Message Magazine Online - Vol. 53, No. 03, Winter 2005

In This Issue

• Think Outside the Box
  By Donna Messenger
• Missions Outside the Box
  By Michael G. Loftis, President
• Opening the Box
  By Bill Commons
• Three-Door Evangelism
  By John and Jean Peterson, Brazil
• Reaching CANS - Creative Access Nations
  By the ABWE Executive Administrator Muslim Ministries
• The Effectiveness of Sports
  By Bruce W. McDonald, International Director of Sports
• Greetings from Camp
  By Leon Duell, Russia
• Creation Science Evangelism: Reaching Students and Educators with the Gospel
  By Jerry and Donna Layton, Philippines
• The Greenhouse that is Growing a Church
  By Rick Ferrari, Ukraine
• The World at My Yard Sale
  By Ann DenUyl, USA
• Indy International
  By Joanna Stuckey, USA MK
• Disaster Church Planting
  By Annie Langston, Thailand
• We Were Strangers
  By Jim Ruff
• Giving Outside the Box
  By Don Davis & Spencer Jackson
• The Missionary Family
  By Russell E. Ebersole, Jr.
  

Think Outside the Box

By Donna Messenger, Editor

When you think of missions, what image comes to your mind? Many people picture a missionary lady sitting on a stool in the hot sun with a flannelgraph board next to her. Several African ladies surround her, sitting on the ground with small, scantily clad children playing nearby. A grass hut is in the background with chickens and goats around the dry, dusty yard.

If that is the image projected in your mind, you are not alone. Certainly many remote places in the world still exist where these kinds of ministries happen on a daily basis. However, for the most part, the picture has drastically changed over the last few decades. For example, did you know that sixty-five percent of ABWE’s ministry in Africa takes place in urban settings?

In this issue of the Message, our goal has been to show you some of the unusual ways that missionaries spread the gospel. When I first wrote to missionaries with this theme and invited them to send in articles, I received an overwhelming number of topic suggestions. I came to a quick conclusion—ABWE missionaries are passionate about giving the gospel to the needy world around them. Some of their methods appeared simple: sharing fruit with neighbors and telling them of Jesus who truly satisfies or walking a dog in the neighborhood and stopping to talk with people along the way.

While we are sure you will find these articles interesting, we had another, even greater goal for this theme. Do you have a plan to reach your neighbors for Christ? Is your church active in evangelistic outreach? Maybe some of the ideas here would be ones your church could implement to reach your community for the Lord.

We have a job to do—think “outside the box”!