New name – Ethnos360

We appreciate your faithful prayers for the Tigak (“tee-gahk”) people. The believers have made a plan and will begin, this week, teaching twice a week on a nearby island from Creation to Christ. It will take several months of commitment to clearly work through each lesson and lay the foundation for the truths of God’s Word. It is key for the Tigak to understand who God is and what His character is and how the Savior was promised and how His coming fulfilled all the prophecies given hundreds of years earlier. So often tribal people groups want to add Jesus to their existing animistic beliefs so it is crucial for them to grasp that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the ONLY road to salvation. Please pray that the church will grow in unity as they work together to reach a new community and that they would be consistent in teaching as distractions will inevitably arise.

We also wanted to let you know that New Tribes Mission – USA has a new name. New Tribes Mission is already known by different names in different countries so this change is just for NTM-USA. The new name is Ethnos 360. Ethnos is a Greek word meaning “nations, tribes or people groups” and 360 degrees refers to the whole world, so this is right in line with our goal of reaching the least reached people groups of the world. The goals of NTM have not changed since it was founded 75 years ago and the way we go about ”doing missions” is not changing. In some areas of the world “tribes” has a negative connotation and some tribes have heard the Gospel at some point but maybe not clearly, so “new” isn’t completely accurate. There are also countries where going in as a “mission” is not possible. These are a couple of the reasons for the name change. It is going to take some getting used to but we are happy to be part of a mission that clearly presents the Gospel and disciples believers to maturity and builds New Testament churches in the least reached areas of the world.