’t M read the Bible texts that flashed on the long before the brothers faced a test of DVENTIST screen and listened to the sermons, Ben their convictions. “We all worked at a A couldn’t deny that what the speakers local department store,” Josh says. “We 4 talked with the manager, and he said New Doors Open there would be no problem and agreed The three brothers were baptized into to give us two Saturdays a month off.” the Adventist Church and soon began But the brothers couldn’t compromise seeing God unfold events in amazing their convictions, so they told the ways. As they continued to study the store manager that they wouldn’t work Bible and grow in knowledge, they were on any Saturday. They offered to quit invited to preach and to present a Week their jobs, but the store manager tried of Prayer revival for young people. to convince them to stay because they It took the brothers several months to were such good workers. However find jobs that gave them their Sabbaths Ben, Charles, and Josh believed that off, but God honored their commitment, UNITED STATES God would honor their decision and and eventually all three had jobs. Then provide for their needs if they honored during the summer of 2006, the brothers His Sabbath. Charles and Josh resigned met a team of Bible workers who were their jobs. working in their town. Charles was “Our dad couldn’t believe we working two jobs at the time, but he resigned,” Charles says. “He was worried decided to work with these Bible workers that we were making a mistake, but as well. we were sure God would provide.” Ben The brothers learned about a three- had just bought a car, and his father month evangelism course offered at an had cosigned the loan with him. It Adventist college of evangelism. They troubled him that if he couldn’t pay his wanted to go, but they didn’t have the loan, his father would have to make the US$4,000 tuition each needed. As they payments. Finally Ben moved forward prayed for God’s will and leading, a in faith and resigned his job to keep the friend challenged them. “Don’t ask for Sabbath with his brothers. a slice of bread when you need a whole loaf.” The brothers took their friend’s advice and enrolled in the course. By F AST F ACTS the time the course was finished, their tuition had been paid. ¾ Because people in North America Today Ben, Charles, and Josh are no longer attend mass evangelistic meetings as they once did, media Bible workers, sharing the good news plays an increasingly important role they discovered while watching a in evangelism. Besides purchasing late-night television program they time to broadcast radio and television shouldn’t have been able to receive programs on public or commercial without cable or a satellite dish. “We stations, the church operates an love studying the Bible with people,” extensive network of radio stations and Hope TV. These avenues have says Josh. “It’s more interesting than proven effective in reaching those, any video game or television.” such as the Reitman brothers, who Your mission offerings help reach are either unchurched or who are people such as Ben, Charles, and Josh searching for Bible truth beyond what with the gospel message. Thank you they receive in their own churches. for sharing. à www.AdventistMission.org 5 UNITED STATES BIIKERKER RIIDESDES FFOROR CHHRISTRIST July 12 | Told to Mission by Rob Turlington ob Turlington looks like a tough was working on me during this time, Rbiker, someone you wouldn’t want bringing to mind things that my father to cross when he rides into town on his had taught me,” Rob says.