LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ava Taylor* spent the past two years traveling across Europe as part of the International Mission Board’s Project 3000 Explorer initiative, seeking out unreached people groups and sharing the Gospel. The project’s goal is to ensure every people group has access to the message of Christ.
Over the next five years, the IMB plans to send 300 missionary explorers to research each remaining people group with no known Gospel presence.
Taylor, 30, partnered with a 47-year-old woman during the two-year assignment, which took them to 25 European countries.
Taylor, a Kentucky Baptist, said she had always been interested in missions because her parents were faithful in serving their church. However, she said she did not fully commit to that calling until she was 18 and “truly became a follower of Christ and decided I would go where He sends me.”
Her first mission trip was to Italy, and she said “my heart was just torn for the lost. There is such vast lostness in Europe. I knew that’s where God was calling me.”
Taylor began exploring IMB opportunities, including serving as a Journeyman in Italy. She attended an interview conference she described as similar to a job fair, designed to guide applicants through the process.
“That’s where I first heard about Project 3000. I love to travel and my heart was for the unreached. … Hearing what they were doing piqued my interest. I applied for both that and the other job and talked to supervisors. I prayed a lot about it and thought while I was young and able, why not do Project 3000?”
It took some extra training, both mental and physical, and classes on mapping and other means of survival in Virginia before she went to her assignment and met with her partner.
For security reasons, Taylor cannot disclose all the locations she and her partner visited, but she said they traveled to “22 or 23 different countries between them.” At times they worked with national partners and often relied on Google Translate to overcome language barriers. “Some were Italian or their own language but not so much English,” she said.
They also encountered people deeply rooted in their own religious traditions. Some were Muslim, some Catholic, and few were open to hearing or accepting the Gospel.
“In my two years, sharing with as many people as I could, none of them came to Christ,” she said. “We had some interested, but nobody was ready to take that step. A lot of my job was equipping local churches on how to go about evangelism. We know we are leaving behind tools for churches to do this themselves.”
Although she found it disappointing that no one made a profession of faith during that time, Taylor said she believes seeds were planted and she continues to pray that, in the days, weeks, months or even years ahead, many will come to faith after hearing about the one true God.
Research played a critical role in locating unreached people groups, she said. “There is a lot of research beforehand,” Taylor said. “Thank goodness for the internet, it was really helpful. We also have a system in the IMB where we think they are. We’d go to cafes, cultural centers and try to find any churches and just start asking around.”
Taylor said the experience taught her many personal lessons.
“It teaches you a lot about yourself,” she said. “Like, how do I react under pressure. Is it always godly? No. 1, what does abiding in Christ really look like? My relationship (with Christ) deepened so much in this experience. My partner came off the field a little early and I had my own [translator]. It did get lonely. There is a lack of community with this job. You’re not able to go to church — or not in your language — or you’re looking for your people group. Am I really abiding? I have a dependence on God I didn’t have before.”
She enjoyed working with her partner, despite the age difference.
“She’s quite a bit older, the exception to the rule,” Taylor said. “We hit it off. You spend 24/7 together. You wake up and you’re there with that person. We became very fast friends. It did help that she was a little older with a little more life experience,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s parents, while strong believers, were concerned about their daughter’s safety.
“My dad was not super thrilled,” she said. “He was a little concerned about me being over there, two single females traveling Europe. They totally understand the work and are super proud.”
Taylor continues to work with the IMB as a recruiter and mobilizer.
Looking ahead, she said she is considering a return to Europe but is uncertain about her next step. “I’m really close to my family as well,” she said. “Am I really being called overseas long-term? I’m trying to figure that out.”
Even so, Taylor said her time overseas has only strengthened her burden for people around the world who have never heard the Gospel.
She understands that her mission overseas would not have been possible without the generous giving by Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program.
“I cannot say ‘thank you’ enough to Southern Baptist churches that give to the Cooperative Program because it truly does go straight to your missionaries and it helps us,” she said.
“It supports us and gives us the freedom to go out and share the Gospel on a daily basis without having to worry about raising support … it truly helps and it is such a blessing to everyone. I cannot say ‘thank you’ enough.”
You can listen to an interview with Ava Taylor on the Kentucky Today Podcast.
*Name changed for security reasons.