Dr. Craig Kraft /
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
184,163 decisions for Christ.
27,981 churches established with our assistance.
100,000+ leaders trained or mentored.
These are stats from the annual report of the OC Global Alliance last year. To God be the Glory!
In our previous article "The OC Global Alliance: Our Roots", we introduced our OC Global Alliance and focused on the roots of our Alliance. This article will share more about the exciting and innovative ministry work that our Mobilization Centers are engaged with around the world.
Mobilization Centers
The OC Global Alliance consists of fifteen Mobilization Centers (MCs) worldwide. Our MCs are independent mission organizations, like Outreach Canada, engaged in missionary work and mobilizing missionaries into other cross-cultural settings. We have over thirteen hundred missionary workers serving one hundred countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
OC teams have historically responded to invitations by churches, denominations, or other organizations who have asked for our assistance. Unlike many mission organizations that have focused on pioneer church planting and translation work, our MCs have generally focused on research, leadership development, disciple-making, and mobilization. Each MC is autonomous and develops its strategic plan for its specific context. Outreach Canada, the Canadian Mobilization Center, has invested significantly in leadership development, diaspora ministry, chaplaincy, and partnership development, but some of our other partners are doing some very unique things.
Research
Research has always been core to all that we do.
In Canada, we have done extensive research on church and community demographics and provided some of the most comprehensive reports available for churches and denominations.
In other regions, we have trained people to map the presence of evangelical churches in their country, or we have worked with denominations and other mission organizations to conduct surveys or other important research projects. Our research has helped us identify some of the particular areas of need where our missionaries have been able to initiate innovative new ministries.
Disaster Relief & Discipleship
One of our Asian partners has focused on disaster relief and discipleship. They send teams into areas that have experienced volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes, and they offer practical assistance. They have many opportunities to share the gospel through their acts of love and kindness.
In the last decade, hundreds of thousands of people have decided to follow Jesus through their ministry. Other teams are now doing similar things in Europe and Africa.
Sports Ministry
Two of our other Asian teams have focused more on sports ministry. In Tiawan, they use sports to connect with youth and families as a way of supporting the work of local churches. In Hong Kong, they use massage, exercise classes, and sports activities to provide healthy outlets for people in this bustling city.
Pastors, Food Banks, and Victims of Human Trafficking
India is an enormous country with incredible diversity. Our small team has been training and coaching pastors for many years.
Our team has responded to some critical needs in Delhi, where they work with the local government to rescue victims of human trafficking. They take women in and help them develop businesses to support themselves.
The team has also developed several small businesses that help support their growing food bank, which provided one million meals last year.
Mobilizing Missionaries
Some of our teams have focused more on mobilizing missionaries to other countries. Many Asian partners have missionaries serving in other parts of the world and the 10-40 window. Our teams in Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, and South Africa have been training and sending missionaries into their neighboring countries and Europe. The missionaries we send also focus on coming alongside local churches to help them in critical areas of research, leadership development, disciple-making, and mobilization.
Business As Mission
We also have a growing division that focuses on using business as mission. We have sent many international workers out who start businesses or work in global companies, providing unique opportunities to extend the presence of the gospel into places where it is more challenging to send traditional missionaries.
To God be the Glory!
It is impossible to provide an exhaustive list, in a blog like this, of all the ministries the OC Global Alliance is involved in, and we can’t list all the locations where we work, but the Lord continues to bless us, expand our teams, and multiply our ministries to see more and more people choose to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Craig Kraft, Outreach Canada’s Executive Director, is transitioning to a new role this year. He has just been appointed as the Director for Global Collaboration for our OC Global Alliance. This article is the second of a three-part series. The first article “The OC Global Alliance: Our Roots” shares some of our story that goes all the way back to 1952. This second article introduces some of the ministries of our global partners. The third article in this series will focus on how our Outreach Canada team has a significant ministry impact beyond Canada.