The Ministry of Information Technology: The Hidden Infrastructure

As someone who grew up in the digital age, I can’t remember a time without computers, smartphones, Wi-Fi and Google. I use the internet to share social media posts, do digital banking, read the news, research questions — you name it. I understand what these forms of technology can do for me, but I don’t understand what makes them work. And I think that most people would say the same. Today, Ethnos360 missionaries use these digital tools to study culture and language, translate Scriptures, format Bible lessons, send in their supply orders and communicate with family back home. This technology has become as crucial to the ministries of both church planters and support missionaries as it is in your daily life and mine. 

IT stands for information technology. Our technology has hardware, the physical parts that we interact with, like laptops and internet routers, and software, the non-physical programs that guide the computer’s hardware on what to do and how to do it. It also includes other things like data, networking, processes, security and much more. Some questions we might ask to understand the full scope of IT are: How did integrating IT into mission work all start? Who provides IT support? What do they do? And why does it matter for mission work among unreached people groups? The work of IT is a big picture to paint, so let’s start from the beginning. 

Our Past  

Bible translation efforts were what prompted Ethnos360, New Tribes Mission (NTM) at the time, to explore if this up-and-coming computer technology could ever be beneficial to church planting missionaries. The question that started it all in 1980 was, “How can these newfangled personal computers (PCs) help our missionaries?”  

One man was charged with one year of research in 1980 to evaluate if computers would be practical for and beneficial to Bible translators. This job was given to Dave Brendle, the only electrical engineer for NTM in the USA at the time. When he was not working on his responsibilities in avionics, he was ordering and testing systems and speaking with computer companies and other mission organizations. 

The year of research and testing came to an end, and Dave recommended a build-it-yourself PC kit. Five translators were interested in purchasing one, and two of them immediately placed orders. Dave’s job was to build the computers, even with his full-time work in avionics. “I built the [PCs] in my spare time — nights and weekends. I built for quite a number of translators during the next two years.” 

Although in 2026 we might not be able to picture our work without computers, in 1984, some people could not picture working with computers; they did not see how it could be beneficial to their work. 

A Revolutionary Change  

Time and money. Two precious resources for missionaries who have a limited amount of both. Initially, the idea of these “newfangled” computers was not welcomed by everyone. The first reaction of Bolivia church planter and Bible translator Wayne Gill was, “This is something else to waste missionary time.” Wayne was originally from Wyoming, but he had moved to Bolivia to be a missionary and had completed a New Testament translation into the Trinitario language on a standard typewriter.  

Then, a clear leading of God had moved him to the Chimane people group in another part of Bolivia to translate for them. Wayne was a translation wiz. He already knew the process for Bible translation, he already had the equipment for it, and he knew it worked. This is when a pilot on a routine supply run brought the news of a “new thing called a computer.” 

It wasn’t worth much consideration; it would be far too expensive. Thousands of dollars would be required to buy a computer and all the equipment to run it — a big ask for a missionary who raised his own support and would have to buy the computer himself. It would take far too much from his missionary work. It would take precious time to learn the computer, to input all the hand-written translation materials on the computer and to fix it when it would inevitably break.  

In the jungle, the only technical support Wayne and his teammates had was what they could do for themselves or when the aviation team would fly in for the monthly supply drop. How could a computer possibly be worth all of that time and money and effort?    

“Search and replace” made it worth it. Not only were the missionaries working on translating the Bible, they also were developing materials for their team as they learned the culture and language of the people they were working with. They had all these notes on hand-written note cards and typed papers, but paper was susceptible to threats. Countless hours of translation work could be completely eradicated. For example, one translator left her village to go to the mission base, and when she came back several weeks later, termites had destroyed over ten years of work!  

The “search and replace” feature on the digitized platform allowed Wayne and other missionary translators and typists to edit and update documents in a fraction of the time it used to take. Previously, when a change needed to be made to a document, the entire page would need to be retyped … and then this process was repeated for each copy. Now they could edit the original document without needing to recreate the change manually for each copy. Consider how this new feature radically increased time efficiency in language learning and Bible translation. Missionaries were able to prepare these materials more quickly and thus spend more time studying the language, translating, building relationships with their indigenous neighbors and caring for their families. 

After seeing the large impact that computers made on the Bible translation process, other organizational departments like the finance office back in the USA began to catch the vision as well. The finance team requested an accounting system that was able to meet the organization’s specific needs, and the IT team fulfilled that request. They also developed an email system for NTM. Dave said, “Once email and communication came into play, requests for computers exploded, as individual missionaries saw how the computer could aid their connections to families and supporters.” Now all missionaries could see the relevancy of computers. 

All it took was one question and a few open minds to change the course of how computer technology was to be utilized in NTM/Ethnos360.  

Present  

From training to church planting, IT supports every stage of ministry. Our IT workers fill roles both in the USA and on mission fields overseas. Although workers in the USA can help missionaries with many things remotely, some support must be given in person because the hardware needs to be installed, repaired, maintained and adjusted. Stateside IT missionaries support the organization as a whole, while overseas IT missionaries are assigned to support specific fields’ needs. Without on-field IT support, church-planting missionaries have to send their computers away to be fixed, which in turn delays Bible translation and hinders communication for weeks.  

I have now been around Ethnos360 for over a year at the Home Office in Sanford, Florida, and I cannot think of one worker here whose job is done without computers and IT support. On one level, we communicate on computers, and our work happens via computers. Even teams that do hands-on jobs like maintenance receive work orders online and order parts digitally. And on another level, our organizational intellectual property and our personal information are protected by IT.  

The support ministry of IT is much more multi-faceted than I realized. Ethnos360 IT has the following objectives: 

• provide the technology, tools and training to Ethnos360 staff for ministry;  

• support staff members by removing technological obstacles to their ministry;  

• protect against attacks on technology and information; and 

• preserve irreplaceable data, such as Bible translations and important records. 

So, how do these objectives impact present-day church planting practically? 

A “Narrow Miss” 

Benjamin and his wife, Missy, are church planters in Papua New Guinea who experienced a “narrow miss instead of a blindside.” Benjamin recounted, “A couple years ago, we returned to the field after home assignment and were gathering supplies to go back to [the village] when we received an email alerting us to the fact that changes were in place to transfer our support to a new bank account. The email said that the transfer would take place in the next day or two. Only we had not asked for a transfer, nor had we opened a new bank account. After making a few rushed phone calls, the [IT team] determined that our mission account had been hacked and that a bad actor had impersonated us and successfully sent the request to the finance office without our knowing.  

“Armed with this information, finance office personnel were able to report to the bad actor’s bank management, and together they prevented the transfer of funds from happening. Without the swift response from the IT team, an entire month’s income would have been lost and would probably not have been recoverable. From across the ocean in Papua New Guinea, it would have been very difficult for us to deal with this problem on our own.” 

Out With the Old, in With the New 

Long since gone are the days of typewritten and handwritten Bible translations and weeks-long delays before hearing from family, friends and supporters while on the field. Additionally, new technology has made church planting more efficient and effective in other major areas like financial transactions, protection of personal information, Bible education and missionary training.  

Directly impacting Bible translation, computers were game changers for how information was to be stored and retrieved, shared and edited, and printed and copied. No more giant file drawers for paper copies, no more termites eating original script. Edits could be implemented immediately. Consultants could receive the finished or almost finished translations via email rather than waiting for the consultants to make the trip to the village. And the completed translation could be emailed to the formatter instead of being sent by snail mail.  

To receive mail in a remote village still takes a lot of time — several weeks or months. But now, missionaries don’t have to ache for a word from home. Worldwide instant messaging is made possible through the work of IT. Missionaries can stay connected with co-workers, family, friends and supporters.  

While missionary grandchildren in the early days would barely know their grandparents back in their home country, now they can FaceTime — hear their voices, see their faces. Missionaries can keep in touch with their adult children who have repatriated. Instead of isolated work, missionaries can consult co-workers and collaborate in real time. Churches can stay up to date on their missionaries’ needs — practically, spiritually, financially. This level of connectivity has made it safer and easier for missionaries to live in remote areas and minister to unreached people groups. 

Andy Wegner, who serves in the mobilization department at Ethnos360’s Home Office, expressed his appreciation for IT support: “If I didn’t have a computer to do my job, I would have to be driving [all around the country], costing us a lot more money. We would need a lot more supporters on our team. Our computers allow us to connect with people all over the world and mobilize through online content, which is becoming more and more effective for mobilizing college students and older adults alike.” 

IT supports Bible education by providing the systems for managing students and classwork at Ethnos360’s residential Bible institute in Wisconsin. Not only do IT personnel upload and organize the recorded lectures for Ethnos360 Bible Institute’s online classes, but they also organize the student dashboards and the instructors’ accounts. Similar online discipleship programs have been created for believers located in places where a traditional missionary cannot go and provide this education in person. 

In the past it was not easy for missionaries and national co-workers serving in different countries to connect and share resources online. In 2024, IT members from several countries worked very hard to create a safe, global online platform where missionaries from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe could collaborate and share ministry expertise. This platform ensures that everyone has access to the excellent resources available for church planting, regardless of where they are from or where they work. 

Protecting the Work and the Workers 

Besides serving Ethnos360 missionaries, IT specialists are dedicated to the security of students in training, interns, volunteers and those who partner with Ethnos360 financially. The IT team provides new tools that focus internally on the work being done; they also safeguard the organization from those outside the organization looking to attack our systems. 

Cybercriminals, like those who tried to steal from Benjamin and Missy, actively seek security weak points to exploit. These kinds of attacks can cause outages that disrupt missionary care, training, finance operations, communication and donor engagement. Missionaries’ livelihoods depend on these systems being in operation. Reliable systems help keep missionaries equipped and supported when they need to be focused on their ministry roles. Ethnos360 IT blocks multiple hacking attempts each day which, if they had gone through, would have been disastrous. The dynamic team of IT workers is constantly learning how best to serve and protect their missionaries and systems.  

Challenges 

Missionary challenges today differ from challenges of the past … on the surface. Adapting to change and troubleshooting technology is a major part of the work of IT, a job that did not exist when Ethnos360 was founded nearly 85 years ago. However, the age-old, root challenges to mission work remain the same: shortages of laborers and resources. 

Even with an unprecedented number of opportunities for those with tech skills, people simply do not know that their skills in IT can be used directly in missions. Director of IT Neil Byce says, “Each time I share the story of our vast and evergrowing IT needs, I’m met with the same reaction: surprise.  People lean back, eyebrows raised, genuinely stunned. They tell me they had no idea Ethnos360 depended so heavily on technology. The thought simply never crossed their minds that servers, cybersecurity, software development, connectivity in remote regions and the countless digital tools behind the scenes all play a vital role in global missions.  

“What’s even more striking is how often someone admits they never imagined that a shortage of IT personnel could slow the spread of the gospel.  Yet the reality is that every Bible translation, every communication link to a remote team, every flight operation, every training center, every donor interaction — all of it relies on the quiet, unseen labor of people in IT. And once people see that picture, once they realize how deeply technology intertwines with frontline ministry, they never look at IT in missions the same way again … and they often become a huge advocate for us.” 

Skilled workers are necessary but in short supply. The demand for more workers to fill these positions, both stateside and overseas, is always growing. Currently, our IT team has over 20 open roles in the USA and 11 open international positions. We are thankful for the faithful laborers who serve with us now, and we trust God to fill the major gap of laborers. 

Another challenge for IT missionaries serving in support roles is that they often experience difficulties as they raise funding to do their ministry full-time. Churches and individuals don’t always recognize how vital these roles are to sustain church-planting efforts.  

Part of being in the world of nonprofit missions means dependence on God for meeting needs through His people, including financial needs. Software programs, data storage and equipment need to be financed. We praise God for His provision. 

Dave Brendle said, “Our IT team has always found ourselves facing major challenges. … However, God has always brought in the right people just in time to meet these needs. God continues to provide the next generation of workers to meet the challenges of the future.” The demand is increasing for people to join the mission work of providing IT support that enables more churches to be planted. 

The Future of IT in Ethnos360 

What is on the horizon for information technology at Ethnos360, and how will it help with church planting?  

AI (artificial intelligence) talk has taken over the conversation in the tech world lately because it is impacting everyone. Many people have already integrated AI into their daily lives for working, cooking, managing their schedule, taking care of the home and more. This powerful tool continues to develop rapidly.  

Careful stewardship of time, resources and missionary information is the hallmark of the Ethnos360 IT team. This is shown in their use of AI. One example is that they have set up firewalls with AI-integrated smart protection tools. Our team has set these up carefully so that they work alongside us to keep our systems and information safe from cyberattacks. 

People have begun to ask questions about how this technology will affect missions, “Now with AI, you won’t need people to do Bible translation anymore, right?” AI will never replace the need for human laborers to share God’s amazing story of Creation, sin and redemption through Christ. AI doesn’t operate through love. It doesn’t bond and build trust with people. It won’t cry with you in times of tragedy or feast with you in times of celebration. Shared human experiences give missionaries a deeper connection with the people to whom they are ministering. 

We rely on God’s sovereignty and guidance, using tools like AI only where they can safely and thoughtfully support the ministry.  

Team Growth 

A series of projects is underway to standardize the tools and systems used at all our US centers in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; the goal is to strengthen unity by reducing downtime. A connected, unified system makes for better synergy between team members and technologies. Moving toward a cloud-based system reduces physical maintenance needs for servers and enables access to resources anywhere in the world. 

Our IT team will continue to adapt and grow to ensure our efficiency, effectiveness and security as a mission, and as key ministry roles are filled, the team will be able to launch exciting new initiatives for our different departments. In a world of ever-changing technology, we trust God for our future. 

Final Thoughts 

From a missionary’s first steps in training to the complex tasks of language learning, Bible translation and church planting, our IT professionals ensure that every stage of ministry is empowered by reliable, secure and innovative technology. Though IT is often behind the scenes, its impact is front and center. 

A thriving church for every people. That has been the heartbeat of the Ethnos360 IT team since the beginning. Each day, barriers are removed — education, communication, translation and literacy barriers — and tools are provided by the ministry of the IT team that will continue to accelerate the Great Commission while relying on God’s provision.  

People like Dave, Neil and many others on the IT team support the ministries of stateside workers like Andy and Keith and international church planters like Wayne and Benjamin and Missy. God gives each of us experiences, opportunities, dreams and skills so that, being empowered by His Holy Spirit, we can partner with Him and the local church to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. 

Contributing Writer 

Megan Bartlett graduated from Liberty University in 2024 with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration: Communications and began interning with Ethnos360. Now, as a volunteer, she continues to serve in the Communications department at the Home Office in Sanford, Florida. It is Megan's joy to be a part of reaching the unreached by bringing awareness to the need for missionaries and encouraging others to take part. She is supported by her home church, First Baptist Church of Barron, Wisconsin.