A CMS worker says Asian doors are opening to the gospel and Sydney Anglicans need to start asking if their skills could be better used beyond their own backyard.
Mission Personnel Secretary, Faith Blake, says a host of opportunities have opened up from Japan to Malaysia over the past few months alone.
Bible colleges in Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia are in desperate need of teachers and theological lecturers with Masters degrees.
"We have an open invitation to Makassar, and the Anglican Church is developing Bible teaching institutes," Ms Blake says.
"There are more opportunities to teach than there are people who are willing to go."
CMS plans to send eight missionaries to work in the region in 2006.
But there are many more positions, particularly in the area of English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction which the organisation would love to fill.
"ESL offers a great service to communities and allows good and close friendships to develop," Ms Blake explains.
"Such friendships can lead to a sharing of faith," she says.
Sydney Anglicans are already taking up the challenge.
CMS missionary Andrew Buchanan lectures in Biblical Theology north of Makassar, at Rantepau.
A former assistant minister at Wentworth Falls and part-time worker at Malabar, Rev Buchanan also facilitates several campus Bible study groups. New missionary Stephen Gray will arrive in the country in early 2006.
CMS is also developing opportunities through the Anglican Diocese of Singapore, which oversees the Anglican Church in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal and Thailand.
Ms Blake says CMS works in an appropriate ways alongside the existing church and, where there is no Anglican Church, the Society seeks to work with other organisations in the country.
A former-missionary herself, she has a challenge to issue to the burgeoning ranks of Moore College students.
"I can think of no better way of using the gifts God has given you than to partner and equip people to share the gospel in countries where Christians are in the minority," she says.
"The fields are ready for harvest."
There are also many opportunities in Asia and beyond for primary and secondary school teachers, student workers and chaplains, and development professionals specialising in education, medicine and agriculture.
More details are available at the opportunities section of the CMS website
