Eden Valley, Colorado - Following the OCI Leadership Retreat, the OCI Board voted to add two new members: Peru Projects and School by the Sea.
Peru Projects
Peru Projects operates in several capacities. The first is the air program, which has a dual focus: transportation and pastoral. Air transportation is provided for volunteer missionaries, pastors of the East Peru Mission, and medical emergency evacuations for the general Peruvian population. Secondly, their pilot serves as a district pastor among the established churches in the upper Amazon jungle region, where other pastors cannot go.
The Bible-worker training course is another aspect. Peru Projects provides training, stipends, materials, mentoring, and technical guidance to native volunteer missionaries who go to communities to live, work, and plant churches in unentered areas. This program is taught and overseen in cooperation with the East Peru Mission. Often, once a body of believers is established, economic support and supervision is provided for the building of a jungle chapel.
The Launch Program consists of a medical missionary launch serving the villages along the Ucayali and Amazon Rivers, and their tributaries. Volunteer medical personnel living aboard the launch provide free health education and medical attention. In addition, volunteer missionaries and crew members hold evangelistic meetings, Bible studies, and spiritual mentoring.
School by the Sea
School by the Sea, located in Poland, is a Seventh-day Adventist institution called to teach not only foreign languages but also a way of living. Through teaching, they are granted access to the mind. School by the Sea uses this empowerment to share skills demanded by the modern world, as well as thoughts centered on Christ. Because of their belief that a mind is not free in a degenerated body and that the call to teach does not stop at the classroom, they use every available avenue to reach the physical person, as well as the mind and spirit.
During the 2005-2006 school year, School by the Sea had 350 students and 25 teachers. The school offers courses in English, German, Italian, French, and Spanish. The student body is diverse and includes children, teenagers, and adults. Groups consist of eight to 12 students, who meet twice a week for 90-minute classes.
The School by the Sea was founded in 1996 by three couples in cooperation with the SDA Polish Conference. The school was introduced to OCI in March 1999 when, in cooperation with Laurelwood Academy (an OCI ministry), they held a series of family, health, and religious meetings for two weeks.
Since then, School by the Sea has taken part in five OCI Retreats around the world.
