MIKE SHIELDS
50 Year Ordination Celebration
(1) Mike was raised in a rural setting near Goose Lake, Iowa, 15 miles from the Mississippi River. Although his father never attended, his mother faithfully took her four kids to a small AG church in Camanche, Iowa (pronounced “ca Manch”). At 14, Mike made a full commitment to Christ and was dramatically filled with the Holy Spirit on the same night. The greatest influence on Mike’s life as a teen was Pastor Paul Ruch, grandfather of Minnesota’s one and only, Nate Ruch.
During his high school years, Mike’s Spanish teacher was a Cuban refugee who had been expelled from Havana, Cuba. That immigrant teacher sparked a lifelong passion for the Spanish language and a burden for the Cuban people. While sitting in his high school Spanish class, God called Mike to international ministry throughout Latin Ameria.
(2) After graduating from Northeast High School in Goose Lake, Iowa, Mike determined to be part of the first ever AIM team to Managua, Nicaragua. He did farm work, odd jobs, and painted houses. He miraculously raised $500 to be a part of the team. During those three weeks in Managua, one of the eight team members, a bilingual missionary kid, recognized the call on Mike’s life. She encouraged him to go to North Central Bible College. With four dollars in his pocket and twenty bucks from his dad (the last money he’d ever get from home), he left the cornfields (3) of Iowa and went 7 hours north to Minneapolis. He got a job at a gas station just kitty corner from the present Minnesota District Office on 14th and Portland.
Mike’s roommate was Rocky Grams (who famously became a powerful missionary to Argentina with his wife, Sherry). In his first week as a Freshman, Mike enrolled in the college Spanish class. To his surprise, Mona Grams, Rocky’s sister, the long-haired, pretty, energetic, enthusiastic MK who invited him to NCBC while in Nicaragua, was the Spanish teacher! She was working as a part-time faculty member in her Senior year. The Spanish class instantly became Mike’s favorite. He developed a passion for being in Mona’s class for much more than academic reasons… (ahem).
Soon Mona Grams graduated from NCBC. Within a month she went to Panama City, Panama as a single MAPS worker, teaching in the new Bible School. When Mike found out she’d broken off her engagement with a guy from Georgia Tech, he began to write her, sending 150 letters over the next year. At the prompting of NCBC President E.M. Clark, Mike persuaded Mona to return to the U.S. to begin a “proper courtship”. He gave her an engagement ring three days later! Highly motivated, (ahem… “highly motivated”) Mike finished his studies at NCBC a year early, the first in his entire extended family to ever graduate with a college degree.
Three months after graduation, Mike and Mona were married at the Minneapolis Gospel Tabernacle in September 1973 by Mona’s dad, Missionary Monroe Grams.
Through a wise but rather sly maneuver by District Superintendent Herman Rhode, Mike and Mona hesitantly accepted becoming pastors of Marshall Assembly of God on January 1st, 1974. The congregation consisted of 19 people, including 8 children and the dead! During their two years as pastors, the congregation grew to over 100. A new parsonage was acquired just before they were invited to go to the Twin Cities.
Mike and Mona became Associate Pastors at Summit Avenue Assembly in St Paul in 1976. Their portfolio included pastoring the Minnesota District’s first Spanish Church, buying its first building on Payne Avenue in St. Paul. They also worked as Youth Pastor’s. They fervently promoted Speed-the-Light, leading Summit to become Minnesota’s top giving church. While on staff they were sent to Madrid, Spain on loan for a Special Assignment Appointment. They worked with Dick and Jan Larson in a Good News Crusades Church Planting effort. They worked with ICI Training, as Youth Pastors for the church, and Mike worked as the Production Engineer for Spain’s first ever evangelical radio program as part of the Crusade effort.
Mike and Mona returned to the U.S. continuing their strong ministry partnership at Summit with Senior Pastor Ed Tedeschi, former Minnesota District Asst. Superintendent. In 1983, Superintendent Herman Rhode tapped Mike and Mona Shields to head the Minnesota District Youth Department. During that time Mike and Mona launched the Minnesota District AIM Program. They have since organized or led over 50 AIM teams in their career, traveling with over 3,000 teens to many Latin American countries. Under their leadership and with the encouragement of Ed Tedeschi, Minnesota replaced “Teen Talent” with “Fine Arts Festival”. Today the Festival involves thousands of Assemblies of God young people from across the country. As “D-CAPs” they ministered in about 110 District Churches taking their two girls with them.
Following their time at the District Office, Mike and Mona were appointed as Missionary Evangelists with AGWM. They moved to Santiago, Chile with Kristi and Elizabeth, by then teenagers. Both graduated from high school in Chile. Elizabeth graduated from Santiago College, the first Chilean MK to graduate from a Spanish-speaking High School in 40 years.
Starting in Chile, Mike, along with Mona, travels to 10 or 12 countries a year ministering in (5.5 and 5.6) churches, (6) youth conventions, (7) open air campaigns, (8) seminars, and national events (9) all over Latin America. They have ministered to tens of thousands (10) across the Spanish speaking world. (11)
While in Chile, Mike earned his master’s degree in Social Science with an emphasis on Leadership Studies from Azuza Pacific University in Los Angeles. (12) In 2011 Mike and Mona became the International Directors of ISUM (pronounced “e SOOM – emphasis on SOOM”) the Assemblies of God’s largest ministerial training program offering an accredited BA and Master’s Degree in Ministerial Studies in conjunction with Global University. They work extensively in 18 countries of Latin America with over 1,300 active students (pastors and leaders) and 120 adjunct faculty members from a dozen countries (13) and nearly 5,000 graduates. (13.2 and 13.5)
Since 2010 Mike helped to fund and build three Ministerial Training Centers in Cuba. The first (14) in the center of the country, the 2nd (15) in Santiago, Cuba, and the third in (16) Havana. He has been the primary fund raiser for the (17) Latin American Resource and Training Center in Panama City, Panama. He partnered extensively with his brother-in-law, Rocky Grams, President of the (18) River Platte Bible Institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina, seeing the school become the largest in all Latin America. Mike has helped to fund, plant and/or revitalize churches throughout the Spanish-speaking world working as a Ministry Specialist with AGWM.
Mike and MonaRé have (18.2) two daughters, Kristi (married to Wayne Northup) and Elizabeth (married to Tory Farina). Both girls are ordained ministers. Mike and Mona have five grandchildren. The entire family serves the Lord.
In 2025 Mike and Mona were in 12 countries, traveling to 17 International Outreaches, ministering in national events for pastors in Bolivia, Cuba and Uruguay, and teaching for several weeks at a time in Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, Bolivia and Paraguay. They have preached (18.5) to tens of thousands of people in many international settings and have seen thousands respond to the Good News.
(19) Mike and Mona are especially grateful for the privilege of representing the Minnesota District, not only as District Youth Directors, but as your missionaries to Latin America and beyond. We want to keep going as long as the Lord gives us strength and health…until Jesus comes!
(20) We are YOUR hands extended.
