Reaching internationals in Boston gateway to reaching world

BOSTON (NAMB)-Michael Dean lives and works in Boston, but in many ways his work is similar to that of an international missionary, planting seeds of the gospel in students, business professionals and their families before they return to their home countries.

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As the home of some of the world’s most prestigious universities and an international business center, Boston holds no shortage of opportunity.

"There are ways to make strategic relationships here that cannot be made in any other place. So if you reach someone here and they become a Christian, they can go back and not only change their village, their neighborhood, or their million-person city. They can ultimately change the world."

NAMB photo by Gibbs Frazeur

Michael Dean (r) meets with researcher Hui Fu in the cafeteria of Dana Farber Cancer Institute. As part of his role with Boston International Ministries, Dean encourages and supports volunteers like Fu who are engaged in discipleship and evangelism ministries in the workplace.

Dean and his wife, Michelle, are among nearly 5,200 missionaries in the United States and Canada supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. They are featured during the March 7-14 Week of Prayer and the North American Mission Study, which this year focus on "The World at Our Doorstep."

The Deans previously worked in campus ministry as US-2 missionaries, and Michael also has served as a Mission Service Corps missionary. But then the Greater Boston Baptist Association determined that international ministries–both on campus and off–needed to become a priority. Working under the ministry name of Boston International Ministries, his job as an appointed missionary was to establish ministries, help churches establish their own ministries, and develop a base of both local and outside volunteers.

"Our children have grown up with internationals," said Michelle, noting that they have worked with internationals throughout their 12-year marriage."

Even now, living in suburban Boston, international visitors are still a regular presence in their home.

• Boston includes about 70 colleges and universities, including some of the world's most prestigious institutions of higher education.

• The United States records 22 million international visitors each year. Of these, half a million are international college students representing 220 countries.

• Eighty percent of international students will return to their countries having never been inside an American home.

• NAMB supports about 250 collegiate evangelism missionaries, including spouses, across the United States and Canada.

"We feel like that’s an important part of learning about the American culture," Michelle said. "And it helps us get to know them better, and them to get to know us better. ... For us, it’s not working. It’s just what we love to do."

Among the ministries Dean overseas are conversational English classes at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as introductory Bible study classes for wives of international students.

A comment at one class was typical of a dynamic of mixed belief and unbelief–or not believing "yet," as Michael describes it–that he sees often among internationals. "It takes a longer time for us to become Christian," said one Chinese woman, noting her lifetime of indoctrination into atheism. "But during this process I think we are very glad to learn something about God."

But Dean–assisted by his team of long-term Mission Service Corps missionaries, local volunteers, and mission groups helping with short-term projects in the area–is helping more and more internationals do just that.

"... Just like you make a decision to get married and follow (your husband) to Boston," he tells the Chinese woman, "you become a Christian when you make a decision and accept the fact that you know who God is–that He’s Jesus, who lived here and died here and rose-again long ago. He’s not just a philosopher like Confucius or Buddha. He’s God."

For more on Boston International Ministries, visit www.bostonbaptist.org.