​​BEGINNINGS​​
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​​Chris was born in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Growing up, he quickly discovered that “change” would define his life. From the age of five until he was sixteen, Chris would travel and live abroad as the son of a concert and opera baritone. While he lived in Europe (England and the Netherlands), he traveled to Paris and studied French. His extended family of military officers and journalists inspired him at first to pursue teaching English and to become a writer.
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BACKGROUND FOR MINISTRY​​
Chris Swift's Bio & History​
Chris Swift
Superintendent /Administrative Bishop​
Church Of God Western Europe
But he realized his need for a deeper knowledge of God's word. He entered studies at Wheaton Graduate School. He also finished his M.A. in English. Prophecy and a vision led to his first assignment with Church of God World Missions as Missionary/Teacher at the European Bible Seminary in 1980 in Germany, accompanied by his wife and three children.
For the next two years, life was full of daily challenges, both as a parent raising a family of three children in a strange land and learning a new culture as an American missionary.
He then returned to the USA to transfer into the M.Div. program at the Church of God Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, TN. This led to an appointment to being an Educational Missionary to the Netherlands, as well as National Secretary and Interim Overseer.
Education continued to be his calling for a three-year leave of absence to teach at Lee University. But the missionary calling led to a return to Europe, this time to Belgium later expanding into the countries of the Netherlands, Luxembourg (the Benelux) and France as well.
Though he lost his first spouse in Belgium in 2001, Chris continued to serve, until he was appointed to become Superintendent of Western Europe in 2012, shortly before remarrying. Kathy Watson-Swift left Africa to join her new husband in teaching, training and equipping leaders in Western Europe.
Though they live in Belgium, they travel in twelve countries of Western Europe and take missions trips to East Africa, where Kathy still supervises the feeding and education of many village children.
In addition to his two Master's degrees, Chris is an Ordained Bishop of the Church of God in 1985 and also served in the US Military as a Reserve Chaplain. He speaks fluent Dutch, German, French and English and has a working and reading knowledge of other languages such as Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
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But this was B.C. (before Christ). He was not a believer when he received a B.A. in English with honors at the University of the South in Tennessee (“Sewanee”). Nevertheless, when pursuing an M.A. in English at the University of Iowa, the Lord interrupted and he found out that Jesus was real. He learned what it meant to experience Christianity and to have God overflow in his heart. His life began to change more than ever.
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Later, in military service, he found a deeper walk with the Lord. He heard the call to go into the ministry. So, he returned to the States from Germany with his wife to become a pastor of a military congregation at Fort Ritchie, Maryland in 1974.
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Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
Belgium
France
Spain
Sweden
Finland
