When Gus McLean first committed to his two-year term as a Project 3000 Explorer, he wasn’t sure what to expect. No one else was either, as Hall was one of the first Explorer to be sent out.  

Project 3000 began in 2023 as a renewed focus on engaging the roughly 3,000 remaining people groups with no missionary presence and no gospel access. Each explorer is assigned 10 people groups. They work with national partners to locate and research those people groups over the course of their two-year term.  

McLean served in the Asia-Pacific Rim, and all his people groups were located in remote villages in Southeast Asia.  

Sometimes reaching them meant days of travel by plane, motorcycle, boat or even a combination of all three.  

McLean remembered one trip in particular where no passenger boat was available to the small island they needed to reach, so his team took a supply boat. The 10-hour ride through rough waters made everyone onboard seasick. 

“Before [Project 3000], I didn’t really have any idea of what it was like to go to the ends of the earth. But now, I’ve been to some really remote places…and I think that’s given me a perspective of what it’s going to take to reach those places with the gospel,” McLean said.  

One thing McLean learned is that unreached people groups often aren’t cut off from the rest of the world, they’re just cut off from gospel influence.  

“All the villages we went to had roads, everyone had cell phones. There might have been Coca-Cola in the villages, but there were no Bibles, and there were no Christians,” McLean said. 

Though the trips were sometimes challenging, McLean and his team were able to find all 10 people groups. In addition to the research they collected, they also had opportunities to share the gospel and even baptize and disciple a new believer who came to faith.  

McLean remembered one village in particular where he felt the weight of lostness in a new way. After spending the day meeting villagers and sharing the gospel, McLean and his team sat on a dock looking out at a lake while the sun set.  

As twilight came in, McLean and his team heard the call to prayer begin at the village mosque. They realized that for as long as the village had existed, people there worshipped Allah. It was unlikely anyone had ever offered praise to the true God. So, McLean and his team broke into worship.  

“That was a really powerful experience early on in my term,” McLean said. “[Project 300] isn’t going to be easy. There’s going to be rough conditions, there’s going to be tough travel. But, it is so worth it to go to these places and see God work and be the instrument God uses to share the gospel with someone for the very first time.”  

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