Pastor Raul Williams is a ‘Special Person’

Sep 13, 2020 News, Special Person

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From street child to preaching the gospel…

By Rehanna Ramsay

Every now and then a man should take introspection of his life – it helps to give him a clearer perspective on where he came from and where he is headed.

While this may not be everyone’s ideal way for looking at their existence, Pastor Raul André Williams has made this part of his formula for living.
He believes that this sort of reflective attitude helps him to remain humble and grateful to the call of God on his life.
In fact, the Pastor attached to Abundant Life Assembly of God (AOG) Church in Wismar, Linden, Region 10, who has been designated our ‘Special Person’ this week, believes his life is an exact replica of the biblical text found in Judges 14: 9 — where honey was found in the carcass of a lion.
“That‘s exactly what God did for me. He brought something good out of a rotting situation,” Pastor Williams said.
He explained that coming from the streets of Linden, he could have easily been lost to a life of drugs and even crime but “God’s intervened and gave me a better choice.”
“I chose his will for my life and everything changed since then,” said Pastor Williams who has now spent 25 years serving and building Churches in Guyana.
He said his passion for serving in the Church, is the same today as when he first started.

The preacher is even more zealous about reaching souls and seeing lives transformed by the Gospel of Christ than ever. “There is nothing important to me than reaching the people for Christ,” Williams exclaimed.
He says one of his favourite things about his work as a Reverend, is being able to offer strangers, the same chance at life he got years ago. According to him, “that choice led me, a street child, to purpose, a family and so much more in God.”
STREET LIFE
He recalled that before he was sharing his faith with others and offering them hope, “I was hustling the streets of Linden, just trying to etch out a better life for my single mother Violet Williams (now Sampson) and six siblings.”

Pastor Williams explained that the family was deeply impoverished. “Many days,” he said, “my siblings and I had nothing to eat.”
As the second son of the Blue Berry Hill, Wismar, Linden household, Williams decided that at the age of 10 that he needed to find work to help his mother provide for the family. Williams explained that he shared a close relationship with his mother, so much so that he was teased for being “a mama’s boy.”
Williams recalled the day he made a decision not to return to school. That decision brought tears to his mother’s eyes.
“Those were not tears of joy,” he explained, “she begged me not leave school, but she knew I couldn’t watch the family suffer any longer.”
“It was so bad, I remember that day after leaving school on a lunch break from the Christianburg Primary School, I was so famished and rushed home to the pot on the cooking stove only to find a pot full of rice and a lump of sugar in the middle of the pot. I immediately broke down in tears with pain of anguish and a determination to fight back.

At 10 years old, I made a decision to leave school and find work. When I broke the news to my mother, she begged me to stay in school but she couldn’t tell me how she will sustain all seven of us,” Williams said.
He recalled that the very next day, he put on his clothes and left home to find work.
The youngster didn’t immediately find work – he did odd jobs to take care of his mom and siblings for seven years.
During those years, Williams laboured faithfully to care for his family. He said, however, that it came with a price; he had to fit in with life on the streets in the budding mining town of Linden.
As such, he succumbed to peer pressure. Williams became addicted to alcohol, marijuana and other things complicit to life on the streets.
“I was red on dope and smoked a pack of cigarettes per day; indecent language was my main way to communicate since I was completely illiterate —my only intelligence was how to survive and live the street life,” he said.
In the town’s market, the vendors nicknamed him, ‘smalley.’ He was their hustler, selling vegetables, fish, fruits and other commodities.
The hustle, he explained, helped to sustain, his mother and siblings.
And as a result, his older brother joined by helping to carry the vendors load from the husker buses to their stalls for “a small change”.
A TURNING POINT
However at the age of 17 years, Williams reached a turning point in his life.

He recalled that his aunt invited him to an open air crusade hosted by Guyanese Evangelist/ Pastor, Charles Van Tull. Evangelist Van Tull made an altar call at the end of his message and the teenage Williams accepted the invitation.
“I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ and the rest was history!” he said. Soon after, Williams was baptized and became a member of Pentecostal Chapel AOG.
Under the leadership of Pastor Carvil Baker, he fell in love with Jesus Christ and developed a will to live for and serve him.
The teenager no longer craved the taste of alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes – he now had a passion for righteousness, justice and equity.
However as he faithfully attended church and listened to the word of God, the teenager became increasingly aware of his own shortfalls—at 17, he couldn’t read or write.
“I was so ashamed when the Pastor asked me to read from a given text, I would just open my bible and just turn the pages stare and mumble jumble. Then it came to me that without an education, life would become harder for me,” he stated.

As a result, the teenage Williams asked his mother for a favour.
“I said to her I would like to go back to school. My mom agreed to support me and after seven years of not working, she came out of retirement to work and sent me back to school.”
Williams was enrolled at the Parris Business Institute where he pursued elementary business studies, and afterwards he attended the Kuru-Kuru training college, Soesdyke /Linden Highway, where he achieved five subjects in business studies.
Two years later, he wrote the entrance examinations where there were about 600 prospective students competing for the intake of a minimum of 30 candidates to Guymine Technical Training Complex.
Williams was among the successful few. There, he completed four years of a mechanical/electrical engineering apprenticeship.
After the apprenticeship, the young Williams became hungry for more. He attended the University of Guyana where he pursued an associate degree in marketing and earned a diploma in computer studies.
Our ‘Special Person’ did not stop there; he is currently pursuing a degree at UG in industrial engineering. His latest studies are in relation to oil and gas.
Last year, he started working with Oceaneering Guyana— a subcontractor to oil giant ExxonMobil where seven Guyanese were sent vía Rams Eldorado offshore logistics to the USA to undergo studies as Remote Control Vehicle technicians.
During the training, Pastor Williams studied nearly 200 modules covering oil and gas, international safety policies and practices, sub-sea fiber optics, robotic electronic systems, operational, maintenance, hydraulics, mechanical and electrical repairs in sub-sea robotics and piloting.
The studies are integral to his current profession as a ROV technician with the ExxonMobil subcontracting company.
In addition to those qualifications, Pastor Williams is the holder of a Convalescence Care Diploma from the USA sponsored by the Guyana Trade Union Congress.
During his years of training, Pastor Williams managed to simultaneously secure a Diploma in Theology from the Bible School of the AOG, Guyana.
CALL TO PREACH
He also managed to balance life as a preacher, husband and father. According to Williams, the call to preach and spread the gospel started since 1989.
Shortly after he graduated as the best student from the apprenticeship programme at Bermine Mining Enterprise —a Bauxite company, Williams was offered a scholarship to pursue studies in occupation health and safety and at the same time, the AOG offered him a proposal of becoming a missionary to plant a church at Number 53 Village, East Corentyne, Berbice.
Williams noted he has no regrets giving his youth to Christ and choosing the path of obeying the will of God.
As a missionary, Pastor Williams and his young wife, Kavorn Kyte, both resigned from their jobs and, for the next nearly 10 years, pooled their energies towards raising and building their first church namely Harvest Assembly of God with an out station at Eversham, Corentyne Berbice.
As missionaries, God inspired them to start more churches including one in C field Sophia: Judah first Assembly of God. They also manage two outstations in Tiger Bay.
Under his leadership as the community Pastor and overseer, another out station was birthed for the Bel Air AOG.
After receiving licence with Wesleyans of Guyana, Pastor Williams also planted two more churches –at New Amsterdam Berbice.
During that time, the Pastor also managed the main church of Wesleyans on Main Street, Georgetown.
He said that most of his preaching appointments were due to special invitations to minister across Guyana. Pastor Williams also enjoyed a stint of preaching overseas after he went to work and live in Tortola. He was the Associate Pastor with Pastor Frankie Rattanum of Mahaicony.
As such, Pastor Williams says that he must give God the glory for allowing him the opportunities to share his message.
“I always tell people, he can bring honey from the carcass. Look at what, he did for me,” he said, noting that he is forever grateful for his many blessings.
To this end, the Pastor said that he is grateful for the support of his selfless, immediate family.
“What motivates me is my family, my children, all the sacrifices made to accomplish what we have achieved; we are still on the learning curve with greater expectation in sight.
The special lady, I got married to Kavorn Kyte-Williams is the legal/compliance officer and company secretary of Banks DIH, Thirst Park. My two daughters the eldest, Samuella Williams who is following in her mom footsteps, she just finished her LLB from a University in the UK and her younger sister, Grace Williams, is approaching her final year in law with the same university. My two boys are coming in same excellent vein – we have great expectancy for them with our trust in Almighty God,” he said.
Williams added too, “I am also thankful to Pastors Baker who is my early father both Pastors Patrick and Yvette Dublin, Pastor Duke, Pastor Dennis Lee, Pastor Delores Critique of Tortola, Pastor Weldon Sealey, Pastor Raphael Messiah, Pastor John Smith and Pastor Anderson of the Wesleyan fellowship; these and many more God brought into my life to help along the way.”
Though, otherwise occupied, Pastor Williams is at the peak of his ministry. For several years now, he said God has been sharing kingdom truth with him. For example, he said, “God is using me as a modern day seer or prophet to see things before it happens in real time.”

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