It’s been two years since the International Mission Board re-emphasized finding and researching unengaged and unreached people groups around the world. Project 3000 was born out of Southern Baptists’ commitment to ensure every people group has access to the gospel.
Project 3000 missionaries spend two years finding and researching the last 3,072 unengaged and unreached people groups with the gospel. They hike, ride every mode of transport possible to find these peoples in cities, towns and remote rural areas. (IMB photo)
Together, we send missionaries to explore the last 3,072 unengaged people groups who are thought to have no gospel access or missionary presence. We committed no less than five years for these missionary explorers to work in conjunction with your IMB missionary teams and their partners. They go to cities, towns and remote locations to learn culture, discern literacy and help develop a ministry strategy.
At this halfway point of Project 3000, you can be assured that on any given day or hour, a missionary explorer team is working to make the gospel accessible to everyone.
Reports about God at work come in almost every day from these teams. Look at these recent ones:
No one knows
The kind of lostness that we see when we go out to these people groups is heartbreaking because nobody even knows that they are lost.
— Gus McLean – Asia-Pacific Rim
She’s reading the Bible!
I could hear my neighbors next door performing their religious rituals as they chanted in unrecognizable words. I went to the window and saw them standing beside an altar of idols, cutting a live chicken and sprinkling blood all around. It made me sad, so I went down to spend time with the family who agreed to host us as we searched for unengaged people groups up and down this river area.
I stopped dead in my tracks. Our host was studying her Bible. This is something we’ve never seen since arriving here. My partner and I started discipling her two weeks ago. God has been at work. For weeks, we’ve watched religious rituals that have no power to change sinful nature. My heart swelled with thankfulness for God’s goodness in the way He washes us from our sins and loves us with an everlasting love. Indeed, our God changes hearts and transforms lives.
— Gabriela Garcia – Americas
10 leaders trained
Praise the Lord for your answered prayers as many in this unengaged people group have accepted the call to follow Jesus. We also celebrate the 10 leaders rising to serve in fulfilling the Great Commission in their community. We spent three days training and equipping these leaders with the tools to share the gospel, their testimonies and studying the Bible with their friends and family.
We invited them to a local church service where we taught the gospel. Afterward, the church was so inspired that they prayed over this unengaged people group and commissioned them to return to their community and begin the process of translating the Bible into their own language with the help of another organization.
— D.G. Anthony, South Asia
Missionary explorers often live on the go as they explore different areas for unreached people groups. This Project 3000 team uses a day to wash laundry and hang it to dry in a room at a guesthouse. (IMB photo)
Found a new UUPG
We just left the home of an unengaged, unreached people group not on our list. They are not listed because nobody has found or interacted with them in a very long time. It took five hours on an abandoned dirt road to get there on our motorcycles. They worship demons and wear jewelry that shows the demons.
As we talked to them, the parents randomly brought up their 9-year-old daughter who had not walked for the last three years. This proved to be an opening to share the gospel with the family, and they also allowed us to pray in Jesus’ name afterward. As we prayed, the father began crying, “Jesus, please heal her!”
Please pray for the seeds of the gospel to take root with this family. They could very well be the ones to lead this people to Christ in the only village known of this unengaged people.
Sometimes a little-known path leads to amazing stories. This path led missionary explorers to discover a small church among the unengaged people group they were researching. They spent time training and encouraging the people to share the gospel with their neighbors. (IMB photo)
— John Pratt and Jacob Sims, Asia-Pacific Rim
God’s Word is not void
I’ve always heard the remark that it may take multiple times for someone to hear the gospel before they accept it. Before now, we’ve never been in a situation where people have literally never heard the gospel or knew about Jesus. It was interesting to see those who have heard of Jesus at least once—whether from a relative or while away at school in the bigger city—are typically more interested in having a gospel conversation.
This realization encouraged us to keep sharing the gospel with those who have never heard and appear not interested. We shared with 45 people over the course of this trip. We pray the teams that come behind us for follow up will see that God’s Word never returns void and has continued to grow in this area.
— Stephen and Lily Ferrell, South Asia
Southern Baptists have sent more than 39 missionary explorers to spend two years researching in all regions of the world. There are 65 more in the missionary pipeline who will be trained to join them. The information they gather is vital to local teams in not only understanding how to share the gospel but in coming up with a long-term ministry strategy.
Learn more about Project 3000 and how you can be a part of it through going or enabling the work through prayer and support.
— Sue Sprenkle writes for the IMB. *Names changed for security.