So why this blog?

Today’s young Pacific Islanders are interested in missions, especially the students attending Youth With A Mission’s (YWAM) Discipleship Training schools (DTS) in the Pacific. The purpose of this blog is to give them a history of some of their own Pacific Island past and present heroes, to encourage, challenge, and hopefully recruit them for ongoing missionary endeavours. 

One of my favourite chapters of the Bible, Hebrews 11, names well-known Bible characters who, moved by faith, accomplished great things with and for God. In verses 32-38, after listing a few more familiar names, the author shifts to using the non-specific pronouns “those” and “they” rather than proper names. The brave Pacific Island missionaries of the past are some of those who fit the “those” and “they” of Hebrews 11. They served, were beaten, martyred or died with diseases in foreign lands. I cannot hope to find them all but will do my best to honour some. 

Hebrews 11 ends with verses 39-40 (Message), " Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours."

It has always been my passion to help young Pacific Islanders learn about their own history and spiritual legacy. Most of the books they read in training are written by or about Caucasian missionaries. While such resources are helpful, there remain the “those,” many of whom only receive a small mention or remembrance. Through this blog, it is my desire that the faith of the young Pacific Islanders (and my readers) would come together with the faith of the past and present heroes of the Pacific Islands, thus making a “completed whole.”

Introducing...

Aloha from Hawaii! 

Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, I have had 48 years of experience as a missionary, first in the Cook Islands for three years, and then with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). 

My late husband, Alan, and I were missionaries in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands from 1965-68.  We moved there with our daughter Joy and our two sons, Samuel and Stephen, were born during our time there. In 1975, we joined YWAM in Kona, Hawaii to help pioneer what is now the University of The Nations (U of N), living there from 1975-78.  

In 1979-1988 we helped pioneer another work called Mercy Ships (at that time part of YWAM), serving on two vessels, the M/V Anastasis and the Good Samaritan. During the years on the Anastasis, there were two trips to the Pacific Islands in 1983  where we brought relief supplies from New Zealand to Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. On the Good Samaritan (based in Florida), we also made relief trips, this time to islands in the Caribbean. We travelled to Haiti twice and once to a Honduran island called Roatan. My husband and I led an evangelism team, and shared the gospel at each port we visited.

In March 1988, after 27 years of marriage and during a visit to New Zealand, my husband Alan had a massive heart attack and went home to be with the Lord. Although it was a complete shock to our family and many others, we experienced the complete faithfulness of God through it all. In 1988, I returned to Kona, Hawaii and have served ever since at the University Of The Nations, Youth With A Mission.

While based in Hawaii, I was involved in helping pioneer and staffing the School of Worship on campus and then Schools of Intercession, Worship and Spiritual Warfare, (SOIWSW) in Lausanne, Switzerland (1990) and then in Singapore (1991).

When I moved to Hawaii, I had no idea then how my life would once again take me back to other parts of the Pacific. I began travelling back to the Pacific Islands in 1991, first with a teaching trip to the Cook Islands, Western Samoa and Fiji. Then, I felt The Lord telling me to take the SOIWSW to the Pacific islands. During the next few years, I led or staffed the SOIWSW schools in Tonga, New Zealand and Fiji. The focus of the schools was historical research and intercession for the Pacific Islands.

In 1995, I published my first book, The World in Our Hearts, an autobiography about our family’s experience in missions, including the travels to many nations. The book contains the full story of our years in the Cook Island as well as our early ventures in YWAM (available through Williams Publishing, faywilliamshawaii@gmail.com). 

In 2016, I published a second book, a memoir called An Unexpected Journey: Finding my God-Given Destiny. One chapter, “Crossing Culture On The Journey,” tells the story of some of my island experiences (Available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon Books). 

My three adult children are all married and serving the Lord along with their spouses and children in different capacities. There are now seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren.