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He was born in Schoenau, Molotschna and died in Rabbit Lake, Saskatchewan. In 1923 he married Maria Goossen (1889-1934), daughter of estate owner Jacob Johann Goossen (1858-1920) and Aganetha Kaethler (1861-1946). Together they had two children Aganetha (1923-1989) who later married John Enns, and Helene (1926-) who married John L. Wieler. In 1934 Maria Goossen died and Friesen married her sister Helena Goossen (1895-1985). Together they has one child Margaret Lousie Friesen (1937-).

The Native Ministries was the new name proposed in 1972 for CMC's Mennonite Pioneer Mission (MPM), the mission begun by the Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Manitoba in 1948, that had come under the jurisdiction of the CMC Board of Missions during the 1960s. Before 1971 MPM shared an executive secretary with the Board of Missions, but after the restructuring of the Conference, it became an autonomous board with its own executive secretary. In 1974 MPM changed its name to Native Ministries.
The Conference, by the late 1980s and 1990s was increasingly involved in cross-cultural ministries, so that in 1994 it created the Ministries Commission, reflecting a broader scope of ministry, both with in Canada (including Native Ministies) and internationally, specifically in Europe. The inaugural meeting of the Ministries Commission was held on 30 September 1994.
After the Conference restructured, combining the Conference of Mennonites in Canada with the Mennonite Church, Native Ministries became a program of Mennonite Church Canada Witness Ministries.
Executive secretaries of Native Ministries were Menno Wiebe (1964-1973), Issac Froese (1974-1978), Malcolm Wenger (1979-1981), John and Vera Funk (1982-1989) and Walter Franz (1990-1999). Walter Franz also served as the first Executive Secretary of the Ministries Commission from 1994 till September 1, 1999 when CMC General Board appointed Walter as Native Ministries Program Director and Associate Executive Secretary of Ministries Commission and Robert J. (Jack) Suderman as the Executive Secretary for the Ministries Commission.

The Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference was formed on July 1, 1959 from the Rudnerweider Mennonite Church, which had been organized in 1937 as a result of division from the Sommerfeld Mennonite church over its desire for renewal. The Rudnerweider Mennonite Church was led by four ministers, William H. Falk (1892-1976), Peter S. Zacharias (1893-1957), Gerhard J. Froese (1901-1947), and Isaac A. Hoeppner (1884-1955). These four had been inspired by the revival meetings held by Isaac P. Friesen in Reinfeld, Manitoba in 1934.

In total 1100 adult members left the Sommerfeld Mennonite church to become a part of the Rudnerweider Mennonite Church. William Falk was elected as Bishop on January 8, 1937. Between February and May of 1937 seven ministers were elected. They included: Cornelius G. Stoesz from Rudnerweide, Peter D. Berg from Schoenthal, Jacob H. Friesen from Neubergthal, Isaac P. F. Friesen from Rosenbach, Isaac J. Fehr from Waldheim, Jacob E. Nickel from Reinland, and Jacob P. Bergen from Kronsweide.

The church spread to western Manitoba, to the Interlake region of Manitoba, to Saskatchewan, Ontario, Texas, Belize, Bolivia, and Mexico.
A shift to more decentralized leadership and more local congregational autonomy led to the formation of the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference (EMMC) in 1959 with annual conventions and various boards which would continue to tie the various local congregations together. This was led by the new bishop J.H. Friesen who was ordained in 1955.

The church / conference kept its members informed through publications such as the Jugendtag, Der Leitstern, and the EMMC Recorder. The church also supported schools in Manitoba such as Mennonite Collegiate Institute (MCI) in Gretna, Elim Bible School in Altona and Steinbach Bible Institute (SBI). The Aylmer Bible School in Ontario was established in 1976 by the church. In 1957 a radio ministry was begun and later the conference also ran a summer daily vacation Bible School (DVBS) for its youth. Missions to Northern Manitoba and Latin America were undertaken by the conference in addition to sending its people to serve under other Mennonite agencies.

The Rudnerweider church was concerned with the secular influence of radio broadcasts and therefore was an early supporter of Radio CFAM which was founded in Altona, Manitoba in 1957. It was seen as an alternative radio station that promoted wholesome values. The radio station offered air time to the church. I.P.F. Friesen, Edwin Klippenstein, and G.H. Penner served as the radio committee and on March 1957, the High German program Die Evangelishe Botshaft was aired with Bishop Wilhelm H. Falk as speaker. In 2008 the program was still on the air in the Low German language.

In 1990 the adult church membership was 3,470 in 24 independent congregations and nine mission stations. The denominational offices are in Winnipeg.

The conference pastors that have given leadership were Henry Dueck (1986-), Jack Heppner and Allen Kehler.

Arthur Slagel was born to D. W. and Mary Slagel in Flanagan, Illinois. He graduated Goshen College and performed service work with a Near East Relief expedition in Constantinople. He later served with American Mennonite Relief (AMR) in the Soviet Union, establishing and operating feeding stations.

Arthur Slagel (1891-1943) was one of three American volunteers sent to Russia with Orie Miller and Clayton Kratz in 1920. Initially Slagel remained in Constantinople to gather relief supplies and from there organized the shipment to the Russian Mennonite colonies. From 1922-1923 Arthur Slagel supervised the feeding program for 75,000 people in the Ukraine, including 60,000 Mennonites. The AMR under his direction appointed local committees whose duties were to receive and distribute relief supplies in their districts according to the official AMR instructions. Slagel oversaw the delivery of food for three Mennonite centres -- Chortitza, Ohrloff and Halbstadt.

During his three years on this assignment he also witnessed the first groups of Mennonites leaving for Canada in 1923. He also traveled to Moscow and other countries before returning home to the United States.

Upon his return to the United States, he resided in Chicago and worked for the Donnelly Advertising Corporation and later the Thiesan Printing Company.

Arthur W. Slagel married Vesta Zook in 1925, who had been an American relief worker in Constantinople in 1921, working in an orphanage that Mennonite Central Committee had just taken over from the American Red Cross in 1921. Initially they made their home in Chicago. Their son Donald (Don) was born in 1928. In 1932 the Slagel family move to a farm in Topeka, Indiana. Slagel was killed in an acident at the farm in 1943. Vesta died in Meadows, Illinois in 1973.

First Mennonite Church (Winnipeg) traces its beginning to the founding of the Schönwieser Mennoniten Gemeinde in Manitoba in 1926.

As early as 1907 Ältester Benjamin Ewert of Altona had provided spiritual services to Mennonites living in Winnipeg. He eventually moved to Winnipeg in 1921. With the increase of Mennonites in Winnipeg due to the 1920s migration from Russia, the Canadian conference asked Ältester Johann Klassen, one of these immigrants who lived in Starbuck, to minister to them as well. Soon these immigrants were the majority in this group and they organized in 1926 as the Schönwieser Mennoniten Gemeinde. The name Schönwieser came from the name of the congregation Ältester Klassen had led in the Chortitza Colony, South Russia. In 1929 Ältester Klassen moved to Winnipeg. During the early years this congregation met in rented facilities. A centre of activity was the Mädchenheim (girl's home). Then they met and later purchased the Zion Reformed Church building on Alexander Avenue. They built their own church building on Notre Dame and Alverston in 1950. This building was expanded in 1958 and 1983.

The congregation was instrumental in founding the Concordia Hospital, the Mennonitische Religionschule von Winnipeg, the Bethania Personal Care Home, and Westgate Mennonite Collegiate. The Schönwieser Mennoniten Gemeinde had many meeting places during the 1920s. Eventually seven congregations emerged out of this besides the First Mennonite Church, Winnipeg. The last of these was Oak Lake in 1971.

Mennonite Fellowship is a congregation that emerged as an initiative of members of the Winnipeg Bergthaler Mennonite Church (later known as Home Street Mennonite Church) and persons moving to live in the Fort Garry area. It began services in 1966 in the Fort Garry area of Winnipeg and the group formally organized in 1967. The language of worship was English. The Fellowship met in rented facilities at Canadian Nazarene College until 1981 and then at Canadian Mennonite Bible College. In December 1984, the group moved into its newly constructed meeting place at 150 Bayridge Avenue. A lay ministry team of non-salaried congregational leaders has served this congregation from its beginning.

The congregation began services in 1890s, and formally organized in 1947. The first building was occupied in 1958.

Edwin Brandt was born August 21, 1921 in Altona, Manitoba to new immigrants from Russia, Johann Brandt (1891-1972) and Anna Thiessen (1897-1992). Edwin spent his growing up years in Saskatchewan and after primary school attended Herbert Bible School in Saskatchewan and then Prairie Bible School in Alberta. During the Second World War Edwin sought conscientious objector status and performed alternative service (Sep. 1943 - Feb.1945) as a teacher in the Day School in Island Lake (now Garden Hill) in Northern Manitoba. After the war he married Margaret Enns (1920-1963) in 1945 and they had five children. Edwin continued his work in Indigenous communities, first with the United Church (two years in Oxford House, MB. Jul. 1945-1947), Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (Oct. 1947-Feb 1948 in Buffalo Narrows, SK and Jul. 1948- Jul. 1957 in Grand Rapids, MB) and Mennonite Pioneer Mission, later Native Ministries of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada (five years in Loon Straits, MB (Aug. 1957- Aug. 1962), and five in Winnipeg, MB May 9163-Jun. 1968). Margret Brandt died in 1963 in Winnipeg. Edwin married Anne Thiessen in ca. 1964 and two more children were born.
After his work in Loon Straits he attended Canadian Mennonite Bible College (Sep. 1962-Apr. 1963) and then began to make connections with Indigenous people moving into Winnipeg from rural areas. Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.) was begun in 1965 to provide education and training for Indigenous people in Winnipeg.
Edwin then took a pastorate in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan (Jul. 1968-Jul. 1971), taught Bible school at Swift Current Bible institute, SK ( Aug. 1971-May 1975) and Okanagan Bible Institute, BC (1975-1976). In 1972 he pastored at the Zion Mennonite Church in Swift Current. Edwin returned to mission work with a three-year period of service for the General Conference of Mennonites Commission on Home Missions among the Mennonites in Mexico (1976-1979). Returning to Canada, from 1980-1985 he was the first pastor at the Mennonite Church of Vernon. Edwin died December 15, 2019.