WORLD OUTREACH COMMITTEE

SUMMARY OF WORK

1. Began implementing the new World Outreach Master Plan that was unanimously approved at last year’s General Assembly.

2. Updated the World Outreach policies budget.

3. Provided member care and crisis support for all global workers.

4. Held the global worker Family Gathering in Greece.

5. Oversaw personnel changes in staff departures and new hires.

6. Updated World Outreach policies, budget, and Terms of Call.

7. Helped people across the missions-interest spectrum to take their next step.

8. Provided training and engagement opportunities for EPC churches.

9. Managed the International Disaster Relief Fund for crisis aid in six countries.

Back to Top

RECOMMENDATIONS

The World Outreach Committee has no recommendations for consideration by the 43rd General Assembly.

Back to Top

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE

The Committee would like to highlight in greater detail the areas of focus noted above:

MEMBER CARE

The mission of World Outreach Member Care is to keep our WO global workers healthy and on the field. This is vital not only to their effectiveness doing what God has called them to do, but more so to their longevity. By God’s grace, World Outreach’s attrition numbers over the last six years is less than 4% in preventable attrition. This is remarkable considering research shows that almost 50% of first-term cross-cultural workers quit, not making it through their first term (a term is generally four years).

Onsite visits to workers in the field by our Member Care coordinators, Presbytery prayer teams, oversight coordinators, and the WO Executive Director this year have provided critical encouragement, counseling, intercession, and support. In addition, a significant factor in this success is that we (EPC and WO) are a family of loving churches, families, and individuals that provide a unique, connected, caring network for our global workers.

FAMILY GATHERING

From a Member Care standpoint, the highlight of this past year was the Family Gathering where we bring all our global workers from around the world (every three years) together for a week of encouragement, fellowship, worship, training, and just being together as the WO family. It was a wonderful week, and all our workers were refreshed and revitalized by it. Volunteers from several EPC churches made it possible for all the global worker parents to truly be restored while providing a wonderful curriculum and care for all the children.

PERSONNEL

Since the beginning of World Outreach, the Lord has always provided strong leadership and support at every time and stage of the ministry. Whenever the Lord has led people to move on from WO, He has provided the right people to step in where others left off in order to help lead into the next chapter. This year we had transitions of leadership of ITEN and with our field oversight. We also had significant departures from key office personnel who had served skillfully and faithfully for several years as they stepped into other areas of calling. With their departure, God once again provided abundantly with three new hires filling the roles of WO Assistant Director, Finance Coordinator, and Executive Assistant. We praise God for bringing these Spirit-filled, talented, joy-filled, mission-minded new staff to our WO team.

MOBILIZATION

Seeing God answer our prayers to raise up laborers to help bring in the harvest is the great joy in mobilization. We appointed 10 adults as World Outreach workers after an extensive assessment process, and saw them commissioned at General Assembly. The “College Cohort” continues to be incredibly fruitful. Twelve college-age adults met over video chat every month this past year to get to know each other, pray for each other, and discuss missions across the world and in their own community/campus. They studied what the Bible says about the Kingdom of God and reaching the unreached, and finished with an opportunity to visit ministry in the field. All of the cohort participants have either decided to enter vocational ministry or commit to living missionally no matter where God leads them. New cohort groups continue to be formed. For more information, go to www.epcwo.org/cohort or contact Saul and Jesse Huber at saul.h@epcwo.org.

The World Outreach mobilization team met with students associated with EPC churches at Urbana 2022, and are now directing motivated EPC college students to the Crosscon missions conference January 3-5, 2024, in Louisville, Kentucky. For more information and to register, go to www.crosscon.com and be sure to tell our mobilization leader, Shawn Stewart, by emailing him at shawn.s@epcwo.org.

If your church has a person interested in exploring missions within World Outreach, start at www.epcwo.org.

CHURCH ENGAGEMENT

EPC World Outreach serves the Church by empowering Spirit-filled witnesses to make disciples and plant reproducing churches among those with least access to the gospel. One way we do this is by providing cohort experiences, courses, and inspiration to aid in the discipleship of our EPC members.

More than 2700 people receive the Reach, our monthly update about international work and ways to get connected. If you do not receive this newsletter, sign up at www.epcwo.org/reach.

Kairos is a nine-session worldview course that helps believers understand God’s purpose for every cultural group in the world. A quote from a recent graduate says it all: “Kairos is more than thought provoking–it is life changing. I highly recommend it to any seasoned Christian who wants to enhance their relationship with God and understand fully the truth of our part in the Great Commission.” For more information or to sign up, see www.epcwo.org/kairos. 

This past year, four Kairos courses were offered on Zoom (Spring ’22, Fall ’22, and two in the Winter of ’23) with 83 participants including Teaching Elders, Ruling Elders, and others from the EPC. Participants came from the presbyteries of the East, Pacific Northwest, West, Coastal Mid-Atlantic, Central South, New River, Great Plains, Midwest, Florida and the Caribbean, and Southeast. We’ll be offering more in the coming year to help our churches continue to be on mission with God!

AFGHAN REFUGEE WORKSHOP

For those individuals and EPC churches interested in helping refugees, we formed a helpful cohort this past year to stay in touch and support one another. This included inviting expert speakers on the following topics: The Legal Process for Afghans, Afghan Refugees and Trauma, Sharing the Gospel with Afghan Friends, Culture and Afghan Women, Fostering Financial Independence, Ramadan, and In Country—What’s Happening in Afghanistan Today?

Sixty one participants met eight times on Zoom from August ’22 to April ’23 and found the sessions informative and beneficial, especially because it included speakers who had served in Afghanistan! The following presbyteries were represented: Alleghenies, Central Carolinas, East, Florida and the Caribbean, Midwest, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, and West.

CONNECTING WITH YOUR MUSLIM NEIGHBORS WORKSHOP

We were blessed to take groups through this thought-provoking workshop for a fifth and sixth time this past year. We’ve enjoyed seeing people transform from being terrified to being confident about approaching a Muslim neighbor. Even better, we have seen past workshop participants take steps towards full-time missions service. Be on the lookout this year for a rebranded version of the workshop that will allow participants to work through the material at their own pace. This will be a marvelous tool for outreach teams in our churches that have Muslims in their communities.

For more information, see www.epcwo.org/woworkshop.

SERVING WITH SENDERS WORKSHOP

This online Zoom course was run several times this year and is available to Presbyteries and church missions committees/teams to improve and focus their missionary care. For more information, contact Nancy Cimprich at nancy.c@epcwo.org.

INTERNATIONAL DISASTER RELIEF FUND

The International Disaster Relief Fund, created to enable the EPC to respond to international crises, has provided life-saving resources in a multitude of ways by bringing relief and ministry efforts to ravaged locations. In the last year we distributed $252,855 through World Outreach direct workers and partners on location to help people in crisis bringing relief and the gospel specifically in Ukraine, Poland, Pakistan (historic flooding), Turkey and Syria (earthquakes), and Sierra Leone (fires). Resources have provided food, water, shelter, clothing, Christian materials, trauma support, ground transportation, and supplies for chaplains and workers on the ground.

For more information or to donate, go to www.epcwo.org/internationaldisasterrelief.

Back to Top

RECOMMENDATIONS (DETAILED)

The World Outreach Committee has no recommendations for consideration by the 43rd General Assembly.

Back to Top

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Whitney Alexander
TE, Presbytery of the Gulf South

Susan Lear
RE, Presbytery of the Great Plains

Marcos Ortega
TE, Presbytery of the East

Waring Porter
TE, Presbytery of the Central South

Gabriel de Guia (ex officio)
World Outreach Executive Director

Back to Top

MEETING DATES

October 20-21, 2022: Office of the General Assembly (Orlando, Florida)
January 19-20, 2023: Office of the General Assembly (Orlando, Florida)
April 13-14, 2023: Video Conference

Respectfully submitted,

Rick Dietzman, Chairman
June 2023

Back to Top