UNDIVIDED MINISTRIES MISSION VISION STATEMENT
Our goal is to provide varied opportunities for people to develop and use their particular abilities, talents, and resources to meet needs in our community, state, country, and the world, and in so doing to demonstrate the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Our on going mission work is with the Suquamish Native American Tribe on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, WA.
We have a ten year history of friendship and service in the name of Jesus to these wonderful people.
The leadership training and participation in this endeavor provides opportunities for spiritual growth, as well as an opportunity to minister to the poorest and most overlooked minority people group in America. According to a 2004 report by the Commission on Civil Rights American Indians still suffer a “quiet crisis” of discrimination, poverty, and unmet promises.
The following statistics are just some of the alarming facts about Native Americans:
* Suicides are 190% higher than all other ethnic groups; 1 in 6 adolescents has attempted suicide.
* Alcohol mortality is 770% higher
* Average unemployment is 45% higher and is 90% higher on some reservations
* 52% finish high school
* 45% live below the poverty level making American Indians the poorest of all ethnic groups in the U.S.
* Native American life span is twelve years shorter than then general U.S. A. population.
* Natives face epidemic levels of tuberculosis, meningitis, dysentery, hepatitis, and adult onset diabetes.
For 500 years Euro-Americans tried to make Natives “Christian” by removing them from their land, families, culture, and children, particularly by sending the children to “Indian School” and beating them for speaking the only language they knew, and not allowing them to practice any of their Native customs. Those efforts have resulted in only 3% of First Nations people in North America becoming Followers of Jesus.
Our desire is to love the First Nations people with the love of Jesus Christ and share His story with them within the context of their culture. We believe, just as we see it revealed in God’s creation….there is unity in diversity!
UNDIVIDED KENYA
Pastor David and his lovely wife, Susan
Pictures of Undivided Ministries - Kenya
SUQUAMISH 2008
For more information email us at
Undivided Ministries.
SUMMER MISSION PROJECT
July 12-19, 2008(fly dates), mission trip to Suquamish WA
July 9-22, 2008, cross-country
road trip to Suquamish WA
Summer mission endeavor to Suquamish reservation to serve teach vacation Bible to Native American children and lead Bible study for Native American youth. Call 205-999-3464 for more information.
SUQUAMISH 2007
Blog
More Pictures
Team Members:
Midlothian VA(R):
Brittany Cox, Sara Smith, Back (L-R): Caitlin
Smith, Elizabeth Morris, Joe Savarie, Doug Savarie, Michael Sepulveda
Birmingham AL: Sybil Johnson, Robin Ivy, Jessica Rogers(KY), Cindy Self, Alison Holmes, Dan Johnson
 
AUGUST 11 - 19, 2007 MISSION TRIP
SUQUAMISH NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATION
SEATTLE AREA
How can people have faith in the Lord and believe on Him for salvation if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear unless someone tells them? And how can anyone tell them unless they are sent by the Lord? The scripture says it is a beautiful sight to even see the feet of someone coming to preach the good news.
(Romans 10:14 - 15)
During the August mission endeavor we will conduct a Vacation Bible School for the Suquamish children, however, we have whole families that come. We will host a Youth Rally on the Reservation, work on Tribal Elders homes and visit with them too.
You will have many hands on learning experiences as each day. We teach the team about the Suquamish culture as we try to mesh with the everyday life of the tribe. You will get to hear many stories and legends told first hand by the Suquamish people, and we will take a trip to the Suquamish museum.
The team will take a half day ferry trip to downtown Seattle, and we will have a Team Day of sightseeing in the Western Washington area.
We will also be attending Chief Seattle Days on the Reservation to experience and enjoy the customs, pageantry, and food of the Suquamish culture. This is also an expression of our love and appreciation for them and their heritage.
We also welcome and rejoice in the participation this year of a group of young people and their leaders from Tomahawk Baptist Church , Midlothian, VA. Michael Sepulveda is the Associate Children's and Youth Pastor that will be leading this group. I am so excited! Michael was my intern when I was on staff at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Vestavia, Alabama. It has been such a privilege to watch him mature into a faithful servant of the Lord. He also married a beautiful girl in my ministry, Allison Gord Sepulveda. Michael and Allison have both been before to Suquamish to minister.
Agape Project
We began our Agape project after the 2005 mission trip to the reservation. Al Denson helped us identify some additional families when he gave away his cd's after a concert in return for a card filled out for Undivided Ministries. Those names were added to the families already on our list from our Vacation Bible School. We began sending cards and packages in the fall of 2005 and also sent out Easter and Christmas packages. Our goal is to have 4 major mail outs a year to continue to build on our relationships with our Suquamish friends and to stay in touch over the miles and time between our visits. God has used these "touches" to speak to many of our Suquamish friends with testimonies coming back as to how this has arrived at just the time they needed some encouragement.
Many of our families include 6 or 8 people.
MOST RECENT AGAPE:
Christmas 2006
Packages of ornaments and candy with a card of reminder of the reason
for the season were sent to 40 families. "Thank God for His gift. No
language can praise it enough!" 2Corinthians 9:15
Winter 2006
 
34 Packages of socks and candy were mailed to Suquamish families.
Our prayer is that as they wear these socks on their feet, they will remember that it is the Word of our God that gives light to our path and shows us what direction our feet need to take us.
"Your Word Is A Lamp To My Feet, And A Light To My Path."
Psalm 119:105
Fall 2006
Packages of school supplies were mailed to 34 families on the reservation with encouraging words to learn a lot and let their life shine for Jesus at school. " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Psalm 111:10.
Suquamish 2006
2006 was the ninth year that an Alabama team has gone to the Suquamish First Nations People that live near Seattle, Washington. Several people on the team felt as if they were going home again. Some of us on the 2006 team have gone for many years and developed very close relationships with many of the Suquamish families.
Every year it is a faith journey to get a team there. Washington is a long ways from Alabama, and it is expensive to get a team to the North West, then house and feed them, and buy needed supplies. Undivided Ministries is a grass roots, small, faith based ministry. Our God is a Big God that faithfully provides for us each year. God’s provision is His proof of His Love for the Suquamish people.
I asked the team after the trip this summer, what spiritual truth was most reinforced for them on this trip. Every one of us said it was that God took our inadequacies, fears, and doubts, and through His power did an amazing ministry. The Gospel was shared and people gave their hearts to Jesus.
My prayer is that the Agape Project ( an on-going outreach) will keep our relationships strong and that in 2007 even more lives will be transformed by the Love of Jesus Christ demonstrated through His Believers. Don’t YOU want to go? -- Sybil Johnson
2006 TEAM
Jason Cole
Jessica Rogers
Meredith Quintana
Rebecca Lamb
Ryan Johnson
Kate Dale
Kim Parker
Austin Porter
CIndy Self
Sybil Johnson
Logistics & Finances
Dan Johnson
Board of Directors
Nathan Tutor
Sean Hall
Sybil Johnson
Suquamish 2005
A very big thank you to Al Denson, Dove-award-winning Christian recording artist for donating his time and energy for a concert at the Suquamish reservation during the 2005 mission trip. Visit his site at Al Denson.
Suquamish Reservation Mission Work History
In 1997 in Birmingham, Alabama, Sybil Johnson listened to Gloria Mills Smith pray week after week for her Native American Suquamish family that lives on the Suquamish Reservation near Seattle, Washington. Gloria and her husband, Mike, served as leaders in the college ministry in the church where Sybil was on staff as the college minister. After several months of hearing Gloria pray for situations on the reservation involving suicide, divorce, drugs, and teen pregnancy, Sybil ask Gloria why wasn't there a church doing ministry there. Gloria said for years she had prayed as she and Mike moved from job to job across the country that a church somewhere would be burdened for the Suquamish people and go there, but as yet no one ever had. At that moment Sybil knew God was calling her to begin a ministry to the Suquamish people.
In 1998 the first team of college students and young adults traveled from Alabama to Seattle, Washington to the reservation. Every year since a mission team from Alabama has gone to continue to build on the relationships by serving the Suquamish people. Ministry on the reservation includes Vacation Bible School for the children, youth rallies for the teens, a sports camp, repairs to buildings and working on the homes and yards of the tribe's Elders.
We are affectionately called the "Alabama Group". We are the only evangelical mission team going to the reservation and our reception has been warm. They treat us like adopted family. We have seen children, youth, and adults pray to receive Christ. Much ministry remains to be done. The harvest is ready, but the workers have been few.
Undivided Ministries is praying for people to answer the call to go serve and for God to release the resources for the ministry to not only continue but to increase.
Undivided Ministries, Inc. was born out of the call and mission placed in Sybil Johnson's heart to train college students and young adults to be Kingdom builders and in particular to minister on the Suquamish Reservation.
If you would like to financially support this ministry, all donations are tax deductible (as allowed by law) and can be mailed to the address below, or if you prefer to donate on-line, go to Contributions page.
| Mailing Address:
Undivided Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 3831
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