MSIA Minister Will Bickerton, age 65, is a trouble-shooting adventurer who has taken a 30 day respite from serving under combat conditions in Afghanistan. He set up operations in Kandahar, Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan. The work has included:

1. Provision of safe drinking water.
2. Repair and rehabilitation of farm irrigation systems, roads and bridges.
3. Repair and rebuilding of homes.
4. Provision of tools and consumables to people with skills so they can rebuild their own small businesses, including farmers, carpenters, bicycle repair, tailors, doctors, medical workers and midwives.
5. Training of village councils to assist the townspeople in each area.

The primary objective for Will and his crew has been to work themselves out of a job, letting the Afghan men and women accept the senior role in rebuilding their country.

Bickerton was born in Perth, Western Australia, Sept. 22, 1938. He is a civil and structural engineer, has qualifications in horticulture, is a Justice of the Peace (registered in Queensland Australia) and is a retired and decorated military officer (Royal Australian Infantry and the Royal Engineers).

He married Sylvia Margaret Smith (also an MSIA minister) in 1962 — “a truly magnificent and inspirational woman, loved by all who knew her and the most beautiful wife and companion to me for more than 40 years,” says Will. Will & Sylvia have 2 daughters: Caron Andrea who lives in Sacramento, CA and Gail Margeret, who lives at Will’s home on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. They also have three grandchildren: Nathan Andrew James Bickerton, son of Caron, aged 19 and attending college in Yuba City, California; Cameron aged 8 and Catelyn aged 6, children of Gail Margeret. “Sylvia and I adore those kids and Nathan was Sylvia’s shining knight, a fine young man.”

Will and Sylvia spent most of their time working together in other countries, including Papua, New Guinea, the Middle East and the South East Asian countries where Will pursued his work as a construction engineer and agricultural consultant and Sylvia ably supported him as office manager, secretary and the best companion that one could ask for.

Sylvia’s first encounter with cancer occurred in August 1996 when they were living in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. She underwent immediate surgery for cancer of the bowel and after recovery they decided to terminate their wanderings and returned to Australia to live on the Gold Coast of Queensland.

In January 2000, Will was requested by the Humanitarian Aid Agency of Australia to work as a project manager in East Timor providing houses for the people in the province of Cova Lima in and around the township of Suai near the West Timor/ Indonesian border.

To their great dismay Sylvia found out in September 2000 that the cancer was back and there were several tumors showing on her liver. Will was immediately evacuated from East Timor and spent the next 21 months looking after her until her death in May 2002. Will says: “This quite obviously was an extremely difficult time for both of us and our families but we made the very best of it. Our faith and understanding as Ministers of Love and light was always our inspiration. An indication of Sylvia’s strength was her desire to have one last trip to her home in Scotland and we did this over the Christmas and New Year period, 2000. Traveling presented enormous problems for both of us and I will never forget her quiet strength and great fortitude, her absolute faith and trust in Almighty God that this was something that she could and would endure and return safely to spend her last months with her children, her grandchildren and her family and friends. She is now at peace, a truly magnificent soul.” Sylvia passed away from cancer of the liver on May 3rd, 2002.

After returning to Australia, Will was named to his position in Afghanistan. “I was extremely grateful for this opportunity, not only because of the challenges that it presented to me, but also the opportunity to counter my grief with what has turned out to be the greatest and most fulfilling challenge of my life.”

“My first task was to set up an office and recruit Afghan national staff to undertake all duties, under my direction in Kandahar. This, in itself has been a wonderful experience. Afghans are the most hospitable, loyal and considerate people imaginable. They are hard workers, absolutely committed to making every donor dollar count in rebuilding their country and most importantly they readily accept delegated responsibility. That very aspect has made my life so much easier as it is simply a case of training people, giving them the responsibility and then nurturing and supporting them as they go along,” says Will.

“I am very much an emergency worker and our strategy is a simple one — deal with the immediate problems to assist the community in every way possible. Essentially we work with them to re-establish their community infrastructure so that they can survive. One important factor is to bring the refugees back to their villages, provide incentives and ensure that they can sustain themselves in this early phase so that the development people can come in with their long term strategies as quickly as possible.”

In 18 months, Will and crew have achieved miracles — a team of people totally and absolutely committed to their duties. They have spent the donors’ funds wisely and well, and have had an enormous impact in their area of operation and in spite of the many, many adversities they have persevered and more than accomplished what they set out to do. Will explains, “We have had people killed and injured by bandits, had cars burnt, money stolen at gunpoint, mines on roads and so on but we have done what we set out to do and more.”

“A truly humbling and gratifying experience. I pray to Almighty God daily — often many times to ask for protection for me and my wonderful team of Afghans and to give thanks for my blessings. However I hasten to add that 18 months in this environment is just about enough,” says Will.

Completing the 18 month tour in Afghanistan at the end of February 2004, Will left for Thailand to spend at least 30 days rest and rehabilitation time with his new lady, Sawai, whom he later plans to marry.