Connections, Relationships, Discernment and Dedication
Eight countries of origin, 63 missionaries, nine species, 300 churches, 1979 and 13,447,000 people…. what do these numbers mean? They represent connections, relationships, discernment and dedication in proclaiming the Good News of Jesus! Outreach’s Executive Director Rob Weingartner shares some fascinating facts about mission, witness and The Outreach Foundation. Enjoy!
• On April 29, 2018, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa will dedicate the 300th church it has built in partnership with The Outreach Foundation.
• Outreach staff members were born in Brazil, Canada, Iran, Rwanda, Syria, the United States of America, Venezuela and Zambia.
• The move towards what became The Outreach Foundation began in 1977 when the PCUS Moderator, Dr. Jule Spach, a former missionary to Brazil, called a small group of leaders together to pray and seek the Lord’s direction for the Presbyterian Church.
• The Outreach Foundation was established by pastors, elders and mission leaders in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. in 1979; that makes Outreach “older” than the EPC, ECO and PC(USA).
• The Antioch Partners, a mission-sending agency formed by Outreach and Frontier Fellowship, has 63 missionaries (“partners”) under appointment.
• Mission co-worker Dan Turk, who works in partnership with the FJKM and Outreach in Madagascar, has discovered nine species previously thought to be extinct. Two of them have been named after him: an orchid, Schizolaena turkii, in 2002 and earlier this year a tree, Abrahamia turkii.
• Missiologist Todd M. Johnson and his team found that 20 percent of non-Christians in North America do not "personally know" any Christians. That's 13,447,000 people, about the population of metropolitan Los Angeles.
Rob Weingartner
Executive Director