The Light in the Jungle: A Glimpse into the Church Growing in Papua New Guinea with Jack Crabtree

Embark on an awe-inspiring journey as we engage in an enlightening conversation with my dear friend, Jack Crabtree. Together, we plunge headfirst into the heart of the Papua New Guinea jungle, home to the Wantakia People Group. 
For the past nine years, Jack, his wife Lael, and their children, and their teammates have been immersing themselves in this remote tribal community, striving to introduce them to the light of God's Word. 

Jack's journey has been filled with distinctive challenges and remarkable rewards. Come, hear his firsthand account of life deep in the jungle, balancing family living with missionary work. We'll explore the Wantakia's cultural practices, their animism-based belief system, and their spiritual challenges. Jack provides an enlightening perspective on these topics, alongside discussing his work on creating an alphabet, teaching literacy, and translating the Bible for the Wantakia tribe. 

Our conversation also takes a deeper look into the community development initiatives undertaken by Jack and his team. From delivering a tractor to establishing a water project, their tireless efforts to enhance the tribe's resources have been nothing short of inspirational. 
As we wrap up, we share Yedas's moving testimony on the Gospel's transformative impact on his life. Join us as we reflect on the power of prayer, the mission of God, and consider how each of us can contribute to the cause of Christ. This in-depth discussion promises to challenge, inspire, and potentially reshape your faith.

Follow @unreachedpodcast on Instagram for more!

Transcript

Dustin Elliot: 0:05

In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven, with members from every tribe, tongue, people and language standing in the throne room before the Lamb. Yet today there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups around the world. For the last six years, my family and friends have been on a journey to find, vet and fund the task remaining. Come journey with us to the ends of the earth as we share the supernatural stories of God at work through the men and women he has called to reach the unreached. Okay, welcome everybody.

Dustin Elliot: 0:44

Dustin Elliott here, your host for the Unreached Podcast. This is Episode 1. Technically, we have Episode 0, which maybe you've already heard with Todd Aaron last week. Today we have one of my best friends, jack Crabtree. He is with us. Live from Papua New Guinea, jack. Great to have you. Buddy, thanks for having me on. Sorry to be here. So Jack and his wife, leal have been raising their kids, along with a couple other families, in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, working in a tribe called the Wantakea People Group for nine years, and so today we want to share their story. We want to talk about how they were called, how they got there. The unique challenges of being there and serving this people group Give us a little bit of background on who are you, who's your wife, how long you'll been married and how did you get called to go serve as missionaries.

Jack Crabtree: 1:34

My wife, leal, and I met in college at the University of Arkansas, and you know I was raised in a Christian home. I had a kind of a Christian background. By the time I got to university I'd kind of been burned by the church, I guess, in my past, and so I was a believer. But I was kind of just like man do I really need the church? I didn't. I understand how that all fit together and you know, it wasn't until I sort of got over the bitterness in my past that I really started wanting to grow again. And not long after that I heard that there were all these unreached language groups around the world who had zero scripture in their language. And it just kind of hit me like I've had this my whole life and a lot of my life. I haven't even cared that much about it. I have multiple Bibles and yet there's other people who've never heard God's work once and we just started praying like Lord, like we don't know what you want to do through our lives, but we want to be involved in some way in helping reach these unreached language groups, these places who've never heard before. We don't know what that looks like, but we're. Our lives are just in your hands. So show us, show us what you want to do. And you know he was very gentle and patient with us. We heard about tribal people, that there are still people who live out in the jungle in these remote, hard to reach places, and initially we were like, hey, we'll go anywhere, do anything for you, but that thing. But going to a tribal location, anything but that Lord like. But we're down for whatever you've got.

Jack Crabtree: 3:04

I heard this story from another missionary who had been to a tribal language group, learned their language, translated the Bible, saw a church planted there. He shared his story and then at the end he just asked us really simple question. He said why wouldn't you give your life to do something like that? And I just all of the, all the reasons that came to my mind were so stupid. They were so like selfish and based on fear, and I was just like, well, god, I don't really have a good reason not to go do this. There are all the reasons that I have are pretty worthless.

Jack Crabtree: 3:35

So I prayed a prayer. I've only prayed it a few times in my life, but I prayed and said Lord, I don't know if this is something you have for Lail, and I had to do with our lives and honestly I don't really have a desire to do it. I'm kind of freaked out even thinking about it. But if it's something you have for us, you're going to have to give us a desire to do that. And literally within a few weeks this guy calls us up, we go to our ethnos training center where you get trained to basically how to be a missionary, how to go to a language group that has no alphabet and create an alphabet and teach some God's word, all these things. We went and toured that and it was like all our fears kind of melted away. We saw God have been faithful to others. He's going to be faithful to us too. And then we got excited about it and that's what we wanted to do and the Lord just kept leading us down this path and we eventually made it to the top of the beginning.

Dustin Elliot: 4:25

Man. You just teed up, like the rest of the episode and every episode from now on. So, thank you, that was awesome, but I want to take it one step at a time, so before we go to the wantakea and understand more about them. At this point you are at the University of Arkansas. You meet, you date, you get married and you commit your life to Christ, but you do so in a way of, like you said, he was gentle with you a couple of times, so you were praying and you were making yourself available one of my favorite quotes, right, god's interested in your availability, not your ability. Right, but it didn't just snap, it wasn't just a moment in time. It was like boom, pop, a new guinea. Here we go.

Dustin Elliot: 5:07

Right, it was a process, it was a spectrum that God took you through, right, oh for sure. And so how? How? Through that process? You said someone called you one day, but how, through that process, did ethnos do that? And how did you meet the other two couples, the Hambrises and the Sanders, that are there with you? How did that come together?

Jack Crabtree: 5:27

We started dating and Lail had just gone to the summer discipleship program in Florida. She's learning how to share her faith with others. And this guy, todd Aaron, maybe you've heard of him he does this missions conference and shares about outreach, people groups and what the need is that there's such a need around the world for people to hear about Christ. She never had a chance and at that moment Lail's you know about to go under a sophomore year of college and she's like, oh, this is what I'm going to do with my life. And I told Lail, like hey, I think, I think this is something I want to do. And she's like, okay, I'm glad, I'm glad you feel the same way, cause that's what I'm doing with my life.

Jack Crabtree: 6:07

And so we got in this class called perspectives that teaches you all about missions, the history of missions, the biblical basis for it, and that's where we first heard about tribal people. There are these tribal language groups in these really remote places that need to hear the gospel. But thinking about going to minister among tribal people, it just kind of freaked me out, like I didn't know. Well, what would I, how would I even do that? And so I was cool with thinking, oh, maybe we'll go to the Middle East, we will go to India or something. But the jungle was like no, no, thanks God.

Jack Crabtree: 6:42

And so that summer I went to a a it's a traveling teams summer project called the project, and you learn about all these different world religions. You have like an expert on Islam come in and teach you. Then you go to the mosque and you have a Q and A with the Imam and then you know, and so you do this with like Hinduism, hare Krishna, buddhism, mormonism, all these different isms. And there was a weekend about tribal people and we went it and heard this guy's story. He was an ethos missionary went to a tribal group and popping the guinea translate the Bible other language, the church was established there. And I heard his story and I thought, man, that is amazing and that's going to be amazing for someone else to go do that work, not me. I was still just like freaked out by it. I was like man, I just don't know how could I do something like that. And that's a great question. There's no way I could.

Dustin Elliot: 7:37

What you asked of God was give me a heart for this. Give me a heart for this. Make this clear to me, help me understand, almost like Solomon, give me wisdom, right To do this well.

Jack Crabtree: 7:47

Yeah, yeah. I asked God to give me a desire. That's what you have for Lail and I to do. You know you're going to have to give us a desire to go do this type of ministry. And not long after that, a missionary from ethnos called us up and invited us to go tour their training center. And so we went and toured it and it was amazing. We saw that they're going to train us but all these things that I was afraid of, they have classes for that. And God had been faithful to all these other missionaries who are on staff there. You've been faithful in their lives. He's going to be faithful to us.

Jack Crabtree: 8:18

So we got out of that training and at this point we're like okay, we're sold, this is who we're going to go with, this is what we're going to do. And I called my friend, bj Sanders. Now BJ Sanders and I we go way back to like first grade. We've been this whole together since first grade with roommates in college. At this point, bj is also newly married and he's planning to go to the unreached as well. They're thinking of going with another organization and we're like, bro, you and Jill need to come check out ethnos training center. We just toured it. I'll go tour it again with you. So we did, we all toured it and they're like yeah, let's do this, let's go with ethnos, let's get trained first.

Dustin Elliot: 9:03

At this point you had tribal in your heart, but you didn't have a specific tribe or a specific part of the world, right? So it wasn't to throw a dart at the map on the wall and then that's where I'm going to go. Thing that. It wasn't that. It was like, okay, no, let's be patient, let's go through the process and let's see where God's calling us to.

Jack Crabtree: 9:20

Oh man, I feel like God was constantly slowing us down, like in a good way. People had told us hey, man, you need to hurry up and get married so you can be married for at least a year before you get to the field. Okay, so we got married halfway through senior year of college. Well then, we ended up doing four years of training with ethnos Four years, four years of training.

Dustin Elliot: 9:42

Four years of training to get to the field. Well, you think about it.

Jack Crabtree: 9:45

I don't know. You think about your own pastors. You think about doctors, lawyers. If you're on the operating table, you probably hope that the guy about to do his thing knows what he's doing, has had some actual training. Why wouldn't we expect that from someone who's planning to go to an underage language group and translate the Bible? I mean, you don't want them to.

Jack Crabtree: 10:06

So we saw it as a profession in a way like, okay, well, we want to be equipped to do this. Well, we don't want to just go over there and try something. So, yeah, we started their Bible school and it was amazing. We had two years of Bible and halfway through that, the handbraces showed up on campus there, from Arkansas too, and we're like, okay, another family from Arkansas, this is going to be good. So we start hanging out with them, just being intentional as couples. Man, we'd even have like staff couples give us like tribal scenarios that they went through and then have us try and figure out what we would do as a team in that situation. We're just trying to practice being a team, and so we finished that up and then we made it to the field in 2014.

Dustin Elliot: 10:48

We made it to Papua New Guinea, Okay, 2014. And so now you've made it to Papua New Guinea, but you have not told us yet the listeners yet about the want to Kia. So tell us about the want to Kia.

Jack Crabtree: 11:01

So you know, papua New Guinea is a kind of an anomaly it's the size of California, but more than 800 distinct languages, more than 150 actually Crazy, like you know. It'd be like driving down the highway and every five minutes you're in a totally different language group. So it's like you go there. How do you know where to go then? Like, what language group do I go to? Well, the Sanders and Hanabraes families. They got there six months ahead of us because Lail did some extra linguistics training to prepare for creating an alphabet from scratch, and so they're six months ahead of us. They're meeting with another missionary, and this other missionary is like hey, I'm in this tribal work and I actually need coworkers. It's just me and my family.

Jack Crabtree: 11:46

But I don't want you to join my team. I want you to join. I want you to think about going to this place called want to Kia. And here's why, over the last 40 years, we set two teams of missionaries in there. They weren't able to learn the language. It's a really crazy language. Some of them had sickness and had to leave. When I first got to the field, the first thing they had me do as a new missionary I had to go in and help tear down the houses of these missionaries because they were having to go back to the States. And so I've always had this burden for the want to Kia people. And I think you need to. You guys should really pray about joining them. You've got three young families. I think you should pray about going there.

Jack Crabtree: 12:22

It's a Jeremy and BJ hear this story and they're like Okay, we should pray about that. And they talk to this other guy on leadership there and he's like Well, what do you think your next step should be? Like? And you know, well, it'd be great if we could just meet the want to Kia guy. Like that would be awesome. Well, this is down in a coastal city called Modang. Want to Kia is way up in the middle of the country. They never come to Modang. The next morning, the same guy on leadership comes, knocks on Jeremy's door. He's like yeah, remember what you said yesterday. There's a want to Kia guy here to talk to you.

Jack Crabtree: 12:55

And he's like what so they meet? This guy Turns out he had been working on an ethnos base up in the highlands and the day before he had just set out loud to a missionary there. Like any, I've never seen the ocean. I just love to see the ocean one day. And the guy's like Well, I'm about to drive down to Modang. You want to hop in the car and come with me? Sure, so this guy just shows up on Jeremy's doorstep the next day, tells them all about the want to Kia people, basically gives us the invite to go check out the place.

Dustin Elliot: 13:29

How would he say I want to see an ocean ?

Jack Crabtree: 13:32

Yeah, he'd say

Dustin Elliot: 13:47

So we're there. There's been working the Wantakia tribe already. It hasn't been what you would call successful, yet they're praying. Y'all are praying about should we go engage with this group, and first we've got to kind of clean up what's been done a little bit and then we've got to restart right. So what are we walking into here? What are they currently working with?

Jack Crabtree: 14:07

Yeah, no, it's a great question. I mean we would say that the want to Kia people are animistic, so animism would be their religion, that would be their traditional religion. And animism it means several things. One way of thinking of it is there are no inanimate objects, like there are spiritual forces in lots of inanimate things. But another way to think about it is okay. So you have those of us in the West.

Jack Crabtree: 14:35

Maybe there are some people who would just be totally materialist, like they just only believe in a material world. There is no spiritual world. Then you have maybe us Western believers who would say, well, no, no, like the Bible says, there is a spiritual world. And so when we're insert, we sort of compartmentalize it. Though when I go to church I'm thinking about spiritual world. When I'm praying before bed or something, I'm like what am I thinking about the spiritual world? But a lot of times in my day to day I'm just living my life kind of on autopilot and maybe I'm not even thinking about God or that there's a spiritual reality all around me.

Jack Crabtree: 15:10

For an animist, the spiritual world and the material are just intertwined all the time. Everything is spiritual and there are spiritual consequences to everything you do. So our want to TN people. They believe in a lot of different spirits. So there's certain spirits that'll make you crazy and these guys apparently are like short little brimlins that are green, have long beards and they live by these tarot gardens and if you go there they'll end well you, they'll chase you through the, through the jungle, oh my, and they'll make you go crazy. Okay, there's these other guys that have these spiritual bow and arrows and they'll shoot you. You'll get sick and died as other. Yeah. So there's these different spirits that are around and they're looking for the people who are ripe is what our people would say and that means you're not bop, you're not a good want to key and you're not doing the good behavior that all want to get degree on is what makes you a good want to keep man or woman, or you're already sick and if you're either those things, you're, you're ripe and ready for that. So they're.

Jack Crabtree: 16:17

You know, I would be walking around the jungle with some of these guys feeling pretty good is, I'm in their domain, like they know what they're doing out in this remote area, and they'd be turned to be like man Jack. I'm so freaked out right now because they're thinking about the spirits that they believe in, that are all around them. So you got that. You got these spirits. Then you've got men who have spiritual power. So we have this, all these different guys and from the traditional watch key way of thinking that have spiritual power. There's we've got one guy called a Matatica. That's almost like a spiritual drone operator, so he would go into a trance in his hut, send his spirit into the certain bird and then he's able to fly that certain bird around. Look for someone leak. That bird goes into that person's body, your internal organs. They get sick and die.

Jack Crabtree: 17:03

So that's something you're afraid of if you live out there.

Dustin Elliot: 17:06

So you're dealing with, you're dealing with the. I mean, there's a whole lot of different things that could be coming at you at any given time.

Jack Crabtree: 17:12

Yeah. So I'm trying to put us in, like, if you are a want to keep living out there, this is what you're thinking Like, okay, there could be that guy. There could also be a traditional be like traditional shaman or, you say, a witch doctor or whatever. That's like the Godfather. You go to him when you need something taken care of, right, maybe you you think someone's in trespassing in your garden. Okay, that guy can make a fire and the smoke becomes like a screen. He can look at it, go, oh yeah, that's who did that. And then if you get some soul substance from that guy, which would be like a fingernail flipping or even a piece of food that you've been eating and you bring it to him, you can cook that in the fire and it'll cook that guy's spirit and that guy's sick and die. So you can put it in someone like that. You've got other guys who are poison men that can again get some soul substance from the person they want to poison and bury it under their house and that person will get sick and die.

Dustin Elliot: 18:05

This is a tribe of how many, how many, how many people?

Jack Crabtree: 18:09

I would say there's between seven and 8,000 people, 10 villages that all follow this certain river. Yeah, so if you're again a true want to key in, it's not like the material world and the spiritual world are separate. Your whole life is centered around. Okay, how do I continue being a good want to key in and how do I do the right rituals to appease these spirits and keep them happy and also watch out for these guys who have spiritual power that could come after me at any back. And so it's really a life of fear.

Dustin Elliot: 18:38

Real quick on the honor shame thing. You explained this to me before. But if I were to say to you, jack, we're having a party for my daughter on Friday at the house, you know, are you coming? You, even if you had other plans, you would tell me you're coming and then you would no show to do your other plans. But because it would shame me if you said, no, I can't come, how does that work?

Jack Crabtree: 19:01

Yeah, they're definitely an honor shame culture, especially horizontally with each other, and what that means is you do what's right for the relationship, not necessarily what's true, and so, yeah, in that case you're someone who has honor. To just tell you no to your face would totally shame you. So I'm gonna say, yeah, yeah, I'll be there, I'll be there, and then I don't show up. Well, later I'll come and say, well, hey, this other thing came up and that's why I didn't come, and so, in that sense, lining is okay from their perspective because it actually helped the relationship. It didn't mess up the relationship. You want that equilibrium there. And so, yeah, that comes across in a lot of ways where you're trying not to shame others and you're trying not to get shame, and so that's something that God's word is going to bring to tension, you know wow, okay to get there.

Dustin Elliot: 19:53

if you don't have airborne transit. What's the hike like?

Jack Crabtree: 19:59

Oh man, yeah, we've. Only I only hiked it one time without any trance. Then we hiked for 27 hours straight over these mountains and that was just to get to the nearest place where you could get a car. So it was kind of like a force march. You know, my feet were just solid blisters. But we wanted to know, like, what's it like for these guys to get out to the nearest town.

Jack Crabtree: 20:21

So we us guys hiked with maybe 30 other Watkeyan dudes and yeah, they they had told us before, oh yeah, we'll sleep on the trail one night or two nights Like, okay, we could do that. Maybe they didn't want us to stop. They were worried there was, there were bandits on the road, they didn't want us to be at target. So they just, oh, keep going, keep going, pushed us for 27 hours and we finally got to a car and then took that to our mission base. But yeah, I don't even want to do that again. So, but it was really good to just show them like, wow, we want to see what life is like for you, you know, and really feel that.

Dustin Elliot: 20:56

Yeah, I've got an amazing friend who who serves in Turkey and and I love she says it. Like you know, you have to earn the right to speak into the darkest parts of their lives or the deepest parts of their hearts. Right, and that's earning the right, right Like that's going hey, we're going to go out here and do it with you. Okay, so it's really hard to get to. We've established that.

Jack Crabtree: 21:14

But typically when y'all come in and out, you do it by helicopter right, right, no, that's right, and that's a huge blessing to have a whole team around us. You know, pilots, supply buyers, doctors, nurses, people in the finance office over here. These are all full-time missionaries who are doing support work to enable us to live out in these remote places and just live with the people. Without these support missionaries over here that are full-time Like, it'd be really hard for us to just focus on. I just want to be with the want to Key N's and minister there. So it's huge having this network of people, and the pilots are amazing. I mean, they help us out so much, yeah.

Dustin Elliot: 21:57

So support missionaries, okay. So let's think about what that is right. If I want to be a global Christian, if I am understanding that Jesus Matthew 28, calls me to the Great Commission, right, not a suggestion, it's a commission, it's the heavenly memo from our CEO. Right, I don't necessarily have to be a goer. In fact, I can be a sender, I can be a funder, I can be a prayer, I can be a welcomeer, I can offer respite. I have all these other roles that I can play. And even as a goer, I don't necessarily have to be the goer in the tribe. I could be a goer in a city or a hub nearby. That's helping. Right, that's an ancillary support. And a lot of what BLESS has done and we'll talk more about BLESS as we go through the podcast a lot of what BLESS is is we're an ancillary support, right, for y'all in your mission with the Wantakea and others. We're not your sending organization, but we're here to fund the other things. Right, let's real quick. Let's hit on what just happened with the airstrip.

Jack Crabtree: 22:54

Yeah, so man, the Wantakeans, they've been digging this airstrip in our village for about 20 years with spades and wheelbarrows and things like that, and we've in the past we've written some things to the government to try and get some funding to actually be able to pay the people to dig on the airstrip. But they've been doing this because it's going to help them sell their coffee. That's their only catch crop, that's the only way they can get funds and normally they have to hike it. You know hours and hours to a middleman and they get next to nothing for these amazing beans. And so we've been wanting to help them and BLESS was like well, what do you guys need to finish this airstrip? They've been digging it for so long. And we're like well, obviously if we could get a machine out there, we'd get a tractor to actually do some of this heavy lifting. I think we could knock it out for the people. And it was just crazy, bless raised the money so quickly and had the funds ready to go. But you know we call Papua New Guinea the land of the unexpected right.

Jack Crabtree: 23:53

So there's a helicopter company that has a giant Russian helicopter that's able to carry a tractor to our remote location. So I'm in touch with them for two years. I'm trying to get them to just. I even signed a quote with them. We have an agreement Two years ago. They still haven't been able to get us into the schedule. They do a lot of work with the gold mine company, things like that. We're just kind of low man on the totem pole. So I call them up at the log on there, like, oh, we actually sold our helicopter back to Russia. Well, thanks for telling me. Great, good to hear.

Jack Crabtree: 24:26

So I contact this other guy. I'm like, hey, is there anyone else here that has a chopper that can do this job? He's like, well, try this company, they might have one. So I call them up and they're like, yeah, I think we can do that. And I'm like, okay, we're ready to do this. How soon can we do this? And they're like, well, how about we do a recon flight to your Bush location tomorrow and then we'll fly everything in the next day? It's like, oh, okay, so everything just started going crazy. And this is where that support team comes in. We're out in the tribe and the tractors out in the nearest town, and so all these other missionaries from actually three different mission organizations work together to get everything positioned, get the tractor serviced within a day all these different things to make it to where this giant Russian helicopter could pick up a tractor and trailer in a double sling load and bring it out to our location. And now there's a tractor in Wantikia and in a few weeks we're going to get an operator out there and they can start using that thing and hopefully we'll be able to finish this airstrip and it'll be a huge help for the people.

Jack Crabtree: 25:30

The people just couldn't believe it. They'd never seen anything like it, and so you know it's just a chance to show love to the entire community and that just gives you even more of a platform and builds more trust to continue to share about Christ with them. And so, even before we ever share the gospel, you know we made them five promises about okay, here's what we want to do with you guys, because you know they want missionaries for a lot of reasons and a lot of them aren't spiritual. It's oh well, if missionaries come here, maybe some outside services will come as well. Yeah, their lives are really hard, so you put yourself in their shoes, obviously. Yeah, we want help, we want our lives to be easier.

Jack Crabtree: 26:09

So when we wanted to move in there, you know they invited us, but we said, hey, here's what we're coming to do.

Jack Crabtree: 26:13

We're going to learn your language and culture.

Jack Crabtree: 26:15

We're going to create an alphabet and teach you to read in your language. We're going to translate God's word into your language. We're going to teach it to you from beginning to end, so you know what it means, and then we're going to show you how to take that message to others. That's what we're actually committing to, because we wanted them to know like we're here for your spiritual well-being, but you know we care about them as people, right? And so as we were there, we kept praying Lord, what ways can we help this community as a whole? And so we ended up doing a water project, piping in water from a mountain stream, and now there's water in the village and the women have to create water every day. So there's different things we've done to help them physically, but every time, before we had presented the gospel, we'd be pointing them to hey, this is helping your bodies, but we're really here to help you on the spirit side, and Jack, who exemplified the model of healing the physical and saving the soul and the spiritual.

Dustin Elliot: 27:08

Jesus did. Jesus did right. When the four friends lowered the paralyzed man through the roof of the house, everyone wanted to see Jesus tell that guy get up and walk. But what's the first thing he did? The first thing he did was he said your sins are forgiven. Right, but he knew what they wanted. But he always addressed both and I love that you're doing that because you're giving yourselves credibility, you're giving yourselves the opportunity to say we're here for more. So you've said it three times now and you're segueing through the show notes better than I am as a host. So the alphabet you went to a tribe, to a people group, but this was like blew my mind. That has no written language, and part of what you had to do and were able to do, got to do, was you learned their language verbally. Then you created their own alphabet for them. Then you taught them to read and write their alphabet before you could ever even start translating scripture, right.

Jack Crabtree: 28:04

Come on.

Dustin Elliot: 28:05

Well, you know, yeah, you got that education at Arkansas. I mean, come on.

Jack Crabtree: 28:11

I mean, hey, god uses the foolish to confound the wise. We always thought, hey, we're pretty safe here. We're a team from Arkansas man we're set up for success if we can just lean on the Lord Now, like those five promises I just mentioned, I mean, they're not just arbitrary things, they're all geared towards how can we see a mature church established here that can stand on its own without the need for missionaries?

Dustin Elliot: 28:36

Amen.

Jack Crabtree: 28:36

OK, so it kind of works backwards. Ok, they need to be taught God's word. Well, how are they going to be taught if there's not a translation in the language? Well, how are they going to have a translation if there's no alphabet? Well, how are they going to be able to read the translation if they aren't taught literacy? Well, how are we going to be able to do any of that if we don't know the language first? So all those promises they're pointing towards seeing a mature church established there and so, yeah, when we got there, man, the first thing is building relationships and having to learn this crazy language, which took three years for us to do, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. You know, it's not that Austin, where you're involved in a project, a three-year project, and you basically suck every day.

Dustin Elliot: 29:20

You know, like that's a hard thing. God kind of opened some of the hearts, softened some of the hearts of the tribe, certain tribal members, to be very helpful for you from step one, obviously, but also through literacy and all that, Tell us about some of them.

Jack Crabtree: 29:35

Oh man, yeah, I mean, when we first started learning language, we were kind of casting a wide net right, like we're just trying to invite lots of different people to help us learn their language.

Jack Crabtree: 29:46

So we had between us guys we probably had 50, 60 different language helpers, all different ages, because you don't know who's going to be faithful, you don't know who has a hunger to teach you as a hunger to hear about God's word, and so your disability, relationships, living life with them, and as we kept doing that, we would just start seeing, man, there are some faithful guides here, guys that are always there when they say they're going to be there, guys that are always helping me, and guys that I'm becoming really good friends with, and so that three years of just the pain of learning that language was so sweet because they were with me in that struggle, they were my teachers and towards the end they're like oh, jack, we've been your teacher, we can't wait until you're going to be our teacher and teach us God's talk, like we're so ready for that now, and so it was just so cool.

Jack Crabtree: 30:33

Like you said, your friend says we had to earn the right to speak Because you're going to be talking about things that are so deep that they hold with so much emotion, that are painful for them to think about changing the way they believe about these certain things. You've got to earn the right to be able to go there with them, and that three years of language learning did that.

Dustin Elliot: 30:52

That's incredible. You have three kids and you've been there nine years and your kids are held 12, 10, and five. What is special and different about your five-year-old from, say, your 12-year-old? In terms of where's home?

Jack Crabtree: 31:07

Oh, man, yeah, like for Ani, our youngest, you know, we came back to the States for her to be born, but then we were back in the tribe by the time she was about eight months old, and so for her it's like all her memories are just living in the jungle. And so we've only been back to America twice since we've been over here, and the second time we came back. You know, it was like it was like for her seeing America for the first time. And you know, for us as parents, like man, ok, america is our home. Like we grew up there, we have priests there.

Jack Crabtree: 31:42

For her it was like what is this place, you know? And there was kind of this education that had to happen, and you know, we had to be patient and loving and try and help her Like, ok, yeah, like this is also our home, our home is where our family is, you know, and try to help her think through that, because for her it's like, you know, the Wontokian village, binge village, that's home and there's something special about that. You know, like a lot of people are nervous about thinking, oh, I took my kids overseas with me and take them out in the jungle, but our kids, their view of the world is so much deeper and broader than most people growing up in the West and I feel like they've been able to just see God work in ways that a lot of people have it, and such a cool childhood to have. You know, kind of envious of them actually.

Dustin Elliot: 32:30

Hearing about Anya and how she's going to see the world and what's going to happen there. Now we've created an alphabet. You've done some literacy. How did they first hear about the gospel?

Jack Crabtree: 32:41

Oh man, it was crazy, like spent more than a year translating all the scripture that we're going to teach. We want to teach them God's word from beginning to end, so they get the whole story, they see their place in God's story. And so we spent a year writing Bible lessons, translating God's word, to get ready to stand up and teach the entire village. And that happened to come about in 2020, when another big thing happened COVID was tearing the world apart and out in the jungle. God wanted to actually build something new, and so in June of 2020, we stood up in front of the whole village and began to share his story from beginning to end for the first time with the Wantekean people. And it was just crazy, man. They were getting to see God in creation and he's all powerful and a lot of that stuff in creation. We camped out there and it just displaced a lot of these views about these different spirits. They were living in fear of these spirits and yet there's this God who created all those spirits. He's more powerful. Why should we be afraid of those spirits if we can be joined with God? And so that was pretty amazing.

Jack Crabtree: 33:44

Then, with the fall, like they're just on this rollercoaster, like on this story, and they see Adam and Eve, their fellowship with God, and then the fall happens. It's like, no, I'm like what is going on? But there's a promise, right, and OK, god's going to send their adiaries, he's going to send the helper. We're waiting on that promise. They're just tracking through these stories. We get to the law and they're like they had had some Christian religion that had come in there before and so they had some weird ideas about the law and we're able to teach them. And the law is like a mirror that shows you your sin. You don't try to clean yourself up with a mirror, right, it's showing you that you are lost, that you need a Savior. And they're like, oh, that's so right, when's the Savior coming? You know, like they're just in this story we finally get to Jesus stepping on the scene and it's just blowing them away because, ok, he's healing the sick, ok, he's got power over sickness. He's raising the dead, he's got power over death. Ok, now he's casting out these evil spirits. He's got power over the spirits. This guy's got to be God. He's the second person to trinity, like he's the helper, ok, ok. And then we get to the death, barely resurrection and it's just like they're just. It just destroyed them, like we taught it.

Jack Crabtree: 34:57

We did this drama and they're just watching this whole thing unfold. Man, we would act out dramas just to drive the fight home sometimes. So we act out the crucifixion, and one of my friends out there was Jesus and you know we were like beating him and we got like fake blood and the people are just like, oh my gosh, like never seen anything like this. And then he dies and the veil of the temple's torn from top to bottom. And for our people that was the thing they're like, because we had taught about the abernacle before, so they heard this whole story, they knew what that meant, and when the veil of that temple tore, they're just like oh, wow, the way to be joined with God is open. Now there's a road to give back to God and it's Jesus and man.

Jack Crabtree: 35:43

We had probably about 100 people give clear testimonies at that point, and so this little baby church was born and it's like OK, baby's born. You don't leave him at the NICU and say, oh, god's got a wonderful plan for your life. Everything turns out great. We'll see you later. No, that's when the real work happens. Right, that baby's there. And so we're like, ok, let's go through acts as a baby church and just see what the early church did and that's what we're going to do. And so we spent the next year going through acts and seeing these new believers discover their identity and prays, but also their identity with each other as the body of Christ.

Dustin Elliot: 36:17

That's beautiful the way you just told that. I don't know if I mean. I've heard a lot of people give the gospel, but that's as compelling of a way as I've ever heard it told. Thank you just for sharing that.

Jack Crabtree: 36:28

My man that's just a privilege to get to brag on the Lord. I wasn't joking about using the foliage to shame the wise. So, yeah, you live out in the jungle and some days it's just kind of like Groundhog Day. It's saying thing, here's a routine, and then something crazy happens that you can't predict. And there was a huge gathering in our village, lots of visitors from other places. There was a guy and basically he was messing around with a married woman and he got caught by the married woman's brother.

Jack Crabtree: 36:59

They start fighting and when you fight in our culture as long as you don't draw blood, it's not as big of a deal. But as soon as one drop is spilled, it's like things escalate and so they're fighting. They're purposely not trying to draw any blood, but the brother that caught the guy, he hits him with the machete, tries to hit him with the flat of it and accidentally cuts him and they're like oh bro, sorry, didn't mean to cut you, to like. And they kind of talk it through and say, okay, well, we'll discuss this with the village peace officer in the morning. It's fine, they go their separate ways. Well, the guy who was messing around, they got cut. All of his clan sees that he's been cut and they start freaking out like who did this to you? We're gonna get him. So they start chasing the brother. They've got their bows and arrows, their machetes. They start chasing him. He's flaying down the airstrip One of our most mature believers, topman. He's sitting up on the airstrip. He sees this guy he's just speak past. He's like, and he sees the mob coming after him, so he takes off sprinting. They've got him down at the end of the airstrip. There's like a clip at the end of the airstrip and this guy's there. Topman throws himself in between and he's like, hey, you're gonna have to kill me if you wanna kill this guy, the guy who's fleeing season, opening to the trailhead to try and get back to his village to find safety. He sprints down this trail. Well, some other guys had cut through the bush and they stopped him. And they've got their machetes and he's like, hey, let me pass, let me get back to my place. Like, nope, you're not going anywhere. He tries to get past them. They raise their machetes to hit him in the head and he raises his arm to block it and just slices through his hand. His hand's completely severed.

Jack Crabtree: 38:42

So Layla and I are at home. We're like we hear all this wailing going on. We're like what is going on? It's like one in the morning, guys running up and down in front of our house screaming. We go out there like what's the deal? What's going on? They're like, oh, they cut this guy's arm. They cut this guy's arm. And we're like, okay, well, you know it's gonna cut somewhere Arms, not too bad of a place. And there is this volunteer aid worker in the village and so we're like, okay, well, if it's really bad, come get us. But you know, this aid worker can handle it.

Jack Crabtree: 39:10

In the morning, two guys come. They're like, hey, you need to come down here. They cut this guy's arm. We're like, yeah, we heard they cut his arm, no, his hand's. Like, oh, why don't you guys tell us that? So we cut it down there and Find out that they let him bleed for more than two hours before they put a tourniquet on this thing.

Jack Crabtree: 39:28

And so we get them up to the the porch, trying to clean everything, trying to get some fluids in him. He's passing out. This guy's a visitor. We got to save his life. One to save his life, but two if he dies in our village. That's like instant travel worker, he's not from here, and so I'm praying, as in God, for wisdom, trying to keep this guy stable, trying to get some fluids in him, and so we get him back to a hut, having build the fire, and I get on the phone with the God I'm gonna try to get a medivac Miraculously. They're like, yeah, we can get a play there tomorrow, like okay, great, this is incredible because sometimes it takes a while, you know, and it was just working out really fast. So I go back down there, I check his vitals and the dude's like tanking and I'm like now we don't have till tomorrow and they come out and they get this guy out of there. Same day I'm save his life. I go up to the airship, tell the whole village because all village is freaking out Like are we about to go to war with this other village? Like, hey, the helicopter's coming, they're gonna get him out of here. So that happens that they get him out. How, miraculously, save this guy's life.

Jack Crabtree: 40:32

But the village that he's from wants to retaliate and a lot of our believers are from this. The guy who cut off the hand they're from his, his own clan, and so there's kind of this group justice mentality which is pretty common around the world. We're very individualistic in the West and so we think if you do something wrong, you Yourself, we have to pay for it. But here it's like the whole village has is on the hook for this thing. And so our village is like, man, are we gonna get annihilated? Like what are they gonna come do to us?

Jack Crabtree: 41:01

And so everyone's afraid and we start praying as believers, like, hey man, we're joined to the one that has all the power. We don't have to live in fear. Let's just pray that God would help us, that you help our village During this trial. And so all the warriors from this other village got all their war pain on, they got their bows and arrows and they're coming to bring the fight up to our village on top of this mountain. And we're just praying, praying. It's it's the middle of dry season, not supposed to rain, and it rained for a day and a half. It's just torrential downpour and just rained out all those guys. They literally couldn't make it to our village and that gave them time to cool off and they ended up never coming. We just saw how the Lord totally at work there, where the whole village was in fear deep. Our believers were, but we just reminded them. I prayed and God totally answered and sent this crazy Torrential downpour my goodness, wow, what a story.

Dustin Elliot: 42:01

And while we're on the topic of Of stories, what about Yedas?

Jack Crabtree: 42:05

Oh man, yes, so Yedas is one of the first believers in Wattakia and he was one of my main helpers with language learning and he became one of my main translation helpers All along the way with translation. We're doing that process with Wattakia it's not just us sitting in the office, you know, trying to do this thing, we're doing that with Wattakia and so he was my main guide. I was getting into translating Romans and we're in Romans, chapter one, and I get to the birds. Were Paul saying man, I feel compelled or I feel obligated to To go and and preach Christ, like to others, to Jews, gentiles, I'm obligated? And Yedas just stops. You said, bro, why are you using that verb? That's the wrong verb. Why are you saying he's obligated? Oh, say a little quick prayer. All right, lord, help me explain this. And I'm like you know. I just tell you about my life.

Jack Crabtree: 42:54

It's like I was raised in a Christian. Oh, I Christian parents heard the Bible from a young age of my own house. They'd have to go anywhere to hear it. When I was younger and I became a believer, I would talk to God like this sometimes really God. Why was it like that for me? We put people around the world to and I never get to hear this, like that's just not fair. Why? Why was I able to hear this and I bothered me when I was younger. And then I kind of grew up and you know, thinking about a job and a career and money, and you know, yedas, I wasn't really thinking about the Lord that much.

Jack Crabtree: 43:24

But I read this verse one day and realized Paul's obligated because he didn't do anything to deserve to get to hear this message and because of that, because it was all God's grace, he's compelled to go give other people that chance. And I was like man, lord, I've got to do this too. I want to share Christ where he has not been named yet. And I trade like that, yedas. And now I'm sitting here in this village talking to you about Christ and hey, that was this started balling, started weeping, and he's like oh my gosh, jack, what a few missionaries had just been happy with your comfortable lives in America. What if you were just happy to drive around in your cars and eat your good food? And what if you had been afraid to leave your family and to come here where you walk around and get thorns in your feet? You know what if you guys hadn't come. If you guys hadn't come, we would just be Walking slowly down to hell with a smile on our face. That are good works. You're gonna save us. But you guys did come and God did help you and you did teach us about Christ and we believed and now we're joined with him forever, thank you. Thank you for coming and telling us and then said he just looked to heaven. He's like father. Thank you for Making Paul the apostle to us Gentiles and for having him write this letter that I'm gonna be here now. Thank you for preserving your word, thank you for sending these missionaries. And he looked back at me and he said, well, and Jack, now I know that when God tells me to go, I'm gonna have to say yes. And I was like, yeah, you think that's gonna be easy. He said, hold on now I've watched you missionaries and it has been easy. You guys have had so many trials, some of those who even come from me and people in this village, and Satan's tried to stop you guys. But man guys been faithful in the midst of those trials and so, yeah, I know that he's gonna be faithful to me when trials come my way.

Jack Crabtree: 45:11

Fast forward, a little trials did come into Yados's life. Not long after that, his sister was Gang raped by six dudes. Her one-year-old baby was Hit against a tree. They ambushed her in in in a garden and she barely escaped with her life. Then her husband, mia I heard about it he came back and at this point Yados's family is like, okay, we're gonna get revenge on these attackers, we're gonna take the fight to them. And Yados stood up and it's like no, it's not, guys away, we're not gonna go take revenge, we're gonna try and settle this diplomatically. And so His sister's husband, mia walk, comes back to the village. He'd been working in another place. He comes back to the village and they're gonna go get a statement from the doctors. Like, prove, like this happened.

Jack Crabtree: 45:59

They're walking the seven-hour hike to get this statement. He's walking with his wife. And who do they meet on the road? The leader of this, basically the guy that raped his wife. It hints. He's like hey, we're, we're taking you to court, we're gonna deal with this. And Sion, the leader of this gang, is like no, I'm gonna kill you right now. And so they start fighting and they're rolling around on the ground. Sion Bites me a wise hand and he loses his grip and then science brings his machete down on Mia was head and and just this gash like an eight-inch gash from above his ear. All the raiders forehead and me always just lay in there In the trail. His wife runs off into the jungle to escape and Me watch this left for dead. And this guy from another language group happens to be going on the trail a few hours later, sees me while laying there, fix him up big from our village.

Jack Crabtree: 46:55

Me and Jeremy were in the office at the time working on some Bible study stuff. They come to get us that it's guys gonna die. He's up at the earth trip. You got to come. We go up there. It's just blood covering this guy and he's in shock and Again we take him down, do our best to stabilize him, stop the bleeding. We're in a ten minute window. We got cell service and we're able to arrange an entire medivac in ten minutes, the Lord. But normally take several days and work down ten minutes.

Jack Crabtree: 47:21

A helicopter came, got me a lot, took him to town and our village again was wanting to go to war gate us who have been standing strong. They went. It's not, we're not gonna do violence. When meal I got chopped. He's like that's it. And him and his brother got their bows and arrows and went to take to fight this other village or like no Lord, like what's going on. We just pray, lord, stop him somehow. And he said top man, the same guy that shielded that other guy From the arrows, top man, takes off down the trail, stops them and convinces them to not go through with With fighting meal, I ended up. They saved his life.

Jack Crabtree: 47:58

He came back and we decided to do a local outreach. We're gonna teach this God story again for all the people who hadn't believed and hadn't heard the first time. Well, meal on his wife there from another village. They hiked every single day For months to hear every single lesson of this teaching and they both became believers and yeh das was helping his teach he was it helping us teach these lessons. And then it I stood up or sorry, meal, I stood up and After he had heard the gospel and it's like man, I should have died, but God spared my life so that I could hear this message and believe and I'm trusting in him now I just want to tell about thank you for sparing me. And not long after that, yeh das was able to baptize his sister and meal on in the river out there.

Jack Crabtree: 48:43

Just recently you had us had the chance he had to go out to town to work and he didn't want to go, but he had these obligations and he's like I gotta go out to this forestry town to to work and when we gone for months he's one of our main Bible teachers. He's in training to be a Bible teacher. He's like I feel like I'm supposed to go. I don't really want to. Hey, can I take a lot of our teaching materials and Bible lessons and scripture with me? We're like, yes, please, it's okay, because if the chance comes I'm gonna teach.

Jack Crabtree: 49:12

He goes out there and there's this group of want to key into our living in this other town, all doing this forestry work, and they're like, hey, would you teach us God's word in our language? And yes, it's like yeah, and so seven days a week for more than three and a half months, yeh das is teaching multiple groups every day through God's word. This literally just happened a few weeks ago. There were more than 30 new believers in, in want to key it through that and it's like the Lord is just doing things in these believers lives and it's apart from us missionaries, and that's what we're looking for. Right is to disciple ourselves out of a job, and that's what the Lord is doing he's.

Dustin Elliot: 49:54

These people are growing, they're maturing in their faith, they're sharing their faith, and so, man, it's just cool to be on the sidelines sometimes now go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son in the Holy Spirit, right, and You're doing that, and then you're you're equipping them to go make disciples themselves, right. And so part of what we did with blast, with Todd errant and pioneers and ethnos, and in GSI and others, was we created a ten step scale of. We call it the within reach scale and and. Step one I want to walk through it real quick because I want the listeners to hear what we've been working with you, you guys, since 2018, with the one to Kia. So step one is on-site training To is learning them at the majority language. Three is learning the minority language, because a lot of times, like where y'all are, there's a trade language right that all the tribes know a little bit of and then each tribe has their own dialect right, so you may be learning more than one.

Dustin Elliot: 50:51

Step four and some of these, some of these can, can work at the same time. But step four, roughly, is translating scripture. Five sharing the gospel. Six discipling new believers. Seven new believers making new Disciples can we get an amen for Yados right there? Eight equipping indigenous leaders also happening. Nine indigenous leaders leading in ten, the church thriving. I mean, the goal of this is church planting and a planting a church is a is a locally, you know, indigenous led Disciple-making church where they are leading the church right. I think of it as you going from the pulpit to the pews, where we are now in the later stages with the want to Kia tribe. Seven, eight, nine is God's work and it's incredible. So, now that we've kind of explained that we're roughly at seven and eight, what's left to do? Where are we now to finish the task remaining with the Wantikians?

Jack Crabtree: 51:50

Oh man, yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, now that they're being in that kind of seven, eight, nine range, I mean you're just discipling and equipping. And so our guys have had a lot of truth. They've had Ephesians, romans. Now it's like we're about to get into Corinthians, because we're gonna start seeing body delight more, learning more about that, how to solve conflict. And then we're gonna get into Timothy just finished drafting that and Wantikia.

Jack Crabtree: 52:17

We're gonna get into that next so they can see what are elders, how are they qualified? Like what is a good elder and how can I be fit to lead and shepherd the flock? Like what does that look like from God's word? And so it's progressive, sacred, it's growing to be more conformed to Christ's image, and these guys are on that path and you can't microwave maturity, you can't force it. It's up to them to want to grow, to wanna walk with the Lord, and we're just trying to provide that opportunity for the people that want it, for the people who are faithful, for the people that are doing well with the responsibilities they've been given, and so that's what our job looks like Now.

Jack Crabtree: 52:56

Yes, we're still translating, we're writing Bible lessons. The next thing we're gonna do in Corinthians is like, okay, you guys have gotten really good at helping us check these lessons and then stand up and teach them and correct them and things like that. But now we're gonna pull back the curtain a little bit and we're gonna develop these Bible lessons and scratch just how do we look at God's word and go, oh, in this section, here are our main points. Here's oh, here's a good idea for an illustration, like how do we create a sermon, how do we create something to feed the flock? And so we're just taking them deeper and deeper and deeper. And there's this group of men and women that are so hungry and they are growing and they want that ownership.

Jack Crabtree: 53:33

Right now, no missionaries are in the tribe as we're recording this. This is why their first chance is for them to go solo, and so we met with them before we came out of the tribe this time and said, hey, we're in Ephesians. This is our second time. Through Ephesians, you guys are gonna be teaching these lessons and here's what we're doing for Bible study. You guys got this and they're doing it out there on their own, and so during this phase, you start doing what we call planned absences, where you're giving them a little more freedom. It's like your kid right, they get their learner's permit and you're kind of in the driver's seat with them, but they're getting a little more control and then they finally get that chance where it's like, oh, I can drive on my own now, but there's still some restrictions there, you know, there's a curfew.

Jack Crabtree: 54:11

That's kind of where we're at. It's like we've got these teenage believers that we're trying to give more freedom to, with a little bit of freedom to fail Our goal man. It's hard to put a timeline on it. It depends on their maturity. But if these men and women continue to mature and walk with the Lord, we're hoping during the next three, four years that we're phasing out where we're not living their full time and letting them lead. I'm still gonna be connected to the wontons until I die. I'm still gonna be making trips in there and fade to the background as a resource is what I hope happens. So that, okay, what do you guys need from me? What role can I play? You guys are leading this. You tell me that's where we're transitioning to in these next few years.

Dustin Elliot: 54:53

Okay, you just had the quote of the day of the year. Maybe you can't microwave maturity. I have never heard that. That is profound, that is so good. Thank you for sharing that. And it begs the question with your heart?

Dustin Elliot: 55:08

Now for the Wontokian church and Paul, who wrote 40% of the New Testament. If you've ever or never, depending on who's listening and your level of maturity read the New Testament as a and thought of it as a church planter, like Jack, who went to a people group and planted a church and then was called to go to another people group and another people group, right, and that's the letters. So he's gone from one to another and then he's getting a report back. So imagine Jack in America and he's getting a letter from the Wontokians and it says oh man, these false prophets have come into the village and they're talking prosperity, gospel, or they're talking this or that, and they're infiltrating and they're, you know. So now Jack's, he can't just fly back.

Dustin Elliot: 55:51

You know, in Paul's day it wasn't that easy, right? So he writes a letter back and he's like, look, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna send Timothy, I'm gonna send Titus, I'm gonna send so and so and we're, I'm gonna try to help, but here's how you need a course correct, here's what you need to do, right, and if I can, I'm gonna travel back to you, right, that's where you're gonna get to, jack. I mean, lord willing, you're getting to a place where, right, amen, dude, where you're not there all the time, but you're checking in, you're encouraging. You may be going back to straighten some things out from time to time, right, but, like you said, wantakea is always part of your life and, bro, it's always part of your eternity.

Jack Crabtree: 56:27

That's true and it's, I mean, our idea about ministry, our philosophy of ministry. I mean we're trying to look at what did Paul do, at why. You look at Colossians 1, 20, 29,. He tells us very clearly why he's doing what he's doing. He says him we proclaim morning, everyone, to everyone, with all wisdom, why? So we represent everyone.

Jack Crabtree: 56:48

What Mature in Christ and he says for this I toil. What's he doing for it? To see people reach maturity in Christ, struggling with his power, that he works mightily within me, and so all saying in this letter to the church in Colossi I'm doing this so that people reach maturity. And then you fast forward and go. Well, does Paul get to see that in his lifetime? And yes, act 20,. He's on the beach of the Ephesian elders and he's like Spirit's telling me to go to Jerusalem. I know that this side of eternity I'm not gonna see you guys again, but I'm okay with that. I've taught you everything you need to know. Continue to guard the flock. Wolves are gonna come in, but he's like I spent three years to the United Day pouring my soul out to you and I know that you guys are good, and so that's what we want and want to keep us to be at that place, where it's like, man, even if I don't see you again, I know you guys are good.

Dustin Elliot: 57:39

Amen. So what's needed now? If I'm listening to the podcast I'm new I'm thinking about how I am engaged, how I'm not engaged, what I can do differently to be engaged, and if I'm getting my heart broken for this story, what can I do to help?

Jack Crabtree: 57:54

First and foremost, pray. I mean, we've seen the power of prayer in our lives and the lives of our believers so many times and we discount that so much in the West, I think, and it's almost just like this little religious thing. We just say, oh, yeah, yeah, pray, pray about this. No, it's so vital. The other thing is man. I look at organizations like Bless. They're focused on giving finances and there are lots of fundraising things. There are lots of things that throw money at different things, but they're focused on, okay, how can we get resources specifically to help further church planning among the unreached, in these hard to reach places where our goal is to see mature churches established where they are in existence right now? And so, if you want to give financially, giving to an organization like Bless is huge because you know that man, they're being wise with their resources. It's not just community development, that's great, but they're really looking at okay, how can we give it away to get Christ where he's?

Dustin Elliot: 58:59

never been named, thank you. Thank you for saying that. Blessworld is our website and you can see. If you go to the portfolio, you can see the Wantakea project in Among 22 Others that are going on right now, scattered all over Northern Africa, the Middle East Asia, papua New Guinea and working in different religions and different languages. What we want to try to do is we want to be really, really careful about how we allocate resources and how we steward resources. We want to get them to unreached people groups, because less than 1% of every dollar given in the Christian church goes to unreached people groups.

Dustin Elliot: 59:37

There's a dramatic misappropriation of resources if we're gonna finish the task remaining, and that's the purpose of this podcast. If nothing else, it's to let everyone know. Yes, you're called to help your local community, but you're bigger than that and you're part of a bigger story than that, and there's a calling on your life to be a part of what God's redeeming all over the world. Last thing, where do we find more information on you, on Ethnos and Wantakea projects specifically, if someone wants to look you all up?

Jack Crabtree: 1:00:04

Sure, yeah, on YouTube you can look at Reach Wantakea We've got tons of videos on there. Or you can get a visual for all these different things you've heard about today, actually. And then, yeah, you can go to ethnos360.org that's our sending agency. You can search for different missionaries on there. You can search for us, find us on there. Also, reachwantakeacom has a bunch of stories and videos. Yeah, so there's ways to follow along, see what.

Dustin Elliot: 1:00:32

God's doing Well. You pray for the listeners, pray for all of us, first in Wantakea and then translate for us in English.

Jack Crabtree: 1:00:42

Yeah, I'd love to. Then I'm on your gene. Come on, we'll be trying to check in your dog. Come on, we'll get one of my son's bed, probably. Come on, we got a way of moving, wagging your gene. Time is sunshine and they give us time to check out. Come on, they come on to your gene. Say that he's so you over. Come on, name a word that you're mugging up. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. They want me, yeah, they want you. They're nice to one another, negative to one another. So you're both good to one another, so be nice. So, yeah, that would be all.

Jack Crabtree: 1:01:26

My father. You're the one with all the power. You're the one who is the reason for all knowledge. You're the one who's everywhere all the time, right now, and when trials happen to us, you help us. So I'm saying thank you to you for that. We're weak and we weak people. We want to continue to depend on you and as we do that, please, please, continue to show us the work that you would have us do, and for the fact that you're going to show us that, I'm saying thank you to you.

Dustin Elliot: 1:01:59

Amen, mm man, ladies and gentlemen, Jack Crabtree with the Wantakea Tribe, Ethnos360, my friend. We love you, buddy, and prayers up for the rest of the work in the Wantakea. Thank you for listening to Unreached. Our sincere desire is that what you've heard today will cause you to see the mission of God differently and you're rolling it more clearly. If this adds value for you and we hope it does Would you please rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. Also, share with your family, your friends, your church, your life group, small group, D group, wherever you do life, and if you want to connect with us, find us on Instagram at unreachedpodcast, or email us at unreachedpodcastgmailcom.