Southern California Hosts MissionsFest this Month
An inter-denominational world class missions conference will be held in Southern California this month to inform, celebrate and challenge people of all ages to get involved in missions
An inter-denominational world class missions conference will be held in Southern California this month to inform, celebrate and challenge people of all ages to get involved in missions by sending, praying, giving and going.
This year’s “MissionsFest Southern California,” to be held Apr. 29 – May 1 in the Ontario California Convention Center near Los Angeles, will feature special Plenary Speakers, 60 Seminars, 85 Mission Agencies hosting displays and special programs for pre-school, grade school, youth and adults of all ages.
Since the first MissionsFest conference was held in Vancouver, Canada in 1984, people of all ages have come together to participate in a variety of missions related experiences. Keynote addresses are given by world class speakers. Mission agency representatives present seminars. Youth are challenged to reach out to others through rallies and seminars. And children participate in workshops and programs that raise awareness of existing people groups.
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According to its coordinators, MissionsFest is often described as “a catalyst to enable people to catch a vision of the Great Commission spoken by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20, and to help people find a place where their interests and abilities can best be put to use.”
Although the first weekend conference in Vancouver 21 years ago was sponsored by only six local Christian churches from various denominations and drew 3,500 visitors, the Vancouver conference has since then grown and is now sponsored by 150 local Christian churches of many denominations. The estimated attendance last year was 33,000.
The MissionsFest concept has rapidly spread across Canada, with several cities hosting this annual conference. In Canada, MissionsFests can be found in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. In the U.S., the first NorthWest MissionsFest conference was held in Portland, Oregon in January 2002 and the first Southern California MissionsFest was held in March 2003.
This year, Plenary Speakers include Richard Sharp of Operation Mobilization, Brad Buser of New Tribes Mission, and Dan Baumann of Youth With a Mission.
Sharp, whose passion is to “see the Church turned inside-out so that we might see the World turned upside-down,” has served for over 30 years in ministry in 100 countries and on three Operation Mobilization ministry ships. Most recently, he served as the Associate Director on the Logos II.
Buser, who came to Christ in his senior year in High School moved to Papua New Guinea in 1979 with his wife, Beth, to live with and minister to the Iteri people. There Buser took a year to build an air strip and four-and-a-half years to learn the language and culture. “The Iteri’s people’s was an un-written language, so we created an alphabet from scratch, Buser said. In September 1985 they began to teach them through the scriptures and presented Christ to them.
Baumann, who currently serves with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Trinidad, Colorado, has ministered extensively in Afghanistan, where he worked for 10 years in as a hospital administrator from 1988 to 1998. In 1997, Baumann and a ministry partner had been imprisoned in Iran – wrongfully accused of espionage and thrown into the most infamous high-security prison in Iran. After 63 days in prison, Baumann was released on Mar. 16, 1997, with the blessings of both the head warden of the prison and an Iranian judge. His ministry partner, Glenn Murray of South Africa, was released after only 14 days through the intervention of the South African embassy.
Sharp, Buser, and Baumann will each be speaking on the Saturday of MissionsFest, as well as one or two other selected dates.
For questions or inquiries related to MissionsFest, contact (909) 394-1263 or e-mail info@mfestsocal.org.
