History of Worldteam
(1928 – 1995)
1928 – Early Beginnings – Cuba
In an abandoned farm building in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada, in the mid-20′s, nine students gathered with their new teacher, Leslie E. Maxwell from Kansas City. In the second year there were 22 students, and L.E. Maxwell needed a teacher. He sent for Elmer Thompson who had graduated with him from the same Bible school in Kansas. Two students were from the McElheran family – Evelyn and Muriel. With mush and missions for breakfast every morning, it was natural for Evelyn and Muriel to plan to go overseas. Added to that, an aunt of the girls was writing letters from Cuba urging them to come. God was preparing a team for a special era in Cuba.
Elmer Thompson was challenged when he heard of the need, and went to Cuba in 1928. Shortly after, he married Evelyn McElheran, his former student. Two others joined the team – a young Cuban by the name of Bartholomew Lavastida, and a Spanish lady, Isabel Junco, who was converted under his ministry.
Bartholomew Lavastida had originally left Cuba to study in the USA. While there, word had come of his father’s assassination. He immediately determined to return to Cuba and avenge his father’s death. During that journey he began reading a New Testament given him by a Christian lady. Deeply moved by what he read, he surrendered his life to Christ.
In place of revenge came a determination to find his father’s slayers and tell them of the love of God. Lavastida became an important member of the fledgling mission. He was an evangelist and soul winner up to his death in 1994, shortly after turning 104 years of age. Each of these four mission founders came from a different country. They were truly an international team. Sacrifice and joy marked the beginning of the Bible School in Cuba. During the first summer, twelve students went out evangelizing without a cent to their names. They lived in farm homes. That year and each subsequent summer, they came back with thrilling stories of people brought into the Kingdom. Gradually more missionaries arrived, and a total of 400 students graduated from Cuba Bible Institute. Close to 100 churches were established. A daily radio program sounded from one end of the island to the other.
For several decades as Cuba’s economy suffered and Cubans experienced severe restrictions, the church suffered too. However, Christians remained firm in their faith. Now Cuba is undergoing changes, and the church is being called upon to play a part.
1936 – Haiti
Eight years after the Mission began in Cuba; Elmer Thompson was challenged with the needs in a second West Indian country, the Dominican Republic. Alexander Mersdorf whom he sent on a fact-finding mission traveled by way of Haiti. When he landed in Port au Prince, Haitians spotted the stranger and asked what he was doing. Finding that he was a missionary they begged him to stay and teach.
They told him of a group of Haitian believers who had just been shipped home from working in the cane fields in eastern Cuba. These untaught Haitian believers had spread the good news of the gospel in their homeland, and groups of new believers were springing up. Their leaders knew little more than how to help people find Jesus. They did not have a Bible in their native Creole, and did not know how to disciple others.
When Mersdorf returned to Cuba with news of these young converts in Haiti, the Mission leaders agreed that they would send workers there instead of the Dominican Republic. After the Mission entered Haiti, they began using a new name, West Indies Mission. In those early years WIM began a Bible Institute at Aux Cayes on the southwestern tip of Haiti. The students who went out from the school organized dozens of preaching points, which later became churches. The work was complimented in 1958 when David Hartt established the Christian Radio Network, Radio Light (Radio Lumiére), which continues today. Medical work grew from a single dispensary in the early years to several dispensaries in different areas, and then developed into a hospital called Hospital of Light (now Lumiére Medical Ministries Inc). Today the hospital is run by nationals. The national church that grew out of Worldteam’s work now has some 300 churches with almost as many pastors.
1939 – Dominican Republic
Cecil Samuels, a Jamaican who had trained at the Cuba Bible Institute, was sent to open a work in the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic.Opposition from the Church of Rome was immediate. The planting of a church was slow with every convert a major victory. Eventually the Lord provided a Bible School at La Vega where some of the early pastors caught the vision for Christian service. A well-equipped conference center was established at La Vega and serves the Christian community today.
1945 – Jamaica
In 1945 Christians in Jamaica concerned that a Bible-training school be raised up for their young people, offered free land if the mission would come and start a school. For thirty years Jamaica Bible School became a vital training ground for English-speaking young people. Graduates from the school became pastors and Christian workers throughout Caribbean’s English-speaking islands as well as to other English-speaking countries. Today the school is a vocational training center run by the Jamaican church.
1947 – Guadeloupe
In 1947 David Hartt was asked to survey the French island of Guadeloupe. Initially the only place he could find to live was a fourth story room in a dilapidated hotel. In this strongly Catholic island Dave found no one who professed to know Jesus personally. For fourteen months the government treated him as a spy and only reluctantly gave him extensions of stay. After much prayer and visits to immigration, he was given permission to send for his wife and infant son. What excitement! A year later they received permanent residence.
In those early months David Hartt saw God raise up the nucleus of a church. That church subsequently became strong and vibrant. As missionaries moved in and trained a core of national leaders, churches were planted in many parts of the island.
1949 to 1957 – English-speaking Islands
The Mission opened work in the English-speaking islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago. Today a national association of churches called the Evangelical Church of the West Indies is in charge of over fifty churches, all pastored by nationals.
1955 – Suriname (Dutch Guiana)
The Mission’s main work in Suriname has been among the Trio and Wayana Indians in the interior regions of Suriname. The gospel has been well-received by these groups. Multi-day Bible conferences draw canoe full’s of jubilant worshipers eager to study God’s Word and worship of Him together. More recently, dramatic progress has been made among the Hindustani living in urban areas. Largely resistant to more than 100 years of missionary outreach, in recent years many have come to faith in Jesus and multiple Hindustani house churches have formed.
1957 – South Brazil
Lowell Bailey was a natural for surveying the needs of Brazil. He went to Mato Grosso State in 1957. When Sam and Edna Harms joined him, they moved to the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul. More missionaries joined them and several churches have been established, now under Brazilian leadership. Today there is ongoing work in leadership development among the network of Brazilian-led churches and a new vision for an unreached area of neighboring Uruguay.
1970 – Italy
Worldteam’s ministry in Italy began in Sicily in the 1970s. Today our team works in Milan, Italy’s capital of finance and fashion. Fruit has been coming slowly, but God is calling out a people for Himself. Relationships are essential to building trust and allowing others to see faith worked out in everyday life.
1972 – Spain
When the leader of the Dominican Republic field, Frank Butler, died in 1952 a young man by the name of Paul Thompson, who had always held Butler as his hero, was at the funeral. Paul Thompson vowed to the Lord that he would someday take Butler’s place. Paul was reading a Worldteam magazine one day and discovered for the first time that Frank Butler had developed a keen interest towards opening work in Spain. In 1972, after successful pastorates in Mexico City and Phoenix, Paul and his young bride Carol, set out for the spiritually awakening land of Spain. After years of testing and hard work, Spain team is seeing a vibrant church grow in several key areas, and Spaniards are rising to the challenge of discipleship and evangelism. Doors of opportunity are also opening to reach Muslim immigrants from North Africa.
1979 – France
Thousands of French speakers had left the French Antilles to settle in and around Paris. Many of those who had professed Christ in Guadeloupe had no church affiliation in their new home. Because of their pressing needs, Steve Miller and Eliezer Hamlet, from the Guadeloupe work, were commissioned to move to France. After establishing a church among the West Indian immigrants, the team began to focus on discipling believers and planting churches in the suburbs around Paris. Today a multi-national team is part of a federation of evangelical French churches with a vision to see 50 new churches in the next 20 years. There is still great work to be done, but God is moving in the hearts of French people.
1985 – London, England
The fourth field in Europe was started in 1985 largely through the vision of Paul Abeyta. Paul was deeply touched by the plight of the Asians in London; a large immigrant population without Christ. A small team operates west of London among Hindus and Muslims as well as other ethnic groups. Meetings for Better Understanding, a unique aspect of the ministry in London, provide a well-received platform for building relationships and removing barriers between Christians and Muslims.
1995 – Merger with Regions Beyond Missionary Union
World Team was forged through the timely merger of Worldteam with RBMU International in 1995. The merger ushered in a new era of missionary outreach for the sake of God’s glory among unreached peoples.
Excerpts from J. F. Conley