By Abbey Rodriguez | FāVS News Reporter
For 75 years, Union Gospel Mission of the Inland Northwest has operated on a simple premise: offer the poor not just shelter, but the gospel. This spring, the organization marks that anniversary with a series of events across its five Inland Northwest locations.
Founded in 1951 the mission has continued to serve the Inland Northwest community, now with five missions located in Spokane, Coeur D’Alene and most recently, Lewiston, Idaho.
The mission is celebrating “75 Years of God’s Faithfulness, 75 Years of Our Communities Faithfulness and 75 Years of Biblical Leadership” the UGM website says.
The Mission
Steve Ellisen, UGM’s vice president of Ministry Resources, said that the “key ingredient” for the mission’s success these past 75 years has been by focusing on reaching the poor, “not with a handout but with a hand up, offering them services but also offering them the gospel of Jesus.”
There are three main parts to their mission, Ellisen explained, rescue, recovery, and restoration.
Another important part of their mission is that they receive no government funding.
UGM’s privately-funded model gives the organization freedom to set its own standards, said Leanne White, content and communications specialist.
“We choose our own level of accountability, and that’s something we take seriously here,” she said.
White attributed the organization’s financial independence and debt-free status over the past 75 years to the generosity of donors and, she said, God’s provision.
Community mission
UGM has had five directors since 1951, with Phil Altmeyer the current UGM CEO having served since 1986.
“They’ve just been individuals who have been faithful to what the Lord’s called them to do,” Ellisen said. “Under this leadership, for all these years, there’s been a very consistent and faithful commitment to the founding [mission].”
“[Altmeyer] has done a good job of hiring people who really are called to the mission. They’re not here for a job. They’re called to this work, called to serve these people,” Ellisen said.
Under Altmeyer’s leadership, UGM has grown from a single downtown men’s shelter into a multi-site ministry spanning the Inland Northwest. Today the organization operates four shelters serving men, women and children, three residential recovery programs, two thrift stores, an automotive enterprise, and a youth outreach center with a summer camp. It has expanded beyond Spokane into Coeur d’Alene and the Lewis-Clark Valley, where a new 96-bed shelter is expected to open later this year.
“When Phil Altmeyer took over, 39 years ago, there were eight staff members. Today there are 270,” he said.
Continuing the legacy
“Kindness and generosity is what funds the mission and what we’re able to do here,” White said. “The Lord has blessed us very kindly.”
As UGM looks toward the next 75 years, leaders say they hope to deepen the organization’s presence across the Inland Northwest and expand the services it offers.
For Ellisen, the goal is simple: stay the course.
“That we would be here to live out the great commission with a focus on reaching the poor, reaching the less than, those in trauma and those who have been set aside,” he said.
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