Pastor Filicia Williams Shares Her Story
On June 1, 2024, Filicia Williams commenced her pastoral ministry in the Sylvan Lake / Rocky Mountain House District. Filicia and her husband Andrew have two sons – Andrew Jr., and Joshua. In the paragraphs that follow, Pastor Filicia Williams shares her testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness as she discerned her call.
Prior to migrating to Canada as a student in 2016, I worked as an Editor and a Teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL). I had studied Dental Hygiene at Northern Caribbean University but never had the opportunity to work in the field. I had also secured a scholarship to study opera in Austria. But that, too, did not come to fruition. God had a different plan.
After completing a Travel and Tourism diploma in Toronto in 2017, I moved to St. Andrews, NB where I worked at a resort. Andrew and the boys migrated in 2019 after we spent almost 3 years apart due to visa issues. In 2020, we moved to Fredericton, NB, where Andrew worked as a carpenter and I worked as an admissions advisor.
The first time I heard God calling me to become a pastor was during an evangelistic series in 2017 where I served as the singing evangelist alongside Pastor Lawel Natufe. I literally told God that being a music minister was enough and I had no interest in becoming a pastor.
However, God kept calling me. In an effort to appease Him, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Christian Counseling with an emphasis in Pastoral Care in 2019. I spent only 1 semester in that program.
Romans 11:29 states, "For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable." I am grateful for this because God was so patient and merciful that He intensified the call and pursued me until January of 2022 when I finally surrendered. Within a few months of accepting the call, we sold our house and moved to Michigan so I could attend the Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Although Andrew had risen to the top of his company as a Carpenter Foreman, he believed that God was calling not just me into ministry, but us as a family. So Andrew gave up his job and moved to the US to support me, even though he could not work there.
After spending one year in Michigan, we obeyed God's voice again as He prompted us to move to Edmonton, where I was privileged to serve as a pastoral intern under the leadership of Pastor Natufe. We are in awe of how God has ordered our steps and our lives throughout the years.
As a family, we love to take road trips to visit beautiful places in nature. We love to ride our bikes and watch funny videos. Most importantly, we love to minister to international students and run a small foundation called #IBelieve. We also love doing evangelism together. Andrew and I are blessed to have two boys, Andrew Jr. (12) and Joshua (9) who have been very supportive and understanding. They have also been great travel buddies as we moved from New Brunswick to Michigan to Alberta in less than 2 years. Our greatest desire is to be advertising agents for Jesus.