June 01, 2001 by

COMINAD Unveils Adopt-A-Village Project Reconciliation Ministries

Over 50 members of the Cooperative Missions Network of the African Dispersion (COMINAD) met on April 9­12, 2001 at Wycliffe’s Bible Translators’ Center for a conference that challenged all attendees to participate in the development process of the Adopt-A-Village (AAV) project. Envisioned by Brian Johnson, COMINAD’s national coordinator, AAV is all about “building relationships between villages in Africa and the churches in the West, for the purpose of furthering God’s Kingdom,” Johnson said.

Participants included representatives from a range of ministries, including Wycliffe, SIM,  USCWM, YWAM, Africa Christian Fellowship-USA, the Center for Urban Theological Studies, Network, Carver International Missions, South Africa Inland Missions, National Black Evangelical Association and Campus Crusade. They were asked to take part in a “nuts and bolts” type meeting to plot a workable way to make the vision reality.

“I feel like I got a peek into a Kingdom Construction planning meeting around the throne,” said one participant. Some challenging issues that were covered during this development phase included coordinating a networking system, choosing a village to adopt, designing AAV to not be a burden to mission agen­cies and avoiding inherent problems of exploitation, paternalism, denominational­ism and sectarianism.

COMINAD by e-mail: [email protected]

Bible League and Adopt-a-People Clearinghouse Merge

Aiming to enhance the goals of both ministries, The Bible League and the Adopt-A-People Clearinghouse have announced plans for a merger to be completed by early 2002.
“This merger will greatly increase discipleship training around the world by enabling a greater number of un­reached people groups to be introduced to the Word,” said Dennis Mulder, President of The Bible League.

The Bible League was founded in 1938 and to make Scripture available through training and supplying local churches for evangelism and discipleship.
The Clearinghouse was formed in 1989, (initially based at the U.S. Center for World Mission) and provides resources on the world’s unreached people groups with resources for “adopting” them through prayer, partnership, provision and personnel.

Up and Coming

COMING TOGETHER FOR UNITY

In what has been de­scribed as the most compre­hensive meeting of mission workers in over 40 years, a broad spectrum of mission associations will join with relief and development asso­ciations and others for a convention entitled “Godsmission.commUNITY.”
Meeting September 20-23 in Haines City, Florida, the focus on unity will look for “new pathways for collabora­tive global ministry.” On the web: http://www.godsmission.com E-mail: [email protected]

NEW TOOLS

The International Society for Frontier Missiology (ISFM) will hold its annual conference on September 19 & 20 in Orlando, Florida. Patrick Johnstone (Operation World) and Todd Johnson (World Christian Encyclope­dia) will join a number of other speakers to discuss “New Tools in the Toolbox.” On the web: http://www.isfm.bigstep.com E-mail: [email protected]

AFRICANS FOR MISSION

African Christian Fellow­ship-USA will hold their biennial convention at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio on August 1-5, 2001. Over 1000 attendees are ex­pected, largely first generation Africans in the United States.
On the web: http://www.acfusa.net