Why WorldVenture Part II

As promised here is the second part to why I am serving with WorldVenture...

First, a little history on the organization. The following was copied from the WorldVenture web page. You can read the longer original version here.  

World War II was raging, but there in Chicago, on Monday, May 24, 1943 about 50 Baptist pastors and other concerned people gathered in Chicago. And they prayed. On through the afternoon they discussed their concerns and they prayed. There, on their knees in prayer, they took a step of faith. The Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society was born, incorporated seven months later, to assist churches in sending, funding, and caring for missionaries. In time, the organization came to be known as CBInternational, and now, WorldVenture. The first 10 years, ending in 1953, became known as the Ten Miracle Years. Beginning with no personnel, no fields and no funds, the organization grew to 300 missionaries on four continents. After six decades of ministry, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world have come into the family of God - a result of the faith of those early 50 who prayed. Thousands of churches have been planted and church leaders equipped. Many around the world have been touched by our acts of compassion. Today, with more than 500 missionaries in more than 60 areas of the world, WorldVenture is still expanding the harvest, taking the love of God to the nations. It is our vision to see people of all nations transformed by Jesus Christ through partnership with his church.

I realized that I might need to back up a bit for some of my readers. I frequently get the question (like again at work this week) what exactly is WorldVenture? The official version (as copied from their web page) is that "WorldVenture is people. A network of partners working together with a shared vision to see people of all nations transformed by Jesus Christ. WorldVenture exists to assist churches in global ministry. To accomplish this, we do many different kinds of work -- from evangelism and church planting to medical, educational, agricultural, and relief and development work. Most any skill or occupation can be utilized in WorldVenture's global ministry." But what exactly does that mean? It means that they help churches send, fund, and care for missionaries. 


As part of the sending process, I as a missionary with WorldVenture have gone through an extensive application process that involved recommendation by my church, a lengthy application, writing of a doctrinal statement, and an interview with a committee. To help prepare me to serve to the best of my abilities I will complete training and reading assignments before I leave. Some of these are required for all missionaries serving with WorldVenture and others were specifically recommended for me based on where I will be serving, my job description, and issues identified during the application process or interview. You can read a lot more about that in this blog post. 

The funding process is one I will have to tackle in another blog post.


I mentioned in my blog post earlier this week that one of the reasons I have chosen to serve with WorldVenture is because prayer is an integral part of the organization. The other is because they are known for their care of their missionaries. I experienced this first-hand when I became sick in 2004, as I explained in the post earlier this week. Another more recent example happened during my application interview. I was asked how I planned to take care of myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually while I was serving, as my ministry will be stressful at times caring for the needs of others and because of its remote location. I didn't have an answer for them then, so coming up with a plan became a growth goal that I needed to complete before I left. You can read more about that process and my plan in this post. 


In closing, WorldVenture is not perfect - no organization is because we are all imperfect people. That said, after 60+ years many organizations find it hard to keep up with all the changes and find themselves slowly dying. That is not happening at WorldVenture - they are doing their best to keep up with the changing world and are coming up with new and exciting tools and programs. One of the ones I find most exciting is the Journey Corp program. The easy description of the program is that it is a Christian version of the Peace Corp but in reality it is so much more. Watch the video below or check out the web page for more details.




Beautiful Things from Journey Corps on Vimeo.