Frank Starr Bond and his brother Walter were the first Adventist missionaries to bring the Adventist message to Spain. Frank, along with his wife Martha, established schools and churches, baptized families, and played a significant role in the growth of the Adventist community in Spain.
Frank Starr Bond and his brother Walter were the first missionaries who brought the Adventist message to Spain.
One of 12 children, Frank was born in the United States into a large Californian family. He earned a degree in theology in 1899 from Healdsbourg College, now Pacific Union College.
At a camp meeting in Fresno, Pastor Arthur G. Daniells, the president of the General Conference, called for volunteers to go preach the Adventist message in new territories. Frank and Walter volunteered.
Because they had worked among Hispanics in Arizona and Nevada and had some knowledge of the Spanish language, they were sent to be the first to preach the Adventist message in Spain. Frank was 27, when they arrived in Barcelona in1903. Before long, t hey moved to the city of Sabadell, where they established a school.
Missionary work, colporteur ministry, and public lectures soon bore fruit, and three people were baptized. Two years after his arrival, Frank fell ill with smallpox and had to return to the United States. One year later, he returned to Spain healthy and now married to Martha M. Farnsworth.
Soon after, Frank was ordained to the ministry. He moved with his family to the province of Teruel, where he baptized several families the following year. Their descendants would later become pastors.
In 1912, Frank helped establish the first two churches in Spain, the first in Barcelona and the second in Jérica. While living in eastern Spain, Frank and Martha had a daughter, and two years later a son.
Frank became the second president of the Spanish Mission and worked in Spain until 1923, when, exhausted from work and sick, he returned to the United States. After a life of service, which included pastoring and evangelizing, he died in Fresno, California on April 25, 1924.
Frank Starr Bond and his family’s legacy is still felt in Spain where today there are more than 17,000 Adventists. However, an increasing number of people in this country claim no religion at all. Please pray for the work in Spain as Adventists spread a message of hope.
To read the entire story about Frank Starr Bond and other articles, visit the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists at encyclopedia.adventist.org.
