We are juggling some amazing things this time: 1. The world's deaf are a perplexing challenge. Totally different from "unreached peoples," this "category" is not a group— that is, if you "get into the group" you will not automatically be thrown into contact with all others in the same group.

But just as mission hospitals are designed to help certain specially needy people within various groups, you would think that mission agencies would also intend to do something significant for this most-helpless-of-all group. A starving person who can hear, who can communicate, is much more likely to be able to do something about his plight than a person who perhaps has never communicated with anyone. That's a darker pit than blindness! Seethe Cover Story on page 5.

2. The latest, best mission book, Herb Kane's Wanted: World Christians. Few people, even busy professors today could take the time to craft as detailed, as exciting, and as packed a book of spectacular facts and views as this mature paperback from Herb Kane. Here in one book is a pretty solid all-around education in mission, with a lot about many aspects of the world thrown in. Our Associate Editor, John Hoizmann, )does not usually go overboard in reviews; he's pretty critical. But see what he says about this book, on page 20!

3. A sneak look at the new, magnificent Mission Handbook, the first in eight years, and its bombshell news— enough to claim half a page in TIME Magazine. There is one problem associated with it. We'll deal with that in depth next issue. (A few comments across the page.)

4. Bible scholars and missions? What would a mission scholar like me be doing at a meeting of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy? See for yourself on pages 8-11.

5. How old will you be in the year 2000?
All of a sudden we are hearing new voices on the subject of the return of Christ, the end of the age, the completion of the task. Not all the voices are friendly to an optimistic vision.

One thing is clear: if there is any chance that Jesus might return any time soon, or even by the rapidly-approaching year 2000, then I guess most serious believers are going to be very interested. And that means the countdown of mission advance will get more interesting every day!

Can't you count on that kind of interest among your friends who are serious believers? In that case, can you help us spread that kind of hope? Yes, this is that same urgent, unavoidable, really glorious challenge: can the U.S. Center for World Mission, with your help, extend enough vision in America to pay off this campus with small gifts? And believe enough to advance the necessary funds against that vision? That is what it is really all about.

Most cordially,