WIM Celebrates 30 Years!

As I write this I am trav­el­ing. While trav­el­ing, I notice markers—mile mark­ers along the side of the road—that tell where I am and how far I have come. Mile mark­ers were once called “mile­stones.” Now we think of a mile­stone, not as a mea­sure­ment of phys­i­cal dis­tance, but as a marker of a sig­nif­i­cant event in the life of a per­son or an orga­ni­za­tion. The year 2011 is a very sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for World Indigenous Missions as it marks our thir­ti­eth year as a mis­sion orga­ni­za­tion.

WIM was incor­po­rated as a mis­sion agency in July, 1981. The orig­i­nal board of direc­tors were Myron Anderson, founder and pres­i­dent; Steve Johnson, vice pres­i­dent; Walter Fleming, sec­re­tary; Roland Dunteman, advi­sor. Myron saw a vision of “lit­tle fires on the moun­tain tops” of Mexico. These “lit­tle fires” were churches that would be planted in vil­lages through­out Mexico. Over two hun­dred fifty “lit­tle fires” have been started in Mexico since that vision and many more across the world.

The orig­i­nal WIM mis­sion­ar­ies came from the par­ent orga­ni­za­tion Missionary Revival Crusade. MRC worked mostly in Mexico City with a vision to reach into other large urban pop­u­la­tions in Mexico. The founders of WIM had a heart for the rural vil­lages. They began work­ing in the moun­tain­ous region known as “The Hausteca” in the state of San Luis Potosí, near the towns of Matalapa, Tamazunchale, and Ciudad Valles. Their desire was to train mis­sion­ar­ies who would plant churches among indige­nous peo­ples in the Hausteco and Nahuatl tribes. They believed in and held strongly to prin­ci­ples of plant­ing churches that would become self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. They knew that if these new believ­ers could be taught to finance their church, gov­ern its affairs, and evan­ge­lize their own peo­ple, they would con­tinue to plant other churches with the same vision with­out the aid of for­eign mis­sion­ar­ies or other out­side sources. World Indigenous Missions con­tin­ues to adhere to those proven prin­ci­ples.

All of WIM’s orig­i­nal mis­sion­ar­ies were apos­tolic in their call­ing to plant indige­nous churches. Those orig­i­nal mis­sion­ar­ies, still in or closely asso­ci­ated with WIM, are Walter Fleming, Jeff and Wendy Steen, Dale and Kathy Pugh, Gene and Gloria Flanery, Mark and Janet B., and Paul Koehler. The Flanerys and Steens were two of the first to expand into other coun­tries to plant churches. Gene and Gloria went to the Philippines, and Jeff and Wendy moved to Spain. After that, WIM moved into the Dominican Republic, France, Russia, Puerto Rico, Hungary, and var­i­ous coun­tries in Africa, Asia, and South America.

During these thirty years, WIM mis­sion­ar­ies have lived or worked in approx­i­mately forty coun­tries. We have had over three hun­dred mis­sion­ar­ies pass through the orga­ni­za­tion who have led thou­sands of peo­ple to a sav­ing knowl­edge of Christ, planted hun­dreds of churches, and trained many indige­nous peo­ple in coun­tries through­out the world.

WIM has been led by four pres­i­dents: Myron Anderson, Steve Johnson, Mark B., and Chuck Hall. All have had the same vision: to win souls, plant churches, and train lead­ers. In 1997, Chuck Hall wrote the vision down in a mis­sion and vision state­ment along with the core val­ues. WIM’s mis­sion is to “dis­ci­ple the nations to reach the world” in accor­dance with the Great Commission. WIM’s vision state­ment declares that we will “evan­ge­lize the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ, estab­lish indige­nous churches where there are none, and equip and serve lead­ers.” Five core val­ues were deter­mined: indige­nous prin­ci­ples, dis­ci­pling and men­tor­ing, king­dom per­spec­tive, covenant rela­tion­ships, and ser­vant lead­er­ship.

Guided by our mis­sion and vision state­ments and strength­ened with our core val­ues, the mis­sion­ar­ies of World Indigenous Missions con­tinue to reach into new areas of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our prayer is that the Great Commandment will con­tinue to moti­vate us as we seek to ful­fill the Great Commission.

We greatly appre­ci­ate all of the for­mer and present mis­sion­ar­ies, sup­port­ers, inter­ces­sors, and vol­un­teers who have stood with us dur­ing the past thirty years. May World Indigenous Missions con­tinue to glo­rify our Heavenly Father and estab­lish many more churches dur­ing the next thirty years.