Wayumi Is a Bridge

Locals call it a creek, but a sizeable stream separates the campus for Wayumi from Pennsylvania State Route 287.

Without a bridge, it’d be tough to get there.

It’s like the gap in knowledge, understanding and perhaps even motivation that keeps most believers today from being involved in God’s work among unreached people groups (UPGs).

And Wayumi is a bridge.

“The average person doesn’t know what their role [in missions] is,” said Ben Hazen, director of adult discipleship at Community Baptist Church in Mountoursville, Pennsylvania. “Wayumi is a great first step.”

“First, Wayumi is bringing much-needed awareness to churches regarding all that is involved in reaching an unreached people group,” said John Green, pastor of Cornerstone Church of Clarion, Pennsylvania. “Second, Wayumi is providing a holistic strategic plan to help the church effectively engage in this process.”

Even where there’s a desire to engage — as there has been at Cornerstone — a church can come up short. “There’s a big difference between good intentions and accomplishing a strategic vision,” John said. “Wayumi helps a church’s good intentions to accomplish something great for God become an attainable strategic plan. … Wayumi lays out a strategy that has been fully developed and fine-tuned over years of successful experience that helps the church launch their good intentions into a plan of action.”

In addition to the three-day sessions geared for church leaders and members, Wayumi holds week-long youth camps all summer and week-long college programs in the spring and fall.

Though the time frames are different and the methods are tailored to each group, the message remains the same.

“There are still somewhere between 1,500 to 2,500 language and ethnic groups on this earth that do not have access to God’s Word in their language or know clearly of what Jesus did for them 2,000 years ago,” said Greg Sanford, a veteran Ethnos360 church planter who directs Wayumi. “Somebody needs to translate the Bible for them and tell them of Jesus.”

“Wayumi is a phenomenal program,” Ben said. “It’s one thing for a pastor at a local church to talk every week about the Great Commission, … and it’s another thing to go into a back room where there are four huts and smoke and people … speaking a foreign language. Wayumi is kind of bringing the mission field to America. They’re helping people visualize what it’s like.”

“So many people don’t know about unreached people groups and have no idea the process of how to reach them,” said Elizabeth Minium. Elizabeth interned at Wayumi’s summer camp and is now on her way to the Philippines with her husband, Alex, as part of Ethnos360 Aviation.

“It’s amazing to see teenagers having their eyes opened up to the world and what all the Lord is doing.” “We love the comprehensive, biblical approach they present regarding the Great Commission, the role of the church, and the reality of the situation for unreached people groups,” said Seth Callahan. Seth and his wife, Rochelle, are church planters sent out through Ethnos360 to Papua New Guinea. “Wayumi is where I point anyone who expresses to me a potential desire to engage in cross-cultural missions.”