August 01, 1984 by

Special Events at the Bethlehem Baptist Church (Baptist General Conference) in Minneapolis/St. Paul last winter sparked such an Interest in missions that 25 students free, that area came to the USCWM for the July "Perspectives" course.

Only twice before has such a large group from a single area come such a great distance to take the course. One was from Boston, the other from South Africa. Twenty of the Minneapolis group were from Bethlehem Baptist, five from Central Baptist and one from Hope Presbyterian Church.

Tom Stellar, associate pastor of Bethlehem Baptist, accompanied the group. "Historically our church has had a very strong mission focus.' he explained. 'Personally, I have always had a burden for missions, but it only became an allconsuming burden last October. One night I couldn't sleep. end white listening to religious music it struck me that if I loved the Glory of God I would have to see His glory extended. While felt an overwhelming willingness to go wherever the Lord wanted I also felt the need for some extensive training," Stellar said.

"Meanwhile," he continued, "my pastor, John Piper, was preaching a nine week series called 'Christian Hedonism.' and among the things he said was 'Being a missionary doesn't mean giving up your joy; you are just following the God who gives fullness of joy wherever He leads you. Jesus is not asking anyone to give up anything of ultimate value."

One result of the series on Christian Hedonism was a spiritual awakening in the church, and things began to happen. 'We had something called 'Missions at the Manse'" said Stellar. "All those who were planning to go into crosscultural missions or full time vocational ministry at home were invited to Pastor Piper's home to see what the church was doing. Ninety people came! Since then the church has realized that we need to plan concretely to help these people into the field. So they changed my job description to Missions Pastor."  "in January a meeting was held to see who would be Interested in taking the Perspectives course, and 30 people showed up. Steller said.

What has the Perspectives course done for these students? "People are very positive about it," said Stellar. "In fact, five of us are staying for the week of Coordinators Training so as to bring the course back to the Twin Citie, area." Stellar is now planning to teach the same course at Bethlehem Baptist from October 8th to March 11th. 1955. with at least 10 churches cooperating.

Three of the 25 from Minneapolis who came to the USCWM for the course, Stellar said, are headed for pastoral ministry. But most of the others are very seriously considering going as mission aries. Back home another 50 to 75 people are also seriously contemplating mission work.

'We have a slogan at our church that we playfully adopted," said Pastor Steller. it's called '90 by 90.' What that means is 90 people will be sent out from Bethlehem In crosscultural ministry, either career or short term, or into full time vocational ministry at home  all by 1990. We're real concerned that Bethlehem be a balanced church" he said, "with a thrust beyond our shore but also into our city. Our theme Is 'Alive for the city, a love for the world,"

Steller paused, then concluded, "A lot of people made some real significant sacrifices to come out here. Some took extensive leave of absences or quit their jobs altogether, and many accepted some strong financial burdens to make the trip possible. But we felt that there is a great advantage Into coming to Pasadena to take the course if that Is possible. And we are excited about the new enthusiasm and leadership for misions we are taking back to Minneapolis/St Paul."

Olympic Outreach

The 19554 Olympic Outreach was a massive evangelistic endeavor. Of the 11.000 full time volunteers who came from 77 nations and 73 denominations 10 spread the Good News of Jesus, 3350 were members of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) receiving a good part of their training at the U.S. Center for World Mission and using USCWM technical and research facilities.

Bernie Ogilvy, YWAM Olympic Outreach Director, said the 16,000 attend the Pre Olympic Praise Celebration. EFMA/IFMA Open to Southern.

All Southern California friends of the USCWM are invited to attend the evening plenary sessions of the Ninth Joint Study Conference of the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association' (EFMA) and she Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA), to be held September 24 2g. 1984 on the USCWM campus In Pasadena. Some 500 mission executives and mission professors are expected to attend.

Evening plenary addresses are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. and conclude by 8:30 p.m., end will be followed by sessions of prayer. The public will be invited to make freewill offerings in order to defray