Final Notes on India NOW trip

Rest of trip in a nutshell:

1. Week 1 & 2 see previous 2 posts.

2. Week 2 & 3: From the medical side: Our medical team conducted 10 village clinics. We saw close to 1600 patients. Combined with the other 6 medical teams, we saw over 12,000 patients. Not too many serious cases; many I feel came out just to be seen by American doctors. We got the chance to pray for a lot of people, hand out the book Desire of Ages, and invite them to the meetings.


3. Week 2 & 3: From the evangelistic side: Thanks to all the prayers, the rain stopped and the attendance rose as the meetings progressed. One bad note, we had to cancel our final Saturday night meeting b/c the Hindu government was starting to get anxious with all the talk about Christian meetings. Another church group (Lutheran) was holding an evangelistic meeting in a nearby town, and he was doing too much Advertising for Hindu comfort. When you can’t walk 10 feet without seeing 50 posters of a white man smiling with a cross symbol, you are bound to stir up opposition. Well, we had to resort having our final meeting on Friday night, and John Carter, who was having another meeting 300km away was also asked to leave. I hope the door is not closing in Southern India yet!!

4. Week 4: James, Shallena, and I spent our last week in India at Mattison Memorial Hospital working with the Rao Family. It was great to see how a mission hospital runs and we made some friends that will last a lifetime.

Well the trip was great. I really missed having my wife with me, but at least I got to speak to her almost everyday for a few minutes. It was a great trip, but there is no place like home (aka: where Janelle is)!!

~Jason

Pics from India

God has been really blessing the effort in India. Here are some pics (yes that is Jason wih Doug Batchelor).

Jason had his 26th bday there on the 14th! (None of these pics are from Jason's bday) Nothing like spending your bday calling people to a commitment to Jesus!!

The evangelistic teams had to deal with some resistance, and last night was the last meeting. Please pray that those that made commitments remain and continue to grow in their faith.

I miss my Babycakes, but I am doing pretty well. Trying to get lots of things done. I can't wait until we do a mission trip together!

India NOW - Week #1 Report

Several Advent HOPE members are in India as we speak: Grace, Keila, Rohini, Jason, Nancy, Lois, Susy, and Sunny. Here are some of the highlights thus far:

Day #1 (10/30) - Leave for LAX. Meet other missionaries from West Coast USA. East Coast missionaries flew out of Chicago to Germany to India. We flew from LAX to Hong Kong to India.

Day #2 (10/31) - In the air. 14.5 hour flight to Hong Kong. I fell asleep 4 different times and they served us 4 meals. I had to skip some of the food. The one positive is that because we crossed the international dateline, halloween was only 1.5 hours long!! Amen!

Day #3 (11/1) - Arrive in Hong Kong, China then New Delhi, India where we meet up with the East Coast missionaries. A mixture of jet-lag and excitement keep us awake.

Day #4 (11/2) - Arrive in Rajamundry, our homebase. We have orientation and go shopping for Indian clothing.

Days #5-7 - All 14 teams head out to the villages and do visitations. The drive to the villages from our hotel is approx 1-3 hours depending on which village you are heading to. Our team visited 2 villages each day on Friday, Sabbath, and Sunday, encouraging them to come to the evangelistic meetings that would begin Sunday night.

Days #7 - 11 - Starting on Monday (1 week following our departure from LAX), we set up our first clinic. Clinics are either in a tent, outside, abandon building, or the village school house (that has been vacated with teacher permission for our use). Because of the distance to the villages, clinics start at 11am and go til 4-5pm. We are seeing about 130 - 175 patients each day. With 7 medical teams, we saw over 1400 patients last Thursday. The villagers love it, and most of them are not in horrible health, but just want to be examined by doctors from USA. Here is a list of the most common complaints and how we are treating them (on top of healthy lifestyle education):

1. Generalized Pain - Tylenol (or NSAIDs)
2. Weakness - Multivitamin (many feel cured after the first dose!!)
3. Anorexia/worms - Antiparisitic and cyproheptadine (appetite stimulator)
4. Fever (2/2 Chicken Gunia Infection) - Anti-pyretics
5. GERD, abd pain - PPI's and pillow angle elevation
6. Anemia - Iron supplementation
7. UTI - Abx
8. Cold - Supportative

We end our clinics with a village health talk on NEWSTART type principles and teach Christian songs to the village children. It is an exhausting day, but very rewarding!

At 7pm, our evangelistic meetings are well attended. An entire village voted to join our church right before we arrived to visit them!! There have been over 4,000 baptisms since we have arrived, and more are expected before we leave. Please pray for us, here are some of the obstacles:

1. Rain, Rain, Rain
2. Catholic priests offering 1,000 rupees ($25) for people not to attend our meetings
3. Baptist ministers offering clothes to keep people from attending
4. The culture of the area is saturated with Hinduism and traces of it remain as people join the church.

Well I hope you enjoyed this report. It is only a drop in the bucket of what has been happening thus far. Please keep us in prayer as we seek to uplift Jesus and the Bible to this area starving for a better option in life!!

Jason

The road to residency #1 Oct 5, 2006

Jason turned in his application for residency in family medicine on Oct 3rd. He was waiting for his seperation from the Navy to be complete, but found out it could take 90 more days. So he sent the application in faith that God was leading us out of the Navy. The very next day Jason got 2 interviews!! One to Glasgow, KY and the other to South Bend, IN. Then today he got another to Billings, MT. This is exciting stuff! but we really want to spend the next 3 years where God wishes us to be. We are wrestling with issues like:

Should we be in a more rural setting?

Should we stay in the SDA system, so that our programs are not filled with nonSDAs and nonChristians?

Should we be salt and light somewhere else?

Should we go somewhere that has high monetary benefits so we can be debt-free and in the mission field sooner?

What will Janelle do (teach biology, become a Physician Assistant)?

We are seriously considering staying in Loma Linda, but it would be a HUGE monetary sacrifice if we did so. Not just that the pay is lower, but also the cost of living is really high, and we found a program in ID where Janelle could go to PA school with free tuition!

If you are reading this, please say a prayer that God would lead us in this big decision. And any advice is much appreciated, thanks =)

July 2006

So sorry we didn't update this blog all summer long! Here is the main events of the summer.

July:
Jason and Janelle have 2nd Anniversary on the 4th. Janelle makes a delicious breakfast complete with ketchup "I love you."

The Shives visit the Nelsons in Sacramento (for pictures see Eric and Rachels blog). Had a wonderful Sabbath.

Sunday the Shives head to PUC for the Baptist Family Reunion
It was really fun being with so much family! my mom has 7 siblings, and I have 20 cousins on that side of the family. Some were meeting Jason for the first time, and they loved him of course.


There was a newlywed game with Jason and Janelle (married 2 years), Dalena and Bennett (married 1 year), and Jeff and Megan (married 1 month). Dont we look confident? lol. We did get the most points, by answering questions like "what is Jason's dream car?" and "what time of the day does Janelle read her Bible, morning or night?" Do you know the answers?

The theme of the reunion was Psalm 23 "the Lord is my Shepherd." Each Baptist sibling did a devotion on a half a verse.

Being good country folk the Baptist family reunion included a hayride, bubble gum blowing, sackraces, lots of singing, and sharing photos. It was a blessing!!

God blesses in Dominican Republic!

I am back after 2.5 weeks in the Dominican Republic. It was a great experience. Our group consisted of a dental team of 6, 2 physicians, 2 photographers, and 7 evangelists (one of which brought his wife and 2 boys). We arrived Friday afternoon June 9th, began preaching that night, and continued every night and Sabbath morning from then until June 24! A total of 18 Bible messages. Thankfully there was nothing planned for the speakers during the days, so we used every minute preparing for that night's sermon.

This is my church, Los Jardines del Norte SDA Church on Sabbath morning. It is one of over 300 SDA churches just in the city of Santo Domingo!


It holds about 100 people in the pews, and on many nights all seats were taken and there were people standing outside looking in the windows just to hear God's Word! "Cristo Viene" means "Christ is Coming."


The DR is a beautiful country (as seen from our hotel room), I just wish the people took better care of it and didnt litter!



These were urgent messages. Jesus is coming soon! Are you ready? I hope so friends =)


Every night somewhere in my sermon I would say, "If it is in the Bible...I believe it. If it is not in the Bible...I don't believe it." By the 2nd or 3rd time the people would finish the phrase when I started it. Near the end of the conference I didnt even have to be translated for them to answer, "I believe it" or "I dont believe it." This was important to show that everything I was preaching is straight out of the Holy Bible, not my opinion!


This is Carlos and Jose-Luis. The young people ran the meetings. Praise God for committed young people! This was my favorite part of the meetings (besides the sermon), these guys did scripture and prayer and then asked the audience questions about the previous night's message. Someone almost always got the right answer, which made me excited that they were paying attention!


After each meeting my translator Raphael and I would greet everyone as they leave. I really enjoyed that part, because I could get to know the people better. Sparkles in the ears (or anywhere else) is a dead giveaway for a non-Adventist. Too bad it is not that easy to tell in the U.S.

There was a good-bye party for the Pastor (he's becoming conference secretary) Saturday night. It was on the roof of the church! It was a perfect opportunity for me to say my good-byes too (and get photos).

Here is just a few of my new friends:
Mayeli, Nicolas, Vimary, Moises, and Nora.

See next blog for more...

God blesses in Dominican Republic #2!

Here is the non-youth that helped with the conference: Juana, Onyx, Pastor Mejia, another nice lady, me, Mrs. Mejia, Dorka, Raphael (my translator). Dorka made me the dress I am wearing. The people there are so giving!

This is the SDA restaurant next to the Conference office. "Raices" means "Roots," so they are calling people back to God's original diet! They had many Adventist and non-Adventist customers, and the food was so good and cheap!! The posters on the walls have one of the 8 laws of health on them: Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance, Air, Rest, Trust in God (NEWSTART). What a great witnessing tool, we should have one in every city.

I made 3 calls for people to come forward to make a decision for Jesus. The first was on my bday when I preached on the "good news" of Christ's saving grace. What an awesome bday gift to have people accepting Jesus as their saviour. Then I made another call when speaking on baptism, and even though everything went wrong (late at night, and decision cards were a mess), about 10 precious souls still came forward for baptism! Praise the Lord! Then my last call was my very last night of preaching (Fri). I preached on the Holy Spirit's role and how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Since it was the last meeting, I decided to do another call for baptism, and this time the cards were ready to be distributed correctly. So at the end of the message the audience stood for prayer and I proceeded to ask them to respond to Jesus by coming forward for baptism into the remnant church of Revelation 12. No one came. Then I asked about rebaptism. No one came. Then I asked if anyone wanted special prayer for a specific sin they were struggling with. No one came. Without trying to sound too disappointed I had prayer and invited them all to church the following day. Then walked out to greet everyone as they left. I wanted to cry, but Raphael reminded me that it was okay that no one came forward, that we were doing God's awesome work and planting many seeds. Of course he was right! So I felt much better (I also had a couple people tell me they would've come forward, but didnt for various reasons). Sabbath service went well, but very long! I didnt even start preaching until after 12:30. So kept it short and sweet and to the point. A beautiful sermon on the promise of heaven. I told the people that I had no plans right now to return to the Dominican, so they had better be in heaven so we could see eachother again!

The perfect end to a powerful conference!!! Carmen, Julio, and Juan-Paulo were baptized Sabbath June 24th in the afternoon. It was an amazing experience to watch people that had come out to hear little ol' me preach God's Word make a lifelong (hopefully) commitment to Him. After the 3 were baptized the Pastor called for anyone else that wanted to be baptized...and they came! I dont know why they didnt come the night before, butPraise God they came! I was so excited! I took a picture of them. Most of the children are probably too young for baptism, but praise the Lord they want to follow Him. The Pastor called me up to say something to them, so I told them that they were making the best decision of their lives, one they would never regret! Even though I was leaving my heart is with them, and that the church members have the most important job of loving these people and helping them to keep growing toward Jesus. Then I had prayer for them and shook the hand of each one with an Amen or Gloria a Dios. The woman in white's husband does not want her to get baptized, so pray for her family, please.

This was one of the best days of my life! If you are a Christian, and you have never brought anyone to know Christ, I would ask, "why not?" Christ did everything for you, why don't you go out and share with others the love God has for them?

SWYC in less than 2 months!

Tell your friends, registration has begun online!

www.swyouthconference.org

This is bound to be powerful!

Jason

Janelle Leaves for Dominican Republic to Preach!

Jason misses his wife already, 2 more weeks to go. Also, today is Janelle's birthday, big 24!

God is using Janelle to win souls by sharing the Bible on a Mission Trip with LLUSA, so it's okay. For other husband's missing their wives, please see Eric Nelson's blog at the link to the Right.

Jason

Friends Move On

Just wanted to devote one page to the fact that friends move on. Janelle and I have been so priviledged to be a part of Advent HOPE and the ministries in Loma Linda. The urge and desire to share the gospel with our friends and strangers is the driving force of our day. I wonder what heaven will be like without the feeling of urgency to spread the 3 Angels' Messages! I know that heaven will be awesome, maybe our Advent HOPE meetings/seminars will be flight lessons! It is going to be great to meet back up with friends in heaven. It is a good motivation to keep preaching the WORD and hasten Jesus' Return!

Our friend Debbie, now in Indonesia

Eric and Rachel, now in Sacramento

Kole (pictured) took his parents Yamil and Lana to Louisiana
We'll miss you guys, GOD BLESS!

Shives #4, Becomes 24...

On May 1st 2006, the day that many illegal-immigrants went on strike, Timothy Shives was flying thru the clouds in his helicopter (which if you talk to Tim, you should know about) celebrating his 24th birthday. Although born in the Philippines, Tim could not celebrate with the protesters because he came to the US by following the rules.

Some facts about Tim you may not know:

1. Fastest runner of the Shives' family
2. Avid student of world and US history (if it happenend, he probably knows it)
3. Only Shives member to read all the "Conflict of the Ages" series
4. Was the first Filipino-American to play "Jesus" at the Sonrise Pageant, giving another option to the 2 main views of Christ's skin tone (Victorian and African)
5. 2nd Shives boy to buy a Ford (lured into the trap of cheap price, aha!)
6. Makes friends easily. If you meet him, he is now your friend
7. Is no respecter of person. Has always reached out to those that had less friends even though he was pretty popular
8. First Shives boy to preach a sermon
9. Current record holder for funniest Shives boy

We at the Loma Linda Chapter of the Shives family wish to express our joy and love to Tim on this day. We are proud of Tim and know that he will make a very good 24 year old. Although he has 1 more year to be able to rent a car (penalty free), he can take you on a ride through the sky!
GOD BLESS YOU THIS YEAR TIM!

The New "Prince of the Air"-- Jesus

On LLUSA's trip to the Adventist Intercollegiate Association (AIA) convention this last week, several of us had the opportunity to minister on our flights. Here is the breakdown:

Outgoing: Jason and Janelle meet Iola, a beautiful newly-wedded woman just off her honeymoon. Topics discussed: Sabbath, State of the Dead, Second Coming, 10 commandments, Hell, Heaven. Follow-up: Since she lives in Atlanta, my dad will be keeping in contact with her. Lovely, godly woman that is definitely searching for Truth.

Returning Flight: Jason and Janelle meet Dustin, a passionate young fashion designer relocating to the LA area. Topics discussed: Sabbath, Daniel 2,7,8 (including little horn characteristics), Health Message of the Bible, 10 commandments, Reading the Bible in 1 year Plan. Follow-up: He is an exciting gentlemen that wants to keep studying the Bible and Janelle and I are glad to have met him and become friends with him.

Returning Flight: Richard Barnes meets a non-denominational minister who is wanting to know more Bible truth. Topics discussed: Second Coming, Sabbath Follow-up: Richard is going to be contacting her and she is very interested to find out whether or not the "Left Behind" scenario is Biblical or not.

As you can see, the Lord has blessed!! We would have been glad to have met one person that would have wanted to study the WORD, but 3+ was beyond our expectations. Richard, Janelle, and I thank the ministries in Loma Linda, CA (ie: Advent HOPE, Restoration, MIP, etc) for helping us learn so we can help others learn the truths of God's Word. The Lord is good and we believe that He truly has reclaimed "the AIR" as part of His kingdom :)

Roaring Lion Strikes Our Home Again!!

2nd Stolen Bike in Less than One Year!!!

Even with the abudance of goodness that Loma Linda University upholds, sin can and does abound. Janelle and Jason realized that with full-force this morning when on starting the day, Jason's bike was missing. The abundance of evidence suggests that someone with either strong intent (or hands/teeth) did the dirty work.

It is so sad to see people forfeit salvation for something so trivial. Oh how I long for the place where bike locks will not be needed! This once again brings me to the realization that this world is not my home and I am not a citizen of this secular kingdom.

I pray that justice will be abound and I pray that this person has to come to grips with the consequences of their actions. I also pray that I do my best to make sure that I am always on the RIGHT side of God's justice in all that I do.



Officer Champin loads the bike that probably was the thief's original vehicle. I guess he/she wanted an upgrade.

Friends, you can't be too careful. I think Janelle and I will start placing are bikes in our house!

MOTHER FROM GEORGIA LIVES ONE MORE YEAR!!!

NEPHLEN SHIVES TURNS 49!!! ONE MORE YEAR ON THIS SIDE OF 100 YEARS OLD!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE ENERGY BEHIND THE SHIVES FAMILY.

The Shives run in the LA Marathon...

Our sister Jennifer completed her first marathon!! She started the day smiling, but ended the day exhausted.

Jason and Janelle ran the 5K while waiting to cheer Jennifer to the finish.















Jason ran the last mile with Jen to give her encouragement. He even got her to sprint to the finish line.

Friends that ran on Sunday:

5K- Thomas Williams, Augustine Torres, Janelle Shives 5K - 34:58, Jason Shives 5K -

28:57

26.2M- Ken Lim - 5:49:26, Julie Farmer - 6:32:32, David Lee - 5:35:38, Neeta Abraham - 4:50:52, Janie Lee - 5:49:46, Jennifer Shives - 5:17:38

Many of us have taken on running/walking as a "Fitness through Witness", as we seek to glorify God through the bodies He has given us by living healthy lives. As Jason was running his 5K, he was feeling tired and was going to start walking. Then along came a stranger running up behind him. He held out his closed hand and said, "come on man, you can do it!" Jason hit his fist, and was filled with encouragement to keep going.

The spiritual application is obvious, we need each other, to uplift each other in Christ! This race taught us all a lesson about the race of life, where the Bible speaks of patience, and teamwork:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us... Hebrews 12:1

Next year, Jason and Janelle aim for the big one! 26.2M, looks like we will be joining Stunners!

The votes are in--Jason wins SA presidency!!

On March 10 the LLU senators voted on next year's LLUSA executive officers. Jason was running against a Pharmacy student for the office of President. As Executive Vice President for the past 2 years, Jason was ready for the next step up. The sentors knew Jason had the experience and the passion for Jesus to do a good job.

Introducing the 2006-2007 LLUSA Executive Officers:
Pres: Jason Shives
EVP: Gwen Hubbell
FVP: Seth Lukens
RVP: Eli Kim and Tricia Loo
SVP: Richard Barnes and Erdal Pascu
CVP: Aaron Sartin
Secretary: Andy Park
PR Officer: Janelle Shives
Newspaper: Undecided

We are so excited to be able to work with such a great group of people next year. It seems that all of them are very committed to the Lord, so I know He will bless our efforts to "Connect students to eachother and Christ."

Study-bike Completed

On Saturday evening, Feb. 11, 2006, Dr. du Preez stated that he could fold and iron clothes, write sermons, read books, and get a solid workout on his excercise bike all at the same time! Inspired by Dr. Ron du Preez (and the lack of exercise in Jason's recent life), the first part of the Shives-head decided to take on the task of constructing an excercise station that could serve as a study area simoultaneously. On Monday afternoon, Feb 20, 2006, The HMS Study-bike was conceived! Total Price: $125.

Recipe for Study-bike:
1. Cycle trainer: $69.99 + $20 S/H on ebay

2. Trek 820 (retail $249.99): $25.00 barely used thru Trading Post

3. Slick tire for rear wheel: $9.27 Wal-Mart

4. Desk and wood for leg extensions/bracing: FREE, thanks to ladies at The Little White House.


Some cool miracles to show the Lord's hand leading in the Creation of the Study-bike:

1. We happened to find a VERY cheaply priced Trek mountain bike to replace Janelle's stolen bike. Also, we were able to invite Jenny, the lady that sold us the bike, to Restoration2006! She sounded very interested.

2. We saved probably $70-100 in lumber by stopping by the Little White House. Margaret, the volunteer in charge, was more than happy to be part of the creation of the Study-bike.

What does the future hold? No one knows, but remember, the current Health recommendations call for 60-90 minutes of moderate intensity excercise everyday! We at the Shives home hope to be better witnesses for Christ through fitness for Christ! Feel free to stop by and try out the HMS Study-bike!!