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The vision of Evangelical Friends Mission (EFM) is evangelical friends of North America fully mobilized to send missionaries who plant groups of churches around the world that are faithful, sustainable, multiplying, and mobilized to send missionaries themselves. \u00a0But when and why did EFM come to exist?<\/h3>\nEvangelical Friends Church\u2013North America (EFC-NA) is made up of groups called Yearly Meetings. These yearly meetings have been sending missionaries to the ends of the earth for a long time. Not only have they sent missionaries, but they have also reproduced themselves by planting other yearly meetings in these places. From 1887 to 1967 these five yearly meetings sent out more than 250 missionary households. Many of these were singles, some were couples without children, but the majority were families. Check out this video<\/a><\/strong> to see the names and faces of these missionary households!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick history lesson that shows you what happened between 1887 and 1967:<\/p>\n Then, in January 1963, twenty Friends from NWYM, FSW, RMYM, EFC-MAYM, EFC-ER, Indiana Yearly Meeting (IYM), and Iowa Yearly Meeting (IAYM) came together in Colorado Springs to have a conference on missions. The yearly meetings had all been sending their own missionaries and establishing their own mission fields, yet they came together to discuss both the problems and opportunities arising in regard to their mission work. From this meeting came the idea to establish a \u201ccoordinating council\u201d that would work on issues that would help strengthen all of their missionary-sending programs. The council was approved, and the Friends formed a \u201ccommission on missions\u201d made up of members from NWYM, RMYM, EFC-MAYM, and EFC-ER.<\/p>\n In September of that same year (1963), the Commission on Missions had its first meeting. In 1967 it opened its first mission field which was in Mexico City. In 1978 the commission was given the name Evangelical Friends Mission. It also received its first director, Robert Hess from EFC-ER. Another field was opened in 1981, this one in the Philippines. From that point on this joint missions effort grew and grew. So far, EFM has had almost 40 career missionary units (more than two years) serve on multiple fields. Through God\u2019s grace, eight yearly meetings have been planted, which represent about 250 organized churches and 17,000 attendees. EFM recently celebrated our 60th anniversary (2023)- check out this video<\/a><\/strong> to learn more of the rich history of EFM!<\/p>\n\n