It took weeks of research, both online and in person, to come up with a guess on where the Sys people lived in South Asia. Even then, the information contradicted itself. One finding listed 300 people among the group while another had 230,000. There was not even a digital footprint for International Mission Board missionary John Pratt to follow in his search for this unengaged, unreached people group.
Despite being on a list of 3,072 unengaged people groups in the world, Pratt wondered if the Sys still existed, let alone if they’d ever heard the gospel. It’s his job, along with 39 other missionary explorers, to find and research these people groups as part of the IMB’s Project 3000 initiative. Many of these groups are considered unengaged with the gospel for a reason — remote locations, other religious beliefs or, as in the case of the Sys, lack of information.
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In the last three years, teams made up of IMB missionaries or missionary explorers, translators and local believers have found 337 of these people groups and engaged 121 with the gospel for the very first time.
Wait. That math doesn’t math. If an unengaged group is located, doesn’t that mean it is now engaged and taken off the UUPG list? No.
According to Kelly Zbinden, IMB’s Project 3000 global coordinator, this just means the people groups have been “explored” — pockets of the group located with cultural aspects, language, literature and religious beliefs curated. He offered these definitions to help explain:
Unengaged: Lacks Christian presence. No known active strategy for sharing the gospel among the people group.
Unreached: Less than 2% of the people group identify as evangelical Christian. Lack sufficient indigenous believers to evangelize their own people without outside assistance.
“It’s also not considered ‘engaged’ if a team — missionary or church volunteers — meets an unengaged people group, shares the gospel and then leaves after a day or two,” Zbinden explained. “For a people group to be considered engaged, there needs to be a sustained gospel focus and presence.”
Researchers from IMB and other like-minded organizations make the ultimate decision to take a people group off the list. They use mounds of data and technology to support their findings.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Sue Sprenkle and originally published by the International Mission Board.
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