Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) USA will celebrate "140 years of God's faithfulness," at the Evangelical Free Church in Wheaton, IL on Oct 7.

The highlighted speakers include OMF National Director Neil Thompson, who has been a medical missionary in East Asia for 22 years; How Chuang Chua, a missionary who was sent to Japan by OMF Singapore and who is currently working to receive his PhD in the U.S. at Trinity International University; Victor Cheng, appointee to China; and Annie Barnard, former Serve Asia participant.

The anniversary, on June 25, marked 140 years since Hudson Taylor started the China Inland Mission (CIM), now OMF international.

The OMF UK National Director wrote "The passing of time helps us to see some of the lasting achievements of Hudson Taylor," Chris Wigram said, and in the beginning "[Taylor] couldn't have anticipated the effect that the CIM would continue to have on missions 140 years later."

Back then, Taylor was the first to lead the way for other missionaries to pioneer the inland of China, an area where Protestant missionaries never worked before.

He helped revolutionize the mission field through various acts that included women in mission to relocating the center of the organization that was in London to China and developed an administrative and leadership structure that would help assist missionaries in the field.

He strongly supported praying at every point of a missionaries' journey, and would ask them to pray before departing from England, to learning the new language, to establishing themselves in one of the stations in inland China.

The CIM approach became a model for leaders to take the gospel to other parts of the world, and has strengthened what we know of mission today.

Currently, OMF is a global network with the vision to spread God's grace to every people group of East Asia, evangelizing in their own language and reaching out to people in mission through planting new churches to promoting new evangelistic movements.

In a quote taken from Leslie T. Lyall's book A Passion for the Impossible: The Continuing Story of the Mission of Hudson Taylor Began, Hudson Taylor said, "I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done."

For more details about the anniversary celebration or to attend the conference visit www.us.omf.org.