The Dakotas Conference is proud to be in partnership with multiple mission agencies within the bounds of the conference. There are multiple ways to be involved with each of these ministries beyond financial support. Please take the time to explore each one to find out how you and your church can be involved with one near you. 

Blessings from the Spirit Lake Ministry Center located on the Spirit Lake Nation Reservation in North Dakota. The Spirit Lake Ministry Center is dedicated to supporting the peoples of the Spirit Lake Nation and is an approved United Methodist Volunteer in Mission (UMVIM) destination.

Children's activities at Spirit Lake Ministry Center. Photo by Dave Stucke, Dakotas Conference.

The Spirit Lake Ministry Center hosts volunteer teams from all over the country every year. The volunteer work crews serve people of the Spirit Lake Nation in many ways throughout the warmer months. Each summer and fall, volunteers donate time and resources to Shoebox Christmas. Spirit Lake Ministry Center coordinates distribution of Shoebox Christmas gifts to over 6,000 children across the reservations of North Dakota, South Dakota and into Minnnesota.  Residents of the Spirit Lake Nation also worship together on-site at "The Journey", a United Methodist congregation begun by former directors, Pastor Mike and Libby Flowers, and now served by Kim, Paulette, and Alex Paulson. See more information on each ministry below.

Shoebox Christmas Project

Shoeboxes full of age-appropriate gifts are collected across the Dakotas, and sent via mail from all over the United States. If you'd like to share your love with a child through a heart-warming Shoebox Christmas gift, see how to pack a Christmas Shoebox here.
Watch for announcements about this year's Shoebox Christmas collection locations in This Week @ Dakotas.

The Journey Congregation

Spirit Lake Ministry Center is also home to the Journey Congregation, worshipping every Sunday evening and reaching out to serve the people of Spirit Lake Nation. One woman said during the time of worship, “I have a joy to share. I am happy that I can come to a church where I can be Indian and Christian too.” The Journey, at Sheyenne, North Dakota is reaching out to Native American families across the Spirit Lake Nation. Worship is held Sunday evenings at 5 p.m., with an average attendance of 45. For a news story about the Journey, click here.

Volunteer Opportunities

The Spirit Lake Ministry Center hosts volunteer teams from all over the country every year. These Volunteer in Mission (VIM) Teams will be asked to perform light construction and maintenance on homes, Tribal buildings and grounds on the reservation and to provide team members for children's activities.  All activities are very hands-on and involve close interaction with the elders and children of the reservation. Contact Spirit Lake Ministry Center here.

Learn more about Spirit Lake Ministry Center 

Contact information: Kim and Paulette Paulson, Spirit Lake Ministry Center, 3365 81st Ave NE, Sheyenne ND 58374, e-mail, website, Facebook page or contact the Dakotas Conference Office at 605-996-6552. 

The Journey at Spirit Lake from Dakotas UMC on Vimeo.

The Journey at Spirit Lake

Consider a donation to Solar Oven Partners. Giving in the name of others is both touching and practical. Solar ovens make a difference—one family at a time, one community at a time. Every act of generosity counts …and everyone has something to give.

Download an SOP brochure from Dropbox here.
To download a gift card for mailing in a standard business envelope, click here. The card explains that you have given a gift to Solar Oven Partners in their honor and points them to more indformation about our work together.

A woman in the Dominican Republic is visibly happy about her new solar oven, and the instruction she received on using it effectively.

Our Solar Oven Partners in the Minnesota/Dakotas Conference, in The Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone and Four Corners Ministry-Navajo Nation resolve to continue this ministry with passion and dedication. 

Go to SOP Facebook for news about workshops and seminars.

For 23 years, SOP has distributed more than 12,500 ovens to families who helped build and learned to use them. Demand for ovens has grown in the Dominican Republic and Sierra Leone. We have established a partnership with Four Corners Native American Ministry based in Shiprock, New Mexico. Volunteering for mission trips to Four Corners, an UMCOR project, will be affordable for persons who find international travel outside their comfort zone. 

Volunteers assembling solar oven parts in one of the workshops in the Dakotas.

Why Are Solar Ovens Needed?
For a third of humanity, a hot meal means cooking over an open fire. More than 40% of the population of the Dominican Republic live in poverty.  The women of the household are frequently balancing the purchase of cooking fuel against buying adequate and healthy food to feed the family. On the Navajo Reservation, some families and elders live in remote areas without electricity so solar ovens offer a practical alternative to expensive fuel.

Solar Ovens provide relief.  It is an economical way to cook food. Our solar ovens also pasteurize drinking water to help reduce life-threatening disease, such as diarrhea and dehydration. This helps to reduce the child- and infant-mortality rates resulting from water-borne diseases.

Cooking with charcoal, the traditional fuel in countries like the Dominican Republic, is unhealthy. Solar Ovens eliminate the air pollution from burning charcoal, which also reduces respiratory and eye disease, and dangerous burns among women and children who tend charcoal cooking fires.

How Can I Help?
Give the gift of a solar oven to a family in need. Costs of components and shipping for the high-quality ovens have topped $150. When added to the cost of the program’s two-day training seminars—an essential element in successfully placing an oven—the cost is approximately $200 per family.  Tax-deductible gifts of any size are important.  You may make a one-time gift or a monthly contribution through the UMCOR link. 

Two options to donate:

• Write a check to: Solar Oven Partners/ Dakotas UMC Advance #637 and mail to:
  Solar Oven Partners
  1331 W. University Blvd.
  PO Box 460
  Mitchell SD, 57301

A student with her new oven in the Dominican Republic.

• Click here to donate online through The Advance

Volunteer:

• Serve on a Volunteers In Mission (ViM) team at your own expense to help with solar oven assembly and training for solar cooking.
• Volunteer to help fabricate oven components at our Montrose, SD workshop or our reflector workshop in Rapid City, SD, or help package oven boxes and other items for shipment at our central workshop in Raymond, SD.

Where Can I Learn More?

• Get resources for giving a Solar Oven Alternative Gift at this link
• Like and follow Solar Oven Partners on Facebook for breaking news
• Visit the Solar Oven Partners web page for in-depth information

Lead the way—cook with the sun!

Randy Harwood, Director
Solar Oven Partners
909 19th Ave N.
Fargo, ND   58102
Office: 701-361-2378

NEWS ARTICLE, 2/2025: Tree of Life Welcomes New Director - ACCESS LINK

Tree of Life is a relief agency, located in Mission, South Dakota on the Rosebud Reservation, serving several of the poorest counties in the United States. The reservation has an 80% unemployment rate. The ministries of Tree of Life include: The Warm Welcome-feeding program and food pantry, Tree of Life Boutique­-­thrift store and a construction ministry.

Tree of Life has made great strides in developing respect and understanding between cultures, helping to breaking down racial prejudice and distrust. This is accomplished by providing cultural presentations to volunteers, working together with tribal agencies, and being involved in meeting daily needs.

The Warm Welcome

Current census data shows that over 50% of the Lakota people live under the poverty level and cannot afford necessities. Tree of Life distributes over 1,500,000 pounds of groceries each year, and provides about 52,000 free meals. One teacher at the local school stated that when families cannot drive to the food pantry at “The Tree” then the children must skip meals because of the lack of groceries. The “Warm Welcome” feeding program and pantry serves over 200 families a day, four days a week.

Tree of Life Boutique

Tree of Life provides a “Thrift Shop Boutique.”The average household income is under $8,000. Many households have 10 or more family members living in one residence. Seldom can families afford decent clothing. New and used clothing and small household items are avaialble to buy at a very low cost in a “shopping experience”. There is a mobile thrift store that goes out twice a month to one of the 20 communities..

Construction ministry

Tree of Life makes free repairs to about 50 dwellings and community buildings each year. The need is so great that a family may have to have their name on a waiting list wait for five years before tribal housing can make general repairs to a home. There are families that have not had water  in their homes for years and use a garden hose to bring in water from a neighbor. Construction projects are contracted out. Tree of Life has adopted into the construction ministry, the Habitat for Humanity's model of sweat equity. A mobile construction trailer fully equipped for volunteer teams to provide professional service to the most remote communities.

Volunteers welcome

One of the important tasks undertaken by Tree of Life is to show Native Americans what Christians are like. Teams working together cheerfully, showing Christ-like compassion, and offering respect and love to all people demonstrate our Chirstian witness. Volunteers in Mission (VIM) teams come to Tree of Life throughout the year to work in the various components of the ministry. Housing is available for teams that travel to Mission.

Contact information

PO Box 149, 140 S. Roosevelt Road, Mission, SD 57555-0149, e-mail, phone: 605-856-4266, Facebook page.

The Bakken Oil Rush ministry, located in Watford City, ND, serving the area with the intention of meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the people who have now made their homes in the oil field country. Care. Connect. Collaborate is the tagline, mission and motto of the ministry.

Bakken Oil Rush ministry offers three kinds of outreach:

A worker in Watford City picks out some items at the thrift store. Photo by Dave Stucke, Dakotas Conference.

Thrift store—Clothing and household items are sold for a very nominal fee including coats, hoodies, caps, gloves, snow pants/coveralls, warm socks, blankets, coffee pots, toasters, dishes, and much more.

The Gathering Place— A event held twice a month, where they serve a meal, do a devotional/teaching, and help folks looking for work and/or needing someone to talk to.

Community events— The Bakken Oil Rush Ministry also hosts special clothing giveaways, back-to-school community event, a Christmas celebration event, and the Comedy Café, which is a community fund raiser.

Contact information: 2nd Ave NE, Watford City, North Dakota 58854, e-mail, phone: 701-339-6188, website, Facebook page.

Our Purpose:
The organized unit of United Women in Faith (formerly United Methodist Women) shall be a community of women whose purpose is to know God and to experience freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ; to develop a creative, supportive fellowship; and to expand concepts of mission through participation in the global ministries of the church. 

2024 Mission Team

Mission u 2025

Don’t miss Mission u 2025 - Be part of our learning adventure!

    Northern Site: July 17-19, 2025, University of Jamestown, Jamestown, ND 
    Southern Site: July 11-13, 2025, Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, SD

United Women in Faith (UWF) have a commitment to life-long learning. Mission u is a perfect example of how we put that commitment into action—and not just for ourselves, but to better reflect God’s love to others.

Join us at Mission u this summer as we explore the theme, Practicing Hope Together. Mission u participants will study the resurrection appearances of Jesus and the example of early Christian communities to explore what it means to practice hope in God even when things seem to be falling apart.
Leading the study at Mission u for 2025 will be Dawn Armstrong (both sites), Pastor Annie Carlson (Southern Site) and Pastor Rick Craig (Northern Site). 

“Practicing Hope” by Tabatha Holley is a biblical curriculum that explores hope particularly when hope seems hard to find, asking questions such as: How does Christ teach us to embody hope when our backs are against the wall?

Over the course of this Mission u event participants will be refreshed and renewed through insightful study, uplifting worship, supportive fellowship, engaging activities and mission involvement.

Order "Practicing Hope" by Tabatha Holley here.
(Information and links to the Mission u 2025 brochure and registration will be available in early 2025)

Disaster Response Ministry exists to provide leadership for disaster readiness, relief, and recovery. Disaster Response Ministry provides training, resources, and ‘people power’ that can be offered to assist local churches in their own disaster response ministry.

We are in partnership with the local, county, and state Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), and other disaster response organizations.

Get involved

There are three main ways to provide disaster assistance:

Make a financial contribution: Disaster team training, response, and equipment are funded

Volunteers clean up after the Minot flood. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM Communications.

by voluntary donations from churches and individuals. If you wish to support disaster response, there are several ways to donate:

• To assist with disaster response efforts in the Dakotas: Send a check to the Dakotas Conference office, 1331 W. University Ave., PO Box 460, Mitchell, SD 57301 and be sure to list "Dakotas Disaster Response" in the memo line.  Or, go here to make an online donation (select "Other Remittance" and write in "Dakotas Disaster Response” to ensure your donation is routed to the right place).
• To assist with the United Methodist Church’s international disaster response: Give to the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Go here to learn more and make an online contribution. 

Join a disaster response team: Contact the conference office by e-mail or phone 605-996-6552 to learn about training for new team members or for church disaster preparedness. Check the “Events” section to learn about disaster response trainings, or visit the North Central Jurisdiction Volunteers in Mission website to learn about regional disaster response trainings. All volunteers must complete the Safe Sanctuary background check process* in order to join a disaster response team. 

Assemble a kit to help people in disaster areas: Cleaning, hygiene and school relief kits, are sought by the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Go here for instructions for kit assembly.

Click here for the Disaster Response Checklist

The Dakotas Conference is no longer collecting UMCOR mission kits.

Early in its existence, UMCOR engaged in shipping material resources to people in need around the world. However, over the years, we have come to recognize that shipping these items may cause harm if the materials displace potential local purchases that would otherwise support the local economy. To this end, UMCOR determined that it would cease international shipment of material assistance. 

Even within the United States, the collection and distribution of relief kits are becoming challenging. The logistics are costly with the rise of e-commerce coupled with rising fuel costs, carriers are reporting higher vehicle-maintenance expenses. 

If a local congregation would like to continue collecting kits consider working directly with Midwest Mission, a United Methodist partner ministry, with locations in Jefferson City, Iowa and Pawnee, Illinois.  Learn more about the ministry. 

Al Roll, who serves as the Missional Impact Development Coach for the Dakotas Conference, encourages local congregations to look at supporting Dakotas Conference mission efforts like Bakken Oil Rush Ministry in Watford City, North Dakota, Solar Oven Partners, Spirit Lake Ministry Center, and Tree of Life. 

“We have generous hearts and want to make the most impact that we can,” said Roll.