G. Ralph Thompson, GC Secretary

Every night throughout this session you will be hearing marvelous, wonderful, and thrilling reports from each of the world's divisions, and also from our attached union of Southern Africa. These presentations will make your Adventist hearts beat a little faster. You will also find print versions of these reports in the Bulletins of the session, which the Adventist Review prepares each day, as well as reports prepared by each of the General Conference departments, services, and institutions. [In his public presentation Elder Thompson gave a synopsis, not included here, of these various reports.]

No longer can we as a church think regionally or geographically; we must move beyond to think culture and language when planning our evangelism initiatives. With the satellite technology now available to us as a church, we need to unite together, boldly planning and cooperating with hands reaching across the oceans and divisions to finish our mission. Adventist Global Communication Network (AGCN) is the TV broadcast service of the world Seventh-day Adventist Church.

With nearly 10,000 churches worldwide in the AGCN network, and nearly 200,000 baptisms in the past two years through the ministry of satellite evangelism, the use of this technology has been led and blessed by God.

AGCN broadcasts reach 20 percent of our current worldwide church membership. From the 12 members in Karratha in northwest Australia, to the outdoor downlink in Dwambo in the extremely remote mountainous regions of Tanzania, where the villagers hike hours to view a satellite program, to the villages in Romania where the satellite antennas are the "steeples" on the Adventist churches, AGCN broadcasts have brought a new sense of identity and unity to our diverse membership worldwide.

This unity will be felt as never before in the worldwide broadcast of the General Conference session. With a daily three-hour broadcast of reports, interviews, and the featured evening mission program, and seven hours of live Sabbath programming, in more than 30 languages, AGCN will be a part of this communication revolution through satellite technology.

The last week of May 2000 marked another first for the Adventist Church in satellite evangelism. With the participation of six divisions, three programs are being simultaneously conducted and broadcast. God is abundantly blessing the ministry of the AGCN network, and developments indicate further expansion in the near future.

Adventist-Laymen's Services and Industries (ASI)
During the past five years Adventist-Laymen's Services and Industries (ASI) has been involved as an organization in at least 75 countries of the world.

ASI is a significant partner with It Is Written, both financially and through involvement in evangelistic meetings. ASI has impacted many more countries than simply the 10 countries where the meetings have been or will be conducted, because the uplink broadcasts have reached far beyond the target cities.

In 1999 the Picture Roll project assisted laypersons in developing countries and will continue to impact evangelism in scores of countries around the world.

The various supporting ministries that are members of ASI continue to lead souls to God's kingdom every day. Maranatha Volunteers International builds churches, schools, and health clinics around the world, so that new converts will have places to worship, schools to attend, and clinics in which to receive treatment.

Light Bearers Ministry has provided more than 150 million pieces of literature for use in evangelism in developing countries.

During April and May of 2000, Outpost Centers, Inc., as well as several other supporting ministries, conducted 154 simultaneous evangelistic series in the country of Honduras. Two years earlier ASI, in partnership with

Light Bearers Ministry, sent 4 million pieces of literature to Honduras. Even before the evangelistic meetings started, it was reported that 6,000 were baptized as a result of the use of this literature.

Other support for evangelism ranges from church buildings and a seminary in Cuba to evangelistic meetings in India, to an airplane in Papua New Guinea, to a printing press in Poland, to hospital refurbishing in Ethiopia and Guyana, to education and an evangelistic center in Central America, to evangelism on the World Wide Web, and to the Shalom Learning Center in Florida.

ASI and its member organizations are committed to the empowering of laypersons to make Christ's ministry their priority.

Institute of World Mission
For nearly 35 years the Institute of World Mission has been the missionary training arm of the church, providing orientation and preparation for outgoing missionaries. During the past quinquennium the tradition has not only continued but various new aspects of missionary training have been added.

Since June 1995, 22 Mission institutes were conducted by the staff of the Institute, training more than 450 missionaries. In addition to those held at Andrews University and Loma Linda University each year, in 1996 the institute added direct supervision of the European institute each summer with its alternating locations at Newbold College in England and Saleve Adventist University in Collonges, France.

Beginning in 1999, following the Annual Council vote in Brazil, the Mission Institute was made available to the world field, to all missionaries from every country going out to serve as interdivision employees. In addition to the traditional locations, Mission Institutes have recently been held in Kenya, the Philippines, and Mexico. The attendees at these institutes have reflected the truly international nature of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the twenty-first century.

In 1999 alone missionaries came from nearly 30 countries and served in more than 40 different countries. This marks the beginning of the fulfillment of a dream that missionaries would go from everywhere to everywhere, a dream that will reach its complete fulfillment only when every country in which there are committed Seventh-day Adventists becomes a sending country for cross-cultural missionaries. This dream is a challenge for the next five years.

In addition to missionary preparation, the institute recently added reentry seminars to help those returning to their home countries to be better equipped to adjust. Special emphasis has been given to the needs of returning missionary children, who frequently must adjust as young adults to a home country that they have never known or lived in.

During this quinquennium the institute developed and published a training manual and video for missionaries, especially for student missionaries and other short-term volunteers. This set, Passport to Mission, is now available worldwide to help strengthen the volunteer outreach of the church.

As the institute examined its mandate for the new millennium, it renewed its commitment to provide meaningful and pertinent experiences and information to outgoing missionaries. It gives regular emphasis to current issues and to the changing world scene, and in particular to the challenges of preparing missionaries to work in the yet unreached areas of our world, specifically the 10/40 window.

The institute participates closely with the Global Mission study centers and Global Mission Issues Committee, which are working to help the church understand and develop methods for reaching the Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, urban, and secular worlds.

In the past five years there has been a new focus on tent-making ministry as a vital part of the ministry of the Institute of World Mission, especially in the challenging areas the church faces as we follow Jesus' command to go not only to every nation but also to every kindred, tongue, and people. This ministry, called Global Partnerships, is an important part of the institute, and has provided hands-on training to nearly 60 people working in various capacities in many restricted access countries scattered throughout the 10/40 window.

In 1996 a Global Research Center was established at the institute for the purpose of studying the church's statistical data in order to learn more about patterns of growth and decline. The statistical information has now been entered into the computer and is available on the Web for church leaders to study as they seek to do strategic planning for finishing the work in their areas of the world church.

Interdivision Employees Report
Current interdivision employees from North America as of December 31, 1999, number 533. Current interdivision employees from divisions other than North America as of December 31, 1999, number 554.

Interdivision personnel departures for the years 1995 to 1999 totaled 8,973.

In 1995 interdivision employees totaled 1,209; in 1996, 1,194; in 1997, 1,183; in 1998, 1,071; and in 1999, 1,108.

Volunteers sent out from North America in 1995 were 557, including both Adventist Volunteer Service and Adventist Youth Service. In 1996 the total was 486; in 1997, 289; in 1998, 392; and in 1999, 375.

Adventist volunteers sent out from other divisions, including North America, in 1995 were 961; in 1996, 1,126; in 1997, 889; in 1998, 1,033; in 1999, 1,355.

World Church Interesting Facts and Figures
Accessions through baptism and profession of faith in 1995 totaled 659,899; in 1996, 719,679; in 1997, 744,798; in 1998, 818,754; and in 1999, 1,090,848. This represents the highest total ever recorded of accessions for one year in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Let us break these figures down into more interesting detail. In 1995, per day 1,807 people joined the  Seventh-day Adventist Church; in 1996, 1,971 every day; in 1997, 2,040; in 1998, 2,243; and in 1999, 2,989.

Let us break that down further. In 1995 every hour 76 people joined the church. In 1996 the number rose to 83; in 1997, 85; in 1998, 94; and in 1999, 125.

Now let us look at that even further. In 1995, 1.26 people joined per minute. In 1996, 1.37 per minute. In 1997, 1.42 per minute. In 1998, 1.56 per minute. And in 1999, 2.08 per minute.

In seconds, the numbers were: in 1995, every 47.8 seconds one person joined this church; in 1996, every 43.8 seconds; in 1997, every 42.3 seconds; in 1998, every 38.5 seconds; and in 1999, every 28.9 seconds.

Let us look at our accession percentage rate. In 1995, the rate was 7.87 percent; in 1996, it was 8.17 percent; in 1997, 8.01 percent; in 1998, 8.44 percent; and in 1999, 10.73 percent.

In 1995 every 6.2 hours a new Seventh-day Adventist church was organized. In 1996, every 4.33 hours; in 1997, every 8.35 hours; in 1998, every 5.42 hours; and in 1999, every 4.73.

So what was our growth rate percentage? In 1995, it was 5.13 percent. In 1996, 5.49 percent. In 1997, 4.38 percent. In 1998, 4.75 percent. In 1999, 7.63 percent rate of growth.

Some people ask how are we doing against the population explosion rate. It will interest you to know that in 1995 there was one Seventh-day Adventist for every 647 people in the world. In 1996, one for every 621 persons in the world. In 1997, one for every 602 persons in the world. In 1998, one for every 583 persons in the world. In 1999, one Seventh-day Adventist for every 551 persons in the world.

So under God, we are not doing too badly against the population explosion. Our world membership has now passed the 11 million mark, increasing from the 10,939,182 figure as of December 31, 1999.

The 10/40 Window-Global Mission
Now that we have seen the blessings of God upon His church and the tremendous progress made in the past quinquennium, can we say the work is finished, that there is not much more to be done? No, my friends, a thousand times no!

You will be hearing during this session and in the coming quinquennium much said about what missiologists call the 10/40 window. This 10/40 window is the territory that extends from 10 to 40 degrees north of the equator, and sweeps from North Africa through to China, Japan, and all of non-Christian Asia. Three billion people live in this 10/40 window, the majority of whom have never heard the name of Christ. Nine out of 10 countries with the largest non-Christian populations are in this window.

This area is home to the three largest non-Christian religions-Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

This means that, as a church, we will have to adopt a new vision of outreach. We have a message for every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, so this includes a new vision with new methods in our outreach to those who live in the 10/40 window.

The approaches used in the Western world that have been very successful cannot be used in this particular area of the world. We will have to learn a new approach to witness to non-Christian peoples who have never even heard about Jesus Christ and who look upon Christians with contempt. All of this will call for new patience. It will be a slow, hard, and at times disappointing approach. We will not be able to count converts by the thousands in a few weeks of conventional evangelism. But under God we have got to find a way-a new way, perhaps-to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And by His Spirit, we shall.

The goal that we are aiming at for the next quinquennium and beyond is to establish 1,040 new congregations in the 10/40 window. What a challenge! It will take unparalleled dedication and devotion to the task-but the Spirit is willing and the Spirit is able-and it will call for a new dependence on God.

Therefore, I call upon us for a new dedication of time and talent and treasure and life, that while we keep on preaching and witnessing in these areas that have brought great success, we must with new zeal and vigor dedicate ourselves to the areas where 60 percent of the world population lives, but where less than 18 percent call Jesus Christ Saviour and Lord.

The challenge is yours. The challenge is mine. God grant that the line will not break where we stand. God bless you.