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Jarrod Stackelroth: In the early days
of the Adventist movement, there were

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no mission budgets, no flights, no
support teams or training manuals,

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but there was a message, and for those
who believed it, that was enough.

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They walked, they rode in wagons.

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They went door to door with hand printed
tracks and bibles wrapped in cloth.

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They often had no formal education,
no large congregations backing

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them, and yet somehow their
message began to circle the globe.

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It wasn't easy.

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They were misunderstood, mocked,
even rejected by family and friends.

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They were often hungry, tired, and
discouraged, but they pressed on

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not because they loved hardship,
but because they loved truth.

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They believed that the message they
carried had the power to change lives,

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and that it was worth every cost.

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One of the clearest examples of
this spirit was Stephen Haskell,

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born in Massachusetts in 1833.

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Haskell had little formal schooling.

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He began working in a soap factory at
just seven years old and eventually

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became a successful businessman.

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But after embracing the Adventist
faith in his early twenties, his

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life changed course completely.

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He poured himself into sharing the
message of Christ's soon return, first

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in his hometown and then far beyond.

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Haskell was largely self-taught.

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He studied relentlessly and
became a powerful evangelist.

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Not through flashy sermons, but through
deep conviction and tireless effort.

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He traveled extensively, often
on foot carrying literature,

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preaching and organizing churches.

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He wasn't deterred by
exhaustion or rejection.

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He simply kept going.

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Haskell helped organize the first
tracked and missionary society,

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a forerunner of global literature
evangelism, and was instrumental

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in expanding the work overseas.

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Haskell was among the first to
preach the Adventist message in the

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British Isles, and later ventured to
Australia, South Africa and beyond.

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Wherever he went, he planted seeds
sometimes with immediate fruit.

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Often with only the hope that
someone else would water them.

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Later conditions were often harsh.

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Travel was slow, finances
were thin, illness was common.

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Yet these early missionaries didn't
wait for ideal circumstances.

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They didn't wait until
everything was in place.

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They moved forward with what they
had, and what they had was faith.

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They trusted that God would
multiply their small efforts.

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That one visit.

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One tract, one conversation might
be the spark that ignites a life.

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They believed that the gospel
wasn't meant to stay in one place.

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It was meant to move.

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And so they did step by step,
mile by mile, message by message.

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They built a missionary movement, not
out of comfort, but out of commitment.

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It's easy to look at today's global
church with its institutions resources

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and reach and forget where it all began.

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It began with people like Haskell who
were willing to walk through storms

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and knock on doors simply because they
believed that God had called them to go.

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And sometimes that's
what mission looks like.

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It's not always grand
campaigns and global platforms.

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Sometimes it's just showing up.

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Being faithful.

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Saying yes to one more opportunity,
carrying hope into one more conversation

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because the gospel was never meant
to be passive and neither are we.

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Episode 10.

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Called to Climb Read
by Jared Stacker Roth.