We hope and pray that this Christmas season brings you much joy and blessings from the Lord. December is always a very busy month in the country of Panama. In December we celebrate Mothers Day (8th), end of the school year (March-December), Graduations, Christmas and New Years Eve, and it does not stop there for us, because the first Sunday of the year is our churches' anniversary. This year we will be celebrating our Sixteenth anniversary. Thank you so much for the special offerings in December which always help us cover all of the extra expenses during this busy time.

At the time that this letter is being put into the mail we have already celebrated five Christmas parties, and we have a few more to go. We have four feeding centers, the girls home, the church and we also have a party for all of the preachers and their families here in our fellowship. My wife does a great job shopping and buying gifts for over 200 children (clothing), and that does not include our immediate family. Our church saves up more than $1,200.00 to buy gifts for over 350 children in our church, and we also have a Sunday where we give away bags of "goodies" to over 500 children.

The months of October and November were very fruitful. We started by having our annual Patriotic Sunday on the last Sunday of October. We invited five high school marching bands to come to our church on this Sunday morning, and we formed our own parade with our Sunday School classes and these bands. After the parade was finished all of the members of the bands were invited to come into the auditorium and listen to the Preaching, receive their prizes, and feed them lunch. Our church people could not fit in the auditorium with them, so we had closed circuit television for them to see. Over 350 young people were in the auditorium and over 150 stood up in the invitation and received Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! Praise the Lord! We also had a two day outreach after the parades in downtown David and we had over 40 people saved in this activity.

On November 30, we invited the Fire Department to come to our church, but the day the fire truck was to come we had a constant rain, day and night. The fire truck did not come but the band from the Fire Department did. They played patriotic and Christmas songs for the congregation and afterwards we fed them lunch and witnessed to them. Over 30 members of the Fire Department trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. All of this is possible thanks to your faithful support.

On November 15 we had our third College Graduation and three students graduated! Praise the Lord! We held our annual Family Conference in November with over 400 in the evenings. Pastor Minge from Washington State came to preach! What a blessing He and his people were to our folks! We had over 250 people saved in our services in November! Your support keeps us going and doing more and more.

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

Printable Version   October 7, 2008 Dear Friends,

OUR MISSIONARY IN EL SALVADOR IS DOING A GOOD JOB BUILDING THEIR CHURCH BUILDING. THANKS FOR GIVING.

We have had a couple of great months and God has blessed us in wonderful ways. We trust the Lord gave you a great summer and a relaxing time with your family. We invite you to come to visit us for one of your vacations. There are great hotels here in Chiriqui and we have, beside the many good churches and ministries, beautiful mountains and beaches. Panama is a very safe country to travel in and the costs are only a fraction of costs in the States. There are many Americans moving to Panama taking advantage of the affordable living, the kind people, and the friendly government. Come and see us.

My wife organized our Ladies' Conference in the month of August. Over 300 ladies attended the conference and twenty-four Preacher's wives were there as well. We are grateful to Mrs. Parada, wife of Pastor Luis Parada in Long Beach, California, for coming and speaking to the ladies. She was a great blessing and an encouragement to all. Over 20 ladies were saved in three nights.

In the months of August and September we had two weddings in our church. Both weddings involved young people who have been in our church since they were children. One was the bride of a young man who is a missionary in Africa. His name is Ruben Castillo from Mexico. He came to Panama to raise support and met Keysi, a girl that has attended our church since she was 8 years old. Keysi graduated from our Bible College four years ago, and she and Ruben were married on September 15. They are in Mexico right now and will be going to Ghana, Africa next year. Please pray for them. There is also a young lady from our church and graduate of our Bible College who is married to a young man in Texas, and he has since graduated from Bible College, and will be full-time in the ministry very soon. Little by little God is allowing us to train people to go out and serve Him in many different places.

We praise the Lord for the spiritual and numeric growth that God has been giving us here in David, Panama. The attendance in the evening services the past few months has increased to over 200 people on many occasions. Our people have to come on their own for the evening services and most of them do not have cars. Due to the high cost of fuel we cannot use the buses all the time, but our people are still coming on their own. We have five different soul-winning programs in our church and we have at least 100 people saved every week through our visitation program. We usually never have less than 10 people saved on any given Sunday and at least one baptism. This past Sunday eleven were baptized. God is blessing us with more and more workers and Sunday School teachers as well!

On October 26 we have our Patriotic Sunday with six high school bands invited to be in church for a parade. Last year over 100 teenagers were saved. Pray we have many more saved this year. On November 15, we will be having our College Graduation. At least four students will be graduating this year. Please pray for these future preachers and preacher's wives. Thanks for giving so we can go!

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

Printable Version       July 31, 2008 Dear Friends,

OUR MISSIONARY IN EL SALVADOR IS BUILDING A CHURCH BUILDING. PLEASE PRAY AND GIVE IF YOU CAN.

Thank you so much for your faithful support and for your prayers. We have been very busy the past three months. We trust you are enjoying your summer vacations and time with your families. It is always good to get away once in a while. May God bless each one of you. In the past three months we have been busy with Four Conferences, the visit of over 80 people from the States from different churches, I made a trip to preach in El Salvador, teaching in the Bible College, having a cat-scan, keeping four feeding centers going feeding 200 children, and doing the paperwork to see our Girls' Home grow.

When I was sixteen years old I won a young man to the Lord who today is a missionary in El Salvador. I went to see him in May and I was really impressed with the work he is doing. He is in a town of over 80,000 people about 10 minutes from the Guatemalan border. He has a great testimony in this town and he is building a church building. He could use all the help he can get. If you would like to help this new work in El Salvador with their building, just send me the money and I will get it to him. Make sure it says on the check that it is for Bro. Gabriel Bonilla's church building in El Salvador. Thank you so much.

We had a wonderful OLD PATHS BIBLE CONFERENCE the last week of May. Bro. Allan Domelle came to preach along with Pastor May who came with his wonderful wife. They were a great blessing and our people enjoyed the preaching. My voice held up to be able to translate all the preaching.

In June we had our ANNUAL MEN'S CONFERENCE and we had Pastor Rabon, Tippett and Aldana with us from Beacon Baptist Church in N.C. Over 100 men attended our conference each evening and we had over 60 men attend our church on Father's Day. These preachers also brought their wives and they taught in our Bible College as well as themselves. What a blessing it was to have them here.

In July we had three groups come down to visit our church, our feeding centers, and girl's home. Thanks to MANNA WORLDWIDE many people are giving so that we can feed 200 children, two meals a day, and also have a Girl's Home. These groups are always a blessing to have. One of the Pastors that came with his church preached our MISSIONS AND STEWARDSHIP CONFERENCE. Our people have committed to giving over $1,000.00 a month to missions. We also have a YOUTH CONFERENCE on July 30-Aug. 1. Pray many of our teens will surrender their lives to serve God.

In July I also went to have a Cat-scan to see how I am doing. The technician that ran the scan was saved as a young boy in our church 15 years ago!!! He said that all looked well! Please pray for me that I may get over the allergic reactions I have to certain foods due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. Thank you once again for your faithful prayers and support. May God bless you.

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

Printable Version       May 15, 2008 Dear Friends,

For the FIRST TIME since we started our church in 1993, we celebrated a COUPLES RETREAT. We now have over 35 couples in our church that are interested in having a good marriage and home. It was an exciting time for all of the couples involved, and as a result I am sure we will be
having greater turnouts in future retreats. We are finally starting to see the results of years of labor as we see more and more people place the proper emphasis on the marriage and the home. Thank you for your prayers as we try to reach more and more families for Christ here in Panama. Marriage and the home is not important to the lost. We trust the Lord is blessing you and thank you for reading this letter.

We started classes this year in our Bible College with 15 students. We have students from five different churches and one travels as far as 120 miles every week to attend classes! We had to go to having night classes because we do not have enough support coming in to be able to cover all of the expenses if we were to have classes during the day. Our students are in class Monday through Friday from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. every week. Please pray for these students that they be able to stay faithful in spite of the rough hours, and please support us if God lays it on your heart so that we may be able to cover all of the expenses we have in bringing in preachers to teach in our college.

Every week in our church we are seeing from 15 to 20 adults and young people being saved in our services and an average of five baptisms. We have four adult Sunday School classes, eight teen classes and 22 children's classes every Sunday morning. We also have two preaching services to be able to accommodate everyone in our auditorium. We will eventually need a larger building if we are going to keep growing and start running over 1,000 in church. A new building on a larger piece of property will cost us no less than $500,000.00. Please pray God would provide us the money we need to keep on growing and reaching more and more people for the Lord.

My health is much better, but I do need some full-time help. I pastor a church of over 700 people every Sunday morning and yet I have no full-time staff men. I need help, but all of the $3,000.00 that comes in monthly is spent on our buses, and regular church expenses. It would cost me $500.00 a month to hire one man full-time. I have three men that would quit their jobs on the spot if I had the money to hire them. Would you support our church with this project? Hundreds would be saved as a result! Thank you

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

We trust the Lord give each and every one of you a wonder Christmas and a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. This year has been quite an experience for me and my family. I went for no hair, to a full head of hair again; from no voice, to my full voice once again; from uncertainty about my health and life, to a clean bill of health! I now wear a flat-top haircut so as to remember, every time I look in the mirror, what God has done, and to thank Him. We have much planned for 2008, and we are looking forward to seeing God do greater things in our ministry this coming year.

OUR BIBLE COLLEGE finished its' first school year well. We do have hopes of starting up next year with many more students. Please prayerfully consider supporting our college each month. It costs us approximately $100.00 a month per student to be able to provide the students with a work scholarship. They stay very busy working around the church, and winning souls for the Lord through various outreach programs. Thanks to those who are already supporting this ministry.

DECEMBER is probably our busiest month of the year. We celebrate mothers' day, High School graduations, Christmas and end of the year programs during the month of December. We hope to have over 150 mothers on December 9. We also celebrate two Christmas parties for our children: one is for our faithful children and the other is to invite all the children we can get to church. On December 24, we have reserved the downtown square in our city to have a Christmas presentation. We hope to reach many people with the gospel through this program. Thank you for your prayers as we set out to win more people to the Lord.

IN JANUARY we also have many programs in our church. We will be celebrating our churches' FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY on the 6th. That same week we have our annual youth camp where we will be taking around 100 teens and counselors 200 miles from here to spend four days and nights at a beautiful camp. We get to organize most everything in this camp. Pray we have many decisions made for the Lord that week. On Jan 28-31 we will be hosting our annual Pastors' Conference and we hope to have over 1,000 in our services every day. Please pray we may be able to reach this goal and see many people saved. During the rest of the summer here (which is from December to April), we will also have our Vacation Bible Clubs. We hope to have more than 1,500 children participating in our clubs.

If you would like to see our latest video presentation and also see pictures of our work, you may do so by going to our website, which is: www.willismissionaries.org Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

Printable Version     September 28, 2007 Dear Friends,

A New Ministry Unfolding.

Thank you so much for taking time to read this letter. I trust it is a blessing to you, and I hope you are doing well. The boy in the pictures above is named Jose, and he came to church one Sunday morning all beat up by his own mother. I dealt with the mother and found it necessary that this child be put into protective custody until she is able to control her emotions. Since then, the government here has granted us the custody of Jose. Jose is doing very well, as you can see in the picture (right). The mother is still coming to church and we are working with her to help her regain custody of Jose. The greatest blessing coming out of all of this is that we are another step closer to being able to receive more children into our ORPHANAGE due to this situation. Please pray for our ORPHANAGAE that we may be able to be more effective in this ministry and have more children in our Home. We are also working hard on trying to help girls prevent abortions by coming and living in the home, and giving their child up for adoption once it is born. Thank you for praying for these ministries that are great tools for reaching others for Christ. There are people from all over Panama that are now saved thanks to this ministry.

OUR BIBLE COLLEGE is doing well. We thank all of those that are giving $100.00 a month to help put a young man or young lady through Bible College. Our first year will be ending in December. We are looking forward to next year already. We hope to have anywhere between thirty and forty students in our College for our second year. Please consider helping put a student through College at only $100.00 a month. Your $100.00 would cover their room, meals, and tuition. If we were to have enough people supporting the college, this money could even provide a little "spending change" for these students. The College students stay very busy working around the church building, doing maintenance on our church buses, going to juvenile centers and public activities to preach the gospel, and door to door soul-winning. Our churches' weekly income is only around $700.00 and therefore it is impossible for us to fully support this project. We spend almost half of our income on running the church buses.

Personally I am feeling great. My hair is back (I am now wearing a flat-top), I have much more energy (eating too much), my voice is much better, but it is still far from being 100% well. I am now preaching four times on Sundays. The first message on Sunday mornings is broadcasted live on the radio at 8:30 a.m. (Central time during Spring and Summer, Eastern time during Fall and Winter), and I preach in English and in Spanish. There is a large American English speaking population in our province, so we are trying to reach them with the Gospel. Please pray we have success in this live broadcast. You may listen to our service via the internet. Go to our website and you will find the radio station's address. If we do not see many results from the radio broadcast by November, we may have to cancel it due to the high cost.

We now have seven buses to bring more people to church. During the month of October we will be inviting the Fire Department, Police, and Government Officials to participate in our services. We hope to average around 800 people in church each Sunday during the whole month. Thank you for your prayers and support. Come visit us!!!

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

September 13, 2007

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for all your notes and prayers. The doctor took out tissue from some nodules on my left thyroid gland last Friday. I called today and the doctor informed me that I am "lucky" that they were not zists or nodules but just scar tissue from the surgery!!!! God has done another wonderful work! The doctor, along with the whole medical group has informed me that I no longer have any cancer and that all we need to do is have a check-up every three months!!!

Praise the Lord and thank you for your prayers! Please pray I recover full use of my voice and stamina. I get tired a lot quicker than before.

Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

August 23, 2007

Dear Friends,

I just got back from my three month check up. I had an ultrasound done on my thyroid gland area a month ago and it showed that I have an 8mm sized nodule or zist on my left thyroid. My right thyroid was taken out with the lymphoma. The Oncologist wants to do a biopsy on this nodule on September 7, just to make sure it is not another cancerous tumor.

Other than this, I feel great. I am preaching four times on Sundays, I can speak stronger every week, I am jogging and lifting weights, and God has allowed me to win souls every week the past couple of months.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

Printable Version     June 21, 2007 Dear Friends,

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO KEEP THE BIBLE COLLEGE FROM HAVING TO CLOSE DOWN! PLEASE HELP US!

Our Bible College is really an exciting place to be and to see. God has really blessed these past three months. We have had only one drop-out and many others are excited about joining next semester. The down side is that we are OUT OF FUNDS. We are running in the red at the time I write this letter. We spend over $2,000.00 a month on these students to be able to have them here on a full time basis. We need at least twenty people or churches to support our college at $100.00 a month so we can keep on going. Please consider helping us with supporting at least one student at $100.00 a month. You can visit our website at www.willismissionaries.org and "click" on SEMINARY INFORMATION to see pictures and testimonies of our students. Please designate this money to the "Bible College" when you send it to our Home Church. Thank you so much for your help in this worthy project. We hope to prepare many preachers and preachers' wives, music directors, school teachers and youth directors.

Santiago and Sylvester were both in church for the first time on Fathers' Day, June 17. I noticed them speaking to each other, and I was amazed at how much they looked like each other. I went to greet them and they told me they were brothers and had not seen each other for over 40 years! Both of their wives have been coming to church and in the same Sunday School class for over three years and did not even know they were married to brothers! It is always a blessing to be in church! Both of them have been saved and excited about being in church together. We had over 75 fathers on Fathers' Day and we are regularly having around 700 people in Sunday School. Thanks to you that support us on a monthly basis we can be here in Panama serving the Lord and reaching the Lost for Christ. We have had around 30 visitors every Sunday Morning with people being saved and baptized every week. All of this goes to your account as you give to missions. Thank you so very much!

Well, now to my own health. I had a Cat-scan done on me on June 1, and the doctor met with me on June 13. He told me that the Cat-scan shows that my cancer is in REMISSION! Praise the Lord. I no longer have to have any chemotherapy treatments and I just have to go back every three months for some "maintenance" treatments. I am happy to start seeing my hair coming back! My voice is still weak, but as I get stronger, so does my voice. I am trying to preach now at least once a week. I preached a funeral of one of our elderly church members this past Monday, and saw many people get saved. Please pray for my voice and for my complete healing!

We now have five buses and are in need of more to keep growing. Please pray for us as we try to sell one of the buses we have that needs a new motor. If we are able to sell this bus we could pay the cost of getting another one down here. Over 500 people come to church every Sunday morning on our buses!

Please feel free to come and see us. We had some friends come to see us last week and it was a wonderful blessing to have them with us. Come and be a blessing and be blessed!

Thank you so much for your faithful support each month and for the special offerings you have sent.

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

June 13, 2007

Dear Friends,

Briceida and I just got back from Panama City. This morning the doctor told me the results of the Cat-scan from two weeks ago show that my cancer is in REMISSION! Praise the Lord! No more chemotherapy, and I will have to go back for a check up on August 21, and every three months after that.

I still need to visit the Endoctrinologist to keep tabs on the rest of my thyroid gland to prevent another lymphoma from coming back.
Please pray I may recuperate the full use of my voice soon. I will be visiting a throat doctor soon as well. Every day I get stronger my voice also gets stronger.

Thanks for all your prayers and backing.

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

May 05, 2007

Dear Friends,

On Monday I am scheduled to have my last chemo. I had bloodwork done today and all looks well except my white blood cell count which is down to 315,000. The lab specialist said they may not do the chemo treatment due to how low my defenses are.

Please pray for me and wisdom for the doctors. I would sure like to skip this last one, but all the doctors (even Christian doctors) have advised me to go ahead and take the last treatment.

Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

April 19, 2007

Dear Friends,

The doctor gave me some great news, which is that I only have to have one more chemotherapy treatment!!! Praise the Lord! The CAT-SCAN revealed that everything seems to be normal, but to be on the safe-side, the doctor says that we should do a total of six chemo treatments.

On Easter Sunday we had 1247 in church. It was great! This past Sunday we had 700 and I preached for the first time both services in the morning. We had 40 saved in all and 9 baptisms. On Easter Sunday we had over 50 saved and also 9 baptisms.

God is good. Thank you for your prayers. After the next chemo treatment they will perform another CAT-SCAN and after that they will be performing a CAT-SCAN on me every three months for a year. There are no PET-SCAN machines in Panama. It would have been good to have a PET-SCAN done, but that can only be done in the States.

Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

April 12, 2007 Dear Friends,

FIRST SEMESTER GROUP OF STUDENTS OF THE SEMINARIO BAUTISTA BIBLICO DE PANAMA.

God has been really good to us as I hope, and am sure he has been to you as well. We thank you for your prayers and for your faithful support. Our Bible College is up and running! We are so excited about what is going on here in our Country. God has given us 20 students, 15 of which are full time with the work scholarships. This group of 15 students is in classes each morning with the rest of the students, and then they spend each afternoon working around the church or out soul-winning. In just four days of soul-winning, the students have won over 200 people to the Lord! Each student is costing us $100.00 a month. With 15 students we are putting out $1,500.00 each month. This is a large amount for us. Would you like to sponsor a student or more? We need all the help we can get and I guarantee you, your money is being well invested. We want to thank those that are already sponsoring students, and also, I want to thank Liberty Baptist Church, in St. Petersburg, Florida, for their $5,000.00 gift that helped us get the college started. Without this help, we would have had a very difficult time getting all we needed to start.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support in this time of personal need. There are so many of you that have sent special offerings to help me with my medical expenses that I would take up a whole page if I were to mention each name. To all of you, who have given towards my medical needs, THANK YOU! Your gift of $_____ has been a wonderful blessing. I had a CAT-SCAN done on me on Monday, April 2, and the preliminary report has been that there has been a great improvement since my first CAT-SCAN. I have not spoken to my doctor yet, but, on Monday, April 16, when time comes for my next chemotherapy treatment, he will tell me if I have to have two or four more treatments. Please keep me in your prayers for total recovery. I am weaker each time I have a chemotherapy treatment, but my hopes are that I will be finished with them soon!

Our Church is doing great! On Easter Sunday we had 1,247 people in church. We gave away, for the second year in a row, live baby chickens, and boy, we had over 800 children come to church! Over 400 young people and adults were here as well, and we had over 40 saved and 9 baptized. God has given us some really good workers in our church, and we have four great men that do a good job preaching. I have only preached five times since my surgery which was on November 24, 2006. Our men are doing a wonderful job. We also have over 80 people going out each Saturday morning reaching others for Christ and inviting people to church.

Our Girls’ home is doing good and we have two baby girls that have been given to the home to be put up for adoption. Please pray that the Panamanian government will allow these girls to be adopted into Christian homes and that the adoption process may be revised so that those adopting children may do so in a shorter period of time. The Feeding Centers which we are running are doing well and we are feeding around 150 children two meals a day, five days a week. Please pray we may reach more and more people with the gospel.

Thank you so much for your faithful support each month and for the special offerings you have sent.

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

March 24, 2007

Dear Friends,

Here we go again. On Monday I have my fourth chemotherapy treatment. I feel great at this moment, but last week I caught the flu and a stomach virus. After this treatment they will do a CAT-SCAN and hopefully I will not need any more treatments. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS. The "CAT" will probably not be until another couple of weeks.

The toughest part of this treatment is that it is the same day we start, here in my church, the first Daytime Bible College in this country. We have around 20 students enrolled and hope to have more. It will cost us around $100.00 a month to put these kids through four years of schooling. If you would like to sponsor a student, please do so!!! We are working on getting accreditation with the Education Department here in Panama so that the graduates can also teach in the Schools in this country. Please pray for this as well.

May the Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

March 04, 2007

Dear Friends,

Well, back to it again. I have another chemotherapy treatment tomorrow. I have felt great the last couple of weeks but that comes to an end for about 7 days on and after the treatment.

We had a great time last week in Florida visiting a Homeopathic Doctor and celebrating our 20th Anniversary. I thank God for my wife and the wonderful 20 years he has given us together.

I also enjoyed being on the softball team that won the championship on Friday night. I even made an "in the park" home run. Of course, I am sore from all the exercise.

Thank you for your prayers.

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

February 14, 2007

Dear Friends,

Well, the second chemo treatment went much faster this time. The put the IV into my arm at around 11:00 a.m. and at 4:00p.m. I was finished. I was taken to a preacher friend's house in Panama City a few minutes later and had not been there for 15 minutes when I started vomiting. I had a rought five hours but finally got some sleep.

The next morning we flew home and on the flight I was nausiated and upon descent I had to use the plane vomit bag. The bad thing was that the bag had a hole in the bottom which sprayed onto my pants!! We finally got everything under control (vomit and smell) and got off the plane a few minutes later. Since the flight on Saturday I have had only one vomiting episode and have felt weak but well. My vein in my arm does hurt due to the chemicals.

The good news is the following. Between my first and second chemo treatment, our church here in David wrote a letter with hundreds of signatures, requesting the government hospital to exonerate me, as much as they could, of the expenses of the chemotherapy treatments. Each treatment costs $3,000.00. Friday morning, prior to my second treatment, the social worker on duty told me the medical director had decided to exonerate me of 80% of the cost of the total bill!! I was happy!! At 4:00 p.m., once I had finished my treatment, another social worker called me into her office and told me that, since I do so much in this country for their people (the church, feeding centers, girls home and orphanage), she reconsidered my exoneration, spoke to the Medical Director, and they decided to exonerate me 100% of the chemotherpy treatments!!!! Wow! Praise the Lord. I still have to cover my blood work, doctor visits, medicines and transportation expenses to and from Panama City. Thanks to all of you and your giving, we have not had to worry about our finances.

By the way, I had a good time playing softball on Monday night, and we won. I play again Friday night and next Monday night! I wish I could preach, but my voice is still not much more than a whisper. I do miss that very much.

By the way, I am hairless and if you would like a picture of me, just write me back requesting it and I will send it to you.

Lord bless each of you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

February 07, 2007

Dear Friends,

We thank you so much for your faithfulness in praying for us. God has truly blessed us in many ways in the past few months. As you may know, I had a malignant lump or tumor come up in my throat on my thyroid glands. I had surgery on it on November 24, 2006 and on January 19, 2007, I had my first chemotherapy treatment. I will have my second chemotherapy treatment on Friday, Feb. 9. So far I have not lost all of my hair even though it is coming loose. The first eight days after the chemotherapy were tiresome, but since then I have felt as good as new. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and giving in this time of need. We are so blessed to have a great group of supporters. I am even trying to playing softball in our church softball league! God is good!

Since I have cancer, everyone tells me I have to take it easy. Well, the first ten days of this year we had Youth Camp, our Fourteen Church Anniversary, and a Family Conference. On the third week of the New Year we started our Vacation Bible Clubs with hundreds of children being reached with the Gospel. We are having Bible clubs through the second week of February. I am staying as busy as possible in spite of my condition.

The last Monday of the month of March is our projected date to begin classes in our Bible College. This College will have day classes and will be opened for the purpose of providing the education for students called to the ministry from all over our country. To be able to do so, we need to provide for these students a place to live, food to eat, and a way to pay for their tuition. There are not many jobs in our city that these students could get that would allow them to be in school and work as well. We need help with $100.00 a month per student. With this amount we could provide a student with the room, board, and tuition. The student would also be working for the church in the afternoons and winning souls for the Lord. I sure wish all of the offerings that are coming in to me at the time were for our Bible College and not for my own health. I sure hope that since you have already given to my health that this would not keep you from helping us with the Bible College. We are hoping to have at least 40 students for this year in our Bible College. Please lift us up in prayer and ask God to provide for this need.

During the year 2006 we saw hundreds of people saved and baptized and we hope for no less during this coming year. I cannot preach full time since my voice is still not much stronger than a whisper. I have preached on four occasions since my surgery and I ask you to pray I could get my voice back. We have four faithful men in our church that have been preaching and God has been using them to see many folks saved and baptized.

We also now have three feeding centers and a girls home which contributes to our workload. We are feeding over 100 children two meals, five days a week. We praise the Lord for these ministries which are a blessing to our people. These projects are funded by Manna Worldwide, which is an Independent Baptist mission outreach.

Thank you so much for your faithful support each month and for the special offerings you have sent our way to help us cover our medical expenses. Our three children are with a Christian family in Alabama for five weeks during their vacation. They are going to a Christian school and learning English and having a great time.

In His Service,

Byron and Briceida Willis

January 19, 2007

Dear Friends,

I trust you are all doing well. I am sitting in the hospital, receiving my first chemotherapy treatment in the government hospital. The attention is excellent and quicker than I expected. The doctor here is applying the same treatment as was prescribed by the doctor at the private hospital. I will be receiving from 4 to 6 treatments with intervals of three weeks in between each treatment.

I have preached twice now since my surgery. My people seem to enjoy hearing me preach even though my voice is not much stronger than a whisper.

I need to get a prayer letter in the mail, and I will do so as soon as I can. Please forgive me for not writing before Christmas.

The surgeon gave me permission to play softball in our league, so I played last Monday night, and we won! I am not sure if I will be able to play from now on, but I sure will do so if I feel good enough.

Thank you so much for your prayers and all the extra support you have sent, which has really come in handy in this time of need.

Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

December 28 , 2006

Dear Friends,

I have had all the tests done on me that the doctor thinks are necessary with my lymphoma. All of the test show that my lymphoma is only in my neck and nowhere else in my body...Praise the Lord!

The doctor did say that I still need to have six chemotherapy treatments before we can declare victory and even at that he says it will be called "remission."

My only problem is that the costs of chemotherapy at the private hospital is very elevated and we have already spent over $13,000.00. Thanks to many of you this bill has been covered but since the chemotherapy in the private hospital will cost three times this amount, we are planning on going to the government hospital next week. A young man started attending our church three weeks ago, whose father is an Oncological Doctor at the government hospital, and he is willing to help us get in and get the treatment as soon as possible. Our next appointment with the doctor is next Tuesday and he will refer us to the Government hospital at that time, unless God leads otherwise.

Thank you so much for your prayers, concern and giving.

May the Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

December 21 , 2006

Dear Friends,

First of all, thanks to all of you for your prayers and generous gifts. I went to the doctor today and the surgeon said that on the outside my surgery looks great. The swelling is much less than he expected. He did inform me that he was able to extract 85% of the lyphoma tumor. The other 15% is wrapped around the nerve going to my vocal cords. If he were to have taken out the other 15% I would have lost my voice for life. The lymphoma is called a Malt lymphoma which underwent a transformation towards aggresive cancer cells. This means I need to have chemo-therapy as soon as possible.

On Friday, Dec. 22, I will have blood-work done and a Cat-scan of my neck, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. On tuesday, Dec. 26, I will have an endoscopy, colonoscopy and a bone marrow biopsy done. The doctor hopes to start chemo by January 2, 2007. He says that due to my strength and young age (39), he does not expect me to have discomforting side-effects from the chemo, just the loss of hair. I plan to go ahead and shave it off, to get used to the new look!!! ha.

The doctor believes that my cancer should be in remission after doing 6-8 sessions of chemotherapy over a period of 6 or more months.

I still cannot preach because my voice is barely stronger than a whisper and gets tired quickly. Once the swelling is all gone and the chemo eliminates the rest of the lymphoma on my nerve, I should speak much better.

Thank you for your prayers and the support, which has allowed me to be able to get this prompt medical attention.

May the Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

December 09 , 2006

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers and for helping us in our expenses. God has been clearly present during this whole trial we have been through.
I came home last Friday expecting to go back to Panama City on Tuesday, Dec. 5. On Monday evening the doctor called me and told me he had the results of the "Inmunohistochemistry of the tumor cells," and they did confirm that I had a Thyroid Lymphoma. He also said that it looked promising in the sense that I may only have to have a "light" treatment of chemotherapy! Praise the Lord!

The doctor also told me that I did not have to go to Panama City at this time, but to wait until after Christmas when my throat is less swollen from the surgery so that they can run more test, such as an endoscopy and a full cat-scan. These test are to find out if I have any other Lymphomas anywhere else, for the doctor told me that Lymphomas usually never start in the Thyroid glands but in the stomach.

Please keep me in your prayers and have a Merry Christmas. Thank you once again for your notes and offerings.

May the Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

November 30 , 2006

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I thank God for his wonderful grace. We are passing through a valley at the moment, but I have so much to thank God for. You always hear what is preached about how to react during trials, but I can tell you that Byron Willis not only preaches it, but he also lives it. What a servant of God and what trust he has in the Lord! I never saw him lose hope.

When you walk in the Lord’s will and have given everything to Him, the only thing left to say is, “Lord, do your will. Glorify yourself in my life.” But my wonderful husband told me, “I am anticipating and am anxious to see what the Lord will do, and if my illness allows souls to be saved and glorifies God, that is fine with me. And with the time that I have left, whether it be 3 years or 3 months of life, I will give everything for the Lord.”

Thank you for your prayers. When I was in the doctor’s office with my husband and heard the bad news, all the years of my marriage and of serving the Lord began to pass through my mind. I thought of my children without a father and of myself without a husband, but suddenly I felt so thankful to God for the years that we have served him together. Many times preacher friends, worried about our excessive workload would tell us to “take it easy” in the ministry, and I remember replying to one of them, “We don’t know how long we will live, so we have to give everything for God while we are young and while we still have the strength to serve Him.”

When the doctor said “cancer” and that it could possibly be an aggressive one that kills in 6 months, I thanked God for allowing me to be the helpmeet of a man who works tirelessly for our Savior, and in the midst of the sadness, there was an unexplainable joy in my heart. How great our God is! Because of this, I want anyone who hears about Byron Willis to know that if he were to die tomorrow, he has served his God with all his strength and even beyond his strength. He is a genuine Christian, father, friend, pastor and a good husband (I’m so in love with him.).

On February 23, we will celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary. I had asked him for a trip to Europe to celebrate our anniversary, but now I don’t care if we just celebrate our anniversary in our backyard, as long as I have him with me. There is so much that we want to do together for the Lord and so much that He has allowed us to do.

Please keep praying for my husband, that God will extend his merciful hand each morning. Pray for my children; they have been so brave. I’ve never seen them lose hope.

We are dealing with a lymphoma cancer but we have a God who strengthens us and will supply each and every need.

In closing, I would like to share a verse that has given me strength during this trial. Jeremiah 33:6 “Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.” Thank you for your prayers.

With love in Christ,

Briceida Willis
Wife of Byron Willis

November 29, 2006

Dear Friends,

I went to the doctor's office tonight and he had NOT so bad news. He thought I had, according to the biopsy report, a very aggresive thyroid cancer that usually kills a person within 6-12 months. I do not have this type of cancer.

I do have a Lymphoma of the Thyroid which is a malignant tumor but it was all taken out! What we have to do is proceed to have a full body cat-scan and an endoscopy to eliminate I have any lyphomas anywhere else in my body and then, once all the "immunohistochemistry of the tumor cells" are complete, a council of doctors will decide which is the best treatment for me (chemo and/or radiation).

Please keep me in your prayers both for complete healing and provision. Thank you for all your prayers, for the encourageing notes and those that have promised to send offerings.

May the Lord bless you,

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

November 28, 2006

Dear Friends,

I am sending you some pictures of my neck before and after the surgery. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Here is the whole report on my thyroid illness from the moment I realized I had a problem to today's date.

On October 6, I noticed a lump in my throat to my right of my adams apple. Three days later I had blood work done to see how my thyroids were doing and an ultra sound. The blood work showed no evidence of Thyroid problems but the ultra-sound showed small tumors adjacent to swollen thyroid glands with no calcifications. I went on to Panama City that same week and preached a conference and then had a Conference the next week in our church. The following week we had a group here to see our feeding centers and works and the day they left I went to Panama City to have a biopsy done on my lump. The sample with a fine needle was extracted on Nov. 15th. I went back home and did not get a call from the doctor as to what the report showed until Nov. 21, at 9:30 p.m. The doctor told me it did not look good and that I needed to have surgery as soon as possible.

Briceida and I came back to Panama City the next day, and God arranged it that I could have an appointment with the best surgeon in Panama that same evening. He told me the biopsy report showed there were aggressive cancer cells in my growth. The doctor set up the surgery for Friday, Nov. 24. The doctor expected the surgery to last about two hours but I was put under at 10:00 a.m. and I was told the surgery lasted over 3 hours. The surgeon has told us that I had a very unusual mass in my throat which he was required a lot of work. He mentioned that many doctors would have just shut the incision back up after seeing how complicated a mass I had. He had to work hard to keep from cutting my nerve that goes to my vocal cords for it was entwined in the mass and he had to cut three of my muscles that assist in swallowing to get it all out. He was able to get all of my thyroid glands out and the mass with all of its roots. I was in the hospital until Sunday afternoon, Nov. 26. I have a drain coming from my neck which will be taken out on Wednesday, Nov. 29.

The mass which was taken from my neck is at the Pathologist and we will have his report also by Wed. night. Depending on this report we could either have a clean slate, or there could be a need for either radiation or chemotherapy. Please be in prayer for us as we go through this time of illness and trials. We have never had any health insurance but God has always provided for our needs. Thank you for your prayers and support.

My telephone numbers are: 011-507-6501-7595-cel; 011-507-6608-6450-cel.; 011-507-220-5191--house where we are staying in Panama City.

If you email me (bwillis@pa.inter.net), then I will include you on our email list and you would be able to know quicker our situation. May the Lord bless you.

Byron Willis
Missionary in Panama

October 15, 2006   Dear Friends,

We greet you hoping that each of you is doing well. God has truly been blessing us in a wonderful way the past few months. I have been so busy that I have not even been able to stop long enough to write a letter. We held the dedication service for our Girls Home on September 29, and since then have already had over three calls without even putting out any flyers! This home is for girls that are pregnant and have considered having an abortion due to negative circumstances in their lives. We encourage these girls to come and live out their pregnancy at the Home, free of charge, and give birth to their child and then give it up for adoption. The Panamanian government is thankful and supportive of this project. We trust these young mothers get saved and go home a "new creature" and we hope to see these children grow up in good Christian homes and become great servants of God.

A GREAT LADIES CONFERENCE
My wife, Briceida, planned our church's Second Annual Ladies Conference. She invited Preachers' wives from all over the country and nineteen of the twenty-two in this country were present. The highest attendance during the conference was over 300 in the evenings and over 150 during the day sessions. The ladies were really blessed with this conference and many made life changing decisions during that first week of September.

SECOND SEMESTER OF OUR BIBLE INSTITUTE
We started our second semester of our Bible Institute the second week of August and God has blessed us with 11 students. Please keep in prayer all of our students, that these may become great servants for God doing great things for the Lord. Each of these students is taking a risk because they are giving up a secular career to prepare for a ministry that has no funding. With only 22 churches in this country, there is not much financially that can be promised to any student in Bible College. We need more churches that are financially strong in this country. Less than five churches in this country can support their pastor 100%. Please pray for this great need.

In a meeting we held back in August, a great majority of the Pastors of the 22 Independent Baptist Churches here in Panama and of the eight Bible Institutes in this country have promised to send us their students for us to start a daytime Bible College. This should allow the existing Pastors to dedicate more time to building their churches and it should allow for a more effective and exciting training program for our young people called to the ministry. For all of this to have success, I need for God to provide us with $100.00 a month per student for them to come and study on a work scholarship. This amount will cover their room, board and tuition. If you would like to help us with this great project, you will be helping all of the churches of Panama and you will be helping us get new works eventually started all over this country. This project is to begin by the first of April, 2007, but we need to start raising support right away to be able to encourage students all over the country to come to school.

Thank you so much for your faithful support and for your many prayers. We have the greatest supporters any missionary could ask for. I pray for you daily and trust God just keep on blessing you.

In His Service,
Byron and Briceida Willis

OVER 1200 ON EASTER SUNDAY

June 29, 2006

Dear Friends,

I trust you are enjoying a wonderful summer. God gave us a great Easter Sunday. We gave away baby chickens on this day and over 750 children showed up at church. We had a wonderful group of young people and adults, as well. Over 1,000 people rode on our five buses! It was a wonderful day here in our church and we are excited to see the growth that God has given us in the past few months.

PUSHING 800 EVERY SUNDAY MORNING
As a result of our visitation program, which goes all day long on Saturdays, God has blessed our Sunday attendance. We have only been below 700 people once since Easter Sunday and we averaged around 800 for a whole month. On Father's Day we had 70 fathers in Church! Our Saturday soul-winning program has grown to over 120 every Saturday. We give everyone a sack-lunch and encourage them to stay our as long as they can, reaching people for the Lord and inviting them to church. This is the main reason of our growth!

ONE HUNDRED PARTICIPATED IN OUR MEN'S CONFERENCE
We had our first Men's Conference this year and over one hundred men took part in at least one service during the three nights of our meeting. God blessed and we were blessed to have a Missionary to Costa Rica preaching to our folks. Bro. Ed Bordell preached not only a Men's Conference, but he also preached a Marriage seminar where over 40 couples participated. I thank God for the men and the couples God is giving us each week.

THE NEW WORK TAKING NEW STEPS
The new work, started and being pastured by one of the fellows that grew up in our church has started having Sunday night services. This new work now has Sunday School, Sunday night and Thursday night services. They also come in to our second service on Sunday mornings to be with us during the preaching hour. Bro. Rafael Rodriguez is having up to 100 in Sunday School. He is doing a great job.

FIVE MORE BUSES
This week I will be traveling to Alabama to help transport five buses down to Miami to be shipped to Panama. These five buses will be a blessing in four different churches here in the country of Panama. I praise the Lord for Bro. Taylor and the Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church in Kingsport, TN, for their part in giving us these buses. I also thank the New Life Baptist Church in Odenville, AL, for helping us transport these buses all the way to Miami.

PRAY FOR A POSSIBLE BIBLE COLLEGE
I have a burden for the need to have a full-time Bible College. To be able to accomplish this I would have to have the backing of all of the missionaries and Pastors in our country, both to send us the students as well as to come and teach for a week or two at a time. I would also need much financial support to be able to cover the expenses in housing, feeding and training over 40 to 50 people. Please pray we could see this project accomplished by March of next year. I will know if I have backing by the pastors here by August (next month) and if you are willing to help us financially, please let me know. It would be great to have day classes with over 50 students!

GIRLS HOME AND ORPHANAGE APPROVED!
We now have the official permits from the government here to open a home for pregnant girls that are willing to give birth to their baby instead of having an abortion. Some will give us their babies so they may be adopted by good families. Please pray we could get the facilities and the laborers needed for this project. Thank you for all your prayers and for your faithful support. We invite you to come and see us. Just let us know!

In His Service,
Byron and Briceida Willis

December 7, 2005

Dear Friends,

We sure hope that this year, 2005, has been a blessed year for each and every person that we know. God has blessed us immensely this year and we are excited to report to you, one last time, this year. Thank you so much for supporting us and we are glad to share with you all of the latest news of the work here in Panama. You can also log onto our new website, put together by a member of one of our supporting churches in Alabama, and see, eventually, what is going on every week! We are still working on this site and hope to have it at 100% soon.

Working on an Orphanage! Our two Feeding Centers are doing great and the Lord has started opening doors for us to be able to do more for the children in Panama. The folks from Manna Worldwide are working with us so that we may get an Orphanage and Adoption Center open. We have already held a meeting with the First Lady of Panama and it is just a matter of time before the paperwork is all legalized. There are over 900 Junior High and High School girls in Panama's Public Schools who are pregnant at this time! These numbers only represent those still in school. Many of these babies will be abandoned and given up to adoption. We want to provide good Christian homes for these babies, both here and elsewhere. Please pray for us as we get this HUGE project up on it's feet. If you are interested in helping us or knowing more, please call me.

Ladies Conference! My wife, Briceida, hosted our churches first Ladies Conference in September. Eighteen preacher's wives attended and there were over 200 ladies that participated in the meeting.

Four More Buses! Our good friend, Bro. Joe Taylor, donated four more buses to be used in this country to reach more Panamanians for Christ. Bro. Taylor has done more for the churches in Panama than he will ever know on this earth! The Pastor and members of New Life Baptist Church in Alabama helped me get these buses to Miami to ship them to Panama. This church in Alabama, who came to see us in August, has been a wonderful blessing to our ministry in the past few months. Four churches in Panama now have buses thanks to all involved.

New pews! Once I knew I would be bringing four buses to Panama, I went on the internet to see about getting some pews for our church. God worked it out that there was a church in the same town where the four buses were located, which we have never met nor been to, that GAVE us twenty-eight pews! We thank the Brethren in Kingsport, Tennessee, for their part in the ministry here in Panama. We also thank the men from Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church for loading these pews on the buses in a way that they all made it to Panama in perfect shape! Nothing was lost in the shipping, which is a miracle in itself! These pews are almost all set up at this time, and we had over 315 adults sitting in them this past Sunday morning! Thank you! They are beautiful!

Family Conference! Our Pastor, Bro. Larry Parks, came during Thanksgiving week to preach to our church and see our ministries. We had many decisions made during that great week and we had our greatest Sunday night attendance ever in our church: 365 people came, on their own, to hear the preaching! Our church is really growing and we are seeing souls saved and baptized every week. Pray we never let up!

Institute Graduation! We will have our Second Graduation of our Bible Institute on December 16, 2005. Three men will be graduating and looking to serve the Lord as leaders wherever He leads them. Pray that we may start many new works as a result of the men we are training in our Bible Institute (College).

In His Service,
Byron and Briceida Willis

August 19, 2005

Dear Friends,

In the past months we have had many things happen here in our ministry and we are very thankful to all of you for your faithful support. We are excited to report to you that in the past few months God has blessed us with…

Over 500 visitors! God has blessed us with over 500 first time visitors in the past months. We are excited to see a large number of new converts in our services and we have seen around this amount of people saved and many have obeyed the Lord in baptism. Our attendance on Sunday mornings is pushing an average of 700. We are excited to see a great group of adults in our Sunday morning services.

Over 60 Fathers came to our services on Fathers’ Day. It is great to see many men wanting to do right and wanting to serve the Lord! Please pray for the men in our church.

Missions Conference! We held our annual Missions Conference in July and our people are giving more to missions each year! At this time our church supports 15 missions’ projects here and abroad.

One Week for God! I have encouraged our people to be sacrificial givers to the Lord and His work and many of our folks gave one whole weeks’ wages to the Lord and have since seen God bless them in many different ways. This one time offering was over $2,000.00 which is the same amount that normally comes in during one whole month. Most of our people only make $200.00 a month.

Six Groups from the USA came to visit us in the past couple of months. Four of these groups came to visit specifically our Children’s Feeding Centers and they were a great blessing to these children. We also had two groups come to be with us for a week and be a part of our whole ministry. We really enjoyed these wonderful folks and for their love for missions. These people really won the hearts of the Christians here and it was sad to have to see any of them leave. Please come and visit us any time that you would like. Just let us know well in advance and you could have a great time here.

Our Bible Institute has just started on its second semester. Please pray for all of our students that they may be faithful to the end and we hope to have at least three men graduating at the end of the school year.

Another Bus to Bring! Our good friend in Tennessee has donated another bus to us for our ministry here in Panama. He has given four buses for me to administrate and get to other churches here in Panama. This new bus will be a great blessing to be able to help in the New Work we are starting about 10 miles away. If you could help us get these buses to Panama, please send your offering to our home church in Garland, Texas. We will be spending around $3,500.00 to get each bus to Panama. Thank you for whatever help you can send.

Same Church, New Name! Our Home church, Miller Road Baptist Church, has decided to change the name of the church to Lighthouse Baptist Church. Our Pastor, Bro. Larry Parks, would like to be able to create a whole new outlook for this ministry in the Dallas area and yet the church is still the same in doctrine and preaching. If you have any questions please feel free to call me. Thank you for your prayers and support.

In His Service

Byron and Briceida Willis