Terminal illness strikes former T.F. youth pastor


Cliff Williams, lower right, was diagnosed with ALS this summer. The former Twin Falls youth pastor hopes to raise funds to travel with his family to the Holy Land before the disease progresses.


Staff report

In early July, a former youth pastor of Twin Falls' Heritage Alliance Church was given a terminal diagnosis.

Cliff Williams, 51, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. Williams is senior pastor at The Rock Christian and Missionary Alliance church in Nampa.

The disease is expected to progress quickly. Williams, who left Twin Falls in 2003, has long dreamt of traveling to the Holy Land, but on his church pastor salaries it has not been possible to save enough for the trip.

"Cliff's greatest desire is to go with his wife and children to the Holy Land. It would be for him, literally, a trip of a lifetime," said Lloyd Almand, Williams' father-in-law, in a July letter to the Times-News.

"If he wants to take a trip or do something special with his family he needs to do so within the next couple of months as the disease will begin to progress more rapidly very soon,"Almand said. "We have seen that happen before our very eyes over the past two weeks."

To fund the trip, the family of eight adults - Cliff; his wife, Wendy; their children, Jacob, Jordan, Justin and Chelsea; Jacob's wife, Cortney; and Jordan's wife, Marci - needs approximately $33,000. About $5,000 of that is to get the family from Boise to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York; the remaining $28,000 covers the journey to and from the Middle East and their travels and accommodations while there.

The children at the Nampa church's vacation Bible school have donated their offerings to Williams, and firefighters at the Nampa fire department where Williams is chaplain are planning a large garage sale to help out.

The primary fundraisers for the Williams family are expected to be personal donations as well as a dinner and auction on Aug. 23 in Nampa.

The catering is donated, and members of the Nampa church community and friends and family will donate products and services for a silent auction and a baked-goods auction.

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