Latest / Mission SONlight CHATT / Mission SONlight Chatt Season 4 Ep. 19 Heidi Martin - Hope Channel

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Mission SONlight Chatt Season 4 Ep. 19 Heidi Martin - Hope Channel · Mission SONlight CHATT

0:09
Welcome to Network 7's Mission Sunlight Chat.
0:11
We are here at the General Conference Session
0:13
in the Exhibit Hall. Lots of buzz going on as
0:17
the afternoon comes on us here. And folks coming
0:21
and meeting one another, learning about ministry
0:23
that's happening for Jesus around the globe.
0:26
Hundreds of ministries here. We are excited to
0:29
have one of those ministries present with us
0:31
now. Heidi Martine, you are here and you are
0:34
representing Hope Channel. Heidi, what is the
0:37
name of the program? you do on Hope Channel.
0:39
So my husband and I host Wake Up With Hope on
0:42
Hope Channel. It's the morning program. It's
0:44
airing at 7 a .m. and 10 a .m. Okay. Five days
0:48
a week. Wow. Wake Up With Hope. Yes. I like the
0:51
idea of that. And I think I've seen a few of
0:53
your programs too. So maybe we'll show an excerpt.
0:56
Who knows? Before we get started, Heidi, would
0:58
you have prayer for us? Sure. Lord, thank you
1:01
so much for the privilege of being here. We are
1:03
enjoying meeting people from all around the world,
1:05
and we are inspired by what you're doing and
1:09
where you're at work, and we want to be at work
1:11
there too. Thank you so much for being with us
1:13
today. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Heidi, you
1:18
know, you work with Hope Channel. It's an international,
1:20
worldwide media organization doing incredible
1:24
ministry all over the world, but that hasn't
1:26
always been what you've done. That's correct.
1:28
You grew up somewhere and had family somewhere.
1:32
Tell us about your early years. Well, actually,
1:35
I'm a pastor's daughter. Not all of our audience
1:39
is Seventh -day Adventist, so I'm going to clarify.
1:41
Are you a Seventh -day Adventist Christian? I
1:43
am a Seventh -day Adventist Christian. I was
1:45
born into a Seventh -day Adventist home. My dad
1:47
was a pastor. He was also an evangelist. What
1:51
does that mean, an evangelist? doing meetings,
1:56
Bible seminars, talking specifically about Bible
1:59
prophecy, talking a lot about Daniel and Revelation,
2:02
but also the gospel. But for most of my life,
2:06
my dad was a regular church pastor. Okay. And
2:10
your family growing up, kids, siblings? I have
2:12
one sister. She's 18 months younger than me.
2:15
Are you the mean big sister or does she think
2:19
you're sweet? She probably thinks you're sweet
2:20
now. We've always been best friends. friends
2:22
pretty much because we moved quite a bit because
2:24
when you're a pastor's kid you end up moving
2:26
to different churches and so and your family
2:29
is the constant especially your sister yeah exactly
2:31
so that was a big part of our just having her
2:33
there you know and being able to be together
2:35
when we made these moves and stuff we had many
2:37
other friends obviously but we were she's that
2:40
one constant you know that's always been in my
2:42
life so we're really good friends even to this
2:44
very day tell us about your mom My mom is a registered
2:48
nurse, and she's a health educator. Growing up,
2:51
she was super involved in my dad's ministry,
2:53
and they in turn involved us in ministry, which
2:57
was, in my opinion, an amazing thing. We weren't
3:00
just on the sidelines. We were in the middle
3:01
of everything. Your mom being a nurse, your dad
3:04
being a pastor makes me remember when I was in
3:06
my pastoral years with my late wife and she would
3:08
go in and the church members would be like, do
3:11
you play the piano or are you a nurse? And she'd
3:13
say, sorry, neither one. So your mom fit the
3:17
package that some churches have expecting their
3:21
pastor's wife to be in. So that's kind of cool.
3:25
So where did you live growing up? So we lived
3:27
in... Basically in four states. We lived in Michigan.
3:31
My dad was in the seminary when I was born. So
3:34
you're a Michigander by birth? I'm pretty much
3:36
a Michigander by birth because I was born right
3:38
there by Andrews University. My dad took a position
3:42
in the Wisconsin Conference and ended up pastoring
3:44
10 churches over there. Oh, so you're a cheesehead,
3:46
too. Yeah, man, you have to be a Green Bay Packers
3:48
fan if you live in Wisconsin for the rest of
3:50
your life. So we all are cheeseheads. Let me
3:53
tell you a little funny story. We had a firefighter
3:55
who was in Wisconsin, cheesehead, through and
3:58
through. He went to pastor, and I won't, how
4:01
do I say this without ratting him out here? He
4:04
went to Tillamook, Tillamook. Which, of course,
4:07
Tillamook cheese. He actually had to turn over
4:09
his cheese head to one of his leaders and commit
4:13
to being a lover of Tillamook when he went there
4:16
to pastor. It's a thing. It's a real thing. So
4:19
the funny thing is we've also pastored in Oregon.
4:21
We've been to Tillamook, been through the cheese
4:23
factory and all of that. So, yeah. So you cheated,
4:26
too. I know all about it. All right. So Michigan,
4:31
Wisconsin, Oregon. Yeah. So with my parents.
4:34
We lived in Michigan, Wisconsin, and then actually
4:37
Ohio, and then back to Michigan. So I actually
4:40
spent most of my life in Michigan, 22 years in
4:43
Michigan, and then ended up going up to Andrews
4:45
University. Okay, so I have family from Ohio,
4:48
from southern and eastern Ohio. I was curious
4:50
where you were. My dad pastored in Newark, Ohio,
4:53
and Lancaster. Lancaster, okay, so that's further
4:55
north. It's actually just on 70 straight east
4:58
of Columbus, about 30 minutes. Okay. All right,
5:03
so I'm not familiar with those towns, and I thought
5:04
they were further north. So I've got family in
5:07
the Columbus area. I think one of the towns there
5:11
to the south, Asheville maybe, center something.
5:16
Anyway, and then I've got family all around the
5:19
Dayton, Xenia, Cincinnati area as well. Okay,
5:21
so growing up. Was it just natural for you to
5:28
be a follower of Jesus or did you have to go
5:30
through some process of conversion? You know,
5:33
the first three years of my life, our mom homeschooled
5:36
us and then we went to the church school. I can
5:39
just tell you that we loved ministry. My parents.
5:44
Really loved ministry so much, and they involved
5:46
us in ministry so much. And we did so many amazing
5:49
things that we just absolutely loved it. And
5:53
I think from even a young age, I was just like,
5:56
I want to be part of ministry. You grew up in
5:58
Jesus. I want to be involved in ministry, yeah.
6:00
We didn't have, and I know some pastor's kids
6:03
have had really rough experiences where they
6:05
just got really resentful. about being a pastor's
6:09
kid, but I never really, praise God, I didn't
6:12
really have ever that feeling. One thing that
6:15
was really pivotal for me that my parents did
6:18
was when I was 16 years old, we got invited to
6:22
go to Romania on an evangelistic mission trip
6:27
where my dad was going to be preaching in multiple
6:29
sites and doing many different evangelistic series.
6:34
And so we went there for two months. And my parents,
6:39
praise God, they literally let us leave school.
6:42
Wow. And so my sister was 14. I was 16. Good
6:44
for them. I'm a believer in travel being the
6:46
best educator. And so we took our schoolwork
6:49
with us. We didn't just quit school. We took
6:51
schoolwork with us. We took all of our music
6:53
with us. We were in music lessons, piano. We
6:55
could sing. Since I was three years old, I was
6:57
singing on the platform. You were using those
6:59
instruments and the evangelistic piano. Yeah.
7:01
So we got over there. And it was in 1993, and
7:05
Romania had just been, was coming out of communism.
7:09
And so that was super impactful for us. The youth
7:12
that we met there, the work that we were able
7:16
to do there, what we saw there when you would
7:18
go into a grocery store and there was, like,
7:20
basically nothing on the shelves and the lights
7:21
were all off. And it was so primitive at that
7:26
time. I know it's not that way now, but that
7:28
completely impacted my life and made me want
7:31
to be involved in ministry and in missions even
7:33
more. And then we had the privilege of going
7:36
back there again to do the same thing to the
7:38
same location where we already knew all the youth,
7:41
and they had an amazing youth group. And back
7:43
there again in 1995. So I was 16 and 18, and
7:47
I think that those experiences were super pivotal
7:49
for me. Grounded you. Mm -hmm. And ministry.
7:52
Fell in love with Jesus and fell in love with
7:54
evangelism, ministry. Yeah, yeah. All right.
7:57
So growing up years, take us into college. your
8:02
family life. Yeah. So let me back up just a touch.
8:05
My mom really had a vision for my sister and
8:08
I to develop our own relationship with Jesus.
8:10
And so we would always wake up and she would
8:13
be having her devotions. And we would always
8:16
come out. We were like three, five years old,
8:18
you know, really young and interrupting her.
8:20
So I think she had a divine inspiration where
8:22
God was like, give them each a Bible and give
8:25
them something to do with it. So we were really,
8:27
really tiny. Our mom would give us a Bible and
8:29
she would say, underline the word God. And so
8:32
we would just underline the word God. And then
8:34
she gave us the word love. And so that's how
8:36
we started having our own personal walk with
8:38
God and our own devotion. So it was a really
8:40
amazing thing that she did that. So that kind
8:43
of. took me into reading Steps to Christ and
8:46
studying the Bible for myself. And then before
8:48
I got to Andrews, I had the amazing experience,
8:50
which I didn't mention a little bit ago. When
8:53
I was 14 years old, I was invited to be part
8:55
of the mega -booking program, which had just
8:58
started. And so there I was, knocking on doors,
9:02
14 years old, selling books for the first time
9:05
in my life, and I got into that. So I did that
9:08
for eight summers. I did four summers as a student
9:11
and then four summers as a leader of my own call
9:14
porter team. Back then it was called Meg Books.
9:15
Now it's, I think, called Youth Rush. And so
9:18
that was another really grounding experience
9:20
that happened for me before I ever got to college.
9:23
Made a difference. Yeah. Okay. So now take us
9:26
to college. Okay. So when I got to Andrews University,
9:29
I was super excited to be there my freshman year.
9:32
I was. realizing that when it came to Sabbath,
9:37
there was nothing to do except go to the beach.
9:39
And I loved Andrews. I was having a great experience,
9:41
but I started praying. I'm like, Lord, this is,
9:44
we need to, something needs to be done. The campus
9:48
would go dead on Sabbath. And so I went through
9:51
my freshman year like that, just kind of getting
9:52
used to the place and, you know, kind of getting
9:55
acclimated. But sophomore year, first Sabbath
9:57
of the school year, I'm sitting in Pioneer Memorial
10:00
Church and Pastor Dwight Nelson is preaching.
10:02
And he says, We must come to the place where
10:05
what breaks the heart of God breaks our hearts
10:07
too. And when he said that, then he started preaching
10:10
about Benton Harbor, Michigan. And he said, it's
10:12
30 minutes away. We need to get down there, and
10:16
we need to reach this community for Jesus. For
10:21
those who may not know, Benton Harbor at that
10:24
time was a majority black city, and it was separated
10:31
by a river. and then it was St. Joe, and that
10:33
was majority white. And it was very much very
10:38
different dynamics in those two towns and not
10:42
a lot of crossover. Economic disparity or racial
10:47
tension too? Both, extremely. And so he was appealing
10:51
to the student body the first Sabbath of the
10:54
year to do something. And I was sitting there,
10:58
and I looked at my friend who was sitting beside
11:00
me, and I said, we've got to go down there. And
11:02
he's like, when? Or, you know, I said today.
11:06
Yeah. And then we had a couple other friends,
11:09
four other friends kind of sit. No, actually,
11:11
they weren't even friends. We'd never met. We
11:13
looked at them and we're like, hey, we're going
11:15
down to Benton Harbor this afternoon. You want
11:16
to come? And four of them were like, yeah, sure.
11:19
Oh, by the way, what's your name? And so the
11:21
six of us ate lunch in the cafeteria. Then we
11:25
got in two cars. And, no, we were in one car,
11:30
back up. We were in one car, and we just started
11:31
praying. We prayed before we left the dorm. We
11:34
started driving down there. We got to a cross
11:38
street. We pulled over to the side. We prayed,
11:40
Lord, where should we turn? Then we took a left
11:43
until we, at every corner, we started praying.
11:46
Amen. Left, right, straight, and then, before
11:49
you know it, we're on this street, completely
11:52
boarded up houses. Some weren't. Crashed out
11:56
windows. It almost looked like a war zone. Wow.
12:00
And I'm thinking to myself, we're 30 minutes
12:02
from Andrews. I've never seen this. Wow. And
12:05
so we parked, and we split up in groups of two,
12:08
and we started knocking on doors. Boarded up
12:13
houses. Oh, my. People were so excited to see
12:17
us. They were, like, in tears. Wow. We were like,
12:21
how can we pray for you? And we were down there
12:24
for two hours just praying with people door to
12:27
door. We were so charged up and so excited when
12:32
we got done. We got back to the dorms. We parked.
12:36
We had a thank you prayer. I called up Pastor
12:39
Dwight, and I'm like, Pastor Dwight, you're never
12:40
going to believe what we just did. And we told
12:43
him what we did, and he was like, this is amazing.
12:46
The next Sabbath he preached. And he said, guys,
12:49
six students went down last week. Who's going
12:51
this week? Meet at the Lampson Hall dorm at 3
12:55
p .m., and they'll be there, and you guys are
12:57
going to go. We got to the Lampson Hall dorm.
12:59
Thirty students are waiting for us. Praise the
13:02
Lord. We all divided up, got in cars, split up
13:05
territory, streets, and we got down there, and
13:07
we just started knocking doors again. And it
13:10
just grew from there. And that was the grounding
13:13
experience that God gave me at Andrews University
13:16
to be able to have ministry every single Sabbath.
13:20
And it grew to two buses loaded with students,
13:25
over 200 students heading down to Benton Harbor
13:28
every single Sabbath. We got a building. that
13:31
was donated to us to use every week. We had children's
13:35
ministries. It was like a VBS program. We had
13:38
crafts. We had snacks. We had singing. We had
13:40
the health students, like the nursing students
13:43
and different students from Andrews that were
13:45
working on medical things. They would go door
13:47
-to -door, do blood pressures, check people's
13:50
health out at their houses. We had street cleanup
13:53
students could be involved in. We had... Bible
14:00
study ministries. People were given Bible studies.
14:02
It was an amazing year. Those were amazing years.
14:06
So from sophomore, junior, senior years, I was
14:09
involved in Benton Harbor Street Ministries is
14:11
what we called it. And we ended up when Pastor
14:14
Dwight did the net series, we planted a church
14:17
in one of those houses that was boarded up. We
14:20
got access to it. And that's where the Harbor
14:23
of Hope. is what it's called now. But the church
14:26
started, it was called Pavone Mission, and it
14:29
started in that little house. So praise God.
14:32
And it's still there. It's still there, but now
14:33
it's a building, and it's called Harbor of Hope,
14:35
7th Avenue Church. It's not in that same location,
14:37
but it's a full -blown church now. You like that
14:40
name, Hope, in your churches. We're going to
14:41
come to that in the second segment. Yes, yes,
14:43
yes. Just give us the short story, how you connected
14:45
with your husband. involved in ministry and just
14:50
loving ministry I started praying God I want
14:52
to be involved in ministry for the rest of my
14:54
life I ended up being a social work major and
14:56
Spanish major so I was praying that God would
15:00
bring someone into my life that loved ministry
15:02
as much as I did and so my husband actually went
15:06
to school at Southern. I went at Andrews. You'd
15:08
think we would have met people, but we didn't.
15:10
He came to pastor in the Michigan Conference.
15:12
My dad was a pastor in the Michigan Conference.
15:14
So we ended up meeting at Camp Asobel at a pastor's
15:16
retreat because I was working at Camp Asobel
15:19
that summer and realized after talking to one
15:21
another that we love mission, we love ministry.
15:24
And he came to see me working in Benton Harbor
15:27
Street Ministries and I think realized this girl's
15:30
legit. She's for real about ministry. And so,
15:33
yeah. That's how we met. That's how God brought
15:36
us together. And we got married in 2001. And
15:38
this is going to be our 25th wedding anniversary
15:40
still in ministry. Amen. And if you think she's
15:44
got some energy, wait till you meet her husband.
15:47
Yeah, take me up several notches and then you
15:50
got him. I don't know. Maybe you're like, you
15:52
know. He's got a lot of energy, too. We're going
15:55
to learn more about your ministry with Hope Channel
15:57
in just a moment. I want to remind our folks
15:58
at home, you can connect with us at missionsunlight
16:00
.org. You can text us at 1 -423 -855 -4877. And
16:05
always, you can email us at hello at missionsunlight
16:08
.org. We'll be back with more Mission Sunlight
16:10
Chat. Being a media missionary can mean many
16:22
different things. It means the love of a home
16:24
at the heart of the planet, the intrepid spirit
16:28
of a village, and the vibe of a great metropolis.
16:31
It means camera one and camera two. It means
16:36
transforming a school, orphanage, or hospital.
16:39
It means fire, rain, ice, and snow. It means
16:44
gifts by the dollar and by the check. It means
16:48
donations that roll and donations that fly. It's
16:53
a movement on a trail or down a motorway. It
16:57
means family. All of us together. And individually.
17:03
It's who you are or who you are becoming. And
17:08
to her, it's a simple gesture that means hope.
17:11
Whatever it means to you, being a media missionary.
17:15
means more than you might think. Welcome back
17:27
to Mission Sunlight Chat. We are talking with
17:29
Heidi Martine, who is excited about sharing Jesus.
17:34
Heidi, thanks for joining us. I wonder, can you
17:37
tell us more about your work with Hope Channel,
17:39
you and Christian, your husband, we didn't say
17:40
his name earlier, you and Christian's work? years
17:45
ago, Christian and I, we love to preach together
17:48
sometimes. We did a sermon on marriage and we
17:51
were preaching in our church, which is the Living
17:53
Hope Seventh -day Adventist Church right there
17:55
in Haymarket, Virginia, where we've been pastoring
17:58
for a little over six years now. One of our good
18:01
friends, Justin Kim, he's now the editor of the
18:03
Adventist Review. He was there that Sabbath,
18:05
and he knew about an opening at Hope Channel.
18:08
They were wanting to start a morning show called
18:10
Wake Up With Hope. And when he saw us interact
18:13
and preach together, he came up to us afterward.
18:15
He's like, you guys, what would you think about
18:17
doing the Wake Up With Hope show on Hope Channel?
18:20
They're looking for hosts. And so that's how
18:22
we found out about it. It's the first we'd ever
18:24
known about it. We went through a little interview
18:26
process, and they tested us out on the screen.
18:29
And a couple months later, they called us up
18:32
and said, we picked you guys. Will you do it?
18:34
And, of course, then the weight kind of came
18:37
on my shoulders. I've never done TV. I've never
18:39
done recording. I didn't know anything about
18:40
that. But, you know, we just felt like the Lord
18:42
was leading in that. And so we're about 1 ,100,
18:46
1 ,200 episodes later, and here we are today,
18:49
still rolling with Wake Up With Hope. It's a
18:52
really neat show that is for mornings. A lot
18:57
of people wake up in the morning and they're
18:58
looking for something encouraging to wake up
19:01
to. Absolutely. And so that's where we're at
19:03
with Wake Up With Hope. It sounds like a radio
19:05
show, Wake Up With Hope with Christian and Heidi.
19:09
Yep. So we have lots of different segments. We
19:11
have health segments. We have spiritual devotional
19:14
segments. We have Loma Linda University's on
19:17
there. We have Dr. Meredith McKibbin. She's with
19:20
Doctors' Orders. We have devotionals from Jesus
19:23
101. We've had Breath of Life on there. Pastor
19:26
Mark Finley's on there. John Bradshaw's on there
19:29
from It Is Written. We've had Voice of Prophecy
19:31
segments as well with Gene Boonstra, Sean Boonstra,
19:35
as well as Alex Rodriguez. We've had many different.
19:40
musical people, recording artists that are on
19:43
there. It's just a beautiful way to wake up in
19:46
the morning to start your day with Jesus. Amen.
19:48
What a blessing. Can they find that online as
19:51
well? Yes, you can go to hopetv .org and you
19:56
can see Wake Up With Hope there as well as all
19:58
the other programming that Hope Channel offers
20:00
also on YouTube. So let's talk about that. Some
20:04
people may not be familiar with Hope Channel.
20:05
This may be the first time they've heard of it,
20:07
so they're hearing about Wake Up With Hope. But
20:08
there's a lot more to Hope Channel than just
20:10
one program. Tell us about Hope Channel. So Hope
20:12
Channel is the official TV channel of the Seventh
20:16
-day Adventist Church. There's over 70 -plus
20:19
stations around the world. and it's an amazing
20:23
ministry of the Seventh -day Adventist Church
20:25
and we're so happy to be able to be part of it
20:28
in a small way hosting their morning program
20:30
but there's many other programs on parenting
20:33
on family life if you go to hopetv .org you can
20:38
see what we offer as far as TV we also have The
20:44
Hopeful movie that has come out recently. Yeah,
20:46
Hope Studios has just released this. It's called
20:48
The Hopeful. Yes. Where can they find that, by
20:50
the way? You can go on YouTube and find it. It's
20:53
also available on our website. And if you're
20:56
here at the general conference session, you can
20:58
even go across the street to the theater. And
21:01
they're airing it every single day this week,
21:03
multiple times throughout the day, and watch
21:04
that. So you can actually watch The Hopeful for
21:07
free on YouTube? I believe it's accessible on
21:11
YouTube. I don't know if it's free or not yet,
21:13
but I believe it's accessible there as well.
21:17
The reason why I wanted to highlight The Hopeful
21:19
is because we have a worldwide audience. Not
21:22
all Christian, not all Adventist. And this would
21:25
be a great way for them to learn more about the
21:27
Adventist history. That's right. If they're curious.
21:30
and want to know this film called The Hopeful
21:32
that was produced by Hope Channel's Hope Studios.
21:36
So just wanted to kind of highlight that. Thanks
21:38
for putting that plug in there, and that is true.
21:40
It's a beautiful movie that really tells a lot
21:43
about the history of the Seventh -day Adventist
21:44
Church. Some of our listeners and viewers will
21:46
be familiar with one of our other podcasts, Mission
21:48
Sunlight Sabbath School, which is a reading of
21:51
the Bible Study Guide for Adults, Sabbath Morning,
21:54
we call it. the quarterly. So I read the lessons.
21:59
One of my oldest adult daughter, she reads the
22:03
scripture text and we just go through the lesson
22:05
and read it. That's all it is. It's great for
22:07
teachers, great for students. And my particular
22:10
burden for it was I have a brother -in -law who's
22:12
visually impaired and he wanted to be able to
22:13
hear the lesson so he could be prepared to do
22:16
the lesson, share the lesson at church. So it
22:19
is great for the visually impaired. I mentioned
22:22
that because Hope Channel has an extraordinary
22:26
by Christian and Mai's mentor from college, Derek
22:32
Morris, and Derek and Bodell, his wife. Tag team
22:37
producing the Hope Channel Sabbath School. Hope
22:40
Sabbath School. And so if you haven't tuned in
22:43
to Hope Sabbath School, you can also find that
22:44
at Hope Channel. Yes, that is one of our main
22:47
programs. People love Hope Sabbath School. My
22:49
husband was one of the teachers on Hope Sabbath
22:52
School multiple times as well with Pastor Derek
22:55
Morris. What a blessing to be able to be part
22:58
of that as well. Dr. Morris is retired now, but
23:02
he lives in my neck of the woods, just almost
23:05
behind some of my property that I own up in Tennessee.
23:09
We're very close to being neighbors, yes. I want
23:14
to point out that we are here at the General
23:15
Conference Session Exhibit Hall, so they're making
23:18
announcements overhead. Every now and then you'll
23:20
hear some music as well and other noises in the
23:23
background. We're glad to have that, Heidi, because
23:25
it means that... Hundreds of ministries are here
23:29
talking about the work that Jesus is doing around
23:33
the world through people. And that's an exciting
23:36
blessing. We're not resentful at all about the
23:38
noise, although we have to talk a little louder.
23:40
We're grateful for the opportunity to connect
23:42
with ministries just like yours. I'm going to
23:44
take a break, come back to talk a little bit
23:47
more about living hope. Okay. And also I know
23:50
you're going to share a special word for our
23:51
listeners and viewers as well. We will be back
23:53
in a moment. I want to remind you, you can connect
23:54
with us. You can even give at missionsunlight
23:57
.org. You can text us at 1 -423 -855 -4877. or
24:02
you can email us at hello at missionsunlight
24:06
.org. That website, missionsunlight .org, is
24:08
where you can find out about many of the other
24:11
projects that we're working on at Network 7.
24:13
And, of course, click the Donate button if you
24:15
wish. We'll be back in a moment with more Mission
24:18
Sunlight Chat. Our salvation is a day -to -day
24:29
matter, isn't it? The real principle of the Sabbath
24:34
is reconnecting ourselves with the Creator. We
24:42
must learn to abide in Jesus now. We move ahead
24:46
with our mission objectives, recognizing that
24:49
we are serving together the Most High God. Welcome
25:05
back to Mission Sunlight Chat. I'm talking with
25:07
Heidi Martine from the Hope Channel and also
25:09
Living Hope Seventh -day Adventist Church because
25:11
that's where you and your husband have teen ministry.
25:14
Let's talk about Living Hope there. You are in,
25:16
that's Haymarket, Virginia, I think. Yeah, so
25:19
tell us about the ministry that you're doing
25:21
there. It's not just maybe your average Seventh
25:24
-day Adventist church, a little bit something
25:26
different. Yes, it is a little bit something
25:27
different. About 10 years ago, Pastor Mark and
25:30
Teenie Finley. cast a vision to a small church
25:33
called Warrington Seventh -day Adventist Church
25:35
of ministry and ended up purchasing a piece of
25:40
land on the edge of a golf community in a very
25:43
wealthy area there of Northern Virginia and built
25:47
the first Seventh -day Adventist Church in that
25:49
area. to very specific specifications because
25:54
of the type of neighborhood that it is. It's
25:57
a gated golf community. So we have a two story
26:00
church building. It's a beautiful facility that
26:03
they raised most of the money for. And it's been
26:07
there now almost 10 years. And God has been truly
26:09
blessing the ministry there. My husband is the
26:13
pastor of the Living Hope Seventh -day Adventist
26:15
Church. And we've been there a little over six
26:17
years now. And just really been enjoying working
26:21
with Pastor Mark and Teenie Finley. They run...
26:25
The School of Evangelism, Hope Lives 365. They
26:28
also have a retreat center nearby the church,
26:31
and we also have done a lot of ministry together
26:34
with them. It's a thriving church. We have over
26:39
200 members, and typically on a Sabbath, we have
26:42
close to 300 people that attend the church. So
26:46
it's packed out, to say the least. Amen. What
26:50
a blessing. What would you say the... I guess
26:55
the most exciting thing in these 10 years, what
26:57
would you say the most exciting thing is that's
26:59
happening there? Well, since we've gotten there,
27:01
it's just been, I haven't been there the whole
27:03
10 years, but for the last little over six years,
27:06
it's been steadily growing. And we've started
27:09
a Pathfinder Club. We've started an Adventure
27:11
Club. Those are programs for children. It's kind
27:15
of like a Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts kind of thing,
27:17
but Christian clubs where kids can learn about
27:20
camping and learn about how to... Life skills.
27:23
Yeah, life skills and drawing into a relationship
27:25
with Jesus. Also, we've had a number of different
27:28
evangelistic initiatives. Because of the type
27:31
of community that we serve there, we've had to
27:33
get a little bit creative because it's a gated
27:36
community and we can't go door to door and invite
27:39
people to things. We've had a lot of cooking
27:42
classes and health initiatives there. We've also
27:45
had a Bible seminar where we've invited people
27:48
to learn more about Bible prophecy. But another
27:51
piece that we did recently that was a new idea
27:55
was to do a 5K for our community. And we had
28:00
over 200 people come and run this 5K. They got
28:04
T -shirts. They got medals. It was called Footprints
28:07
of Hope. And the community loved it. They came
28:10
out. They supported it. They said, when are you
28:13
going to do this again? We love this. So they've
28:17
been like that with all the health initiatives
28:18
that we've done. And we've had numbers of people
28:21
attend church. People join the Living Hope Seventh
28:24
-day Adventist Church because of these different
28:26
health initiatives. So that has been a real drawing.
28:31
effort that we've done specifically focused on
28:33
health and well -being and also the bible seminars
28:37
have also drawn many people into the church too
28:39
health and fitness is a big important factor
28:42
it's also a big important way of reaching people
28:45
i know that teeny and christian your husband
28:48
teeny mark's wife are runners i married a long
28:52
distance runner as well and she keeps me out
28:54
on the road yep i haven't run since we've been
28:57
here in st louis i need to get out yeah i run
28:59
too and i'm feeling like I need to get out and
29:01
run. So tomorrow morning, let's run. All right,
29:04
maybe we'll pass in the street. All right, one
29:07
last encouraging word for our listeners and viewers
29:09
before we go. Well, as I look back over my life,
29:12
I can praise God so much for the joy of being
29:15
in ministry. When you are in ministry, your life
29:20
is filled so much because you're always... seeing
29:26
someone new you can talk to, someone new you
29:28
can reach, something else that you can do. And
29:31
there's so much joy in that. Does that mean that
29:33
there's never hard times? No, there's hard times
29:35
in ministry as well. But working for Jesus, I
29:39
have found, is the most rewarding thing that
29:41
we could ever do in our life. And there's been
29:45
moments where there's been hard times. And one
29:50
of the things that I was thinking, even just
29:51
yesterday, as I was studying my Bible, I knew
29:54
I was going to be at the Hope Channel booth here.
29:56
And I was praying, God, help me to be able to
29:58
reach someone even here. And then I thought,
30:01
the thought came to me, be a blessing in the
30:03
waiting. Because so much of our life, we wait.
30:06
You know, we're waiting on that special person
30:09
to come along. We're waiting on this certain
30:10
job or we're waiting on. you know, being able
30:13
to go to a place, do something, whatever. But
30:16
I'm like, in the waiting, God, make me a blessing.
30:20
Use me in the waiting to reach someone else for
30:24
you. And that was one of the thoughts that came
30:26
to my mind yesterday. And the other thought,
30:29
my favorite Bible verse is, I can do all things
30:33
through Christ who strengthens me. Heidi can
30:37
do all things, anything that Jesus asks her to
30:41
do through. It's not on my own. I can't do this
30:45
stuff on my own. I can't do anything on my own.
30:47
But if I'm waiting on him, if I'm surrendered
30:49
to him, he's going to make it so that I can do
30:52
everything. And he's going to bless my life beyond
30:55
what I could ever imagine and give me opportunities
30:57
to do things for him, to travel, to spread his
31:01
beautiful message of the beautiful character
31:04
of Jesus and the gospel message wherever I go.
31:10
every day my prayer is that I'll be a blessing
31:12
in the waiting and that he'll fill me so that
31:14
I can reach someone else for him and bring joy
31:17
he is enough it is his sufficiency that sustains
31:20
us for ministry when we rely on him that's right
31:23
he is enough amen Heidi thank you so much for
31:26
joining me it's been a blessing to hear your
31:28
story and to get to know you a little better.
31:31
Tell Christian we're sorry we missed him and
31:33
maybe one day we'll get him on here. Maybe so.
31:37
Thank you to our listeners and viewers. We've
31:39
been grateful to have you along today as well.
31:41
Thank you for your prayers. Know that we are
31:44
praying for you also. Connect with us when you
31:47
can. Text us at 1 -423 -855 -4877. Email us at
31:53
hello at missionsunlight .org. That is our program
31:56
today. Thank you for joining us. This is Mission
31:58
Sunlight Chat. This has been a Beeson Brook production
32:03
in association with Network 7 Media Center. Executive
32:08
Producers Christopher and Rebecca Beeson. Roddy
32:11
Scarborough. Don and Nancy Van Ornum. Associate
32:15
Producers Jordan and Ashley Wagner. Gary and
32:18
Dina Bartle Wagner. Your host today, Christopher
32:21
Beeson. Director of Production and Audio Engineer,
32:24
Jordan Wagner. To suggest guests, topic questions,
32:28
to pray with us, or to give, visit missionsunlight
32:31
.org or text us at 423 -855 -4877. You may write
32:38
to us at Network 7 Media Center, Box 25468, Chattanooga,
32:44
Tennessee, 37422. This has been a production
32:48
of Network 7 Media Center