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Gene & Susan Smillie
 September 2003 marks two years since Gene and Susan Smillie were assigned as missionaries to Spain, along with their three sons: Malcolm, David, and Matthew. The Smillies were sent by the Christian and Missionary Alliance to minister to French-speaking Africans who had immigrated to Spain and on their own, had started half a dozen churches. The Africans wanted to start more churches and to disciple their converts but needed help. They needed someone who could teach in French and knew Spanish, too! The Smillies were C&MA missionaries in French-speaking,Cote d'Ivoire for two terms before returning to the USA so that Gene could begin a Ph.D program. Since Gene also speaks Spanish, the Alliance director for Europe contacted Gene and Susan with a proposal.Gene is the son of an Alliance pastor and grew up in West Virginia. After attending Wheaton College through his junior year, Gene hitchhiked around the USA, even spent time in the Jemez Mountians of New Mexico! Then when Gene was twenty-seven years old, he turned to following God and returned into the Kingdom of God. Gene returned to Wheaton where he finished his Bachelor's and Master's degrees. After studying at Princeton for three years, Gene served for two years as the associate pastor of Trinity Bible Church (now called Crossroads Bible Church) in Los Alamos, NM. Then after marrying Susan Schillinger, they moved to Santa Fe, NM to start a new Alliance church. However, after a year of no success, the Smillies closed that effort. But several months later,the Alliance appointed them to Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa. They spent one year in France learning to speak and understand the French language. Their first assignment in Cote d'Ivoire was to teach in the Yamoussoukro Bible Institute, learn African culture and an African language, Baoule. Plus they taught lay church leaders seminars and conferences. After returning to the USA, having completed their second term, Gene enrolled in the Ph.D program. Gene pastored a couple of churches including the Wheaton Chinese Alliance Church. Meanwhile, Susan taught English-as-a-Second-Language classes. Susan grew up in Iowa, and met God personally during her freshman year of college. After college, Susan worked in Florida, where she was influenced and discipled in Navigator's methodology. There she was challenged to become a missionary. From there she enrolled in a Master's program at Alliance Theological Seminary. At Nyack, Susan gained experience in evangelism and training others to evangelize. Susan helped evangelize several African-American families after graduation during a summer internship. Then she accepted a call to serve as Director of Children's Ministries in Omaha, NB. There Susan also helped form Evangelism Explosion training. After marrying Gene and being called to Africa, Susan taught theology and Bible courses, organized training programs for wives of future pastors, organized neighborhood children's Bible clubs, and taught weekly women's Bible studies. As the Smillies have sought to strengthen the six or more African immigrant churches in Spain, they have found themselves ministering to Cuban, Ecuadorians, Swiss, Nigerians, Zairians, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, North Americans, and Spaniards! They have been amazed by the combination of ethnic and cultural backgrounds! They find themselves speaking French, Spanish and English, depending upon the majority of the congregation. They recently concluded their working relationship with the African church in Madrid, but had two Latino immigrant churches seek Gene's help in setting up lay leader training programs. Pray for the Smillies to become more fluent in Spanish and to be fruitful as they disciple and evangelize. Check the Smillies' website to see pictures of Spain, their family and learn more about their ministry near Madrid, Spain. Praise & Prayer Requests:
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