Our Story
“…and then he asked the question that changed the trajectory of our lives forever: “What’s stopping you from going?”
We are Jake and Marissa Kelley, along with our two daughters, Jane and Riley. We’re high school sweethearts who grew up in Blairsville, GA, believing in the gospel and loving Jesus. We both had plans for how our lives would look, until one day we heard the truth that changed everything…
While both of us were working at a bible camp, a missionary from Ethnos360 came to speak. He shared how there are still people in the world who have never heard the gospel, and who likely never will, unless someone goes to them. They are unreached because they live where there is no church influence, no believers, and no bible in their language. It’s likely that they will never hear the truth about Jesus, unless someone goes to them…
“But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?"
-Romans 10:14
By sharing with us, the missionary opened our eyes to the sobering truth that there are still upwards of 6,825 unreached people groups in the world today. That’s roughly 3 billion people in the world who will live and die without ever hearing the name of Jesus.
This was a reality that we could no longer ignore. We sat there feeling the injustice. We knew that the gospel- this message of hope- wasn’t just for ourselves, but for the whole world to know. At the end of his talk, the missionary said that there are still thousands of unreached peoples waiting to hear the truth, and then he asked the question that changed the trajectory of our lives forever:
“What’s stopping you from going?”
To learn that there are still unreached people in the world 2,000 years after Jesus came, broke our hearts and we both felt burdened for those who will never have a chance to hear the good news. From that moment on we knew we wanted to take part in reaching the unreached.
So we both attended two years of bible school at Ethnos360, and then two more years of missionary training, where we were equipped with the necessary skills to be able to minister cross-culturally.
After a year and a half of raising support, our family moved to Papua New Guinea in September of 2023. We are currently learning the national language (Tok Pisin) and culture of PNG, with the goal to one day move into an unreached people group, plant a mature church, and translate the bible into their heart language. There are still hundreds of unreached people groups in Papua New Guinea today. Our goal is to reach at least one and present them mature in Christ.
