UNREACHED
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.
UNREACHED
Avid Evangelists In The Jungle with Steve Sanford, CEO of Ethnos360
Steve Sanford, leader of Ethnos 360, shares his powerful journey of bringing the gospel to the previously uncontacted Joti tribe in South America, and how this isolated people group developed into a mature, evangelistic church community.
• Growing up as a pastor's son, Steve developed a passion for reaching remote tribes
• The Joti were one of the last uncontacted people groups in northern South America
• Despite being feared as "the ha-ha people" who would spear outsiders, the Joti were actually peaceful and likable
• The missionaries had to learn the Joti language without translation aids as they were completely monolingual
• Creating an alphabet and teaching literacy to the entire village became a gateway to Scripture
• The Joti had no word for love in their language, requiring creative translation solutions
• All 150 people in the village embraced the gospel after hearing the complete message
• New believers described Jesus as "like Noah's Ark" and "the stairway man" from their understanding of Old Testament stories
• The Joti developed into evangelists who taught literacy and Scripture to other Joti from surrounding areas
• After six years with the believing community, the missionaries were expelled by the government
• Today's estimate puts Joti believers at approximately 50% of their population
• Ethnos360 works in about 40 countries with strategies for both open and restricted access areas
If you feel called to missions, you don't need to have everything figured out. Start by connecting with your local church, getting Bible training, and reaching out to organizations like Ethnos360 that provide structure, training and experienced mentorship.
Follow @unreachedpodcast on Instagram for more!
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 for the men and women he has called to reach the unreached. Hello friends, welcome back to the Unreached Podcast. Dustin Elliott.
Speaker 1:Here today, your host and I have a very special guest. This is the man leading Ethnos 360, one of the missionary sending organizations that we have partnered with. Ethnos is the org that supports the Wantekea tribe. So episode one after we did the launch episode with Todd Arendt going way back to the beginning, was the crab trees and the Wantekea. You've also heard the Rimstads and the Malayali people group some of the absolute coolest stories that we've ever got to tell on the pod, and it is so. I'm so excited to have Steve here today.
Speaker 1:But before I get to Steve, I just want to comment real quick. So a couple weeks ago we did a special episode drop. We had Dr Todd Arend come to our church at Austin Ridge. He flew in from Arkansas. We had 180 people come to a lunch and it was a lunch on the mission of God.
Speaker 1:Now, if you've heard episode zero of the pod, you've heard kind of the short version of Todd give this talk. Now we have a little bit more of an enhanced version that he did in person here at the church but it was so moving. But now we are back to our regularly scheduled programming and we are going to feature three key partners there's Ethnos 360, there's Pioneers and there's GSI. And I'm going to do a summer series here where we're going to feature each one, the CEO, the leader of each of those organizations, and we're going to get that 30,000 foot view top down as well as the bottom up, because Steve Sanford, who's here today, has served in an unreached people group, has been in the field and is now leading an organization doing so. So please help me welcome Steve to the show.
Speaker 2:Dustin, thank you very much for having me. I am super excited about this. We've run into each other at Bless a number of times. We love Bless. We are so thankful for what they do partnering with us, so thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to this.
Speaker 1:So for context, for the listeners, let's just cut a little background on your story. So, as I mentioned, you have served in a UPG, you've been a missionary, you're now in leadership, so you've gone from kind of the star player on the field to the front office. So give us just a quick, kind of not too quick but kind of tell us your story. How did you know the Lord? How did you get involved in missions? Kind of bring us up to speed.
Speaker 2:So I was born and raised in central Pennsylvania. I was born and raised in central Pennsylvania. My father was a pastor in Chicago who was taken on a missions trip by the then president of New Tribes Mission, which that's what Ethnos 360 used to be called. For those that might not know, he was taken to South America. He saw things he did not know existed in the world whole languages that don't have any access to the gospel, and missionaries out there living in the jungle, literally risking their lives for these people, and it so impacted him. He came home, resigned his church, decided to go be a missionary, joined New Tribes Mission. They asked him if he would stay in the US and be a traveling recruiter. He was a very good communicator and we didn't have a lot of traveling. We didn't have really any traveling recruiters back then, except maybe the leader of the organization. So he did that his whole life and he visited every people group that the mission works with. It was over 200 at the time.
Speaker 2:So I grew up hearing these stories, seeing pictures of the jungle, and I was saved pretty early in life, led to the Lord by my parents, and then just hearing my dad's stories over the years, I was hooked. I knew that's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a missionary. I wanted to be a missionary in the jungle, I wanted to be somewhere where the gospel hadn't been. And I was particularly drawn to South America for some reason, probably because in the early days of our organization that's where the majority of the sort of really remote works were. So we ended up. I met my wife in Bible college. We ended up in Venezuela, south America, for the first year. We studied the Spanish language so that we could get around in the country, and the leaders of the field started to talk to us about where we might serve and there were a number of options where they needed another couple and the one that they ended up asking us to consider.
Speaker 2:They're called the Hoti, and if you look them up on the internet, that'd be spelled J-O-T-I it's the Spanish H you can find them. They were, if not the last, one of the very last uncontacted people groups, at least in northern South America. There's still quite a few in Brazil that are way out there and uncontacted, but the Hoti lived way up in the mountains of south central Venezuela, about an hour and a half in an airplane from any town, so it's like way out there. You couldn't really get out there without an airplane. You could, but you wouldn't want to put it that way.
Speaker 2:Right, the way they were discovered was our mission had a missionary team working with the neighboring people group. They were called the Piedoa. The Piedoa lived down on the big rivers, so everybody knew they existed because anybody traveling the big rivers you'd pass Piedoa villages. Piedoa hunters would go up into the mountains and they would encounter Hoti people and their languages. Though they were neighbors geographically, their languages were unrelated. They started telling their missionaries that hey, there's people up in those mountains that we don't know and we can't talk to them, and they nicknamed them get this. This was crazy to think about. They nicknamed the Hoti the ha-ha people, and the reason they said we call them the ha-ha people is the sound of their laughter, is the last thing you will hear as they drive their spear through you. They're killers.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, so that was the rumor. That's what came out of the jungle. Wow, the leader of our mission down there at the time. His perspective was wow, if there's an uncontacted people group up in those mountains, that's where we're going next. They just got moved right up to the top of the list because clearly they've had no access to the gospel if nobody even knows they're up there. The government of Venezuela didn't even have them on a list of people groups. They were so hidden they took a team up in there. Have them on a list of people groups. They were so hidden they took a team up in there. It was some missionaries and some Piroa tribal believers and they found them and it turned out that the Hoti were not at all violent. That was a complete made-up. Just that was a jungle rumor. You know those are pretty common. The Hoti are probably the most nonviolent people group you could find on the earth.
Speaker 2:They didn't even have storiescloths, I mean they were, they were kind of what I grew up dreaming about, like they were the quintessential jungle dwelling south american people group, but they turned out to be the most likable people I have ever been around. Oh, that's awesome and that. That may sound like you know the missionary talking about the people he lived with and exaggerating, but I'm just telling you. I like to tell people, if you got to know them, the Hoti, and you didn't like them, you're the problem. They're not the problem. You're the problem their curiosity about this book that we had come there. They were not readers. They didn't have, you know, an alphabet in their language. They didn't know what reading was. But over time, as we learned their language I say we, it was a team, it wasn't just my wife and I. In fact, we joined a team that was already there and had a co-worker who was also named Steve. He was the first outsider to ever learn the language. They were monolingual, so you couldn't ask them any questions in Spanish or English.
Speaker 1:Oh, so they didn't know the trade language or anything either, right, they didn't even know they lived in a country that speaks Spanish. Wow.
Speaker 2:So none of them spoke any Spanish. But my co-worker was extremely gifted in language. He grew up as a missionary kid in Indonesia and learned. By the time he got to the Hoti he had learned five languages fluently, so he was the perfect guy to crack the language. I would have never cracked it in 10 lifetimes I'm not ashamed to admit that but with my coworker's help I was able to learn it quite fluently.
Speaker 2:As we've learned the language, we developed an alphabet for them. We taught them how to read. They really wanted to know how to read. I mean, they saw the effects of reading. You could send a note back to your wife way out in the jungle and tell her you're hungry and she makes a sandwich for you and sends it back. And you know, you can predict that that's exactly what's going to happen. If you take this note to my wife, she's going to make a sandwich and give it to you to bring back to me, and those kind of things just really created a curiosity about reading, really created a curiosity about reading.
Speaker 2:So the whole village it was a village of about 150 people at the time, a people group of about 2,500, the best we can guess throughout the jungle but in that village about 150. They all wanted to learn how to read. So we picked the 10 best teachers, taught them how to read, took about three months to go through the course. They all became readers. And then we said you guys, you guys are gonna have to teach everybody else. There's only two, two or three of us. We can't, you know, teach everybody. So they took that on and they started teaching everybody else. So the whole village became literate within the space of I don't know a year, maybe, maybe two years at the most. And then, by the time we had translated enough scripture to start teaching, everybody could read. So we could get up front and say okay, you guys, this isn't our message, this isn't our opinion. We're going to read to you from the book that the Creator authored Everything in. It is true, it has the answers to every question you've ever wondered about. You know, where did the Hoti come from, and why are we here? And why do our kids get sick and why do they die? What happens when they die? All those questions you've always wondered. This book has the answer, and they were. So, again, it's going to sound like I'm exaggerating. Please, you're going to have to trust me, I'm not. It's almost impossible to overstate how much they wanted to hear what this book says. So they told us. One day they came to us they said hey, you guys, before you start teaching, we want three months notice because we want time to build one roof that's big enough for everybody to fit under it in the whole valley, because it rains a lot here and when it rains we don't want you to stop telling us what this book says. So, sure enough, they did that. And then, you know, everybody came about. 150 people came every day. We started.
Speaker 2:You know, in the beginning God, they didn't even have a word for God in their language. They didn't have a concept of beginning God. They didn't even have a word for God in their language. They didn't have a concept of a creator God. They knew a lot about the spirit realm. They interacted with the spirit realm very actively, believed they could manipulate it and control it, but a creator. So we had to come up with a term for God. The word for God in Houthi is mukeddeha, that's how you say God, and the term literally means best way. I guess I could say it in English would be the one who exceeds all others, the supreme one. That would be another good way you could translate it. So it's the first time they've heard his name and we introduced him. And then we just started teaching through Genesis and on through the scriptures, laying the foundations of who God is, what he's like, who man is. And I got to take a breath here and stop talking. I got to let you guys talk a little bit.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. Nobody wants to hear me talk. Nobody wants to hear me talk. I will say this, though this is a playbook, I'm listening to you tell this story, and we've heard the Crabtrees tell this story, and we've heard the Remstads tell this story, and those that are serving under your tutelage and leadership now, and it's just a process that's been built and refined over time. You find these groups. They don't have a written language. You create, you learn their language. You create their language. You teach them to read and write their language. Just hearing you tell this story, I just I'm just like this is a playbook.
Speaker 2:One day I just went through the first chapter of Romans and I started writing down the words in the first chapter of Romans that did not exist in the Hothi language. Not because their language was inferior, trust me, it was not. They have 50 words for our one English word it Whoa. So if you want to say what is it in their language, which is like the first question you want to be able to ask, you have to know which category of the roughly 55 pronouns that that object you're pointing at fits into, or you can't correctly ask the question. Whoa, it's not random, it's all precise. It has to do with shape or texture or color perhaps. So it's a very complex language, but they didn't have words for love, peace, justification, sanctity, obviously a lot of those theological words they didn't have, but even ones they did not have a word for love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you hear that a lot of those theological words they didn't have, but even ones.
Speaker 2:They did not have a word for love. Yeah, you hear that a lot. They did not say I love you. So here's, here's. This is how we stumbled on the word for love.
Speaker 2:They had a word in their language that that we would translate into english lust, because it's the only way they used the word Got it. They only used it in a negative context of a person wanting something that's not theirs. But the literal meaning of the word just means to look upon with a strong desire, for that's really what it literally means. So one day we asked him. We said, well, could God weh-yow somebody that's the word god weh yow somebody, that's the word weh yow could god do that? And if so, what would that mean? They said, oh sure god could do it. Uh, and and would it be a good thing or a bad thing? Well, they said well, god only does good. So if god weh yow somebody, that that's good. He just, he just wants them for himself himself. He has a strong desire for them for himself.
Speaker 2:And so we discovered that word can actually be used for love. Quite well, it just was never used that way in their language. I don't take credit for that. That was my much smarter coworker that figured all that out and he was so good at predicting how the Hoti would say a new concept like justification, or a lot of them that are way more basic than that, and that's how the translation went forward. You know he would figure out how they would say it. Try it out with a few people. If it works, that's your new term and on you go.
Speaker 1:So for the listeners, if you do Google the people group, like he says, the first thing that pops up, of course, is the Joshua Project. And if you don't know about the Joshua Project, that's basically a database of all the people groups on Earth, their current population, the current predominant religion, the progress of reaching them and just a little bit about them. And according to Joshua Project, the Hoti are now 30% Christian. Does that sound about right, steve?
Speaker 2:Actually it doesn't, because I would put the number quite a bit higher than that today. And here's why, when we lived with them, we shared the gospel with that group of 150. And here's why, when we lived with them, we shared the gospel with that group of 150. That group embraced the gospel. At that time we had about 150 believers. Pretty much the whole village embraced it. When we finally got through the death, burial and resurrection, we decided you know, let's let them all go home, think about what they heard, and we'll just go around and have conversations with everybody. We didn't want to ask for like a collective who believes, raise your hand type thing Not that that would have been wrong. We just decided let's just have individual conversations. We did that and through that it became clear that the gospel was very clearly understood. They had collectively embraced it. There was about 150 believers at that time. So when we were going around house to house we'd say so.
Speaker 2:So Ralph, you know that was one of my closest neighbors, ralph. His Houthi name is Uli ala Balat, but Ralph is easier, so we'll call him Ralph. Ralph is the most likable human being, truly, I think I've ever known in my life. He was about 55 maybe when he heard the gospel, so we'd go into his house, or the other guy you'd say so just tell me what you think about what you heard. On Friday, or whatever day that was, we shared the gospel finally, which took about a year, by the way, from Genesis to the gospel, to get through everything they needed to understand and to the testimonies that I really remember. One guy said I'll tell you what I think. I think Jesus is just like Noah's Ark, and he said I'm getting in the boat.
Speaker 2:Okay, so here's a guy who's trying to communicate his faith in Christ, but he doesn't have a formulaic way to say it that he knows we're hoping to hear. So he goes back to an Old Testament story that he knows was a picture of the coming redeemer, because as we taught it we, we included that component. Look, if you wanted to be safe from the wrath of god that was to come, you had to be sealed up inside that ark and god shut the door. And once you're shut up inside there, you're safe, and that's what that coming redeemer is going to be like for us. We're going to have to, we're going to have to get inside Him somehow if we want to be safe, you know. And of course, then you build on all these concepts and you have the sacrificial system and the shed blood of the innocent lamb that's over and over and over through the Old Testament, by the time you get to the cross.
Speaker 2:The Hoti were so well prepared for that, not because of the missionaries, but because of the way God's word lays out the story. They were so well prepared for that that it all just came together and it fit like a puzzle. So this guy is trying to communicate his faith and he says Noah's ark, that's Jesus and I'm getting inside the boat. I thought that is a really cool way to say it. And I remember another guy saying he hearkened back to Jacob's ladder that story and he said I think Jesus is the stairway man. That's what he called him. He's the stairway man and I'm getting back to God by the stairway man, which, again, that was another picture of Jesus in the Old Testament. Jesus even said you know, to Nathaniel I think it was you'll see the angels of heaven ascending and descending on the son of man, and all the Hoti heard that and they're like well, that's Jacob's ladder, you know.
Speaker 2:What was really exciting, I think, as I look back on the time with them, we had six more years after they became believers. We had six years with them as missionaries before we were expelled by the government. And we were expelled for reasons that you know. It was believed that we were working for the US government and that kind of thing. It wasn't a religious necessarily reason, it was more of a political reason. But in that six years those were my favorite. Those were my favorite years with the Hoti because even though they embraced the gospel collectively and they were so trusting and their faith was so pure and like childlike faith, it was so fun to see. But then watching faith it was so fun to see. But then watching God's Spirit who is now living in them start to work and live out through these brand new believers and you start seeing them doing spiritual work.
Speaker 2:And there was a period again I sound like I'm exaggerating but I'm not there was a period of like three years in their early development as a church where as missionaries you really couldn't even keep up with sort of following what god was doing through their group. It was happening in so many different realms with so many different people and you, you'd just be hearing. You know, did you hear what so-and-so is doing? No, what's he doing, you know, and you find out he's doing some Holy Spirit-led, inspired work. And you hear another one the next day, and you hear another one the next day. And I remember thinking in those days you know, if we had 50 missionaries here trying to manipulate this, we could not manipulate this kind of activity. This is before our very eyes, god's Spirit doing spiritual work through the lives of people who didn't even know the gospel five months ago. You know that started a period of growth where they were growing well as a church.
Speaker 2:But the hardest part for them, as I look back, was the notion of taking the gospel outward to others. And it wasn't because they didn't think that was the right thing to do, it was because they were afraid to do that. They just didn't believe they could do it. But over a few years through there were some circumstances. God used some incredible stories really of what God used to get them over that fear. And once they got over that fear they became avid evangelists.
Speaker 2:And the way it would work back then Hoti people out in the surrounding jungle. They were still very, you know, untouched by the outside world out there, and they would come into the valley at times, you know, in part, I think, because they had heard this God talk that's going on here like what is this? So whenever a new family would come into the valley, one of the Hutki believers would kind of put their hand up and say I'll take them, they're my responsibility, and they would invite them into their home. They'd teach them literacy first so they could read, so that then they could teach them through the scriptures, just like they were taught. And so there was these little in-house evangelistic outreaches going on, and then that developed into taking the gospel out to further and further little villages and ultimately to the other really big village in their world, which was a 10-day hike to the north. There was a lot of resistance up there to the gospel for a number of years. In fact it wasn't until well after we were gone that they finally got access up there.
Speaker 2:And we've been able to follow this through bits and pieces. We get you know of information from the jungle pieces. We get you know of information from the jungle and okay. So the best I can calculate and this is take this with a grain of salt, because we don't live there, but with the information we're getting from the jungle, I would estimate that there has to be well over a thousand believers in that language group today and we don't know the total population believers in that language group today and we don't know the total population. So they say 30% and I'm not saying their information is inaccurate, it's just probably we haven't updated it, you know, recently. So I would long answer. I would put it up more like 50%, maybe, maybe more. It's hard to say because I really do believe that they have taken the gospel to every corner of their language group.
Speaker 1:You just went through kind of like the habits of a global Christian and this tribe is living them out like so obediently, so well, like I got them, I'm going to welcome them into my home, I'm going to teach them the language. I'm going to teach them the scriptures. Do we do that in Texas? Do to teach them the scriptures. Do we do that in Texas? Do we do that in Florida? Do we do that in Western Christianity? I mean, how often do we open our home? I mean we have people from all sorts of people, groups around the world coming over here to go to college and work, and how often are we doing that? And I just think of how obedient they're being. And man, it's very inspirational right to kind of check all of our hearts or stomachs, depending on which tribe you're in, and go like am I living that out? Could I be doing more Right?
Speaker 2:Yes, and honestly, I saw a lot of that living with them. It wasn't just their sort of their evangelism heart sort of their evangelism heart but, for example, I heard my whole life growing up. You know God's Word is our food If we want to grow and mature in the Lord. We got to be studying His Word and it was in living with the Houthi young church that I realized I've heard that but I don't believe it because I don't do what they're doing. There was that whole period of six years we had before we had to leave. Okay, they were getting more and more scripture. My coworker, steve, was translating for them. They were getting more and more scripture.
Speaker 2:But those people, when they were not out and about, you know, working in their garden or fishing or hunting, when they were back in the hut the scriptures came out and they'd be laying in their hut. You know, and it might just be, you know, they just got chapter two of Acts or something and it's one page but they're reading it. It and what I found kind of funny as I was in that phase with them walking around the village, you know, you'd walk by a guy's house and you could hear through the door man, he's reading. He's in, he's in Matthew. I can tell where he's at, you know, and you walk down the trail. Another guy, oh, he's in Acts.
Speaker 2:At that stage in their development they never read silently, they always read out loud and their reading voice was louder than their talking voice. I think we forgot when we were teaching literacy. We forgot to tell them that you know, you can read silently, because it took a number of years to kind of get to that. But they're, they're just hunger for the word. And here's what launched it all, I believe, their hunger for the word. When they first became believers, we, we talked to them about how does a believer grow? The Bible says you're all babes in Christ. Do you guys want to stay babes forever? Do you want to grow up and be adult sons and daughters?
Speaker 1:in a family Eat some steak.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you want to have some real food. Well, we didn't get to the food yet. We're just talking about. You want to be adults? And yes, of course we do. And so we talked about you know how does a Hoti baby grow up to be a healthy adult? He's got to eat the right food. And we said what food does a Christian eat to grow up to be an adult? And honestly, because you and I have heard that illustration our whole life, we immediately know what he's going after.
Speaker 2:They had no idea and I think you know their their wheels were turning and I I think they were trying to figure out what food we fly in on that airplane that they haven't had before. You know, that makes you crop spiritual and and you get to introduce that concept of you guys have a bunch of god's word in your language, that's our food, and they believed that to the extent that they fed on it every day and that, coupled with another key component, I think, in their early understanding as believers, we were able to introduce them to the concept of the walk of faith and they didn't have a bunch of Christian baggage that we had to weed out, a bunch of works Christianity. They just wanted to know how does a believer live in a way that pleases God? And we got to introduce the concept of faith. It's taught very clearly in the New Testament. It's taught very clearly in the Old Testament.
Speaker 2:We said you guys, if you will live by faith and you will trust God, his Spirit lives in you. If you'll trust Him to live His life out through you and lead you and guide you, he will do amazing things through you. And if you'll feed on His Word, you'll grow up, you'll think more like Him, you'll become more of His co-worker. And they took those two truths and it launched them on this trajectory of growth. That was just amazing to watch. And again we've been. You know, we we only had six more years with them, so I can't say for sure how that's still going, but the, the pieces of information we get from them and pictures we even get show guys still got their scriptures out in front of them all the time.
Speaker 1:Maybe there'll be a reunion one day, we know there will be in heaven.
Speaker 1:That's right, but maybe still on this side of the grave. I want to hit on something, though. You said we didn't tell them they could read silently, so they read aloud. And that takes me to Revelation 1. I'm going to read the beginning of Revelation 1 for everybody real quick here.
Speaker 1:This is a revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant, john, who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. And then it says God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.
Speaker 1:You know we do read the Bible silently in our quiet time, I think for the majority of our lives. And you know, brittany and I are blessed now with three children, and now we're reading the Bible aloud in our home to our kids. And I think there's something different in that, there's something very powerful in that, obviously, teaching the Bible and reading it aloud in a small group D group we do that as well, but you know what I mean. It might actually be a bit of a blessing that they didn't know about reading silently and they were always reading aloud, because they were all hearing each other read aloud and therefore they were wanting to also be reading aloud.
Speaker 2:And I kind of think when you read aloud you're forced to pay more attention to what you're actually reading. You know how it is when you read silently, my mind can wander off and I'm three paragraphs farther and I don't even remember what they said, absolutely. But when you're reading out loud and you're reading kind of louder than you talk, it's kind of hard to let your mind drift and, yeah, you might be onto something that there's some value to that.
Speaker 1:That's good. Okay, let's pivot. That's wow. Thank you for that part of the conversation, but let's talk about Ethnos360, the organization. What are your teams looking like today? Where are we working? Just give us kind of an overview and an update for the listeners. So obviously, some of the folks that are with you are going to hear this, and folks that are with other orgs are going to hear this, and folks that aren't engaged yet at all. So how does it work?
Speaker 2:We've been around for 85 or so years as an organization and it started in the early days in the 40s and 50s, more in South America, more with the jungle dwelling types of people groups that we've been talking about, that I got to live with, but from there it's spread. Ethos 360 is a partner in a group of organizations that we call global partners, internally sort of, and it's about 28 different countries that make up this partnership who, just like here in the US, they mobilize missionaries, train missionaries. Training is a big core value for us, like we just really, because of how difficult we know it is and the challenges that we know they're going to face, we really want to train the missionary well. So every sending country has a training program. We all kind of follow the same model of training because we're training for how do you do a literacy program? How do you learn an unwritten language? How do you translate the scriptures? All those things are relevant across the board. So out of that collective group of countries the US, you know we've been sending them out the longest, so the majority of the sent out missionaries are coming from the US, but there's other countries that are really sending out a lot of missionaries now, and out of that group of sending countries, we're in, I think, a total of about 40 different countries in the world where we have church planting going on Okay, countries in the world where we have church planting going on. So, central and South America, west Africa, south Southern Africa, trying to get up into some of the more closed areas of the world too as well, where we have a lot of missionaries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Speaker 2:We're trying to get it into areas in Asia too that have been closed to the gospel. That's probably in the last 20 years or so has become more of a focus for us, because we realize there are still, as you guys know, lots and lots of unreached people groups that are in open parts of the world where you can go in as a messenger of the gospel and even say that's what you are like, where we lived. But the majority of the unreached people groups in the world live in places where you can't do that, and so we've really been working hard to develop strategies that will allow us to have access to those unreached people groups but still not have to set aside our core methodology and values, which are we are going to build relationships, we're going to learn language at a very high proficiency level If they don't have the scriptures in the language. We're going to put the scriptures in the language and we're going to teach foundationally and see a mature, thriving church before we leave. So it's you know.
Speaker 2:We don't want to shortcut that process just because we have to use creative ways to get in there, but those are some of the challenges. You know, how do you do all that, what we just talked about? For us that was easy in that sense we could just go in, learn language and teach the Bible and everybody came and it was great. But we know that's not the case in most places in the world.
Speaker 1:It's just so easy. Let's just go in and learn a language and then create an alphabet and teach them to read and write and then translate the Scriptures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's easy, Okay all right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I know what you mean. It's easier when you can do it openly, without trying to— Easier, absolutely. But we're not only called to do what's easy, and so you're trying to find the right methods to get where it's harder to get to.
Speaker 1:I would argue that that method is very clear and it's right in front of us and it's that the gospel is going to travel into those places on the wings of business. And it's Christ followers who run companies and businesses that can open offices and branches and research centers and farming and things like that in those parts of the world who are very welcome by the government because they're bringing commerce and they're bringing sustainability to the people. And then we know a lot of businesses that are doing this well and they're not even having to hide their faith or who they are, because they're bringing a good that the government can recognize, not just a good that the government doesn't understand.
Speaker 2:Yes, Fair, A good or a service. I think we're finding both of those Like. There are service opportunities that the governments will welcome that may even provide an access that you know if you're a businessman, obviously you have that skill set and that's going to be a natural in for you. But there are other folks that might be able to provide a service that is also very welcome in the community but gives them the same access. So, yeah, I think all of those are kind of the areas that we're trying to become more proficient at as we see those opportunities in front of us.
Speaker 1:So if someone's hearing this and they want to get involved, so let's just say that maybe they've been mobilized in college or at some point in their life. And, by the way, you don't have to be in your 20s to get excited about this. This can be something you do later in life, at any stage of life.
Speaker 1:We don't really know when we might be called to be a goer.
Speaker 1:We do know for an absolute fact that there's a role to play for everyone who knows and loves Jesus, and it could be funding, it could be sending, it could be praying, it could be welcoming, it could be any number of components.
Speaker 1:But if you feel like you are being called to be a goer or you have a company that you feel like could be useful in certain parts of the world and you want to partner with a trusted organization that's going to really handle the word well and really honor the people group and learn their language and learn their culture and be a value add to them, and not just come in here like, hey, we have all the answers and we know how to do all this, so listen to us. But come in here and say who are you and what are you about and what can we learn from you? You can partner with Steve and Ethnos. How would they go about that? Like, talk to their local church. Hopefully their local church has somebody in missions, missions is hopefully going to be able to help them pray through and process this, but they could also engage more directly, I would assume.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's probably going to depend a lot on the stage of life that the person is at. The first thing we would say is what you just said about being very engaged in a local church, like. One of the requirements we would have as a sending agency is there has to be a sending church involved, a leadership of that church that knows you, is behind you. Sending you out will be the avenue through which you can go, but they're your real senders, you might say so. Establish the local church connection. Again, for the vast majority of the people that go out with us, they're at a stage of life where they're going to need some Bible training. We don't really want to send church planters out that don't know their scriptures very well. So that can be acquired through other really good Bible schools, bible colleges. We have one of our own. They could come get their Bible training there and then again, before we send anybody out, we take them through a pretty thorough training program that, after the Bible is taken care of the Bible component, bible is taken care of the Bible component. Then we have a training school in Missouri that each of our missionary candidates would go through and we get in through all the nuts and bolts of some of the stuff we just talked about, so our organization might be a little different than some that you might be familiar with. In that, again, this would be a value of ours.
Speaker 2:We want to send messengers of the gospel into context where we feel like there's a structure in place that will give them the best chance of being able to stay there long-term and succeed in a church plant, and to us that means there needs to be a presence there. And this isn't always true, because when you open a new area, obviously it's a new area, but for the most part, we want to see some established veteran leadership in the area that's going to help this new missionary stay on the right track, not get, you know, carried off into different tangents. Track, not get, you know, carried off into different tangents. So, all that to say, we would say, okay, here's these regions of the world where we have consultants available to help you. We have experienced missionaries available to help coach you when you need it. Consider these areas with your skill set and what God's leading you to do, and decide where you want to go which one of those do you want to engage in?
Speaker 1:So you don't have to do it all yourself, you don't have to know everything.
Speaker 1:You really just need a heart for missions, a heart to be a part of something bigger than yourself, a heart to be obedient to God's call and to know that there's going to be a member of every tribe, tongue and language in heaven and you could play a part in reaching one of those groups. And so then you sign up, you're going to be trained, you're going to have a community around you, you're going to have a team around you, you're going to have people more experienced than you and, having done this as long as I have, I cannot overstate how critical it is to have those people. Get a team, get well-trained right. Get your tribe and then find your tribe and then go to your tribe and do it together, right, steve?
Speaker 2:That's right and that was very well put. And so since coming back from the field, I've been involved in mobilizing for quite a few years before I came to to our headquarters here. And one thing I always want to tell young people is kind of exactly what you were saying. You don't have to have it all figured out, you don't have to know how to do what you're going to do to do. If you're willing to trust God and say, hey, I want to be involved in reaching the unreached peoples of the world, just like you told us to do, lord, I'll go, that's it. Then take your first step. Go get some Bible training and you're going to have a couple years in that training for the Lord to continue to teach you and grow you. And then, if you're still feeling like he's directing you to the mission field, then get the training you're going to need.
Speaker 2:What I love about how Ethnos 360 does it and I hope that doesn't sound like I don't like how others do it, because that isn't how I mean it, but having done it in this context, what I love about it is pretty much every step of the way there are more experienced missionary church planters who are there to help and guide me. I look back on you know our time with Ahoti and I just am certain that if we hadn't had that kind of guidance and mentorship and leadership from those veterans, there's no way there's just no way it would have worked. So the young person I find that's their biggest fear often is it sounds really cool. I would love to do it, but I have no idea what that would look like. You don't have to.
Speaker 2:None of us did. I have no idea what that would look like. You don't have to. None of us did. None of us did Just start. It's a very well-defined, well-thought-out process to equip you, to send you out with what you need and to be there alongside you the whole time. You're doing this so that you don't get out there and find out well, I don't know what I'm doing and it's way more structured than most people think. It's not nearly as nebulous and it's not nearly as scary I want to end on some encouragement for you.
Speaker 1:So you started out today by talking about your dad, and your dad was a pastor in vocational ministry and then got mobilized right.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1:A little while back I got reached out to by a pastor out of California that heard the podcast and him and his wife flew to Austin and they met with us and we started to talk with them and pray with them and then introduce them to Todd Arendt. And Todd flew out to California to their church and did a three-day conference mission weekend with their church conference mission weekend with their church. And more recently, a couple months ago, pastor Matt Whiteford out of Modesto called me and said my wife and I have let our church know that we're going to the field and we're working through how to change some leadership structure with our church and get a new lead pastor to teach on Sundays and we're going to the unreached our church and get a new lead pastor to teach on Sundays. And we're going to the unreached and our church is supporting it. We're going to come back when we can and we're going to get behind the pulpit and we're going to take our church through the stories of what we're going to go through and walk through this with them, with our local church. And that happened not only because of, but partially because of guests on this podcast sharing their stories. And so when you have shared what you've shared.
Speaker 1:Today. I'm going to pray, like the Psalms, that there is going to be a result of this. God will answer this prayerfully. There will be mobilization from it.
Speaker 1:Ethnos 360, we may have a guest on in a couple of years that heard this episode, or even a few months, and said I reached out and we were this close to going and, by the way, that's just one of many stories that this has happened in but we were this close to going and then we heard it and we were like, okay, good, I'm going to get a team, I'm going to get the support I need. I want to do something radical and super cool with my life. I want to be totally obedient to the Great Commission and Jesus's last call for what was my role in this? And I think it's without a question. It's going to happen, and so I want to thank God today for that answer already, because we know that that prayer will be answered. And in that spirit of prayer conversational prayer we'd love to invite you, steve. If you have any last thoughts, please share those. And also, would you pray for our listeners, steve, if you have any last thoughts.
Speaker 2:please share those. And also, would you pray for our listeners? I would love to do that and again, I just want to say thanks for having me on, because I know that what you just said is true. Your podcast is going to reach a lot of ears that may not have any other opportunity to hear about the concept of unreached people, groups and taking the gospel to them, because there still are so many in our own country that don't know that such a thing exists today. So thanks for doing what you're doing for the cause because, honestly, this is the beginning of the whole process. It's people hearing about this for the first time, or maybe the 50th time, and God uses it to move them a little farther along or to kind of make a huge change, like you just said. So I really appreciate what you guys are doing and appreciate being part of this. I'll close this in prayer. If you guys don't mind, I think I'll pray initially in the Hoti language and then we'll switch over to English.
Speaker 1:Oh, we'd love that. We'd love for everybody to hear a prayer in a language they've never heard.
Speaker 2:Let's pray to the one true God that, in see it, I am not the only one.
Speaker 3:I am not the only one. I am not the only one. I am not the only one. I am not the only one. I am not the only one.
Speaker 2:Father, thank you for who you are, for the privilege it is to know you, to have your word in our language, to be able to understand what you've revealed about yourself to us. Our thoughts are on those languages in the world that do not have that privilege, who could not open your word, do not know your name, maybe still don't even have a word for you in their language. We lift them up to you and I pray, especially for everyone who is going to hear this conversation. I pray that you would work in their heart, in their life, and guide them into whatever way you would want them to be involved.
Speaker 2:Father, we know that nothing of any value happens unless you do it and that you respond to the prayers of your people, and that's really what moves you to do good things in the hearts of people.
Speaker 2:And so I pray that you would raise up prayer warriors, and I pray that you would raise up givers who would say and I pray that you would raise up givers who would say I want to give part of my life to make it possible for other messengers of the gospel to go, and that they would provide help to provide the funds that are needed, get involved and follow you to some part of the world where there is a people group that doesn't know you yet and that you would use them, along with others that you bring along into that same people group to see the gospel clearly communicated, understood and a church born. And Father, our prayer is that in every people group that you created on this earth, there would be a thriving, functioning, maturing, local church from which the gospel could spread. That's our prayer. That's what we all are about, what we want to give our lives for. We're just so thankful that you give us the privilege to be part of that. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. 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 your role in 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. Thank you.
