Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – WorldServe Ministries and the Increasing Influence of China and Cuba: An Interview with President/CEO Ted Yamamori
By Laurie Fortunak Nichols
January 2009
I have been saying, “China by the Chinese and the world by the Chinese believers.” It is partly a prayer, but it is a realistic prayer. Today’s estimate of Christians in China is 130 to 170 million. The Church in China has grown because the Chinese believers nurtured the seeds of the gospel among them…without outside help. China has 516 people groups, and WorldServe has close working relationships with over a dozen house church movements whose constituency totals approximately sixty million believers. Many of these movements are already in contact with these people groups. The movement leaders are also sending their workers to the cities. China’s urbanization process is progressing rapidly. Evangelists also wish to influence the business and intellectual communities in the cities. There is so much going on inside China right now—and such great potential for Christians there to influence each other and the world.
Forty thousand Mandarin Chinese are among Cuba’s fourteen people groups. Is it not conceivable for WorldServe to help our Chinese indigenous partners to send out workers to Cuba? Our Chinese partners are reaching out to Muslims in Xinjiang province. Is it not conceivable for WorldServe to help our Chinese partners to send out workers to the neighboring Muslim countries along the Silk Road in the not-so-distant future?
Q: What are your goals for WorldServe for the next five to ten years?
A. The first thing is to regroup and refocus. WorldServe used to focus on persecuted Christians, and we have modified that. We want to be able to go a bit more public, and so we are focusing on the two countries—China and Cuba—as the board has decided. With a unified board, staff, and plan, we will be able to develop the way forward and the vision to reach the unreached people groups in both countries. Beyond that, our focus is 4-pronged: disaster relief, evangelism/church planting (hard-to-reach people groups and urban church planting), kingdom business (proclamation through business) and church renewal around the world. We are just beginning to dream at WorldServe.