History
Rees Howells, well-known teacher and prayer intercessor, opened the Bible College of Wales in Swansea in 1924. His vision was to ‘seed the nations’ with the Christian message. His incredible story of faith and prayer is captured in ‘Rees Howells - Intercessor’, a book written by Norman Grubb now re-printed over a dozen times.
Rees Howells left school at the age of twelve, working initially in a tin mine and then a coal mine. After his conversion to Christianity, he fully surrendered his life to Christ and learnt how to love the unlovable. As he grew in his faith, he increasingly learnt the power of prayer, developing a powerful intercessory prayer ministry.
His heart was for the nations and this burden never left him. He took the great commission seriously, taking Jesus at his word. His conviction powered his prayer life and resulted in many thousands of people being trained to take the Christian message to many countries across the world.
Rees Howells - Intercessor is published by Lutterworth Press and is available in most Christian bookshops.
He died in February 1950 with an assurance given to him by God that the Lord himself would see that the Christian message was taken to all nations and that the provision was in place to do this. He passed the work to his son Samuel who faithfully carried on the work until 2004 when he died.
Although different in personality to his father, Samuel carried the same burden for both prayer and for the gospel to be taken all around the world. Samuel passed the work to its current Chairman - Alan Scotland - who continues to head up the work today along with a dedicated team of trustees and staff.
Later on this year, a book written by the former Bible College of Wales principal, Richard Maton, will be published which biographs Samuel’s life.
When the new team took the work over in 2004, it became obvious that the campus in Swansea was no longer fit for purpose. After much consideration and prayer the trustees have decided to move the College’s UK training base to a new, designed-for-purpose site in Rugby, Warwickshire. The new college will be called Trinity School of Theology.
This is part of a larger strategy, which will increase investment in overseas training. This will ensure that many more people are trained and more nations reached than would have been possible under the old strategy.