According to the census bureau, New York state has a population of nearly twenty million,
two thirds of which reside in the metropolitan New York city area,
making New York the most populated city in the United States.
Shungnak, Alaska is a village with two-hundred fifty-six, spread through fifty-six
households and fifty-one families.
The state of New York people covers fifty-four thousand, five hundred fifty-five square miles,
making it the 27th largest state in the United States.
The village of Shungnak has a total area of 9.6 square miles, 8.4 square miles are land and
1.3 square miles are made up of water.
Some say New York City is known as the world's most economically powerful city in the world.
It is a cultural capital as well as an important hub for international diplomacy.
Shungnak's name is associated with the Eskimo term issing-yak, meaning Jade,
a stone abundantly found in the area.
Two places contrasting in every detail, two locations that are totally different.
What if I told you these places are very similar – how can such dis-similar locations be the
same.
We're here in incredible Alaska, it's one of the last frontiers, it's the largest state in the
United States and yet it has the smallest percentage of
population per square mile.
Shungnak is part of the
Northwest artic region, a very remote area completely
disconnected from any roads to neighboring villages.
Meet Anthony Sherman, his wife Irene and their son Hezekiah – Tony moved to Shungnak to take a
mission position that the Alaskan conference had been looking to fill.
My wife and I came to Shungnak because this is where God was
calling us to, we
had been doing vacation bible
school here for some time and we
believe that it was time for
someone to move here and it was on our hearts to do so.
When the Sherman family moved to Shungnak, they did not have any running water and only a wood
stove to heat their home.
For the first three weeks they lived in the small church and then moved into the parsonage
right next to the church.
Well the challenge is being out in the middle of nowhere.
When you don't know anybody, I mean you know the people out here but when you don't have
friends and when you just can't get out whenever you want to, or when I want to see my family in
the Philippines I can't really do that because it costs so much money to travel.
Some of the challenges that we deal with are the logistics, the climate,
the different struggles that are present in the village.
But, I have my husband, my son and I have God with me, so.
It has been a positive experience for us as well because we are in the center of
God's will and to be in the center of God's will is a
no other place to be.
Tony works at the local clinic as a healthcare provider, along with his colleagues he is the
first to address all the health problems and concerns of the locals in the village.
Tony and his team respond to emergencies that range from suicides to snowmobile
accidents.
If any emergency is beyond what the local clinic can manage, he uses a medivac plane to
transport patients 160 miles to Kotzebue, through his position, Tony is able to gain the
communities trust and respect and he does not waste any opportunities to connect with
people.
Well besides our work at the clinic, besides what I do for my profession here,
we spend a fair amount of time with kids as well as – mostly elders.
During the week on Mondays, we have a youth group that we do for kids that are 8 years and
older and they come to our house.
On Tuesday's and Wednesday evenings, we try to get out to people's houses,
Wednesday night we have bible studies with the family, Thursday nights,
usually on that particular night we'll take our musical instruments and we'll go and do
some singing, usually elderly people that are in our village.
What are other things that we do?
Sabbath we'll have Saturday school, Sabbath school for kids, we will try to hold adult
services.
Saturday night we'll make a trip out to another elders house, you know.
We try to be in people's homes as much as possible.
The church and parsonage were built in the 1970s but have not had an active mission post since
the late 1980s.
For a few years, the building has been used for vacation bible school,
by the Delta Junction Adventist Church.
Tony and Irene have been holding bible studies in their house since the church is not suitable
for any fellowship during the winter months.
Our dream for this church is that someday there will be people in it.
Right now it's not really fit for services in the winter, really or the summer.
It needs a lot of work and right now we have no membership, we have no attendance.
But our dream and hope and confidence is that God will provide us with a fellowship
here.
This is a major concern for the couple since they have become well received by the community,
the need to congregate somewhere has grown.
Villagers have told them that if the church was up and running people would come.
We're refurbishing the church and fixing it up and putting lots of time and effort and
money into it because we believe that God will supply the souls - that God will bring people and
He will open up doors and the time will come that we will have a fellowship here;
we will have a church family.
The work needs to be done patiently and prayers for opportunities are made every
day.
Although God is guiding the Sherman's mission work, the cold weather,
difficult circumstances and distance from loved one's are discouraging.
Sometimes my wife and I are discouraged when we are here alone.
You know, we sometimes feel that we're just kind of out here by ourselves and we are tempted to
feel like we are not making the impact and no one is really with us,
and no one is really supporting us; and there's been times that we felt like it would be nice to
maybe move and join a different type of mission field where there's people who are working
together more as a team.
I'm kind of like seeing like what are my weaknesses, you know,
and it kind of helps me to know at the same time that God is kind of helping me to work with
it.
I'm very impatient, I want things to happen, if I want it to happen - I want it to happen
but living out here, I've learned that things doesn't happen when you want it to
happen.
One thing that has always given us hope is knowing that we're doing what God has asked us to
do and we've had comfort in that.
To be a missionary is like leaving what you have behind and go somewhere different and
getting out of your comfort zone.
You know the coldness of the water, the coldness of the icebergs,
kind of reminds me of the coldness that can come in the heart when you feel lonely,
separated from God and yet the warmth of God's love and of His people can bring into your life
a wonderful connection that will help you not to feel alone.
The things that inspire Irene and I are, there's a few different things,
but God will often times provide opportunities, He will open doors,
He will actually cause things to happen that give us glimpses of what He's doing,
you know.
We'll start a new study or someone will say something to us that will give us encouragement,
we'll see some fruit of the relationships we're building with kids as well as with people
in the community.
You know, God will do something to help us see that His work is being accomplished through us
and that our faithfulness is pleasing to Him.
The courage and faithfulness Tony and Irene have is contagious.
Their determination to fulfil the mission is inspiring.
God and His angels comfort them, and motivate them to move ahead despite challenges,
the faces, the sounds, the people, the landscapes.
Besides being so small and completely isolated, Shungnak is still a huge priority for
Christ.
The Sherman's example is a beautiful testimony of selflessness to revive the
mission.
They might be alone but they are never by themselves.
Jesus is everything.
I mean, Jesus is the reason why I'm here.
If I don't, I mean, if not for Him I won't be able to make it.
I won't be able to live here for 4 years.
Jesus, for me, He is Everything.
He's my friend, He is my encouragement, He is my strength,
He is the one I go to when I'm hurt, when I maybe can't talk to my own family,
He is the one I can speak to about every single problem I have and He is the One who is
changing me from the inside out.
Just look at this grandeur, the glacier, the icebergs, the water,
the mountains.
You could feel very much alone here, maybe kind of like New York but very different.
We're here in Times Square, what a contrast between Alaska and New York.
So many colors, sparkling lights, millions of people, the glamor,
the fame, the buzz.
New York is a city drastically different from Shungnak.
At first glance, it seems that everybody has something to do, places to go,
everyone is ready to enjoy life.
It doesn't matter how busy people seem to be, how entertained people think they
are, the bottom line is that if we don't experience Jesus in our lives we have an empty void
inside.
We feel lonely, even in a crowd, that emptiness can only be filled by Christ.
In that matter, New York is exactly the same Shungnak, the outside may be busier but on the
inside we are all the same - humans in desperate need of a Savior.
That was the challenge the North American Division faced, how do we reach people so dear to
Christ's heart in a place as isolated as Shungnak and how do we reach people in a place as
busy and overflowing with action as New York City.
The whole issue of reaching the cities is an issue that now has become preeminent in the world
church, and New York City is a symbol of not only huge cities but it's also,
when you read the writings of Ellen White, it was a focus and she basically was saying that
New York should be worked and how it should be worked.
And so New York was chosen jointly by the General Conference and the North
American Division as kind of a place where the urban center evangelism around the world
would be initiated.
To realize the dream and address the challenges, NY13 was created,
a comprehensive urban evangelistic initiative designed to involve each church
administrator, department director, pastor and church member in the greater
metropolitan New York City area.
It produced more than 400 evangelistic campaigns in one year.
To achieve such synergy, the church leadership planned every detail,
discussed ideas, formed radical prayer groups, focused on intercessory prayer,
conducted training programs and also a first of it's kind, world field school of evangelism.
We are seeing pastor's excited, the lay people are excited, churches are excited and for
what is happening this is just a phenomenon situation here and I believe that God is here working
with us and working with the people.
I had the chance to participate in a number of events and saw how members filled the autorium
at Hunter College for the NY13 evangelism rally, hosted by speaker Mark Finley.
There are multiple ways you can be involved, one of the ways, of course is go with your local
pastor and say, "Pastor, we want to be sure that our church is involved in NY13."
Ernestine Finley conducted a lay training seminar called, "Light Your World for God,"
with nearly 600
lay people in attendance who are excited to learn effective principles of soul winning.
We are already on the verge of the kingdom waiting to be gathered in and we're looking
for them, we're trying to find them.
Who are they?
Lay people were deeply committed to Christ and their passion to witness made the difference in
New York City.
I want to see thousands of new disciples serving the Lord here in the city.
I want to see the Church regenerated, revived.
I want to see a new life in the Adventist community of New York.
For the first time ever, an international field school of evangelism was organized with
specialized teachers from different Adventist universities and institutions.
The initiative was held at the Luso Brazilian church in Queens and consisted of practical
classes and seminars exploring the biblical principles of comprehensive urban evangelism
in the context of the world's major cities, as well at the needed tools to launch a
comprehensive urban evangelistic approach in their respective territories.
The classes happened in the morning for several days, in the evenings most of the
participants held evangelistic series in the metropolitan, New York and New Jersey area
churches.
I had the honor of going back to where I started my ministry at the historic Manhattan
Seventh-day Adventist church to conduct a three-week evangelistic series called,
"Revelation of Hope" as part of mission to the cities NY13 series.
Mark Finley was the host of the meetings and Robert Costa translated the messages into
Spanish.
Seventy people were baptized as a result of the series and 7 churches were involved.
Youth from the "One Year in Mission" initiative developed a creative method of evangelism,
extending its community outreach to teach English as a second language.
The whole team put the project together because we saw the community is mostly Dominican
and they don't speak English at all.
So we came up with the idea to help them with something that they really need,
so that's why we designed ESL classes to reach the community.
The class is very good to me.
I'm so happy, [to] have class in my community - helping me a lot to speak correct English.
Most of the people are immigrants and you can actually understand the reason why most
of them are here and the challenges that they have in terms of communicating in
English with the people around them, it's a drawback.
So having to help them out with that, it's actually a blessing.
The class actually over today, it's the last one and tomorrow is starting the evangelistic
crusade downtown in 11th street.
So we actually invited all of them, officially to the evangelistic crusade saying,
basically putting it as practical English classes since the crusade will be in English
and Spanish – translated.
So we invited all of them to come to have special reserved seats,
and to basically practice English.
The North American Division Health Ministries department also held a health summit,
which provide the opportunity for church leaders to be trained on principles of health and how
to conduct various health outreach programs within the church's and communities around
New York City.
Praise God for the tremendous resources that this summit has brought to our people.
They have come from all over, they are here from as far away as California,
they are here from different states of the United States and of course our own brothers and
sisters, men and women, visitors, guests here in New York City.
The NY13 leadership decided to meet the communities needs and provide hope for common health
problems.
"Let's Move Day" was an event where churches, schools and health care institutions were
encourage to host runs, walks or other active events for kids, youth and families.
The whole point of Let's Move Day in the NY13 context was to mingle with people,
extend kindness, make friends and share a message of health, hope and wholeness.
The world is full of inconsistencies and that's not a way a person should – I don't
want to live my life with inconsistencies so I found by building a relationship with God
that I will find consistency by the way I should live my life.
The joint camp meeting at the Nassau Veteran's Memorial Coliseum was one for the record
books - close to 13,000 attended the Sabbath services.
About 135 people were baptized following the worship services.
I look into my life and there is an empty, empty space that cannot be filled with anything
and I've tried and I've tried and I cannot find that peace that keeps you – just God.
Even with nothing to eat, but you have that peace and you are happy.
And only with my God I feel that I can restore my life and become a better person,
a better mom and do a little bit more in this world and I feel happy.
According to reports from the NY13 steering committee, there have been at least 5,200
baptisms as a result of NY13.
God loves people, it doesn't matter where they are, it doesn't matter what their
situation is, they can be isolated in a far-away land, they can be isolated in a crowd.
God is interested in filling the void, bringing fulfillment and purpose to a lonely soul.
From the heat of a big city to the cold of a seemingly forgotten village,
God is willing to provide hope and especially companionship - it doesn't matter the need.
Our task is to open our hearts to Him and surrender our lives to His service.
It can be the job of an individual or it can involve thousands of people.
God will fill in the blanks and make his message known.
We just have to be willing.
Here at the mouth of a glacier you feel the incredible power of God's presence,
it's an amazing place where nature takes it's turn in showing the fingerprints of God.
It's an amazing setting and a feeling that helps you to know that God is real,
His marvelous works are incredible.
I think of Psalm 105, the first four verses, "O give thanks unto the Lord;
call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.
Glory ye in His holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
Seek the Lord, and His strength: seek His face evermore." In a quiet,
solitary place like this, God's presence is felt but it doesn't matter if you're in the middle
of a big city, out in the country side or wherever you are,
you can seek God's presence and He is there.
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