In July 1968, Shad and Sheila Williams received Christ as their Savior.  At the time they were deeply involved in the music business and the lifestyle surrounding it.  Immediately following that life-changing event they left the music business, realizing that God was calling them to serve Him in reaching people for Christ.  While furthering their education, they also traveled extensively in the United States preaching in hundreds of evangelistic meetings.

For ten years, Shad and Sheila learned how to do “we go to them” field evangelism by ministering on the streets and on the campuses of America.

Then in 1977, while on their first overseas mission trip, God called them to use the same methods in reaching the masses around the world.  They began with no contacts overseas and no visible means of support - trusting God, by faith, to open doors and fund the ministry.  At first, Shad and Sheila participated in various denominational partnership mission projects overseas.  In time, however, they began to make contacts of their own, and the ministry began working interdenominationally in order to realize even greater evangelistic potential.  In 1982 the ministry was incorporated as the Shad Williams Evangelistic Association, and by that time they had conducted 16 overseas campaigns in Hong Kong, Brazil, Korea, Haiti, and Africa.

Then another side of the ministry began to emerge.  As overseas contact persons worked with SWEA in campaigns, they became convinced that the “we go to them” methodology was the best way for them to reach their country for Christ.  As a result, they became full-time international team members.  Then, as their ministries grew, they began to develop indigenous teams of their own, which now carry on the work of field evangelism, discipleship, and church planting in their own country on a daily basis.  In 1984, the name Global Field Evangelism was given to this growing network of SWEA affiliates and today forms the overseas arm of the ministry.