Mike Oudyn

Mike grew up in Dixon Illinois and graduated from Dixon High School in 1984.

 After high school, he attended University of Illinois in Champaign where he studied engineering and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in General Engineering in December 1988.

 In January of 1989, Mike was hired by Caterpillar Inc as an engineer in their Technical Center in Peoria, Illinois.  Mike held several different engineering positions at Caterpillar and retired in 2022 with 33.5 years of service.

 Mike is married to his wife Robin whom he met in Church in Peoria. And has three kids (Elijah -20, Joanna -18, Ruth -16).   He lives in Yorkville, Illinois ( about 50 miles from Chicago).

 While all of those things helped shape who Mike is,  if you ask him what is most important to him, he would say his relationship with Jesus Christ. Mike became a follower of Jesus in 1992 after seeing evangelists carrying a cross and street preaching at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  Mike was quite convicted by their message but did not immediately accept Christ.  Two weeks after seeing that Mike was invited to church by some friends and went.  He then gave his life to Jesus. 

 About 4 years later, Mike was attending church in Peoria and he met a young pastor named Mark Jordan.  Mark invited him to come to New Orleans for 1997 Mardi Gras outreach with No Greater Love Ministries (NGL).  Mike saw this as a “God moment” in his life and gladly accepted.   He has been attending Mardi Gras ever since then ( 27 years).  This year was his 25th Mardi Gras with NGL in 27 years.   He has been doing evangelism and teaching evangelism during those missions.

 Mike has also been an elder in 3 churches and currently serves as an elder at Village Bible Church in Plano, Illinois.  He leads the church’s prayer ministry and shepherds a small group.

 In 2022, God led Mike to retire early from Caterpillar so he could focus on other endeavors. The Lord has given him many opportunities to apply his evangelism ministry on short-term mission trips around the world. So far, he has been to Ghana, Africa, Caballococha, Peru, Prague, Czech Republic, and Mongolia. On these trips, Mike has applied his learning to share Christ and to teach others about evangelism.  

 Mike recently signed on with Cup of Cold Water Ministries (CCWM) as a short-term missionary. He feels called to continue to go where God leads him to share the gospel and support missions in the field around the world.