Latest / The Ethnos360 Podcast / The Missions Conversation That Changed My Life
Transcript
- Ethnos360: I grew up in a Christian home and didn't know about missions. What is the biblical definition of success? Because for Americans, we're thinking fast, numbers. How will the unreached people groups hear who God is without someone going? And how will they go unless someone sends that person? It's so awesome to see you at the home office. How long have you been there? Home office almost four years. So how did you hear about EBI and join and and get to head headquarters? Let me see if I can do that in a short short little bit, 'cause that's you're talking a life story there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓ basically I grew up in a Christian home and didn't know about missions until I got into college. And so I grew grew up in a great Christian home and had all these mentors. I could name probably five people off the top of my head who just mentored me, faithful to me, faithful to the Lord and just willing to guide me and and just do coffees and talk about life. So that's how I got to know the Lord and made my faith my own, just realizing, wow, these guys are solid and they've been doing this a long time and yeah, I'm I'm ready to ready to do this too. So then I was serving in my church. I was getting a worship arts degree at Oarr Roberts University, my freshman year there. And I was serving at my local church there in Oklahoma and these missionaries from New Tries Mission came and they were doing church planning in Papua New Guinea. I'm running the slides for the youth group in the back, just helping the middle schoolers and and the pastor there. And I'm just reading these slides, like unreached people groups. And I'm just shocked. I'm like, I grew up in the church. I've interned in all these different church programs. I'm at a college campus that's a Christian college campus, but we don't I don't ever hear about unreached people groups until that day. And so I just felt like this These guys, these missionaries weren't talking to the middle schoolers. They were talking to me. I'm just in the back, like, wow, this is what I'm supposed to do. That's a life worth living for. So I went up to them after the talk. I was like, hey, I never heard about unreached people groups. I thought everyone had the Bible in their language. They're like, No, man, there's still like three thousand or more people groups that don't have God's word in their language. And so that night I went back to my college dorm. I talked with my pastor over the phone, another pastor and another mentor. I just told each of them individually, hey, I'm gonna be a missionary now, getting a one way ticket to Haiti. And they were like, dude, I love the passion, but slow down. You gotta slow down, you gotta get trained. I'll okay, I'll talk to the next guy. So it was just a light bulb moment for me, right? And so I called my girlfriend at that time, who's my wife now, and I said, Hey Karen, I'm thinking about doing this mission thing. This was all like within twenty four hours. And she's like, no way. I just met this missionary with new transmission at the time, Ethno 360. And he's talking about unreached people groups. And I'm thinking about doing the same thing. And so here we are, two totally different cities, hearing about unreached people groups. And that's not a coincidence. The Lord was working on both of our hearts. And so that's how we got into missions. We ended up leaving college. We went to a mission trip that summer with Ethnos 360 to interface in Papua New Guinea. And it was on that trip that we were just like, We're doing this, we're doing this together. Like this is what the Lord has for us. So a short term trips, huge impact in our life. We actually went to Haiti back in high school, and so that's how we also knew missions was a thing, but we didn't know about unreached people groups. Like I think it's interesting when believers say that they've never heard of unreached people groups. I think it is just people don't know what they don't know. And our our churches, we can fall into doing what we think is the best thing. Also, this definition of missions that I think that we've had in the American Church for years and years was helping. Like this helping is what missions is. But missions comes from the great commission that Jesus gave us, and that's crossing cultural geography boundaries and linguistic boundaries to share the name of Christ. Like that's what missions is. And just there's not a lot of talk about it in the American church. But in the last, even my time in in missions, the last nine years, I've seen this shift. Our church in Oklahoma has just been all out for unreached people groups now. They're praying for them. They're supporting missionaries that are doing work among unreached people groups now. I also thought it was interesting that when you heard about it for the first time, you wanted to go right away. And I feel like sometimes when somebody becomes a believer, they want to share ⁓ the good news with everyone right away. And that's a great desire. But sometimes it doesn't always work out in the best way. Why are you glad that your leaders said to just, okay, wait, don't don't go right away. You can't be a missionary right now. I am definitely a go for it kind of guy, all out, go for it. So my heart and passion was there and they saw that and they knew me and they knew this heart and passion's gonna burn out. It's not gonna it's not gonna last for him overseas. I've actually had friends that have been missionaries with other orgs that did not do training and didn't do all the proper training themselves and they're already back back home. And sure, we're not overseas doing ministry work, but we are involved in missions. ⁓ and I think it's that foundation. I didn't realize I needed that foundation. Again, that educational piece. I didn't know that there was even missionary training out there. I thought, sure, I should probably know my Bible well, but I'll get that along the way. I just gotta get there. Like the need is urgent. So you went to interface and then you arrived at ⁓ EBI Ethnos three sixty Bible institute and then how'd you get from there to where you're serving now? At the home office. When we came straight from interface, like two weeks later, we packed up our our stuff from college and I was living with my grandparents at the time and we came up to Waukeshaw and we were just triber die. Like we are going overseas. We're gonna do this thing. There's nothing else to do. And it was through our time here at the Bible school, we interned as well, and then we were went to the training center of Missouri. And all through that time, again, just very driven, like we have to go overseas. This is what we're called to do. We're young, we're healthy. My wife is a genius when it comes to linguistics. Like there is a country that's already asking her, hey, whenever you come overseas, we want you to be our consultant. But then we heard about this need in the home office in Sanford, Florida, just for mobilizing, recruiting, doing short-term trips, building up the team. We we had to have a team to send missionaries out to be able For my friends that I was in training with to be in the people groups they're in now is so encouraging for me to see that. Like, man, that could be us, but also the work we're doing at the home office is supporting them. They don't have to worry as much about their taxes, their visas, the next generation that's gonna come behind them. And so we graduated in the Missouri campus there, the training center, we said, Hey, church, this is what we're doing. We can go overseas and do church planning, or there's this great need in Florida. That we could help raise up the next generation and we could have this seismic impact to have a hundred more people to go. And we were kind of leaning, they just asked us, which way are you leaning? We're like, we're kind of fifty-one percent leaning towards going to Sanford. Like, we think we would love that. Some people have spoken into us that they think we would do good at it. And a week later, pastor, a mentor called. He said, dude, we've all been praying a week. We were unanimous. There was like 30 people in the room. We were unanimous. We want you to go to Florida. And so we were like, Wow, this was this was the direction we needed. And then that way at the end of it all we can tell the Lord, like, hey, we didn't know where to go. We were able to submit to our church leadership and I think he honored that. That's really cool to see how your church sent you and was also very involved as a representative from the h home office. How would you describe Ethnos R60 simply to somebody, for example, who hasn't heard of at ⁓ unreached people groups and is just like a believer ⁓ in a church But doesn't have like much mission exposure. Trevor That's exactly who I was. So we at Ethnos 360 just fundamentally believe that it is wrong. There's people overseas that don't know who Jesus is. We just I think we can all agree that that is just plain wrong, that our world is like that. And so what we get to do as Ethnos 360, go to these places, these people groups, not just tribal locations, but anywhere an unreached people group is, that's where we can go learn the language, the culture, because those go together, translate the Bible into that language and teach them chronologically from Genesis to Revelation and to see a thriving church established there. And that is the goal, a thriving church for every people group. Aaron What makes us unique? ⁓ because I know there's a lot of mission organizations out there, a lot of great ones. ⁓ what would make us different? Yeah, I like what you said, there's a lot of great things happening in the world, a lot of great organizations the Lord's using The way he is using us that makes us different is we do missions slow. Like that could be our other slogan. Like we train our missionaries. I believe we have the longest missionary training in the world, about three and a half years, two years of Bible school. That's we're here at the chapel of Ethnous Three Sixty Bible Institute. And these students here are studying God's word from Genesis to Revelation. That makes us very unique. I don't know another org that does a whole two years of Bible training. Because you want your missionaries to know the Bible well. Right. That sounds like a good concept. And I I know others do training, but that's what makes us unique is we are really deep on the training. Then we have this other year and a half program in Missouri, ⁓ and that's just practical training. How are you gonna learn an unwritten language? 'Cause that's why these unrich unreached people groups still exist that are unreached, because they're hard to learn the language, hard to get to. And so you gotta learn these unwritten languages. You gotta be able to build your own house in a different context. Sometimes you're able to rent an apartment in a city and that's great. But you also have to know the what are the cultural cues? How do I learn a culture? How do I become in another culture and be able to gain respect of people to be able to share this message? Because if we just go in, preach the good news and leave, they might be like, Who was that? ⁓ if I do believe it, I'm just gonna add that to my other beliefs because I think that's okay. I can do that. So syncretism runs rampant when we go quickly. And so that's what makes us unique, number one, is the training that we offer. And I didn't realize how valuable that was for my wife and I and our family, but realizing, man, we feel very equipped to do anything the Lord would ask us to do. Sh not because of anything we're great, but because we we had this confidence that, man, there is others that gone before us and we can learn and glean from what the Lord taught them. And That that's what makes us set apart f a lot from others. A couple of other things that I think are unique is that we learn the language and the culture of the people we work in. You know, we're not gonna use a translator. We want to really know these people well. We want to be friends with them. We want to show them that and model the Christian life and then teach it to them. Sure, that sounds like slow and man, what like why can't you just get there and just teach through a translator? But we want to become friends with these guys, model what it looks like to be an elder, a deacon in a in a church and find out who who even helped me build my house, who's been faithful and helped me learn language, who's been faithful, taking me out on hunting trips or learning how to make coffee here. Like those people, usually down the line, the Lord might use to be an elder, a teacher, like a Bible teacher, maybe even help you with literacy. So that's what's unique about us, it's learning the language and culture and the consultants that we have. That's what shocks me. That's what gives my wife and I a lot of confidence in the Lord. Like, yeah, we can't do this all our own, but there's people out there that are consulting to help you learn the language. You don't have to do that alone. There's even an app that has been developed that will tell you, hey, day one, this is what you have to learn. Day two. And your consultant sees that. And they get to meet with you every couple months. There's field leadership there. Those are the things that come to my mind that set us apart. And it is very long minded, long game minded, nothing quick, nothing fast. But balancing, yeah, there's urgency in this task, but we have to do it well. And I love the model of the Lord Jesus, right? He came as a baby, learned and became one of us, learned our language, our culture, earned the respect and the trust of the people, and then shared. So if there's anything we can learn of his thirty years of learning before he taught for three, man, we could probably take a few years too learn ourself. Take a few years there in the culture to learn how to be friends and how to interact in that culture. So I love that model that Jesus gives us. One of the missionaries said, Why doesn't God just give everyone the gift of tongues so that when we go as missionaries, we know the language instantly? That'd be awesome. He yeah, that'd be s that'd be so awesome. He believes that God doesn't just do that, so that during that time of learning the language and the culture Which can take like four years, three years, depending on how complicated the language is. We build trust and relationships. You gain their spec and they want to learn from you. That challenged my thinking early on too. Like what is the biblical definition of success? 'Cause for Americans we're thinking fast, numbers, that's success. When God all he cares about is he wants you to be faithful. Like we have stories in the Bible of of prophets who, yeah, were faithful to to tell the people And yet nothing happened. And now did he fail? No, he was faithful. And so I love that image for us. Like, yeah, what's our success in missions? And that's just saying yes to God and allowing him to use us in whatever context. And yeah, we're praying that he would use us to plant a church. But maybe you go there and you learn the language and it doesn't happen. And it takes the next generation of missionaries to get in there and for whatever reason that could be. Now, were those fa were those missionaries unsuccessful? If they were faithful, no. And I think that's that speaks a lot to what he was sharing about as well. I remember that. So you recently spoke in Chapel about the founding of Ethno StrysixT, New Tribes Mission. What would be some of the like most impactful stories you heard from that time period of them just like starting New Tribes Mission and and it's growing through through the years? Aaron Yeah, there was Some amazing stories and I I brought the book 'cause I knew you were gonna ask about Chapel and the stories of New Tribe's mission the first forty years. I read this thing over the last three weeks and I cried, I think, four times. Not because of I'm not a very emotional I don't cry a lot in front of people, but I just was weeping over these stories of our first five missionaries who were martyred. And the yeah, the wives who didn't know what happened to their husbands for months and even years, they I'm sure they kind of assumed what happened, but this limbo of waiting. And so a few things that stuck out to me from these from this founder, Paul Fleming. He was going to be a missionary and he didn't have a definite destination. And this is what he said. I have often heard it said that one must have a definite destination before one can go to the mission field. But all the Lord was interested in was us getting to move in the right direction. Like I love that. Like and that that challenged my heart. I'm like, yeah, I like Sure, I was thinking I was going to go back to Papua New Guinea early on in ministry. Like that's what I heard about. That's where I was going to go. My definite destination was there. But actually that limited me because I missed all those who were supporting the work around us, those who trained us. I don't think I was thankful enough for their ministry. Another story early on, Paul Fleming was going about to get on the boat basically to sail across the ocean with his wife. And there was this ⁓ past this pastor, a well known pastor, who stopped him. And basically said, like, dude, you don't have support, like you don't have enough finances to do this. And this is what Paul Fleming told him. He said, God told us to go, and so we will go. If God doesn't take care of us, we'll have to come home and we can always say, We tried and God failed us. So I love this this faith he had. He knew what the Bible talked about, especially in like Romans ten, fifteen. Like, how shall they hear? How will the unreached people groups hear who God is? without someone going and how will they go unless someone sends that person, right? So Paul and his wife, they knew the scriptures well. They knew the needs around the world. They didn't have a definite destination, but they went out in faith and just go in that direction. And even telling people who were trying to say, hey, I don't know if this is a good idea, they were confident in what God was calling them to do. So that that really challenged my my thinking. I just thought Back to even when we were getting first into missions, like, wow, I wish I wish I would have read those stories before getting into this. One thing that stuck out when you ⁓ were talking about the founders is this phrase, God plus nothing. Who who said that? That was Paul Fleming, also, ⁓ guy I just shared about. And so in First Corinthians one twenty-seven, it says, Instead, God chose the things of the wor the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing that the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. He's going to do this. And Jesus says he's going to build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail. He doesn't need us, but he wants to use us. So let's let's be involved in what he's doing around. So if somebody wants to learn more about Ethno360 and how they can possibly find their fit. I say there's two ways to learn what's next for you if you're interested in missions. Number one, the easy one, you kind of even stole my line, the find your fit. We have a find your fit button on the ethno360.org website. And they click that and you can just request a free packet of information. Our team will text you and you can book a meeting with us. We'd love to talk to you about anything and how the Lord might be When to use you on the mission field, right? The second thing is this is something new that's coming out this the end of this year in 2025. The Great Commission course. And we're calling it your guide to world missions. It's an eight part series on world missions. Like what is the Great Commission? What's biblical missions? What's the history? How can I be involved? What are my next steps that I can do here, right now, as a believer in the United States? So those would be the best two things to just consider doing. And then the The Bible school, you guys have great free courses online. Like it's just amazing the content you guys produce as well. So and short term trips. And our short term trips. Yeah. Here I'm repping the encounter bus. These are our two week long trips that we do about ten different countries this next year. And that's just a two-week long trip that people can go learn, serve, and experience ministry among the unreached. And so I've had the privilege of leading several of those. You've gone on one or two as well. And yeah, it's just an amazing way for people to see. And how how could I do this? Mission seems so far away, such a foreign concept. And then you just get on a plane, you come with with us and just see that, ⁓ it's not as foreign. Yeah, it's it's hard. And actually, no, this isn't for me, but now I want to send people better. I want to pray for our missions better. Or, wow, I thought this was gonna be dreadful, but I love it. I think I think God might be stirring me in this direction.