I am Rev. William (Bill) Parks and have been an ordained Assembly of God minister for fifty years. Donna Jean Parks has been my wife since of April 16, 2022. God has used and is continuing to use my testimony to bring many men, women, and young people to Jesus Christ. I am the youngest of a family of eight born to an exceptionally, godly mother and a father who never lived for Christ. My mother was growing weary having been the disciplinarian of my siblings and now another energetic, entertaining, and mischievous little boy to discipline. Beginning at age 12, I began disregarding all the teachings my mother gave me and was determined to do what I wanted to do.This attitude caused me to be expelled from high school at which time I began to live on my own and only returned home when I wanted a home cooked meal or money. Mom always greeted me with these words: Bill I know you are smoking, drinking, and other things the Bible warns against. You can’t hide from God and be sure your sins will find you out. She was right, yet had no clue how bad I really was.

As my story unfolds: One night, very drunk and not realizing what I was doing; I decided to leave my neighborhood in Baltimore with three friends and my girlfriend and drive to Florida to begin a new life. As our journey began we passed through Virginia, North Carolina, and as far as Columbia, South Carolina drinking along the way. Finally, I could not drive any further. We checked into a motel paying for it with the last of our money. Being exhausted from driving and drinking, I flopped on the bed and fell into a deep sleep for hours. Suddenly, I was awakened by someone knocking at the door and lights flashing. The police had come to arrest me and ordered me to come with them.  I was handcuffed  and they placed me in the police car. Upon arrival at the Richland County police station, I was placed in a cell, hungover and not cognizant of the problem causing my arrest. After waiting in the cell for hours, they came to interrogate me which lasted a couple more hours.  Finally, it was explained to me that my three friends and my girlfriend were arrested and being held for two armed robberies and the murder of a middle aged man, a father of three young children. My friends had taken my car, stopped at a roadside market and gas station that they planned to rob. However, the plan went awry. The station attendant was murdered and in the market one of my friends was shot in the head. The police interrogators were convinced that I was not involved, so I was freed with the stipulation that I was not to leave town until I was given permission.

There I was 650 miles from home,  my friends in jail, my car impounded, no money in my pocket; what do I do?  Call mom! Mom answered and accepted the charges for the call. I began telling her where I was and she said, I know, it’s all over the news. But I was praying for you last night and God prevented you from waking up because He has a plan for your life. Mom agreed to send money to get me home. While waiting to receive it, I spent every night and day begging on the streets of Columbia. I slept in the Salvation Army shelter and heard somebody preach so I could have a meal.  In a few days I received the money and made arrangements to get back home.  When I arrived at mom’s home in Baltimore, I walked in the front door.  She immediately said God has  answered my prayers and kept you asleep because He has a plan for your life. This was May 30, 1967. My friends were tried and sentenced. I wasn’t even called to testify. Some in my neighborhood were not convinced of my innocence believing I had turned state’s evidence. There were threats on my life but evidently God had other plans.   

On August 8, 1967, at a West Virginia, youth camp, I responded to an invitation given by the Evangelist asking if anyone in the service wanted to give their life to Jesus Christ, to come forward;  I did. I went to the front of the church fell on my knees and confessed my sins to Jesus. My life changed drastically, I felt Gods calling to the ministry and on September 9, 1967, I entered Bible College and began studying for the ministry. Now 57 years later, I have been a Bible College teacher, Youth Pastor, Youth Evangelist, happily married to a wonderful wife who was president of her class and valedictorian in Bible College. The Lord used me as Pastor, National Evangelist, Teen Challenge director, and Missionary Evangelist for 34 years ministering in the Caribbean, Central America,  South America and  primarily ministering in Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Cuba.

On March 26, 2020, my whole world crashed as my wife and partner in  ministry, Joyce Elaine Parks, was taken away suddenly.  I was devastated and didn’t know what to do. I loved her deeply for those 50 years. She was the mother of my two sons, William Anthony and Stephen Mathew, the grandmother of our eight wonderful grandchildren. Many throughout the U.S. and other countries sent their condolences. Since this was just the beginning of the Covid pandemic , there was a restriction put on the number of friends and family that could attend Joyce’s funeral.  I just didn’t know how to continue living, I didn’t want to preach anymore, take mission trips, play golf, go fishing, or to talk to anyone. I couldn’t sleep, didn’t have an appetite. I just wanted God to take me home to heaven so I could see her again. However, God was not finished with me yet! Through the hundreds of emails, texts, letters, phone calls, and personal expressions of sympathy, one message stood out more than all others.

A quiet, seemingly, very shy girl, I knew as a teenager, a couple years younger than I emailed me and expressed her and her family’s sorrow felt for Joyce’s death and my loss. She said she was praying for God’s peace and comfort during this time in my life. Donna Mathieu was her name and I remembered immediately that I had asked her for a date about two years after my conversion back in 1969. She was from my home church in Baltimore. She replied, ”You’ll have to ask my father” and then she left. About a week later I knocked on her door and was told by her younger sister that Donna could not go anywhere because she was having a violin lesson. Turned down for a violin lesson, what a put down for my ego! Never did I ask her out again. Now she was praying for me that God would help me through the most tragic experience of my life. I was touched by her sincerity and concern that I called her to thank her. This eventually developed into a daily conversation and time of prayer as well as reading from the Bible. I hadn’t felt God for weeks, I prayed some but my loneliness turned into crying uncontrollably, my heart was empty. Until one day as I was crying out to Him, I heard His voice say to me, “Donna is going to be your wife. You and she will bring healings to many people, and you will be the first one healed”. A peace came over me and I knew it was the voice of God. Although Donna had dated, she had been proposed to but did not believe it was Gods will. Disappointment caused her to believe that God had forgotten her over so many years. Yet she cried unto God in desperation and He heard her and said to her, “Something new is about to happen in your life”. She never dreamed it was to marry a preacher, Bill Parks, who she’d known and had unknowingly crushed his ego about 52 years earlier when she turned him down.

On April 16, 2022, Donna and I were married and are very happy.  We are busy serving God, traveling, ministering, praying for healings of many throughout the U.S., Cuba and other countries. We experience how Awesome GOD is!           

HE MAKES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL IN HIS TIME!