{"id":363,"date":"2025-06-23T22:49:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/?p=363"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:52:10","slug":"celebrating-20-years-of-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/2025\/06\/23\/celebrating-20-years-of-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 20 Years of Ministry!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just a few days ago, we celebrated our 20th<\/sup> anniversary with NTM\/Ethnos360.\u00a0 It seems surreal that 20 years ago, we finished “being trained” We were so unaware of all the ways that God would challenge us and use our lives to take the gospel to the unreached. We had so many thoughts of what it would look like, and very few were big enough! We had such small ideas of what God would do!
IF only 100 students graduated each year from the Bible school, we will have seen 2000 graduate by spring of 2026.\u00a0 We have SO many co-workers that are products of the time and resources that you have been critical in making available.\u00a0 It would be a debacle to begin writing the names of just the ACTUAL new co-laborers that have joined the Ethnos360 team during our time serving at the Bible School.\u00a0 Each family is a story of how God has used you to reach out to those who haven\u2019t heard\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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It is an interesting thing to look back on 20+ years of ministry. One of the angles I look at it from is what it has “cost.” We\u2019ve used up 11 vehicles<\/strong> since we moved to Jersey Shore in 2003.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t all been pretty, but they weren\u2019t all ugly.\u00a0 Accords and Suburbans, a few minivans, some quite a bit rusty, some a bit un-trusty. Since 2003, when we officially started training with Ethnos360 (NTM) we have made 8 moves, <\/strong>6 of which were interstate. We’ve rented and borrowed trailers, moving vans, and car dollies.
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TNT Connect software<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Another angle we look back on 20 years from is our ministry partners. We\u2019ve had nearly 400 (that we know of!) people<\/strong> that have partnered with us in prayer and financially, some of which have been partners for more than the 20 years we\u2019ve been full-time missionaries.\u00a0 There are still more that have chosen quiet anonymity from which to share from. Nearly $1 million dollars have been prayerfully set aside and sent out for our family to be part of preparing the next generation of missionaries that will, \u201c\u2026go and make disciples.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0We believe it has been worth it as we look back ! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I wanted to drive you all away, I could include an array of old prayer cards <\/strong>that really show how pleated khaki pants and floral designs are making a comeback. <\/strong>Wouldn\u2019t that be terrifying?<\/p>\n\n\n

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But I think the angle that is sharpest for me, is that of \u201cthe dorm kids.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>Almost every year, as a family, we \u2018adopt\u2019 a dorm (or 2, or 4\u2026) from the Bible school students.\u00a0 They’d come over for creamer with coffee, or to help me eat some chocolate chip cookies, or for a quiet place to study. Some of our 1st<\/sup> dorm kids were part of the welcoming committee for Adelaide when she came home from the hospital.\u00a0 They were like big sisters to Emma and Josie and Addie.\u00a0 They helped us paint her nursery. Now they\u2019re serving with us as co-workers in FL, in the Philippines, and South Asia.\u00a0 IF we averaged only 5 \u2018dormkins\u2019 a year, we\u2019d be looking at 100 quasi-adopted kids!\u00a0 I\u2019m certain that number is very conservative because I remember a couple years when we had 3 dorms of single guys.\u00a0 Pizza night looked a little different trying to fill up 18 college sized stomachs! You should know that they wouldn’t have even had a couch to sit on if it wasn’t for your partnership. Thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enough reminiscing, probably.
Up to this point, the year has been “full.” An understatement, I realize, and possibly unnecessary to say, but year to date has felt more scattered than usual. I’ll try and share some highlights…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January, I had the opportunity to update the church in Charlotte, MI.\u00a0 It was a good visit with family and friends that have been ministry partners with us for-almost-ever.\u00a0 Some of the church family there have been with us since 1998!\u00a0 It has been a blessing to continue to partner with them to see the Good News of Christ travel around the world. To KNOW that they care for us as family, want to let the world know that God offers hope though Christ, and have <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This spring, over the course of 15 weeks, I taught through another session of the Next Steps class for Bible school students.  The class is intended to begin to prepare students for the social, spiritual, and technical rigors of the transitional period between EBI and ETC (the training center in Missouri where they\u2019ll begin to learn the culture and language acquisition skills needed.)  It is always a challenge to try and condense years of practice into a systematic format that is helpful.  It\u2019s also a great personal reminder of how much I appreciate you all, for being so faithful to pray for us and for your generous financial partnership! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the other major ongoing ‘projects’ for Tamara and I, that we are continuously working on, is connecting with students that have finished the Bible school but have not gone onto the next phase of training.\u00a0 This used to be incredibly difficult, but now it\u2019s only \u201ckinda tricky with a lot of double checking of information.\u201d \u00a0It appears that students often move away from home or may even have the nerve to get their own phone numbers after they apply for Bible school! At times, it’s a good bit technical (or “nerdy” if you’re a 12 year old named Isaac) with all the data management and querying that is needed in finding those that say, \u201cWe\u2019d like to be contacted…\u201d\u00a0 When we succeed, this is OFTEN encouraging as we get to hear what God has been doing in their lives (and He has ALWAYS been working!)\u00a0 This is a great area for you to pray with us, as it takes much patience to make the connection and wisdom and creativity as we try to rebuild the relationships and (often) remind them of the vision for serving the cause of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a similarly nerdy vein, we spent some time this spring helping a team working to get some objective metrics needed for the accreditation process.\u00a0 Quite exciting stuff it was, trying to decide the most effective ways to ask survey questions.\u00a0 Okay, maybe not exciting, but definitely a team effort.\u00a0 And EBI is on track to be fully accredited with TRACS!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, and certainly not least, we celebrated EBI Graduation a month ago.
83 students graduated\u00a0–\u00a062 on-campus students and\u00a021 online students.\u00a0 The oldest senior was 44 years old, and the youngest senior was 18 years old. \u00a045% intend to pursue full-time missions! \u00a037% with Ethnos360 Mission and 8% with another mission.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers and hearts!\u00a0 We\u2019re recognizing more and more how much we need each of you in this ministry! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if we can assist you in sharing the need for bible translation workers and unreached people group discipleship ministry with your family\/friends\/churches\/neighbors or anyone else you can think of, don’t hesitate to reach out with an email or call\/text! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 years with Ethnos360 looks different than we thought it would!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,2052],"tags":[411],"class_list":{"0":"post-363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-family","7":"category-ministry","8":"category-news-article","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}