We’ve got a great friend who does research on unreached peoples. He saw our item about unreached people groups with smaller populations in the Apr. 14 edition (“The BackPage: Your Thoughts about the “Small Tribes”).
https://brigada.org/2013/04/14_11350
He wrote this past week, “I am the researcher for many people groups with my org. A couple of years ago we put out a warning… If you field people do not validate ZERO population people groups by X date we will delete them from our list. Deleting does not remove them forever. It just takes them off of what is visible to people. I personally am thinking this way. If it is a people group that does not exist anywhere else then a population of 1,000 is a good cut off point. If the group is over 1,000 then we need to look harder at them now. But if the PG is a diaspora group like the Persians in Belgium then 5,000 would be a better cut off amount. If you take a mega-city like Moscow or Istanbul and you allow for 50 member people groups to make our list then suddenly a hundred people groups might need to be added to current lists. The larger question that the above research exercise underscores is “Does this people group warrant a unique CP strategy?” That is a hard judgment call that few want to tackle. It looks bad to ask that question. But field experts need to share what they think on that question to help steer pre-field people or senders. A diaspora portion of a people group of 2,000 may not need a unique CP strategy because they can be reached via the city strategy. But a unique people group in its homeland that is 1,000 members may be overlooked or not naturally welcomed into a local CP work.”
Actually, now that I’ve considered it, I think his thoughts are right on track. Your thoughts???
He added, “And about your person. That person investing time researching becomes a front liner for research. Most of us field people will do the same steps your friend did. Cleaning up an old entry and suggesting they be deleted is valuable service in the Kingdom. Why not encourage your friend to suggest that the people group get deleted from the lists. Joshua Project and others like me listen to such advice.”
Do you agree or disagree? Should we begin recommending that JoshuaProject.net “clean out” people groups that are 1000 and down? I’m leaning that direction. I’m afraid they will be just too hard to find — unless there is very specific documentation in existence about them. Your thoughts? Please click “Comment” below the web version of this item.
People groups of 1,000 people can be a significant number. In a city like Chicago you can go a great way networking 1000 people and trying to share the gospel with as many of those people as possible. Sometimes there is a window of time before someone shuts a particular person or ministry down by fear or intimiditation or even jealousy. We try to reach as many of these people groups that open the doors to us and we carefully garnish other contacts through visitors at their apartments.
Edward Fort
PO Box 25069
Chicago, IL 60625
773-267-9132
FortChicag@aol.com