There are three sure ways to undermine a team—or a family. In a phrase—don’t talk, don’t share feelings, and don’t trust.

Most Western missionaries overseeing publishing houses abroad would love to see effective indigenous leaders emerge and then move the missionary-initiated publishing efforts to local ownership and financial autonomy. However, making these transitions work can be a nightmare.

At the end of the second millennium since Christ’s birth, we have near equality in the number of missionaries sent from the Western world—the nations of Europe and North America—and those sent by the nations of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

During a home ministry assignment several years ago, it was my privilege to mow a friend’s “postage stamp-sized” lawn. After finishing, I experienced an incredible sense of joy and accomplishment.

Since the first Asian Missions Congress held at Seoul in 1990, Asian missions has developed remarkably. Increasingly, local churches have become missionary minded, many more indigenous missions agencies have been formed, young people have gone out as missionaries, and the church has grown significantly in countries like China, Nepal, and Mongolia.

Cathy Thornberg of the Russian-American Christian University, Moscow, interviews Cliff Harder, Campus Crusade for Christ.

East-West Church and Ministry report editor Mark Elliott interviews John Williams, executive director of Holt International Children’s Services, Eugene, Oregon. Williams has worked in international child care services since 1975 and has been Holt’s executive director since 1993.

I sat sipping coffee, listening to a missionary, recently arrived in Ukraine, telling a common story. After he rented an auditorium, the director of the building began dropping hints that the agreement might have to be canceled. We both knew that a gift to the director would solve the problem.