Visit the exhibit booths at ASI’s annual convention and you’ll quickly sense the excitement and vitality of its members. Its diverse international group of some 1,000 business owners, professionals, and lay ministries are enthusiastic and active participants in sharing Christ in the marketplace and spreading the gospel message worldwide. In existence since 1947, ASI has contributed millions of dollars and supported hundreds of thousands of outreach ventures to help promote the church’s mission. Meet eight of ASI’s dedicated members:
VIDA International Honduras
José Suazo (left), cofounder of VIDA, shares with visitors to the ministry’s exhibit booth at the GC session in Atlanta how VIDA was established.
CONTACT INFO
www.vida-international.org
[email protected]
www.outpostcenters.org/ministries/associate_members/vida
In 2005, 19-year-old José Suazo completed a medical missionary training course at the European Bible School in Norway. He returned home with a vision to start a similar school in his own community in Honduras, not far from the capital city. His father, not then an Adventist, donated a guava plantation for the venture. Today, VIDA (which means “life”), located within walking distance of the farming village of El Suyatal, serves as a hub of outreach to a town that once had no Adventist presence. The VIDA team—most of them in their early or mid-20s—established an Adventist church and a Pathfinder program for local children. Their school, which is supported by the Lay Institute for Global Health Training (LIGHT), offers a one-year program to train students in Bible and health evangelism, business administration, and leadership skills so they are equipped to establish similar institutions in other world regions.
“VIDA is a glimpse of the incomparable satisfaction of beholding waves of blessings widen and deepen in others,” says Suazo, who is now 23. “This happens as a consequence of the Lord’s use of humble disciples to bring many into the joy of the life to come.”
Riverside Farm Institute
Revenue from Riverside’s farm, including its 33,000 banana trees, helps support the institute. The farm also provides employment for community residents, which results in baptisms.
CONTACT INFO
P.O. Box 53
Kafue, Zambia
[email protected]
www.outpostcenters.org/ministries/riverside
Originating in the 1970s with a small farm and a handful of people in Kafue, Zambia, Riverside Farm Institute (RFI) has evolved into a large, multifaceted outreach ministry. The organization assists thousands of people in several African countries by meeting their most basic physical and spiritual needs.
RFI’s medical clinic serves about 4,000 local residents, most of whom live in poverty. Its nurses also hold bush clinics in even more remote regions. Riverside’s lifestyle center helps well-to-do patrons regain their health and learn about the Master Healer, Jesus Christ.
Education, an RFI priority, includes courses in gardening, tailoring, medical missionary work, and evangelism. Graduates have distributed thousands of Bibles and Adventist tracts throughout Zambia and have opened smaller short-term training centers, branch Sabbath schools, and churches in other African countries, including Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, and Burundi. The institute is also constructing churches and schools.
Revenue from the Riverside farm helps support much of the institute’s work. The 33,000 banana trees and 225 acres of irrigated farmland provide employment for community residents. RFI’s mill grinds, stores, and sells maize, Zambia’s staple food—another major source of income.
“Sacrifice is not a popular word today,” says RFI director Ronald Jaudas, originally from Switzerland, “but it’s the reason why Riverside has been able to provide steady outreach and be a blessing to many people in need.”
Global Vessels, Inc.
An orphanage village in Tanzania built by Global Vessels is home to 20 children.
CONTACT INFO
P.O. Box 543
Clarksville, MD 21029
[email protected]
http://globalvessels.org
Global Vessels, Inc., is a building construction ministry. Beginning in 1998 with a community church in need, Global Vessels has since branched out to building school and medical facilities, and now an orphanage village that’s currently home to 20 children.
The ministry’s first call for assistance came from Ghana more than a decade ago. Thirty-four volunteers from various backgrounds traveled to West Africa and in seven days erected a church for members there. Five more mission trips to Ghana eventually followed, during which volunteers constructed three additional churches, a school library, and a girls’ dormitory.
Seeing a housing need for children in Tanzania who have lost parents because of AIDS or abandonment, Global Vessels soon developed a plan to build an orphanage village—a place with a home environment. In 2005 a new volunteer group began constructing the first of 10 houses. When completed, a “mother” will live in each home with “aunties” to assist.
“Our commitment is to help wherever needed and whoever needs,” Global Vessels director Frazier Mathis says. “In the process of helping others, we have received the greater blessing. We also have had the privilege of conducting weeks of prayer through our ministry and baptizing both adults and youth into the body of Christ.”
Global Vessels leaders encourage others to volunteer and assist them with their mission endeavors.
“You can’t help but be blessed when you witness the joy you bring to the lives of others,” Mathis says.
Reel Inspirations
Jim Huenergardt, president/ director of Reel Inspirations, first became interested in moviemaking while a student at Modesto Adventist Academy.
CONTACT INFO
[email protected]
www.reelinspirations.com
Reel Inspirations president/director Jim Huenergardt says he launched his Bishop, California, production company in January 2006 to create not only commercials and promotional videos for secular clients but also television-quality productions that would witness to the secular mind.
“I wanted to produce something I would feel comfortable handing out to my next-door neighbor or a friend who wouldn’t be interested in attending church or a Bible study,” he explains.
Huenergardt’s interest in moviemaking and films was kindled while a student at Modesto Adventist Academy. He created two short films for class assignments rather than write book reports. He gained even more experience working as a photojournalist following college, which, he says, “helped me develop my eye for composition. The rise of the digital video revolution allowed me to affordably dabble in video production, and in 1997 a video professional friend of mine helped me create a promotional video for a technology company I helped to start.” Huenergardt is also the creator of the 10-minute promotional video for the 2010 ASI Convention held August 4-7 in Orlando, Florida. To view the video, go to www.asi ministries.org/experience-convention.
Describing the Adventist understanding of Scripture, prophecy, and final events as “powerful,” Huenergardt believes that presenting these doctrines in a format people are used to viewing can be a compelling witness.
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
Missionary family Marilyn and Clint Hanley and their children, Brandel and Bethany, have served as volunteers in remote eastern Nicaragua for six years. Mission pilot Clint provides evacuation services for medical emergencies.
CONTACT INFO
185 Harris Road Goldendale, WA 98620
[email protected]
www.wingsovernicaragua.org
For the Miskito Indians in the remote eastern regions of Nicaragua, the difference between life and death can be a four-seat Cessna 172 airplane flown by Adventist mission pilot Clint Hanley.
“Being a missionary pilot in a Third World country isn’t like going to work every day from 8:00 to 5:00 in America,” Hanley says. “I worked for a decade that way, [but] I like the unexpected.”
Hanley and his wife, Marilyn—a nurse—live with their two small children in northeast Nicaragua. Hanley offers medical evacuation services to small communities along the Rio Coco River, bordering both Honduras and Nicaragua.
The indigenous Indians of the area are mostly subsistence farmers with few possessions to boast of. The Hanleys, too, exist on far less than do their friends and family back home in the U.S.
“Cell phones don’t work here; our only communication is via ham radio,” Hanley notes. “Our electricity comes from solar panels combined with a small hydroelectric plant I built. Two radios tie us to the local communities throughout this area of Nicaragua.”
When a radio crackles to life, it usually means Hanley’s help is needed in evacuating a patient.
Since the war in Nicaragua in the 1980s, aviation has not been reopened in the eastern regions. Hanley’s plane is the only one currently based there.
“This is truly a place that’s on the frontier of mission aviation,” he says. “We’re flying into communities that have not seen an airplane for 30 years.”
The Hanleys have served in Nicaragua for six years on a completely volunteer basis. They draw no salary for their work. Wings of Hope—a nonsectarian humanitarian aid organization based in St. Louis, Missouri—donated the plane for the Nicaragua venture and helps with maintenance and its continued operation there. The Goldendale Adventist Church in Washington State sponsors the mission.
Anchor Point Films
Husband-and-wife team Chad and Fadia Kreuzer, co-owners of Anchor Point Films, are producing a DVD series presenting the Adventist message.
CONTACT INFO
P.O. Box 78
La Fox, IL 60147
[email protected]
www.anchorpointfilms.com
Producing biblically based films that reveal Jesus and share His message of hope is what Anchor Point Films is all about. Headquartered in La Fox, Illinois, this Adventist-run production company traverses issues ranging from archaeology and Bible prophecy to Christian lifestyle and healthful living.
“In each film we hope to uplift Jesus and His Word,” says Chad Kreuzer, who co-owns the organization with his wife, Fadia.
Chad was baptized as a member of the Adventist Church in 2000 through a series of meetings held at an ASI convention in Michigan. He later entered full-time ministry as an evangelist, and together with a Bible worker team shared the gospel message throughout the United States and Europe. Fadia—who later became his wife—was part of that team.
It was while working in Portland, Oregon, that the idea of producing documentaries began to take root.
“We noted that people were interested in watching documentaries, including those on scriptural topics,” Fadia says. “That got us thinking, Why don’t we produce documentaries that uplift the Word of God and the Adventist message?” Thus, Anchor Point Films was born.
The husband-wife team is currently producing a DVD series that systematically presents the Adventist message. The goal is for lay members, medical professionals, and business owners to share the DVDs with others. Colporteurs, evangelists, and college students also are distributing them worldwide.
“People are finding that these documentaries are providing a very easy method of sharing our message,” Chad says.
Outpost Centers International
OCI president Markus Jaudas (right) discusses ministry objectives with Biser Yordanov, director of the Center for Health and Prevention in Bulgaria.
CONTACT INFO
5340 Layton Lane
Apison, TN 37302
[email protected]
www.outpostcenters.org
OCI—Outpost Centers International—gives nurture and support to a family of lay-led, self-supporting health, education, and evangelism ministries around the world. Their collective vision is to work from country settings to impact metropolitan centers. OCI provides leadership training and facilitates their growth as they look for creative ways to introduce the gospel to their communities.
OCI began operation in 1983 under the leadership of Warren Wilson, a former president of Wildwood Lifestyle Center and Hospital in Wildwood, Georgia. The growth of supporting ministries called for the formation of a new organization. Wilson’s goal was for OCI to serve as a “counselor and encourager” to many of these new institutions.
Three presidents and almost three decades later, the organization continues to execute its mission to help sustain existing self-supporting ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and establish new ones. These ministries include schools, assisted-living centers, orphanages, evangelistic training programs, vegetarian restaurants, and publishing houses, among others.
“We see our ministries as acting out God’s counsel to our church,” says Markus Jaudas, OCI president. “As Ellen White wrote in the Atlantic Union Gleaner in 1908, ‘The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership, rally to the work, and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers.’”
Jaudas, an ordained minister, has served as president since 2005. He and his wife, Huguette, first joined an OCI ministry in Norway—The Heartgood Foundation—where they helped launch the European Bible School.
WIN! Wellness
Wes Youngberg’s Transforming Sickness Into Health video series offers easy-to-follow prescriptions for better health.
CONTACT INFO
www.dryoungberg.com
www.winwellness.org
WIN! Wellness, under the leadership of Drs. John, Millie, and Wes Youngberg, is a health and family ministry that incorporates physical, mental, spiritual, and relational dimensions for a balanced approach to lifestyle. The program’s goal is simply to help people live longer, healthier lives within a biblical context. To accomplish this, the husband-wife-son team has developed numerous presentations that can be used in small group settings.
“It’s been our passion to develop a synergistic ministry-of-healing model, giving equal emphasis to biological, mental-spiritual, and relational wellness, including cutting-edge research,” John Youngberg says. “From nine years of field testing and curriculum design, products have emerged that also gently introduce the basic Adventist doctrines. The WIN! Wellness ‘Homes of Hope’ series is being used [by] small groups around the world.”
Wes’s Transforming Sickness Into Health video series addresses how to turn “bad” genes off and “good” genes on through basic health and spiritual principles. Wes holds a Dr.P.H. in clinical preventive care and a master’s degree in nutrition from Loma Linda University, and runs the Lifestyle Medicine Clinic for Rancho Family Medical Group in Temecula, California. John and Millie Youngberg, founders of Family Life International, have written more than 20 books on wellness and have presented wellness seminars in 24 countries and territories. They have doctoral degrees in education and are professors emeriti of Andrews University.
___________
Sandra Blackmer is features editor of Adventist Review. This article was published August 12, 2010.
