Genesis of an Idea
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
—Hebrews 11:8 (NIV)
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
—John Wesley
"We are desperate. We are dying!” This was no slick, glossy fund-raising letter I was holding. It was composed on a manual typewriter, addressed to Peggy and me and mailed from Nigeria—a personal letter from our friend Joshua Ekpikhe. We’d met Joshua a few years earlier at Washington Bible College (WBC). His ministry in Nigeria, called Christian Witness Team (CWT), had impressed me so deeply that I raised money from my extended family to construct the first medical facility in Joshua’s area of southern Nigeria.
We had kept up quite a correspondence with this national leader and were always excited to follow the growth and fruit of his ministry. In this latest letter, he wasn’t asking for more money. That would have been easy. He was asking for us.
<p class="long-quote">Ted and Peggy,</p>
<p class="long-quote">Please give at least two years of your lives to help us. The Christian Witness Team is too big for me to manage and develop right now . . . I need a man behind the scenes to lean upon in every area of the team administratively . . . </p>
<p class="long-quote">Nigerian Christians and non-Christians alike are crying, “Give us something to read!” If the Church will not respond, the communists are! This is the time for American Christians to help. Next year might be too late.</p>
<p class="long-quote">We are desperate. We are dying! </p>
Joshua had sent us more than a letter; it was a Macedonian call. I felt like Paul must have in Acts chapter 16 when a man from Macedonia appeared to him in a vision and begged him, “Come over and help us.” As Peggy and I prayed for wisdom during the months that followed, Joshua’s plea began to create in us a compelling call to service. God had come calling—through His messenger, a humble Nigerian believer.
We had just recently applied to a well-known mission that had a reputation for working in unevangelized areas of the world. My brother John was on their board of directors, and we liked their vision for ministry. With my background in business, I thought there might be a place for me on the field. I applied and even included the results of a psychological profile I had taken at a Christian company. The profile described me as a goal-oriented person who was willing to take risks. To me, that sounded like exactly what a mission board should want—someone who thought outside the box.
To our amazement, the mission rejected us. I certainly didn’t think I was the Lord’s gift to the mission field, but I couldn’t believe with my experience that there wasn’t a spot to plug me in. Obviously, the more traditional mission agencies, which were used to doing things the same way they always had, weren’t ready for someone to come in and disturb the status quo.
As I considered our options, I talked with Dr. William Miller, a friend who was dean of students at WBC. He was a missions mobilizer at heart and consistently encouraged me not to give up my dream. This time, however, his words went beyond encouragement; he asked a question that surprised me: “Why don’t you start your own mission board?”
Could someone who was rejected by several mission boards start his own? The more Peggy and I talked it over, the more we felt that’s exactly what the Lord was calling us to do.
The clincher came one day in prayer when the Lord reminded me of the promise He had given from Psalm 2:8—“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (NIV).
This time, however, He added something more: “Ted, I’ve given you the promise. Now take it by faith.”
From a practical standpoint, the timing made sense. Our lives were much less complicated now that our three oldest children were at WBC preparing for the mission field. Ginny had already gone to Mexico as a summer missionary and also felt a stirring to full-time missions. John had gone to Irian Jaya, Indonesia (formerly Dutch New Guinea), on a summer mission trip, and knew God was calling him to full-time service. Arlene was at WBC, planning on mission work. Only Carol, our 15-year-old daughter, was at home with us, and she was already looking forward to Bible college.
God’s leading was clear. He was calling our entire family into missions. Now was the time. We decided that the Washington, D.C., area was the best place to base our operations. We already had a great relationship with WBC, and we’d be near all the foreign embassies. Most importantly, our spiritual home was there, Faith Bible Church in Sterling, Virginia, where my brother John served as senior pastor. We needed the guidance and support of this unique church family, and a church with such a strong emphasis on world missions would be the perfect fit.
I made plans to go to Nigeria to survey the work and see how we could become involved in training and mobilizing nationals. In November 1978, Peggy and I mailed our first prayer letter to share our plan to work with Joshua Ekpikhe and CWT:
<p class="long-quote">Peggy and I are enthusiastic about the great opportunity God has given us to help train national workers to reach some of the more than 80 million Nigerians with the gospel of our Lord. The Nigerian cry today is the same cry that existed in Jeremiah’s day: “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20 niv). We are trusting the Lord for our monthly support and travel needs. I am convinced that the Lord who has brought us thus far will see us to the end. He cannot fail.</p>
Four days into 1979, I boarded a Pan Am jet and took off for Nigeria. What a way to start the new year! In my two decades in the business world, I had been on plenty of planes—but this time was different. There was such a sense of God’s leading, that He had “divine appointments” already lined up, and in spite of the years of waiting, His plans were not a moment late.
My traveling companions were George Miles, president of WBC; Don Darling, chairman of the board of Faith Bible Church; and Ralph Sauers Sr., whose son was serving with the CWT as a missionary teacher. We landed in the capital city, Lagos, and made our way to the village of Ikwa, home of CWT. Joshua was glad to see us, and we were excited to be there.
Our first day began with dedicating the Fletcher Memorial Clinic and the Virginia E. Fletcher Nurses’ Residence, named after my parents. The clinic was the first medical facility for the 25,000 people living in the area, and was destined to become an effective evangelistic center. Already, parents were lined up with their sick children—kids who could easily die without medical attention.
For the next six and a half weeks, I saw other tremendous needs. At the Bible and Missionary Theological College, one of the CWT ministries, I talked with as many students as I could. Most were young Nigerians seeking to become better equipped for ministry. Never before had I seen such dedication for reaching a lost world. In fact, three of them told me about their desire to go to Indonesia as missionaries, but there was no church, mission board, or money to send them. Was there a way, I wondered, that we could help them?
This was the first time I had ever really met Muslims. They were amazingly similar to anyone else without the Lord.
The CWT ministry was certainly creative—a bakery, welding shop, sawmill, several bookstores and the largest printing press for Christian literature in Nigeria. Each of these provided outreach opportunities, jobs for believers and funds to operate the ministry. Evangelism, of course, was at the heart of everything they did. I joined students from the Bible college as they visited villages; they expected God to save people, and He did! It was absolutely amazing. In one mud hut, five family members knelt down on their dirt floor and gave their lives to Christ.
We visited other strategic areas throughout Nigeria, conducting open-air evangelistic meetings. About 40 percent of Nigeria is Muslim, and this was the first time I had ever really met Muslims. They were amazingly similar to anyone else without the Lord, and as I preached and Joshua gave the invitation, the Holy Spirit moved on the hearts of the people. In one place, 1,000 people showed up in an open field—without any advance publicity. More than 200 of them responded to the invitation for salvation, and many waited until late at night just to be prayed with individually. In another village, the local chief was among those who rose to their feet for salvation.
We also ministered in a prison where 40 men, many bound with chains on their hands and feet, were crammed into a stifling hot cell. Some were awaiting trial, and if convicted would be immediately executed by a firing squad. I spoke to them from John 8:36—“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (NIV). Regardless of their chains, I told them, Jesus Christ could set them free from their sins and deliver them. When I gave the invitation, I’ll never forget the clanging of chains as the men threw themselves forward with their faces on the ground and cried out to Christ for salvation. When we were ready to leave, these prisoners who needed everything—food, medicine and clothing—asked me for just one thing: Bibles.
Of all the thousands of people we saw in Nigeria, there’s one person I’ll never forget: a pathetic man who was begging by the side of the road. He looked as if he could easily have been demon-possessed, and I felt unusual compassion toward him. He was a human being with a soul, a man for whom Christ died. His plight spoke powerfully of a lost world of people who have been crippled and blinded by sin and held captive by Satan. I told him about the One who loved him and gave His life for him.
As we waited at the airport for our flight back to the U.S., God set up one final divine appointment, and I had the opportunity to lead a Muslim security agent to Christ.
It was a trip that opened my eyes, tugged at my heart and expanded my faith. God was directing me in ways I couldn’t see. For six weeks, I had seen God work in ways that I never dreamed possible. It was the power of the gospel. For the first time in my life, I felt as if I was involved in the most important work in the world.
I came home with a burden for the lost and a sense of urgency that all people everywhere might hear one simple message—the Good News of Jesus Christ. This was Peggy’s vision, too, and she was as excited as I was about what the Lord was saying to us. Ever since that day back in 1960 when Peggy fully gave her life to the Lord, we were one in purpose and vision. We now knew that God was giving us a blueprint for action to establish a mission agency. We would begin with the ministry in Nigeria as a pilot project, and expand to other strategic areas as God led, focusing on mobilizing and training nationals. In Nigeria, God had shown me first-hand how vital and effective this strategy could be. Joshua was doing an amazing job in his own country. Where we could, it made sense to send missionaries to help support the work that national pastors, leaders, evangelists and church planters were already doing.
In the basement of our home—our first office—we sat down at the drawing board to sketch out a plan. We came up with a name for the new mission: World Evangelical Outreach. “World” described the extent of our vision; “evangelical” emphasized our solid commitment to the gospel and biblical truth, and “outreach” revealed our heart to penetrate areas beyond the existing borders of Christian witness. Our vision was Romans 15:20, to “preach the gospel where Christ was not known” (NIV).
Not everyone shared the vision. One mission leader rather bluntly asked, “Who would have the audacity to start another mission board?” Another said, “We already have enough mission agencies.” A seminary professor suggested we had chosen the wrong name. “Why don’t you call yourselves Africa Evangelical Outreach?” he asked me.
“Because God has given us the world,” I responded. God’s promise to me was clear: “I will make the nations your inheritance” (Psalm 2:8 NIV).
It must have seemed ludicrous to some that a person with no formal theological training was now the self-appointed general director of a mission with a global-sounding name, but absolutely no missionaries. Yet we were seeing our new mission with eyes of faith, and, thankfully, the Lord kept bringing us others who had similar vision. In the weeks that followed, we shared our plans with every pastor and church who would listen, starting at our own church, Faith Bible. Invitations came and doors opened for us.
We wrote our statement of faith, organized a board of directors and an advisory committee and photocopied brochures describing our founding vision and principles. At our first board meeting, we decided that prayer was to be our priority, and included this declaration in our bylaws:
<p class="long-quote">All that follows in these bylaws comes only after prayer. Prayer is always to be the first priority, the highest purpose, the moving force, the vital energizer of this Mission. The overriding prerequisite in every provision of these bylaws is earnest, travailing prayer to the Father that the world might hear of His Son through our hearts and lips, made ready by prayer.</p>
<p class="long-quote">All who serve the Lord with this organization are charged with this sacred trust—to pray for the blessed will of the Father to be accomplished through us.</p>
At that first board meeting, we elected Don Darling chairman and decided that our focus would be to mobilize national workers to go to the most needy people of the world. We would represent both CWT in Nigeria and also the Christian Leaders’ Training College (CLTC) in Papua New Guinea, a move that was strongly suggested by Gil McArthur, one of CLTC’s founders and my good friend who had challenged me for missions more than a decade earlier. We launched a student scholarship program linking American Christians with national students on the field, and we also started raising funds for strategic projects.
We also decided to mobilize American missionaries in partnership with their local sending churches. In fact, at that first board meeting we accepted our very first career missionaries: Ruth Wright, a nurse, to oversee the medical clinic in Nigeria; and Carol Baur, a gifted Bible teacher, to teach at the CWT Bible college in Nigeria. And finally, we appointed our first summer missionaries: our daughter, Ginny, and son, John, who would spend part of the summer working at CLTC in Papua New Guinea.
Within two months of that first board meeting, eight missionary candidates approached us about serving in various remote locations around the world, and we wondered what countries God might have for us next. Gil was anxious to get us more involved in the South Pacific, so Peggy and I decided to travel there in late summer, heading first to Australia, then to Papua New Guinea to join Gil and attend CLTC council meetings.
Travel agents say that Papua New Guinea is “like every place you’ve never been.” About 100 miles north of Australia, the country is the eastern half of the second largest island in the world. It has a population of more than 4 million people divided into about 800 tribes, each with its own language and customs.
While Papua New Guinea had a lot of attention from foreign missionaries, there were still small primitive tribes buried deep in the jungle and cut off from the outside world. Peggy and I were eager to visit some of these tribal areas. Although every flight to the Southern Highlands was booked, God miraculously opened the door for us to find a Mission Aviation Fellowship plane to fly us into the interior. The flight to Mougulu seemed to take us back in time a couple thousand years, which is probably why Papua New Guinea is called “the land that time forgot.” The people we found in that remote place were just emerging from a stone-age existence. Some of them still practiced cannibalism, and in fact, just a few weeks before our arrival at one village, members of a neighboring village had killed and eaten two women. It seemed impossible that people who appeared so gentle to us were capable of raiding a village at night and killing and eating other humans.
We spent a few days at Mougulu with Tom and Salome Hoey, Australian missionaries with Asia Pacific Christian Mission (APCM). They poured out their hearts to us about nine other tribes in the Western Province that were still unreached. The tribes ranged from a few hundred people to a few thousand. Each had its own distinct language, unknown to the outside world. The area was desolate with mosquito-infested swamps, poisonous snakes and sweltering heat. Over the years, APCM had difficulty attracting missionaries to work in these smaller tribes. Our hearts were burdened for these lost people, and Peggy and I began praying right away that God would allow us to recruit workers for them.
From Papua New Guinea, we traveled to the neighboring Solomon Islands, site of major battles during World War II where many gave their lives on the sands of Guadalcanal. Peggy and I came to the Solomons to view the ministries of the South Sea Evangelical Mission and the national church. Among the many people we met were two distinguished citizens: Sir Peter Kenilorea, the country’s prime minister, who graciously invited us to his home for dinner, and Silas Erikali, the young man we had financially supported back in 1968 when he was a student at CLTC. Now he was principal of a Bible college!
It was another extraordinary trip full of God’s leading and divine appointments. We were amazed at the number of people whom God had linked us up with years earlier who were now so strategic as we set up our new mission—Gil McArthur, Leonard Buck, Bill Clack and Oswald Sanders in the South Pacific, and Joshua Ekpikhe in Nigeria. We were beginning to see how God had been working in our lives during all the years when we thought nothing was happening.
Not long after we returned home, I met with Dr. Ralph Winter, a world-renowned missiologist who, with his wife, Roberta, had recently founded the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, California. A few years earlier, Dr. Winter had dropped a spiritual bombshell on the mission community, which had gathered at the historic Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. More than 2,700 mission and church leaders from all over the world had assembled to talk, strategize and pray about missions. In a plenary address, Dr. Winter presented a paper titled The Highest Priority: Cross-Cultural Evangelism, in which he argued quite convincingly that a staggering 2.4 billion people were living beyond the range of the gospel. If our present missionary strategy didn’t change, Dr. Winter warned the leaders, these people would never have a chance to hear the gospel in their own language or within their own culture.
He then identified five major blocs of “hidden peoples” as he called them: Chinese, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Tribal.3 He insisted that the only way to reach these “hidden peoples” was with a fresh cross-cultural approach to evangelism. He cautioned that this endeavor had to become the highest priority of the church if we were to finish the task that Jesus gave to us.
In Nigeria, we had learned the importance of working with national leaders. In the South Pacific, the Lord showed us first-hand the importance of reaching the unreached. My life had always gravitated to the front lines—in war, business and now in missions. I felt as if our new mission, which was only in its infancy, was part of a new idea, and that the idea was from God: to focus on people in unreached areas, those with the least opportunity to hear the gospel, regardless of how dangerous or how difficult the task might be. I had no interest whatsoever in duplicating what other mission boards were doing or “treading on their territory.” I wanted us to be on the cutting edge of what God was doing, with a focus as crystal clear as that of Paul, the missionary: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation” (Romans 15:20 NIV). If God would raise up a team, we would go.
We had already chosen Psalm 96:3 for our letterhead: “Declare His glory among the nations” (NIV). We liked this verse because it communicated God’s desire to bless the peoples of the earth with His glory. Nations aren’t the same as countries. A country is a geographical unit, such as France, Papua New Guinea or Brazil. The word nation, or ethne, however, is used in Scripture to refer to people—people groups such as the 50 different ethnic groups living in Senegal, or the 490 people groups in China. Each has its own language and culture. God sent His Son to reach not countries but “nations” of ethno-linguistic people groups. In fact, the Great Commission tells us to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19 NIV, emphasis added).
We were beginning to realize that the task of world evangelization was a lot more complex than just saying, “Let’s send another missionary to Indonesia.” The need was not just more missionaries, but more missionaries going to the right places.4 So with this emphasis on unreached peoples, we immediately began to recruit new missionaries to go to people groups in the five blocs that Dr. Winter mentioned. Our start in Nigeria enabled us to touch the Muslim bloc, and God was strategically linking us with unreached tribes in Papua New Guinea. But what of the other blocs—Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese? How would God open a door for us to reach them?
When God Comes Calling