August 21, 2006 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Steve Hamstra/Adventist Mission/ANN]
More than 200 Global Mission projects got the go-ahead on Thursday, August 17, keeping 2006 on track to become one of the largest years ever for projects and funding. Meeting at the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, the Adventist Mission Committee approved all 266 proposed projects, most of which are located in the East-Central Africa and Northern Asia-Pacific regions. Funding approved for the projects totaled more than US$1.7 million, pushing the total 2006 project funding to more than $9.7 million.
Most of the projects approved at the August 17 meeting are located in areas with little or no Adventist presence. In one region with 2.7 million people, the only Adventists are the two Global Mission pioneers who will start an outreach project. Projects will range from health-related outreach in rural areas to church planting efforts in major cities.
One project will provide a boat for Global Mission pioneers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to travel between fishing villages to hold health and family life seminars. Another provides funding for an Adventist massage therapist to open a practice in an area of a country that is one of the Adventist Church’s biggest mission challenges.
“Times are difficult, remaining areas are often dangerous and expensive to work in,” says Homer Trecartin, planning director for the Office of Adventist Mission. “But dedicated pioneers are willing to take the risk in order to share the gospel with every man, woman and child on earth. … We all need to be reaching out to those around us.”
Total projects now underway this year number 1,069, with many more yet to be formally proposed and approved. During the past nine years, Global Mission projects have averaged more than 1,200 annually.
Since 1990, Global Mission, a special initiative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has undertaken more than 11,000 outreach projects in previously unentered areas of the world. Global Mission pioneers typically spend at least a year on these projects, establishing a congregation within their own culture. Thousands of these pioneers are currently active around the world. For more information about the work of Global Mission visit http://www.global-mission.org.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Adventist News Network.
