On June 5–25, the Institute of World Mission (IWM), located in the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary on the campus of Andrews University, held one of its five annual mission institutes for outgoing and current missionaries on the Andrews campus.
For three weeks 45 missionaries, most of whom are heading out on six-year-long assignments, participated in workshops, learning important cross-cultural skills in preparation for their work in the mission field.
Twenty missionary children also participated in a simultaneously-run orientation program, first started in 2001, designed to help them make the difficult cultural adjustments they’ll face.
The Mission Institute sets five basic goals for its participants, around which all the workshops are designed. Their goal is for the missionaries, in a cultural setting, to: 1) grow spiritually; 2) learn to think biblically; 3) reason missiologically; 4) live holistically; and, 5) learn how to serve internationally.
"I've really appreciated the shared goal and [the IWM's] approach to being a missionary and what our goal and function is as a missionary," said Debbie Bullock, one of the Institute's participants. "The biggest thing I've experienced is that I've really felt affirmed in our call, that we're doing the right thing." Debbie and her husband, John, will be training ministers in Sudan.
The IWM first started in 1966, per an action by the General Conference, holding a yearly training institute on the Andrews campus. In 1981, the IWM became its own freestanding department, and has expanded to hold five annual Mission Institutes—two on the Andrews campus, one in Europe, one in Australia, and one in Africa or Asia. The IWM also assists missionaries with a variety of other programs, including re-entry retreats for returning career and student missionaries, short-term mission training, tentmaker training, and leadership across cultures seminars.
IWM staff, who are also recognized as faculty members of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, include director Lester Mecklin, who recently replaced retired director, Pat Gustin, associate director Cheryl Doss, and associate director Wagner Kuhn.
Beverly Stout, University Relations Lake Union Herald correspondent
