Few non-Welsh speakers are aware that in the passing of the Rev. Gwilym Humphreys recently, one of the key figures in the early days of The Evangelical Movement of Wales is no longer with us.

Gwilym was a native of Harlech in North Wales, and spent most of his life in his home area. His Welsh roots and Non-conformist (Baptist) convictions meant much to him.

During the 1940s and 50s there was a significant movement of the Spirit of God in many areas of North and South Wales. Gwilym came in contact with some of those who had been swept into the kingdom at this time. He had always been devoutly religious, but was not yet a Christian. He felt constrained to train for the Christian ministry at the Baptist College in Bangor. While there, on a Sunday afternoon walking over the bridge to Anglesey, he came to a living experience of the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour.

In 1953 Gwilym was called to pastor two Welsh Baptist churches in the Bethesda area of North Wales. During this period he married Beth Williams, a teacher in Cardiff. She was to be a true ‘help meet’ for him in the Lord’s service. Their home was always an open house for all Christians till Beth’s untimely death in 1990. Two children were born to them – Eirian and Dewi (Dewi now ministers among drug addicts and alcoholics in a Belfast church).

In the late 1950s Gwilym and family moved to Bala  to pastor two small churches in the area. At this time, the EMW had purchased  Eryl Aran, a large house on the outskirts of Bala, as a centre for the growing work, and a home for J. Elwyn Davies, the EMW’s General Secretary. It was here that Gwilym and family also made their home, as Gwilym worked in a part-time capacity in the EMW’s ministry.

Next door to Eryl Aran was a much larger property – Bryn-y-groes. Gwilym came to an overwhelming conviction that it was God’s will that this house be purchased as a most suitable venue for developing the Christian camps and conferences ministry of the EMW. The account of the purchase of Bryn-y-groes in 1960 is a thrilling example of God’s providence at work. Gwilym and Beth were to be the first wardens, giving themselves wholeheartedly to developing the work – no small challenge with two young children.

After the onerous pioneering work at Bryn-y-groes and a short period of teaching, Gwilym and Beth returned to Harlech. Their home soon became a haven for many local Christians who would gather with them for prayer and fellowship. To the end of his life, Gwilym was to minister extensively and acceptably in churches throughout North Wales.

It became his increasing conviction that the formation of a Welsh-medium evangelical church was vital for Christian witness in the area. This vision became reality in 1980 at Talsarnau, with its sister-church at Tan-y-coed, Caernarfon, calling John Glyn as their first pastor.

Gwilym’s philosophy of the Christian life could easily be summed up in William Carey’s dictum –‘My business is the Kingdom of God’. His knowledge of God’s dealings with Wales was encyclopaedic. Throughout his life he made it his business to know what was happening in the Welsh and English evangelical churches of Wales. This was in order to pray in a disciplined and responsible way for men in the ministry and their churches. His greatest burden was that God would grant again an outpouring of His Spirit on the churches and the land.

Those of us who knew Gwilym as a friend and example of consistent godly living will greatly miss him. But we are grateful to God for having known and been challenged by a faithful servant of Christ, a true pastor of souls, and a great prayer warrior. The church of God in Wales is the poorer for his passing. Are there those who will stand in the gap he leaves?

We extend our sympathy to Eirian, Dewi and their families. To them as to us, Gwilym was one of God’s ‘gentle giants’.

Sulwyn Jones is a member of Hebron Evangelical Church, Dowlais.