STEPHEN & RUTH ANN BELL
Born 05 January 1950 and 27 September 1952 both on the mission field in the former Belgian Congo and united in marriage 18 June 1971.
Graduated from Western Baptist Bible College in 1975 and served as Associate to the Pastor at First Baptist of Quincy, WA from 1975 – 1978.
September 1978 First Baptist of Quincy sent us to the mission field of the former Zaire. Accompanying us were our first two born, Bryan (1973 – served with his wife Emily, along side us, in Botswana from 2002-2005 and presently serving with Grace Dental Mission) and Darla (1975 – presently serving with her husband Seth Curtis, in the Dem. Rep. of Congo). In 1980, Teena, our third born, joined us and is presently serving alongside her husband Colin Ovenell in Benin. Our fourth and adopted son is Egiza (1975 – served with his wife Priscilla, amongst the Latinas in our home church of First Baptist Quincy, WA from 2002-2006 and is presently owner of Bell’s Hardwood Flooring in Seattle, WA).
Having founded and established the Bible Institute in Zaire and eleven years of ministry, we answered a ‘call’ to open a new field in neighboring Zambia under Baptist Mid-Missions. After ten years of ministry, the establishing of a Bible Institute, and five churches within the capital of Lusaka, we pursued the opening of another new field, in neighboring Botswana, where we have served since 1999.
Each field has been different. Much like to the parable Jesus gave recorded in the synoptic gospels of the “sower and the seed.” “… other [seed] fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirty fold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” This describes both Congo and Zambia whereas the following depicts Botswana “And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.”
We praise the Lord that He is the one who “gives the increase.” Paul wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers;”
We covet your prayers that God would give to us “good ground” and an “increase” amongst the Batswana. That God would give us men who will “grow” and come to love as Paul exhorted young Timothy “… the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:2
The Bells