Una Entrevista con el Director
de Servicios Para Grupos Etnicos
de EE Internacional
(2006-11-04)

Ed is EE’s International Director of People Group Services. Elenore, his wife, is Coordinator of Training for People Group Services. Multiply Magazine had opportunity to visit with them about their ministry.

MM: What have you been asked to do for EE?
Ed: As EE, in the 1990s, reached its goal to enter every nation on earth, it became obvious that merely entering every country was not the same as establishing an EE ministry among every people group in the world. The Lord laid it on the hearts of Dr. D. James Kennedy, EE Executive Vice President Rev. John B. Sorensen, and his EE staff to pursue practical strategies for reaching not just every nation, but every people group. We are grateful to be a part of that plan.

MM: What do we mean when we speak of "people groups"?
Ed: Sometimes they are called "first nations peoples" since they are the people who populated a given region prior to colonialization. Some call them "minority ethnolinguistic groups" because they are fewer in number, or less in power, than other groups that dominate a given country. A related phrase is "indigenous language communities" which focuses more on the linguistic aspect of cultural identity. Whatever the term, EE's concern is to equip Christ-followers of every ethnicity to be true disciplemakers.

MM: How many people groups are there in the world?
Ed: The 2005 edition of the Ethnologue lists 6,912. The Joshua Project lists over 10,000 — or over 16,000 if you count groups more than once to account for each nation where they are located.

MM: We've read various opinions that an overwhelming percentage of the world's languages are becoming extinct. Won't that make evangelism and discipleship increasingly easier?
Ed: The languages that are heading for extinction are primarily those with very few speakers and where there is an insufficient social context to support the on-going use of those languages from one generation to the next. Some will last just one more generation and some may yet last another few generations. In round numbers, about 1600 living languages — almost one quarter of the world's languages — have less than 1000 speakers each; their total combined population is around 471,000 speakers which is less than 0.008% of the world's population. The passing of these languages is very sad for many reasons, not the least of which is that it means the demise of the unique and rich ways that their languages can describe the greatness of God in praise and adoration for Him who created all languages.
How will their passing affect evangelism and discipleship? As a given language becomes extinct, one or more generations in the middle of that sociolinguistic transition commonly go through a period in which they speak a non-standard form of the language they are transitioning to. That they are moving toward speaking a language of wider communication may lead others to think they understand more than they really do. This is where personal evangelism becomes almost the single most important strategy for reaching such people, providing that one doesn't just "preach at" the person, but rather utilizes interactive conversation to patiently and respectfully check for understanding. I have also observed up close cases in western Guatemala in which a sudden, externally obligated switch to another language actually left people with a reduced total language fluency that made it harder to communicate with them. In other situations, the social, political, religious and economic conditions contributing to the death of a language may actually raise barriers that will make it more difficult to have communication with some people groups. I've observed how some of those factors that force language change can leave a bitterness in their wake that creates a significant attitudinal barrier.

On the other hand, if people genuinely embrace a language of wider communication such that it becomes a true heart language which gives them facility for in-depth communication even about spiritual things, then this has the potential to be very beneficial to them. Receiving those benefits is not automatic however, so we should not presume upon it as westerners frequently do. All in all, the consolidation of languages is a very mixed bag that is more complex and problematic than most people realize.

MM: How did you first sense God's call to this ministry?
Ed: As university students, we attended InterVarsity's Urbana missions conferences. We said "yes" to the challenge to go anywhere, any time, to do any task that the Lord might call us to. Later, as Elenore was reading a news article about a recently discovered tribe, she sensed the Lord telling her to go translate his Word for a people group like that. I heard God's call while watching a movie about the Awakatek people and how the Word of God in their language impacted them. We believed that God was leading us into a Bible translation ministry for a previously unwritten language, so we took the anthropology, applied linguistics, literacy, translation and cross-cultural training to prepare us for that. By the grace of God, in 2005 the published New Testament was presented to the Maya-Tektitek people of western Guatemala.

MM: And how did you get involved in EE?
Ed: During a furlough, my wife took the EE training at Long Hill Chapel in Chatham, New Jersey. Upon returning to Guatemala we found people wanting that sort of practical training. One thing led to another, and eventually the work divided into several ministries in Guatemala: Kids' EE, Youth EE, Adult EE, and EE for Indigenous People. This latter ministry spread to more than 40 different language groups in six different countries. To get an idea of the international scope of EE, my first formal training in EE was in Spanish — in New York City and only later that I received EE training in English — in the Philippines. I love working in an organization that is multinational, multicultural and multilingual.

MM: What was it that led you to develop a specially adapted version of EE for indigenous people?
Ed: In a word, results. We simply could not ignore the fact that Mayans were not able to effectively apply the standard EE training. In contrast, when it was contextualized to be a linguistic and cultural fit for them, they were able to readily capture the vision and strategies, and became effective implementers.

MM: It sounds like you have an overwhelming task ahead of you. What motivates you to do this?
Ed: Bringing indigenous peoples to Jesus is the passion of my heart—and my wife's. We believe that this is very close to God's heart, too. When history draws to a close and the Lord Jesus is revealed, Revelation 5:9 and 7:9 clearly tells us that people of every tribe, language, people, and nation, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, will gather in worship before God's throne. We want to be a strategic part of that great movement of God's Spirit in our generation to prepare for that great day. We have personal friends who are indigenous people, some of whom are still in heavy bondage to Satan's chains. Others have been freed and are giving testimony to the grace of God in their lives. Some are EE trainers, others are currently in training. We have dedicated our lives to ministering to them.

MM: What opportunities are there for people to partner with you in providing EE training for indigenous people?
Ed: We will need a vast support team for this. It comes down to the pray-give-go triad. There is a desperate need for people who will pray, not just once in a while for a fleeting moment, but who will regularly talk with God, lifting up before him the amazing opportunities that we have around the world. We also need financial donors who want to help make it possible for pastors and Christian leaders from among the world's poorest peoples to receive EE training. EE has set up the "Indigenous Peoples" fund (#1490) for that purpose. Thirdly, we need people who will personally get the specialized training that will be needed for them to become what we are calling EE Ethnic Contextualization Specialists. Finally, we are looking for churches and other ministries worldwide who share our passion for serving the world's indigenous people and who would like to consider how we might partner together.