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When you’ve been spreading the word of God to the far corners of the earth for 68 years, you know you must be doing something right. Such is the case with New Tribes Mission. This organization, founded in 1942 is a Christian missionary organization that has been spreading God’s word, opening up new churches and providing humanitarian aid since it was founded in Los Angeles by Paul Fleming. What began as a solo missionary working in the British colony of Malaya has turned into a global initiative. Although this missionary organization was begun in America,  nearly 40% of it’s members are from outside the USA.  The goal of New Tribes Mission is to reach the unreached and to translate the scriptures of the Bible into the locals native language. Additionally, they help set up indigenous New Testament churches that can run independently of the missionaries. There are apparently still plenty to go around as 2,500 of the 6,500 world groups have still not been reached by Christianity.

This is a large task for any group and a great deal of planning, training and effort goes into the missionary personnel base. When New Tribes Mission first identifies an area that has no translation of the Bible, the work begins. The first thing that must happen is contact and relationship building. The Mission puts the highest priority on areas where the language is unique and thus isolated linguistically from the gospel. At this point, missionaries are sent in to learn the language thoroughly. They might live with a group for up to two years learning the language and establishing connections and the trust of the local people.

One thing that sets New Tribes Mission apart from other missionary organizations is the amount of training that goes into it’s participants. NTM requires that all it’s members complete a training program that can take up to four years to complete. It ends to with the trainee receiving the equivilent of a four year degree. Although it’s unaccredited, most Bible colleges will accept it as transfer credits. While the first phase of the training is in Bible knowledge, the second is a complete and total immersion into cross cultural communication, language analysis and church planning. This training prepares the missionary for his role as ambassador to the rest of the world.