If you're involved or interested in missionary or Christian work overseas, OSCAR, the UK information service for world mission, is your gateway to useful UK related information, advice and resources.
UK Information Service for World Mission
"OSCAR is seeking to provide a service that would further the mission of Jesus Christ throughout the world"
The title 'UK Information Service for World Mission' is appropriate as OSCAR is seeking to provide a service that would further the mission of Jesus Christ throughout the world. OSCAR is a member organisation of the UK Evangelical Alliance and Global Connections. OSCAR is in agreement with the Basis of Faith of Global Connections.
First time users
If this is your first visit, please take a few minutes to browse through this About OSCAR section of the site. This will tell you how OSCAR may benefit you, whatever your involvement in world mission, and how best to get around the OSCAR site. Alternatively, jump straight into one of the sections on the left for the site's main content or browse this month's features back on the home page.
OSCAR is mostly aimed at UK Christians, whether they are based overseas or in the UK. More specifically, OSCAR is useful for:
- Missionaries and Christian workers on the field.
- Prospective missionaries and Christian workers.
- Missionaries and Christian workers recently returned from the field.
- Christians open to the possibility of working cross-culturally.
- Supporters of missionaries, Christian workers and world mission in general.
- Non-UK Christians coming to the UK as missionaries or Christian workers.
- Anyone responsible for 'resourcing' any of the above.
If your work or interest falls into one or more of these categories, OSCAR is designed to take the 'leg work' out of finding missions related information. It helps you locate the organisations, services and resources you need and puts you in complete control of managing your own situation, whether you're a cross-cultural worker, supporter or enquirer. This unique missions 'portal' could save you much time, energy and money!
Launched officially on 1st March 2000 (view the press release), OSCAR began as part of the Resource project that was founded in September 1999 by Mike Frith, a former missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship. Some of the history of OSCAR has been documented in a Christian Herald article published in September 2002. Other press releases give a brief history of some of OSCAR's developments along the way.
Independance
OSCAR's independence from any mission organisation, body or denominational affiliation gives it a unique place in the UK world mission scene. This means that it does not seek to promote any one organisation or service over another but gives an unbiased representation of those that operate in any particular field of work.
Furthermore, as there are no charges for being listed, the result is
a comprehensive, inclusive overview of all the services available in any
one subject. Being listed on OSCAR does not mean we endorse the
organisation or service. Also, some of those listed are not specifically
aimed at missionaries or Christians, but are listed because they have
something that folk involved in world mission might be interested in.
Where possible, we will provide brief details about the background and
aims of each organisation or service listed.
OSCAR is largely dependent on its users for information. If you would
like to submit an entry for the site listings, whether it's your own
organisation or one you have found useful, you may do this using the
form Suggest a Listing (there is no charge for this). If you would like to
add a link on your site to OSCAR, please do and feel free to capture the
OSCAR logo or question mark character and use as a hyperlink button (see at the bottom of this page). Furthermore, if you contact any of the
organisations or services listed after finding them on OSCAR, please
mention us. If you wish to reproduce or pass on any of OSCAR's information, please see our copyright statement.
Please help us with our publicity. An A5 size leaflet is available to
download and print out for distribution (see
OSCAR Leaflet). We can also send you multiple copies of a proffessionally designed A5 leaflet (Contact us to request these). An A4 size poster is also available to download and printout for your organisation or church
notice board (see OSCAR Poster). Both of these files are in pdf format so you will need Adobe Reader to open them.
A PowerPoint presentation is also available to download at
OSCAR1.pps.
This can be used with a computer/projector before or after a church
service or during any missions event or conference you might have. If
you do not have MS PowerPoint, you may download a free viewer from
www.microsoft.com/downloads
Access to the OSCAR website is FREE. We also send out a monthly 'OSCAR
Update' by email (usually dispatched in the first week of the month)
which highlights the latest news of OSCAR developments and features a
few selected items from different areas of the site. If you would like
to receive this, please fill in the Contact OSCAR form or just use this email link:
.
OSCAR Stand at Keswick 2001
Initial indications show that OSCAR has generated a lot of interest throughout the global mission community (see the Comments page). After being online for five years, each month OSCAR was achieving over 6,000 visitor sessions. OSCAR aims to provide the best service possible for UK missionaries and missions. Therefore, any feedback you have about the site, it's usability, content, priorities for future development or any 'dead links' you might encounter would be much appreciated.
A Note for Missionaries and Overseas Christian Workers
The OSCAR web-site has been designed mainly with missionaries and
overseas Christian workers in mind. We've tried to limit our use of
frames or flash or java or anything that might prevent access by older,
slower computers. All that's needed is some 'browser' software which is
widely available in many versions, usually free of charge. There are no
huge graphics or other items that take lots of memory. Therefore, the
site should be quick to load even if your Internet connection is slow
(the case for many folks overseas).
If you don't have live Internet access but have at least some access to
e-mail, OSCAR has also been designed with you in mind. You can still
retrieve OSCAR's pages by using email alone. See the
Web to email
instructions for how to do this. If you have any problems with this
system, we would be happy to email any page to you ourselves by request.
Alternatively, a CD-ROM of the OSCAR site is available for the nominal
sum of £5 to missionaries who don't have reliable Internet or email
access but wish to use the site on their computer. Here's what one
missionary said about the CD:
"the CD ... it reads well and it has a lot of good stuff in it. It is a
great help to those of us on the field where poor phone connections
limit our web access to have the CD to browse. It should be issued to
all workers departing for the field!" T.J. South-East Asia.
Most listings have e-mail contact details so it's easy to find and get
in touch with the organisation or service you need. If you only have
periodic use of a live Internet connection (i.e. when you visit your
regional office or city) you can download the current site from the Web
and store it for off-line browsing later (either see your browser
software for how to do this or there are other software products on the
market that make it easy).
If you're a missionary who doesn't have even periodic e-mail or computer
access (if only through a colleague or friend), then you can always
telephone or write to us and we will do our best to answer your
questions and provide you with the information you need.