State group spreads the gospel around the world

by Wyoma Groenenberg
Thursday, May 4, 2006 3:42 PM MDT

It took an unfortunate accident n- a broken ankle -- for Patrick Klein to have time to answer correspondence from the Casper Journal from last year.

And the Casper native’s friends who still live here said it’s God’s way of telling Klein, a Natrona County High School graduate, that he needs a rest.

As the founder and director of Vision Beyond Borders (VBB), Klein travels worldwide to minister not only to people’s spiritual needs, but also to their physical wellbeing.

“The disciples were sent out to preach the Good News of Jesus,” Klein said. “We believe Vision Beyond Borders is helping to fulfill that commission with the same urgency found in first-century Christianity.”

Klein started his ministry in 1994 as Asian Vision in Casper, but later changed the name because his work has grown beyond those borders. VBB also was located in Cody and now has its headquarters in Sheridan.

To keep the ministry fresh in his heart, Klein usually travels abroad at least eight times a year for about four months. He’s gone another four months while speaking at churches and to organizations asking for support, either monetary or goods, and especially prayers.

Klein, his staff and others who are screened travel to more than 20 countries worldwide. They have traveled to countries such as China, Nepal, Romania, Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and many others.

Special delivery

“I believe in working at the grassroots level,” he said, explaining that he wants to make sure the items get to the intended people.

Working with corrupted governments, he said, often results in items being picked through and never reaching the proposed destination.

According to Klein, VBB’s goal is to serve the worldwide church by providing the necessary tools and training for the people to help themselves.

“This is done by supplying them with native language Bibles, training materials, seeds, clothing, medical supplies, prayer teams and evangelism to children,” he explained, noting that they also rescue young women out of sex slavery.

“In Nepal alone, we’ve helped build a Christian school for over 200 children who formerly could not attend school. Money has been raised for two water projects in villages to provide fresh water …” Klein said in a letter.

To meet spiritual needs, Vision Beyond Borders has delivered more than 500,000 Bibles; cassette tapes and hand-wind tape players to take the gospel to remote villages with no electricity; and flannel graphs to evangelize, teach and train children about the gospel.

For the past four years, VBB has distributed more than 3 million packs of seeds “to empower … poor villagers to be able to feed themselves and provide for their basic necessities,” according to literature.

And while recuperating from ankle surgery over the last several weeks, Klein planned to help sort 26,000 pounds of vegetable seeds into containers to be shipped all over the world.

The organization also helps provide medicine and medical supplies, sponsor a child program, as well as clothe and provide warmth to the people.

Help from home

Pat Ariosto of Casper was Klein’s bookkeeper when he first started VBB. She’s been amazed how the ministry has grown over the years.

“He started with nothing,” Ariosto recalled last week. “He started to get support in Casper and Cody. He sent out newsletters and got other supporters from around the nation. It just grew.”

She remembered one trip Klein took.

“He had gone ahead out of faith,” Ariosto said. “The money was not there to cover the Bibles. I told him (over the phone) we didn’t have the money and we both got shook up.”

But the next day, a check arrived in the mail n- just enough to cover paying for the Bibles.

“I had doubts over that money that time,” she said. “(Klein’s) faith is very strong. Anything is possible in Christ.”

The home of Clara and Roy Schaffer of Casper accommodates “Pat’s Sweatshop,” as Roy jokingly calls the area where they have created many quilts for VBB over the past eight years.

“When we give (Klein) something, you can rest assured that 100 percent of it goes to an orphanage,” Roy explained.

In making the quilts, Clara sorts the material and coordinates colors, while Roy squares up the material and cuts the squares.

They also have help from others in Casper. They lauded the others who help them, saying they couldn’t do it by themselves.

They also are looking for more people to volunteer to help in making the quilts. Those interested can call 234-2133.

God’s hand at work

According to Klein, VBB is in need of help and recruits people to join the trips to deliver the goods.

He’s looking for people who are flexible, can get out of their comfort zone, who are “servant hearted” and don’t have their own agenda.

In taking these mission trips, Klein noted that when participants come back, they appreciate what they have and know they have impacted someone’s life.

“They do something for eternity that really matters,” Klein said. “When we put our lives on the line, that’s when we really see God’s work and see lives change.”

For more information about Vision Beyond Borders or to make a donation, call 307-672-5995; visit www.vbbonline.org; e-mail pklein@vcn.com; or write to PO Box 6770, Sheridan, WY 82801.

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