About Us
History
Mission Outreach began in New Zealand in 1975 when several Christians became concerned about the welfare of their fellow believers in restricted countries. This call was based on Genesis 37:14 So he said to him “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring back word to me.”
We became sensitive to their needs for prayer, encouragement, and Bibles. We observed their afflictions, but also noticed how they increased greatly in faith and grew in number under severe testing. With God’s guidance we began to identify their situation and minister to their needs.
In 1981 Eddie Cairns took part in a daring and dangerous mission to secretly deliver by sea 1 million bibles under cover of darkness to believers in China – codenamed Project Pearl. The story of this mission is just one of the amazing and faith building accounts contained in the book “To Catch the Wind” which is the inspirational record of the life of Eddie Cairns, the founder of Mission Outreach.
Since that time significant links have been forged with partners in Nepal, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, and Uganda. In particular the work in Nepal has exploded over the last 25 years to include partnerships with the training of workers, a Christian school, printing press, women’s ministry, and several other avenues of service.
Mission Statement
Helping churches in restricted access nations* of Asia and beyond to preach the gospel, make disciples, and change communities.
*Restricted access nations are those where Christians are not free to practice their faith openly.
Key scripture: Jesus said to them “The harvest truly is plentiful but the labourers are few, therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.” Luke 10:2
Our Strategy
- Supplying resources including bibles.
- Training and encouragement of national leaders and workers through ongoing programmes and one-off events.
- Supporting projects that enable the national church to change their communities, eg medical centres, schools, various community development projects.
- Connecting the New Zealand church with the harvest in the nations through newsletter, short-term teams, bringing leaders to NZ, speaking to groups of NZ Christians.
Recognising that Jesus instructed us to pray for labourers, there has been weekly prayer to support the ministry since the beginning of the Mission in 1975. We also partner with other mission agencies to avoid duplication or where they are better placed than us to meet particular needs.
National Church Support
Mission Outreach does not have any full-time missionaries. Instead, we put our resources into supporting the national churches. It has been our observation that national workers with a vision for reaching their own nations for Christ are the most fruitful, and it is through them that the church experiences its greatest amount of growth. We also try to avoid picking up projects and initiatives that other mission agencies are already resourcing, and in which they have a greater level of expertise. We are aware that there are already many excellent missionary training and sending organisations working out of NZ and feel that there is little to be gained by duplicating their fine work. We believe that foreign missionaries play a vital role in building the church in these nations, however the partnerships between national workers and foreign missionaries appear to be the most effective in both evangelism and discipleship when the vision is carried by the national church.
Within New Zealand, Mission Outreach’s main focus is on connecting the needs that exist in our target nations with resources of people and funding from New Zealand.