SIM is an international, interdenominational Evangelical Christian mission organization . It was established in 1893 by its three founders, Walter Gowans and Rowland Bingham of Canada and Thomas Kent of the United States.
31-503: The initials originally stood for " Soudan Interior Mission ," Soudan being an older spelling of the Sudan region of West Africa. After various name changes and mergers, the mission simply goes by "SIM" today. In French-speaking countries it is known as " Société Internationale Missionnaire ." SIM is also a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International . SIM was founded in 1893, although
62-695: A base 500 miles inland in Patigi , Nigeria. In 1906, the mission was once renamed "Sudan Interior Mission." After the initial base was set up, the mission branched out into other countries in West Africa, and then in the 1920s, to East Africa. Until 1998, SIM worked in Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Togo. In 1907, George Allan and his wife Mary, née Stirling, from New Zealand, initiated
93-739: A needs assessment survey in New Guinea . In 1951 Hartwig, along with Bob and Betty Hutchins of MAF-US, established service in New Guinea, based at Madang . On August 6, 1951, Hartwig was killed when his aircraft crashed in the Asaroka Pass in the Central New Guinea Highlands . In the years following, work in New Guinea continued through the joint efforts of the Australian and American MAF organizations. Later,
124-549: A number of transitions in response to the changing conditions in South Sudan and partners outside Sudan. Across delivers literacy classes, Digital Audio Players (DAPs) (MP3 players) for literacy and social education, All Children Reading radio project ( USAID ) and runs Sudan Literature Centre which publishes in local language literacy materials for children and Christian literature for Christian church in South Sudan. It
155-694: A provider of disaster response and relief services. Following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami , MAF provided air and communications support in Sumatra to humanitarian agencies responding to the crisis. In 2007, MAF provided aid following Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh and Hurricane Felix in Nicaragua, and worked with the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to halt an Ebola outbreak in
186-521: A remote jungle location in Mexico. In addition to Truxton and Greene, other early members of the fellowship included Charlie Mellis, Nate Saint , Larry Montgomery, Grady Parrott, George Fisk, Clarence Soderberg, and Jim Buyers. The earliest MAF fields of service were Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador. Over the years, the organization expanded to serve many countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eurasia. In
217-621: A signal described as "good". In the 1890s, two other small missions were formed to work in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), South India, and in the Philippines. In 1968, they joined forces and became the International Christian Fellowship (ICF). In 1989, ICF merged with SIM, which expanded the work of SIM to parts of Asia. In 1889, Andrew Murray a Dutch Reformed minister, Spencer Walton and Martha Osborn-Howe formed
248-989: A similar way to the aviation support. MAF staff saw the needs of isolated church leaders which could be met with the use of various educational technologies including the internet, computers, MP3 players and other communication devices. MAF Learning Technologies is providing support to many other ministries seeking to provide leadership training, education and community development training to people in isolated areas. MAF missionaries perform tasks as diverse as digging wells in Mali, providing disaster relief services in Sumatra, installing jungle communications and internet wifi networks in Papua New Guinea and Ecuador, operating computer centers in rural African villages, providing air ambulance services in East Timor and Haiti, and showing
279-444: Is an Evangelical Christian organization that provides aviation, communications, and learning technology services to more than 1,000 Christian and humanitarian agencies, as well as thousands of isolated missionaries and indigenous villagers in the world's most remote areas. There are three major operational centers – Nampa, Idaho ; Ashford , England; and Cairns , Australia. These centres provide operational support to programs in
310-701: Is marked by the caravan trade . The sultanates of eastern Sudan were Darfur , Bagirmi , Sennar and Wadai . In central Sudan, Kanem–Bornu Empire and the Hausa Kingdoms . To the west were Wagadou , Manden , Songhay and the Mossi . Early on in the first millennium , many people from the Sudan were used as "a steady stream of slaves for the Mediterranean world" in the Saharan slave trade . With
341-576: Is now Northern Nigeria with a Kru guide, Tom Coffee, but the two died of malaria . Bingham survived and returned to his home in Canada. Bingham reorganized the mission in 1898 as the "African Industrial Mission," with a hope to be self-supporting through the production and trade of cotton. In 1900, Bingham made a second attempt to establish a base in Africa but came down with fever and returned home. A third attempt in 1902 succeeded, which finally established
SECTION 10
#1732771784442372-527: The Black [Africans] ", referring to West Africa and northern Central Africa . According to some modern historians, of all the regions of Africa, western Sudan "is the one that has seen the longest development of agriculture, of markets and long-distance trade, and of complex political systems." It is also the first region "south of the Sahara where African Islam took root and flowered." Its medieval history
403-689: The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. MAF also provides internet, IT and RF communications to its various projects around the globe. In disasters, MAF uses a mobile VSAT terminal which can be "checked" onto most commercial airlines as baggage. This terminal can provide emergency communications anywhere in the world and can be quickly deployed. Mission Aviation Fellowship provides transport services to missionaries, translators, support personnel, consultants, trainers and linguists; provides medical evacuations; and assists in disaster relief work. In some areas, support
434-746: The Americas, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. In 2010, MAF served in more than 55 countries, flying 201,710 passengers with a fleet of some 130 aircraft. MAF began with several World War II pilots who had a vision for how aviation could be used to spread the Christian faith. After the War, Jim Truxton of the United States, Murray Kendon of the United Kingdom, and Edwin Hartwig of Australia, with
465-566: The Australian MAF established service in central and north Australia ( Arnhem Land ), Borneo , and Bougainville . MAF came to worldwide attention when, in 1956, MAF-US pilot Nate Saint and four other missionaries were killed on a beach in Ecuador by Huaorani . Family members of those killed returned to Ecuador and ministered to the tribe, and some of the men who killed the missionaries eventually converted to Christianity. The story
496-635: The Bolivian Indian Mission (BIM), later known as Andes Evangelical Mission (AEM). Initially, the headquarters was located in San Pedro de Buena Vista before being transferred to the more accessible Cochabamba . Whereas the mission activities were relatively straightforward among the Quechua on the (highland) Altiplano , the real challenge began when the BIM reached out to the naked tribes of
527-473: The British organization expanded service to other African countries. The organizational meeting for an Australian MAF organization was held on June 30, 1947. Early members included Edwin "Harry" Hartwig, Leonard Buck, John Nimmo, Bruce Morton and Ken Cooper. After the purchase of a de Havilland Tiger Moth aircraft in 1949, Hartwig and Alex Friend undertook a survey of northern Australia. Hartwig then completed
558-1106: The Cape General Mission in Cape Town . After the Boer War , the Mission, now known as the South African General Mission, began to expand into parts of southern Africa, and then to islands in the Indian Ocean. In 1965, they became known as the Africa Evangelical Fellowship (AEF). They served in Angola, Botswana, Gabon, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In 1998, AEF joined with SIM. This meant SIM workers were now operating in over 43 countries. In 2023, SIM's South African country director, Siegfried Ngubane ,
589-513: The Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2008, MAF aircraft evacuated missionaries and foreign aid workers from Chad following violence there. That same year, MAF airdropped food and medical supplies to villagers stranded by flooding in the wake of four deadly storms in Haiti, and served refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo following clashes between government and rebel forces. MAF also provided relief services in response to
620-696: The French office also covers Belgium. SIM also partners with many local mission organizations. For example, in Germany SIM is partners with DMG interpersonal e.V. Sudan region Sudan is the geographical region to the south of the Sahara , stretching from Western Africa to Central and Eastern Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān ( بلاد السودان ) and arḍ as-sūdān ( أَرْض السودان ), both meaning "the lands of
651-486: The United Kingdom, Missionary Aviation Fellowship was initially organized as a wing of the Mildmay Movement (a Christian outreach organization), though it later became an independent organization. Murray Kendon was instrumental in the agency's founding, as were Jack Hemmings, Stuart King, and Tom Banham. MAF-UK conducted a survey of Central Africa in 1948, followed by service in Sudan in 1950. In subsequent years,
SECTION 20
#1732771784442682-628: The arrival of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century, "people were directed to the Atlantic slave trade ," totaling over a thousand years for the Saharan and four centuries for the Atlantic trades. As a result, slavery critically shaped the institutions and systems of the Sudan. The Portuguese first arrived at Senegambia and found that slavery was "well established" in the region, used to "feed
713-431: The courts of coastal kings as it was used in the medieval empires of the interior." Between the process of capture, enslavement, and "incorporation into a new community, the slave had neither rights nor any social identity." As a result, the identity of people who were enslaved "came from membership in a corporate group, usually based on kinship." Mission Aviation Fellowship Mission Aviation Fellowship ( MAF )
744-609: The earliest elements of it were founded in 1860 with the British Syrian Schools Association in the Middle East. It is built up of a succession of partnerships and mergers. In 1893 Walter Gowans, Rowland Bingham and Thomas Kent landed in Lagos , Nigeria. Their aim was to evangelize the "Soudan" region of Africa through the organization of the "Soudan Interior Mission." Gowans and Kent traveled to what
775-400: The inhospitable lowland Beni region. Here, in 1923, while exploring the area prior to establishing a mission station, BIM-founder Allan narrowly escaped death from malaria, but young fellow missionary Henry C. Webendorfer succumbed to the disease. According to Allan's daughter Margarita Allan Hudspith, William Fulton McKay, Frank Chaplin and Charles Trotman were among the missionary pioneers in
806-402: The movie Jesus in remote villages. Its learning technologies division provides training and biblical resources for thousands of isolated pastors and church leaders. The organization focuses its mission work in the areas of evangelism and church nurture; medical assistance; disaster response; community development; and training and development of indigenous peoples. MAF has become well known as
837-843: The rainforests of Bolivia. AEM joined SIM in 1982, and the work of SIM expanded to a new continent, South America. In 1999, Radio Mosoj Chaski was founded as an evangelical short wave station to reach the Quechua-speaking population in Bolivia. The Station is based in Cochabamba and broadcasts in the Quechuan languages for the rural population. It is operated by SIM, along with New Tribes Mission and Pioneers International . The station began broadcasting in April 1999 on shortwave at 3.310 MHz. Broadcasting commenced at 09:00 GMT in
868-420: The support of like-minded Christians, founded missionary aviation agencies in their respective countries. The US organization was the first to take to the air, under the name Christian Airmen's Missionary Fellowship, later known as Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). In 1946, pilot Betty Greene flew the first MAF aircraft on its inaugural flight, transporting two missionaries of Wycliffe Bible Translators to
899-601: Was elected presiding bishop of the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa . In 2016, branches of the Middle East Christian Outreach (MECO) joined hands with SIM. MECO was formed in 1959 by the merger of three organisations: The Canadian and Australian branches of MECO still exist independently of SIM. Founded in 1972 by four mission societies (AIM, SUM, SIM, and MAF ), Across has since gone through
930-568: Was featured in Life magazine, and several feature films have been made about the life and death of these missionaries, including End of the Spear in 2005. In later years, MAF agencies were established in other countries, including New Zealand, South Africa, Suriname, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Canada. MAF Learning Technologies developed in
961-483: Was renamed SIM International in 1980, Society for International Ministries in 1992 and SIM in 2002. In 2017 SIM had more than 4,000 workers in over 70 countries Sending offices are located in Australia, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, France, India, South Korea, South Africa, South America, United Kingdom, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States. Some offices serve multiple countries. For example,