Summer 2009 Vol. 11, No. 3
OCI Ministries
News From Around the World
Lifted by
Faith
Students at Heritage Academy are preparing for more than just a career, p. 12
Latest News From: Moldova, USA, Israel, Zambia, and More . . .
NEWSFLASH
News From OCI Ministries Around the World
Testing the Faith in Moldova The first two-week “Testing the Faith” project proved successful at the Center of Health and Preventive Medicine in Moldova. To finish their medical missionary training, students spent the last two weeks of the program living in villages with no Adventist presence. They were each given $5 to cover all their needs, with the stipulation that they must return the money at the end of the project. The rules did not allow them to ask anyone but God for help. Students returned with glowing faces, having found many people in need that they could help and teach about God. One student commented, “Now we really understand medical missionary work.”
Heli-Flight for Hope
Neal Lanning was so pleased with the way Advent Home Learning Center impacted his son that he decided to use his helicopter business to raise funds to help the school take in more at-risk youth. Thanks to his planning, on September 23, 2009, 12 or more helicopters, most of them piloted by former at-risk youth, will take off from Advanced Helicopter Concepts, Inc. in Frederick, Maryland. Four days and 12 stops later they will arrive at Advent Home for their grand finale. All funds raised by the flight will go to help at-risk youth through Advent Home, Teen Challenge, and the Advanced Helicopter Youth Foundation. (To find out if they’re stopping in your area, visit www.ahyouthfoundation.org)
Home for Now Eden’s Pathway, one of OCI’s new associate members, recently moved from Tennessee to Missouri, where they plan to build a new lifestyle center. In the meantime, they are grateful to God for providing them
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with a temporary location where they can continue to offer their detox sessions. Already four guests have attended the sessions, including two with lung cancer. Each of them responded very well to the fever treatments, steam baths, and total body cleansing. They returned to their homes physically improved and spiritually uplifted.
medical missionary training in Israel. After a successful one-month course, 20 of the 25 students put their training to use by holding a health expo in Haifa, Israel. God blessed, and more than 200 visitors signed up for weekly health club meetings.
Hail Destroys Banana Crop
Wildwood Shines the LIGHT This summer graduates of Wildwood’s College of Health Evangelism are conducting six onemonth LIGHT* schools. The group will split up and teach in Puerto Rico, Haiti, and four locations in Mexico. God’s providence is amazing, opening doors for the graduates to share their newfound knowledge and give the participants the keys they need to reach out in their communities. *The goal of the Lay Institute for Global Health Training (LIGHT) is to foster worldwide expansion of health evangelism by equipping lay people to serve as medical missionaries.
Sharing Health in Israel Health Education Resources, Herghelia Institute, and LIGHT partnered to offer
Heavy rain and hail hit Riverside Farm Institute earlier this summer. Hail almost never falls in this part of Zambia; it was a new experience for many of the elderly. Strange as it was, it was also devastating to many gardens and cornfields. At Riverside, where their largest income source is bananas, hailstones as big as cherries destroyed thousands of banana bunches. Riverside estimates a loss of about $35,000 for the year. Though struck by the loss, staff are thankful that no more damage was caused. They trust that God will work even this to His glory, and they hope you will join them as they pray for wisdom to meet this challenge.
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A Word From Our Supporters We saw the hard work of some missionary friends and heard their stories. We could see that this was a mission we wanted to be part of. Since we could not go over and help firsthand, we decided that supporting them through OCI was the best thing we could do. OCI, God is blessing your organization and all the missions that you are helping. We are proud to be a part of this. Daniel & Shirley Iffert
I love hearing about the missions sponsored by OCI. Your programs and projects faithfully fulfill guidelines and principles presented by Ellen White, my great grandmom. Oliver Jacques
2009 Donation Tracker 2009 Goal: $1.6 million $1.4 $1.0 $0.8 $0.6 $0.4 $0.2 in millions 4
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With five months to go, we are eager to see how God will bless our ministries. Every gift made through OCI counts toward the $1.6-million goal,* and we hope you will find an opportunity to join in as we work together to make a difference to missions worldwide. *Unless otherwise noted, 100% of each gift goes to the ministry to which it is designated.
President’s Perspective
God Has a Dream
About the Cover: Missionary aviation is the only avenue for reaching certain people groups. Photo by: Janell Hullquist
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ave you ever considered that God has a dream? God gave Nebuchadnezzar the borrowed position of world ruler. God also gave him a glimpse of His dream (Daniel 2). Remember that the climax of that dream is God’s kingdom, the stone, filling the whole earth (Daniel 2:35). God offered Nebuchadnezzar, whom He had placed in a position of ultimate power and influence, the opportunity to be His ambassador in helping fulfill His world kingdom. But sadly Nebuchadnezzar chose a kingdom that would not last. In 1844 and onward, God once again revealed His dream, this time through Scripture and Ellen White’s writings. To see His dream come true, God is looking for men and women rallying toward this goal. Where are the millions of doctors, nurses, teachers, pastors, and evangelists, the tens of millions of church members collaborating in God’s work? Imagine if God’s people had closely followed His blueprint. What a powerful demonstration of God’s dream! A world filled with light and heavenly grace. Certainly the Lord’s dream would have come true. He would have come. Today the world remains in darkness. God calls you to make a difference—to make His dream come true.
Vol. 11, No. 3 Summer 2009
Markus Jaudas Executive Editor Janell Hullquist Editor, Layout & Design Cheryl Torres Supporting Editor Debbie Hicks Copy Editor Printed By College Press LLC OCI Reports magazine is published quarterly by Outpost Centers International. Please send all changes of address to: OCI Reports, 5340 Layton Lane, Apison, TN 37302. Please include the old address along with the new. Tel: 423-236-5600. Fax: 423236-5650. E-mail: ocireports@ outpostcenters.org Outpost Centers International is a nonprofit organization working in cooperation with the Seventhday Adventist Church to network and nurture supporting ministries worldwide. OCI operates through the generosity of people like you and issues tax-deductible receipts to U.S. donors. Please send all correspondence to: Outpost Centers International, 5340 Layton Lane, Apison, TN 37302. Tel: 423-236-5600. E-mail: info@ outpostcenters.org. For further information, please visit us on the web at www.outpostcenters.org.
Yours in His service,
Editor
Markus Jaudas President
janell@outpostcenters.org Copyright © 2009 Outpost Centers International
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From Victim to Victorious
by Janell Hullquist & Cheryl Torres
From a single website to a full-time ministry, God has led The Hope of Survivors to encourage thousands. Since 2002 God has been using Steve and Samantha Nelson, founders and directors of The Hope of Survivors, to bring hope and healing to hundreds of hurting victims of pastoral sexual abuse. In a nutshell, what is your ministry and mission?
Samantha The Hope of Survivors provides spiritual and emotional support to victims of pastoral sexual abuse. Though we work with both female and male victims from age 13 and up, we primarily work with adult women of all denominations, all around the globe. Steve I truly believe that our
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mission is evangelistic. We are on a difficult mission—to reach down into the pit of hopelessness and despair and, by God’s grace, lift people out and show them His unfailing love in action. Is there a specific story or testimony you can share about someone you have been able to help?
Samantha I can think of several who were at the point of committing suicide when they reached out to
Insights
The Hope of Survivors. Now they are still alive and happy to be so. Here is part of just one of the emails we’ve received: “I wanted to thank you for being there for my family when it was really hard and also for believing in me; it meant a lot. It’s only people like you and my mother that kept me going without doing something really stupid that might have taken my life.”—From a Child Victim How has your ministry impacted you personally?
Steve Every time we share our experience with others, we can see God’s healing touch in action. It’s as if He personally reaches down and touches them. There are no words that can adequately describe how amazing this is. To see lives and marriages healed and faith in God restored—it is simply beyond our comprehension. We feel truly privileged that God has used us in such an awesome way.
Samantha Nelson is guiding others to the hope she discovered through her experiences.
What challenges do you face?
Samantha The Hope of Survivors faces the usual challenges that many nonprofits face—lack of necessary
funds and qualified staff. Yet we have an additional challenge, and that is educating the public and the church body about pastoral sexual misconduct and abuse. Steve To be spiritually, emotionally, and physically abused is unfathomable for most people. It is like trying to explain how painful it is to lose a loved one to someone who has not had that experience. The victims of this form of abuse are some of the most difficult to reach, yet they The Hope of Survivors helps people are the very ones who need around the world who have experienced abuse. help the most. What keeps you going?
Samantha I confess that, after nearly seven years, there are times when I am so overwhelmed with the volume of work that I feel like giving up. Then, as only God can do, He moves upon someone to encourage me in one way or another—a muchneeded donation, a prayer for strength, or an email from a victim whose life has been changed. When I see how the Lord renews people’s lives through the ministry, it strengthens me to keep going on.
Steve and Samantha Nelson are based in Illinois but travel around the world teaching and speaking. To find out more, visit www. thehopeofsurvivors.com.
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In the Field
Unexpected Discovery by Hugo Valles
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hen my parents recommended that I attend the training school at Centro Misionero de Salud, I did not like the idea at all. They had participated in a wellness program there and were very happy with the results. Hoping that it would be good for me, too, they encouraged me to give it a try. I had been struggling with drugs and needed to change my lifestyle, but I did not want to listen to anybody or take any advice. My parents believed CMS could help me, so when they saw that I would not go willingly, they gave me no choice. I found myself at CMS against my will. I was not going to make it easy on anybody, so I held on tight to a bad mood for the first few weeks.
Above: Students master theory and theology in the classroom. Left: Young people enjoy putting theory into practice, first on each other and later in the surrounding community.
The staff kept encouraging me and responding to my anger with kindness. Slowly I began to realize that I was actually poisoning myself. The drugs, the anger, all of this was blocking out my Heavenly Father. I had to come face-to-face with this reality before I could come to Him and let Him take down my barrier and clean me from the inside. At last I have found the peace that I have never been able to find anywhere else. I am free in Jesus Christ. Being at CMS has taught me self-discipline, patience, and humility. But most importantly, it has taught me how to walk with Jesus. Hugo Valles recently graduated from Centro Misionero de Salud. Find out more about CMS by visiting www.outpostcenters.org
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In the Field
The Turning Point by Klaus Reinprecht
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he responsibilities and stress at work and at home were just too much for Franz. Last year at 44 years old, he broke down. Fatigue and depression sapped him dry, and no physician or specialist could help. He suffered a severe burnout for more than a year. I wished that I could invite him to a lifestyle center here at Country Life Institute - Austria, but so far we have only a medical missionary training school. Nevertheless, I invited him to join us for a week or two at the school. Always he refused. As he felt more and more debilitated, however, he was ready to try anything. So he traveled to our Austrian paradise. The students befriended him immediately, and he joined them in baking, walking, cleaning, and studying. They practiced massage and hydrotherapy on him, and each day he felt happier and more peaceful. His energy and sense of humor returned. At the end of the week, the students sang and prayed for him as he was preparing to leave. He felt so touched, he told me later, that he could not leave right away. He could but lean
Franz joined the students in all of their activities, even helping out in the kitchen.
against the wall in awe, wondering if he might be dreaming. At last in the beginning of July, Franz returned to work with me at Kingdom’s Company, the business that God has allowed me to run. He told me, “The time at your school changed my life totally. It was the turning point on my way to getting back my health.” Thousands of “Franzes” in Austria need that experience. We cannot have them all join our training program, but we have the team, the structure, and the plan for a lifestyle center. We are only waiting for God to provide the funds for the facilities. Then we can bring more of God’s healing to our part of Europe. Klaus Reinprecht is the director of Country Life Institute - Austria, one of OCI’s newest members.
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Finding
New
Life
by Tatiana Gnatyuk
The New Life Health Center in Ukraine provides more than just physical healing.
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or 10 years Liudmila, a SeventhYuri about the Sabbath and the Ten day Adventist, had been sharing Commandments and compelled him her faith with her husband,Yuri, but to to pray. Instead of being offended,Yuri no avail. If anything, their relationship agreed, and the two became friends. grew worse. Finally Yuri agreed to go When Yuri returned home, he told to the New Life Health Center. He Liudmila everything he had learned at soaked up all the health center, the knowledge and he reproached he could while her for the health there, taking laws she failed to notes during all follow. Then he the lectures and began praying with cooking classes. her each morning. Yuri’s roommate Every day she during his stay at sees more positive New Life was an changes in her Adventist. On the Staff and guests feel like a big family by the husband, and end of each session. first day, he told she cannot stop
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Spotlight on Mission thanking New Life. “In 10 days, you managed to change my husband much more than I could in 10 years,” she says. New Life has been the beginning of a new life with God for Yuri. Many others have also found a new life in this health center. They arrive, seeing it as their last hope for recovery. And their hopes become reality. For Alexander and Tatiana, who had spent six years trying to treat their diabetes and heart problems, New Life did not seem like the answer they were seeking. Alexander particularly did not like anything there, especially the fact that there was no television. The staff explained that he needed to agree to all of the terms for the best result. Grudgingly, he followed the doctor’s directions and participated in the various classes and activities. By the end of the session, his blood sugar levels were normal, and he showed no signs of heart trouble. As he bid farewell, Alexander unwittingly agreed with prophetic words, saying, “I think that sanitariums like this must be near each city.” These are just two of the numerous stories New Life has seen in its nine years of existence. People come from around Ukraine, as well as many of the surrounding countries. They discover simple remedies, listen to lifestyle lectures, and join cooking classes, but the main thing that attracts people is the spiritual atmosphere created by God through His dedicated servants. This trust in God is what inspired people to start the lifestyle center in 2000. OCI members from the United States and Ukrainian Adventists worked together to support the medical
missionary work in Ukraine. The Holy Spirit inspired them to devote time, strength, and means to the new health center, and the challenges they faced encouraged them to work harder, rather than back down. When they opened their doors on March 12, New Life became the first Adventist sanitarium in the territory of the former Soviet Union. Eight people attended the first session, and it grew more and more popular, opening many doors for mission work. Many of those in the neighborhood around the center
Yuri and his roommate enjoyed the scenery around New Life Health Center.
gave their hearts to God, and the staff organized a church right there in the little town of Kiriakovka. Today the health center continues to encourage spiritual, as well as physical healing, and though the staff meets challenge after challenge, they continue to place the future in God’s hands. And He always provides. Tatiana Gnatyuk and the other staff at New Life Health Center strive to share the Great Healer with those who come to them for a new life.
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Lifted by
Faith
by Debbie Baker
Heritage Academy seeks to turn the hearts of young people toward Christ and His mission.
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he Lord is good and He blesses in until he gave her what she asked for?” so many ways, even when we forget they asked (see Luke 18:1-5). to ask! I was contually reminded to “I do remember the story,” I replied. pray, pray, pray (for a bus, for funds to “Why?” dig a much-needed well, for ministry “Well, we must be like this widow opportunities, for woman and keep funds to expand asking God until our boys’ dorm) He gives us the not by my own things we need!” conscience but I felt rebuked, by an incredibly and I promised faithful group of that I would pray young people. believing that the “Remember Lord would hear the story of the our cry—our Students and staff alike are still rejoicing for the widow who collective cry, new bus, which enables all of the students to go bugged the judge together for outreach projects. because we always
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Spotlight on Mission petition the Lord together as a family. Bringing our needs together before the throne of grace binds us like nothing else can, and everyone’s faith grows when we see our prayers answered! Well, through someone’s generous gift, the Lord has answered our prayers for a new bus, which we have already used in ministry for Him. He also continually answers our prayers for ministry opportunities, such as helping communities in our area recover from disaster and adding a student aviation program We know from to prepare future mission experience pilots. What a that He will powerful God we serve! be faithful. We still need funds to expand our full boys’ dorm and to dig a well, besides needing more orders for our granola industry to promote our viability. And of course we are always looking for more opportunities to minister. But our faith has grown, and we are encouraged to continue seeking the Lord as the widow woman did, for we know from experience that He will be faithful. We also know that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and impresses those who are able to help in His perfect time. We must continue to inspire each other and draw each other to the Lord. I was lifted up by the faith of a child, and none of us will be the same again.
Taking to the Skies
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ast school year Heritage
Academy introduced a Missionary Aviation Program. Three students took the opportunity to learn how to fly, working toward their commercial pilot’s license. Several more will join the program this school year. The first graduate from the program, Andrew McGee, is spending part of his summer in Bolivia, shadowing a missionary pilot out in the field. Immersing the students in missionary aviation now helps prepare them for full-time mission work after they graduate.
Debbie Baker is the president of Heritage Academy, where students have opportunities for much more than academic training. Learn more at www.outpostcenters.org
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Food for Thought - From Our Board
Not Too Old, Not Too Young by Bill Dull
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od has recently given me several great crisis before us, God is preparing insights into the story of Esther. people to be His “Esthers.” He needs We know that God is the one who people who will say, “If I perish, I forms each of us in our mother’s perish. But I will go—no matter the womb. So He is the one who made cost.” Esther so beautiful, and He used her Esther and the Israelites fasted and beauty, along with faithful Mordecai, to prayed for days before she went before save all the Jews. the king. We I’ve thought need to follow of this in light her example of of who designed preparing for me and who what lies ahead. designed you. By being faithful You see, if and doing what Esther had God asks, we been born 20 can be ready years before, to accept His she would have calling. been too old. We are not A few years an accident. later, and she Some of us may would have For You formed my inward parts; think that since been too young. our parents You covered me in my mother’s didn’t want us, The king would have had no womb. Psalm 139:13, NKJV we must be interest in her. mistakes. But She was born as God formed a beautiful girl at just the right time, every person in the womb and has and she was used to save the Jews. a plan for each one of us. If we are Today God is the same. He knows willing, He will fulfill His plan for us. just as much about us as He knew Bill Dull is president of Living Springs about Esther and all the Israelites. As Overseas Mission in India, where Seventh-day Adventists, we are today’s he seeks to share God’s grace and purpose with “unwanted” children. “Jews.” We are God’s church. In the
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Ministry of Need
Opportunities With OCI God provides for His work, and He gives you the opportunity to help. Please pray for the ongoing work at OCI ministries.
Job Openings
Funds Needed
Cedarvale Health & Lifestyle Retreat, Australia Male Massage/Hydro Therapist
Center of Health & Preventative Medicine Staff Housing Expansion Eden’s Pathway Lifestyle Center Building Materials Harbert Hills Academy Campus Renovations & Updates Reaching Hearts for Kids School Construction in Tanzania
Centro Misionero de Salud, Mexico Bilingual Secondary Teacher* Bilingual Elementary Teacher* *fluent Spanish needed
Eastward Missionary College, Australia Finance Director Industry Director Laurelbrook Sanitarium, USA Academy Teachers Development/Marketing Director Mechanics Miracle Meadows School, USA Cafeteria Director Teachers Peru Projects, Peru Video Volunteer Writer/Graphic Designer The Heartgood Foundation, Norway Men’s Dean/Maintenance Public Relations Women’s Dean/Kitchen Assistant
$9,000 $125,000 $40,000
$50,000
Events Wildwood Health Expo & Health Evangelism Training When: August 9-19, 2009 Where: Laurelton, New York Contact: 1-800-844-1099 Healthy Heart 5-Day Program When: Sept 27-Oct 2, 2009 Where: Black Hills Health & Education Center Contact: 1-800-658-LIFE
Uchee Pines Institute, USA Lifestyle Counselors Human Resources Director
COMPLETE LIST @ www.outpostcenters.org
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