78 People Groups Explored!
Olivia Hudson, Missionary Explorer - Taking the Great Pursuit to the city
One of the biggest misperceptions about Project 3000 is that ALL missionary explorers trek to remote, hard-to-reach villages. The truth is unengaged, unreached people groups are found in cities, too. They are hidden in plain sight!
My name is Olivia Hudson, and I'm one of your IMB missionary explorers researching in various cities throughout Europe to find these unseen peoples. Spend the day with me on a “city adventure” to find an unengaged, unreached people group (UUPG). . . .
Together, let’s pray for the Holy Spirit to show my team where to make connections. During this time of prayer, I also do a deep dive into researching the people group. This shows there are a lot of information holes. We’ve got a lot of questions to answer.
9 AM: We arrive in this new city by train and hail a taxi. As it “turns out,” this taxi driver is from the UUPG we are researching! (It’s amazing how often the Holy Spirit arranges this.) His parents immigrated 40 years ago but he considers himself from this group. He shares the differences between cultures of this group in the city versus “back home.” Interesting fact: Even though the local language is a requirement for residency here, they still speak his people’s language at home.
10:30 AM: I like to take a hop-on, hop-off bus tour to get a feel for the city and pray over it. I take notes of places, parks, churches, and natural gathering places. My supervisor often says, “When you don’t know what to do, do evangelism!” So that’s why I try to keep track of these places. I know from experience that God shows up, and I want to be ready.
2 PM: We are blessed with our national partner today. He is from the people group we are looking for, only he lives elsewhere. (This doesn’t always happen.) Our partner knows of a pastor who might be able to help us. When we meet up with this pastor, we find out his small congregation has several nationalities. He invites us to join two churches doing street evangelism.
4 PM: One of my greatest joys is working alongside local believers and passing on the vision of sharing the gospel and multiplying churches. As we work with these churches, I spend a lot of time praying for them and the people we meet. I don’t understand most of the conversations, but I know people heard the good news on the main streets of this city today! We are Egyptian, Iraqi, Iranian, and American followers of Christ working together. We hand out gospel materials and Bibles in Serbian, Persian, German, Farsi, and English. It’s beautiful to see the nations come together to shine the light of Jesus in this spiritually lost location!
9 PM: Back at the hostel, we make loose plans for the next day before going to bed. We plan to go to a museum focused on this area’s history. I want to ask questions about the people groups that have moved here over the last few decades. I learned a lot about the area during our street evangelism time but need to validate some information. I’ll also visit some locations the church members and taxi driver suggested today: ethnic restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, and those parks we marked earlier in the day.
My days never look the same in the city, yet I always look forward to discovering the connections God leads me to. His guidance is essential in this Great Pursuit. Thanks for your continued support!
Olivia Hudson, IMB Missionary Explorer
John Pratt, Missionary Explorer: Prayer reveals "Lamb of God"
Prayer is vital. My name is John Pratt, and as a missionary explorer, prayer gets me through the day. Believe it or not, I’m still astonished when I encounter answers to prayers.
The best example of this is probably the craziest event so far in my time with Project 3000. It all started with a Bible study my national partner and I did one morning. We talked about God guiding us to people He has prepared by His sovereignty.
Afterward, we drove around for hours with no luck finding anyone open to talk with us. I prayed aloud with the idea from the Bibles study in mind. I asked God for a sign on where to stop. Then, I felt like I should turn our motorcycle onto a road that eventually led us into a small village.
Spray painted on the wall of the first building we saw was “Lamb of God.” No way could we miss that sign, especially when underneath it sat 20 men from the unengaged, unreached people group we had been searching for all day!
My national partner and I sat with the men for four hours learning about their people. One of them invited us to his home. In the next two hours, we drank chai and presented the gospel. He prayed to receive Christ!
As I think back to that day, I wonder: How long had that sign been painted on that wall? How long had these men been there, unknowingly waiting for us to pull up on a road that didn’t even make sense for us to be on? How often do we miss opportunities just like this one to see the power of Christ’s hand at work because we don’t seek His direction?
Thank you for your prayers and gifts to the Project 3000 teams, helping us find these peoples who have no one else trying to reach them with the gospel.
John Pratt, IMB Missionary Explorer
(Names changed for security)
Project 3000 Impact Data and Progress
300 explorers over 5 years to explore 3,072 unengaged people groups
19 Missionary Explorers commissioned and sent
98 Explorer positions open
78 People groups explored
1,273 Gospel conversations
28 New believers
21 Leaders trained
Data as of March 13, 2024
Thank you for your unwavering support and generosity toward Reaching 3000 Unengaged Unreached People Groups (Project 3000). We are truly grateful for your partnership!
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“I am so tired and so dirty and so happy; 11 people prayed to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord,” Drew* writes. Drew is a Project 3000 Missionary Explorer, traveling from village to village in a remote corner of the world.
“I have learned more than I ever expected, yet I have never felt more inadequate or less confident. The moments of physical struggle have been few and spread out but extreme. While trying to reach remote villages of UUPGs, I experienced an uncontrollable diet, food poisoning, bus rides with nausea, and nights on a village floor with 12 other guys.
“On my ‘best’ days, I have been humbled by blank stares or angry shouts as I gave a well-polished gospel presentation. I have experienced sickness and had national partners unexpectedly not show up, slowing down my ‘great’ plans for traveling to new villages.
“On my ‘worst’ days, I have seen the Lord move in ways I could have never imagined. My team sits hungry, tired, and thirsty under the shade of a tree, fumbling through a gospel presentation, and still, a dozen people from the UUPG come to faith!
“Any reliance on self or confidence in self has been stripped away. I have never felt more sure of my calling and more confident in my position as a servant of the Lord than I feel now.”
Thank you for partnering with the International Mission Board, Drew, and 28 other Explorers to shine the light of Christ into places no one has previously taken the gospel.
We count on your partnership in prayer:
Pray for Explorers like Drew as they trek to “the end of the earth,” bringing good news. Ask the Lord to provide for their physical, mental, and spiritual needs despite isolation.