The theme of our Christian Life Assembly is “Touching God’s Heart, Touching Our World”. We have been a mission’s minded church since day one. Our heart is to make Christ’s last command our first priority: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”.

During our Annual Missions Convention we focus on missions with guest speakers and renew our missions pledges each year. This year, Adam Salmon, who is working in Sri Lanka, will be speaking in the morning and evening services. Moses Cao from Vietnam will be speaking in the evening service. In the evening, we will have a meal with food from all parts of the world, and booths representing the world and highlighting our missionaries. Pray about your new missions pledge for the next year, we are expecting miracles. Dress up in your clothes from around the world and invite a friend.

Also Claudia Maddux, missions director, has available once again this year the 30-day Muslim prayer focus booklets that allows us to pray for them during their month of Ramadan which is from Oct 4th-Nov 2nd.  Also during the month of November we will focus on praying for the persecuted church in the 10/40 window. See Claudia for those prayer calendars as well.

SPEAKERS:

Adam Salmon, President Asiana Education Development

Asiana Education Development (AED), an education based non-profit organization, was founded by Mr. Adam Salmon of Seattle, Washington.  Adam came to Sri Lanka in 1994 to start a for-profit publishing company producing text books for export, and has lived in Sri Lanka for nearly 10 years.  After seeing the incredible need for education existing in marginalized areas of Sri Lanka, Adam founded Asiana Education Development in 1998.  Today he serves as the executive director along with an international board of directors.   Adam holds two bachelor degrees and a master's degree from Seattle University.

(AED) is committed to the mandate that each child has immeasurable worth and experience life changing circumstances through education. Empowering young people living in marginalized conditions and refugee camps through education is what we are all about. The children AED work with live in a context of war and poverty with minimal hope for survival; these are the children we bring expanded opportunities through education.

Currently, AED has 71 school projects in the most marginalized and neglected regions of Sri Lanka, serving just over 5,000 children island wide. In several areas our schools may consist of no more than 20 children and a teacher in a one room facility, while in others regions we have several hundred students meeting in traditional school structures; yet in all of our schools, the mandate is the same: each child has immeasurable worth and can be empowered through education.

Along with providing education opportunities to marginalized children, AED is further committed to providing basic health care and inoculations in these neglected areas of Sri Lanka, and has committed 2005 for establishing a community health based clinic with mobile outreach to each of our schools.

AED has established a residential facility called Samudra Sri, located on two acres of land adjacent to the Indian Ocean, housing 170 orphaned and refugee children from our various schools throughout Sri Lanka.

Since the tsunami struck Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004, Asiana Education Development (AED) has mounted the greatest relief work in our organization's 8 year history. In the days immediately following the tsunami, our teams were on site helping in the rescue efforts. Following the rescue work, we focused on getting relief to the survivors in the worst affected areas of the country. When the US Marines arrived, we were fortunate to be chosen as their primary NGO, and began working in conjunction with the US Task Force, utilizing Blackhawk helicopters to get relief material to our schools and refugee camps as quickly as possible. The following is a daily blog providing a "day in the life of" account of our efforts; much of this is unedited and quickly written. My hope is that all who read this will have a deeper understanding of what has taken place in Sri Lanka, and what can be done when people pull together for a common cause .

Adam Salmon
President - AED
Sri Lanka

For more information about Asiana Education Development and Adam Salmon, click here. To read a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article about what Adam is doing in Sri Lanka, click here. For an article from The Seattle Times, click here.

Moses Cao from Vietnam will be speaking in the evening service. He is now ministering to the Vietnamese community in Los Angeles' "little saigon" area.

 

Highlights from Missions Convention 2004.