Page 5 - Mission Journal

Publisher s Note

The theme for the 2017 Summer issue of Mission Journal is One of the core of our mission strategy must be to provide
Mission and the Young Adult. We have addressed many issues opportunities for young people to join our mission efforts and
through Mission Journal since its inception. In this issue of to train them to become active members of their faith
Mission Journal, we chose to address issues related to the Young communities. Furthermore, it is also important for us to
Adult to highlight the significant presence of young adults in cultivate their leadership so that they can play a leadership role
populations among countries around the world where we in their societies. In his Theological reflection on this topic, Dr.
engage in missions. One common characteristics of the regions David Wu points out that the church must be intentional in the
in which we work with our partners in mission is the significant effort of training and cultivating young adults. Dr. Wu, then
presence of young adults in their population. It is especially true categorizes this intentional effort of the church training and
in Southeast Asia. cultivation young adults as visionary and discerning.

For example, more than half of Vietnam s population is under Hope5L2F has been very intentional about working with and
25 years old according to the latest government census. It is also enabling young people since its inception. We have established
understood that 75%of Cambodias entire population is under 35 scholarships in the US and Thailand. We also developed
years of age. This is a demographic characteristic of many other programs for economic sustainability for young people in
regions where we are actively engaging in missions. This then Thailand and Cambodia. In 2017, we also started a scholarship
leads us to ask questions regarding mission strategies for program at Africa University in Zimbabwe and at an orphanage
reaching out to young people and motivating them to become in Uganda. Engaging young people in mission settings will
interested in Christian discipleship. In fact, we cannot expect to continue to be our major task and the outcome of our work will
develop and sustain our mission work without including young depend on how successfully we can accomplish this important
people in our mission strategy. task.

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