Steve and Rita WIlliams: New Zealand Missionaries
Steve and Rita Williams’ vision for taking care of missionaries and Christian workers through counseling and pastoral care has taken them from Europe to the South Pacific. They are missionaries in Tauranga, New Zealand with Mission to the World and consider Southwood one of their home churches. Steve is from Huntsville. The Williams, along with their children, April (19 years old) and a student at university in Christ Church, NZ, and Stefan (16 years old), have lived in New Zealand for two years after serving in Germany and Austria to establish an interdenominational retreat-counseling ministry for vocational Christian workers. They now serve with the Grace Presbyterian Church of New Zealand where Steve serves as Coordinator of the Grace Care Community, a ministry providing pastoral oversight and counselor training. Rita works alongside her husband as Program Administrator. The Williams family has positioned themselves to be a seed family for a church plant in their city and are involved in establishing Barnabas Pacific, a retreat-counseling ministry for Christian workers serving throughout the South Pacific. The Williams have been serving with MTW since 1990.
The Williams also minister in other parts of the Pacific Islands. After an initial visit to the Kingdom of Tonga, Steve was asked by the Ministry of Education of Tonga to return to present a week-long workshop to introduce counseling from a Christian perspective to educators in the kingdom. The concept of “counseling