With an increasing number of countries—not only Communist but also Muslim—closing their borders to foreign Christian missionaries, new ways are being sought to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission. One modestly fruitful work is International Students, Inc. (ISI), an evangelical Protestant “faith mission” with headquarters in Washington, D. C.
At its first “Indigenous Missions Institute” in Washington last month, some eighty foreign students (called “internationals”) from eighteen countries who are now studying at American universities learned techniques of effective witnessing for Christ to use when they return home. “Brother” Bakht Singh, leader of an indigenous, loosely structured Christian group in India and Pakistan, explained his methods of evangelism.
Singh, 66, a former Sikh, was converted while an engineering student in England in 1929. He soon returned to India and became a free-lance evangelist. Since 1933, he has been instrumental in organizing about 435 Christian “assemblies” (congregations) in India and Pakistan through which about 20,000 Christians witness to their neighbors. Approximately 250 laymen (including fifty women) are full-time coworkers with Singh; their living expenses are paid by assembly members.
Another speaker was ISI chairman Dr. Robert Finley, a former missionary to China who founded ISI sixteen years ago.
Through fourteen regional centers in areas where there are concentrations of foreign students, ISI seeks to reach internationals for Christ and train them to become witnesses to their own people. As many as 15,000 of the nation’s 200,000 foreign students come into contact yearly with ISI. And more than 5,000 congregations near college campuses cooperate with ISI programs.
ISI’s theory is that if it can win 50 per cent of the foreign students here, they’ll reach the other half.
JOHN NOVOTNEY
