Mission News: What In the World....!

Beslan, Russia: Sergey of Russian Ministries relates that Christians from the area gathered in groups during the hostage crisis, providing support through prayer and counseling. Fifty of the children who were hostages are from a church with which Russian Ministries partners. All of these children had the opportunity to go to summer camps where they learned more about Jesus' love for them.

Middle East: SAT-7, a strategic TV service with Christian programming in the Middle East and North Africa, is pleased to present the "Alpha" program on one of their channels in October. There is a subtitled Arabic version, which was launched in Egypt this past spring. The hope is that many people will have their questions about Christianity answered.

England: GH with Wycliffe Bible Translators, has accepted a two-year assignment (February 2005-February 2007) in Indonesia. She will be doing language survey and developing a database for survey teams.

Cambodia: Mark and Susan Smith are grateful to have a new government formed, after an 11-month stalemate. They are particularly concerned that the government will act uprightly in regard to adoptions.

Japan: Kathi Parrish of Asian Access is blessed by three relationships she is developing with 3 Japanese women. They meet weekly for English and Japanese conversation and Bible reading.

USA: Don McCurry of Ministries to Muslims reports that his summer courses in Colorado were attended by people from many parts of the United States and Canada. These trainees are headed for Turkey, India, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen Afghanistan, Iraq, and Spain, with some working with Muslim refugees in the United States.

Baltimore, MD: Charlotte, a parishioner of St. PiusX Catholic Church on York Road has explored Central's website and is inquiring about our partnerships in local social action ministries.

Professing Professors in the Philippines

Central has been connected with Asian Theological Seminary for many of its 35 years. From two American professors in 1969, teaching a few students in rented quarters, the school has grown to own a campus with 26 regular professors (18 Filipinos and 8 expatriates from Canada, China, India, Japan, Korea and United States) and 250 students. There are over 1000 alum in all parts of the Philippines and around the world.

Plans for further expansion include an MBA program in Biblical stewardship to prepare people for fundraising and management in Christian organizations, an enlarged counseling department, a regular evangelistic radio broadcast and greater focus on Asian missions. Asia is where more than half the world's peoples live and countless millions are un-evangelized and poor.

There is healthy tension on the campus regarding ideas learned from Western missionaries and textbooks that are hardly meaningful within Asian culture. In the current post-colonial situation, local churches engage in their particular settings and find that indigenous ideas contribute to the discipleship in Christ's body. Contextual theology is the process by which the Church becomes inserted in a given culture in a transformative way. One professor states, "I view conversion or turning to God as one that involves turning away from the world and sin toward Christ, and then back to the world to transform it." Every student is encouraged to think for him or herself, applying God's word as the Holy Spirit reveals it to each one.

• How to articulate a theology of sin in a culture where sin is more associated with shame than with guilt?
• How to express the seriousness of sin for Filipinos who think that laws are just suggestions?
• How to form Christians who love Christ and their own country enough to minister there?

Questions that resonate around the world!