Frequently Asked Questions
How do you make a living?
Ethnos360 workers are responsible to raise financial support to pay their salary and ministry expenses. They are expected to look to God, trusting only in Him; while making their needs known to their sending churches as well as other interested churches and individuals.
Will you ever come back to visit?
Yes. Home Assignment is a time for missionaries to return to the US, reconnect with churches, friends and family, and a time to rejuvenate. Generally, missionaries go on Home Assignment once every 2 to 4 years. The time spent in the US is usually from 6 months to a year, depending on how long their term on the field was.
Why does it take so long to 'reach' a people group?
To answer this question, it would be helpful to understand the making of a missionary and the journey he takes. The journey probably starts out with attending 2 years of Bible School. Then the candidate attends 3-5 semesters at the Missionary Training Center, after which, he becomes a full member of New Tribes Mission. He begins sharing his ministry with people in order to gain a support base of fellow believers who will pray for him, encourage him, and support him financially. This could take a year or more. Now our missionary is finally on the field! But before he goes to a tribal location, he must learn the trade language of the country. Assuming he is in Brazil, this would be Portuguese. After spending about a year studying to become proficient in Portuguese, he will probably move to a tribal location that speaks a completely different language. He may be joining a missionary team in an existing work or forging the way with a fresh team into a new location. It will probably take him more than 2 years to become a proficient speaker of the language and become knowledgeable about their culture and worldview. If literacy needs to be taught, this should be done by someone on the missionary team before beginning Bible teaching. But as the missionary learns their customs and builds relationships with them, this is a great time to begin asking them questions that make them think about their worldview. They should begin to sense a tension between their worldview and the truth the missionary possesses. Someone needs to translate Bible lessons from English into the tribal language and develop the lessons so that they communicate the truth in a culturally relevant manner. Once he (or someone on his team) speaks well enough to teach, he will begin teaching them the Scriptures from Creation to Christ. This will take about 6 months. If there are believers, a new baby church is born, and he begins discipling the believers. As he disciples the believers, he trains some of them to be teachers and leaders in the church so it can eventually be self-governing and self-propagating. The goal is to see the church thriving and functioning on its own, and even reaching out to neighboring villages. This process can take at least 6 more years (probably even more).