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Sunday School

The Homes of Ethnos 360

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This lesson provides an update on the ministry of Ethnos 360 (formerly New Tribes Mission), focusing on the retirement homes in Sanford, Florida, and how every part of the mission organization works together as a team. We are reminded that caring for retired missionaries is not peripheral to the Great Commission—it directly enables field workers to stay on the field, fulfills biblical mandates to care for widows and saints, and extends the kingdom through prayer and practical service.

Key Lessons:

  1. Ministry is a team effort—pilots, teachers, IT workers, housekeepers, and retirees all play vital roles in getting the gospel to unreached peoples.
  2. Caring for aging missionaries is a biblical mandate rooted in hospitality, provision for widows, and honoring those who have devoted their lives to the Lord’s work.
  3. Retired missionaries continue to advance the kingdom through prayer, translation work, volunteering at headquarters, and offering experienced counsel to younger workers.
  4. Volunteers and supporters are essential to sustaining the ministry, and every act of service—from cleaning rooms to pouring concrete—contributes to the global mission.

Application: We are called to see missions as an interconnected body where every role matters, to consider how we can practically support missionaries in all stages of life, and to pray for staffing needs at ministry organizations like the Ethnos 360 homes.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does our view of “real missionary work” need to expand to include support roles like maintenance, IT, housekeeping, and elder care?
  2. What responsibility do local churches have toward missionaries who are aging and retiring with limited financial resources?
  3. In what practical ways could our church body volunteer or support organizations that care for retired missionaries?

Scripture Focus: Matthew 28:19-20 (the Great Commission and the word “ethnos” for all nations); 1 Corinthians 16:15-16 (the household of Stephanus ministering to the saints); 1 Timothy 5 (caring for widows and honoring those who serve).

Outline

Introduction

School. Today we are welcoming our guests, Brian and Susan Shortmire, kingdom workers with Ethnos 360, formerly New Tribes Missions. We supported the Short Meers for about 20 years, I think. And out of their 26 ministry years, is that the right number?

26.

Okay. Wow.

Okay. Wow. So 26 while they were in Papa Nagini and then another 15 in various leadership and administrative roles in the US. So, we’ve gotten to support them for part of that and we continue to support them. Most re most most recently, Brian has served as the executive director of the homes of Ethnos 360, the residential community for retired missionaries in Sanford, Florida. Brian is going to give us an update on the Ethnos 360 ministry during our Sunday school hour today. And so, we thank you, Brian, and please come and take it away.

Good morning.

From New Jersey to Papua New Guinea

Okay. As pastor said, we’ve been, moving around for a while. We took I actually I’m from I’m here from I’m from central Jersey. I grew up in Warren and then I Oh, I’m too loud.

Oh, let’s just in case here, let me take this out. I don’t want that it’s horrible if the preacher stone even rings, right? Okay.

Well, I grew up in Warren and then, I was attending a church in Scatoaway, went into training with what was then called New Tribes Mission, and that’s where I met Susan. She’s from southern New Jersey outside of Philly and we met in Pennsylvania in the training with new transmission and while there we started dating, got engaged, got married and as we were what we were thinking was there going to be a last semester in the training at the place where we were at thinking we’re going to get ready to go on to language school.

We found out both Susan was pregnant and that then we got a letter from the field of Papa New Guinea saying man with your background with your with your college degrees with your background in math and and science Susan’s in business admin and secretarial skills we’d love to have you at the school for missionaries children.

It’s like okay it’s not what we were thinking but we said well is that how we can best serve the team to get the the work done? Said, “Yes, that’s where we need you the most.” So, we agreed to do that. Our daughter Heather was born at in Overlook Hospital up in Summit and six weeks later, we took off to fly to Papa New Guinea and that was in 1984.

“Is that how we can best serve the team to get the work done? ‘Yes, that’s where we need you the most.’”

We went at the we went to the school and I was teaching in high school math and science and then two years later because of someone needing to leave because of a medical condition all of a sudden I was a high school principal.

It’s like oh okay but I love teaching and the the role as principal just seemed to be a great fit. They asked me to do that permanently.

Field Administration and Transition Home

So on our first furlow, I came back decided needed to work in my master’s in educational administration and I said well if I’m going to be an educational leader I should have some credentials that justify that. So got that and I served there until about 2000 in that capacity. I was also helping with regional leadership at the time.

Yeah, Papa Guina is the largest field that new transmission works in in terms of the number of people, the number of tribes and all that and so and but it’s also a very very rugged country. It’s difficult to get around a lot of mountains in the up there in the highlands which is where we were at but also down in the lowlands, swamps, rivers and all that. In fact, the capital port Morsby on the southern coast, well, it was put there by Australia who administered the country, but you can’t get to it from any place else.

You want to get to the capital, you have to fly or take a boat around the country, right? There’s a few towns on the northern coast that you can reach and one road that goes from the northern coast snaking through up into the highlands, which is where we were at.

“Papua New Guinea is the most ethnolinguistically diverse country in the world.”

Well, because of the geography of the country, it’s been divided into regions, at least for our missionary work. And I was helping with the administration for the region that I was in up in the highlands and well about 2000 they said when you come back from furlow, we really appreciate what you’ve done in the school. We’d like you now take that administrative and apply it to the field.

So like, okay. So in 2000 when I came back I became the field administrator for new transmission papu nu guinea did that for 10 years and we felt that the lord was leading us back this way we gave about little unusual we gave three years notice and because my intent was I really don’t want to leave until there’s someone that we’ve trained to replace us so I was looking for my replacement Susan as well actually was a little easier to find hers than mine. All right. So, we came back here at the end.

We left there in December 2010. Got back here, moved back to this to New Jersey.

And then, 20 in March 2011, we went down to Sanford, Florida, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing there.

Stateside Leadership Roles

I had some ideas. I got down there said, “Well, we don’t want to scare you and tell you this, but we want you on the US executive committee.” I was like, “Oh, okay.” so then I became the chief administrative officer for New Transmission USA.

Now back in 2006 what had been New Transmission overseeing everything happening throughout the world with the missionaries. In 2006, the organization decided to decentralize and so the USA was no longer in leadership over Canada and Australia and the UK and Brazil and Indonesia and on and on and on. So each of them became their own separate entity but obviously working together, cooperating together.

“In 2006, the organization decided to decentralize so each country became its own separate entity, working together.”

We have a global ministries agreement.

You can say kind of like a constitution something like that. It’s like okay this is what we believe. This is our doctrine. These are our goals. These are our training methods. This is how we’re going to interact and function together so we’re all on the same page.

So whether our missionaries get trained in the UK or in the US or in Germany or some other place, they might be able to work together as a team wherever they go. And that’s not uncommon for us to find teams with, oh, we’ve got one American and one German and one from New Zealand. Working together.

And in some of our countries, particularly in Brazil, majority of the missions there are no longer Americans at all.

And actually, very few European, very few Europeans, majority of our missionaries are now are Brazilians who’ve gone through all the training and now are seeking to reach the tribes in their own country, which is great.

Becoming Director of the Retirement Homes

That’s what we’ve wanted all along. So in any event came back here 2011 joined the US executive committee and that was a great great job. I enjoyed it. But about 2020 all know what happened. COVID hit and the man who had been the director of our retirement center. He had been struggling with major headaches, debilitating headaches after a car accident he had for decades.

And doctors can never find out why. And they’d even he’d even had things inserted in his body and electronic probes under the skin in his forehead to try to overstimulate the nerves to cut off the pain. And none of that ever worked. And he was really going downhill with his health and he needed replaced.

And I said at the time, well COVID has really cut my ministry a lot.

I’m not traveling like I had been around the US, the various places. I’ll do it.

I’ll step in and handle that while I’m doing what I had been doing as CEO because I right now with CO, I don’t have a lot. And I’ll keep looking for a replacement for a director of the homes.

Well, after a few months, I thought, Lord, okay, I think you’re having me say what, I want to step off the US executive committee, especially make room for pe younger people, right? And I think I should just stay here at the homes. And though the rest of the board was kind of sad about that, they agreed that that was probably the best thing to do. So, I’ve been there for for five years now.

“I think you’re having me step off the executive committee and make room for younger people.”

Some of by reading our prayer letters though I stepped off the the board and the guy that replaced me for a while was only there a little more than a year and a half had to leave and I stepped so instead of being on the board and helping at the homes now I was on the homes helping back at the board again step back on for year and a quarter. That’s all finished as of last December. So now I’m just the director at the homes and no longer the US executive committee but it’s been a great place to work.

Now that’s the evolution of our how we got to where we’re at. So I wanted to just give you that background because like I said we were in Papa Nigini for 26 years which is the country is the most ethnol linguistically diverse country in the world. Okay.

So rugged there’s a lot of places where they don’t well a lot of people a lot of tribes fight with their neighboring tribes. That’s one of the place in the world where you used to hear about cannibalism. Yeah, it was there. So people used to think, oh, if I eat my enemy, then I’ll gain his strength.

All right. So again, a lot of really wrong beliefs there. But it’s also a great country in terms of it’s being open the to the to missionaries, religious workers to go in plant churches. But in order for us to keep one guy in or one team in a tribe, it is so much work because again, you can’t like, oh my my generator broke down.

Well, you there’s nobody you call around the corner because there is no corner. A lot of the places are no roads. Our missionaries live where they either had to build a small airirstrip or helicopter come in because it’s just so isolated. And you’ll see a little bit more of that later, Lord willing.

But any event, this is where we’re at now, the homes. And this is what you’d see. We are in Sanford, Florida, which is about a half hour north of Orlando.

And we’re about 30 miles from the ocean. So even though yes, there are hurricanes in Florida, we get some high winds and we get some rain, but we don’t really get hurricanes that go over us. So we’re very grateful for that. It’s always great idea to follow Disney. He knew what he was doing, where he was going when he built that place and he picked a good place in Central Florida. Okay, this is what you’d see as you came to our property. Come in there and this is an aerial view. We’re about 40 acres here. Okay. And the let’s see.

Yes. So, you’d come in off the it doesn’t show up there. There’s a road and along the top at Celery Avenue.

Then you come in and there’s a road that goes all the way around the property called Nations Boulevard. Okay. And that first if you turn right on Nations, then you’ve got the place where our staff live and then all the rest are culde-sacs with duplexes placed around them. Now, before I go on, you might say, “Wait a minute.

Why the Homes Exist

Why do you even have that? Well, back in the 70s and 80s, our mission leadership was looking at our population of missionaries, those that had gone out, some in the 40s and 50s and 60s who had been retiring with no money and nowhere to go. Because back in the early days, retirement planning was definitely not part of the missionary mindset.

In fact if you went to a church in the 60s or 50s and told them that, oh, well, part of their support you’re raising is to go towards your future retirement planning, that church probably even wouldn’t have supported you, thinking that you weren’t spiritual enough and that what, how dare you waste the Lord’s money by saving it. That all changed. That whole idea has changed and now churches are just the opposite. You better have a retirement plan because we don’t want to be responsible for you until you die.

All right? Have something that you’re saving. So, that’s part of it. But in the 70s and 80s, as our leadership was considering this, they’re going, we have a lot of people that did go out in those early years. We started in 42 and they don’t have much.

“You’ve devoted your life to the Lord—when your active ministry is done, you’re not getting tossed to the side.”

They come back and they’re not sure where they’re going to go. Be really great for us to have a retirement community for them to go to that if they don’t have much here’s a place you’ve devoted your life you’re giving your life to the Lord and when you’re active ministry is done you’re not getting tossed to the side you’ve given your life what how what can we help how can we help so this place was developed with that idea to be able to provide lowcost housing for missionaries to retire at Now, we’re going to keep going here because some of these things will be more explained as we go around, but in the lower right hand corner, there’s an RV park. You can’t see all of that right now.

We have 51 duplex buildings, which gives us 102 residents, and then there’s staff houses and all the rest.

The Property and Duplex Living

Now, this is the front yard of a duplex, and you can see the two different entrances.

We do all the maintenance.

We the housing, the landscaping, the land, the roads. We’re the, as far as the city of Sanford’s cons concerned, we’re responsible for our own roads and driveways and sidewalks and all of that.

Here’s a typical bedroom. Sorry, typical living room. People can furnish it however they want. As a matter of fact, they also, as they’re moving in, they choose paint color for the walls and floors and all that.

Small kitchen. Not you’re not going to be preparing a meal for 40 in there, but for a for a single or a couple, it’s fine.

Typical bedroom.

Every duplex has a lenai outback, a covered screen porch in the back there for people to sit and relax, which is used a lot October through April. Why wouldn’t it be used the rest of the year?

Florida can be hot and humid. So, but, this time of year right now, it’s beautiful down there. So, if any of you want to come for a visit, October through April, that’s the time to come.

But I also know a lot that’s during school year, so it’s difficult.

And each duplex also has a carport, so your car is just not sitting there baking in the sun.

“People can furnish it however they want and choose paint color for the walls and floors.”

Now, we have retention ponds, which you might have never seen in that original picture. There are that I showed you from the overhead. Well, we’ve got that’s required by law there in Florida. You’ve got retention ponds and sometimes they do get alligators in them, but if anything gets like over five feet or so, then you call the wildlife commission, they come and take it.

Otherwise, they’re just interested in the little fish and stuff and reptiles and things that might be in the water. They don’t bother us. We don’t bother them. We just stay away, right? But we have paths that connect not only the outside road on the outside, but then all those culde-sacs aimed towards the center and then we have little sidewalks that connect around around the inside as well and around the retention ponds and places.

So you see a lot of people out there re walking or riding bicycles.

That’s again another now the same shot from the air from the view from the from overhead. You can see what I’m talking about with the the ponds.

Now, the one that’s on the far right, that’s facing the east. So, we call that Lake Sunrise.

And then the one in the middle, which is all connected there, that’s Lake Laam. Are any of you familiar with Aana?

Okay. Awana, one of the founders of Awana was Doc Lance Laam. Doc Laam. But he’s also instrumental at the beginning of New Mission. They started around the same time. And Awana, new tribes, same doctrine, same philosophy, just different targets. So, we’ve had, roots and and kinship with Aana for since its beginning. So, we named that for him. In fact, our big center in the middle of the property, we also call the Laam Center in honor of him. And then that little thing that right up there, we call that lake almost.

There’s not much to it there, right?

So now all the black ones, they are two-bedroom duplexes.

The the slightly shaded gray ones are onebedroom duplexes. The yellow ones are three-bedroom independent or standalone single family homes for staff.

The Laam Center: Independent and Assisted Living

And then this area right above where the what you ever call that little light would be. Hey, that’s the RV park. And those two green buildings are for maintenance. Okay. Now, gonna rotate this. So, you can see we’re now going to talk about this section in the middle there.

All that the light blue, the green, the lavender, and the red. It’s all connected as one building. And we call that the Laam center. Okay. So, a lot of times when people move into a duplex, we make it so that okay, it looks like it’s it’s brand new.

They’re living in there. But if they struggle after a while thinking it’s we just don’t have either the energy to clean it or we can’t bend anymore to clean or finding it difficult to cook or we realize we’ve left the stove on three times this week or really difficult to do laundry.

We have these. The blue section is for independent living. Okay? And people can move in there and they no longer have to worry about grocery shopping or cooking. We all do that. We have a dining hall for them. We have a commercial kitchen registered with the state of Florida Department of Health.

“They no longer have to worry about grocery shopping or cooking. We do all that.”

All right. We’ll do laundry. We clean rooms. Which is a great next step for people like it’s just difficult to live on their own anymore.

Assisted Living and Nursing Care

So we provide that. Now if after the independent living like they’re finding that they’re not managing their own medicine anymore like oh people will call up their daughter and say I think I’ve just taken my medicine for the second maybe the third time today I don’t remember because I didn’t think I took it but then I took it but then I think oh what was that and people get confused and they can’t handle that.

That’s when we have this ALF there in green for people to move into. It’s a again registered with the state of Florida Department of Health and assisted living facility with all the regulations. We have a a nursing office to help oversee that with our nursing staff works to help these people. So they no long once they move into there again the room setup is almost identical. They still have the dining hall and all that. We still do the laundry, clean the rooms. Now, we oversee all their medicine. They’re not allowed to take it themselves anymore.

We do that for them. They go to the nurse’s office, some people once a day, some people twice when their needs are, their medicine gets handed to them in a little cup. So, the nurse makes sure that that they take it, right?

And then they also make the doctor’s appointments for them. And when people need, it’s like what, they’re struggling. They can’t get. Well, we’ll drive them to the doctor’s offices and our nurse will go in with them to hear what the doctor is saying if they don’t have family that can do that.

So, we’re really seeking to help them. Now, if they need more than that, if they if they need only a temporary help with what we call TDL’s, tasks of daily living, we can help with that on a temporary basis. It’s like, oh, I I can’t get this shirt on or I don’t how I can’t button this. Usually I can, but today I’m struggling with my fingers.

“We oversee all their medicine. They go to the nurse’s office and the nurse makes sure they take it.”

Staffing Challenges

Fine, we’ll help there. We can even help temporarily in a shower situation. But if somebody needs that continuously or permanently now, that’s when they need to move into a nursing home. We do not have that.

It is a major struggle for us to just keep this place supplied with staff. It’s very difficult for us to get stateates staff because just like all the rest of us in our organization, we all live off of donations. Okay?

None of us are paid a salary. That’s one reason why people like what was neutralized mission or ethnos 360 is that all the money that’s going gets donated goes to the missionary. They don’t take off 10, 15 or 20% for admin cost.

So people really like that, but then they don’t have that extra money to give towards these sorts of things. So all of our missionaries overseas or stateates side, they all have to raise their own support, which is very then it’s difficult on the state side workers because a lot of churches aren’t real thrilled with that. They’re like, “Oh, that’s not a real missionary.”

Well, we work together. And I’m going to explain to you at the end of this some notes I’ve put down for myself to also share with our staff that I work with who have like you need to be able to explain to your churches how we all work together and how much this is a team and how this is even aiding in the church planning work, right? But so we have the ALF there, then we have the admin sections where the we have an ALF administrator separate from me, the nursing office, some other stuff.

And then eventually it was then it also then leads to the chapel. Now it was designed this way so that even if you’re up there in the in the north wing or the west wing and you’re coming you want to go to chapel which is just Tuesday and Friday mornings from 8 to 8:30. It’s like a 15minute devotions and some announcements and some songs and then prayers.

Right? It’s not a church service. All of our residents, all of our staff, no, we’re not going to have our own church here. You go out and join a local church that’s we are here to support that we’re here to part of it that’s what we preach overseas we’re going to follow that here in the US as well so but during they want to come to chapel time and for some of the people that live in the Laam center there they may not see a lot of people outside of the Laam center unless they come to chapel some of them don’t walk very well anymore so but if they they can come all the way through that complex never have to go outside there’s carpet so they’re with their walker they’re fine and they can get there and get back again.

“We are here to support the local church—you go out and join one. That’s what we preach overseas and follow here.”

The Chapel and Community Life

Now, that is the outside of our chapel.

That was the last section of the building that was that was built. And there’s a covered area there, so people can drive up and let somebody out even in the rain, they can go inside and they’re fine. And we have besides our chapel services, which are Tuesday and Friday mornings, and we have a Tuesday night service. We also have memorials in there. We have weddings in there. We have lots of things that go on in there.

“We have memorials, weddings, and chapel services—lots of things that go on in there.”

Now, right outside of the ALF, we have a lounge area. So, when because when people live in the ALF, that room is like their world. They have their own bedroom in there. They have their own their furniture, they have their own separate bathroom, but then we provide this lounge area.

You see there’s one on the far side and then closer to us here where they can meet with family or just sit down and relax or gather with other people. And the one on the left here, you can’t see it, but the wall that’s hidden and also has a piano there. And they have a little meeting in there every Thursday afternoon coming out and they sing songs, they talk about things, and they they clap if somebody sing if somebody had a birthday .

A typical room there in the light center. See a couple loun a couple recliners, bed, desk, TV, and there’ll be said a also a dresser and a walk-in closet and then a a full bathroom.

The Value of Volunteers

Now, this is one of our volunteers.

She’s not a staff member. She’s a volunteer and she and her husband are from Maine and they moved down to Florida and said she’s like, “Okay, how can I be involved in the Lord’s work?

What can I do?” And apparently she went to she’s told us she’s gone to several places and they all said, “Nah, nah, nah.” One of our missionaries was at a church right near New Turn Newa Beach or Daytona Beach was speaking there and she heard about us and we’re like, “Oh, that sounds just what I’m looking for, a way to be able to serve.” And so she comes in on Wednesdays and works for the whole day cleaning rooms.

She is such a blessing. Yes, she’s cleaning rooms and doing laundry and doing and cleaning bathrooms, but I’ll tell you the people that live in the rooms because we try to keep it the cleaners with the rooms consistent from week after week after week. So, the people that live there like they get to know her, they look forward to Lee coming and they they talk with her and we depend upon especially our housekeepers to also tell us how are they doing?

Are they deteriorating at all? How’s their memory? How are their how’s their coordination, their balance? Because they’re going to see them in a more natural environment. We’ll see them in the hallways or we’ll see them in the dining room where they’re on the best behavior .

So, here it’s a little more relaxed. And our housekeepers, they are they really connect with our residents.

“Our housekeepers really connect with our residents. They listen to their stories.”

They listen to their stories. Well, not only listening to their stories, but the residents are asking Lee, this is picture was taken during COVID, obviously. Oh, tell us about you. What’s your story? So, she started talking about her and her husband and well, he really wasn’t.

He didn’t go to church. Yeah, he was a believer, but never had grown much in the Lord and so on and so forth. And she was really concerned. So, our folks started praying for him. Wasn’t too long before Lee’s husband started going to church and he’s got a a more consistent, stable walk with the Lord and he’s very supportive of what she’s doing there. It’s like, “Hey, great.

The Struggle to Find Staff

Thank you, Lord.” because he wants to use us wherever we’re at in the world. But we really, really appreciate Lee. And actually, if you go onto our website, not the one for Ethnos 360, but the one just for the homes, we have a little video there that we made just about her telling her story because we’re so appreciative for her.

But you see, we need volunteers to come and do that because again, our staff is so small because we have trouble getting the staff. I have tr one of the things I do a lot is recruiting. That’s one of my big jobs as the director there trying to find new staff and new people.

And we had a couple that came in sometime last year still with the mission. They’re no longer overseas. They were looking for a stateide ministry. And when I started talking about what was available and talked about the maintenance opportunities that he might be able to be involved in or this or that and I then I mentioned housekeeping and her eyes lit up I hope it’s like housekeeping clean.

I love that. I was like, wow. It’s like wow. I just thought, “Yes, Lord. Thank you for answering my prayers. This is great.” She was so excited about it. She said, “Oh, that’s what I love to do. I just it’s how I like to serve.”

And so, they were very excited. And then went back to the church and the church said, “Absolutely no way. We’re not paying you to do that. That’s not real missionary work.” Well, we think of ourselves as a team, but the church said, “No.”

And so, they moved on. And our one of our co-directors of our kitchen, she’s tried to retire three times. She’s kept putting off because we can’t get a replacement for her. And our head of housekeeping, she is going part-time after December.

This she’s going in, she just had her second knee replacement surgery. And again, I can’t find someone to to replace her.

“She said, ‘That’s what I love to do. It’s how I like to serve.’ And the church said, ‘Absolutely no way.’”

So, as much as possible, we also try to recruit volunteers from the local area, from local churches. The thing is so many churches I’m not I don’t know exactly how you function here but a lot of churches are very denominationally tied and especially in our area almost every church you find around you they’re all part of a particular denomination that has baptistic roots and is in the south. I guess that wasn’t a joke here.

So I’ll move on quickly here. So but they’re really tied into that and we’re not a non we’re a non-denominational mission. Okay, we’re we were fundamental evangelical going out there brought people in from various backgrounds as long as a we’ve got the same ideals, same theology, let’s go do this work together, but we’re not tied to a specific denomination.

So, a lot of the people in the area is like, well, they’re looking for something denominational but we’ve got a few that want to come in and volunteer and just say they feel it’s a privilege and honor to come and help us. And we like we are so grateful for them .

Daily Life and Personalized Care

So, moving on, here are two of our ladies waiting to go to lunch. They’re in the recliners. That’s in a big lounge area outside the dining hall.

So, there’s one lounge outside the ALF.

Residents and Their Stories

Another lounge at that intersection of the light blue. Okay. And this is where they’re at. Bonnie, here you see there in the upper right. Yeah. Last January, she celebrated her 100th birthday. Okay. And she gets up, she dresses herself, she comes to to a meeting, she comes to chapel .

Now she has to we have a special hearing fac apparatus for people in chapel have trouble hearing so they can put it on it’s amplified they hear it directly so if the batteries aren’t working you’ll be sitting in chap here doesn’t work doesn’t work Bonnie we’ll get you we’ll help you we’ll we’ll change the batteries but again she and her husband were in the mission then their kids are in the mission some of their grandchildren are in the mission so we’re glad to be able to serve her and everyone else. And this is a a breakfast meal and that’s up there coming right down. That’s one of our co-directors of the kitchen who’s retiring in April.

But not everyone’s required to go to all the meals. They have to we want them to go to at least two meals. Their choice. They can go to all three. Breakfast and lunch, lunch and supper, breakfast, lunch, and supper or however they want.

“Last January she celebrated her 100th birthday. She gets up, dresses herself, and comes to chapel.”

But they really everyone’s required to come to the main meal at lunch. So we know what they’re getting. The the menus are all been approved by professional dietitian again under state of Florida.

So we know what’s going on here. And you can’t see it but there’s a couple of cards on that table.

If you see that plate which looks like it’s got toast on it near the front right behind it there’s looks like a pink card that’s up. Well that’s there’s a card for each person with their name on it and says do they like coffee? Do they like tea? Do they like sugar? Do they like a substitute for it? Do they what about salt and pepper?

What are the various things? Oh, they don’t have dessert, but they have this.

Or they can have a sugar-free cookie, but they can’t have it . So, again, we try to personalize it for our our residents. So, they’ve got what they need here.

Susan’s Role and Kitchen Ministry

We have, like I said, we’ve got that commercial kitchen in the back. And one of my favorite kitchen helpers, that’s my wife there.

She has a full-time job working with the the headquarters since when we came back in 2011 she joined what was called the connection center and the connection center seeks to match people who are interested in serving in some way do I want to be a full-time career missionary what about short-term missions what about volunteer work about this what about training she’ll work with them for a while get them in the database and help them to figure out what it is they’re really looking for because sometimes people aren’t for and then gets them to the right person who will work with them for an application for career or short-term trips or whatever is necessary. Well, she does that. She can do her work remotely.

So, when I was upstairs in the headquarters building as CEO, I’ll put another desk in my office and we were there together. And then when I moved to the homes, I put another desk in my office and she does remote work from there. Come to think of we were in the field and when I was principal she was school secretary when I was the field chair the field administrator she was a field secretary.

“Susan works to match people interested in serving—figuring out what they’re really looking for.”

We’ve been together a lot for a long time and not just as married people but we’re always together.

Here are a couple of our elderly folks that are in their 80s couple here and working on some puzzles and things.

Additional Amenities and the RV Park

We have a beauty parlor that’s part of that admin section outside of the the ALF because it’s really nice for our elderly ladies who are feeling a bit down. They come in and one of our volunteers comes in to do their hair and they walk out and I’ll see them in the hallway go your hair looks so nice today and they just get big smile on their face and go oh yes thank you it’s so nice. So it’s nice to be able to have that for them to lift their spirits.

We have an exercise room. We have a an exercise class daily.

This is one side of our RV court. And then that’s just across the street from it. We set this up a number of years ago. In fact, this our whole property was built not only with new tribes, missionaries, but with volunteers.

“Our whole property was built not only with New Tribes missionaries, but with volunteers.”

And ever since then, we’ve had volunteers who come down every winter.

They’re you think of them as snowbirds because they each come down to their RV.

Royal Volunteers: Snowbirds Who Serve

We call them royal volunteers, RVers.

And they come down, some come down for just a couple weeks, some come down for a month or two. We’ve had some people there for four or five months.

And while they’re there, there’s no charge. And we have a full sewer hookup, water hookup, electrical hookup, all they need. Plus our m one of our maintenance buildings, we built a clubhouse on the end for extra laundry facilities and extra showers and bathrooms.

And just in case they happen to be one of those RVs that’s kind of on the small side and they like a little more room. But we really really depend on our volunteers because like I said, our staff is sort of small. So during the year, all we can do is maintain.

Oh, this pipe burst. Let’s go fix it. Got to cut the grass. Not only every week in Florida, but during the summer, twice a week there’s a lot to to get done.

“We really depend on our volunteers because our staff is small. During the year, all we can do is maintain.”

Well, the volunteers come down during the winter and they help us get a lot done. For example, these are there’s a two different staff people there and the other four that are there in that picture are volunteers. We were having to re repave an entire road section, right?

And they come help with that. We’ll also have to redo driveways and sidewalks, especially with some of the trees that were planted 25 and 30 years ago. Well, now their root systems are pushing up driveways and sidewalks, and those have got to get redone.

While they’re doing that, some of the ladies are helping to clean houses, or clean inside or outside or do a a deep deep cleaning that, maybe, well, yeah, I’ve lived in my duplex for 12 years and I vacuum every day, but I’ve not done a deep cleaning in a long long time. So, our volunteers help with that. And then some volunteers also, some ladies are help with sewing.

Others help a little bit in the kitchen. Some of our men they might, they don’t all work with concrete. We have some people that use their skills in in landscaping or electrician, electrical work or or plumbing or various things that we’ve got going on.

These two volunteers are putting in brand new cabinets into a duplex. Now, when someone moves out of a duplex, they’ve been in and we’ve got a new missionary moving in. We figured for a lot of them, this may be the last house they’ll ever live in.

So, we want it to be nice. So, we refurbish that house so it looks brand new for them when they come. So, they get tell them about their cabinets. They get to pick the choice of cabinet or color, what color they want the refrigerator, what color they want the walls to be repainted.

We redo the floors. We check if the plumbing’s in still in good shape or does it need to be fixed in any way, the electrical, everything. So, by the time they move in, it looks new. And for a lot of our folks, this is the first and only new thing they’ve ever known owned new in their life.

So, we think this is an important thing to do. Now, there is a movein fee that missionaries come in. So, to move into a duplex, which you are then allowed to live in for the rest of your life if you wish.

Like for this coming year, it’ll be a $19,000 movein fee. And we use about half of that, a little more to refurbish the actual house we’re moving into, excuse me. And the rest of it is like long-term maintenance because we also have to replace like the roof on the LAM center and things like that on a regular basis.

“For a lot of them, this may be the last house they’ll ever live in. So we want it to be nice.”

And air conditioning is a something we’re always working with in Florida, right? But these two guys are volunteers are putting in new new cabinets.

And this is just a picture of our staff and our residents one particular year getting outside should say hey here we are this is our group this is our family now that is our website and in the middle column the last one in the bottom that’s the story I told you about Lee our volunteer that comes there on Wednesdays that we have opportunity you want to come down we’ve got space we’ve got work for area now. We don’t usually have extra housing. We’re we’re filled all the usually most of the time we’re filled.

So, if you want to come down for a period of time, it’s much easier if you have an RV. And again, we can schedule you in there. We also have reduced rates at a at the Comfort Inn, which is just a couple miles away. So, if you come down, you say Ednos 360, oh, the price gets cut.

And if you’re actually coming to to Ethnos 360 some capacity the headquarters or the homes or something then we also subsidize the cost. So you the 1520 that comfort in would drop it down to 90 and then we would subsidize another 50. So it would only be $40 a night for you.

So that is us now. Okay. Still have some time here.

How the Homes Support the Global Mission

Good. Not going over. Now, again, like I said, a lot of our staff struggle with how to explain this to their churches that this is a real ministry. It’s a vital ministry and it’s part of the team. So, I put this together to try to help them just understand okay, how do we fit into this worldwide church planning effort?

How do we how are we supporting those people that are actually in the tribes? Well, well, first we enable second and third generation missionaries to remain on the field longer because former missionaries, that is their parents and or grandparents are cared for. We’ve had several several folks come to us and say, “I’ve not yet finished my tribal work.

I’m still working on my translation. I’ve got another five or six years in the tribe. Thank you so much that mom and dad had a place to come to and I didn’t need to leave the field to help care for mom and dad.” Hey, we’re a team. We’re working together. We try to help when our new parents go out on the field.

“We enable second and third generation missionaries to remain on the field longer because their parents are cared for.”

Okay, here’s a lot of training about education and educating your children and homeschooling. And we’re going to provide homeschooling coordinators when you’re on the field to help you when you’re struggling. Oh, and we also provide language coordinate consultants on the field and literacy consultants and translation consultants.

New Transmission is a big organization because we do all of it together. We we teach the people how to read and write in their own language. Well, first we create a written language for most of them because it’s not written.

You have to take an oral language, learn it without a dictionary, all right, and put it down, create an alphabet, create the whole thing. Then we teach them literacy, how to read and write in their own language. And that’s very, very important because when we leave, we want to also be able to leave with a fully completed New Testament that they can read for themselves.

We’ve ordained elders and they can teach each other and they can teach the people because we want that church to be selfun self-supporting self-unctioning self-perpetuating all of that like a regular New Testament church. So we working together and it’s like because we’re there others have been able to stay on the field longer.

“We want that church to be self-supporting, self-functioning, self-perpetuating—like a regular New Testament church.”

Secondly, the home fulfills a biblical mandate first set by the household of Stephanus for believers to minister to the saints, particularly by showing hospitality by providing for their needs, by attending and aiding God’s messengers. That’s not somebody you talk about a lot Stephanus or Stfanis, whatever. But Paul mentions him.

It’s like he’s been doing a great job there and it’s like what, it’s a model that many have taken after. Third, we provide an additional retirement option so that low supported missionaries don’t need to quit the ministry to find a higher paying job in order to save up sufficient funds for for retirement. Say, what really?

Well, one of our co-workers in, at the the retire or at the headquarters when I was there was working in, the connection center for a while, but with an IT background, it’s a bunch of IT skills. And he was thinking we’re doing okay, but man, I’m going to need a lot more for retirement. So, he quit because he could get a highpaying job as an IT specialist.

Most IT people can get a real nice paying job. It’s like, “Oh, boy, we really needed him. We’re struggling.” Well now because we can hardly get any IT people there because they can get such nice jobs elsewhere, we’re having to hire secular IT people or Christian ones when we can find them to come on in.

But now, instead of them living on 60 or $70,000 a year as their missionary support, we’re having to pay them $110,000 a year because that’s the salary they demand in order to work. It’s like would work so much better if churches would understand this IT guy really helps us and actually saves money in the long run as as we work together as a team. So actually that that he was a friend of mine but he left and and I was like well no I want a higher paying job. Sorry. Bye.

Fourth. The homes fulfills a biblical mandate for believers to care for widows. And if you’ve ever read the New Testament, you’ll see that in lots of places there, Old Testament as well, by the way. Okay.

Fifth, we advance the kingdom through prayer for missionaries and indigenous believers around the world. We have our prayer room. We have our prayer letters that we get from around the world. We have monthly prayer meetings. We have various different groups of meetings in their homes in prayer for what’s going on around the world. And not just for the missionaries for the indigenous works as well and believers there.

Retirees Serving at Headquarters

Six, the home supports missionaries in the field by providing additional workers are retirees for the home office in the following departments. See, just like we struggle to get enough staff, our headquarters, which is just two miles down the road, we call it the home office, they struggle to get enough workers, too.

It’s like, oh man, they need more people to process these EFTs or these checks that come in or we need more people in it or some people, some churches have written and said, we need we we want magazines about this. We want handouts about this, this, and this, and that. It’s got to be put together.

It’s got to be sent out. We’ve got all these different departments at work. So, some of our retirees, few hours each day, a few hours each week, go over and help work in the finance office. That’s we they do that.

So, another full-time career staff person doesn’t have to come on staff to do that. We have those that work in the international ministries office. We have retirees working actually in home office maintenance like I said, two miles down the road.

“Some of our retirees go over a few hours each week and help—so another full-time staff person doesn’t have to.”

Some that are in our biblical resources group because of their expertise training what they’ve got. These guys are very theologically based. They try to tackle new issues or issues that are starting this is surfacing in the Christian church in America or the church in Germany and the Netherlands is not approaching this in the same way that the Latin American churches are like okay how can we work with this what the scripture has to say about this what’s the minimum we need to have here to be biblical in this so these guys function with that and also updating policies for us.

We have retired missionaries that are still working on translating scriptures, but they’re doing it here from this country.

We have those that are formatting scriptures for printing. Most printers in this country do not how know how to format for a tribal language.

It’s sort of a niche little area. And so, but our people, especially those that are working with it, it’s like, okay, no, it doesn’t go this way, it goes that way. Well, does it make a difference? Well, yeah, if you spoke the language, you knew it made a difference.

Hey, we have those that work in shipping, receiving, or producing materials.

Training New Missionaries and Providing Rest

And we also have because we’ve been around a long time, we can offer advice and perspective from seasoned, experienced missionaries. So again, just because someone’s retired down there, almost all of our retirees continue to help in some way. We’re helping in this way.

So again because we’ve got we don’t have to have that as many staff people so we can get as keep as many on the field as we can, but we all work together. Now, a little later because we still have time, we’re going to see something about on the field as well. Okay.

But seven, occasionally the homes provide skills training for new missionaries on their way to the field so they can be greater help on the field. What? Well, we have a guy who finished the training with Ethnos 360 out in Camden, Missouri and wrote to the leadership in Papu Nug Guina actually saying that he wanted to come out there and be part of their maintenance team to help that keep functioning.

And they looked at what he had and what his skills were and thought, “Yeah, you got some of what we need, but you’re deficient in these two or three areas. Get more training and then come.” Well, if somebody’s just spent a couple years in Bible school and then two years in training in Missouri to be a missionary, so they’ve been four years out of the workforce, it’s kind of tough.

They’re like, “Oh, now I’ve got to go get more training someplace else.” Well, instead he approached us, said, “I needed some he needed some more additional help in like electrical and some plumbing and some stuff.” what?

We’ve got guys on our staff that do that, but we need help. So, he’s joined our staff for two to three years. He’s helping us do what we need to do and at the same time he’s learning from experienced people in those areas in which he was deficient so that he can be a greater help on the field.

It’s great when these things work together like this. And eighth, when space is available, the homes offer a rest stop or weigh station for those missionaries who need respit or restoration or healing after returning from the field. And I’m sure you’ve all heard about or seen some missionaries come back from the field and they’re done in.

They might have come through a very especially difficult spiritual time. They might have had some emotional or marriage struggles, struggles with the kids.

Tribal work may have just exhausted them and they kept pushing and pushing and pushing themselves maybe beyond what they should have and now they’re burned out. So there’s times like what, we’ve got space. Come here. Let us help you with this.

“When space is available, the homes offer a rest stop for missionaries who need respite or restoration.”

It Takes a Team

Okay. So, we work together. Well, I’d also like to show you a little video right now. And those guys will get it ready back there called It Takes a Team.

And again, you don’t expect one You don’t expect the pastor to be preaching at the same time that he’s vacuuming and washing the windows and cutting the grass and teaching every Sunday school class and all adult classes and marriage classes and counseling. All at the same time. The church functions as a body.

You work together. Well, we do, too. And I like to show this little thing here. Now, if you go ahead and click that two-sided arrow towards the right, it’ll do the whole thing. And then right. And then when you click that and go ahead and start This is how a lot of missionaries used to have to get to their trial by days worth of river travel.

Before you minister.

Awesome. Long long man. How?

Road control system.

Come inside.

Come inside.

Come inside.

This plateau through he bring him long light.

Yeah. Over the years, it’s been easy to see the teamwork that is needed to keep the church plants going out into out in the jungle. Yeah, there I mean we need we need schools, we need supply buyers, we need all these people airplane pilots, airplane mechanics, we need all these people to keep us in the jungle, including way back to the local church in the US. We need we have to have a team. Cannot do it without a team out here.

That’s one of the things I’ve really enjoyed about being here is realizing that we’re a part of the process of bringing the Bible to people who have never heard the gospel. One of the I think biggest blessings we able to we were able to have this past year was getting to visit a Bible dedication for the Bido people and getting to see them receive the first copy of a New Testament in their own language and the excitement that they had there. That was really neat.

We have a chance to educate the children of people from various different ministries from whether they’re directly on out in the bush themselves or they might be children of the pilots or NTMA personnel. They might be children of the medical personnel or those who are working with computers. And so we have that opportunity for ministry, but it’s been nice to be able to go out and actually visit the tribes directly.

“We need all these people to keep us in the jungle, including way back to the local church in the US. Cannot do it without a team.”

Often times when we pray, we thank God.

Like the God thing. Just thank you for the opportunity to teach in such a wonderful place and really be a lifelong impact like the word of God like going out that’s going to last forever. It’s not something what else could you spend your life doing where it’s going to last. That’s the school where we used to I used to be the principal of.

This coming year in the high school, we’re looking at needing a core high school English teacher, a core high school science teacher, ma upper level math teacher. Next year, we need teachers for kindergarten, third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade. Those teachers are all going to be going on a year of home assignment.

And at this point, we don’t have anyone to cover for those classes. So, in the worst case scenario, we might have to close those classes. This year, we actually don’t have a sixth grade class since we didn’t have enough teachers, but we really trust the Lord to send enough people to come and teach at New Manoy Christian Academy.

The Name Change to Ethnos 360

Am I still on? Okay, good. The first guy that talked there, Mark, he actually came to our school and taught as an associate missionary and his wife was one of our students that I taught and Susan taught in school, right?

So, it’s interesting. He’s like, “Oh, not only did we see our students come back, we saw their kids start coming back, too.” It’s like, okay, I guess we have gotten a bit older seeing these generations come back and or somebody that you taught as a kid.

Oh, now they come back as your coworker. That that’s really interesting. Now, in case you’re wondering what’s it he’s talking about, new transmission, Ethnos 360 in 2006, new transmission basically divided into its component parts.

So, each of the entities were were on their own. So the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, over in the South Pac in the Pacific in Africa, each one became independent, but we all work together following this global ministries agreement. But then at the same time over the years, some of them have been changed their name. So it doesn’t it didn’t work to call ourselves new transmission international.

And in fact here in the USA some of our missionaries are also struggling to get the visas they needed into certain countries.

Not every country is as open as Papa New Guinea is. And so can you imagine you’re all ready to go to a country and it’s it’s not in it’s not completely closed but they’re not particularly friendly towards Christians and Christian missionaries. And you apply and you you’re you’re every time you apply for visa you have to say who your employer is if your employer is new tribes mission well I think you’ve just decreased your chances of some mid-level bureaucrat who might not be so in favor it’s like denied okay so what for the sake of a name even though we all loved our name for the sake of a name and potentially not getting the gospel to someplace where it needs to go let’s change the name and some people struggled with that because they had grown up with that name for so long.

But a rose by any name would smell as sweet. Even Shakespeare said that. So, let’s go ahead and change it. And the name we picked, ethnos, it’s from, you’ll find that in Matthew and the great commission where the gospel needs to go to every tribe, tongue, language, and nation.

Okay, that’s the word ethnos or ethne the plural for nations. Okay, we thought, well, let’s see. We want to get to all the nations around the world. We don’t why use English? Let’s use the Greek and 360 with the idea of the whole world around. So that’s what we use.

“Ethnos—from Matthew’s Great Commission—the gospel needs to go to every tribe, tongue, language, and nation. 360 for the whole world.”

Now some countries like Papa New Guinea, they still call themselves new transmission Papa New Guinea. Other ones have taken other names. Some others like Germany, no, they like that ethnos name. So they’re ethnos 360 Germany.

Canada, they didn’t want the 360.

They’re just ethnos in Canada. So it it varies around. And then some have names like the ones in Africa. Integrated vision but in French and I can’t pronounce it.

So, that’s where all the the difference in the naming come from. But we’ve been Ethnos 360. And by the way, there’s no space between the Ethnos and the 360 360. It’s one word. There we’ve been Ethnos 360 now since 2017.

Questions and Answers

So, in the last I was going to say the last two minutes, but according to that, there’s no last two minutes. If you have any questions about anything, anybody have a question they’re dying to ask that they know everybody else would want to know the answer to. Yes.

Well, like I said, we were in Papa New Guinea for 26 years. So that little video, that last one I just showed, that was put together by folks still in Papa New Guinea about their work. So, no I we weren’t not there. We were that was the country we were in for many years. But we are Susan and I myself we are in Florida overseeing the retirement homes.

Oh, the pictures we showed of Florida is where we’re at.

Yes.

Well, that’s more of what happens on the field, right? But we have a our Bible school is where most of our missionaries start their training. It’s not just an academic program. It’s a very integrated program.

All the mi all the students there also get advisors and mentors that they work through through the two years there. Then when they go to our missionary train institute in Camden, Missouri again as individuals and as couples they work with mentors there besides all the classes that they’re taking. So we have that missionaries on the field. We have consultants and they help each other in the tribes as their church planning.

Okay. They’re also going to be trying they one of the biggest jobs of a missionary after he has believers is discipling those believers meeting with them teaching them which is one of the reasons why our language program or missionaries first go in. It could take them anywhere from three to five years. Three is really fast to not only learn the language but the culture because if you don’t learn the culture, you don’t know the language. Okay, computers can’t do that. Our folks go out there and oh, so how do you chop down this this tree and turn it into tarot to eat? How do you go fishing?

Let’s go on a pig hut at night with you ladies. Okay, in their house, how do you cook this? How do you do that? You live life with people, okay? Day by day. And during that you are also discipling.

Okay. So do we have a formal disciplehip pro process with a curriculum? No. But we have life on life with people.

Oh yeah. I mean, we don’t specifically teach on child rearing or marriage principles, but we teach the scriptures. And they’re going to touch on all of that. And instead of telling people, you shouldn’t take a second wife. As they learn through the scriptures, like, oh, we’ve had tribal people come to our mission and say, I it was it’s about time for me to take a second wife here, but I’m wondering that doesn’t that might not be a good idea. Is it more I’m reading about scriptures, it’s seeming like that could be a problem.

Let’s talk about it now. You give time for the Holy Spirit to teach people to bring things to their their thoughts and their remembrance and like, okay, let’s talk about it when the time is right instead of forcing it on. But again, that’s life on life with people.

“You give time for the Holy Spirit to teach people, bring things to their remembrance—that’s life on life.”

Yes.

Two questions. One had to do with My thought is the age of the people and you mentioned medication.

How does that how does that work? Are they receiving Medicare or Well, in order to live in the homes, one of our requirements is you have to have health coverage. So, for most people that are over 65, that means they have Medicare.

Okay? And we no longer have any missionaries that had opted out of social security. That was an option back in the long time ago when Sus and I came in in the mid 80s. It was an option, but they were advising all of us not to opt out.

So, we didn’t. So, all the missionaries we have now, they’re all in Social Security and they all have Medicare and they go to see doctors. We don’t provide doctors, but we’ll take people to doctor’s appointments.

And if they’re in the assisted living facility, then we also manage their medication for them under a doctor’s prescription or orders.

Yeah. My other question is that I can’t help I just thinking about Jesus fed the 5,000 fed the 3,000 yet at the time when the disciples gathered together people were gathered in the room.

What I’m trying to say is that because I worked for the state, I worked in the prison system, is that I always found that you you’ll get a whole lot of people that will come in this idea of Christ. But it’s because they’re getting Yeah. I think what you’re referring to is it was called several decades ago, especially in China, rice Christians.

People who would come to the teaching because they were handing out rice or other things. All right? And you can do that in any country of the world.

You hand out things and people will come. We’ve heard of preachers who have been to various rallies and ministries and the way they talk and what they promise and they can get 20 30,000 people all raise their hand and they write report back to America. We had 30,000 people saved tonight.

It’s like, well, I’ll ask you how many of them show up a week later after they’ve gotten what they wanted. So you don’t you we do seek to meet needs. For example, when our tribe when our people move into tribes, they also have gotten some medical training which a lot of the people don’t have access to.

So yes, they will bind wounds, they will treat infections, they will sometimes set bones. When people are in a machete fight with each other there’s a lot of stuff they have to do. And sometimes they arrange for planes to come in and take people out to save their life. Even if they can’t afford at the mission, they’ll pay for it. So, we’ll do that.

And that’s one way to also make people open to hearing this message because you’ve shown that you’ve cared about them. But we don’t set up little American churches. We we want the people when we’re gone to be s self- sustaining.

So they still grow their gardens and they don’t we don’t build churches with American supplies. They build their their churches or church buildings if they’re going to have them with the supplies that they would normally use where they’re at in the jungle. So, I mean, you have to be careful there.

You want to meet needs, but you’d also don’t want to create a dependency. So, I understand what you’re talking about, but it’s a difficult balance at times. Yeah. Okay.

“You want to meet needs, but you don’t want to create a dependency. It’s a difficult balance at times.”

Closing Prayer

If you have other questions for me, I’ll be back there with you during the the break time and then or afterwards, please come and see me. Let me pray.

Lord, again, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for what you provided.

Lord, we thank you first and foremost for our own salvation, for you reaching out to us, for giving us the faith to believe, right, and all that Jesus has done for us. Lord, we just pray that you continue to guide and bless this day now, Lord. The fellowship time, the the preaching of your word and the the the lunchon afterwards. Lord, we praise you. We just lift up you in Jesus name. Amen.

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