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Rees Howells
Rees Howells (1879–1950) was a Welsh preacher, missionary, and intercessor whose ministry became a cornerstone of the holiness and revival movements, particularly through his founding of the Bible College of Wales. Born on October 10, 1879, in Brynamman, Carmarthenshire, Wales, he was the sixth of eleven children in a poor mining family; his father, Thomas Howells, died in a mining accident when Rees was two. Raised by his mother, Ann, in a devout Methodist home, he left school at 12 to work in the tin mines and later as a collier. Converted at age 22 during the 1904 Welsh Revival through the preaching of Rev. Joseph Jenkins, Howells experienced a profound spiritual awakening that redirected his life from worldly pursuits to radical faith. In 1910, he married Elizabeth Hannah Jones, known as "Lizzie," and they had one son, Samuel Rees Howells. Howells’s preaching career began with missionary work in South Africa from 1915 to 1920 under the South Africa General Mission, alongside his wife, where he preached holiness and saw significant revival among the Zulu people. Returning to Wales in 1922, he established the Bible College of Wales in Swansea in 1924, transforming a dilapidated estate into a training ground for missionaries, funded through faith and prayer without direct appeals for money. Known as "the Intercessor," his ministry peaked during World War II, when he led the college in intense prayer campaigns believed to influence key events, such as the Battle of Britain, as chronicled in Norman Grubb’s biography Rees Howells, Intercessor (1952). A prolific preacher of sanctification and dependence on God, he continued leading the college until his death on February 13, 1950, in Swansea, leaving a legacy of intercessory prayer and global missions that endures through the college’s ongoing work. He was buried in the college grounds, survived by Lizzie and Samuel, who succeeded him as director.
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Rees Howells preaches about the importance of embracing sufferings for the Church, emphasizing that we must first finish our own sufferings before we can fully partake in Christ's sufferings. He highlights that the afflictions of Christ are intertwined with the afflictions of the kingdom, and as Isaiah mentioned, Christ is afflicted with us in our trials. Howells expresses his belief that God allows us to experience sufferings because Christ himself suffered alongside us. He distinguishes between self-affliction and affliction for the sake of others, noting that the sufferings of Christ are the most precious experience on earth.
The Sufferings of Christ
There are sufferings still left for the Church, to be fulfilled in us, but you cannot come to Christ's sufferings until you have finished with your own. The afflictions of Christ are the afflictions of the kingdom and he is afflicted with us in them. As Isaiah said, "in all their afflictions he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them." In my intercessions I never once thought that he would allow me to suffer anything that he did not suffer with me. There is a great difference between self-affliction and the affliction for the sake of others. The sufferings of Christ are the sweetest thing on earth. The apostle Paul told the Colossians that he rejoiced in his sufferings for their sake, and his word to the Philippian church was "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." This is intercession.
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Rees Howells (1879–1950) was a Welsh preacher, missionary, and intercessor whose ministry became a cornerstone of the holiness and revival movements, particularly through his founding of the Bible College of Wales. Born on October 10, 1879, in Brynamman, Carmarthenshire, Wales, he was the sixth of eleven children in a poor mining family; his father, Thomas Howells, died in a mining accident when Rees was two. Raised by his mother, Ann, in a devout Methodist home, he left school at 12 to work in the tin mines and later as a collier. Converted at age 22 during the 1904 Welsh Revival through the preaching of Rev. Joseph Jenkins, Howells experienced a profound spiritual awakening that redirected his life from worldly pursuits to radical faith. In 1910, he married Elizabeth Hannah Jones, known as "Lizzie," and they had one son, Samuel Rees Howells. Howells’s preaching career began with missionary work in South Africa from 1915 to 1920 under the South Africa General Mission, alongside his wife, where he preached holiness and saw significant revival among the Zulu people. Returning to Wales in 1922, he established the Bible College of Wales in Swansea in 1924, transforming a dilapidated estate into a training ground for missionaries, funded through faith and prayer without direct appeals for money. Known as "the Intercessor," his ministry peaked during World War II, when he led the college in intense prayer campaigns believed to influence key events, such as the Battle of Britain, as chronicled in Norman Grubb’s biography Rees Howells, Intercessor (1952). A prolific preacher of sanctification and dependence on God, he continued leading the college until his death on February 13, 1950, in Swansea, leaving a legacy of intercessory prayer and global missions that endures through the college’s ongoing work. He was buried in the college grounds, survived by Lizzie and Samuel, who succeeded him as director.