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TechnoratiEditor’s note: The following are select tributes to Dr. Ralph D. Winter as they appeared in the May-August 2009 issue of Mission Frontiers, the bulletin of the U.S. Center for World Mission (www.uscwm.org). Winter passed away on May 20, 2009, after a long battle with cancer. He was 84.
Bob Blincoe
U.S. Director, Frontiers
In October 2007 I sat with many others who had gathered to hear whatever Dr. Winter would talk about. We would have heard him speak on any issue, but when he had been introduced Dr. Winter said, “If you have a burning question, I’d like to hear it; I may not be able to help, but I like to work on burning questions.” The reason I wrote his words down and am looking at my note today is because I think this was the essential Dr. Winter. So often, such as in Guatemala when Dr. Winter proposed what became known as Theological Education by Extension, he was a social engineer offering solutions to problems that everyone around him was facing.
As there were no burning questions that day, Dr. Winter proceeded to wow us with his prepared remarks. But the tribute Dr. Winter would like is not that we would be wowed, but that we would follow him, follow him in being students of the Bible as though we could change the world. Some people see things as they are and ask, “Why?”; Dr. Winter dreamed things that never were and said, “Why not?”
David J. Cho
Founder, Asian Missions
Association
It was 1971 at the Green Lake Conference; I met Dr. Ralph D.Winter to invite him to Seoul for All-Asian Mission Leaders Consultation, 1973. Since then, I was associated with him and constantly kept up until he was called to his heavenly home. He was my mentor and consultant for network development of missionary leadership in the non-Western world. He was always with me to form AMA (Asia Missions Association), TWMA (Third World Missions Association), and the establishment of the East-West Center for Missions Research & Development. He even played an important role to build a bridge between the United States and North Korea for my Peace Mission to North Korea. In 2006, he was with me at the Ephesus Conference of AMA and in 2008 at Bangkok Forum of the Asian Society of Missiology with his wife. His prophetic voice was always amazing, so creative, and unforgettable. He was really my giant hero.
Yong J. Cho
International Director, Global
Network of Mission Structures
When I came to prepare for the AMA Convention in Pasadena in 1986, I met a man with a giant heart. Although I knew about Dr. Winter before, I came to know a true man who lived with his words in a wartime lifestyle. He wholeheartedly understood the position of non-Western mission leaders and supported them by any means. When I was asking permission to make a Philippine edition of the Global Prayer Digest, he was so happy about it and gave a full right to use it without asking any copyright. Recently, when I was considering accepting the role of International Director of Global Network of Mission Structures, Dr. Winter persuaded me to take the position because it would be historically significant. When we visited Japan together to promote the Tokyo 2010Global Mission Consultation and Celebration, he clearly presented the significance of the conference to the Japanese Christian leaders and they agreed. Continue »
