The key principles you need to know in organizing a center of influence in your community.

Bite Size Talks 2019	

<div>The key principles you need to know in organizing a center of influence in your community.</div>

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ASI Pacific Union

Lorna Gabuco

How To Start A Center of Influence


Hi everyone. Who among you here believe that the health food is the right arm of the third angel's message? Let me see your hands please. That's good and I believe it so. And so I would like to share with you how I got into this kind of ministry.

Now in my journey, in my experience having this kind of ministry, I thought of this 3 things, how to start a center of influence because I consider the restaurant and the cantin concessionaire as a center of influence. 1, of course, you have to have a passion to share God's Word. If you have the passion to share to other people God's Word, then don't think twice. Your commitment to the mission and that is to share Christ in the marketplace. Now how?

Now in the restaurant work, we put tracts on the table and I thought of putting also my back issues of the devotionals. And surprisingly, they're reading it and some, they're asking for those books to bring home. So I let them bring home the back issues of our devotionals. And then I have here the example. I made the, this is the program of American Lifestyle Medicine.

I just revised this 1. The power plate. If you notice at the back of the wall in the restaurant, we designed it like this. Now, Mrs. White stated in her book that we are not to feed people, but we have to instruct them.

So we have to educate them. We have to educate people, not to feed them. So with this kind of placemat, normally when we introduce them to this kind of program, they would ask this kind, the cleaner 1, then they bring this home and they put this in their fridge as their guide every time they do their meal planning. So isn't it nice? Now, we will tell them that the power plate, This is the complete meal.

When you eat, as a vegetarian, you have to have the 4 kinds of food. You should have the fruits, the legumes, the whole grain and the vegetable. And in 1 eating, you're getting the whole nutrient the body needs. So they really appreciate it and they asked for this. So some more health materials.

We also have the New Start brochure, the materials coming from the division, and we put them on the table. Now, training and expertise. You should have your training and expertise. Now, I was prepared by the Lord to do this kind of restaurant work before I was a concessionaire in 1 of the largest companies in the Philippines. And think about feeding 5, 000 people on a three-ship, 24-hour operation.

So I was impressed to do a cycle. That means I have to do an eight-week cycle, not repeating the same kind of food in 2 months' time. So there's a food committee. They asked me to submit a food cycle where I have to have 6 dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And for 2 months, I will not repeat that.

So I was able to accumulate a lot of recipes for the past 10 years. So if I write a vegetarian book, it's going to be this big. And another thing is that I was called to cater officially in the division office. Every time they have their own annual meeting or convention, I have to prepare food for those who have food allergies. So I have to make recipes for people who have the nuts allergy, the soy, the wheat, yeah, peanuts.

But I have to create a recipe so that people can eat, not only those who have food allergies, but everyone can eat it. So it adds up to the recipes. And so I was able also to gather recipes for this. For the past 7 years, I've been catering for the division and for the seminary. Of course, you should be a vegetarian.

You cannot, you know, you cannot be in a health food ministry if you are not convinced, if you are not a vegetarian. So if you are a vegetarian and if you have the passion to share cats' work, and if you are committed to the mission, then put up a health food ministry. Okay? Now, Mrs. White counsels us in her book that restaurants should be clean, hygienic restaurants.

Another 1, These are the things I remember in her writings. I really put this in my mind. Food should be simple and easy to prepare. If you notice, I have a lot of variety. I have a variety of dishes in the buffet area, but those are vegetables, purely vegetables.

I only used 2 kinds of meat substitute, the tofu and the gluten. All the rest, they are vegetables. And she also told us that it should be palatable, wholesome, and appealing to the eyes. I just combined different kinds of color to be appealing to the eyes, and so people would love to see this. And affordable.

Even the poorest can afford. Vegetarian food should not be that expensive. Yeah, it should be affordable. The food we have in the restaurant, we have the cheap approved meal and the other 1 I call it the transitional vegetarian. Meaning if you're not vegetarian, if you want to try the vegetarian, we have a lot of dishes in the restaurant.

Now Mrs. White told us that diet reformations should be progressive. So they can taste the non-chip, and then after getting used to the vegetarian, after they discipline their tongue, they can go to the cheap food. That's the way I did in the restaurant. So it's a mixture of the cheap and the non-cheap.

So if you combine every little food in the restaurant, it's perfect. It's very delicious. That's why a lot of people who come in the restaurant said it's very delicious because they combine everything. It's a combination of so many vegetables and other items. Now, what else?

That's it. Now, the restaurant was closed last month. Why? Because I should have listened to David when I opened the restaurant. The killers are the location.

As Pastor Ted Wilson mentioned, it is only opposite AUP, the university. The university has 4, 000 students and further away, a few kilometers, is the division office and the seminary. Now, we were thinking we can have the market of the Adventist in the surrounding. That's why we put the restaurant there. It's not in the city.

Second, the high rental. We pay about $1, 200, that's 63, 000 pesos in pesos, so if I convert it, it's like $1, 200 plus the other expenses like the salaries, the light, and the water, it could end up up to $2, 000 and that's a lot. So we were not able to sustain because of the high rental. So first, the location, it's not strategically located. And the other 1, the high rental.

And number 3, the Adventist community support. Only little Adventists are vegetarian, correct? Correct? Correct. So, they will not eat in the restaurant.

Only if they have visitors coming from different places, who are vegetarian, they just come to us and bring the guest in the restaurant. But for the general adventist, only little support. It's very sad, right? And so, before I came here, I told JR, JR, I didn't want to come. What will I tell these people?

The restaurant is already closed. But you know, previous to our conversation last December, there was a couple, a Chinese couple, who was very interested in the restaurant, actually. December, they were regularly coming to the restaurant. Maybe they were like observing why dinner time we don't have any guests, only a few of them, but lunch we have a lot. And then suddenly they offered me help and then they told me, I would like to help you in the marketing.

You know the Chinese way? They are very good in marketing, right? So they said I can help you market your restaurant. They are Adventists from China actually. They have a son who is studying in the university.

So for years, they've been in the Philippines. And then I said, okay, most of the time, I'm in the kitchen, actually. I'm a chef, so I'm in the kitchen. I'm not taking care of the marketing, much of the marketing. So I told myself, and I'm praying about it, maybe you are the answer to my prayer that we can market the restaurant properly.

And so we had a negotiation. Unfortunately, they went back to China in February when the restaurant was closed. They were about, I was accumulating a high rental. I cannot pay the rental anymore. So I was ready to sell them the restaurant.

And they will buy it out and continue the operation. And then suddenly, the embassy, Philippine embassy in China, I was surprised they didn't grant the visa that time. So I was surprised, they will not come, what will happen to me? But when I applied in the US for a US visa, I was given a visa. And so I said, why Lord, why did you not give them the visa and why did you give me the visa going to the US?

I need them for the restaurant to be open. But without them, I cannot operate anymore. I cannot open the restaurant because I have to pay the back rental. But now you're giving me a US visa, that means I will be coming and talking to you people. What will I tell them?

And so JR told me, Auntie, you share to them what will be the do's and don'ts in opening this kind of restaurant and maybe you can get some ideas on how to open this and the don'ts in opening this 1. So, I think that's the important thing I can share with you in my journey. Now, before I left a week ago, I was contacted by an ASI member also, who wanted to open a restaurant in KL, in Malaysia. And they are opening, they already opened, Enon, if you know Enon, the lifestyle center in Malaysia, they opened a restaurant in the city and they wanted to expand the restaurant by doing bento boxes. It's a budget meal.

Now, I was telling David and Sebastian about the bento meal. You're familiar with the bento box, right? The Japanese bento box. I was offering this to companies. Now this bento box is filled with The 4 groups.

I'm really following the 4 groups, no? The grain, the vegetables, and it's a complete food group, right? And so I told them that I can help them with a bento box, how to produce the bento box, and they were planning to supply a company with 500 bento box a day. And so after here, I'd be going to KL to coach these people, and 1 in China. There was 1 Chinese who printed some materials in China and distribute, but he was put into prison for 8 years.

Now when he came out of the jail, he wanted to have a restaurant in China. He wanted to have a commissary. We had a commissary when we get into a concessionaire, no? And so he said if I can help him with a restaurant work, with a commissary, a central kitchen, he is inviting me to go to China. So I think the Lord is leading me to this kind of ministry, the coaching, not in the restaurant, because I was able to gain experience, training and expertise in this kind of field.

In the catering, in the concessionaire and in the restaurant. I don't know what the Lord wants me to do with the restaurant because Tasty Health has already been established for 2 years. People come and we have a lot of customers, different kinds of customers. We have the monks, we have the bishop, we have the nuns. Last December, we had a reservation for the nuns coming from Myanmar.

They were about 28 of them. They booked to us and what else? And events, also wedding and birthdays. I don't know the gut's plan for Tasty Health, but continue, but please pray for us. Please pray for this restaurant because this is a center of influence.

Many people have been, have opened their eyes to a lifestyle change, and I know the Lord will work on this in His right time. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you

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How To Start A Center of Influence

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