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| Ross Nancarrow |
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From our Chairman
 I am often asked, “How are we progressing in our goal to reach the last, most isolated people groups with the Gospel of Jesus?” Recent reflection on that question led me to consider a watershed moment while leaving church one Sunday a few years ago. As I left the church that day I read the sign on the exit door ‘You are now entering your mission field’, it occurred to me that if ‘MISSIONS’ is anything outside the church parking lot in Australia, why would anybody want to go and minister Jesus where there is no electricity in another country? Yet, that is exactly where the people groups live which have been least impacted by the Church and Christianity as a whole – these last remaining people groups are still largely unaware that Jesus came to earth some 2000 years ago and died for their sins to redeem them to our Creator, God. Current statistics tell us that there are still some 3000 people groups which do not have access to the Gospel nor indigenous functioning mature churches capable of reproducing themselves with God’s Word in their own language.
Each month, we receive a ‘NEEDS’ email from a neighbouring country to Australia outlining gaps in our missionary ranks. 19 Positions in admin/business roles; 24 positions in education of MK’s; 8 positions vacant in various construction ministries; 21 couples needed in existing church planting teams. And then this: 38 new ‘people groups’ wanting Gods word, i.e. actually asking for somebody to tell them about Jesus. This group alone represents around 120 new missionary couples needed for new outreaches in tribes who are asking for missionaries.
So how does NTM prioritise who to go to? Of all of those groups, who gets the Good News first? or second etc.? There are many perspectives to consider in answering this difficult question, but primarily we prioritise our Core Ministry Focus this way:
1. People groups which have not been impacted by the Church in any way, and which therefore have no access to the Gospel.
2. People groups which have been somehow impacted by the Church, but among which the Gospel has not been clearly presented.
3. People groups among which the Church has done - or is doing - some limited evangelical work but, because of the approach taken or some other factor, there is little promise of the truth being preserved and propagated.
Note: By “Church” we mean the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ - the universal body of believers.
As a Christian:
How would you tell the people of those tribes asking for a Christian to come that we don’t have anybody available?
How would you prioritise between these 38 tribes which ones will get the next missionary family who volunteers?
Please pray with us for more workers, ‘the harvest is great and the workers are still few’.
Ross Nancarrow
Board Chairman, NTM Australia |
My involvement with New Tribes missionaries over the past 11 years has deeply moved me. I see in the lives of ordinary men and women extraordinary commitment and dedication to building the Kingdom. 
