Harrisburg, PA – ABWE (Association of Baptists for World Evangelism) is announcing the opening of its second new field as a part of the Open Initiative, which aims to evangelize key, strategic unreached people groups across the globe.
The Caribbean Basin is home to several migrant and expat unreached Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim populations who are unlikely to be reached by missionaries in their native countries but can be evangelized openly in the Caribbean.
Gary Crawford, ABWE GO Regional Director for the Caribbean, believes that this type of intentional and strategic cross-cultural engagement has not existed in the Caribbean until now.
The Open Initiative is currently focusing on four Caribbean countries: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, where ABWE missionaries aim to challenge indigenous pastors and churches to partner together to create Cross-Cultural Church Planting Triads (CP Triads). These CP Triads will consist of three Caribbean churches partnering to reach a Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim community in their specific context.
The first CP Triad will be launched in June 2023 in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and will focus on reaching the Chinese Buddhist community. In Trinidad and Tobago, an association of six independent Baptist churches has agreed to form more church planting groups, with four of these churches initially joining the effort to reach the Muslim communities in their respective locations. The launch of a second CP Triad is projected for November 2023.
ABWE is also looking to pre-survey Suriname this year in preparation to open it to the organization and promote CP Triads.
ABWE is praying for North American churches that will be willing to partner with the CP Triads. In addition to these North American connections, the Caribbean Missions Network is also being developed to link the local CP-Triad churches together across the region. Network members will have access to a secure website to exchange critical information necessary for collaboration and advance of the ministry.
ABWE is also looking for national believers in these nations who would be willing to serve as Church Planting Assistants, coming alongside these CP Triads and helping to launch new triads in these countries. ABWE is looking for one couple in Jamaica, two couples in Trinidad, and two couples in Guyana, who would be active in their local church and could be Hindu or Muslim background believers.
The Caribbean Basin is home to many unreached people groups from various religious traditions, separated from the gospel by religious, cultural, and linguistic barriers. ABWE is hoping that the Open Initiative will facilitate vibrant, national, evangelical churches in the Caribbean to take up the call of the Great Commission to make disciples and plant churches among these people groups.
For more information on ABWE and the Open Initiative, visit their website.
We at ABWE believe that God is raising up a new generation to go to some of the farthest frontiers of missions. Recognizing that time is short, and eternity matters, we’ve launched the Open Initiative to send 7 teams to unreached people groups in the next 7 years. Explore how you can join us through prayer, sending, supporting, or going.
