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Suppose a Nazarene university all by itself had hatched the idea of opening new countries using only youthful volunteers. Mind you, such trailblazing without career missionaries hadn't been what Dr. Gresham originally envisioned. Still, let's suppose his original vision had been to open a new country with youthful volunteers. Would Global Church leaders have felt comfortable embracing such an idea coming from an outsider? Probably not. The idea would have seemed too far from the traditional and successful Nazarene world missions strategy.
Fortunately, two men with "director" in their titles helped set up this bold experiment. They were the ones who really got the ball rolling on the use of an all-volunteer force whose members would provide their own financial support. One of those men was Robert Scott, Global Mission director. It was under his leadership that Nazarenes, with no additional career missionaries, opened twenty new countries in one quadrennium.
During that period, however, the Global Church faced escalating demands on its financial resources. Each year, more resources were needed just to maintain prior commitments. Among the rising costs, for example, was health care for missionaries and Global Ministry Center employees. Clearly, there was a limit to how far even the "stretchiest" rubber band would go.
So, Scott asked himself, How can we keep advancing into new areas around the
globe? Have we reached the limits of what we can do?
As we've noted, Robert Scott was in the midst of such agonizing when he heard Loren Gresham explain his "Mormon model" idea. Scott thought about the volunteer programs already in use. Wasn't President Gresham's thinking just a natural development of programs such as what is now Mission Corps? What about going beyond Loren's idea of providing helpers for career missionaries to something more adventurous? Could these volunteers spearhead the church's advance into a brand-new country?
A missions student at SNU, Melanie Elder, was a distant relative of Robert Scott. When Russia's doors opened a fraction in 1991, Melanie was there with other Nazarene college students. Two years later, when she became the senior class chaplain, she invited Dr. Scott to speak in one of her class chapels.
During that 1993 visit, Robert Scott met with Loren Gresham and some other campus leaders. I like your young volunteer idea,
Dr. Scott said. Here's a proposal for you. I'd like to challenge you to adopt a country. Let's not spread these young volunteers all over the globe at first. Let's send them all to one country.
With their help, we could open the door. They could carry the ball until we can get career missionaries in there. The country we'd like you to adopt is Bulgaria.
The idea was not nearly as different from what we were already doing as it had seemed at first glance. A structure to send out young volunteers in year-long assignments was already in place. Naturally, some details would need to be worked out. However, even a training program for such volunteers was already being used with Mission Corps personnel.
Another director in this thread was Franklin Cook, Eurasia regional director. When it comes to projects involving young people, Franklin Cook is never one to say, "We've never done it that way." Throughout his ministry, Franklin has been instrumental in using young people in global outreach efforts. In the 1960s, for example, he started Student Missions Corps, which eventually became Youth in Mission.
Franklin eventually moved to Europe to direct Nazarene work across Eurasia. God probably had many reasons for putting Franklin there. Certainly, one very small reason could have been the youthful Bulgarian experiment that the Lord was planning. Franklin would have been one of the Nazarene leaders most willing to experiment with young volunteers in the field.
Not long after the first volunteers arrived in Bulgaria, Franklin Cook went to see them. One evening, five of the young men took him sightseeing. They wound up on top of the National Palace of Culture. It was a huge concert hall and conference center built by Bulgaria's communist government as a triumphal showpiece. To make an impressive setting for it, several older buildings were demolished, creating a park around the "palace." Sadly, the building cost so much that one Bulgarian called it "a big hole in the pocket of an already tattered pair of pants."
The National Palace of Culture building did not become a sparkling jewel. Far from it. It became a prime example of the deteriorating grandiose projects littering Bulgaria. Many never got completely finished. Most had received no upkeep in years. At that time, aging factories, run-down apartments, crumbling train stations, and poorly maintained roads could be seen throughout Bulgaria. Construction projects sat unfinished for years because of a lack of funds, a shortage of building materials, or both.
One nice thing about the National Palace of Culture was its rooftop open-air coffee shop. That's why Franklin Cook and those five young pioneers took the elevator to the top. At the coffee shop, they ordered cups of strong Turkish-style coffee. As they sat sipping their strong Turkish-style coffee, most did not finish it. Fortunately, they remembered the layer of grounds at the bottom; swallowing the final drops could be a bitter experience!
After they finished their coffee, Franklin walked with them over to the side of the building. At the city's edge, Mt. Vitosha loomed like a 6,000-foot backdrop. Looking around, they could see Sofia's blocks and blocks of gray high-rise apartment buildings. They felt humbled by the audacity of their vision: that every Bulgarian would clearly understand the gospel message. With their regional director, those young men walked around to each side of the building, where they bowed and prayed for Sofia.
This director's thread, with its divisional and regional strands, is important to the tapestry. Two directors initiated and pushed the idea of entering Bulgaria with an all-volunteer force. As a result, Nazarenes are in Bulgaria today. Without those directors, the tapestry would have remained incomplete (like many Bulgarian construction projects!). . . . [ more ]
-- Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
 | Converted at age thirteen, Hermann Gschwandtner felt a call to missionary service. After finishing his schooling, this young German went to work for World Literature Crusade. Eventually, he and his family wound up attending Frankfurt First Church of the Nazarene. … [ more ] |