The world is in great need. We recognise that most of the world’s population live in material poverty. We also recognise the spiritual poverty of those without Christ. God calls us to be involved. The Bible tells us God loves the world, His plan is to restore it to Himself, and He calls us to work with Him to complete this task. tranzsend responds to this need and call by helping send, serve, resource and fund NZ Baptists in world mission.

tranzsend is the overseas mission agency of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand. From its humble beginnings in East Bengal (present day Bangladesh) in 1885, our work now stretches from South Asia, into East and South East Asia, as well as the Pacific.

Throughout its history tranzsend has always been at the forefront of mission thinking and innovation. Today this expresses itself in the diversity of ministry “modes”. We are involved in significant business enterprises, development projects, education, and church planting and discipleship training endeavours.

Where possible we partner with national believers, seeking to enable them in their vision to reach out to their communities. We also work closely with other agencies, in country, to ensure that resources and activities are not duplicated, and that there is synergy in our ministries.

Mission statement                                                                                                           
reaching, redeeming, restoring the people of Asia and the Pacific

Priorities

Three things drive our decisions about where and how we operate:

1. The unreached – where fewer than 5% are Christian.

2. Places where the church is persecuted and marginalised.

3. Places where the church is not resourced or still too small to survive on its own.

Statement of faith
The doctrinal basis of tranzsend is the Articles of Faith of the Baptist Union of New Zealand, as embodied in the Constitution of the Union. These are

(1) The inspiration of the Bible and its authority in all matters of faith and practice

(2) The true humanity and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ

(3) The atonement by our Lord on the cross for the sin of the world

(4) Salvation by faith in Christ alone

(5) Membership in the Christian Church for the regenerate

(6) The immersion of believers as the only scriptural form of baptism

Governance
tranzsend is governed by a council of elected members from Baptist Churches around New Zealand.

History
tranzsend was born in 1885 and was originally called  “The New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society”.

The first missionary was Rosalie MacGeorge. She served in West Bengal from 1886-1891, dying in Colombo on her way back to New Zealand. Since then may others have worked there, in what is now called Bangladesh, seeking to reach both Muslims and Bengali Hindus. In 1938 permission was given to work in Tripura among animistic hill tribes people.

The “Other avenues of service” scheme seconded workers to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Irian Jaya, Indonesia, in the 1970s and to France, West New Britain, PNG, and Fiji in the 1980s.

In the 1990s the name was changed to tranzsend and the focus shifted to the two billion who have not yet heard the gospel, particularly those in urban areas of South and South-East Asia, including areas where there are many Buddhists.

For over 125 years NZBMS/tranzsend workers have been involved in a wide range of activities that have included evangelism, preaching, discipling, community development, literacy, church planting, theological training, medical assistance, emergency relief, publishing, saw milling, financing loan schemes, schooling, hospital development, Bible translation and development of businesses to empower the poor.

A fuller history is available here.