Pastor Michael and Bonita Ullrich have been in pastoral ministry since 1979 serving rural and small town churches in northern Mississippi, central South Carolina, western Kansas, western South Dakota, and Colorado (just west of Denver). Since 1981 they have been in rural ministry with Village Missions. Mike received his Bible training at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Bonita an Education degree at Blackhawk College in Illinois. Mike and Bonita married in 1977 and have seven children and eight grandchildren.

Since taking their first short-term mission trip in 1992, the Ullrichs have been on many more together and separately. The churches they have served have produced a number of full-time missionaries and others in full-time ministry. Since 2007 they actively facilitated foreign and rural mission work through a ministry of the church they served. In order to bring that ministry to a different level they started Cord Ministries International in 2011. In 2014 they retired from pastoral ministry to lead Cord full time.