Changing by the Unchanging One 

 

Spring, summer and fall, UIM International benefits from accommodating groups and individuals who are either fulfilling a college course requirement or simply a heart-driven pursuit to experience missions firsthand.  It may only be a week or two or over the summer, yet time invested results in life change. 

The amazing thing about short-term exposure to missions through UIM International is that one can go cross-cultural and experience "third-world" environments without leaving North America. 

 

UIM targets indigenous people groups in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, reaching people groups that have been forgotten, taken for granted as "already reached," or dismissed and pushed aside.  For all the "progress" that has been made in North America in terms of free trade and technological advancement, many still live in less-than-advanced community contexts, and, more concerning, without a clear Gospel witness.   

 

This edition of the UIM Connection!  addresses one such example.  We wish to intersect with Bible colleges, home-schooling groups, students, families, and church groups for real-world mission experiences.  Lives will be changed.

 

UIM International is also developing formal internship opportunities to fulfill Bible college required courses as well as facilitate the potential for future UIM International missionaries.  It's a transparent experience.  You will experience committed missionaries with all their spiritual faithfulness and human frailties, yet used greatly of the Lord by His grace.  You will discover your own dimensions of strengths and weakness as never before, but resulting in your own growth in grace and more realistic walk with the Savior.

 

Your UIM Connection could be your life-changing testimony in the making.  As you read this account, prayerfully consider your own step in that direction.

 

Ever changing through our unchanging Lord Jesus Christ,  

 

 

Daniel P. Fredericks

UIM Executive Director

 

 

 

  Ministry Help through Groups

 

UIM International welcomes groups and individuals who desire to minister by helping with projects and Vacation Bible School type teaching of children.  This past April, "The Southwest 10" (a Lancaster Bible College Journey team) traveled to New Mexico.  The team stayed at Broken Arrow Bible Ranch (BABR), which provides a summer camp for Native American children and youth.  Before the trip, the team was able to make over 100 pair of pajamas to give to children who do not have a pair of their own.

 

Sewing pajamas

 

 

The team spent several hours observing and teaching in classrooms on Navajo and Zuni reservations.  Bob and Tammi Dodson conducted in-service training for the staff at Hilltop Christian School, while the rest of the team taught in the classrooms.  It was a thrill for them to share Christ and teach the children the truth of God's Word!

 

Several hours were spent on a work project repairing a section of horse trail at BABR that had been washed away by heavy rains.  The team shared the Easter story with four groups of public boarding school children and teens by using "resurrection eggs."  And, they were blessed to hear the lifelong testimony of God's faithfulness from Ruth Douglas, a 1958 LBC graduate who has ministered to various Native American tribes for over 50 years.

 

Lancaster Bible College "Southwest 10" with UIM missionary, Ruth Douglas

 

 

None of the team members returned unchanged.  Each learned more about Native American culture and gained a greater love and burden for people lost without Christ.  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Numerous positive benefits may be experienced through UIM's internship program, as UIM's 2012 summer intern attests!  Emily Barto, working toward a double major in Intercultural Studies and Communications at Lancaster Bible College in Pennsylvania, asserts that meeting faithful, enthusiastic missionaries was personally challenging, spending time with a variety of Native people culturally enlightening.  The six-week experience enabled her to better assess her professional strengths and weaknesses, refine her vision, and reaffirm the direction she feels God is leading her--into a support role in missions.

Emily Barto

 

The internship program has several goals:  ministry, hands-on-learning, and experiences in cross-cultural environments that foster the students' dependence on God and ability to work with team members.  Hopefully, it will provide opportunities for students to share the Gospel, disciple and be discipled, develop leadership skills and help develop Native church leaders as they forge relationships with First Nations, Hispanic and Mexican men, women, youth, and children.  Students can also learn about UIM, be exposed to a people group, utilize their gifts, and gain insight into God's direction for their lives.  Such exposure will undoubtedly impact a student's understanding and future mission involvement even if he/she never becomes part of a mission organization.  As Jerry Holm stated, "One goal is that people would realize that Native people need the Lord and are reachable . . . God desires availability . . . "