July 01, 1994 by Ralph D. Winter

By the time this bulletin goes to press (today) I somehow wrack up a long list of burning issues or exciting reports. First, a few tidbits:

--We are thus far pleased by our radical "move to India" for the printing and mailing of all of our growing number of overseas copies of Mission Frontiers--over 30,000, see page 7.

--Today I spent an hour and a half with the heads of two large schools in Latin America and India. It is surprising how similar their needs and the means by which we may be able to help them. A new book by David Hesselgrave, possibly the most widely read missiologist alive today, devotes a whole chapter to the role of our new curriculum!

--However, Rollo Entz and his wife Gretchen leave our World Christian Foundations Curriculum team to go to Arizona. Rollo has been tapped as the successor to recently deceased Tom Dolaghan, head of the Navajo Gospel Mission. This leaves a serious gap in our performance capabilities in this crucial project--especially now that Wycliffe's field surveyors group has asked us to assist them in getting people with only two years of college into an on-field "degree completion" program. Wycliffe has asked us to have people who are interested write to Judy Gunn, WBT, Box 2727, Huntington Beach CA 92647.

--We have had a large response to our issue on Native Americans. One letter, however, pointed out the possibility that by emphasizing the sins of the past against Native Americans we tend to perpetuate their dependence. I'm sorry. I was writing, of course, to fellow Anglos and other Americans whose attitudes toward Serbs might otherwise be unconditioned by our own American past. Yes, they are being damaged in some ways by our $500 billion per year welfare mess. (Note: if we could save $500 billion per year, our national debt would shrink in no time. See more on this on page 6.) On the other hand, with 70 reservations getting into gambling, is it better for them to earn a living in damaging activity?

--We are seriously suffering the growing pains of success. A commercial organization that gets more orders for a product than expected can, with the additional income, simply hire more people to produce that product. What if a voluntary organization comes up with a lot of things for which people write, phone, and visit? Mission organizations don't want to buy people. Unless more join our staff we will continue to be swamped. I cannot handle all my mail. Other offices can't either.

--What's the answer? You can pray with us for more workers. Take a close look at the bulk of this issue which presents the range of activities here and their purposes. It is a new handbook of this Center after p.20.