HCJB Global President Wayne Pederson tells about some of the hard-to-reach places where the mission has media ministries.

(Feb. 8, 2013 - by Harold Goerzen) When a group of pastors and other church workers from Colorado Springs, Colo., gathered last week,  they came to learn more about taking the gospel to some of the world's "hard places." But in the process, they also challenged organizers of the event to reach hard places in their own backyard.

Eric Batteiger, pastor of Sunnyside Christian Church, for example, said his congregation is ministering to new immigrants from Iran, most of whom are Islamic. "Many are only Muslim in name," he explained. "We have baptized former Muslims in our church, and they're sharing with their families back home. It's fun to watch."

The pastor made his comments at the luncheon sponsored and hosted by HCJB Global on Tuesday, Jan. 29. Some 15 church workers braved frigid temperatures and icy roads to attend the event titled, "Global Missions in 2013: Taking the Gospel to Hard Places."

Pastors enjoy lunch while one of the event's organizers, Ed Giesbrecht (right), answers questions.

"We discovered there are 50 to 60 refugees from Nepal in our community," added David Kliewer, missions elder at Village Seven Presbyterian Church. "So we're reaching out to them."

"Our mission's 'global ends' put priority on places that are less than 2-percent evangelical Christian," HCJB Global President Wayne Pederson told attendees who enjoyed snacks, a meal and audiovisual presentations. "That's why we're serving in places like North Africa, Central Asia, Thailand, Nepal and Indonesia."

"We've had a longtime desire to connect with churches in the area," Pederson continued. "You could call us a parachurch organization, but we're part of the universal church, and we really appreciate all the local churches."

Hard places and tough situations certainly includes Iran, but the pastors also agreed that help is needed for hurting people in their own backyards-whether drug addicts in rundown parks, homeless families or refugees trying to start a new life.

"As we were interacting with the pastors, I saw they already had a vision to touch those in the hard-to-reach places," said Steve Hodgson, the mission's executive director of development and an organizer of the event.

HCJB Global's Steve Hodgson (right) converses with pastors Don Overton and Eric Batteiger at the mission's first church workers' luncheon in Colorado Springs Jan. 29.

Don Overton, pastor of North Springs Alliance Church, said he regularly meets with some 30 fellow pastors to pray together and seek ways to minister to the homeless, drug/alcohol addicts and prostitutes, empowering believers to make a difference in the hardest neighborhoods of Colorado Springs.

Among those gaining a renewed interest in missions was a Widefield Community Bible Church pastor, Jonathan Goodman, who was inspired by the mission's use of media to touch people's lives in hard-to-reach places.

"I enjoyed hearing about what HCJB Global is doing in the world," he related. "We want to care, realizing that the gospel is going beyond our country. It challenges us to be bolder with the gospel, even when it's dangerous to believe what you believe."

Also finding the event "enlightening" was Ed Hoepner of Faith Evangelical Free Church and a former Baptist missionary to Cameroon. Hoepner was "excited to see the creativity that people have that love the Lord and how they find ways to reach out."

David (right), director of HCJB Global's Europe/Eurasia Region, demonstrates the portable recording studio he later delivered to a radio partner in Romania. Viewing the equipment are Ken and Kathryn Schmidt (left) and Ed Hoepner.

"It emphasizes that we [North] Americans don't have all the answers," he said. "We have the technology, but other people can use it to be creative and get the message out in their own language."

Ken and Kathryn Schmidt, members of Grace Bible Church, said they were impressed to see examples of the suitcase-sized FM transmitter and portable studio that HCJB Global sends to local partners in countries around the world.

"Christian radio programming was influential in my salvation in 1969 while living and working in northern California," related Schmidt, a retired aerospace engineer who produces a radio program called "Proclaiming Grace" that airs in Colorado Springs on weekends. He also produces and distributes programs monthly to broadcasters in Africa as a follow-up to those who attended Pastor Jeff Anderson's annual International Bible Conferences.

"We came to this luncheon in lieu of our pastor, and I'm glad we did because we can sense the Lord's leading," he added. "The ministry is much more extensive that I could have imagined."

Kathryn Schimdt likes the idea of churches partnering to raise money to send the radio equipment worldwide, and said she may present the idea to others at Grace Bible as a way to help evangelize the world's under-reached people groups.

Greg Powell, missions director of Springs Lighthouse, and his wife, Ivy, said the event gave them a new perspective on how to spread the gospel in foreign countries via radio and medical ministries.

"[Unlike a short-term missions trip], you don't just blow in and blow out," he said. "You train the locals to minister to reach others versus [North] Americans going in and doing their thing. You equip them to be received by their own culture."

"It was very eye-opening," Powell concluded. "You meet a need, and the radio station is a tool. The medical outreach is also a way to draw people in to meet a need. In my opinion, missions in general is not doing that, but you are. This is how missions is supposed to be done."

The pastors and congregation members also visited with HCJB Global staff and toured the office complex in north Colorado Springs. Hodgson, who deemed the event the mission's first "Church Workers' Luncheon," said he anticipates more such meetings.

Source: HCJB Global