try assignment). With the relative ease and
lower cost of travel today, missionaries often
travel back and forth between their fields of
service and their home countries for yearly
meetings or to raise funds for projects.
In missions today, we also see much
more flexibility in where missionaries live
and where they work. Certainly, the longterm missionaries who live in their countries of service are still the backbone of our
work, as they have been for many years.
But now, we also have professors who travel regularly to our Bible schools and seminaries to teach various courses, church
multiplication facilitators who travel to a
field two or three times a year to mentor
church planters, and short-term missionaries who spend from two weeks to a year on
the field, supporting the field missionaries.
Same Message, Different Methods
By Lori McFall, Editor,
One Mission Society
The One Mission Society archives are
a fascinating place for me. I could spend
days there, browsing through old photos of
missionaries around the world and reading
their amazing ministry stories in tattered,
yellowed publications.
The message OMS shares today is the
same as it was in 1901 … the same as it
was when the apostle John wrote, “For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only
Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
This is the reason we do what we do.
But, as I peruse Electric Messages (the
first OMS publication) up through recent
6
issues of OMS Outreach, read prayer letters, hear testimonies in weekly chapels at
OMS headquarters, and interact daily with
various missionaries, the differences in
how we do what we do are clear.
To the Field
When the Cowmans and the Kilbournes
went to Japan at the beginning of the 20th
century, they traveled by boat, which was
the only option available. Because of the
expense and time it took to travel overseas,
missionaries went to the field and stayed
for several years at a time before returning
home on furlough (now called home minis6
Then, missionaries used photographs
judiciously because of the difficulty and the
high cost of taking and developing them.
Now, a missionary on the field can use a
cell phone to record a testimony, send it via
email to OMS headquarters, and see it on
Facebook within the hour. We share training materials and documents on USB flash
drives, conduct meetings using Skype, and
train people via video conferencing.
Certainly, these are just a few of the developments in missions over the decades.
You’ll read about more throughout this issue of Outreach. Though we have changed
many of our methods, our message will always remain the same: God loves us … he
gave his Son … whoever believes in him
gains eternal life.
photos page 5: Missionary Millie Young waits for a boat
with Christmas gifts from Compassion International for
the children living along the Magdalena River in Colombia.
inset: An MFM team waits for their flight. photo page 6:
Since 1902, OMS
publications have
shared God’s stories
of transformed ]