By: Northern Asia-Pacific Division News, and Adventist Review

Seventh-day Adventist youth leaders in the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) church region recently held a commissioning ceremony for their first Public Campus Ministries (PCM) missionaries at a special service in Gangneung, Korea.

Led by NSD youth ministries director Nak Hyung Kim and other regional youth, children, and education ministry leaders, the first batch of nine young people were dedicated to service on public campuses in various countries of the region. Adventist Church PCM director Ji Wan Moon also attended the ceremony.

What is PCM?

PCM is a mission movement on public campuses that enables its missionaries to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to college students, regional leaders explained. NSD was the first to set up this movement among the thirteen divisions of the Adventist Church, they said.

In the recent dedication ceremony, nine missionaries who came from Korea, Brazil, the United States, and Taiwan were commissioned to go out and serve on public campuses across the region. The nine students have already completed a two-week training course at the Korean Union Conference Vision Center in Seoul, Korea.

In addressing the group, Moon highlighted the role they are about to play. “You are special ambassadors who follow Jesus for campus ministries. You can change the world with this special mission,” he told them.

NSD president Si Young Kim said he has strongly supported PCM from its planning stages. He stressed how PCM is important for the mission of the church. “Most college students around the world have never heard about or know Jesus or the message of His second coming. It is the reason why the NSD began this historical and future-oriented movement of campus ministries,” Kim explained.

How PCM Works

The newly commissioned PCM missionaries left to serve in several countries, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mongolia, just two days after the ceremony. The plan is for them to serve for a year, together with their local partners.

The students enroll in the public university where they will serve, and they take language courses to better communicate with other students, leaders explained. As they mingle and make friends, they will invite other students to the local church, where the missionary student is already attending. In partnership with the local church, they will work to nurture the faith of the newcomers. "The ultimate goal for PCM is to plant churches near campus," they said.

According to NSD PCM leaders, the plan is to continue with this project during the next three years, as the NSD youth department continues to train and send well-prepared college-student missionaries to various mission fields. “We ask all our members for special prayers,” leaders said.

The original version of this story was posted on the Northern-Asia Pacific Division news site.