Frontier Mission Opportunities
Frontier Mission Opportunities supported by PFF are of two categories. Many opportunities are sponsored jointly with the Presbyterian World Mission Office of International Evangelism. Funds for those opportunities can be sent to PFF. In most cases PFF will send funds directly to the opportunity, not taking a percentage. For the funds we forward to PWM/OIE, the PCUSA takes 1% for administration costs.
Opportunities marked "PFF only" are not sponsored jointly; funds must come directly to PFF.
AFRICA
Ethiopia:
Afar
The 1.1 million Afar people of northeast Ethiopia are 99.2% Muslim. The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) has been asked by the Afar government officials to assist in the provision of a number of services; veterinary, literacy, water, along with grinding mills, tree nurseries and hostels. We have partnered with the EECMY to undertake these opportunities in a careful and sensitive way as part of a holistic ministry.
Arssi Oromo
Our partner organization in Ethiopia is reaching out to the 8 million Arssi Oromo people, who are Muslims. The ministry is a holistic one, focusing on training and sending teams of teacher/evangelists to villages that want schools. While seeking to plant churches that reflect the local culture in their forms, the teachers also work to build peaceful relationships between Muslims and the emerging bodies of followers of Jesus. Funds will help build schools in villages and train the teachers.
Dawro/Ameya/Kaffa Outreach
The Jimma Presbytery of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus is passionate about sharing the Good News of Jesus' power and love with the people of SW Ethiopia, many of whom live in spiritual slavery to, and fear of, evil spirits. This project is named for three key regions south of Jimma, and it supports evangelists who, when they go out to evangelize and disciple, are not home to plant and harvest the year's food for their families and so have to buy food. It also subsidizes the local Bible school in the town of Ameya and supports literacy training and lay leadership training events.
Maji
The Dizi (dee-zee) people of the area around Maji were heavily slaved in the 1800s, during the nation-building era of Ethiopia. Although Presbyterian missionaries went to Maji in 1947, the church planted among them has floundered and failed to thrive. PFF helped the church reclaim and renovate the mission compound in 2004, but the church did not take control of its own destiny until a couple of local leaders rose up, led days of prayer and fasting, and then challenged the people to begin to practice stewardship. As well as supporting a Bible translation, Presbyterians are helping the church in Maji start an Apple Nursery that will subsidize their clinic and church leaders' salaries and add a new source of nutrition to the foods available in this mountainous region.
Menja Holistic Outreach
The Menja are a despised under-class of people living among the Kaffa people of SW Ethiopia. They have been hunter-gatherers since time immemorial, but now population pressure is leading to the disappearance of the forests where they lived and hunted. The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus has partnered with PFF to train heads of households in modern methods of bee-keeping, a modification of their traditions, to give them income to buy food. Because the Menja are not welcome in local restaurants and hotels, PFF is also helping find partners to build a training center for discipleship and lay-leadership training events.
Surma
The Suri (Surma) are a tribe in Southwest Ethiopia who had no known followers of Jesus until John and Gwen Haspels began to live and work among them in 1994. The Haspels brought a holistic Good News, initiating a Suri translation of the Bible with an accompanying adult literacy program, building a school for children and a medical clinic for all, making fresh water available from the mountains and opening up an agricultural test plot to develop good farm practices. Today there is a developing church among the Suri.
Kenya
Berean Safari
Berean Safari seeks to create a movement of pastors, community leaders, lay leaders and scholars who will develop a post-Christendom biblical theology to serve self-supporting, highly contextualized communities of believers. The ministry is build around these goals: develop appropriate programs of discipleship and leadership training; support evangelism by new believers who remain within their own communities; encourage new translations of scripture compatible with highly contextualized communities of believers.
Niger
GoodNews Teams
The Evangelical Church of the Republic of Niger, a French speaking country, has begun sending teams of evangelists two by two into villages throughout the country, which is about 99% Muslim. These teams are meeting with more success than in previous years when evangelists went alone. The teams are now working in the Dosso region. The church would like to send teams into seven other regions. Funds are needed to support the travel and food expenses of the evangelists
Sudan
Darfur School Outreach
Several village elders in Darfur want all their people to know Jesus! Our partners from both Sudan and The Republic of South Sudan are answering this call. They are providing training for the leaders of 44 house churches in Darfur. These leaders are learning how to share Bible stories orally, since most of the people have limited literate education. Our partners hope to show the people of Darfur the love of Jesus through their service to those in need. They are providing education to children through mobile schools and housing to orphans. The goal of Darfur School Outreach is to support a Jesus movement among the Fur people, led by the Fur people.
ASIA
Central Asia
PFF is actively engaged in various frontier mission projects in the Central Asian region. Due to security concerns these projects are not published on the Internet. To learn more about these opportunities and how you and your church can partner with PFF to see the Kingdom of God grow among the unreached peoples of Central Asia, please contact the PFF office.
East Asia:
China
Minority Peoples
China has over 490 distinct ethnolinguistic groups. Half are found in Yunnan Province, numbering some 15 million. While a few minority nationalities have thriving indigenous churches, one minority group has developed a unique pioneering mission and vision to reach the majority of unreached people groups in remote counties and villages without any indigenous church. This vision is now taking hold of other minority churches. PFF has developed a strong relationship with the Yunnan church to support training evangelists and lay leaders and to establish new lay training centers that are accessible to the subsistence peasants who live in remote mountain villages. We also provide scholarships to help minority seminary students complete their degrees at national seminaries, enabling them to staff the lay training centers.
South Asia:
India
Exodus Christian Presbyterian Church
The Exodus Christian Presbyterian Church of India continues to grow among the Dalit people. A total transformation of lives is occurring as people come to faith in Jesus and realize what it means to be a child of God, in the image of God. They are being educated for meaningful work as well as discipled in their faith. This group of believers is now some 2 million strong and continuing to grow rapidly. Funds support different areas of ministry.
BORN
Bihar, India’s second largest state, has about 100 million people and is around 2% Christian. It has ranked at the bottom of all measurement scales in India: poverty, literacy, crime, corruption, etc. The Bihar Outreach Network, BORN, is a network of mission organizations that are doing holistic church-planting work in Bihar. Churches are being established, people are being trained in culturally appropriate ways, leadership is being developed, and in the last 8 years, the number of annual baptisms has grown from 1,250 to almost 50,000! Funds support sending of indigenous church planters as well as training of lay leaders in Bible schools.
Empower Bihar
Empower Bihar Connections is working in Bihar state to equip evangelists, both men and women. Training programs are in areas such as evangelism, discipleship, planting churches that fit the culture, developing skills to be self-supporting, and spiritual warfare. (PFF only)
Pakistan
Schools in the Sand
PFF is helping to support schools in Pakistan that educate children of outcaste families of the unreached Meghwal and Bhil peoples, who are not welcome in local schools. According to social groups above them, these outcaste peoples should not even wear clean clothes. The “Schools in the Sand” project arranges for the students to study for and take the government exam, which gives them access to 6th grade in a government school and an opportunity to further their education. Through this ministry many families are being reached with the gospel. (PFF only)
Southeast Asia:
Bengali Bible Translation
The Bengali language is the 6th largest in the world. Though there have been Bengali Bible translations since the time of William Carey, it was not until the 1980's that a translation friendly to Muslim readers was published (New Testament only). Since that time a large movement to Jesus has emerged, built around inductive Bible study as a core foundation. In fact translation "checking" takes place as house churches actually use the drafts and texts in real-time discipleship and leader training. This project supports completion of the Bible translation, which in itself undergirds the strengthening of the emerging church. (PFF only)
Tea Plantation
The ministry encourages and supports a movement to Jesus among Muslims in a country in the region. Conservative estimates suggest the movement contains a quarter of a million believers and 15,000 house churches. However, 22 of the country’s districts have no missionary presence, no house church activity, and are considered some of the hardest to reach mission fields in the world. By creating a co-op among tea stall vendors, local missionaries will gain access to the 22 remaining districts in order to build relationships and plant house churches. The business not only will open doors for the movement to spread organically through these areas, but will also generate an ongoing source of support for the leaders of the movement. (PFF only)
EUROPE
Roma
For the past ten years, PFF has been strengthening its historical partnership with the Reformed Church of Hungary and Ukraine in order to develop mission outreach to the Roma or Gypsy people, who some people call “The Untouchables of Europe”. The Roma have a culture all their own; and they struggle to find acceptance with the majority people who surround them.
LATIN AMERICA
MIDDLE AND NEAR EAST
Discipleship and Fellowship Ministries
In the Middle East today there is an above-ground, historical Arab church. In addition there is now a growing, below-ground Arab church populated by people of many different cultural backgrounds. This underground church meets in living rooms, homes and conference centers. These new believers are being discipled and taught by a circle of workers who are very talented at respecting cultural differences and answering fresh inquiries about the claims of Christ. Your support goes directly to the unique needs of these teachers and new believers. Pray for the growth of this new Arab church!
The Global K Partnership
The goal of the Global K Partnership is to develop healthy self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating churches within a particular ethnic group and region in the Near East, and among populations from that area in the Diaspora.
The Partnership Fund
The goal of the Partnership Fund is to further the work of the Global K Partnership. The partnership is both addressing the issue of conflict between leaders in the emerging church and helping foster cooperation between the various agencies working in the region. One focus will be to strengthen, and, where necessary, develop appropriate structures for the ongoing maintenance of healthy working relationships.
Egypt
Perspectives Development
For the past ten to twenty years especially, the Gospel has been exploding in the Arab world. During this time the PFF staff recognized the strategic value of helping Presbyterian teachers at the Cairo Theological Seminary in Egypt translate the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement into the Arabic language. Now they are training future Presbyterian leaders to mobilize individuals and churches into frontier mission work in Egypt and wherever there are unreached people groups in the world. This translation project is nearly done, and the training of Arabic Perspectives teachers has begun, but ongoing support is needed in order to achieve these goals.
Egyptian Missionaries
In many respects other Arab countries in the Middle East look to Egypt for leadership in regard to culture, art, business and government. Furthermore, there are more Christians in Egypt than in any other Arab country. God has been especially active among the Presbyterians of Egypt in regard to giving them a vision to advance the Gospel to other Arab countries and Europe. There are currently over 40 Egyptian missionaries whom we are helping support. We ask you to consider supporting an Egyptian missionary, especially in light of the recent political revolutions throughout the Arab world, which may give the church an even greater amount of freedom to grow.
Turkey
Ministry to Turks
Outreach in Turkey moves along various levels. The small but growing Protestant Church carries on evangelism and leadership development efforts among people who are turned off on Islam and want to be seen as Christians. Others are reaching out to Muslims in a way that leaves them in their cultural context so they can continue to relate to and reach out to their networks of relationships.
A team of Iranians are serving as evangelists and church planters in Turkey, reaching out to the many Iranians who fled there to escape the turmoil in Iran. They are also reaching out to the Turkish people. In addition they are training Iranian house church leaders, who are able to come to Turkey for the training. Funding will help provide copies of the New Testament in the Persian and Turkish languages to be distributed as part of these efforts. (PFF only)
NORTH AMERICA
United States
Muslim Outreach Training
God is causing waves of new Muslim immigrants to settle in the United States. There are now some 8 million Muslims living in our country. Many Presbyterians and other Christians in the United States are recognizing the opportunity to build bridges of friendship with local Muslims in order to break down barriers of fear and misunderstanding, while creating environments in which the Good News of Jesus can be shared. PFF has been fortunate enough to build partnerships with talented workers and mission agencies in the United States who are able to teach and instruct local Christians how to build these friendships of trust with Muslims. Your support will help these workers as they serve Presbyterians and others. (PFF only)
GLOBAL
Bible Translation for Unreached People Groups
This effort is to provide translation of the Bible for people who do not have a viable church presence in their culture. Your gifts can bring God’s word to people who have never had it in their own language.
Oral Gospel Communication
A large percentage of the world’s people, and an even larger percentage of the Unreached People Groups of the world, are oral communicators. They may have some literacy, but they still prefer to share their history and important cultural values through oral methods. In some cases they have literacy in near languages but their heart language has not been reduced to written form. They may not have scripture in their own language. Even where some literacy exits, oral methods are more effective. Oral Methods of communication include songs, drama, storytelling, face-to-face discussion and participatory learning, proverbs, chants and so on. The Oral Gospel Communication Project provides opportunities to train Christian leaders among unreached people groups in how to orally communicate the Biblical worldview and the gospel option for evangelism and discipleship purposes.