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BY SHAWN CRAIG, special contributor to Adventist Review

I learned (what I thought at the time) one of the most poignant lessons about effective, culturally transformative Christianity from my one of my public high school teachers several years ago.She said, “Never be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.” It’s a simple and clichéd axiom that teaches us not to focus on heaven to the neglect of the world around us.

Fast forward eight years to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston Texas for the 15th Annual GYC Conference where several thousand young people sit listening to the captivating testimony of Alex Niculaescu speaking to this very point. He says, “If we were heavenly-minded that we would be Earthly better.”

Alex has been an Adventist and a missionary for the past 10 years. He has degrees in anthropology and history, and has traveled extensively for mission and exploration. He became deeply interested in learning about modern-day slavery after confronting it head on in southern Kenya.

Alex had been working in southern Kenya to build an orphanage for girls escaping female genital mutilation. One day he noticed that one of the girls acted differently when playing tag. When the young girls chased her in the game, everything was fine, but when the boys would chase her, her demeanor changed. She became fearful and defensive. There came a day when the girl wasn’t outside playing tag, and Alex took note of this as well. When he asked one of the caretakers her whereabouts, Alex was shocked to be told that she was with her “husband.” He learned of the horrific experience this young girl faced on a regular basis from the hands of those who should have been her protectors.

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