IF you have read any published Australian Christian news article over the past 50 years, it has almost certainly been distributed by one of the greatest unsung heroes of the Australian Christian movement, Ramon Williams, now aged 81.
For nigh-on 50 years Ramon Williams has exercised a unique and important ministry in the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with his catch cry, “Telling others what others are doing for the Lord.”
In recent days Ramon Williams was taken ill and hospitalized for a short period of time with high sugar levels. Home now and under the care of his extensive family we pray his continuing recovery.
In 1959 the newly married Ramon and Dorothy Williams arrived as missionaries in Indonesia with WEC. During this time, their first three children were born. After triplets arrived in 1967 they concluded this overseas stint.
WEC was founded in 1913 by Charles Studd (CT), the English cricketer. The organization began as the Heart of Africa mission, changing its name to Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade. Later, recognizing some misunderstandings with using the word “crusade”, the mission was renamed as Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ (WEC International).
Their audio-visual work for WEC grew and became an independent mission, now called “Worldwide Photos”, whose aim was to serve missionaries and Christian organizations; to enable them to better “show” their work as well as “tell” of it. This has helped many of them to raise increased interest and support.
Today Ramon Williams’ work is recognized as he has established a leading Religious Media Agency throughout the world. His distributions have “Ramon A Williams – Worldwide Photos” with his trade mark email “rlgmedia” (short for Religious Media).
It all functions as a faith financed mission. Only a very few organizations or individuals make a contribution to this service, most ask whether their story may be of interest hoping it will be sent around the world for nothing! His coverage of Cyclone Larry with five radio interviews, the stories and photographs cost him $2000. No one paid a cent. *
Ramon Williams’ photography is renowned, with pictures of such notables as Billy and Franklin Graham, Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Malcolm Muggeridge, Mother Teresa, Mary Whitehouse, and many political leaders and musicians.
Ramon is a silent type, he unobtrusively floats around during Christian functions, and his subsequent news items are sent to leading daily religious news services around the world. He has won photographic awards and has undertaken many media and photographic assignments overseas.
Ramon Williams has an eye for media high visibility. His service has been invaluable to many missions including my Well-Being Australia ministry such as cricket, AIS athlete respite, country town tours, outreach, art, tourism, young writers and missionary respite.
Ramon’s efforts have been Herculean, and his great joy is to see that whatever he “distributes” is published somewhere (newspapers, magazines, bulletins, on-line), in order that someone might read of the Lord’s work.
Ramon Williams doesn’t have many public honors and titles after his name, but his achievements will be “published” in Heaven, where they will be written in “Capital Letters”. His Christian media colleagues in 1987 quietly and unobtrusively recognized his remarkable contribution with the Australasian Religious Press Association’s “Gutenberg Award”.
The Lord constantly raises up ordinary people such as Ramon Williams who then engage in extraordinarily miraculous Kingdom endeavors for specific needs within the life of a nation’s Christian community.
Ramon Williams reflects this true history of Australian Christendom, and we’re able to seriously recognize his work without the gushing of popular media, and that like Nathaniel, we can say, here is a follower of Christ in whom there is no guile. ANS
