Margaret Gaines photograph collection

Gaines’ family became affiliated with the Church of God when her widowed father remarried. At the age of fourteen she dedicated her heart to the Lord, was baptized in the Spirit, and enrolled in Bible Training School. Having heard veteran missionary Josephine Planter during a BTS missions service, Gaines opened her heart to Arab people. Four years later the octogenarian Planter invited the eighteen-year-old Gaines to join her as a missionary in Tunisia. The Church of God World Missions Board was not open to sending a single young woman to North Africa at that time, however.

Despite what seemed to be a setback, Gaines continued to do all she could to prepare. God miraculously opened doors, and on April 16, 1952, she arrived in Tunisia to assist Planter. A year later Gaines began her own mission. Her first convert was Yvette. Yvette’s father tried to kill her after professing her salvation. The government made Gaines her legal guardian. The World Missions Board appointed her as a missionary in 1956 and organized her mission as a Church of God later that year. In that time a young man, Nicolas Bucciato?, asked Gaines to marry her and she denied him to continue in ministry. He later left Tunisia for Haiti to study and become a pastor and eventually ended up in the United States. After ten years in Tunisia, political turmoil and typhoid forced her to leave for France. She then spent time travelling and working in churches throughout Europe.

In 1964, the Missions Board sent Gaines to Jerusalem, Jordan. In 1967, the Six Day War ensued and Israel claimed Jerusalem. Among her many ministries was establishing a church and school in the village of Aboud. The original school building was completed March 25, 1973 and was dedicated in September of the same year. She served as pastor of the Aboud Church of God until 1992.

Although a fourth heart-attack forced her to relocate to Pell City, Alabama, in 1996, she continued to bless the people of Aboud with building projects, fund raising, and advisory leadership. Gaines served as pastor of the Wattsville Church of God from 2010 through 2014.

Timeline:

1932 Born December 2

1946 Called into the mission field December 6

1952 Arrives in Tunisia

1956 Missions board appoints Gaines as missionary

1962 Arrives in France

1964 Arrives in Jerusalem

1967 Six-Day War – Israel takes Aboud

1969 Aboud Church of God built

1970 School founded

1970-1983 Gaines is founder and principal of Aboud School

1972 Aboud School built

1973 Arlene Miller arrives

1982? Gaines graduated Lee College

1983-1993 Arlene Miller Missionary teacher and Principal of Aboud School

1987 Gaines’ 25th Anniversary as a missionary

1987 Gaines graduated Church of God School of Theology

1991 Receives COG School of Theology Distinguished Alumnus Award

1993 Parsonage added to the church

1995 25th Anniversary of the School

1996 Returns to live in Pell City, Alabama

1997 New church ministries and kindergarten added

2001 New church wall added

2002 Gaines’ 50th Anniversary as a missionary

2010 Appointed pastor of Wattsville Church of God

SOURCES:

Margaret Gaines

David Roebuc