midwestmissions

   The ministry environment on Mindanao is unique in a number of ways. First, the Philippines is the third largest English speaking country in the world. (It is the only Asian nation with this characteristic.) Mindanao has over 80 dialects, including Cebuano/Visayan, Tagalog, B’lann, Bagobo, Manobo, and Tagakaolo. Although the northern regions are predominately Catholic, Mindanao and the surrounding islands are Muslim. Islamic militants have been fighting for a separate Islamic homeland in the southern Philippines since 1972. There are 5 million Muslims in Mindanao and adjacent small islands, though Davao City, the nation’s second largest city is mainly Christian (mostly Roman Catholic). The Muslim presence has always posed a threat for Filipino Christians and American missionaries. While most of us hear of only an occasional news story of terrorist acts in that part of the world, danger to American missionaries has been commonplace. One report provided the names of 17 Christian leaders killed during the period from April 2004- June 2006.
   Recently there were four explosions in Davao City, targeting a gas station, the airport, a health center, and the nearby bus terminal. Another recent terrorist attack occurred when a bomb left in a backpack in the crowded outdoor waiting shed at Davao City Airport went off, killing at least 21, including three American missionaries. The hospital was filled with about 150 maimed and injured people. In recent years, reports in the Philippines have been saying that Bin Laden has sent agents to Manila and Mindanao to set up “sleeper cells”. The combination of this fact along with the aftereffects of 9-11 and the concerns of al-Qaeda terrorist networks on the island has prompted U.S. Military involvement.
   It’s not the most ideal place in the world to begin a missionary program, however, Keith Williams has continued to minister in that region for over fifty years. Rev. Keith Williams is one of our earliest members at the ECA. While carefully paging through his six inch ECA file to the brittle, yellowed documents in the back, I found his Ordination Certificate dated March 24, 1938. In a letter dated October 26 1940, Keith wrote to “The Fundamental Ministerial Association”. (The former name of the ECA.) In his letter to the FMA secretary, Rev. A.A. Sorenson, Keith shared that his activities since his ordination involved the enrollment of both his wife and his self to the St. Paul Bible Institute as they continued revival meetings. One statement from Williams that caught my attention said, “God has given us a definite call and there should be open doors for us. If ever there was a time for workers, it is now.” The faithful, hard work of this couple paid off when, according to our records, by 1954 the Williams’ had been traveling throughout the U.S, conducting revival services and seeing many come to Christ. Rev. Williams had also referred many candidates for membership to the ECA. In addition, he had just completed his first overseas missions trip to Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines where they had started a Radio broadcast.
   By 1957 Keith reported the growth of their ministry to include daily broadcasts on several radio stations, fourteen workers in the Philippines, and the dedication of their first church in the Malugnon Valley, which had 27 thousand attendees. The next document which caught my attention was a letter received from Rev. Williams in 1963, which reported the beginning of a worldwide revival tour to the Philippines, Thailand, India, Italy, Germany, Denmark, France, and England. Through the course of an afternoon, I covered the remainder of the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties.