This is an article from the June 1980 issue: USCWM - Our Goals

News

News

More than 700 friends celebrate 3rd anniversary

To inaugurate the large auditorium on campus, more than 700 friends of the U.S. Center for World Mission showed up for its Third Anniversary Celebration on May 1.

Among them were seven men who brought greetings from colleges, churches, mission agencies, and USCWM affiliate organizations: Dr. Richard Chase (Biola), Dr. Roger Voskuyl (Westmont), Dr. Earl Lee (First Nazarene Church of Pasadena), Robert Pickett (World Vision), James C. Smith (Christian Missionary Fellowship), Eugene Wittig (OMS International), and Dr. Ralph Byron for the USCWM affiliate organizations.

Film clips of the Jericho marches and the Pat Boone Benefit Concert were a reminder of the early days of faith and vision. Also on film was a brief, heart warming message by Bob Pierce which was recorded just a few days before his death in 1978. His closing remarks were: "You have not only my prayers as I live and breathe, you have my dying prayers. And I promise that from the battlements of heaven I'll be cheering and praying and interceding and reminding the Lord and in any way I can prodding the conscience of every Christian to see that we'll have done everything we wish we had done when we meet Jesus face to face."

Eleven days later, Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision and good friend and supporter of the Center, died.

Dr. Ray Ortlund, former pastor of Lake Avenue Congregational Church, brought the challenge of the evening. The Immanuel Sign Language Choir reminded us that barriers to teaching the "hidden people" can and must be crossed as they effectively expressed their love for the Lord through signlanguage singing, accompanied by inspirational music.

Before Dr. Ralph Winter's presentation of the theme, "Gateway to the Year 2000", all who are working on the staff or had been involved in the development of the Center during the last three years were recognized.

To begin the celebration, the mood was set by the Good News Messengers, a vocal and instrumental group from Prairie Bible Institute (Canada). Ben Jennings was master of ceremonies with Carleton Booth, songleader, and Mary Jean Jennings, pianist, for the rousing congregational singing.

TESL grows rapidly at WCIU

The Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) program at the William Carey International University has grown to the extent that it is now comparable to the TESL programs in many of America's largest universities.

At the second annual graduation ceremony of WCIU on May 22, nine master of arts degrees and ten certificates in TESL were awarded.

Irving W. Sylvia, chairman of the TESL Department, presented the candidates for degrees and certificates to Dr. Ralph Winter, president of the university, who also gave the commencement address.

A good number of the 19 students are planning to spend the

summer teaching English in such places as Morocco, Japan, Hong

Kong, Taiwan and the People's Republic of China.

On the WCIU campus, a capacity enrollment of 25 to 30 is expected for the summer course in TESL and applications are already being received for the fall semester.

Decisions up 80%

Each week over 100 Hidden People decisions are registered at the U.S. Center for World Mission as people discover the challenge of the Hidden Rope and send in their 'Founders' check for $15.95 to register their new concern.

Last year 1,000 people made this decision in Jan Feb March. This year, 1,800 registered their concern in the same period, an 80% increase. The ripples are widening!

To further accelerate this growth, each person who makes this one time gift receives a copy of the exciting Jericho book to read and lend to friends. Each Founder also receives a Hidden Peoples poster, 6 consecutive issues of this bulletin, and three copies of the Grapevine letter to mail out or hand on to still others to interest them in the challenge of the Hidden People.

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