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Bible Schools and Training
Centers
Several Mission to Unreached Peoples missionaries are actively teaching in Bible Schools and other Bible training centers. For example,
Mission to Unreached Peoples works in partnership with Ministry to Educate and Equip focused on training church leaders in Central and Eastern
Europe. This involves "circuit" teachers providing intensive Bible training through eight or more surrounding countries, including Hungary
and Ukraine, and graduate level teaching in both Budapest, Hungary and Kiev, Ukraine.
We are also involved in a Biblical training center in Albania.
Two programs in the Philippines focus on Bible training, including
a national training center for the Aeta people and a second outreach in the Northern Philippines training pastors for rural churches. Workers
in several countries are involved in both formal and informal Bible and discipleship training in various forums. Training centers are in place
or start-up stages in India, Indonesia, and Thailand.
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Children's Ministries
It is impossible to be involved in reaching the unreached without a consistent ministry to the children of the world. Many of our missionary
families are involved daily in children’s classes and Sunday school outreaches. In Russia a team is involved
in ministry to children in local churches and orphanages. Outreaches in Cambodia, Hundary, Nepal,
Thailand and elsewhere specifically address the needs of abused and neglected children in hospitals, orphanages, refugee
camps, and various children’s homes. Evangelistic outreaches in Taiwan target elementary and secondary schools.
A ministry in the Philippines led by nationals provides a home and a school for Aeta children.
Several of our workers are involved in facilitating Christian foster care. Opportunities to teach children, including English classes, are widespread. top
Church Planting/Evangelism
The mission of Mission to Unreached Peoples is to obey the great commission and model Christ so that unreached people will come to know
Him. To that end, we focus on evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. We concentrate our activities in Asia and Europe, and much of our
work is in the 10/40 Window. An
increasing emphasis of many of our workers is the oral communication of Bible through audio and video "story" presentations.
Our mission is to make disciples among unreached peoples by strategically placing mission-motivated Christians to live and work among them. This
involves pioneer church planting outreaches and providing support to existing local churches. We strive to assist local churches in a ministry
of teaching and to evangelize and disciple through friendship evangelism.
In Cambodia, after many years of war, the relative freedom of the past few years has resulted in significant church
growth. Mission to Unreached Peoples workers are strengthening national church workers for the spread of the Gospel. There are opportunities for
ministry personnel in many areas including church planting, urban ministry, children at risk, youth work, discipleship, music, and evangelism.
Specific church planting efforts are underway in both urban and rural settings including an outreach to an unreached group in Northern Cambodia.
In southwest China and southeast Asia, several people groups are learning about the Gospel
for the first time from our workers, who are pioneering new areas and developing cultural and language appropriate Bible study and training materials.
These are people groups with few or no known Christians. Elsewhere in China, often from a platform of University or TESOL teaching, effective
evangelism is going forward. This is often in cooperation with the existing Chinese church. Outreaches from northern Thailand
are targeting previously unreached tribal peoples in Laos, Myanmar, and throughout the Mekong
river basin.
An outreach of Mission to Unreached Peoples in Japan is specifically committed to long-term church planting and discipleship
work among the Japanese. Also church planting efforts, including one using a cell church model, are underway in several locations. An outreach
of Mission to Unreached Peoples in the Philippines is planting churches in rural areas and training national pastors.
A growing field is the Turkic Muslim world, including Central Asia. The block of Muslim
Turkic peoples, although they are each distinct from one another, consists of various peoples and societies both culturally and linguistically
related to one another. Short-term outreaches take place each summer, and a long-term team with a church planting focus is growing in Turkey.
Teams are also developing elsewhere in Central Asia.
The long-term focus of Mission to Unreached Peoples ministry in Vietnam is to unreached tribal groups. Recent years
have seen very significant outreach into previously unreached tribal groups who had had no contact with Christianity before. top
ESL (English as a Second Language) Teaching
Teaching English is a primary door for work and ministry in much of the world, including teachers at public and private schools and language
centers. University teaching placements, typically partly paid tentmaking positions, are important platforms for ministry. Mission to Unreached
Peoples personnel are involved in ESL teaching in most of the over 20 countries where we work, some with graduate TESOL degrees. Mission to Unreached
Peoples does provide an intensive TESOL training unit in its training program for cross-cultural ministry. A Mission to Unreached Peoples private
language center targets young professionals in China and is modeling similar platforms for other locations. Another
language center is currently under development.
There are many opportunities to serve in English ministry outreaches of local churches, both in the major cities and in the villages. Teaching
English at colleges, universities and private schools provide another platform for ministry.
God has orchestrated, in His sovereign
will, an intense hunger to learn English
around the world, opening up huge opportunities
for ministry and outreach. Many Mission
to Unreached Peoples workers are part
of this outreach.
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Member Care
Mission to Unreached Peoples takes seriously the responsibility to care for the missionaries we send, our “members”. Pastoral member care is a focus and distinctive of the mission, and we continue to develop
an excellent "member care" department with field-based and itinerant home-based pastors and counselors to visit and care for workers on the field and upon their return home.
A significant portion of our member care ministry staff work together as a team out of a city in Asia, traveling from there to neighboring countries
to visit Mission to Unreached Peoples staff and other missionaries. We take missionary member care seriously and are actively seeking out and
working out ways to better serve our members in this area. top
Medical
Mission to Unreached Peoples workers are involved in medical health care in several locations. Specifically, in Nepal,
Mission to Unreached Peoples medical workers presently include a pharmacist and others working with local hospitals and rural and church outreaches.
In China, we participate in several medical and rehabilitation ministries, including a leprosy clinic.
In India, one of our projects targets neglected youth in cooperation with JAF Ministries (Joni and Friends). Workers provide therapy services and vocational training along with evangelistic outreach.
This ministry is equipping India's disabled with the tools necessary for a miraculous transformation into a life of independence and advancement resulting in testimony to whole villages and communities in India of the Lordship
of Jesus Christ.
In Cambodia, a Mission to Unreached Peoples outreach is involved in AIDS education, interevention, and health care.
Other medical ministries include an expanding outreach of nursing and orphanage work in Russia, placements in mission
hospitals in India, and a Thailand ministry providing medical care to the poor, including AIDS victims. In the Philippines,
one of our workers specialized in public health issues. top
Relief and Development
Mission to Unreached Peoples is using community development and other innovative means to meet the needs of people and to help communicate
the gospel. We were able to respond quickly to the December, 2004 Tsunami disaster in Asia through our long-term workers in Indonesia
and Thailand.
We strive to meet people at their point of need regardless of their response to the Gospel. We respond to both physical and spiritual needs. Meeting
physical needs is not bait on the hook of the Gospel, but an integral part of it. Our partnership with the Polish
church, for example, includes an outreach to the local poor.
In Russia, our team is involved in evangelism and discipleship through a local church and a national evangelism team
in their city. In cooperation with the church, workers have several ongoing relief projects assisting the poor, malnourished children and orphanages.
We continue to develop agricultural programs in Northern Thailand with the goal of training tribal peoples. This includes
efforts to improve the standard of living especially of local pastors and Christians. The agricultural work is very basic, but at the same time
uses some cutting-edge techniques adapted to Northern Thailand. Several of our workers are reaching out to unreached villages and people with
a Community Health Evangelism (CHE) model, and we are training others in CHE and other development models.
Outreaches in Thailand and China target those engaged in prostitution, seeking to provide
vocational training in the food service or other industries, so as to enable women to find a new way of life. Various micro lending projects have
given people hope for a better life, as well as provided opportunities for sharing the hope people can have in Jesus. An outreach in Hungary
works with refugees. Other community development projects are underway in Mongolia in partnership with Joint Christian
Services.
Mission to Unreached Peoples is working with young churches, orphanages, hospitals, children’s homes, and schools in Russia
in order to minister to the needs of the Russian people and to communicate the gospel in practical ways. Political and economic changes have created
many new opportunities a deep spiritual hunger.
In India, a small pottery factory provides employment to a previously unemployed group of potters. They design and
produce a wide variety of glazed, unglazed, and decorated pottery for sale within India and abroad. Through this work, many in the area are being
touched with the Gospel. top
Tentmaking
We are specialists in "tentmaking," helping believers use their vocational skills to serve and gain access to the unreached
and then minister in Christ's name. We also start businesses and community development projects as holistic and entry strategies into developing
countries.
Tentmaking (using vocational skills to work and minister cross-culturally) provides a platform for ministry in the 10/40 Window and many of the countries where we serve. Despite working in countries closed to traditional missionary
work, Mission to Unreached Peoples finds that almost any type of work is possible for trained tentmakers and professionals throughout the world. Mission to Unreached Peoples missionaries are working as computer programmers
and consultants, publishing editors and consultants, and in a growing number of business ventures. A new "vocational affiliate" program seeks to provide field-based connections, support, and accountability for intentional
tentmakers.
The largest opportunity for tentmaking continues to be jobs as English teachers, often in private schools or private business settings. top
University Placement
Mission to Unreached Peoples personnel fill positions as university teachers in several fields. Our ministry in China
includes teaching the student and business elite in Chinese universities. An “American” business college in Central
Asia provides ministry opportunities to the future business and government leaders of that country.
In Taiwan, Mission to Unreached Peoples personnel are involved in both administrative and teaching roles, including
teaching various languages in addition to English, and other specialty classes. top
Youth
Opportunities for youth ministry exist in all our fields, both within and outside of the church. Many of our workers have contacts with students in universities or schools, either as teachers or as fellow students.
Several are involved in national church youth outreach, including activities such as English camps, music outreach, and other youth-directed ministry. Some reach international students at international schools
Our efforts in Poland focus on a youth ministry, evangelism and discipleship camps, discipleship, internships, and
strengthening the local church in this historically Catholic, nation. Many of those we work with are both young in age and young in the Lord,
so discipleship training is a vital component of the ministry.
Mission to Unreached Peoples is actively working with the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia Youth Commission. The
work involves youth camps, regular Bible studies, and other outreaches in cooperation with the Khmer church. An Indian ministry focuses on handicapped
and neglected youth. The Philippines children’s home and school especially targets Aeta children for education
and evangelism.
Much of the outreach of our Luke 10 interns (18-30 year olds placed with experienced missionaries) touches students and youth in their age bracket
and younger. This has included a sports ministry in Thailand, teaching at missionary schools, and much student contact.
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Other
Other missionaries serve in general education, for example in MK schools including teaching and administrative roles.
Other ministries and services of Mission
to Unreached Peoples include outreaches
in US based ministries including people
group advocates, literature ministry,
and field administration for both Mission
to Unreached Peoples and partner agencies.
An internship program, targeting young
adults 18-30 and modeled after the sending
of disciples in Luke 10, is placing interns
in teams of two with experienced missionaries
in several of the countries that
we serve. top
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bring
the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have not heard. We champion the potential of the entire body
of Christ in missions and help train, place, and support vocational workers, often in countries closed to traditional missionaries.
At the same time we highly value and place those with specialized ministry training.