August 01, 1985 by

I bumped into Francis Patt the other day. Fran is the Center's East coast representative working out of Wilmington, Delaware. He and Jay Gary teamed up in 1980 sponsor the first ever extension class of the Perspectives course. It was held in the Spring of 1980 at Penn Stare University in State College, Pennsylvania. Seventy seven students were in attendance, and the effects of that class are still being felt today.

I thought you might be interested, as I was, to learn about some of the ever-expanding ripples emanating from that one class. Understand: the story you are about to read is incomplete at best. I don't mention the five people of whom lam aware who have served or who are now serving on staff at the Center as a result of the course don't mention numbers of converts or numbers of people introduced to the gospel for the first time as a result of ministries begun on the basis of that class;! have made no estimates of the increased quantities of money made available for frontier mission efforts, and I this article is written have made only the barest reference to scores of people who are right now on the front lines of evangelistic and churchplanting work among Unreached Peoples as a result of that class.

Actually, even if! were asked,! could not go into more detail than! have. First, because! am unaware of most of the people who have been affected t the class. Secondly, because many of the most exciting stories are being played out right now in limited access ("closed") countries where the ministries of people whose names I might mention would be jeopardized if I were to mention them. Suffice it to say that the following is a sketchy representation of the impact of a single Perspectives class. Add in the details that! cannot here provide and you have an amazing story indeed!

John Holzmann

Pennsylvania State University, 'party school U.S.A.' according to one alumnus, was the site of the first Perspectives extension class ever held. It was the Spring of 1980.

Coordinator Jay Gary had done his homework, but mistakes were made. Students signed up for the course with the understanding that they would obtain credit transferable toward theft degree programs An administrative oversight blocked them from that benefit Yet despite the lack of academic recognition, the effects of that class are being felt today, not only by the students who took the course, but also by people three, four, and five generations down the line from that experience.

Four Young Men

Four young men were so moved by what they learned about the Muslim world, they decided to go to the most mililant Islamic country they could think of. They wanted to prove a point  to themselves as much as to anyone else. Where there's a will, them's a way. No country is closed to the gospel. God's messengers can go anywhere God sends them.

Four young men moved into a North African Muslim country for a year. They ministered the Gospel. They came out alive. They had no special "missionary" training beyond what they had received in the Perspectives course.

The Caleb Project

Alongside these four frontier missionaries was a support group  fellow students who prayed and wrote and gave and encouraged their four friends as much as possible. Out of the two groups¬ those who went and those who stayed' a new organization was born in 1981. It's called the Caleb Project. Caleb is most noted for its student mobilization activitiesespecially its call to commitment to the Hidden Peoples  and for its new Senders program, an attempt to help Christians recognize the vital role of the home front.

Live on a missionary salary and give the rest to missions" is the Senders' motto.

Caleb project has served over 700 college students in its four year history.

Bob Sjogren & Frontiers

Bob Sjogren came out of the Perspectives class at Penn State and wound up working as a recruiter with Frontiers, Inc.," the 'go for it' agency" dedicated to church planting among Muslims. In its two year history, Frontiers has placed 150 workers on the field, a dramatic increase over the estimated total 800 missionaries to Muslims recorded in 1983. Bob is on the road more than he is at home. He speaks to college groups and churches. He and the other members of his traveling teams have a lot to do with the fact that Frontiers has, since January, received an average of more than 60 applications a week for service among Muslims!

Jeff Zimmerman and the Mennonite Church

Jeff Zimmerman returned home to the Mount Joy Mennonite Church in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania after his experience in the Penn State Perspectives class. He helped the church establish a short¬term mission program in the church to expose young people to frontier missions. His first groups worked among the Black Caribs of Central America. The Eastem Mennonite denominational mission board soon picked tip on his program to form what are now called YES Teams  Youth Evangelistic Service Teams. Young people are now being sent to work among Hidden Peoples around the world including Muslims in East Africa.

Dave Delozier

And then there is Dave Delozier. Dave was a friend of several of the students in that first ever Perspectives extension class. He was encouraged by his friends to attend the Perspectives course offered in Pasadena in the Fall of 1981. Dave joined staff at the U.S. Center, and then returned to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area to help establish a Mid Atlantic regional office of the Center. I owe my presence here at the Center, at least in part, to Dave's leadership in sponsoring the Spring 2983 Mid Atlantic Conference on World Evangelization held in Lancaster. Over 500 people were in attendance at that conference. I was one of them. Having attended one of the earliest "Perspectives" courses (Summer Institute of International Studies) in 19761 had lost touch with the frontier missions movement until late in the Fall of 1982. At the Mid Atlantic Conference I was brought op to speed with what was happening in Pasadena, and the first pieces began to fall into place for my family's move out here.

The story isn't over. Dave sponsored two Perspectives courses of his own in the Boston, Massachussetts area this past Spring. My sister was in attendance at one of them. She is hoping to work among unmatched peoples under the auspices of BMJ5IF .the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship. Them were 12 MIT (Massachusseus Institute of Technology) students in her class. Four of them came here to Southern California this summer and are passing on frontier mission vision to 50 college students from around the country who have gathered at UCLA to work with international students. What difference will this fourth generation Perspectives experience have upon these college students? That question is yet to be answered. I look forward to finding out!