“We now knew the truth, and he asked us the question that changed the trajectory of our lives forever. What’s stopping you from going?”
We are Jake and Marissa Kelley, along with our two daughters, Jane and Riley. We’re high school sweethearts who grew up in Blairsville, GA, believing in the gospel and loving Jesus. We both had plans for how our lives would look, until one day we heard the truth that changed everything…
While working at bible camp, a missionary from Ethnos360 came to speak. He shared how there are still people in the world who have never heard the gospel, and who likely never will, unless someone goes to them. We call these people considered unreached because they live where there is no church influence, no believers, and no bible in their language. It’s likely that they will never hear the truth about Jesus, unless someone goes to them…
“But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?"
-Romans 10:14
The missionary continued to open our eyes when he said that there here are still upwards of 6,825 unreached people groups in the world today. That’s roughly 3 billion people in the world who will live and die without ever hearing the name of Jesus. This was a reality that we could no longer ignore. We now knew the truth, and he asked us the question that changed the trajectory of our lives forever.
“What’s stopping you from going?”
To learn that there are still unreached people in the world 2,000 years after Jesus came, broke our hearts and we both felt burdened for those who will never have a chance to hear the good news. From that moment on we knew we wanted to take part in reaching the unreached.
We both attended two years of bible school, and then two more years of missionary training, where we were equipped with the necessary skills to be able to minister cross-culturally.
Now we are currently preparing to move to Papua New Guinea in September 2023 with the goal to plant a mature church and translate the bible in at least one of the hundreds of unreached people groups that exist in Papua New Guinea today. Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the world with 800+ unique languages being spoken amongst people groups whose culture is just as distinct as their language. Among these people groups in Papua New Guinea, over 300 of them are considered unreached, meaning they have no church, no bible in their language, and no access to the truth. These are men, women, and children who will live and die without ever hearing the gospel message in their language.
We believe prayer is powerful and effective in accomplishing God’s plan.
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