Opening Spain to the Advent Message

This article draws upon Brenda Fusté-Bond Payne’s biography of Walter Bond and Nelson Salgado’s biography of Frank Bond published in the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (ESDA), available at encyclopedia.adventist.org. It was prepared by Dragoslava Santrac, ESDA managing editor.—Editors.

In the fall of 1902 a call was made that would shape the future of the Adventist Church in Spain. At a camp meeting in Fresno, California, church leaders spoke about the need for missionaries to bring the Adventist message to new places. When volunteers were asked to help start the work in Spain, two young brothers immediately stood up.

They were Walter Guy Bond and Frank Starr Bond.

They were not experienced missionaries. They were young pastors from California with few resources and only a basic understanding of the language. Still, they believed God was calling them. In just a few weeks Walter got married, said goodbye to his family and friends, and set sail across the Atlantic with his young bride and his brother Frank. They were heading to a country where few people had heard of the Adventist message.

What happened next became one of the most dramatic stories in the history of Adventism in Spain.

A Call From the Farm

Frank was born on October 28, 1876, and Walter was born on February 6, 1879, in Lemoore, California. They grew up in a large family of 11 children. Their father, James Monroe Bond, was a farmer who had accepted the Adventist message around 1870.

Frank and Walter attended a small school at the edge of their family farm all the way through twelfth grade. Each day, they also helped with chores on the farm. The values of hard work and perseverance they learned in farm fields would be essential afterward in mission fields.

Frank and Walter both pursued ministerial training at Healdsburg College, graduating in 1899. After graduating, they sold Adventist literature in Spanish-speaking communities in Phoenix, Arizona. This experience introduced them to Hispanic culture and language, giving them a foundation that would soon be important.

At the Fresno camp meeting in 1902, when the call for missionaries to Spain was made, the brothers recognized that God had been preparing them for this task, and accepted the call without hesitation. The church leaders sent them to England first for more training. Walter, however, had another important step before leaving.

On November 12, 1902, just two weeks before departing for Europe, Walter married Leola Addie Gerow. On November 26 the newlyweds and Frank boarded a ship bound for England. At that time none of them knew how hard the work would be or how much it would cost them. But they believed God was calling them, and that was enough.

Preparing for the Mission Field

After completing their training at the London Bible School, they continued their journey southward. On June 22, 1903, they arrived at the Spanish border, entering a country where the Adventist message was virtually unknown. Yet God quickly opened doors.

The day after arriving in Barcelona, the brothers met a man interested in the Adventist message because of Benjamin Wilkinson, a Canadian missionary who had begun Adventist work in Rome, Paris, and Spain. This man had previously been an evangelical preacher and led a small group in Sabadell, about 15 miles from Barcelona. He invited the Bond brothers to visit and share their message with his group, and they gladly agreed. Finding a place for religious meetings was difficult. The only way to rent a meeting space was to say it was for a school.

Seeing the opportunity, the missionaries decided to begin a small school alongside their evangelistic efforts. This approach worked well. The school opened with 19 boys. Through teaching, visiting homes, and holding meetings, the Adventist message slowly began to take root.

The Firstfruits

Their early efforts brought results. On June 29, 1904, the first Adventist baptisms in Spain took place. María Serra Casals, her daughter Lola Casals, and José Abella were the first three baptized members. They would later play an important role in the church’s growth. Lola Casals would become secretary of the Spanish Mission, and José Abella would serve as a missionary.

These small beginnings were encouraging, but challenges soon followed.

Shortly after the baptisms, Walter and Leola learned that Leola’s mother had died, so they returned to the United States. Several months after their departure, Frank fell ill with smallpox and had to return to the United States as well. During their stay in the United States, the Bond brothers planned their return to Spain. Walter was granted a ministerial license during the Arizona Conference meeting held in Phoenix in 1905. Returning to Barcelona on November 11, 1905, Walter and Leola resumed their work with renewed determination. Frank returned to Spain the following year, now married to Martha Farnsworth.

Barcelona became the center of their mission work. From there Walter translated lesson quarterlies, articles, and tracts into Spanish. These publications became an important way to spread the Advent message across Spain.

Expanding the Work

In July 1906 Walter was ordained to the gospel ministry in Gland, Switzerland, during meetings of the Latin Union and the Roman-Swiss conferences. The following year Frank was also ordained.

The work required a lot of travel and selfless work. By June 1907 they reported 23 baptized believers in Spain. The first church was established in Barcelona and the second in Jérica. Some of the new believers later played important roles in Spanish Adventism. Among them were Pedro Sanz, who would become the first ordained Spanish minister; Salvador Iserte Santafé, who later worked as a colporteur; and Lope San Nicolás, who became an evangelist.

At that time none of them knew how hard the work would be or how much it would cost them. But they believed God was calling them, and that was enough.

During this time Walter and Frank also raised their families. Walter and Leola had three children: Paul, born in Sabadell in 1904; Elsa, born in Barcelona in 1907; and Frances, also born in Barcelona in 1911. In 1915, while in eastern Spain, Frank and Martha had their first daughter, Alicia Ester. Two years later their son Richard William was born.

Despite these positive developments, local religious leaders strongly opposed them. Barcelona also frequently experienced unrest, violence, and occasional bombings. Walter Bond wrote about his near-death experience:

“Last evening about seven o’clock” “I was returning from a meeting held on the opposite side of the city from our home and was accompanied by an interested man who had attended the meeting. As we reached the principal street of the city, we were shaking hands to separate, when within twenty yards of the place where we were standing, a bomb exploded. . . . Four persons were fatally wounded, and a score of others were badly injured. . . . When these things begin to take place about us, the Master commands us to look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh.”[1]

More serious turmoil erupted during the insurrection of July 26-31, 1909. Walter wrote: “Several of our acquaintances and friends were killed. For some time we were unable to hold any meetings, or even to visit the interested ones.”[2]

A Growing Church

Despite religious opposition and political instability, the Adventist movement in Spain continued to strengthen. In the fall of 1910 the church convened its first general meeting in Barcelona at 40 Mercaders Street, with 39 of the country’s 65 members in attendance. One year later the annual meeting was held again in Barcelona. By then membership had grown to 90.

But sorrow struck again. Walter and Frank’s father died on March 22, 1914. Only a month later, on April 24, Lola Casals, the mission secretary and one of the first baptized believers in Spain, also passed away.

Still, the missionaries continued their work.

The Final Campaign

During the summer of 1914 Walter and Frank traveled widely across Spain, holding meetings in towns including Jérica, Rubielos de Mora, Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena, and Murcia. But Walter had his heart set on Baeza, a city known for its history with the Inquisition.

On October 15, 1914, Walter, assisted by Lope San Nicolás, began a series of evangelistic meetings in Baeza. The opposition was very strong. Walter wrote that it had been a continual struggle with the local priests. Ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism were widespread, making Baeza the most difficult place they had entered. Yet he still expressed hope.

After only a few weeks in Baeza, Walter fell gravely ill. On November 1 he sent an urgent telegram to Frank, asking him to come immediately. Frank arrived the next morning and sent a message to Leola in Barcelona. She arranged for their two oldest children to remain with friends while she traveled with her youngest daughter to Baeza. The days that followed were full of worry. They got the best available medical help and used water treatments to care for him.

From the start of his illness Walter sensed he might not recover. He hoped to keep serving God and remain with his family, but he accepted God’s will. In the early hours of November 12, 1914—his twelfth wedding anniversary—Walter passed away at 2:00 in the morning. He was just 35 years old. He left behind a family with three young children, and at the time of his death Leola was expecting their fourth child.

Though his death certificate stated peritonitis as the cause, his daughter Elsa later revealed, “When we left Spain the doctor told my mother that Walter had been poisoned.”[3] All indications suggested the poison was administered through milk he received daily from the dairy farmer. Whatever the cause, the mission had taken the life of one of its pioneers.

Only weeks later another tragedy followed. Lope San Nicolás, already in poor health, died on December 10, 1914, in Barcelona. The young Adventist mission in Spain lost two of its key workers within a month.

On January 6, 1915, the widowed Leola boarded the Rotterdam in Genoa, Italy, bound for New York with her three children. Several months later, on May 17, she gave birth to their daughter Margaret. Years later she remarried, and lived until 1970.

Continuing the Mission

Despite these great losses, the work did not end. On April 1, 1915, Frank Bond moved to Baeza to minister to those who had accepted the message through Walter’s influence. Walter left behind a growing church.

Frank became the second president of the Spanish Mission and worked in Spain until 1923, when, exhausted from work and very sick, he returned to the United States. After a life of service, which included pastoring and evangelizing in Castellón, Madrid, Teruel, Valencia, and Baeza, he died in Fresno, California, on April 25, 1924, at the age of 47.

A Legacy Remembered

Sometime between 1943 and 1945 Walter Bond’s tomb in Baeza was desecrated, and his bones disappeared. But the story did not end there.

In 2009 an article about his life appeared in a local newspaper in Jaén. The story caught the attention of a professor at the University of Seville, who contacted Adventist church leaders. This led to cooperation with the mayor of Baeza and the restoration of Walter’s tomb. On May 23, 2010, a public ceremony was held at the municipal cemetery in Baeza to honor Walter Guy Bond’s life. Local officials and church leaders gathered to dedicate a new plaque to his memory. Nearly a century after his death, the missionary was remembered again.

The work the Bond brothers started continues today through the Spanish Union of Churches Conference, which now has nearly 20,000 members.

[1] Walter G. Bond, “A Thrilling Experience,” Review and Herald, May 16, 1907, p. 18.

[2] Walter G. Bond, “Spain,” Review and Herald, Mar. 3, 1910, p. 12.

[3] Elsa Bond Reed to Andrés Tejel, Mar. 12, 1978, letter, Mar. 22, 1978, Safeliz, S.L.