ARCADIA - Born in Hong Kong, Andrew Chan looks and feels at home as he strolls down the busy streets of Chinatown in Los Angeles. And much like his namesake, Andrew - one of Jesus' disciples - Chan glances around for someone to invite to church and win to Christ.

Chan and his wife, Edith, are Asian church planters and language church starting strategists for California Southern Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Missionaries since 1982, they live in Arcadia, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Chan travels up and down California, where CSBC and NAMB support 62 Chinese churches and missions.

Converted and called to preach as a teenager in a Hong Kong high school, Chan always felt a burden for the lost people of Hong Kong, where he attended a local Bible seminary. But to become better equipped for the life of a missionary, he decided to come to the United States to attend a Baptist seminary. In California, he would meet his future wife and become pastor of Chinese Grace Baptist Church in Monterey Park. After a successful four-and-a-half years as pastor, he felt called to be a missionary.

Chan's mission field - more than 1 million Chinese living in California - is ripe with the harvest but laborers like Chan are few. He's one of more than 5,200 missionaries in the United States and Canada supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. Chan is one of eight Southern Baptist missionaries highlighted during the annual Week of Prayer, March 5-12. The 2006 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering goal is $56 million, 100 percent of which is used for missionaries like the Chans.

"The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering means so much to us," Chan said. "When we need to support a new project or plant a new church, it takes a lot of financial help. We try to start two to three new Chinese mission churches in California each year. The Annie Armstrong Offering makes that possible.

"Our people can pray a lot and work hard, but they just don't have the financial ability without the Annie Armstrong Offering," Chan explained. "So we need to give them help. And once in awhile, we see some new Chinese church become self-supporting within a year. We give God the honor and glory for those," Chan said.

When he's not planting new churches, Chan is busy translating, preaching, training and mentoring throughout California. His primary focus is on Chinese churches but he also offers expertise and support to other ethnic groups planting churches, especially Hispanics.

According to Chan, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering helps cover the costs of translating and printing various types of training and Bible study materials in the two Chinese dialects, Mandarin and Cantonese. Mandarin is spoken by those from northern China and Taiwan, while Cantonese is the main language of south China, including Hong Kong. As a Southern Baptist missionary, Chan must speak both.

"The Chinese people of California come from all parts of China. If, as a pastor, I want to minister to them, I must be able to communicate with them in both languages. That's the key way to reach and nurture my people," Chan said.

A major part of his role as "language strategist" requires the complicated translation of educational materials into Chinese.

"People always want to study the Bible in their own native language," Chan explained. "So with the material written in Chinese, my people will absorb more and will better understand what we're trying to accomplish in the Chinese Baptist church.

"I don't know how to type Chinese, but I have lay leaders who can type Chinese as fast as Americans can type English," Chan said.

He not only does the tedious translating - factoring in the various nuances of both Chinese and English - he also is the chief proofreader.

When they initially arrive in California, Chinese immigrants have a tendency to migrate toward Los Angeles' Chinatown. In fact, the largest Chinese Baptist church in California is in the southwest corner of Chinatown. According to Chan, the majority of Chinese in California live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Orange County and San Diego.

"When they come over here, they feel comfortable with the language, with the lifestyle, and they can settle down in Chinatown without worrying about the language or culture," Chan explained.

According to Chan, Chinese pastors need to be bilingual because they are not only responsible for reaching the older Chinese generation, but they need to reach the younger generations for Christ as well. Chinese Baptist churches include youth, college-age and young adults and for them, English is the primary language. Many of them don't understand Chinese.

"In our Chinese Baptist churches in California, we have English Sunday school, English fellowship and English discipleship," said Chan, who, on a recent Sunday preached in English with a Chinese interpreter.

However, the emphasis, he said, is to establish and maintain one Chinese Baptist church under the same roof, not emphasizing one language or culture over another.

"That's why in a Chinese Baptist church you will see two or three different language groups - the English-speaking, the Mandarin-speaking and the Cantonese-speaking," Chan explained. "But they're all one church. The common language is English.

"The emphasis is on being a Christian," he said.

Chan noted a current struggle for the 62 Chinese Baptist churches in California is to reach thousands of unchurched restaurant workers. Another priority is ministering to a vast population of educated Chinese, many of whom are college and university professors.

"In Southern California, we also have 30 different Chinese-language newspapers, all free of charge. So you can imagine all of the educated people working for or just reading these newspapers. The majority of them are not Christians. We need to reach them," Chan said.

"My greatest challenge is looking for the appropriate pastor or minister or seminarian who will have the burden to start a new Chinese mission or church."
Chan said the number of new Chinese congregations is not keeping pace with the ever-increasing influx of Chinese immigrants into California.

"Pray for us as we need pastors who have a vision for starting Chinese churches," Chan said. "Pray that the Lord will send us those people. It's hard to find workers among Chinese churches because of the language issues. They have to be fluent in Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese and at the same time, speak and read conversational English. Then, you also need to understand Chinese culture and relationships."

Why does Andrew Chan think God called him and wife Edith to their ministry in California?

"First, because I think God loves me, and He put me in this wonderful state. And He has opened my heart to minister to so many unchurched, lost Chinese people in California."

Chan said the "greatest joy is to have the opportunity to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and to reach people. And once you have Jesus Christ, you will live a meaningful life, a godly life. Your life will be different and it will make a difference to other lives."

"And when we start a new church, that church will grow and will start other churches that multiply the joy of talking about Jesus."