BY DARRYL HOSFORD, INTERNATIONAL FIELD DIRECTOR
I once traveled across Myanmar at highway speed for over eight hours without passing any Seventh-day Adventist churches or church members. In fact, along that route, I did not pass one church of any Christian denomination, or even a single Christian. Vast throngs of people in Southeast Asia have no clue what the message of the gospel means or how it could benefit their lives!
The majority of Southeast Asians are adherents of Buddhism, a world religion with a very different perspective, or worldview, from Christianity. To effectively communicate with someone of a different worldview, you must first understand their worldview, then tailor your message in a way that helps them comprehend your worldview.
A few years ago, I visited the headquarters of the local Adventist mission in one Southeast Asian country. When I asked to see the Bible study resources they had to offer seekers, I was shown a collection of what looked like 1950s-era Bible studies from a well-known ministry. They had been translated word-for-word from English into the official language of that country. While these old lessons had good content, they were not written for the Buddhist mindset, but rather the Western worldview.
ASAP Ministries believes that an entirely new series of Bible study lessons is needed to introduce Buddhists to Jesus Christ. We have made this one of our key initiatives for 2024. Pastor Scott Griswold, who has a long history and vast experience with the Buddhist worldview, is leading the development of this new series. The lessons will have an attractive design and be engaging and easy to use. They will be translated into eight major languages—Burmese, English, Hmong, Karen, Khmer, Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese—and made widely available in both print and digital formats.
It is no easy task to produce Bible study lessons that can bridge the gap between very different worldviews, but ASAP is committed to helping the people of Southeast Asia know Jesus. We have intentionally chosen to focus on this part of the 10/40 Window not because it is easy, but because it is difficult. The conversion rate from Buddhism to Christianity is very low, the laborers are few, and resources are shrinking, as certain divisions of the world church withdraw mission funding. (As I write this article, the president of the Adventist mission in one country just informed me that their entire budget has just been cut by 25%.)
Despite these challenges, we aim to publish this new Bible study series by the end of the year. This is a major undertaking, and there are many ways for you to get involved. Would you pray for the writing, translation, field testing, and production of these lessons? Would you like to fund the work of producing the series for an entire language group or come help us behind the scenes as we film the presentations on location in Southeast Asia? Please consider partnering with ASAP Ministries to share the good news about Jesus with the people of Southeast Asia so that one day soon, they can stand on the sea of glass, giving honor and glory to the King of kings and Lord of lords!
