March 01, 1981 by

A Loose Change Frontier Fellowship

In what follows here, we are deeply indebted to a group of tribal Christians in Western Burma - hence "the Burma Plan." Each day they pray for their own missionaries and set aside "a handful of rice" for their support.

How it was done Sunday February 22, 1981 at the Chapel Woods Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia (the first church in North America formally to do this!).

The pastor stood up in the evening service and described what the missions committee had already discussed, in roughly these terms though not exactly:

"As you leave this evening you need only to hold out your hand and one of the ushers will give you a blank label to take home with you."

"When you get home you should carefully print on the label Remember the Hidden Peoples and stick it on the side of a wide mouthed jar of some kind. Each night before retiring, or possibly at dinner time if that is what your family would like to do, you are challenged to put the loose change from your pocket or pocketbook into the jar and at the same moment you should take advantage of that little disturbance in your day to do exactly what the label says: pray for the Hidden Peoples."

"Your accumulated coins at the end of the month will be turned in at a special Frontier Fellowship meeting which we will announce. At that meeting each month we will show a special message on video tape that will explain the exciting new concept of Frontier Missions and portray new developments across the world in regard to this special new emphasis."

"Each month the treasurer of the group will give you a receipt for your coins so that you will not have to take them home again; but each of you will, at a later date, decide just how you want your funds designated. Our church will have its own special Hidden Peoples fund. We hope to adopt a specific Hidden People group. However, you are free to choose other alternatives. The only thing is that your designation needs to fulfill the exciting new definition of Frontier Missions (planting the church within people groups where there is not yet a viable church at all)."

"Remember that we have two primary reasons for participating in a Loose Change Fellowship for Frontiers: (a) we want to create a special fund for the world's least reached groups  the world's highest priority mission  and (2) we want to create a deep, genuine pattern of daily renewal of awareness for these people groups are in a particular sense out of sight and out of mind.' How it was done Wednesday"

February 25, 1981 at the U.S. Center for World Mission. At our regular staff meeting, the announcement was made that this was a good time for those who wished to join in this simple, daily prayer vigil. A number of our staff members  and I hope eventually all of our people ¬will become involved in this new Fellowship. We hope this will become a nationwide movement. How? We are approaching a number of large, fine, evangelical organizations to enlist their collaboration in reaching their contacts with this challenge.

Now then how can you help Form a  Frontier Fellowship You may discuss this with your pastor and mission committee to see if your church might become another Chapel Woods church. However, you may prefer to try it out yourself for a few days first. See whether this little reminder mechanism is a help to you, or you might wish to invite two or three, friends over to your home and ask them if they would be willing to join you in the experiment. Even a group of ten may warrant your requesting a special video cassette each month for use in your monthly meeting. (We are hoping this can be very inexpensive.)

Who will follow up on all of this? Naturally, our LCFF here at the USCWM is spurred on by almost constant, daily input from the widening ripples of the Hidden Peoples revolution in missions. We really don't need someone to send us a monthly video cassette! Indeed, the cassette we will send out to your group each month will, to a considerable extent, simply be a sharing of the excitement and flow of events here at this Center, where everything we do concerns the Hidden Peoples. Although we will make available directly, or through regional offices, a video cassette for all the Frontier Fellowships with. which w are in touch, other organizations joining us in this campaign may produce their own video cassettes. Beginning in February, our bulletin, Mission Frontiers carries a daily paragraph for prayer. Is this really worth the effort?

You will be surprised to know that an average of only 27 a day produces $100 a year; 100 people will produce $10,000 a year; one million people will produce one hundred million dollars a year. We hope to ellicit that large a group by December 31, 1981!

But if coins mount up like this, what will be the impact that all this vast volume of new prayer will accomplish? Remember, nothing that does not occur daily will ever dominate your life. The daily vigil of a Loose Change Fellowship" will "jar" people loose" and "change" their lives. With many organizations backing it, this will awaken North Americans like no sporadic one organizational scheme could ever do.

We ought to see one million Canadians and nine million U.S. believers join in this new Frontier emphasis. Can you believe God for this? Imagine, ten million doing this will produce one billion dollars a year. Wow! That will double U.S. giving to missions. Do you not think that kind of goal is worth a whole lot of effort

Walk through the Word in the morning. Walk through the world at night. In each case with our hand in His!

But will this save the U.S Center campus We hope so, but that is surely secondary. We are not even suggesting that these Fellowship coins come to us beyond the first $15.95, even that is optional. Other organizations helping us in this campaign may accept (but not demand) these offerings, since they will have active overseas Hidden People programs. And, they need money for their ongoing activities. We're different. We are able to retain our policy of asking nothing from churches, and only a one time gift from individuals. Due to contributed personnel on our staff from 42 different mission agencies, we are (amazingly) able to operate on a self sustaining basis. We always have, as far as our operational costs are concerned. Not since 1977 have we asked anyone for operational funds. That means, once we receive enough small gifts to pay off our Founding Budget we will continue (as we are now) on an operationally self sustaining basis.

If you would like more information, please write to me at the following address, or phone (213) 794 6276: Ralph D. Winter, U.S. Center for World Mission, 1605 E. Elizabeth, Pasadena, CA 91104.

P. S. As you pray each day you may wish to ponder the following pledge which was worked out by 170 young people from 26 nations at the International Student Consultation for Frontier Missions in Edinburgh in November 1980.

'By the grace of God and for His Glory, I commit my entire life to obeying His commission of Matt. 28:18 20 wherever and however He leads me, giving priority to the peoples currently beyond the reach of the gospel (Rom. 15:2021). I will also endeavor to impart this vision to others."