Bill Mial Celebrates 65 Years With TWR: 'God Wants Our Availability and Not Our Abilities'

Bill Mial (pictured here recording a program in Morocco in 1959) began his journey with TWR in 1958. [Image by TWR]

Early Days

Growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, Bill Mial witnessed missions up close when the Lord drew his dad to share the gospel full time in New York City. This set the tone of Bill’s life and work in international radio missions.

Bill began playing the trumpet when he was 9, and loved music. That led him to major in radio and television production at John Brown University, a Christian school in Arkansas. In an interview, he explained his thinking then: “Music and knowing radio should go together for ministry.” He wasn’t wrong.

After college while seeking to serve in missions, one day his dad called to encourage him to hear a man named Dr. Paul Freed speak at Bill’s church about a Christian radio station being launched in Morocco known as The Voice of Tangier, the beginning of what became Trans World Radio.

When Bill and his wife, Joan, heard Freed speak, he felt an urgent prompting to ask Dr. Freed if he needed help. He was amazed by the answer:

“We really need one person, we have a bunch of missionaries over there in the studio trying to run the equipment, but no one knows what they are doing. We need someone able to run the studio.”

Bill replied, “Well, I am one, so I guess we need to talk.”

In 1958, the Mials arrived in Tangier with their toddler son. God weaved an amazing ministry path with TWR that has taken Bill to six continents over 65 years. “When you’re young, you can do a lot of stuff,” he said, laughing.

Faith in his calling guided him.

“We knew God called us there and he wanted us there. If I trusted God for the first call, and if he wanted me somewhere else, he would somehow be able to get me going in another direction. We thought we would spend our entire lives in North Africa,” Bill said.

From early on, Bill has seen in TWR a concept that formed the whole ministry: partnerships. “The strength TWR brings to the world today is partnership,” he said.

Bill’s first exposure to India came around 1968 when Dr. Freed asked to meet him in Bangkok. The routing took Bill through Bombay, India. In less than two days, he traveled from the island of Bonaire, with a population of 7,000, to Bombay’s airport, which to Bill felt like it had 7,000 people walking about at 2 a.m. It was big-time culture shock for Bill. In that time and place, poverty was everywhere, and he recalls people reaching out and pleading for money all the way from the airport through the lobby and into his hotel room.

Now, he laughs when he thinks of what happened in 1976, when Freed came to Monte Carlo to ask Bill to oversee a new project in Sri Lanka, an island country closely linked geographically and culturally to India. Recalling his unfavorable experience in Bombay, Bill wondered, “Is there a way you can be in charge of a project without having to go there?”

He accepted the assignment, but before traveling to India, he prayed, “Lord if you want me to do this, you’re going to have to change my heart.”

After that first three-week trip, he was telling his wife Joan upon his return about his experiences. “Among other things, I feel like India is my home, and the Indian people are my people,” Bill said. He suddenly realized God had answered his prayer and changed his heart.

In those days, when Bill left on TWR business – his longest trip lasted eight weeks – his goodbyes to Joan really meant goodbye because they wouldn’t be able to communicate the whole time he was away. Telex was unaffordable. Phones were impossible. He would arrive back home before the letters were delivered.

Bill recalled the years serving with Joan until her homegoing in 2018. “I can honestly say I never remember Joan Mial complaining in 64 years of marriage! She had been through a lot; she had three brain tumor surgeries, among other things.”

“In the midst of her sickness and suffering, God took Joan on a parallel journey of prayer and flower arranging,” Bill said. “… It was fascinating to see how God used her and worked through her life in a parallel way through our marriage.”

Sent Again at 65

When Bill turned 65, he asked the Lord what his idea of retirement would look like. Through talking with the Lord, reading the Bible and prayer, Bill journaled the question:

“’Lord, what does it mean to be 65 in your economy?’ Just like the Lord, he guided my hand to write A F R I C A. I looked down and said, ‘Africa?!’”

After 47 mission trips to India, Bill had thought it would be India. During this time, Bill and Joan had a friend from TWR South Africa visiting them in North Carolina. Bill confided that they wondered if the Lord wanted them back overseas. The friend immediately replied, “Would you come to Africa?” That day, Bill knew why God had prompted him to write “Africa” in his journal.

“There’s something about Africa,” Bill said. “It is hard to put into words. Once you’ve been to Africa, something happens inside. Africa grabs your heart. We were really, really happy when we were able to go back to Africa.”

In Africa, Bill handled creative programming at a time when TWR began compassion ministries: the Global Strategic Plan, Foundations for Farming, and the Dr. Luke programs were born. Bill calls these years in Africa, 2006 to 2009, some of their finest ministry years.

Commitment to the Lord is evident through all of Bill’s many ministry years. He doesn’t even enjoy traveling and is no tourist. It wasn’t until his 20th trip to India that a friend suggested a sightseeing trip to the Taj Mahal.

Today, Still Serving With TWR

After the first 52 years of TWR service, the Mials moved to Florida. It was there the Lord called home to heaven his wife and ministry partner, Joan.

As the Lord sometimes does, he had a surprise in store for Bill: his second wife, Barbara. God “brought us together through a variety of circumstances … and talking about spiritual things and missions in general,” Bill said. They realized God was doing something in their hearts. “God truly brought us together. … We are thankful, thrilled and blessed!”

These days, from his home in Florida, he is on the JESUS film partnership team and continues working on projects for the TWR Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships team.

As Bill and Barbara serve together from their Florida home, their favorite Scripture verse is:

“Behold, I am doing new things.”
(Isaiah 43:19)

When Bill was young, he recalled, “Paul Freed would say, ‘I’m not married to radio.’ It drove me crazy, and I realized many years later … radio was the tool of the time to get the gospel out. … If he were alive now, he would be very excited about all the ways (including digital media) we can tell the gospel story today!”

Through technology, TWR has added many communication tools to deliver the gospel globally.

“What the Lord is allowing is for us to build a global infrastructure that can now be used by many languages and organizations around the world. That is the gift we bring into this current time,” Bill said.

TWR Chief Development Officer Tim Klingbeil has known and worked with Bill Mial for 35 years. He shared:

“Bill Mial’s passion and vision for TWR’s global ministry had an impact on me from the very first time we met. In the spring of 1986, I came to New Jersey for a job interview with TWR. ... The only part of that day I remember was the meeting I had with Bill. The stories he shared and his excitement for the ministry sold me on TWR and were a major factor in my choosing to join the ministry. Even today, Bill’s passion and excitement about TWR are a challenge to me every time we meet.”

Bill’s service has not been pain-free. Though the Mials witnessed many miracles along the way, they faced suffering and disappointments as well – such as the brain tumors that eventually claimed Joan’s life.

“It has not been an easy journey,” he said. “You really need to know that God has called you. … If you have that call from God on your life, you’ll make it. If not, there’s a million things that will shipwreck you.”

Bill loves the enthusiasm and can-do mentality of young people and realizes they can get discouraged quickly. His best advice is to be available.

“God wants our availability and not our abilities.”

“The most important thing you can do is be absolutely convinced of the call of God on your life. It’s very, very important to ‘let God be God,’ follow the Lord, follow his leading, and give him time to work. God is not in a rush.”

“In the fullness of time, the Bible says, God sent Jesus.”

A life well lived in years of ministry, travels included, has given Bill this eternal perspective. He is amazed at the simplicity of the gospel more than ever in his life.

Drawing from the books of Acts and Romans, Bill said,

“Life gets very focused. If you know the Lord, it gets very simple. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Call upon the name of the Lord’ [Acts 16:31]. ‘For whosoever calls up on the name of the Lord, shall be saved’ [Romans 10:13]. I think I have learned a lot about the grace of God, and I love the simplicity of the gospel. That is what really matters at the end of the day and at the end of life: Do you know the Lord?”

Fun Facts:

Favorite Country:
Holland

Country Traveled to Most:
India (47 trips)

Noteworthy Connections:
For a formal event, Bill's son, Rick, wore a tuxedo lent to him by Prince Albert of Monaco, the son of former movie star Grace Kelly and now the principality's chief of state. The boys attended the same school and were friends. They still are.

Grace Kelly attended parent-teacher conferences at Albert and Rick's school in Monaco.

When Rick broke his leg playing soccer, signatures on his cast represented 27 languages spoken by the signatory parties.

Total Miles Traveled:
Always took the cheapest route. No idea how many miles.

Best and Longest Friendship:
Tom Lowell, former president of TWR, who passed into glory on Sept. 5, 2023. Friends for 58 years. They ran, prayed and laughed together.

Images: (top, banner) Bill Mial (pictured here, recording a program in Morocco in 1959) began his journey with TWR in 1958. [Image by TWR] (top, right) An accomplished trumpet player, Bill has had many musical recordings to his credit throughout his years at TWR. (middle, left) Married 64 years, Bill and Joan Mial were partners in life and in ministry until the Lord called her home. (bottom, right) Bill stands in front of a wall map while serving on the island of Bonaire. (bottom, left) Bill smiles for the camera in his office in 2013 at TWR’s current offices in Cary, North Carolina.