Friends of Bill would describe him as a no-nonsense Christian with radical love for the Living Lord, Jesus Christ. But as you listen to this man sharing his passion for the Gospel, you would be surprised to learn what he was doing when the Lord first knocked on the door of his spirit, forty years ago. Bill was a headstrong young man in Afghanistan, smuggling drugs, and not thinking that one day he might be caught. When he was busted in Kabul, he was taken to a preliminary court hearing. His sentence was estimated at twenty years in an Afghan prison. He was then held in a criminal detention center for several days while awaiting formal trial. Imagine Midnight Express (the movie about a petty drug smuggler in a Turkish prison) for the setting: Bill knew that he was in a terrible situation. For a start, without even thinking about general conditions, there was no food in Afghan prisons - it had to be brought in by relatives if one was to survive. Bill had no one in Afghanistan except a dubious contact from his own trade whom he knew would have gone underground quickly. So, both angry and afraid, he waited in his detention cell with nothing to do but to think ill thoughts. Eventually, he reluctantly picked up the one book that was lying around the room - a novel, by its cover. He began to read and discovered that the book was, ironically, a contraband New Testament, somehow smuggled into the center. He had always meant to get around to reading The Bible, but it had never happened... so, he decided he might as well read it now. Then, as he read, with the end of his life facing him, Bill unexpectedly discovered Truth: He knew beyond any doubt that he had found the fundamental answer to life in this book. And, he also knew that it was too late to change anything. He promised God that if He would get him out of this mess, he would change his life and live for Him.

At the trial a few days later, Bill heard about certain international circumstances that had arisen between America and Afghanistan in recent days, with the result that the Afghan Government wished to use Bill as a goodwill gesture. He was free to go!

But with his life suddenly returned to him, Bill was still not sure how to follow God; no one had taught him anything about the life of the Spirit. He was like the biblical Ethiopian who needed guidance through the Scriptures to understand what he was reading. It was therefore in a jungle village, where he lived next, that the Lord sent a traveling missionary over a period of time to teach him how to experience the love and power of God through The Holy Bible.

Bill's life was transformed by the revelation of Christ to his spirit and in time, he became a pastor. Later, he was called to begin Go Forth Missions with his entire family. He and Joanie and their children have been ministering the supernatural love of God through signs and wonders amidst the Russian people for the past 13 years. And the Lord is about to move them full circle, back into Bosnia and Afghanistan, to reap another great Harvest as these Last Days unfold.

Translation

Ukraine Information and Map

Afghanistan Information and Map

Bosnia and Herzegovina Information and Map

from the Translation Site

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