History of the Partnership – Timeline

1987 – The Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en Bolivia (IEMB) decides it is time to move beyond the borders of Bolivia and be in mission to the world. They invite North Americans to come to Bolivia where they would “eat, sleep, work, and worship with our people, and taste the chill wind of the Altiplano. They will see the faith of our people and they will be transformed.”

April 1988 – The New Horizon UMC of Woodward, Oklahoma, responds to the invitation and is one of the earliest volunteer teams to come to Bolivia, and the first from Oklahoma to go on an overseas short-term mission trip. Bishop Solomon has called this trip the founding of the Oklahoma Volunteers-In-Mission Movement.

April 1989 – An Oklahoma Conference leadership team travels throughout Bolivia observing suggested projects and begins initial negotiations for a Partnership Agreement between the Oklahoma Annual Conference (OAC) and the IEMB. FW “Steve” Stephenson makes a commitment to drill a potable water well in Konani, Bolivia. Unknown to him, there are NO drilled potable water wells in the entire Altiplano of Bolivia at this time.

June 1989 – The Oklahoma Annual Conference declares Bolivia as the Missional Emphasis for the Quadrennium.

July 1989 – Bishop Eugenio Poma of IEMB speaks in every district of the OAC, at the Methodist Men’s Retreat, and at the School of Missions.

July 18, 1989 – Bishop Poma, Bishop Solomon, and other leaders of both churches sign the “Mutual Agreement between the Oklahoma Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Methodist Evangelical Church in Bolivia.”

January 10 21,1990 Bishop Solomon and a leadership team attends IEMB General Conference to consecrate their new bishop, Carlos Huacani; to observe the work of the IEMB; and to develop any new ideas for strengthening our partnership. Bishop Carlos Huacani of Bolivia recommends to Bishop Solomon the creation of an office in the Oklahoma Annual Conference to promote Oklahoma Methodists to make short-term missions trips, not just to Bolivia, but around the world.

February 1990 – Upon his return, Bishop Solomon and others within the Bolivian Mission Program develop the idea of creating a VIM office for the OAC.

June 1990 – The Volunteers-in-Mission Office is created by the OAC. Rev. Larry Acton is appointed the director.

1991 – Within a year, Bishop Huacani proves himself to be a lousy choice for Bishop. Cronyism, embezzlement, sexual assault, unsecured loans, lies to several persons, and a violent reaction to critics becomes the order of the day in the IEMB.

April 1992 - The 25th Oklahoma VIM team to Bolivia since 1987 arrives from First UMC inTulsa

June 1992 – The OAC sets Russia as its Missional Priority for the Quadrennium, with Bolivia as its “on-going” mission. VIM teams and fundraising for a variety of projects in Bolivia continue.

July 1992 – The OAC coordinates with FW Stephenson, the Southside Rotary Club of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Rotary Club of Bolivia for the drilling of what is believed to be the second potable water well on the Altiplano in Konani. 

October 1992 – Rev. David Stephenson of Oklahoma is asked to attend the Special Congress of the IEMB as the representative of Council of Bishops, and to write a report on the troubles of the IEMB. The IEMB rejects Bishop Huacani, elects Zacharias Mamani as its new interim bishop, and brings criminal charges against Carlos Huacani. The 40-page report by Rev. Stephenson affirms the need of the IEMB to have made these changes.

Bishop Solomon, who had asked the Council of Bishops to be assigned to work with the General Board of Global Ministries, now becomes a key player in the IEMB’s plans to elect a new bishop and bring criminal charges against Carlos Huacani. Bishop Solomon and the General Board of Global Ministries are helpful in successfully prosecuting Carlos Huacani and sending him to jail for five years.

November 1992 – The first VIM team to come back to Bolivia after the Huacani Crisis arrives within days of the Extraordinary Assembly from Ardmore, Oklahoma, led by Dan Patman. This is seen as a huge sign of love and commitment by the IEMB from the OAC, and of the power of our partnership “through good times and bad.”

June 1993 – The second drilled potable water well in all of Bolivia is completed in Konani, Bolivia. This well becomes a beacon for this community and it grows dramatically. It also becomes the inspiration for the creation of Engineers In Action in 2007.

1992 to 2006 – The relationship between the OAC and the IEMB loses its immediacy. Because of the internal turmoil within the IEMB, Bishops Mamani and Intenampa focus primarily on internal issues and rebuilding the strength, unity and standing of the IEMB in Bolivia. 

1997-1999 – The Bolivin Pastor’s Endowment Fund is begun with a $50,000 matching grant. The matching $50,000 is achieved in December of 1999 2 weeks before the deadline. The Fund remains around $100,000 until 200

October, 1999 - The 50th Oklahoma VIM Team to Bolivia since 1987 arrives; a Conference-wide team led by Rev. Bob Younts

July 2005 – The OAC initiates the creation of an Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Chapter at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Their first project is developing a waste disposal system in Inca Katarapi, Bolivia. 

Feb. 2007 – The OAC initiates the creation of ”Engineers In Action” (www.engineersinaction.org ) a non-profit organization that hires Bolivian engineers to develop partnerships to bring sustainable potable water, irrigation and sanitation projects to remote Bolivian Villages.

Jan. 2008 – Bishop Carlos Poma of the IEMB and Bishop Robert Hayes of Okla. Ann Conf. sign a “Renewed Covenant to the Bolivia/Oklahoma Methodist Ayllu” (community) at an Orders Meeting in Okla. City. Bishop Hayes commits to a goal of raising $1 million for the Bolivian Pastor’s Endowment Fund.

Jan. 2009 – Rev. Dr. Leslie Long and Janet Boone of OKC-Grace UMC, provide support and expertise at the second annual “Christian Education Curriculum Writing Workshop” in La Paz Bolivia

Jan. 2009 – Bishop Robert Hayes travels to Bolivia and re-signs on Bolivian soil, with new Bishop Javier Rojas, the “Revnewed Covenant to the Bolivia/Oklahoma Methodist Ayllu”

June 2010 – Bishop Robert Hayes of OAC and Bishop Javier Rojas do the first-ever joint appointment of Rev. David Stephenson as the ‘Mission Intperpreter of the Bolivia/Oklahoma Methodist Ayllu” to serve as a type of ‘missionary-in-reverse’ TO Oklahoma.

Sept, 2010 – Dr. Lewis Thompson of Tulsa and David visit 6 of the 7 Methodist Rural Health Clinics and begin the joint the Bolivia/Oklahoma Methodist Ayllu upgrade of the clinics.

September 2010 – Susan Waite leads a ‘Women’s Encounter Team” to La Paz. The joint Bolivia/Oklahoma women’s group decides to build a ‘Women’s Center’ in El Alto.

Jan, 2011 – Dr. Don Crawley, Allen and David participate and help organize the first National meeting of Methodist Health Nurses in Cochabamba Bolivia

Jan 2011 – Doug Valley of Stillwater brings an Assessment Team to look into repairs of the ‘John Wesley Center’ in La Paz.

June 2011 – The 75th VIM team from Oklahoma to Bolivia since 1987 arrives from OKC-Chapel Hill UMC led by Susan Waite. (10 teams and 87 team members go to Bolivia in 2011.)

August, 2011 – The ‘Home for the Elders’ begins construction. This is an ‘Assisted-Living’ facility for the elderly poor Methodist people. There are currently no nursing homes for anyone but the elite in Bolivia.

August 2011 – Ken Baden, Lawton District Missions Chair, and David does an Assessment trip to the remote Cobija Mission Zone and begins to challenge the Lawton District to assume this major project.

September 2011 – David helps to lay the cornerstone for the ‘Tabitha House -Women’s Center’ in El Alto.

December 2011 – Engineers In Action (www.engineersinaction.org) grows to hire 5 full-time Bolivian engineers, working in 30 villages, providing potable water to 40,000+ persons and saving a minimum of 47 children from dying of water borne diseases in 2011 alone.