NORCROSS, GEORGIA: "We come tonight to celebrate, with praise in our hearts, the opportunities You’ve given us to be part of a witness to the world," prayed Elizabeth Brown, newly elected board chairperson of The Mission Society for United Methodists. "We ask that everyday You break our hearts anew for those who have had no chance to hear about Jesus."

Brown’s prayer marked the opening of a worship service at Simpsonwood United Methodist Church, Norcross, Georgia, on Thursday, October 21, 1999. The 250 persons who gathered came to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The Mission Society for United Methodists (MSUM).

More than an anniversary event, the service was a celebration of the "Spirit of God moving on the face of the earth." It was a celebration of missions-and of missionaries.

"This is the end of three days of meetings in which we gather to approve missionaries. So tonight is a real celebration, not only for our 15th anniversary, but in knowing that missionaries are being called of God, appointed, and sent forth," began the Rev. Dr. Alvern Vom Steeg, MSUM president, and former General Board of Global Ministries missionary to Brazil.

So important are missionaries to the Mission Society that it was, in fact, sending more missionaries that was the impetus for the launch of this 15-year-old ministry. During the years preceding the Mission Society’s start-up on January 6, 1984, the United Methodist denomination had sent forth a steadily declining number of missionaries. The Mission Society was formed in response. "It was a risky thing [to form the Mission Society]," reflected Vom Steeg, speaking of MSUM’s founders, eight of whom were in attendance. "But these men and women felt it was essential that we do more to reach the lost of the world. And an important part of that was to increase the number of missionaries."

Since its founding, the Mission Society has sent forth a total of 240 missionaries. Today 135 Mission Society missionaries serve in 28 countries in areas of evangelism, church-planting, community development, education, and medical and humanitarian care. Present at the October service were 34 active and former MSUM missionaries, some of whom had traveled from as far away as Peru and India.

Reflecting over MSUM’s early ministry, Dr. Julia McLean Williams, past MSUM president, told the crowd, "We celebrate tonight the hundreds of times the faint hopes of desperate people have become events, the magnitude of which we did not dream would happen 15 years ago." MSUM President Emeritus the Rev. Dr. H. T. Maclin continued, "Our very existence is nothing short of a miracle.... God has so richly blessed us in these past 15 years and enabled us to do things far beyond anything that we dared hope or think.... With our eye upon the prize which is in Christ Jesus, we are going forward."

The major portion of the worship service showcased the Mission Society’s efforts in church planting, medical evangelism, and Christian leadership training.

Speaking on the issue of church planting was Victor Bondarenko, a young Kazakhstani first-generation Christian. Bondarenko, now attending seminary in the States in preparation to help lead the church in Kazakhstan, greeted the congregation via video. A member of the Church of the Living Vine, he spoke of the evangelistic fervor of this five-year-old congregation, which was planted by Mission Society missionaries in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Today, this church of mostly first generation Christians has itself planted five other congregations and is sending its own missionaries.

"Our church has always had a vision for reaching out to people in other communities," he said, "because we were taught that you shouldn’t just evangelize people from your city.... Our people’s desire is to spread the Good News among the whole country of Kazakhstan—and overseas."

The Mission Society’s well-established medical evangelism ministry (MEDICS International Care, Inc.) plays a major role in planting congregations. With mobile clinics already in Paraguay and Kazakhstan, MEDICS’ newest mobile clinic, bound for Peru, sat outside the church grounds during the service. Other mobile clinics are planned for Ghana and India, where recently, after only three days of medical ministry, 73 Hindus asked to be baptized in the Christian faith. "The kind of everlasting Life, the everlasting Healing that we can offer people around the world never fails. That’s why we take evangelism hand in hand with our medical work," MEDICS’ executive director, Jeff Lester, M.D. told the crowd. "We’ve seen God use medicine mightily to break down the barriers to people’s hearts."

Introducing the Mission Society’s newest outreach was the Rev. Dr. Wes Griffin, former missionary to Estonia, and the executive director of MSUM’s International Leadership Institute (ILI). ILI seeks to equip and empower national church leaders for reaching their own countries for Christ. "As you have heard tonight stories of opportunities to plant churches, of medical clinics that will open new areas to the Gospel, know that there will be a great need to raise up leaders who are equipped and empowered to reach the lost of those nations," Griffin said.

It is true, echoed the Rev. Peter Pereira, MSUM missionary to India (his home country) and ILI national director. "I am doing ministry and have the privilege of seeing the great things that the Lord is doing. But there is no one to take over.... People are crying and hungering. Women are saying, ‘Teach us. Tell us, so that we can reach our families for Christ.’ Young people are saying, ‘There is no one to teach us and train us.’ I pray that God would give you a vision and a burden so that we can, together, reach the world for the glory of God."

The diversity of the Mission Society’s ministries, spotlighted throughout the evening, was noted by Dr. Darrell Whiteman. A cultural anthropologist and the associate dean of Asbury Seminary’s E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism, Whiteman is a missionary training consultant for six mission agencies, including the Mission Society. "[The Mission Society for United Methodists] seems to understand the holistic Gospel almost naturally," Whiteman said. "I don’t see your missionaries disagreeing over whether evangelism is more important than social responsibility...and frankly, that’s rare... I commend you, because if our focus is on one side or the other, we are missing the whole Gospel."

The service concluded with youth from Prospect United Methodist Church (Covington, Georgia) performing a drama to the song, "People Need the Lord."

It seemed the perfect ending to a service that had underlined the longing of the world’s people to know Jesus Christ. "People are hungering and thirsting to know Christ the Lord," said Peter Pereira. "I have seen Hindus worship a stone in the road. They put garland and jewels on it, then come and worship. Friends, people are seeking the living God."

The Rev. Dr. James V. Heidinger II, president of Good News, an evangelical renewal movement within The United Methodist Church, was one of the 34 founders of the Mission Society who was present during the 15th anniversary celebration. "What has happened in 15 short years, absolutely amazes me!," he commented. "To see the maturity of the staff, the breadth of vision, the scope of ministry, and the quality of those 135 folks serving in some 28 countries overwhelms my heart. I praise God I was able to be at the 15-year celebration! To God be the glory!"

Editor’s Note: For more information on the Mission Society, missionaries, mission projects, please call 1-800-478-8963 or e-mail infogmsum.org. The mailing address of MSUM is P. O. Box 922637 -Norcross, Georgia 30010