
We are encouraged by all the questions we get about this important project that we first started working with full time in 2011 as we lived in Oaxaca, Mexico, and continued to be a part of through the years since while serving with ALTECO and now also with Gospelink. While on its surface, Etnopedia.org is an editable website, it is in fact much more. Etnopedia is a multi-lingual, international community of Evangelical Christians vested in the Great Commission, researching Unreached People Groups and making this information available to missionary movements in their own languages, for example, Spanish and Portuguese speaking missionaries originating from Latin America, as well as for Evangelical missionaries who are German, Korean, etc. Etnopedia is not a “structured” organization in a conventional sense although it has a director, admins and contributors, it is rather a movement with the ideals of open source access (among Christians) and quick, editable turnaround of information with the bare minimum of bureaucracy. Security and reliability of information are paramount to this project, as all contributors must be approved, and all edits policed by the Etnopedia community. As a “wiki” website (like Wikipedia), Etnopedia is not “fancy”; it is however highly robust in its design and loads quickly over slow internet connections. As Etnopedia is 100% volunteer based, with all article submissions, edits, and translations done by hand, it is nearly impossible to make it “exhaustive” in the sense of every country of the world listed with a complete list of all People Groups within each country, along with all descriptions, maps, and prayer needs available – in every conceivable language. That is not the intention, as in fact it provides enough information for any active missionary movement that needs it. And more information is added all the time. Where it lacks in completeness, Etnopedia more than makes up in its ability to be edited in real time and in many languages, with all information time stamped so that you know how current the data is. Etnopedia is currently the de facto information source of People Groups in Spanish for our work with ALTECO in South America, and is a both a prayer guide and missionary mobilization plan for churches and missionaries around the world. Again, as a volunteer project, we are always looking for help. Please contact us if you or someone you know would like to get involved!