July 1, 2025 • 45 mins
Steve Richardson and Nathan Burns from Pioneers share their organization's extraordinary journey of bringing the gospel to unreached people groups around the world. Through personal stories and strategic insights, they reveal how cross-cultural understanding, team-based approaches, and innovative methods are accelerating global mission work.
• Founded 46 years ago, Pioneers now has 3,000 workers serving in over 100 countries among 441 unreached people groups
• Steve grew up in a tribe of cannibal headhunters in New Guinea, witnessing his father's breakthrough using the "Peace Child" cultural concept
• Teams typically aim for three couples/singles initially but can grow based on the size and needs of the target group
• Pioneers focuses on matching missionaries' unique gifts with strategic needs rather than forcing standard roles
• Mission work increasingly leverages technology, business partnerships, and involves people of all ages and backgrounds
• Former mission fields are becoming mission forces – Mongolia now sends about 40 missionaries through Pioneers
• Pioneers' 10-year vision aims to engage 250 additional unreached people groups beyond their current 441
• Steve is writing a book called "Silver and Bold" challenging those 55+ to invest 5-10 years in missions
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven,
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Hello friends, dustin Elliotthere today, your host for the
Unreached podcast.
Welcome back.
Today we have guests that arereally great friends and truly
(00:53):
have been partners of mine andmy family and Bless and the
Bless family longer than anyone.
For context, bless got startedin 2016 when Tabitha Hale woke
up in the middle of the nightwith a dream and wrote down in
her prayer journal you know, hey, we're going to start this
organization, we're going tothrow a Christmas concert and a
storytelling benefit and we'regoing to raise money and we're
(01:15):
going to support five criticalcategories.
Okay, and so those categoriesoriginally for Bless were ending
the orphan crisis, fightinghuman trafficking, mobilizing
cross-cultural workers,advancing the gospel and
supplying life-sustainingresources.
And I think one of the greatestlessons that we've learned with
(01:35):
BLESS and that all of us learnas we lead companies and we lead
organizations, is you know, thevision that you set and the
operating model that you put inin the beginning is not
necessarily going to be staticand stay the same forever.
And so initially we werefunding short term projects.
We were going out and we werefinding partners, like we have
today, and we were finding themand saying where are you working
(01:57):
with a UPG and what's a shortterm project that we could bring
our community together and fund?
And we did that for severalyears.
As we grew ending the orphancrisis we found out really that
needed to be changed.
We changed that topic toprotecting vulnerable children
over time and then, over time,we realized short-term projects
(02:19):
are good in Jesus' name, butultimately creating a fund where
we were committed to anunreached people group for years
, where we were saying we're notgoing to fund you for a little
while and then step out andyou've got to figure out new
funding.
Instead, we're going to kind ofadopt this people group.
And so we're going to supportpioneers.
You just heard, if you listenedto the last episode, ethnos 360
(02:42):
and GSI.
We're going to support UPGsthat you're working in, whether
it takes three years, five years, 10 years or more to get a
healthy, indigenous-led,disciple-making church in their
people group and the Bibletranslated into their heart
language.
So when the missionaries can gofrom the pulpit to the pews and
(03:03):
then home, we're going to gowith you that whole journey.
And so today we have Pioneers.
Pioneers was the first missionpartner that we funded in 2017,
and they are the only missionpartner that we have funded
every single year that Bless hasexisted.
They've been our longeststanding partner.
(03:24):
They're a phenomenal partner.
If you know anyone involvedwith Pioneers or if you don't,
you'll find out if you do alittle research they are the
gold standard.
They're as good as it gets inmissions.
And so today we are blessed tohave Steve Richardson, who is
the CEO of Pioneers, and NathanBurns, who's the chief
administrative officer, with us.
So help me welcome both theseguys to the show.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Dustin, it's great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
That was Steve talking.
We'll start with Steve.
So Steve and Arlene leadPioneers.
Arlene's parents startedPioneers.
So, Steve, maybe just take usthrough the story of the
organization how you met theLord, how you met.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Arlene how you've got to where you are today.
Arlene's father came to Christwhen Billy Graham visited the
front lines of the Korean War.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
He took a Bible from Billy Graham and came back from
Korea with a new relationshipwith God, but also the
beginnings of a vision for theworld.
He went into the corporateworld, worked for Mobile Oil,
eventually became the nationalsales manager for the Wall
Street Journal and loved leadingco-workers to Christ, was
(04:33):
discipled in good churches, buthe had this gnawing sense that
God had even more in store forhim and eventually he resigned
his lucrative position, steppedout by faith, a little bit like
Abraham did, and startedvisiting different countries
around the world Africa, southPacific.
(04:54):
Eventually, as China wasopening up, made a trip there.
One thing led to another and intheir home they started the
organization that we callPioneers Today, and it's about
46 years old.
Ted went to be with the Lord in2003.
And today we have about 3,000or more workers serving in over
(05:18):
100 countries in the world amongabout 400 unreached people
groups.
All because a couple involvedin the corporate world asked God
, basically the prayer of Psalm28, lord, give me the nations as
my inheritance.
That's amazing.
So I was a senior in high schoolin Pasadena, california, and my
(05:42):
dad was traveling all over theUS two or three-week-long trips,
speaking telling the story ofour own experience among a
cannibal headhunter tribe in NewGuinea and encountered the
Fletcher family really liked Ted, got acquainted with Arlene.
He came back to Pasadena andsaid Steve, I found a young lady
(06:04):
that I think would be perfectfor you.
I was a little shocked but Ithought I'd give it a try.
So I wrote Arlene a letter onmy dad's Institute of Tribal
People Studies stationery withall the fierce heads at the top.
She responded.
(06:24):
We became pen pals and fouryears later we got married
during my senior year of college.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
What a story that is so old school.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
We have an arranged marriage, the arranged the
parent introduction, the pen palbeginning.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Come on, man.
I mean, somebody callHollywoodllywood, maybe not
hollywood, somebody call anotherstudio uh, that is fantastic
and and her.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Her family and heritage obviously was very
different than mine.
I'd grown up in the jungle, shegrew up in the jungles of new
york and detroit and sanfrancisco uh, in the corporate
world, boy, the fusing of twofamilies that loved God's Word,
had a passion to see Himglorified globally, not just
(07:14):
locally.
It's been a fun ride.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Okay, we're going to come back to your story and the
concept of the peace child, butlet's bring Nathan Burns in.
Nathan's the chiefadministrative officer of
Pioneers.
Nathan's been our primarycontact to Pioneers for eight
years now, getting close to nineyears now.
Nathan, All right, take usthrough your story please, sir.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I think the parts I find special about how God's
been working in my life and ledme to being with Pioneers now
for 16 years, right out of gradschool, which wasn't my plan it
starts with.
I grew up in a Christian home,a family who worked for a crew
Campus Crusade and always feltlike church ministry was going
(08:02):
to be a big part of my life.
Church ministry was going to bea big part of my life and I
think was walking with God sincea very young child because I
had the blessing of a Christianhome.
But it was in high school wherehe gave me the mercy of like
really understanding his grace.
And there's a summer, my junioryear, that I just remember.
I think I walked around with asilly smile that whole summer on
(08:24):
my face when I realized thefreedom of I'm forgiven no
matter what.
I'm a firstborn always tried.
I was a good kid but like allsorts of pressure I felt, so I
felt set free then.
And then I went into college anddespite this assumption that
church and ministry would be abig part of my life, because my
(08:47):
folks have had ministerial roles, I kind of wanted to prove I
could cut it in the real world.
I guess, is how I enteredcollege.
I wanted to prove I could cutit, prove I was smart, but I
wanted to serve and I thoughtI'd go work for the government
or something like that.
So I did international studiesthrough graduate school and
thought that that would probablyturn into State Department
(09:10):
service or even intelligenceanalyst kind of work.
Doors were shut and I had thisconviction, like I've done all
this work now six years to anundergraduate thesis, a master's
thesis talking aboutinstitutions, laws, and at the
end of the day, I still reallybelieve the world only changes
one heart at a time.
Right, that the human problemcan't be solved any other way.
(09:35):
Right.
And he opened this door tostart at Pioneers as a grant
proposal writer almost 16 yearsago.
In that process, him evenunveiling more how he's gifted
me and giving me roles thatalign with that.
As someone who's good atsystems, I found that that was
the vein that's cut through.
(09:56):
Everything I've done is how youwork through human systems to
affect change.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And Dustin missions is so complex.
It's probably one of the mostcomplex endeavors.
Imagine having thousands ofemployees, so to speak, in over
100 countries doing the hardestwork you can do.
So, yeah, we need bright peoplelike Nathan on the team, I
think it's a great point.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I think it's a great point.
It's a very encouraging pointfor a lot of the listeners that
maybe haven't been called to goto the field and serve in a
cannibalistic tribal group likeyou and your family did.
But it's like no, I've got agood skill set in accounting.
I've got a good skill set incoding.
I've got a skill set in webdesign and graphics and
(10:37):
marketing and these other thingsand that's incredibly needed
and incredibly useful.
And everybody that's listenedto the pod for a while has heard
about Switchboard,globalswitchboardio, and we've
encouraged everyone to go createa profile for yourself and your
company or your church or yournonprofit and get connected.
You know, tell the world whatyour gifts are and you're going
(11:02):
to get pinged and somebody'sgoing to say, hey, I need your
help and that might be avolunteer opportunity.
It might turn into more.
But all skill sets are neededand you know, biblically God
doesn't just call us to use someof us.
He wants to use all of our time, talent and treasure and when
we kind of redirect our life to,you know, praying hey, god,
will you help me with this andthat in my day.
(11:24):
From there to hey, god, what doyou want to do with your day
and how can I play a role inthat?
That's Nathan's story, right?
Nathan thought, okay, I'm goingto develop these skills that I
have and I'm going to go tocorporate and I'm going to go
prove myself and do these thingsand I'm always going to go
whole self, which maybe I needto put another disclaimer on
this Doesn't mean that someonethat's not working full time in
(11:49):
missions is not using theirwhole self.
But you get the point.
I think it's great, I think,just seeing the multi talents
coming together, even the storyof your family and Arlene's
family and the very differentbackgrounds.
So, speaking of your background, let's get to the Peace Child
story.
Steve, take us through.
What was it like to grow up,how you did?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So when I was six months old, my parents carried
me.
We actually traveled on a ship,took about six weeks to get to
what was then called NetherlandsNew Guinea.
It's a 1,500-mile-longdinosaur-shaped island just
north of Australia with about athousand languages, maybe more.
About a fifth of the world'slanguages are found right there
(12:30):
on the island of New Guinea andthe neighboring islands.
So we ended up in a tribe ofcannibal headhunters, literally,
who lived in the trees, hadnever encountered the outside
world before in the trees, hadnever encountered the outside
world before, and that's where Igrew up as dad and mom learned
the language well enough tobegin explaining the story of
(12:51):
Jesus, which took several months.
You can imagine about six orseven months.
We were totally immersed becausethere were no English speakers
around us.
I grew up speaking Saoie betterthan English.
Only mom and dad spoke English.
Everybody else spoke Sawe.
So anyway, when they got to thepoint of sharing the message,
the story of Jesus, dad wasshocked, when he came to the
(13:17):
part of Jesus' betrayal by Judas, to find that the Sawe wanted
to know more about Judas.
And he said wait a minute, youmean Jesus?
And they said no, judas, hesounds like one of us?
Didn't you just say he betrayedhis friend to death?
Dad said yes.
They said, well, that's like us.
We do that all the time.
We make friendships with peoplefrom outside groups whenever we
can.
We don't just kill them on thespot and we entertain them.
(13:40):
We invite them to be specialguests at feasts and dances, and
then one day we actually killthem and they are the feast.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Tell us more about Judas, I'd love to promise my
daughter in marriage to a manlike that, oh my goodness.
And you're looking around going.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Lord, are we going to ?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
be served at the feast at some point soon.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Why have they been so friendlythe last few months?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
right.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So dad and mom, obviously, were forced afresh to
just get on their knees andpray Lord.
In the meantime a lot offighting broke out because three
or four Saovi villages hadmoved in right around us.
They wanted to be close to us.
They didn't want to be close toeach other, they were
generational enemies.
Fighting broke out.
(14:27):
People were getting injured, ifnot killed.
She counted 14 major battlesfought in the first month in our
front yard because they didn'thave anywhere else to fight.
Oh my gosh, that was the onlyopen area in the jungle.
She got used to grabbing me asI'm playing outside and pulling
me into the relative safety ofour thatched-roofed house there.
Anyway, dad finally said you'vegot to make peace.
(14:50):
He didn't know how a treachery,honor and culture could
actually convince their enemies.
They were serious if they said,oh, we want peace now.
But that's the fun story of abook called Peace Child that Dad
wrote in the 1970s of thebreakthrough of the gospel
message among Nassaui.
Because the only way hediscovered that they could
(15:13):
convince their enemies they wereserious about making peace was
to give one of their own littleboys, newborn to the enemy, and
that boy was called the peacechild, the Tarabtim, and the
peace would last as long as thatchild lived if he lived fell
out of a canoe and got eaten bya crocodile, or got bit by a
(15:37):
death adder and died half anhour later.
The warfare could resume at anytime.
Oh, my Mom and dad had thediscernment, as they were
praying, to realize not only isthis the strangest thing they've
ever heard, it's also strangelyfamiliar.
I mean, it's the essence of thegospel Two parties at war, one
of those parties wanting sodesperately to be reconciled to
(15:59):
his enemies, he's willing togive his son, his only son, the
peace lasting as long as thatson lives.
Hebrews says he ever lives tomake intercession for us.
So dad learned a few morevocabulary words, went back to
the same group of Sawi warriors,shared the same message and
(16:23):
this time there wasn't a rippleof laughter jokes being made.
They said wait a minute.
Are you saying that Jesus was apeace child?
Dad said yes.
They said why didn't you tellus that the first time To betray
a peace child is the worstthing anybody can do?
They had a term for it.
It's called tarok gaman, whichmeans shredding the peace.
And that was the beginnings ofan amazing movement among the
(16:44):
Sawi.
And wow, I just had a front rowseat growing up there for 15
years watching the impact of thegospel message almost fast
motion.
Just the reality that thegospel is the power of God for
the salvation of those whobelieve.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Unbelievable, I mean to the listeners.
Isn't it incredible to hearthese stories and hear the
different ways the gospel getsconnected, based on a tribe or a
people group's own history andown understanding of the world?
It's like the missionaries go.
They don't know what that'sgoing to be yet because they
don't know what they don't know.
They get to know the people,they get to know the culture,
(17:23):
they get the language and thenthey start to figure out like
okay, we've had other exampleswhere it's the stomach and not
the heart and how are we goingto relate things to the stomach,
not the heart?
And now we figure out kind ofhow to do that and like this
story with the peace child likewow.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So Dustin, for the, for the Sawi was their liver.
Oh, okay, we've got anotherorgan in the game.
One of the chiefs came to mydad and said your words have
made my liver quiver.
My liver quiver and the Sawiwould have literally a ceremony
when the when the child wasgiven by their enemies, and the
warriors would gather aroundthey would lay their hands on
that child, one by one, and sayI accept this baby as a basis
for peace between us and theenemy.
And so this chief Hato saidyour words have made my liver
(18:08):
quiver.
Can you tell the Creator Godthat I want to accept his peace
child?
And my dad had the privilege ofsaying to him you know what,
hato?
I don't have to tell him, foryou.
You can express your liverdirectly and tell him you want,
you know, by faith, just expressyour liver to him.
(18:29):
And he said I want to do that,and my four wives and all our
children do too.
So dad said bring your wholefamily.
And that was the beginnings ofa major movement.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow, incredible.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Incredible.
All right, Nathan, that's goingto be a tough act to follow.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It always is.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
So let's kind of bottom up, let's go top down now
, Nathan.
Go up to the administration ofPioneers and talk through how
does an organization like yoursoperate, what's the processes
that you put into place and howdo we stay in touch?
The pioneers in our missionstatement, we entrain the church
as a core value, and thatdoesn't just mean over there,
Churches send right, we helpsend.
Part of the story is that Godhas been really faithful to use
(19:35):
American churches to have avision to go to the unreached.
Of course we want to see moreand we keep sharing that, and so
the church is a reallyimportant part of building all
of the support and systems forpeople who are going to go to
the frontier and engage anunreached people group who
(19:55):
doesn't have a gospel emissarythere.
To support that, though, thethings we bring along to help
that church and that missionaryis we have to be able to process
gifts, as that church and Godand their network rally around
that missionary to get them out.
I mean so you have hundreds ofpeople behind every missionary
who goes, and they need supportsystems so that they can give to
(20:17):
that person.
We receive those gifts well,and then we have to work on.
We now have security trainingsfor missionaries because they're
going to very tough areas,sometimes with opposition from
government, sometimes withopposition from nongovernmental
organizations.
That can range from terroriststo just well, if you're still
(20:38):
going to headhunters, there'sstill some risk, right.
So there's a range of risksthat, of course, missionaries
are accepting, but you want to,as much as possible, wrap around
them preparation and protectionfor those things, and that gets
more and more complicated asthe world gets complicated,
because then you have to beginprotecting from digital threats,
(20:59):
and God's given us some justwonderful people who actually
have skills in those areas.
But we still need to upskill ina lot of areas, including
digital.
We can talk more about that aswe talk about our 10-year vision
.
I think we can get into that.
We're excited to see pioneersgrappling with the digital
(21:19):
future of missions and whatthat's going to look like.
So there's a bunch of excitingstuff we can get into talking
about there.
But then you have to continueto build out.
How do you provide good membercare?
Missionary families are justlike us.
They're going to go throughtough seasons.
Families are just like us.
They're going to go throughtough seasons.
So how do you help them withthose tough seasons of problems
(21:40):
in marriage or with kids orconflict with teammates.
That's something that missions,as it's gotten started,
realized was a huge need to keepmissionaries from burning out,
and I think the missionscommunity continues to do a
better and better job ofwrapping support around
missionaries, but it's hard toever say that's done.
So we work hard on that keepmissionary attrition low, keep
(22:05):
people thriving, able tocontinue to pour out.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Let me pull on that thread for a second.
So what I'd like to go withthat is a lot of the teams that
we know of and support.
There's maybe three differentfamilies working in a group and
there are players with differentroles within those families.
Someone might be a giftedtranslator and someone might be
gifted in other ways.
(22:28):
How do you arrange the teams?
How do you put them together?
What are the key rolestypically that you need them to
play?
What are the size of the teams?
So, if I'm listening and I'mthinking about taking this step,
who are you going to pair withme?
Right, if I'm an offensivelineman or I'm a tight end, or
I'm a receiver or I'm a QB, whoelse is going to be with me?
(22:51):
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, I think Steve could add a lot of flesh to how
that works out on the field.
But, to start us, another corevalue is the team.
Now, first, we're focused onthe unreached right.
So we will send people to starta team by themselves as needed
to aggressively go and engagethe unreached.
But the desire is to have afull team.
(23:14):
Because you have more supportstructures, you're able to begin
to specialize and address thosedifferent needs, like you
talked about.
How that works out can be verylocally informed by the local
leadership structure we havethere, so we can assess the
individual needs in those areasrather than send people out with
some kind of maybe blind, naiveview of oh well, you will just,
(23:37):
you'll share the gospel thisway and you'll translate this
way.
We make those decisions in thecontext, trusting our field
leadership to do that.
And then, steve, from there,how would you bring some light
to that question aroundstructuring teams?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
strategically units three couples or singles as a
goal.
Obviously, when you're firstgetting it started, it might not
be that many, and then they cangrow beyond that and a lot have
(24:13):
.
Our team eventually was 45adults and even more kids from
multiple countries, and ourtarget group numbered 30 million
.
So there were as many people inthe Muslim target group that
Marlene and I served as therewere in the Roman Empire in the
time of the Apostle Paul.
So most teams get up to maybe 6, 8, 10 adults.
(24:38):
So ours was unusual for sure.
But again, like Nathan said, itdepends on the context.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
If you've got a team in a major city in Japan or in
Cairo working with Sudaneserefugees, you know it's going to
look different than it does inthe jungles of Southeast Asia,
Sure sure I've mentionedNehemiah plenty of times, but I
feel like he's just worthmentioning again because when
(25:07):
you answered the question,nathan, you were very humble and
careful to say we're notfitting every square peg into
our round hole.
We're not like here's how we doit and we're sending this with
the same structure.
You're saying, no, we haveteams there that are present,
people that are present,leadership there that knows the
(25:30):
culture, knows the groups, hasan understanding of what's
needed.
And so it's this long processof prayer and intercession and
asking okay, what's the rightamount of people, what's the
right strategy, what's the righttiming?
Y'all are going back and forthin that conversation and a lot
of folks that decide to stepinto missions.
(25:51):
I think there's maybe a coupleways to do it.
You hear Todd Aaron talk andhe's like put a map on a wall
and throw a dart at the mapright and go there right, kind
of as one way.
But then there's also this likeI just want to serve, I don't
know where I'm going to beneeded yet.
I'm coming into thisopen-handed and then the couple
or the family or the individualgets to know y'all.
Y'all get to know them.
You kind of figure out whattheir gift is and you're like,
(26:13):
hey, this team is getting readyto go here, or this team's got
this need and I think you fitthat need.
So it's like a bit of achessboard right or a game of
risk, I guess might be a betterway to say it.
You're putting your players inthe different countries in the
different spots.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
It's a blend of strategic need and individual
gifting and we found that aslong as we had kind of a macro
strategy of how we wereintending to see a church
movement among this people group, then you ask what are you
gifted at?
What's your experience?
Like?
We had on our team somebody hada master's degree in community
development from Johns Hopkins,so he started a sub-team, he and
(26:52):
his wife really leveragingtheir expertise to help advance
the gospel.
Another guy had run a printshop in Philadelphia, a
successful printing company.
We put him in charge of themedia aspect of our strategy for
reaching these 30 millionpeople and he just went with it
and it was just so good becausewe had a strategy.
But forcing individuals to workoutside of their area of
(27:15):
gifting, you're kind of askingfor long-term trouble if you try
to sustain that for too long.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah Well, I'd say that works in how we run a
company and how we run a teamwithin a company as well right
Understanding your people andtheir roles and responsibilities
, how they feel valued, whatmatters to them, right, and then
setting them up for success.
The other thing that I thinkI'd like to hear y'all comment
on is when you have multiplepeople working in a group, then
you have an opportunity for onefamily to leave for a little
(27:44):
while on respite and come backand see their family and rest
and recuperate and the workcontinues.
You talked kind of through thatstrategy.
What's the cycle or the rhythm?
How does that typically work?
I know sometimes it's informedby health needs and family needs
and things like that, butotherwise, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
No, that really helps a lot to have continuity,
create continuity and even ifyou reflect back in the book of
Acts and the Apostle Paul'smissionary journeys, he always
took people with him and oftenthose people ended up staying or
getting reassigned.
So I think in a team it's goodto have some people who have a
(28:26):
really long-term commitment.
And then there are others whocome, maybe for a period of time
, for a season, and they helpwith a specialty.
One lady came out in ourexperience and spent two or
three weeks with my wife my wifetranslated every word training
people how to make quilts,people who had been jobless, and
(28:46):
they ended up starting aministry that has produced
thousands of quilts andgenerated millions of dollars
worth of revenue and helped leadhundreds of people to Christ.
All because this lady came outfrom Colorado and spent three
weeks of her time to help trainpeople.
I feel like I've read a bookabout this, steve.
Yeah, she wrote it up.
It's called Threads.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
That's right.
Threads is in our library athome.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Tell us a little bit.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Dive into that a little bit more.
Pull on that thread, if youwill, for us.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It quilts in the tropics.
I mean, only God would think ofthat.
But we had people from Dubaipurchasing these things,
australia, the US and we'dformed cooperatives in the
villages.
The Christians became thebenefactors, the people willing
to invite others into gettingjobs.
So even when they wereostracized from their
(29:39):
communities because of theirfaith, they ended up having a
skill that they could transfergenerously to the people who had
been persecuting them.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Today that ministry actually is supporting several
dozen church planning efforts incountries all around the world
that if I'm a little older in myyears and I haven't maybe had a
career working, but I know howto knit, or quilt or sew or
(30:14):
these other skills.
There's a place, clearly, wherewe can go out and we can teach
those things and be helpful aswell.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Dustin, you're getting me so excited because I
don't think most of us realizewhat a unique period of history
we're living in in terms of theGreat Commission.
It's an all-hands-on-deckproposition right now, and we're
like the first secondgeneration that has the option
of going anywhere almost in theworld, at least for a period of
(30:40):
time, and using virtually anygift, any background to
contribute to the advance of thegospel.
Let's go.
Yeah, let's go, dustin, you gotme going here.
Let me mention one more thing.
There are 100 million Americansover the age of 55, and
millions of people are retiringand wondering you know, am I
(31:03):
going to play golf?
You know, full-time for thenext 15, 20 years?
And I would love to challengepeople if you're in that age
group, if you're like 60, even65.
We have a worker who's beenserving 21 years in a valley in
Central Asia.
She's the only witness to thegospel in that entire valley, in
(31:26):
an unreached area.
She's been there 21 years andguess what?
She's 87 years old.
She started when she was about66.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Amazing.
Talk about running that fullrace right.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, if you hear of someone who's been overseas 21
years, you think they gotstarted in their 20s, so it's
not too late, and it doesn'tmean you have to go somewhere
necessarily.
There's just so many differentways.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah it's just fantastic.
In my day job, we talk a lotabout this concept of retirement
and I'll ask you a question,both of you.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
You may have heard me say this before so you may know
the answer, but how many timesis retirement mentioned in the
Bible?
Yeah, I would say it's not.
Maybe I'm wrong there, but it'sone.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay, what is it?
It's one and it's way back inthe Torah and it's for Levitical
priests.
God says that 55 Leviticalpriests get to retire.
Okay, so if your job has beenso intense that you've had to
run a 24-7 barbecue restaurantand skinning and tanning
operation and do it allperfectly, or anyone could
(32:32):
vaporize at any moment then youget to step out, okay.
Otherwise, for the rest of us,there is no biblical concept of
retirement.
So this whole thing where we'relike we're going to work until
we're 60 or 62 or 65, and SocialSecurity and this, and that
it's cultural, it's not biblical.
It's not how God made us right,and so we've built an entire
(32:55):
industry on it.
We've got people living theirlives, trying to get to a
certain point to do what youjust said, to play golf, et
cetera and I'm going to playgolf today.
Clint and I both are actually.
So that's okay, it's okay, butit's not the only thing, right,
and I think it's beautiful thatyou're inviting and challenging
folks to say there is somethingmore for you.
(33:16):
There's not a dull gray voidthat has no purpose for you.
That has no purpose for you,right, when you step out of your
career, but there is so muchmore and you can do it here.
If you've got a big family andkids and grandkids and you want
to stay involved and help, thatdoesn't mean you can't help.
You absolutely can still help.
But if God's got it on yourheart to go see the world right,
(33:39):
go experience this creation,then you have an opportunity, if
you call pioneers, to go workwith teams established in 100
different countries over halfthe countries on the earth,
right, and there's going tocontinue to be new people groups
that y'all are going into.
Is that Nathan?
Am I right?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
There's going to continue to be.
I mean, our 10-year vision isto go from the 441 unreached
people groups that we have apresence among right now and
place people to engage another250.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Another 250 groups.
Okay, yes, so if everybodylistening to this episode, all
right, get involved in one ofthose 250 some way and we'll
have multiple people involved inevery people group.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Just from who's going to hear this.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Tell us more about the 10-year plan, Nathan.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
That's another part of just this healing.
I have of gratitude that God'skind of pulled me into something
that he's doing and I get to behere for it.
We've spent really the last twoyears or so, steve, on a really
robust analysis of futuretrends and strategic planning
(34:51):
and looking out where could theworld be in 10 years.
What are the possible futures.
We're not going to predict thefuture, but you can look and you
can see where trends like AI,where they're going, where they
could land you in 10 years.
And then you start askingyourself how do we try to
(35:13):
intersect with that To make surewe're not as much as it depends
upon us that we're open to beused by God in those scenarios,
and we have done work to makeourselves open to change and
even start changing now to beusable and not dinosaurs in the
(35:34):
world of 10 years from now.
And that's led us into a reallychallenging but exciting
strategic planning process.
And when everything isuncertain, you kind of need to
make sure you know where you'regoing and, as we've prayed about
it, what we should be focusingon.
Steve and the executiveleadership here, we've agreed
(35:55):
this goal of 250, it's not aboutI don't think there's any ego
in it.
I really think that's beentotally divorced.
Our mission statement sayswe're going to go engage
unreached people groups.
So what are we aiming at?
So we've decided 250 unreachedpeople groups, people in places,
(36:16):
because even people groupswe'll talk about that more.
It can be a really hard thingto define.
It's still the way to go.
Like there are groups,ethno-linguistic groups of
people that don't have a Bible,they don't have a gospel witness
, they don't have a church.
We have to go there.
This identifies the peoplegroup and the place that we need
(36:38):
to go to, and 250 seems to bethe right number to focus on to
galvanize efforts for the next10 years.
It's going to go to and 250seems to be the right number to
focus on to galvanize effortsfor the next 10 years.
It's going to be aggressive.
We're a 46-year-oldorganization.
It took us 46 years to get towhere we're currently engaging
441 unreached people groups andso we're seeking acceleration.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
So that's about 10 a year on average.
Yeah, so 100 would be continuingyour average.
So you're two and a half, x-ingthat over 10.
But you're utilizing AI andyou're utilizing the technology
and the new methods and you'reembracing them and you're saying
we're not going to be thedinosaur that always does things
(37:20):
the way we always have.
We're going to step into thisnew future.
I would argue the two moststrategic methods to step into
for the next 10 years is thetech and AI and the wings of
business.
Right, it's partnering withbusiness leaders and companies
and folks that are runningorganizations that are already
in and behind hostile borders,already have established
(37:43):
relationships and are alreadynot just doing business there
but establishing greatrelationships with government
leadership there because theyare bringing such commerce and a
lift in the economy.
And you take the AI, thetranslation and the things that
we can do there and theinterface that allows us to
collaborate and work together.
(38:04):
And, by the way, we've had CraigBradley on with Seed Bible and
what he's working on with theopen source code where
translators can work together.
We're getting ready to record aspecial episode with a guy
that's already built an entirechatbot that all he's ever let
the large language model, theLLM, read is the Bible and
(38:26):
trusted commentaries and so youcan interact with it, and it's
already out in beta and thereare.
You know what?
The most questions in the worldare coming in right now?
From Indonesia, of all places,I know right and so it's so
encouraging to see these methodsall coming together.
You said it, Steve.
You said now you got fired upthere for a second, You're like
(38:48):
now is this time engaged in thatprocess, leveraging those tools
.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
For example, I remember when there were only
four known believers in Mongolia.
Today we have around 40Mongolians in Pioneers serving
(39:12):
internationally.
How about that?
And it's fantastic.
So you know.
Obviously it's not just NorthAmericans, it's the whole church
to the whole world.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, I mean, I think the first person I ever heard
say it was Kirby Holmes withStoryline, when he said the
mission field has become themission force.
And he may not have coined it,but he's the first one I heard
say it.
That's so exciting, isn't itthough?
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah it is, Isn't it though.
And you have to hold in tensionthe fact that God is doing so
many amazing things and thechurch is really growing on the
one hand.
On the other hand, there arestill such overwhelming needs
and still over 7,000 unreachedpeople groups.
So you've got to be careful notto get apathetic thinking, oh,
(39:56):
the job's already been done, and, on the other hand, get
discouraged and think that we'renot really making an impact.
There's realities all mixed inthere.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Two key points I want to make.
First, do you understand, ifyou're listening to this, do you
understand how intentionalPioneers is operating with
excellence, that they're meetingwith the other key players,
collaborating at the highestlevels?
They're asking the hardquestions.
They're double checking theirwork.
Are we still doing it the bestway?
(40:26):
Are there new ways to consider?
That is so encouraging?
And second, get in the game.
Get in the game to Steve'spoint Now.
I don't know if he wants totalk about what his next project
is that's sitting on his deskright now or not, but you can if
you'd like.
But I know Steve's an author.
I think he's working on a newbook and I think he's trying to
(40:50):
encourage continue to encourageall of us.
You know, use the gifts youhave, play a role, find a way,
steve.
What are you working on, steve?
What?
Speaker 2 (41:01):
are you working on?
I'm working on a book thatwe're tentatively calling Silver
and Bold, with the idea of, asI mentioned earlier, challenging
thousands of people, if nothundreds of thousands, in the
body of Christ to engage atleast five to ten years in what
we're talking about later inlife.
(41:21):
You know, say, 55 and older.
It shouldn't be that hard to doand we can help you do it.
You know we think ofinvestments you're much better
at knowing that arena than I ambut people think of invest.
How can I invest monetarily?
Well, you know, for later inlife, how much do we think about
investing our lives foreternity?
Speaker 1 (41:42):
How much?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
do we think about investing our lives for eternity
, because that's really theultimate game?
I think that's a challengingthought.
How do I best invest myremaining years for eternity?
Speaker 3 (41:53):
For my part, I would want to leave people encouraged
again.
Things do seem to beaccelerating, as Steve noted.
The global workforce that isemerging Brazilians, egyptians,
mongolians joining and theneverything we're talking about
no matter your age, no matteryour location, being able to get
(42:15):
involved digitally.
That's accelerating, and sowhen we all work together, this
job can get done.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
There you go, love that.
Thank you for saying that.
All right, let's wrap it up,steve.
We always ask the guests topray for the listeners, but
anytime we have somebody that'sbilingual and has worked in a
group, we would love it if youwould pray first in another
language group so that we canhear you pray and the people can
hear somebody pray in alanguage they haven't heard, can
hear you pray and the peoplecan hear somebody pray in a
(42:44):
language they haven't heardbefore, and then translate and
close us out in.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
English.
All right will do.
Thank you, lord, that you arethe wonderful creator, the one
who is all-powerful,all-gracious, and that you have,
in Jesus, provided us with away to salvation.
Lift our eyes, we pray afreshto the harvest and the needs
(43:41):
around us, in Jesus' name, amenand amen.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Thank you, gentlemen, thank you for listening to
Unreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, dgroup,wherever you do life, and if
(44:08):
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
You, you, you, thank you.
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven,
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Hello friends, dustin Elliotthere today, your host for the
Unreached podcast.
Welcome back.
Today we have guests that arereally great friends and truly
(00:53):
have been partners of mine andmy family and Bless and the
Bless family longer than anyone.
For context, bless got startedin 2016 when Tabitha Hale woke
up in the middle of the nightwith a dream and wrote down in
her prayer journal you know, hey, we're going to start this
organization, we're going tothrow a Christmas concert and a
storytelling benefit and we'regoing to raise money and we're
(01:15):
going to support five criticalcategories.
Okay, and so those categoriesoriginally for Bless were ending
the orphan crisis, fightinghuman trafficking, mobilizing
cross-cultural workers,advancing the gospel and
supplying life-sustainingresources.
And I think one of the greatestlessons that we've learned with
(01:35):
BLESS and that all of us learnas we lead companies and we lead
organizations, is you know, thevision that you set and the
operating model that you put inin the beginning is not
necessarily going to be staticand stay the same forever.
And so initially we werefunding short term projects.
We were going out and we werefinding partners, like we have
today, and we were finding themand saying where are you working
(01:57):
with a UPG and what's a shortterm project that we could bring
our community together and fund?
And we did that for severalyears.
As we grew ending the orphancrisis we found out really that
needed to be changed.
We changed that topic toprotecting vulnerable children
over time and then, over time,we realized short-term projects
(02:19):
are good in Jesus' name, butultimately creating a fund where
we were committed to anunreached people group for years
, where we were saying we're notgoing to fund you for a little
while and then step out andyou've got to figure out new
funding.
Instead, we're going to kind ofadopt this people group.
And so we're going to supportpioneers.
You just heard, if you listenedto the last episode, ethnos 360
(02:42):
and GSI.
We're going to support UPGsthat you're working in, whether
it takes three years, five years, 10 years or more to get a
healthy, indigenous-led,disciple-making church in their
people group and the Bibletranslated into their heart
language.
So when the missionaries can gofrom the pulpit to the pews and
(03:03):
then home, we're going to gowith you that whole journey.
And so today we have Pioneers.
Pioneers was the first missionpartner that we funded in 2017,
and they are the only missionpartner that we have funded
every single year that Bless hasexisted.
They've been our longeststanding partner.
(03:24):
They're a phenomenal partner.
If you know anyone involvedwith Pioneers or if you don't,
you'll find out if you do alittle research they are the
gold standard.
They're as good as it gets inmissions.
And so today we are blessed tohave Steve Richardson, who is
the CEO of Pioneers, and NathanBurns, who's the chief
administrative officer, with us.
So help me welcome both theseguys to the show.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Dustin, it's great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
That was Steve talking.
We'll start with Steve.
So Steve and Arlene leadPioneers.
Arlene's parents startedPioneers.
So, Steve, maybe just take usthrough the story of the
organization how you met theLord, how you met.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Arlene how you've got to where you are today.
Arlene's father came to Christwhen Billy Graham visited the
front lines of the Korean War.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
He took a Bible from Billy Graham and came back from
Korea with a new relationshipwith God, but also the
beginnings of a vision for theworld.
He went into the corporateworld, worked for Mobile Oil,
eventually became the nationalsales manager for the Wall
Street Journal and loved leadingco-workers to Christ, was
(04:33):
discipled in good churches, buthe had this gnawing sense that
God had even more in store forhim and eventually he resigned
his lucrative position, steppedout by faith, a little bit like
Abraham did, and startedvisiting different countries
around the world Africa, southPacific.
(04:54):
Eventually, as China wasopening up, made a trip there.
One thing led to another and intheir home they started the
organization that we callPioneers Today, and it's about
46 years old.
Ted went to be with the Lord in2003.
And today we have about 3,000or more workers serving in over
(05:18):
100 countries in the world amongabout 400 unreached people
groups.
All because a couple involvedin the corporate world asked God
, basically the prayer of Psalm28, lord, give me the nations as
my inheritance.
That's amazing.
So I was a senior in high schoolin Pasadena, california, and my
(05:42):
dad was traveling all over theUS two or three-week-long trips,
speaking telling the story ofour own experience among a
cannibal headhunter tribe in NewGuinea and encountered the
Fletcher family really liked Ted, got acquainted with Arlene.
He came back to Pasadena andsaid Steve, I found a young lady
(06:04):
that I think would be perfectfor you.
I was a little shocked but Ithought I'd give it a try.
So I wrote Arlene a letter onmy dad's Institute of Tribal
People Studies stationery withall the fierce heads at the top.
She responded.
(06:24):
We became pen pals and fouryears later we got married
during my senior year of college.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
What a story that is so old school.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
We have an arranged marriage, the arranged the
parent introduction, the pen palbeginning.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Come on, man.
I mean, somebody callHollywoodllywood, maybe not
hollywood, somebody call anotherstudio uh, that is fantastic
and and her.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Her family and heritage obviously was very
different than mine.
I'd grown up in the jungle, shegrew up in the jungles of new
york and detroit and sanfrancisco uh, in the corporate
world, boy, the fusing of twofamilies that loved God's Word,
had a passion to see Himglorified globally, not just
(07:14):
locally.
It's been a fun ride.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Okay, we're going to come back to your story and the
concept of the peace child, butlet's bring Nathan Burns in.
Nathan's the chiefadministrative officer of
Pioneers.
Nathan's been our primarycontact to Pioneers for eight
years now, getting close to nineyears now.
Nathan, All right, take usthrough your story please, sir.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I think the parts I find special about how God's
been working in my life and ledme to being with Pioneers now
for 16 years, right out of gradschool, which wasn't my plan it
starts with.
I grew up in a Christian home,a family who worked for a crew
Campus Crusade and always feltlike church ministry was going
(08:02):
to be a big part of my life.
Church ministry was going to bea big part of my life and I
think was walking with God sincea very young child because I
had the blessing of a Christianhome.
But it was in high school wherehe gave me the mercy of like
really understanding his grace.
And there's a summer, my junioryear, that I just remember.
I think I walked around with asilly smile that whole summer on
(08:24):
my face when I realized thefreedom of I'm forgiven no
matter what.
I'm a firstborn always tried.
I was a good kid but like allsorts of pressure I felt, so I
felt set free then.
And then I went into college anddespite this assumption that
church and ministry would be abig part of my life, because my
(08:47):
folks have had ministerial roles, I kind of wanted to prove I
could cut it in the real world.
I guess, is how I enteredcollege.
I wanted to prove I could cutit, prove I was smart, but I
wanted to serve and I thoughtI'd go work for the government
or something like that.
So I did international studiesthrough graduate school and
thought that that would probablyturn into State Department
(09:10):
service or even intelligenceanalyst kind of work.
Doors were shut and I had thisconviction, like I've done all
this work now six years to anundergraduate thesis, a master's
thesis talking aboutinstitutions, laws, and at the
end of the day, I still reallybelieve the world only changes
one heart at a time.
Right, that the human problemcan't be solved any other way.
(09:35):
Right.
And he opened this door tostart at Pioneers as a grant
proposal writer almost 16 yearsago.
In that process, him evenunveiling more how he's gifted
me and giving me roles thatalign with that.
As someone who's good atsystems, I found that that was
the vein that's cut through.
(09:56):
Everything I've done is how youwork through human systems to
affect change.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And Dustin missions is so complex.
It's probably one of the mostcomplex endeavors.
Imagine having thousands ofemployees, so to speak, in over
100 countries doing the hardestwork you can do.
So, yeah, we need bright peoplelike Nathan on the team, I
think it's a great point.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I think it's a great point.
It's a very encouraging pointfor a lot of the listeners that
maybe haven't been called to goto the field and serve in a
cannibalistic tribal group likeyou and your family did.
But it's like no, I've got agood skill set in accounting.
I've got a good skill set incoding.
I've got a skill set in webdesign and graphics and
(10:37):
marketing and these other thingsand that's incredibly needed
and incredibly useful.
And everybody that's listenedto the pod for a while has heard
about Switchboard,globalswitchboardio, and we've
encouraged everyone to go createa profile for yourself and your
company or your church or yournonprofit and get connected.
You know, tell the world whatyour gifts are and you're going
(11:02):
to get pinged and somebody'sgoing to say, hey, I need your
help and that might be avolunteer opportunity.
It might turn into more.
But all skill sets are neededand you know, biblically God
doesn't just call us to use someof us.
He wants to use all of our time, talent and treasure and when
we kind of redirect our life to,you know, praying hey, god,
will you help me with this andthat in my day.
(11:24):
From there to hey, god, what doyou want to do with your day
and how can I play a role inthat?
That's Nathan's story, right?
Nathan thought, okay, I'm goingto develop these skills that I
have and I'm going to go tocorporate and I'm going to go
prove myself and do these thingsand I'm always going to go
whole self, which maybe I needto put another disclaimer on
this Doesn't mean that someonethat's not working full time in
(11:49):
missions is not using theirwhole self.
But you get the point.
I think it's great, I think,just seeing the multi talents
coming together, even the storyof your family and Arlene's
family and the very differentbackgrounds.
So, speaking of your background, let's get to the Peace Child
story.
Steve, take us through.
What was it like to grow up,how you did?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So when I was six months old, my parents carried
me.
We actually traveled on a ship,took about six weeks to get to
what was then called NetherlandsNew Guinea.
It's a 1,500-mile-longdinosaur-shaped island just
north of Australia with about athousand languages, maybe more.
About a fifth of the world'slanguages are found right there
(12:30):
on the island of New Guinea andthe neighboring islands.
So we ended up in a tribe ofcannibal headhunters, literally,
who lived in the trees, hadnever encountered the outside
world before in the trees, hadnever encountered the outside
world before, and that's where Igrew up as dad and mom learned
the language well enough tobegin explaining the story of
(12:51):
Jesus, which took several months.
You can imagine about six orseven months.
We were totally immersed becausethere were no English speakers
around us.
I grew up speaking Saoie betterthan English.
Only mom and dad spoke English.
Everybody else spoke Sawe.
So anyway, when they got to thepoint of sharing the message,
the story of Jesus, dad wasshocked, when he came to the
(13:17):
part of Jesus' betrayal by Judas, to find that the Sawe wanted
to know more about Judas.
And he said wait a minute, youmean Jesus?
And they said no, judas, hesounds like one of us?
Didn't you just say he betrayedhis friend to death?
Dad said yes.
They said, well, that's like us.
We do that all the time.
We make friendships with peoplefrom outside groups whenever we
can.
We don't just kill them on thespot and we entertain them.
(13:40):
We invite them to be specialguests at feasts and dances, and
then one day we actually killthem and they are the feast.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Tell us more about Judas, I'd love to promise my
daughter in marriage to a manlike that, oh my goodness.
And you're looking around going.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Lord, are we going to ?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
be served at the feast at some point soon.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Why have they been so friendlythe last few months?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
right.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So dad and mom, obviously, were forced afresh to
just get on their knees andpray Lord.
In the meantime a lot offighting broke out because three
or four Saovi villages hadmoved in right around us.
They wanted to be close to us.
They didn't want to be close toeach other, they were
generational enemies.
Fighting broke out.
(14:27):
People were getting injured, ifnot killed.
She counted 14 major battlesfought in the first month in our
front yard because they didn'thave anywhere else to fight.
Oh my gosh, that was the onlyopen area in the jungle.
She got used to grabbing me asI'm playing outside and pulling
me into the relative safety ofour thatched-roofed house there.
Anyway, dad finally said you'vegot to make peace.
(14:50):
He didn't know how a treachery,honor and culture could
actually convince their enemies.
They were serious if they said,oh, we want peace now.
But that's the fun story of abook called Peace Child that Dad
wrote in the 1970s of thebreakthrough of the gospel
message among Nassaui.
Because the only way hediscovered that they could
(15:13):
convince their enemies they wereserious about making peace was
to give one of their own littleboys, newborn to the enemy, and
that boy was called the peacechild, the Tarabtim, and the
peace would last as long as thatchild lived if he lived fell
out of a canoe and got eaten bya crocodile, or got bit by a
(15:37):
death adder and died half anhour later.
The warfare could resume at anytime.
Oh, my Mom and dad had thediscernment, as they were
praying, to realize not only isthis the strangest thing they've
ever heard, it's also strangelyfamiliar.
I mean, it's the essence of thegospel Two parties at war, one
of those parties wanting sodesperately to be reconciled to
(15:59):
his enemies, he's willing togive his son, his only son, the
peace lasting as long as thatson lives.
Hebrews says he ever lives tomake intercession for us.
So dad learned a few morevocabulary words, went back to
the same group of Sawi warriors,shared the same message and
(16:23):
this time there wasn't a rippleof laughter jokes being made.
They said wait a minute.
Are you saying that Jesus was apeace child?
Dad said yes.
They said why didn't you tellus that the first time To betray
a peace child is the worstthing anybody can do?
They had a term for it.
It's called tarok gaman, whichmeans shredding the peace.
And that was the beginnings ofan amazing movement among the
(16:44):
Sawi.
And wow, I just had a front rowseat growing up there for 15
years watching the impact of thegospel message almost fast
motion.
Just the reality that thegospel is the power of God for
the salvation of those whobelieve.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Unbelievable, I mean to the listeners.
Isn't it incredible to hearthese stories and hear the
different ways the gospel getsconnected, based on a tribe or a
people group's own history andown understanding of the world?
It's like the missionaries go.
They don't know what that'sgoing to be yet because they
don't know what they don't know.
They get to know the people,they get to know the culture,
(17:23):
they get the language and thenthey start to figure out like
okay, we've had other exampleswhere it's the stomach and not
the heart and how are we goingto relate things to the stomach,
not the heart?
And now we figure out kind ofhow to do that and like this
story with the peace child likewow.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So Dustin, for the, for the Sawi was their liver.
Oh, okay, we've got anotherorgan in the game.
One of the chiefs came to mydad and said your words have
made my liver quiver.
My liver quiver and the Sawiwould have literally a ceremony
when the when the child wasgiven by their enemies, and the
warriors would gather aroundthey would lay their hands on
that child, one by one, and sayI accept this baby as a basis
for peace between us and theenemy.
And so this chief Hato saidyour words have made my liver
(18:08):
quiver.
Can you tell the Creator Godthat I want to accept his peace
child?
And my dad had the privilege ofsaying to him you know what,
hato?
I don't have to tell him, foryou.
You can express your liverdirectly and tell him you want,
you know, by faith, just expressyour liver to him.
(18:29):
And he said I want to do that,and my four wives and all our
children do too.
So dad said bring your wholefamily.
And that was the beginnings ofa major movement.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow, incredible.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Incredible.
All right, Nathan, that's goingto be a tough act to follow.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It always is.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
So let's kind of bottom up, let's go top down now
, Nathan.
Go up to the administration ofPioneers and talk through how
does an organization like yoursoperate, what's the processes
that you put into place and howdo we stay in touch?
The pioneers in our missionstatement, we entrain the church
as a core value, and thatdoesn't just mean over there,
Churches send right, we helpsend.
Part of the story is that Godhas been really faithful to use
(19:35):
American churches to have avision to go to the unreached.
Of course we want to see moreand we keep sharing that, and so
the church is a reallyimportant part of building all
of the support and systems forpeople who are going to go to
the frontier and engage anunreached people group who
(19:55):
doesn't have a gospel emissarythere.
To support that, though, thethings we bring along to help
that church and that missionaryis we have to be able to process
gifts, as that church and Godand their network rally around
that missionary to get them out.
I mean so you have hundreds ofpeople behind every missionary
who goes, and they need supportsystems so that they can give to
(20:17):
that person.
We receive those gifts well,and then we have to work on.
We now have security trainingsfor missionaries because they're
going to very tough areas,sometimes with opposition from
government, sometimes withopposition from nongovernmental
organizations.
That can range from terroriststo just well, if you're still
(20:38):
going to headhunters, there'sstill some risk, right.
So there's a range of risksthat, of course, missionaries
are accepting, but you want to,as much as possible, wrap around
them preparation and protectionfor those things, and that gets
more and more complicated asthe world gets complicated,
because then you have to beginprotecting from digital threats,
(20:59):
and God's given us some justwonderful people who actually
have skills in those areas.
But we still need to upskill ina lot of areas, including
digital.
We can talk more about that aswe talk about our 10-year vision
.
I think we can get into that.
We're excited to see pioneersgrappling with the digital
(21:19):
future of missions and whatthat's going to look like.
So there's a bunch of excitingstuff we can get into talking
about there.
But then you have to continueto build out.
How do you provide good membercare?
Missionary families are justlike us.
They're going to go throughtough seasons.
Families are just like us.
They're going to go throughtough seasons.
So how do you help them withthose tough seasons of problems
(21:40):
in marriage or with kids orconflict with teammates.
That's something that missions,as it's gotten started,
realized was a huge need to keepmissionaries from burning out,
and I think the missionscommunity continues to do a
better and better job ofwrapping support around
missionaries, but it's hard toever say that's done.
So we work hard on that keepmissionary attrition low, keep
(22:05):
people thriving, able tocontinue to pour out.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Let me pull on that thread for a second.
So what I'd like to go withthat is a lot of the teams that
we know of and support.
There's maybe three differentfamilies working in a group and
there are players with differentroles within those families.
Someone might be a giftedtranslator and someone might be
gifted in other ways.
(22:28):
How do you arrange the teams?
How do you put them together?
What are the key rolestypically that you need them to
play?
What are the size of the teams?
So, if I'm listening and I'mthinking about taking this step,
who are you going to pair withme?
Right, if I'm an offensivelineman or I'm a tight end, or
I'm a receiver or I'm a QB, whoelse is going to be with me?
(22:51):
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, I think Steve could add a lot of flesh to how
that works out on the field.
But, to start us, another corevalue is the team.
Now, first, we're focused onthe unreached right.
So we will send people to starta team by themselves as needed
to aggressively go and engagethe unreached.
But the desire is to have afull team.
(23:14):
Because you have more supportstructures, you're able to begin
to specialize and address thosedifferent needs, like you
talked about.
How that works out can be verylocally informed by the local
leadership structure we havethere, so we can assess the
individual needs in those areasrather than send people out with
some kind of maybe blind, naiveview of oh well, you will just,
(23:37):
you'll share the gospel thisway and you'll translate this
way.
We make those decisions in thecontext, trusting our field
leadership to do that.
And then, steve, from there,how would you bring some light
to that question aroundstructuring teams?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
strategically units three couples or singles as a
goal.
Obviously, when you're firstgetting it started, it might not
be that many, and then they cangrow beyond that and a lot have
(24:13):
.
Our team eventually was 45adults and even more kids from
multiple countries, and ourtarget group numbered 30 million
.
So there were as many people inthe Muslim target group that
Marlene and I served as therewere in the Roman Empire in the
time of the Apostle Paul.
So most teams get up to maybe 6, 8, 10 adults.
(24:38):
So ours was unusual for sure.
But again, like Nathan said, itdepends on the context.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
If you've got a team in a major city in Japan or in
Cairo working with Sudaneserefugees, you know it's going to
look different than it does inthe jungles of Southeast Asia,
Sure sure I've mentionedNehemiah plenty of times, but I
feel like he's just worthmentioning again because when
(25:07):
you answered the question,nathan, you were very humble and
careful to say we're notfitting every square peg into
our round hole.
We're not like here's how we doit and we're sending this with
the same structure.
You're saying, no, we haveteams there that are present,
people that are present,leadership there that knows the
(25:30):
culture, knows the groups, hasan understanding of what's
needed.
And so it's this long processof prayer and intercession and
asking okay, what's the rightamount of people, what's the
right strategy, what's the righttiming?
Y'all are going back and forthin that conversation and a lot
of folks that decide to stepinto missions.
(25:51):
I think there's maybe a coupleways to do it.
You hear Todd Aaron talk andhe's like put a map on a wall
and throw a dart at the mapright and go there right, kind
of as one way.
But then there's also this likeI just want to serve, I don't
know where I'm going to beneeded yet.
I'm coming into thisopen-handed and then the couple
or the family or the individualgets to know y'all.
Y'all get to know them.
You kind of figure out whattheir gift is and you're like,
(26:13):
hey, this team is getting readyto go here, or this team's got
this need and I think you fitthat need.
So it's like a bit of achessboard right or a game of
risk, I guess might be a betterway to say it.
You're putting your players inthe different countries in the
different spots.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
It's a blend of strategic need and individual
gifting and we found that aslong as we had kind of a macro
strategy of how we wereintending to see a church
movement among this people group, then you ask what are you
gifted at?
What's your experience?
Like?
We had on our team somebody hada master's degree in community
development from Johns Hopkins,so he started a sub-team, he and
(26:52):
his wife really leveragingtheir expertise to help advance
the gospel.
Another guy had run a printshop in Philadelphia, a
successful printing company.
We put him in charge of themedia aspect of our strategy for
reaching these 30 millionpeople and he just went with it
and it was just so good becausewe had a strategy.
But forcing individuals to workoutside of their area of
(27:15):
gifting, you're kind of askingfor long-term trouble if you try
to sustain that for too long.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah Well, I'd say that works in how we run a
company and how we run a teamwithin a company as well right
Understanding your people andtheir roles and responsibilities
, how they feel valued, whatmatters to them, right, and then
setting them up for success.
The other thing that I thinkI'd like to hear y'all comment
on is when you have multiplepeople working in a group, then
you have an opportunity for onefamily to leave for a little
(27:44):
while on respite and come backand see their family and rest
and recuperate and the workcontinues.
You talked kind of through thatstrategy.
What's the cycle or the rhythm?
How does that typically work?
I know sometimes it's informedby health needs and family needs
and things like that, butotherwise, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
No, that really helps a lot to have continuity,
create continuity and even ifyou reflect back in the book of
Acts and the Apostle Paul'smissionary journeys, he always
took people with him and oftenthose people ended up staying or
getting reassigned.
So I think in a team it's goodto have some people who have a
(28:26):
really long-term commitment.
And then there are others whocome, maybe for a period of time
, for a season, and they helpwith a specialty.
One lady came out in ourexperience and spent two or
three weeks with my wife my wifetranslated every word training
people how to make quilts,people who had been jobless, and
(28:46):
they ended up starting aministry that has produced
thousands of quilts andgenerated millions of dollars
worth of revenue and helped leadhundreds of people to Christ.
All because this lady came outfrom Colorado and spent three
weeks of her time to help trainpeople.
I feel like I've read a bookabout this, steve.
Yeah, she wrote it up.
It's called Threads.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
That's right.
Threads is in our library athome.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Tell us a little bit.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Dive into that a little bit more.
Pull on that thread, if youwill, for us.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It quilts in the tropics.
I mean, only God would think ofthat.
But we had people from Dubaipurchasing these things,
australia, the US and we'dformed cooperatives in the
villages.
The Christians became thebenefactors, the people willing
to invite others into gettingjobs.
So even when they wereostracized from their
(29:39):
communities because of theirfaith, they ended up having a
skill that they could transfergenerously to the people who had
been persecuting them.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Today that ministry actually is supporting several
dozen church planning efforts incountries all around the world
that if I'm a little older in myyears and I haven't maybe had a
career working, but I know howto knit, or quilt or sew or
(30:14):
these other skills.
There's a place, clearly, wherewe can go out and we can teach
those things and be helpful aswell.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Dustin, you're getting me so excited because I
don't think most of us realizewhat a unique period of history
we're living in in terms of theGreat Commission.
It's an all-hands-on-deckproposition right now, and we're
like the first secondgeneration that has the option
of going anywhere almost in theworld, at least for a period of
(30:40):
time, and using virtually anygift, any background to
contribute to the advance of thegospel.
Let's go.
Yeah, let's go, dustin, you gotme going here.
Let me mention one more thing.
There are 100 million Americansover the age of 55, and
millions of people are retiringand wondering you know, am I
(31:03):
going to play golf?
You know, full-time for thenext 15, 20 years?
And I would love to challengepeople if you're in that age
group, if you're like 60, even65.
We have a worker who's beenserving 21 years in a valley in
Central Asia.
She's the only witness to thegospel in that entire valley, in
(31:26):
an unreached area.
She's been there 21 years andguess what?
She's 87 years old.
She started when she was about66.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Amazing.
Talk about running that fullrace right.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, if you hear of someone who's been overseas 21
years, you think they gotstarted in their 20s, so it's
not too late, and it doesn'tmean you have to go somewhere
necessarily.
There's just so many differentways.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah it's just fantastic.
In my day job, we talk a lotabout this concept of retirement
and I'll ask you a question,both of you.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
You may have heard me say this before so you may know
the answer, but how many timesis retirement mentioned in the
Bible?
Yeah, I would say it's not.
Maybe I'm wrong there, but it'sone.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay, what is it?
It's one and it's way back inthe Torah and it's for Levitical
priests.
God says that 55 Leviticalpriests get to retire.
Okay, so if your job has beenso intense that you've had to
run a 24-7 barbecue restaurantand skinning and tanning
operation and do it allperfectly, or anyone could
(32:32):
vaporize at any moment then youget to step out, okay.
Otherwise, for the rest of us,there is no biblical concept of
retirement.
So this whole thing where we'relike we're going to work until
we're 60 or 62 or 65, and SocialSecurity and this, and that
it's cultural, it's not biblical.
It's not how God made us right,and so we've built an entire
(32:55):
industry on it.
We've got people living theirlives, trying to get to a
certain point to do what youjust said, to play golf, et
cetera and I'm going to playgolf today.
Clint and I both are actually.
So that's okay, it's okay, butit's not the only thing, right,
and I think it's beautiful thatyou're inviting and challenging
folks to say there is somethingmore for you.
(33:16):
There's not a dull gray voidthat has no purpose for you.
That has no purpose for you,right, when you step out of your
career, but there is so muchmore and you can do it here.
If you've got a big family andkids and grandkids and you want
to stay involved and help, thatdoesn't mean you can't help.
You absolutely can still help.
But if God's got it on yourheart to go see the world right,
(33:39):
go experience this creation,then you have an opportunity, if
you call pioneers, to go workwith teams established in 100
different countries over halfthe countries on the earth,
right, and there's going tocontinue to be new people groups
that y'all are going into.
Is that Nathan?
Am I right?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
There's going to continue to be.
I mean, our 10-year vision isto go from the 441 unreached
people groups that we have apresence among right now and
place people to engage another250.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Another 250 groups.
Okay, yes, so if everybodylistening to this episode, all
right, get involved in one ofthose 250 some way and we'll
have multiple people involved inevery people group.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Just from who's going to hear this.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Tell us more about the 10-year plan, Nathan.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
That's another part of just this healing.
I have of gratitude that God'skind of pulled me into something
that he's doing and I get to behere for it.
We've spent really the last twoyears or so, steve, on a really
robust analysis of futuretrends and strategic planning
(34:51):
and looking out where could theworld be in 10 years.
What are the possible futures.
We're not going to predict thefuture, but you can look and you
can see where trends like AI,where they're going, where they
could land you in 10 years.
And then you start askingyourself how do we try to
(35:13):
intersect with that To make surewe're not as much as it depends
upon us that we're open to beused by God in those scenarios,
and we have done work to makeourselves open to change and
even start changing now to beusable and not dinosaurs in the
(35:34):
world of 10 years from now.
And that's led us into a reallychallenging but exciting
strategic planning process.
And when everything isuncertain, you kind of need to
make sure you know where you'regoing and, as we've prayed about
it, what we should be focusingon.
Steve and the executiveleadership here, we've agreed
(35:55):
this goal of 250, it's not aboutI don't think there's any ego
in it.
I really think that's beentotally divorced.
Our mission statement sayswe're going to go engage
unreached people groups.
So what are we aiming at?
So we've decided 250 unreachedpeople groups, people in places,
(36:16):
because even people groupswe'll talk about that more.
It can be a really hard thingto define.
It's still the way to go.
Like there are groups,ethno-linguistic groups of
people that don't have a Bible,they don't have a gospel witness
, they don't have a church.
We have to go there.
This identifies the peoplegroup and the place that we need
(36:38):
to go to, and 250 seems to bethe right number to focus on to
galvanize efforts for the next10 years.
It's going to go to and 250seems to be the right number to
focus on to galvanize effortsfor the next 10 years.
It's going to be aggressive.
We're a 46-year-oldorganization.
It took us 46 years to get towhere we're currently engaging
441 unreached people groups andso we're seeking acceleration.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
So that's about 10 a year on average.
Yeah, so 100 would be continuingyour average.
So you're two and a half, x-ingthat over 10.
But you're utilizing AI andyou're utilizing the technology
and the new methods and you'reembracing them and you're saying
we're not going to be thedinosaur that always does things
(37:20):
the way we always have.
We're going to step into thisnew future.
I would argue the two moststrategic methods to step into
for the next 10 years is thetech and AI and the wings of
business.
Right, it's partnering withbusiness leaders and companies
and folks that are runningorganizations that are already
in and behind hostile borders,already have established
(37:43):
relationships and are alreadynot just doing business there
but establishing greatrelationships with government
leadership there because theyare bringing such commerce and a
lift in the economy.
And you take the AI, thetranslation and the things that
we can do there and theinterface that allows us to
collaborate and work together.
(38:04):
And, by the way, we've had CraigBradley on with Seed Bible and
what he's working on with theopen source code where
translators can work together.
We're getting ready to record aspecial episode with a guy
that's already built an entirechatbot that all he's ever let
the large language model, theLLM, read is the Bible and
(38:26):
trusted commentaries and so youcan interact with it, and it's
already out in beta and thereare.
You know what?
The most questions in the worldare coming in right now?
From Indonesia, of all places,I know right and so it's so
encouraging to see these methodsall coming together.
You said it, Steve.
You said now you got fired upthere for a second, You're like
(38:48):
now is this time engaged in thatprocess, leveraging those tools
.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
For example, I remember when there were only
four known believers in Mongolia.
Today we have around 40Mongolians in Pioneers serving
(39:12):
internationally.
How about that?
And it's fantastic.
So you know.
Obviously it's not just NorthAmericans, it's the whole church
to the whole world.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, I mean, I think the first person I ever heard
say it was Kirby Holmes withStoryline, when he said the
mission field has become themission force.
And he may not have coined it,but he's the first one I heard
say it.
That's so exciting, isn't itthough?
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah it is, Isn't it though.
And you have to hold in tensionthe fact that God is doing so
many amazing things and thechurch is really growing on the
one hand.
On the other hand, there arestill such overwhelming needs
and still over 7,000 unreachedpeople groups.
So you've got to be careful notto get apathetic thinking, oh,
(39:56):
the job's already been done, and, on the other hand, get
discouraged and think that we'renot really making an impact.
There's realities all mixed inthere.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Two key points I want to make.
First, do you understand, ifyou're listening to this, do you
understand how intentionalPioneers is operating with
excellence, that they're meetingwith the other key players,
collaborating at the highestlevels?
They're asking the hardquestions.
They're double checking theirwork.
Are we still doing it the bestway?
(40:26):
Are there new ways to consider?
That is so encouraging?
And second, get in the game.
Get in the game to Steve'spoint Now.
I don't know if he wants totalk about what his next project
is that's sitting on his deskright now or not, but you can if
you'd like.
But I know Steve's an author.
I think he's working on a newbook and I think he's trying to
(40:50):
encourage continue to encourageall of us.
You know, use the gifts youhave, play a role, find a way,
steve.
What are you working on, steve?
What?
Speaker 2 (41:01):
are you working on?
I'm working on a book thatwe're tentatively calling Silver
and Bold, with the idea of, asI mentioned earlier, challenging
thousands of people, if nothundreds of thousands, in the
body of Christ to engage atleast five to ten years in what
we're talking about later inlife.
(41:21):
You know, say, 55 and older.
It shouldn't be that hard to doand we can help you do it.
You know we think ofinvestments you're much better
at knowing that arena than I ambut people think of invest.
How can I invest monetarily?
Well, you know, for later inlife, how much do we think about
investing our lives foreternity?
Speaker 1 (41:42):
How much?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
do we think about investing our lives for eternity
, because that's really theultimate game?
I think that's a challengingthought.
How do I best invest myremaining years for eternity?
Speaker 3 (41:53):
For my part, I would want to leave people encouraged
again.
Things do seem to beaccelerating, as Steve noted.
The global workforce that isemerging Brazilians, egyptians,
mongolians joining and theneverything we're talking about
no matter your age, no matteryour location, being able to get
(42:15):
involved digitally.
That's accelerating, and sowhen we all work together, this
job can get done.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
There you go, love that.
Thank you for saying that.
All right, let's wrap it up,steve.
We always ask the guests topray for the listeners, but
anytime we have somebody that'sbilingual and has worked in a
group, we would love it if youwould pray first in another
language group so that we canhear you pray and the people can
hear somebody pray in alanguage they haven't heard, can
hear you pray and the peoplecan hear somebody pray in a
(42:44):
language they haven't heardbefore, and then translate and
close us out in.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
English.
All right will do.
Thank you, lord, that you arethe wonderful creator, the one
who is all-powerful,all-gracious, and that you have,
in Jesus, provided us with away to salvation.
Lift our eyes, we pray afreshto the harvest and the needs
(43:41):
around us, in Jesus' name, amenand amen.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Thank you, gentlemen, thank you for listening to
Unreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, dgroup,wherever you do life, and if
(44:08):
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
You, you, you, thank you.
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