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758 N. RESH

ANAHEIM, CA 92805
714-490-1151

Nicole, Robyn, Doug, andAndrea

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP Pr^n Newsletter

March 1994

J^nd this is the confidence which we have bejhre Him, that ifwe ask anything

according to His will. He hears us. And ifwe know thatHe hears us in whatp^p^,
ask, we know that we have the requests which we have askedfi-om Him, "
1 John 5:14-15

This past year has been filled with great joys and deep
sorrows, strong advances of the Kingdom into new

territory, and, generally, a lot ofchange. Through all of

these runs the thread ofcontinual and persistent prayer
that the purposes ofGod would be accomplished
through the circumstances of ourlives.

You have been faithfiil to God and to us primarily

through the work you have accomplished in your
prayers for us. They have achieved more than any ofus
realize, butsome glimpses shine through inways we
can recognize and pass on to you.

Firstof all, we want to thank you for the tremendous

support you gave during the illness and death of
Robyn's mother. It was a difficult time, but in it her

femily was able to know and minister the peace and

comfort ofGod in caring for her mother and father
and each other. The memorial service was a testimony
tohermother, and to ourhope inJesus. Your prayers
encouraged and enabled us throughout.
On February 5, Randy and Edie Nelson -- veteran
CMF missionaries and their two sons left California

for Bangkok, Thailand. Wehave reported over the last

few years the various efforts Doug has made to get a
church-planting ministry begun in that challenging
city.

the Chans while teaching missions in Singapore and

learned that theyhad worked in Thailand before.

We had been praying for the opportunity to recruit

missionaries from the maturing churches in Singapore.
Both Nelsons and Chans are cSled of God to this
ministry through your prayers for Bangkok, and will

walk through doors opened by continued asking.

The new urban ministry recently begun in Semarang,
Indonesia, is another result of your prayers. Phil and
Maggie Edwards ~ CMF missionaries to Indonesia
since 1980 ~ have been at it for seven months now,

working with Ibu Winarti, laying thegroundwork, and

pursuing the contacts that will eliminate in churches

being started in growing Indonesian cities.

It is new work for the Edwards, and they are exploring

ways to best reach urban people and grow the church.
Your prayers will unleash God's resources for the

accomplishing of His purpose in Indonesia. More

workers are needed to join in this work.

Ourown family has experienced changes in location,

schools, roles, and relationships. By God's grace and
your prayers, we continue to be confident diat He will

meet our needs so that we, as His ambassadors, can

meet the need the world has for Him.

They will spend their first year in language study and

will be joined in afew months by their Singaporean
teammates, Norman and Swee Keng Chan. Doug met

Doug and Robyn Priest

ODATS world situation is

not the same as it was a

scant twenty years ago. In

1966 my parents went as
missionaries to Ethiopia. Dad had a
Bible college degree, and his visa for
Ethiopia stated that he was able to
work in the country as a missionaiy.
When I entered Kenya as a mis
sionary in 19781 too entered with a
missionary visa, although the actual
term used to secure my visa was
"Consultant." But in country after
country of the world today, there is
no longer a category for the usual
missionary visa.
Countries today still want foreign
ers to enter their country. They are
desirous of foreigners coming who
can fill jobs that they do not have
enough quaUfied citizens of their own
country to fill. A bachelor's degree is
usually the minimal requirement for
entry. For foreigners with the proper
credentials, the welcome mat is out.
But the flip side of the coin is that
country after country is becoming
closed to the traditional missionary.
The traditional missionary is one
who has received a degree from a
Bible college and perhaps a semi
nary. With these degrees, the mis
sionary is well trained for the
traditional missionary role of church
planter, evangelist, or leadership
trainer.

Nowadays missionaries who have

such training and degrees are finding
that they are no longer allowed to
enter many countries. They are told,
'We do not need any more missionar
ies in our country; we have plenty of
people who are capable of doing the
job that you want to do."
It would be terribly discouraging
for a student to go to Bible college for
four years, then go to seminary for
two years, only to be told in another
country's Immigration Department
Office, "Your degrees and skills are
not needed in our country." To expect
such people to go back to school to get
a degree in a "useful" field means
that most with this Bible college and
seminaiy background simply will not
become missionaries.

The world situation requires us to

reconsider our missionary training

6 (246)

Getting in and Staying in:

Education for

Missionary
Candidates
By DOUG PRIEST, JR.
procedures. This needs to be done at
the Bible college and seminary; in the
place where the actual degree comes
from; and in the skills that are re
quired to enter countries today. No
longer can one go to Bible college and
expect that the accompanying degree
will prepare him or her for entry to
other countries.

Most of oiu* Bible colleges offer a

bachelor's degree in theology. The
classes that one takes are those that

would prepare him or her for a career

in the ministry. If a student is de
sirous of becoming a missionary, then
missions classes are taken in addi

tion to the usual Bible requirements.

At the end of the college career, the
appropriate degree is awarded.
Problems

There are several problems with

this educational track in today's
world. First of all, many coxmtries
feel that there is nothing unique
about a bachelor's degree in Bible.
Many of their own citizens have such
a degree. They do not need others to
help build their nation who have only
this degree. In fact, they say, "To
iUow a foreigner in our country with
this degree means that one of our
own people will be denied a job."
Second, right on the degree it
states that the student earned the

degree from a Bible college or a

Christian college. For more and more
countries today, the words '3ible" or
"Christian" raise a red flag in the Im
migration Department. Missionaries
are denied access, particularly if the
country is one that does not have a
long Christian tradition.
Two of my friends are preparing to
enter a country with a strong Mushm
tradition. My friend received his
bachelor's degree from one of our
Bible colleges, and in addition, he re
ceived his master's degree from one
of our seminaries. But he realizes

that if he uses these degrees to try to

enter the country, he will be denied.
So he has taken a certificate from a

state university in Teaching English

as a Second Language. With this cer
tificate, he hopes that his work per
mit will be granted. He does not even
plan to state that he has the more ad
vanced bachelor's and master's de
grees.

Another friend is working in

China, also as an English teacher.
His bachelor's degree too comes from
one of our Bible colleges. Recently he
talked with the dean of the school

asking if there was not some way

that the name of the institution could

be changed on his degree. Unfortu

nately, the mechanisms were not in
place to affect such a change.
CHRISTIAN STANDARD

Zaire missionaries, Ron and Carolyn

Butler. I mention only these two

facilities, non-existent|preventive
medicine, and a pagar^ life-style. You

exotic to such common ones as my

incidents which have touched me

can see that it is only by the grace of

God that a person survives and

blamed for having gone out

uninsiired in the first place.
The enemies I have already

deeply; the list could go on.

Consider the deadly roads, where
fatal and near-fatal accidents are of

epidemic proportion. In 1990

missionary child, Carrie Caldwell,
was struck by a motorcyclist in
Puerto Rico. The accident cost Carrie

her leg. Last August Matt Littell was

killed in a motor accident in the

Philippines. These two cases are

representative of the situation.
Add the diseases (from gastro
enteritis to AIDS) thriving under the

thrives from day to day!

Scarcely a mission compound in
the Third World that has been there

for more than thirty years lacks the

grave of a missionaiy oi' a missionary
child. Our compound at Sango Otta
has two, those of Don Baughman and
his firstborn child, Ruthie, who died
of an imidentified diseiase in 1969 at

the age of fifteen years.

Those of us who went out in the

days before medical insxirance was

combined circumstances of a hot

common and were then unable to

house climate, inadequate sanitary

measures, no good and safe water
supply, health-threatening air
pollution, a lack of health-care

qualify for it because we lived in such

dangerous places have come back

own cancer. Some have then been

mentioned are formidable, to be sure,

but we have another, far more subtle,
enemy to reckon with every day. His
name is Discouragement. He is least
effective when others are pra3dng for
us. I cannot tell you how many times
we have been in the throes of great
difficulty and discouragement and at
a particular moment have felt a
hfting of the burden and a new
encouragement. Then, perhaps a
month later, we received word that
someone somewhere had been

praying for us at that very moment.

uninsured to America with diseases

that run the gamut from rare and

It's Not Too Late

When Walter went next door to

minister to Dorcas, I did not really

know how to pray for him. I asked for
wisdom and grace for him and for

God's will to be done. 1 admitted my

lack of understanding, but I knew
that God knew what was needed and
what He wants to do with all of us.

So I placed the matter in His hands

and trusted His love and wisdom.

You may not know how you ought

to pray for your missionary partners;
that's all right. That is not a ^od
reason not to pray, because God does
know and He can make up for any
lack in your understanding.
If you pray, I will go. Maybe we
didn't say it; maybe you didn't
understand it, but it's not too late.
We have gone (more than a thousand
of us) and we need your prayers.
While you stay, we will pray. We
realize it works both ways; we also
have a responsibility to pray and to
pray for you who stay and send.
Let's pray for one another.
'Not her real name

^Challenge Compound, where we were

living at the time
'A group seeking to combine in their

religion various pagan, Old Testament, and

New Testament beliefs and practices
*0n no fewer than three occasions during
the course of preparing this column, I have
had my thoughts interrupted by the sound
of the gunshots fired by armed robbers
somewhere nearby-twice in broad daylight.
Note: I am happy to report that the last
time we saw "Dorcas," she was well and
functioning normally.

for March 20,1994

5^-

WA-

mPM^::

"Restricted Access Countries" or

need skills to work in other countries

"Creative Access Countries."

that the usual Bible college program

just does not offer. Some of the skills
I am talking about are what we usu
ally call "secular professions."
In a nearby Muslim country that

It is indeed possible to enter these

countries, but one must be creative in
doing so. Christians who practice a
"secular" profession are usually wel
come in those countries. One only has
to look at the many oil workers in the

wUl not allow missionaries to hold

work permits, I was told that any

body who has a bachelor's degree in
English literature can enter the
country in a minute, because this is a
highly sought after degree. The same
might be said for teachers of English

W^&lm
Solutions

Mission organiza
tions in the last twenty years
have realized that their very name
precludes their missionaries from en
tering many countries to work. It is
no accident that the Africa Inland
Mission is now called AIM Interna

Bible college. Such missionaries

today are known as "tentmakers."
Mission strategists today no longer

tion at a church, and the other can be

used when trying to enter a foreign
country which is antipathetic to the
more overtly Christian terminology.
But the name change addresses
only one problem encountered in the
Immigration offices. The other prob
lem is that foreigners these days

as a second language, computer pro

grammers, science professors, etc. A

Bible college degree simply will not
suffice in many countries today.
Missionary recruiters now find
themselves needing to visit other
places in addition to our Bible col
leges to find the type of workers that

tional; that the Sudan Interior Mis

are needed on the mission field.

sion is now called SIM International;

that Wycliffe Bible Translators is

Today's recruiters visit churches to

find those who have "secular" profes

use terms like "Closed Countries"

and "Open Countries." Rather coun

tries that are closed to the traditional

missionary role are now known as

Middle East to know that the Middle

East is not made up of "Closed Coun

tries."

It is a good sign that many of our

Bible colleges have aligned them
selves with nearby universities. It is
good that joint programs are being of
fered. With a joint program, one can
have a solid biblical background, yet
major in a profession that will enable
him or her to enter a foreign country.
The degree can even come from the
university so that there are not ques
tions asked in the Immigration De
partment about a degree from a
Christian school.

known as the Summer Institute of

sions who can minister on the field.

Many Christian visitors today are

entering foreign countries on tourist

Linguistics everj^here but America;

They visit campus ministries for the

visas. These visas allow them to stay

that the China Inland Mission be

same reason.

for anywhere from two weeks to six

came the Overseas Missionary Fel

lowship, but is now known as OMF

Right now our mission is trying to

find a certified professional counselor
to serve in an Asian country. Since
that country is suspect of people
holding degrees from overtly Christ

International.

In my own mission, Christian Mis

sionary Fellowship, some of our sta
tionery is labeled "CMF
International," a legally registered
entity. There is nothing threatening

ian institutions, this means we have

to fmd a counselor whose degree is
not from a Bible college. Yet the

about a few initials with in Interna

counselor needs to have Bible train

tional tacked on at the end!

ing.
At a recent National Missionary
Convention I heard a missionary
from India lamenting the fact that
India was a "closed country" to mis
sionaries. In fact, what the mission
ary meant was that the country of

Our Bible colleges may be doing

their missionary students an inad
vertent disservice by using the words
"Bible" or "Christian" on their degree.
Perhaps oiu* schools should set up a
parallel corporation so that their mis
sion students can have two degrees:
one which says "ABC Christian Col
lege", and the other which says "ABC
International School, Ltd.", (or some
other innocuous name). The "Christ

ian College" degree can be used in

the States when applying for a posi
for March 20.1994

India did not allow traditional mis

sionaries to hold work permits in the

country. But India is open to foreign
ers who have other professional
skills. Missionaries can enter India;
it is just that they need a skill other
than that which they receive at a

months. The tourist visa is the short-

term missionarys answer to prayer.

With a tourist visa one can enter the

country and accomplish some good

for the kingdom. But a tourist visa
just will not do for those who want to
really impact a country with the
gospel. Those people need to be able
not just to visit a country for a few
weeks, but to stay in the country for
years of fruitful ministry.
It is no longer a simple matter to
get into another country and stay
there as a missionary. But with some
modifications in our tried and true

training procedures, more and more

people wiU be able to enter other
countries and stay there long enough
to make a difference. Are we ready to
make these changes?
Doug Priest, Jr., serves in Singapore as
the Asia Coordinator for Christian Mission

ary Fellowship.
(247)

doug and

rohun . ,
^ pnest

BLK 533 HOUGANG AVE 6

#12-325

Nicole, Robyn, Doug, andAndrea

SINGAPORE 1953

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP Prayer Newsletter

September 1994

"What Do the Priests Do

In Asia Anyway?"
As I satin the Uving room of Singaporeans Norman

and Swee Keng Chan, CMF missionaries in Bangkok,

I felt thatGod was blessing ourconversation in a

class people -- primarily fectory and clerical workers

in the northern part of the city. We had talked at
lengthabout how this area would mean some
hardship for the family in that the school for their son
was so fer away. It mightmean as much as six hours

in the car a day for the one driving litde Barnabas to

school.

special way.

I had come to Bangkok to visit our missionaries in

Thailand Randy and Edie Nelson and Norman and

Swee Keng Chan. Both families had been engaged in

language study for almost sk months. It was now

time to begin thinking how to go about our goals of

church planting in Bangkok. We were involved in
discussions of the best strategy for winning Buddhists
to Christ.

All day long, Noiniaii, Swee Keng, and I had talked

about their desire to plant a church among the lower

As we satdrinking Chinese tea, we wondered if there

might be a better way to accomplish our goals. Could

we try a different section of the city?

With less than one percent ofBangkok being

Christian, there was litde danger ofmoving to an
"over-churched" part of the city. There are no such
places in Bangkok. We envisioned that the Chans
could move to an area, give themselves a full mission
term of four years, and, at theend, perhaps have a
church of 25 people if God blessed their efforts, "is
this the bestway?" we wondered.

After we had reached a tentative agreement, Norman

then shared another vision he had for how we could

accomplish our goals. It immediately caught my

attention.

"Why don't we begin a fellowship for businessmen

who are here in Bangkok from other countries but

have notfound a church in which to worship? These

men could be challenged to recommit their lives to

the Lord, then they could be challenged to contribute

toward the work of planting churches throughout
Thailand? We could find trained preachers from the
Norman, Swee Keng, and Barnabas Chan,

local Bible college who do not have ajob because

there arc so few churches that can employ them. So,
many of these graduates end up doing things like

driving taxis for want ofa church job. And, they

would be accountable to our fellowship. We could
support them for several years, by which time they
would have to have a church started that could pay for

Our own church in Singapore is also doingwell and

provides many opportunities for promoting missions.
In fact, tomorrow night we begin our first studies
with a group of sbc people from our church who are

part or all of their salary."

interested in tentmaldng: using their careersfor the

service oftheLordin other countries.

Could this be a way thatwe might be able to startnot

merely one church in a typical four-year term but start

Please uphold us in your prayers. There is so much

several?

to do.

Norman felt that it must be an Asian-run effort, since

the businessmen would not contribute to it if

Americans were associated with it. They would

Doug and Robyn Priest

reason that since Americans are involved, Americans

should pay the bills. But if the effortwere Asian-run,

and directed toAsians, then the business people

should contribute. ^

And so, ourdiscussio^cpntinued into the evening.

By then I was worn out, readyfor someexercise, a
shower, and bed.

This is a glimpse ofwhat Doug does as he travels to

different Asian countries in his jobas CMF's Asia
Coordinator. Since being back in Singapore, Doug
has had similar experiences in Indonesia, as well as
northern Thailand.

9/94

Doug and Robyn Priest

Noaptofic Oiguizarioo
U.S.PoMage

Christian Missionary Fellowship

P.O. BOX 501020

PAID

INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46250-6020

Pennit No. 2?75

lodianapolii, 1d<Giiu

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