Local interest in missionary work growing

Every year, hundreds of Christians from the Inland Northwest pack their bags and travel throughout the globe in the name of Jesus.

They bring medicine, clothing and other items for the poor, but they also bring their Bibles in hopes of spreading the Gospel.

“We know how much the life of Christ changes people and we want to get that reality and truth out to as many people as possible,” said the Rev. John Repsold, pastor of Fourth Memorial Church, a Spokane congregation that supports 22 missionary families overseas.

Foreign missionary work, which experienced a boom in the early 19th century, continues to be a priority these days for many area churches. Some organize volunteers who leave home for a few weeks to provide humanitarian aid to Mexico, Russia and other nations. Other churches also collect money to maintain a long-term missionary presence in a particular country or region.

While their goal is to gain converts to Christianity, the missionaries also work to improve the education and living conditions of the communities where they live.

“Some of us in the West get materialistic and care only about our own needs without realizing there’s a whole world out there that’s perishing,” said Joan McKinley, one of the local coordinators of “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement,” a 16-week course for people exploring missionary assignments overseas. “We must open our eyes to the needs out there.”

Locally, more Christians are showing an interest in the foreign missionary field, according to Repsold and others who work in mission programs.

Since the “Perspectives” course was first offered in Spokane four years ago, several hundred people have enrolled in the program. Developed by the U.S. Center for World Mission, the course has had more than 50,000 graduates worldwide. The course, which is being offered in North Idaho for the first time this month, teaches people “how to go to a different country and minister with sensitivity, without forcing our Western beliefs,” said McKinley, who has been involved in short-term missionary trips to Papua New Guinea.

Moody Northwest’s Aviation Program, which is based in Spokane, also has experienced an increase in enrollment. The program had only 13 freshmen in 2004, a year after Moody Bible Institute moved the aviation school from Tennessee to Spokane. The numbers have risen steadily since then – The program now has 88 students working toward a Bachelor of Science degree in mission aviation technology.

“These are students who have a heart to serve God and are open to the challenge of serving in a nontraditional manner,” said Cecil Bedford, the aviation program manager.

Some evangelical Christians attribute the renewed interest in foreign missions to the belief that the end times are fast approaching, therefore missionaries must travel to all parts of the globe to spread the Gospel. Others say it’s the result of a greater emphasis on prayer.

The first wave of American missions took place 100 years ago, said Randy Gromlich, the director of advanced maintenance training for the Moody Aviation Program. “A lot of church leaders and those involved in missions feel like we’re now in a second wave,” he said.

Most of the people who have graduated from the “Perspectives” class in Spokane have been in their late 20s and early 30s, according to McKinley. While many have gone on to serve overseas on short-term mission trips – two weeks to up to a year, about 17 people have committed two years or more to serve in South Africa, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Siberia, Thailand, China and Japan.

Many have expressed an interest in working in Indonesia, Pakistan and other predominantly Muslim countries, according to McKinley. There also has been a greater emphasis on spreading the Gospel to “unreached people groups,” populations that live in remote areas such as Papua New Guinea where groups of people do not have a translation of the Bible.

Many evangelical Christian organizations are currently concentrating their missionary efforts in a region known as the “10/40 Window,” an area that extends from 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator and stretches from North Africa across to China. According to these organizations, this is the region where the largest population of non-Christians is concentrated.

Gromlich expects that most of the Moody Aviation graduates will work as professional mechanics and pilots to support missionary work in hard-to-access areas such as the Amazon rain forest, the Andes Mountains and countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Some might work in Alaska and northern Canada.

“Our guys will be going to places where there are few roads,” he said.

As a missionary with Africa Inland Mission who lived in Kenya for three years, Gromlich sometimes encounters Christians who don’t understand overseas missionary work, especially in light of all the suffering and poverty that exists in this country. So he steers them to the Bible, to John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…”

“The world,” Gromlich said. “God so loved the world. … From our scriptural mandate, everybody in the world must have the opportunity to hear about Jesus and make a choice.”