International regions, translations and support services
Our active regions are predominantly grouped by a combination of geographic location and language. These regions (grayed out on the map above) are as follows: Southern Africa (English), Commonwealth of Independent States (Russian), North Africa Middle East (Arabic), East Africa (Swahili), Caribbean (English), West Africa Central Africa (French). Besides these large defined regions Live School is also used in many countries around the world outside these 6 regions in these 8 languages, English, Russian, Arabic, Swahili, Turkish, Korean, Farsi and French. In the last few months we launched the first test schools in Portuguese (In Mozambique) and Spanish (in Cuba). The Spanish version of Live School will be officially launch in Guatemala later in 2016 and with the Portuguese will be made officially available for use. We will also be translating the Live School into Hindi and start the Mandarin translation later this year. We plan to translate Live School into Bahasa (Indonesia) and Mongolian after the completion of Hindi and Mandarin.
Willie and Lydia Crew
Pastor Willie Crew and his wife, Lydia, are the founders, ambassadors and team mentors of World Mission Centre. They have been married for 47 years and have three children who are all serving the Lord.
Willie was in business for 11 years in Durban, South Africa before entering the ministry in 1980. Once he completed his studies at the Hatfield School of Theology, he served as director of church planting and missions at Hatfield Christian Church for six years. During these years, a total of 209 churches were started in various cities and towns of South Africa.
He and Lydia founded the World Mission Centre, a South African missions organization, in 1989. They are currently the International Team Leaders of the World Mission Centre and spend most of their time mentoring eleven men and women who run the operational side of the ministry.
The World Mission Centre is a registered Section 21 Company (not for gain) and has its office in Paarl, South Africa. WMC is also registered as a 501(c) 3 organization in the USA and maintains an office in Columbia, South Carolina
Willie is a cutting-edge facilitator motivated by Acts 1:8. His gifts as a missions visionary and strategist are surely from God.
Willie recounts, “When we started out in 1989, South Africans could hardly travel outside of our own country. A few years later, Nelson Mandela was released, and soon after, the ‘new’ South Africa was born. Suddenly we had a passport that could take us to almost any nation in the world. Today, South Africans are found all over the globe.
I never could have dreamed what role the World Mission Centre would play in mobilizing South Africa to missions. It has been an amazing walk of faith, to say the least.”
Willie is a sought-after public speaker and a world-renowned mission strategist who works tirelessly to mobilize thousands of Christians to reach those who have never heard the gospel.
Traveling extensively allows him to meet with many international Christian and secular leaders. This gives Willie a broad overview of what God is doing in the world and a keen understanding of events in the international arena.
The foremost strategic tool used by World Mission Centre is Live School, a curriculum that contains 242 hours of mission training on cutting edge technology available in English, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Korean, French, Swahili, French, Portuguese and Hindi. Currently, 2,014 Live Schools are being used to train thousands of believers in 95 countries. The curriculum is now being translated into three other languages.
Support services
- The International Leadership – Mentors regional team leaders and guides the leadership process, opens up regions, establishes relationships, assists regions in their rollout process.
- The Special Operations Team – Assists in opening difficult countries where we have a contact but have difficulty establishing a Live School presence.
- The Media Team – Translates, dubs and encodes the Live School into various world languages, researches and develops the future technologies of the live school, visits the field to tell the story of what God has done through the Live School, and is responsible for the international web and social media presence.
- The Prayer Team – We have thousands of people around the world that are part of our prayer network. They receive monthly newsletters with a prayer calendar as well as emergency prayer requests.
- The Administrative Team – We have administrative teams in South Africa and in the USA that oversee and administrate all finances and legalities of the organization.
This organization cannot function without these support teams.
Blogs, Stories and testimonies from the International Region
A word from Willie & Lydia
This past year has been one of huge transition in the World Mission Centre. Not only have we finally resettled the administration office in South Africa and the USA, but we are also ……
The Story behind Live School
It all started with 100 people groups in Southern Africa... In 1999, World Mission Centre (WMC), a missions organization located in Pretoria, South Africa, was burdened by the plight of the 100 least reached people groups in the 21 countries of Southern Africa. These...
Live School – a 2016 preview
In a few hours we will cross the threshold from 2015 to 2016. Much has been said and written about the past year that will go down as one of the most challenging in modern history. But sitting here this morning my mind kept drifting to the words of the Apostle Paul in...
Merry Christmas for Willie & Lydia
The season of celebration is upon us, a time to give thanks and make room for the presence of the Lord Jesus. Lets celebrate together the JESUS who dwells among us. Allow Lydia and myself to sincerely thank you for your prayers and partnership in this last year. We...
The joys and challenges of using technology in missions
Over all the years the World Mission Centre has endeavored to use relevant technology to spread the Gospel and train workers for the field. In the early days we used Gospel Recordings, Card Talk and battery free cassette players with great success in the desert of...
International field report
I stand in amazement during the last nine days of travel as I have listened to all that the Lord is doing among His people. In Turkey I met with our dear friends and partners and was blessed to see their commitment to raise up the next generation who will be effective...