A Brief History

In 1981 a British preacher, Dr. Denis Applebee, was preaching in Jackson, Mississippi. As Denis shared the need for the gospel in his native land, Wyatt Gwin felt a call by God to explore this need. In the summer of 1982 he travelled to Britain on a short term mission for six weeks. Wyatt saw the desperate problem that Dr. Applebee had described. He returned to Britain again in 1984 with a team to do evangelism. In 1985 Emmanuel and Associates International (EAI) was founded by Wyatt Gwin, David Jones and Alan Morgan. They believed the Lord was leading them to start a ministry that would enable Wyatt to move to Great Britain to preach the gospel. EAI was incorporated in the State of Mississippi. In the same year it was registered with the United States government as a charitable organization with 501(C) 3 Internal Revenue status and Wyatt began to raise the needed prayer and financial support to start the work in Britain. Over the years the Lord has added to the U.S. board both in numbers and in vision.

In July of 1985 Wyatt was married to Vicki Hall from White Rock, British Columbia and they moved to Britain in 1986 to establish the ministry of EAI. Emmanuel and Associates was begun with the idea of becoming an international ministry and in 1987 the Lord opened the door to form a board of directors in Canada. This gave a broader base to the work in the United Kingdom. In 1989 the Lord began to build the work of EAI in Ireland. There are now two families (Phil & Martha Matthews and Jacob & Lori Reynolds) working with EAI in the Dublin area. The Matthews are working with church planting in Celbridge. The Reynolds are working with the Irish Bible Institute in Dublin where Jacob is the principal. In 2003 EAI became recognized as a charitable trust in the UK. The UK board has grown and is now actively seeking to effectively communicate that Gospel into every home in Britain.

At present Wyatt and Vicki are still ministering in Britain and the Lord has blessed them with four children. They worked for fifteen years with a church in London where Wyatt was the pastor. The Lord blessed the work as many people put their trust in Jesus and the church grew. In 2004 the Lord moved the Gwins to Wales where they continue to minister the Gospel but with a more national perspective. Wyatt travels the country working with churches to help them build effective strategies to reach their communities with the Gospel of Jesus. EAI coordinates Inter-church Partnership Missions (IPM) between churches in North America and Britain. The IPM is a resource that helps churches to focus on reaching their communities with the Gospel.

It is exciting to see the sovereignty of our great God at work. We are looking to Him in faith, believing that He truly does want His church revived in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. We are here to love God and please Him by reaching these nations with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the United Kingdom we are seeing more opportunities to help struggling churches and to be a part of planting new churches. It is our vision that we will be able to partner North American churches with British churches to help encourage and equip them to evangelise their communities. The overshadowing vision of Emmanuel and Associates International is to simply follow the Lord’s leading in evangelising the unbelieving world and making disciples of those who believe. As we simply do this, we hope that increasing numbers of people will be saved and become disciples of our Lord Jesus. We pray that these new believers will go and make disciples until the nation is reached with the Gospel. As a result, we pray that churches will grow strong in the power of God and His Word. It is our desire to continue to accomplish these God given goals until the Lord Jesus returns.


EMMANUEL & ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL
- PO Box 8000 Drawer 8123, Laurel, MS 39441 USA (601) 649-1880
- PO Box 1365, Prince George, BC V2L 4V4 CANADA (250) 563-8263
- PO Box 73 Penygarn, Pontypool NP4 8XY UK 44+(0)1291-626308