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Dave Buckert
Hispanic Ministries Director

Early Christian Formation
Dave Buckert was born into a pastor's home on July 21, 1948. He grew up hearing the Gospel, having godly parents, and being active in church from his childhood. However, he did not have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ until the age of 18, when he attended a Campus Crusade for Christ retreat in California, and the Lord convicted him of his need to turn his life completely to Christ. Very shortly after his conversion experience, Dave was sent to Vietnam to serve in the navy. There God spoke clearly to him about serving the Lord in full-time ministry. During his two year stint in Vietnam, he began studies for ministry via correspondence courses from Moody Bible Institute. After returning to the United States, he attended Arizona College of the Bible in Phoenix. He and Judy, also a student at ACB, were married in 1970. As newlyweds, Dave and Judy were members a church plant in Phoenix, Arizona, and served as youth leaders. After the birth of their second child, they were approved as missionary candidates with the EFCA, pending a year of study at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and another year of language and Latin American studies at Rio Grande Bible Institute.

1989-1999--Mission Consultant-United States
After returning to the U.S., Dave served with the Evangelical Free Church Mission as a District Missions Consultant in the southwestern United States, encouraging congregations to have a higher view of the role of the local church in work of cross cultural ministry. He helped to forge ties between churches in the United States and churches outside of the country, most notably, in Mexico. During his time as a District Mission Consultant he and his wife were instrumental in the planting of a Spanish-speaking church, El Oasis EFC in Tucson, Arizona, which had begun as a Bible Study in their home.

2000-2004--Director of Church Planting and Cross Cultural Ministries-Southwest Border District
Dave joined the staff of the Southwest Border District of the EFCA as the Director of Church Planting and Cross-Cultural Ministries and was a member of the national church planting team. Under Dave’s leadership, eight new Hispanic churches were planted. Also, during this period of time, along with Mexican national church leaders and under the auspices of the Southwest Border District, Dave and Judy founded El Puente, a bi-cultural, bi-national ministry which encouraged church to church partnership and cross-cultural ministry between churches in the United States and EFC churches in Mexico.

2004-2006-Partners in Christ International and El Puente Norte
In November of 2004, Dave and Judy joined the staff of Partners in Christ International. As ministry and pastoral consultant for PICI, Dave helped PICI to begin to develop a more focused church-based training for pastors and lay leaders in northern Mexico, helping to develop a useful facilitator training for the churches there. Dave and Judy also returned to their first love, encouraging Spanish-speaking believers though bible studies and prayer groups in their home, and working one on one with Hispanic pastors. During this time, Dave and key Mexican and U.S believers also saw El Puente through the process of receiving its own non-profit, 501c3 status. El Puente Norte is now a tax-exempt volunteer mission organization that promotes church-to-church partnerships, cross-cultural ministry, leadership development and church planting in Mexico.

2007—Center for Church Based Training
In 2001 Dave began to use CCBT resources with Church Planters. A relationship with the leadership of this ministry as a representative for CCBT began in 2003. Dave joined the staff in January of 2007 as Hispanic Ministries Director. He encourages leadership development and networks of local churches to work together, using church-based training as the principal tool to raise up Christian leadership that will be able to impact all of Latin America with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Dave would sum up his vision for cross-cultural ministry in a phrase used by Paul in Philippians 4…loyal yoke fellows. “Ministry among Latino church leaders must be a partnership of ‘loyal yoke fellows.’ My commitment is to establish a fellowship of mutual help and encouragement. I want to help identify Latino brothers who share the same heart. We want to promote ministry that is appropriate, biblical and culturally effective. For that to happen it is necessary that we listen closely to our present and future partners in Latin America and allow them to take the lead as we strategize for future ministry. Together we believe that this kind of missionary partnership in the Hispanic world will glorify God, bring many into his kingdom; it will bring all to maturity and many to leadership.”

Family
Dave and Judy have two children, Angela, who is married to Roy Donelson and lives in Tucson with their twin boys, Phillip and Gabriel, and Andrew, who is married to Lilia Reyes Buckert and lives in El Paso with their son, Matthew and daughter Emilia.