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Reaching Indigenous People
Organizational leadership and decision-making in UIM is focused on reaching the indigenous people groups of North America. UIM Board of Directors set the course, "to establish indigenous churches among Native Indian, Mexican, and Hispanic peoples of North America built on the Scriptures and functioning within their cultural orientation." This is precisely what has been taking place since 1956.
From the Board of Directors to the indigenous leaders, and all points in between, UIM International seeks day in and day out to remain faithful to this vision. UIM has been blessed with long-term board members and newly added members. UIM has seen over 400 career missionaries and now dozens of indigenous leaders establishing local churches and serving in various ministries to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Your faithful prayer connection, giving connection, sending and serving connection make it all possible. This issue of the UIM Connection! gives you a peek into the behind-the-scenes work that makes the field ministry a reality.
I have the privilege of serving with choice servants. Now you can read about some of them. This is your UIM Connection!
In Christ Jesus,
 Dan Fredericks, Executive Director
UIM International  |
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Faithful Servants
John Luginbuhl, UIM International Board President
Throughout the year, the different UIM boards usually confer via an online meeting. Annually, the UIM International Board meets bodily the beginning of October. The annual meeting is the one time that the Executive Director, the administrators and the International Board members get together "face-to-face" to share with one another what the Lord has been doing in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The primary reason for meeting face-to-face only once a year is that the men who come to our annual meeting live in various regions of North America, so it takes a fair amount of effort and scheduling to get everyone together.
One of the wonderful things about the annual meeting is that the men get to see and "catch up" with a number of their brothers in Christ, as well as with many of those men's spouses, whom they see only once a year! This year's meeting was held at Desert Hills Evangelical Free Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Several weeks before the meeting, Renae, UIM's Communications Manager, sends past minutes and reports to the board members to give them time to read the items and prepare for discussion. Since the meetings were held in Phoenix this year the Glendale personnel prepared the office facilities, reserved the hotel rooms and church meeting facilities, scheduled vehicles for airport pickups, and planned for the Monday evening dinner.
Once the meetings start, the board does what you might expect them to do: they listen to and discuss reports of the various fields, review financial statements and approve budgets (our thanks to Jim Pieters for his wonderful work!), pray for the UIM missionaries, hear from our Executive Director, Dan Fredericks, hear about new missionaries coming into the UIM family, review policy, and approve field assignments and project requests.
It is also the board's responsibility to evaluate how our Executive Director is doing in encouraging our UIM family to achieve the objective of UIM: to "establish Biblically sound churches among Native and Hispanic peoples of North America" via the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. This is not a time of criticism, but rather a time of encouraging comments and suggestions. The board is thrilled at what the Lord is doing through our Executive Director and the UIM family! The Lord is faithful!
One might think that the annual meeting is boring. Quite the contrary! The annual meeting is a great time of fellowship (including meals together) and prayer, mutual encouragement, and praise to our ever-faithful Lord! Some of our board members have been involved with UIM for more than 50 years. We appreciate their dedication to the Lord and to UIM.
May we all continue to be faithful to Him as He tarries! Thank you for your prayers for our Executive Director, our missionaries and our International Board!
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Back row left to right: Tom Wilson, Dan Fredericks, Willie Behrends, Duane Anderson, Joe Swanson, Dave Balsley, Daren George, David Williaume, Ernie Geeting, Salvador Caro, Warren Cheek, Don Nellis, Jerry Yonnie, Keith Callison, Jaime Coria, Bill Fox, Doug Anderson
Front row: Don Fredericks, Larry Waldahl, John Luginbuhl, Gary Aday, DeLeisle Calac, Jim Pieters, Nelson Shaum, Jr. |
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Orientation To UIM
2013 Seminar Participants
After the annual board meeting, another OTUS (Orientation to UIM Seminar) was held at the Glendale, Arizona, office. Anna Gabriel has been approved to minister at Broken Arrow Bible Ranch in Vanderwagen, New Mexico. She has spent many summers at the camp and is looking forward to spending more time with the youth both during the summers and throughout the year.
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Anna Gabriel |
After high school Anna attended Kansas State University, graduating with a BS in Animal Science in 2010. While attending the university, she felt a tug on her heart from the Lord to become a missionary. It wasn't until after she had ministered at BABR and talked to godly people that she concluded the Lord was leading her to the Native American people. She has a great deal of knowledge and experience with horses and anticipates being able to continue to help with that well-loved part of the ministry.
Anna also graduated from the Indian Bible College in May of this year. Her two years there helped her learn even more about the many tribes of Native Americans. She is now beginning her prayer and financial support-raising process to serve at BABR.
Emanuel Lara, son of Adalberto and Everth Lara, UIM missionaries in Quebec, Canada, attended with his wife, Kauzy, to get more information about UIM. They have been approved by the Mexico board to also begin raising prayer and financial support to serve in Quebec alongside Adalberto and Everth. They have been actively involved in ministry in their church in Guadalajara, Mexico, and have assisted in starting new church plants.  |
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