1939 – 2021
Matthew Hill became widely known as Home Secretary of the Spanish Gospel Mission and did much to raise the profile of the Mission amongst churches.
Born in the New Forest, he was converted in his teenage years and his life was Christ-centred from that point onwards. It was not long after leaving school that he was accepted to study at Birmingham Bible Institute and on leaving there, he (and Jean, who he had known from their teenage years and who he had recently married) left for the unknown territory of Stockton-on-Tees to take over the running of the Quayside Mission. This was a place of refuge for the homeless and a gospel ministry was also carried on there.
A group of believers who had been meeting for worship formed Stockton Independent Evangelical Church and called Matthew to be their part-time pastor. Eventually, the church was able to invite him to become full-time in his pastoral work and this he gladly did.
In the late 1980s he began to feel that his time at Stockton was coming to an end and in 1989 he was appointed as Home Secretary of Spanish Gospel Mission. This fulfilled an interest in gospel work in Spain going back to the early years of his Christian life. For 15 years or so he visited churches, produced magazines and prayer news, and did the administrative work of the Mission. His enthusiasm for the work of the gospel in Spain took him to every part of the UK and he visited the Mission churches in Spain twice a year.
During this time he was a faithful member of Holmgate Evangelical Church in Clay Cross and continued an active role in the life of that church after his retirement in 2004.
In his spare time he was a great lover of railways, poetry and books, and he was a much-loved husband, father, grandfather, brother, pastor, and friend. His children are Matt, Lorna, Helen and Grace.
