I am more keenly aware than ever that the Church of Spokane has a great investment in the Great Commission mandate to disciple all the nations.

 For the purposes of this report, I am going to refer to “the nations” (panta ta ethne in the Greek) as people groups. For a definition and explanation of those people groups that are still “unreached,” I.E. the UPGs, please visit peoplegroups.org.

 This report contains information on UPGs adopted by Spokane individuals and congregations, refugees from UPGs in Spokane, UPG-focused missionary organizations in our area, the Spokane Perspectives class, area church planting initiatives, our focus on prayer, a new prayer center for the nations/UPGs, the Table 71 mission partnership for Finishing the Task, an Impact Eternity study course, Epic Partners Int’l and the Epic Questers who are going to the last frontier UPGs, Mission Spokane’s connection with Macedonia, the four Pacific Northwest cities that can work together for the UPGs and Spokane’s unique calling.

 We have great mission-minded individuals and congregations in Spokane and the Inland Northwestern USA, some of which have been active in missions for decades. I do not pretend to have an accurate grasp on every unreached people group (UPG) with which they are involved. I would like to hear of the people groups that have been adopted so that we can keep better track and network our regional resources more effectively.

I am aware though of several local adoptions of UPGs…

 One pastor at that time from Cheney Washington attended Amsterdam 2000 with me. At the end of the mission strategists time together Micah Smith responded to the challenge of the unreached peoples by personally adopting three of them! He not only adopted them but he has personally gone to them, forming teams, Global GateWay Network and at least one orphanage. Micah is now is Richland Washington, but still carrying the gospel to the Albanian Shqip/Tosk (in Egypt), the Kim Mun of Vietnam and Urdu speakers in Germany.

 Another couple, Doug and Candy Gintz, has adopted the Northern ZaZa and have been to visit them as well.

 Two of our congregations have recently adopted UPGs as well. Fourth Memorial Church has adopted the Uyghurs (Uighurs) of China (see Uygur under China at http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php) and Valley Fourth Memorial, the Hewa of Papua New Guinea.

 Pastor Bill Ward of Reardan Presbyterian Church also has been networking the churches of the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest and with Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship with a goal of several congregations together adopting a UPG. He is also working this year to identify individuals who have settled in Spokane who are part of UPGs somewhere else. One of the best ways to connect with an UPG is to share Good News with those who are strangers in our midst.

Coincidentally we are currently being blessed with individuals and families from UPGs who are immigrating to the USA and being settled in Spokane. As this is being written, we have just received another family of Somalis and will be receiving a larger number of Meskhetian Turks.

We also have mission-minded organizations whose focus will help reach the last frontier peoples including these relative newcomers to the Spokane area: Partners International, Quest Aircraft and Moody Aviation.

Another hotbed of excitement these days has been our first two years of the Spokane Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course. Thank you Blake and Joan McKinley for bringing this dream to reality in Spokane! The classes certainly stress God’s love for all peoples of the earth and the remaining missionary challenge to go to the yet unreached peoples. I’ve rarely been in a group with more former, current and future missionaries.

There has been so much focus on the UPGs by these classes in their projects, reports, mission trips and service, that the exact peoples that have been adopted have not been tallied up yet. We look forward to that report.

How besides Perspectives will we continue to grow church planting teams for the nations? One answer is that many teams will serve their internships right here in the sparsely churched State of Washington and the Pacific Northwest.

There is also a good amount of church planting going on in the Inland Northwest. Pastor Joe Wittwer of Life Center not only leads the way in planting daughter churches, but also continues to assist numerous other planters. Many other pastors in the Spokane area have also either planted the churches they serve and/or are planting daughter churches. May the Lord use what we learn here to good advantage among the last frontier unreached peoples.

Would you let us know when your church planting team adopts an unreached people group?

A number of the house churches in our area have similar visions of helping to church the Inland Northwest by multiplying themselves many times over. Larry Whiston of Off-Broadway Family Ministries and Maurice Smith of the Parousia Network, for instance, have been working in needy West Central Spokane with a goal of starting a house church movement.

One of Spokane’s greatest Great Commission investments is prayer. We’ve had Pastors Prayer Summits since 1991, Intercessors for Spokane since 1997 and a rising tide of intercession that is focusing on the nations.

Merv Witherup has The Northwest Center for Prayer and Evangelism praying weekly around the world for every time zone, plus focused prayer for the Table 71 partnership, mission aviation, etc. Spokane is also carrying the vision for a 24/7 House of Prayer for All Nations. May the Lord bring these plans to fruition.

Mission Spokane has been a part of finishing the task with the Table 71 strategic mission partnership to reach the UPGs since Amsterdam 2000 through Dan Grether. Several pastors in Spokane and the Inland Northwest have been invited to Table 71’s Finishing the Task Conference at the Cove this November 14-16. They will be given the opportunity at FTT to adopt one of the 500 last frontier UPGs with populations of 100,000 or more. Marcus Vegh of Progressive Vision, our neighbor in Coeur d’Alene, is the executive director of the conference. Please see “The Birth of the Table 71 Mission Partnership” for further background on Table 71.

One of the Table 71 resources is readily available: the Impact Eternity Course. Impact Eternity is a five-week study to capture God's heart and purpose for people groups around the world and how your church can become involved. This study provides the biblical foundation and the first steps in the process of adopting an unreached people group. This 76-page book answers these questions for the Christian trying to find out where he or she fits into God’s plan. Use for individual study or to lead a group. Suggestions are given for teaching the book in five hours, whether in a single seminar or a series of classes or messages. I would suggest using Impact Eternity for a simple first step introduction to the UPGs and then follow up with the more extensive Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.

For those who are ready and eager to go to the last frontier UPGs, four member organizations of Table 71 have established Epic Partners International. Applicants for a two-year Epic Quest assignment may apply through YWAM, Campus Crusade for Christ, Wycliffe or the International Mission Board. Preparing and using chronological Bible storying on the Quest may lead to a church planting movement among the last frontier UPG to which you go. Read more here about what an Epic Quest is like. How would you like to be among the first from Spokane to be an Epic Quester?

Mission Spokane has also linked up with pastors and missionaries in Macedonia. One goal or our prayers and partnership is to share the Good News with the unreached Albanians who live in Macedonia.

Mission Spokane has long networked with other city reaching teams to better complete the Great Commission in all of our cities. There is also, I believe, a special God-given connection between four metro areas in the Pacific Northwest that are destined to impact the nations and UPGs together. Those areas are Vancouver/Victoria BC, Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia WA, Portland OR/Vancouver WA plus Spokane and the Inland Northwest.

There have been encouraging times when leadership from three or four of the city churches have come together, but we have quite a ways to go until leadership from all four are soundly interconnected and sharing testimonies and prayer requests regularly.

It seems to me that the Lord has recently been opening our eyes to Spokane’s special calling among the four cities, which will lead to impacting the UPGs. You may read more at www.fimi.org under “Whole Generation.”

If you have read to here in this report, congratulations on your deep interest in how the Church of Spokane is reaching out to the unreached peoples of the world to do our part in completing the Great Commission mandate. We would be pleased to hear from you about other UPG-reaching initiatives in Spokane and the Inland Northwest that you know about or are working towards. Kindly drop me an email to let us know.

Thank you!

Download this report at a MS Word file

See also: Finishing the Task: The Birth of Table 71