CIM: The Past, Present, and Future
In my travels for CIM, I am often asked the following questions: How did CIM originate? Are we affiliated with OMF (formerly known as China Inland Mission)? Do we minister to the Chinese? Are we doing work in China and so on. For those that are not familiar with our ministries, there is confusion. And though one can find our history on our webpage, and we have written about it in our news updates, I thought it would be important to share once more via this platform.
In 1991, Rev. Clarence Pi along with Rev. Hans Wilhelm and a group of North American Chinese pastors traveled to Brazil to take part in an outreach event that Rev. Pi had arranged. In February of 1993, Chinese International Missions (CIM for short) was officially incorporated. CIM Hong Kong was also established in that year.
In the next few years, CIM would travel to various countries in Central and South America as well as Africa. In 1996, Rev. Pi continued mobilizing Chinese churches and explored further mission opportunities around the world including South Africa where the Pi family would relocate. Unfortunately, Rev. Pi passed away suddenly in November, 1998, while serving in South Africa. This came as a big shock to CIM especially to his wife Christine, who would later serve as Executive Director for CIM USA for many years until her retirement. Though Rev. Pi went to be with our Lord, the work that he began needed to continue and Rev. Philip Leung (a board member of CIM at the time) was elected as the interim Executive Director to lead the organization. He was also pastoring at Richmond Chinese Evangelical Free Church at that time.
In 2001, Rev. Leung attended a missons conference in Malaysia where he met Rev. Joshua Siu, a missionary from Hong Kong to Ghana since 1987 through WEC (Worldwide Evangelization for Christ). In 2002, Rev. Leung traveled to Ghana with Rev. Siu for an exploratory trip and in 2003, Rev. Leung resigned from the church he was pastoring at to be the first Executive Director for CIM Canada, planted by CIM for the specific purpose of cross-cultural ministries. Under the guidance of WEC, CIM Canada established a partnership with ECG (Evangelical Church of Ghana) whom we are still partnering with.
(With Rev. Philip Leung at Missions Conference in Accra, Ghana in 2013 shortly after joining CIM)
In 2010, CIM Canada begins partnering with Eglise de la Grace en Christ du Togo (EGCT) and Rev. Matthieu Ayena joined CIM Canada as the Director of Togo Ministry. In 2011, Rev. Leung planted CIM Australia to support CIM Canada in cross cultural missions with Rev. Sunny Tse as the Chairman of CIMA, a post he still retains today.
In 2012, after years of prayer, and the invitation of Rev. Leung, I officially joined CIM Canada as the Director of Ghana Ministries. In 2016, Rev. Leung retired and passed the torch on to me as the Executive Director. Rev. Leung had a tremendous impact as the Executive Director for CIM Canada. To this day, I am often asked about his well-being in both Africa and Australia. He continues to be a good mentor for myself.
(With Pastor Joshua Siu and his wife Catarina in Tamale, Ghana, September 2024)
Though we are not officially affiliated with OMF, we do work together and it was also in 2016 that we did a joint workshop entitled CIM2CIM at MissionsFest in Vancouver, Canada which at that time was the largest annual missions Conference in the world. The premise was that the gospel was brought to China through China Inland Missions and now the Chinese were sharing the gospel cross-culturally to other parts of the world through Chinese International Missions.
In 2017, we felt that the Lord was leading us to another cross-cultural field, and after much prayer, we sent an exploratory team to the Roma people group in Ukraine. In 2018, with a partnership with House of Mercy, we officially started our Roma Ministry in Ukraine.
In 2020, we sent our first International Worker, Janice Wong, to Ghana. I had been Janice’s pastor in Calgary, Canada and after going with me to Ghana close to ten times on short term missions, Janice developed a heart for the people of Ghana and in January, 2020, she moved to Ghana to serve Him full time.
All the while, confusion continued with our name, Chinese International Missions. As an organization focused on cross cultural missions, we focused on cultures that were not Chinese. That does not mean we do not share the gospel with Chinese if opportunities present itself, but our goal is cross-cultural. I do not speak much Chinese and many of the teams I bring overseas also do not speak Chinese. Our name reflected how our organization came to be and where most of our initial support was but moving forward, our board of directors decided to officially add a trade name called CIM Ministries in 2021. The term “Canada” was also misleading as people thought that you had to be from Canada to participate on our STM teams, so the term CIM Ministries was more encompassing.
The Covid years as well as the war in Ukraine hampered our ministries with less people traveling and a decline in donorship. We still can not bring people to Ukraine under the banner of CIM due to liability issues so in 2025, we are expanding our Roma Ministries to North Macedonia and Serbia.
We are so grateful for our supporters over the years as well as our partnerships with WEC, CCCOWE (Chinese Coordination Centre of World Evangelization), and of course our CIM family in the United States and Australia.
(With Rev. Sunny Tse in Sydney, Australia, April, 2025)
As we look to the future, I want to refer to our mission statement which states: Proclaim. Send. Support. Our mission is to unite international and local ministries in proclaiming the Gospel cross-culturally through sending people, supporting ministries, and creating long-lasting partnerships.
We would love that you can partner with us through prayer, donations, or join one of our short-term mission teams. The Gospel message is the best news in the world and as Christ followers our mandate is to share that message with all cultures in the world. Working together as a team for our Lord has tremendous benefits as we lead people to a saving knowledge in Jesus Christ.
To subscribe to our YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/@cimcanada1148
We also have a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/cimcanada/
To read our International Worker Janice’s blogs.
https://www.cimcanada.org/janice-ministry-updates
Janice and her family will be in Canada for home assignment from June-September. Her tentative plans are to rest with family in June while preparing for talks and sharing at a prayer group, travel to the Lower Mainland in BC for July to share at churches, travel to Ontario and Quebec for August, and to speak in churches in Alberta in September. If your church or small group would like to invite Janice to speak, please email us at cimcanadaoffice@gmail.com and we can work together to set up a time.
Rev. Isaac Quan
(Executive Director for CIM Ministries)
April Financials 2025
1. General Fund - for general and administrative purposes, such as staff salaries
2. Designated Fund - for specific ministries in different field locations as designated (cannot be transferred between funds)
*All financial figures are in Canadian dollars and rounded to the nearest dollar
Pray With Us:
Please continue to pray for peace in Ukraine. The invasion rages on and innocent lives are lost each day. Pray for House of Mercy as they take care of refugees, physically and spiritually. Pray for peace talks and for a ceasefire. There has been much confusion regarding this process.
Pray for guidance and direction for our next steps for our Roma Ministry. Pray for the planning of sending a STM team to North Macedonia and Serbia scheduled for September 14-October 7. If anyone is interested in more information about the STM, please contact us at cimcanadaoffice@gmail.com.
Pray for the pastors and teachers that we support in Ghana. Pray for fruitful ministry and God’s provision for each pastor’s family needs. Pray for the planning of a STM trip to Ghana from October 16-November 2. If anyone is interested in more information about the STM, please contact us at cimcanadaoffice@gmail.com.
Pray for Janice in Ghana as she continues with her ministry as our International Worker in Ghana. Pray for the planning of her home assignment in Canada from June-September.
Pray for the finances of CIM Ministries. The economic situation in Canada may become very unstable with the uncertainty of a tariff trade war with the United States resulting possibly with less donors. Pray for new donors and a healthy general fund to run our ministries. Praise God that our financial situation has improved slightly over the last year. In order to run our ministries effectively, we are currently seeking monthly donors. We encourage donors to give to our General Fund so we can distribute the funds where the needs are the greatest. Click here to donate.
Pray for CIM USA as they are still looking for an Executive Director and Director of Ministry.