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HISTORY OF BMW
WORLDWIDE EUROPEAN FELLOWSHIP WEFMinistries was born in l958 with twelve missionaries under the leadership of Henry Heijermans. Their focus was church planting in Europe, their vision to reach Europeans the world over. Henry Heijermans served as General Director until his retirement in l985. For the next ten years he served as the President of Fellowship of Missions (FOM). He currently heads FOMConsulting, a joint service of BMW and FOM which exists to assist churches, mission agencies, schools, and other like-minded organizations with administrative matters and strategic planning. UNITED MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP In the fall of 1948, four pastors in northern California met in Santa Rosa, California to share a common burden and concern for reaching the small mining camps and lumber towns in the northern part of their state. Out of that meeting came the plan to form a mission board which they called Pioneer Bible Mission (later, United Missionary Fellowship.) The mission was incorporated in California in 1949. From the beginning, the emphasis was on church planting. By 1952, some other missionaries had applied to go to Brazil, Honduras and Mexico. They said they appreciated the strong doctrinal stand of the mission. Richard A. Foster was the first full-time General Director. Robert Jeffcott succeeded him in 1966 and served in that capacity until 1994. Merger In 1988 In the early 1970's, a growing friendship and cooperative relationship developed between the Directors of UMF and WEFMinistries. They held several DIRECTION conferences together to reach college students on secular as well as Christian college campuses. By 1980, the two Directors had some discussions about the advantages of a merger of the two boards. Meetings of the two Boards of Directors, held in 1987, resulted in the formation of one agency unified by a common purpose, convictions and burden for world missions. The new mission began officially on January 1, 1988 as Biblical Ministries Worldwide with a Board of Directors comprised of six men from each of the former boards. It could truly be said that BMW was a "new mission with 70 years of experience." Currently, over 400 BMW missionaries (including appointees) are working in 28 countries, with plans to enter several new fields as soon as ministry teams are assembled. Home | About | Mission Fields | Opportunities | Support | Resources BIBLICAL
MINISTRIES WORLDWIDE Site
maintained by Biblical Ministries Worldwide |
Biblical
Ministries Worldwide came into existence in 1988 as the result of
the union of WEFMinistries and United Missionary Fellowship. |
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