WEC International
| Founded | 1913 |
|---|---|
| Founder | C. T. Studd |
| Type | Evangelical Missions Agency |
| Focus | where there is no church |
| Location |
|
| Origins | Belgian Congo |
|
Area served
|
over 80 countries |
|
Members
|
over 1,800 |
| Slogan | reaching people - planting churches |
| Website | WEC's international site. |
WEC International (WEC) is an interdenominational mission sending agency of Evangelical tradition which focuses on church planting, reaching vulnerable children, Christian education, missionary education, TEE (theological education by extension studies) and literature production. WEC emphasises the importance of shared life in a local church as a vital expression of Christian life. WEC prioritises the planting of churches among indigenous people groups and unreached people groups, who have little or no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
WEC was founded in 1913 by Charles Studd (CT), the cricketer turned missionary. Studd was one of the Cambridge Band also called Cambridge Seven—seven members of Cambridge University who offered themselves for service under the China Inland Mission as a result of a visit by the American evangelist D.L. Moody to the campus in 1884. Studd spent several years in China and a time in India before going on in his fifties to establish and lead the "Heart of Africa" Mission (HAM). Although broken in health, Studd said, "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him." The Heart of Africa mission, changed its name to Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade. Later, recognising some misunderstandings with using the word "crusade", the mission was renamed as Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ (WEC International). The Heart of Africa Mission/WEC International was started as part of what missiologists call "The Second Wave—Interdenominational missions to the continental heartlands (1865–1910) (the First Wave being denominational missions to the continental coastlands (1792–1865)
The Heart of Africa Mission was changed to Worldwide Evangelization Crusade (WEC) in 1919 when Mr. Gilbert Barclay, who married Studd's daughter Dorothy, became Home Overseer. He took the position on the condition that the organization have a worldwide title, scope and work. (As C.T. Studd believed God told him, on his way to Congo, "This journey is not just for Africa but for the whole unevangelised world.") Recruitment of missionaries began immediately and in 1922 WEC entered Amazonia. WEC was the parent organization and individual fields were permitted to retain their own subtitles, so the new field became Heart of Amazonia. By the time of Studd's death, the Amazonia field had 16 missionaries with headquarters and mission stations in three people groups. Central Asia was entered next, then Arabia, followed by West Africa (Spanish Guinea), and then Colombia, South America
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