Rev. Robert L. Rodenbush

From the early age of thirteen, Robert desired to be a preacher. Evangeline, who was raise in the home of a United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) pastor, always wanted to be a preacher's wife. It seemed ordained of God that they met while he was attending Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, where her father, Roy Simkins, was pastor.

In 1960 at age nineteen, and still in college, Robert hitchhiked thirty-five miles many weekends to open a church in Cutler, Illinois, which had been closed for years. In 1962 Robert and Evangeline were married. Together they labored to see the church grow into a thriving congregation with a record attendance of three hundred fifty on Easter 1968.

In 1968 the Rodenbushes were appointed as the first resident missionaries to Ghana, West Africa, and continued to serve fulltime in Global Missions for forty-two years. During their years in West Africa, they led the opening of five nations: Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast. The Ghana College of Bible was established in 1970, training more than one hundred students that became the church planters, pastors, evangelists, and soul winners that sparked unprecedented revival in West Africa. Thousands were baptized, and two hundred fifty churches and preaching points were opened. A Bible correspondence course was launched with over two thousand participants.

From 1979 to 1990 Brother Rodenbush served as the coordinator of overseas ministries for Global Missions, and assisted in the development of several innovative concepts. He launched the Associates in Missions (AIM) program, writing the policy and sending out six hundred AIMers. He encouraged the increase of training centers worldwide, from twenty-four to eighty-four. He was the first coordinator of Compassion Services, and wrote policy and procedures for the missionary field fellowship concept and missionary job descriptions. He was involved in the development of the foreign Bible school student support program, and the formation of world conferences, a global concept now called Global Council. Robert Rodenbush was also China outreach coordinator in the 1980s, traveling fourteen times to China to encourage believers and take in Bibles and literature. He was involved in the first radio broadcast in mainland China. Additionally, the Rodenbushes coordinated the annual School of Missions for twelve years and traveled extensively preaching and promoting missions.

From 1991 to 2010 Robert Rodenbush served as regional director of the seventy-six nations in the Europe and Middle East region. For twenty years the Rodenbushes encouraged and inspired revival and unprecedented growth. Working closely with dedicated missionaries and national ministers, they saw forty-two nations opened in the region for the UPCI. This means that forty-two nations now have a church or believers, which before had none of which we were aware. The constituency grew from seven thousand to thirty-five thousand, and the number of missionaries and AIMers more than doubled.

The Rodenbushes now live in Indianapolis, Indiana, near their son, Rob; daughter-in-law, Jaye; and grandchildren, Micki Evangeline and Robert Mooney. Robert Rodenbush served thirty-two years on the Global Missions administrative committee, thirty-seven years on the Global Missions board, and twenty years as a member of the General Board. He has been a licensed minister for fifty-five years. He presently serves as dean of International Studies and Missions at Indiana Bible College, training and mentoring the next generation of preachers and missionaries.