A look back on 2025
Annual Report
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” – Matthew 7:7
From the president
In 2023, we were challenged to unite with our colleagues worldwide to engage 250 more people groups and places with the gospel over a 10-year period, starting in 2025. This is a big vision, and we’re just getting started. But 2025 has been a year of steady progress.
Our teams around the world have asked the Lord: What needs to happen before this vision can be fulfilled? And which unreached peoples and places should we focus on next?
They’ve prayerfully identified more than 350 people groups and places to explore—from Muslim and Hindu mega-groups in South Asia to small tribes in the Americas, immigrant communities in Europe and under-resourced locations on every continent. Likely God has some surprises for us, too, places and people groups we haven’t considered.
Many of you have been walking with us, praying for us and for the nations, sharing the gospel freely, and giving sacrificially. As Paul told the Philippian church,
“We thank God when we remember you and pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel, confident that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until Jesus returns.”
Steve Richardson
President, Pioneers-USA
By the numbers
Here’s a snapshot of our global ministry.
Pioneers global reach
total members*
field teams
countries of citizenship
*This is an approximate and fluctuating figure, and includes about 2,100 field missionaries, plus appointees, staff and board members.
continents
countries
distinct people groups*
*Next year’s report may show a much higher figure. This number reflects our count as of mid-2024, using categories from the Joshua Project and counting groups living in multiple countries as one group. It includes distinct groups engaged through direct ministry as well as media outreach efforts.
new contacts
Bibles distributed
professions of faith
new initial contacts
attended orientation
missionaries appointed
new missionaries sent
Primary religious blocs served
Muslim – 50.11%
Ethnic religions – 10.66%
Hindu – 8.62%
Buddhist – 5.22%
Other – 25.39%
Partners
Donors
Partner churches
Financials
Program
Administration
Fundraising
Accountability
Pioneers values integrity, stewardship and accountability. For this reason, we link arms with other evangelical mission organizations and submit to godly leadership. Learn more or download financial statements.
The Embark250 Vision
Pioneers is committed to engaging more unreached peoples and places with the gospel. We’re asking God to raise up a new wave of followers of Jesus to join us through new and creative pathways of participation.
We embrace digital strategies to recruit, collaborate, share the gospel and make disciples. We are prioritizing leadership development. And we are seeking to build and nurture healthy, long-term partnerships with brothers and sisters from other Pioneers gateways and other nations to equip and send more missionaries from Africa, Asia and beyond.
Partnerships bearing fruit
When geopolitical shifts forced American workers to leave one African country, Pioneers from other countries saw a vacuum and started actively exploring ways they could step in.
Elsewhere in Africa, Pioneers teams are now engaging 24 unreached groups and preparing to engage eight more, as well as people in four new cities.
For the first time in more than a decade, we’ve been able to send people to a previously inaccessible context in the Middle East. We’ve also confirmed that every people group in another challenging Middle Eastern country has someone engaging them with the gospel—some for the first time.
In Southeast Asia, hundreds of people in two unreached people groups have now heard the gospel through new teams of local believers. We were honored to partner with the indigenous mission agency that sent them, enabling them to begin their work as soon as possible.
On a road in old Damascus
Media ministry teams also bring the good news of Jesus to people we might not otherwise meet. Often, we see God is already at work among them. Fatma, a Syrian woman, responded to an ad about how women are valued in Christianity. She explained:
“I had a dream that was extremely beautiful. I saw myself in the Old City of Damascus, walking on a street that felt very long and very dark. Yet at the end of that street, there was a bright light. I began to run toward the light. As I reached it, I saw a very gentle man. Light was shining from his face. He looked at me with kindness and said, ‘You are on the right path. Follow me.’”
Fatma was ready. It wasn’t long before she made the life-changing decision to follow Jesus. Now, she’s being discipled by local believers.
This is no isolated case. Read what happened when God lit a fire in Sanjay, a man in South Asia.
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Strategies to mobilize more: Encore
We’re actively working to strengthen or build new pathways for mission involvement for people who often feel excluded.
While we continue to focus on equipping younger generations, our field workers are also asking us to send them more experienced teammates who can bring stability to a team. New doors also open to those with gray hair!
Encore matches capable individuals or couples in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond with Pioneers teams for flexible, long-term or short-term volunteer assignments tailored to the participant’s availability and the team’s needs.
A global switchboard for skilled volunteers
Pioneers helped launch Switchboard, an innovative organization that connects believers with ministry needs worldwide. Through Switchboard, those who might never go to the field can make strategic, meaningful connections with those who do—advancing the gospel globally.
A team in East Asia had a vision to create a digital version of a discipleship tool to reach more remote communities of believers. They connected with Daniel, who specializes in web app development, for insight on building a progressive web app that can incorporate multimedia resources.
By the end of 2025, Switchboard had made 1,000 matches between skilled volunteers and global ministries in need of help. Within Pioneers, more than 80 teams benefited from volunteers who found them through Switchboard.
Peace Child for a new generation
Don Richardson’s missionary classic Peace Child dramatically changed the way people look at cultures and shows how the gospel connects with traditions in every culture that point to Christ. For the Sawi, it was a unique strategy for making peace.
In 2025, we worked with William Carey Publishing to help us tell this powerful story to a new generation through a beautifully illustrated children’s book.
Don’s son, Pioneers-USA President Steve Richardson, retells this remarkable story from his own perspective, inviting young readers and families to experience how God’s love transformed the Sawi.
Read Perfect Peace Child: A True Story of How One Tribe Found Forever Peace.
Pioneers staff & board
Our U.S. mobilization base
The U.S. mobilization base is one of 15 global gateways for equipping and sending workers for the harvest.
Mobilization base staff work at our base in Florida or around the U.S., bringing their skills in finance, technology, counseling, fundraising, recruiting, coaching, hospitality, human resources and more. In 2025, we restructured the team to increase collaboration and help us better accomplish our mission.
Our office is a busy place. In 2025, we hosted more than 450 events (including three weddings!) and many overnight guests. We served almost 17,000 meals.
Explore
Orientation for new and prospective Pioneers members is held seven times a year and helps those who come prayerfully discern their next steps.
Connect
Three times a year, we offer Pioneers members on “home assignment” the opportunity to debrief their field experiences and prepare to return.
Launch
While pre-field requirements are set on a case-by-case basis, four times a year, we offer a week of training, connecting and commissioning for all appointees.
Church Partner Forum
Twice a year, we host gatherings for church mission leaders to get to know Pioneers as they consider ways to strengthen their church’s mission vision and impact.
Board of directors
A board of directors helps keep us operating according to our mission and vision and provides oversight and spiritual guidance to our ministry’s leaders.
Connect with us
Hear from us regularly. Subscribe to Pioneers Updates.
Help take the gospel to the unreached by praying for the needs of Pioneers missionaries and partners around the world. Become a Courier.
You can always find us through the chat feature on our website.
Have you engaged with Pioneers on social media? We’d love to meet up with you there.
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Grateful for your partnership!
Since 1979, Pioneers missionaries have been linking arms with sending churches and global partners to see Jesus worshiped in every place and among every people. Your partnership with Pioneers will make 2026 another fruitful year in the harvest.
In 2026, we are seeking to recruit 300+ missionary candidates from the U.S. and the Global South and send missionaries to 30-40 unreached people groups to start locally led movements of faith. They will join teams using creative and innovative strategies to connect with thousands of spiritual seekers, make disciples and plant churches.