"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost"-Luke 19:10.

Three billion people in the world today are either Chinese or Asian Indian. This is nearly half of the world's entire population. Yet, 97 percent of these people—including those living in the United States—are unchurched.

"If we are able to reach even one Chinese or Asian Indian person with the Gospel—and disciple them to reach their family, friends and connections overseas—we can participate in an unprecedented expansion in mission activity worldwide," says Dr. Jotham Johann Jhang, executive director for the Center for Asian Missions and Evangelism (CAME).

Based on a vision that comes from Luke 19:10, CAME, an LCMS mission society, works in partnership with and is supported by grants from LCMS World Mission and 13 LCMS districts that work among Asian people groups. More than 60 LCMS congregations and several hundred Lutheran families and individuals also support the work of CAME.

Because of their numbers, Chinese and Asian Indian people are a priority focus for CAME, but the organization also works with Hmong people in places like Richville, Mich., Fresno, Calif., and Winder, Ga. CAME is also doing new work among Korean and Japanese people in Cleveland, Ohio, and St. Petersburg, Fla.

Jhang believes that more ethnic missionaries are needed to help the work go forward. He says, "Our challenge is to find enough talented workers to meet the opportunities in the North American mission field."

To equip new workers from various Asian people groups, CAME works closely with The Missionary Training Center based at Concordia College, Bronxville, N.Y., and the new Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology based at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Mo.

One example of a new Asian Indian worker is Rev. Abu Thampan, a Malayalam-speaking Asian Indian worker who is based at Concordia Lutheran Church in Garland, Texas, near the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Workers such as Thampan are key to CAME's strategy as he, and other workers like him, share God's Word in the heart language using culturally-relevant methods to more people from Buddhist and Hindu backgrounds.

 

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