Pastor Dale Tunnell and his family arrived in 1998 in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, the first official Adventist missionaries in the land of Genghis Khan. That is the Chinese Union Mission, organized in 1999 by merging the former South China Island Union Mission and the former East Asia Association. The need for Global Mission in this territory is as great as its population. Any form of outside influence or involvement is illegal. Any form of organization beyond the local congregation is not tolerated.
Denominational distinction is opposed by government policy.
Nevertheless, there are more than 2,600 local Sabbathkeeping congregations and 250,000 baptized members in mainland China. The 1000 Missionary Movement was launched in order to meet the two greatest challenges of our church-to proclaim the everlasting gospel to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, and to keep our young people strong in the faith. There are numerous cities, towns, and villages in our division in which there is no Adventist presence, and planting an Adventist presence in these unentered territories presents a tremendous challenge. Every year tens of thousands of young people are baptized. Sadly, though, we lose thousands of them each year as well.