InterAct Ministries is an interdenominational missionary

Mission (Christian)

Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...

 agency that focuses on church planting

Church planting

Church planting is a process that results in a new Christian church being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, new worship centre or fresh expression is created that is integrated into an already established congregation...

 among indigenous people of eastern Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, and western Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

--an area it calls the "North Pacific Crescent." The international headquarters is located in Boring, Oregon

Boring, Oregon

Boring is an unincorporated community located in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, on Oregon Route 212. It is approximately eight miles south of Gresham and about the same distance from Clackamas, both suburbs of Portland. The town is roughly twenty-two miles southeast from downtown...

. The ministry employs approximately 135 staff members worldwide.

The organization began in 1951 as Alaska Missions, Inc. In 1956, the name was changed to Arctic Missions in order to better represent the broadening of focus to the western provinces of Canada. In 1988, the name InterAct Ministries was chosen to reflect the fact that much of their work is carried out in areas well south of the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

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InterAct is affiliated with several major evangelical accountability and partnership groups, including Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability

Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability is an accreditation agency to promote fiscal integrity and sound financial practices among member organizations. Founded in 1979, it comprises over 2,000 evangelical Christian organizations which qualify for tax-exempt, nonprofit status and...

 (ECFA), CrossGlobal Link, and the Canadian Council of Christian Charities (CCCC). Non-profit ministry watchdog group MinistryWatch.com gives the organization a transparency grade of "A" and four out of five stars in financial efficiency.

In addition to church planting, the organization is also noted for developing Christian literature and music that reflects native traditions

Ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...

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