PASTOR WILLIAM "JIMMY" LIGHTBURN,
Senior Pastor of Abundant Life Faith Church International, Inc. Montreal,
Quebec and his wife Pastor Shirley Lightburn were both born in Belize,
Central America and have lived in Canada since 1964.
They have been married for over 43 years. They bore four sons and up to the present have four grand daughters and one grandson.
Pastor Jimmy was called of God while earning a living as a professional musician and a business man. He answered the call in April of 1978 and rapidly developed a love for the study of the Word of God. His background as a boy growing up in Belize City, serving mass in the Roman Catholic Church being taught to sing by the priests and his "escape" from that life, is often brought out in His preaching. His youth and young adult life of sports like basketball, soccer, cricket, professional boxing and also music, his services as a volunteer fire-fighter as well as his many other experiences after he migrated to the U.S and later to Canada enabled him to learn "people skills". He is seen as a "father" to all those who have grown up under his teaching.
PASTOR SHIRLEY, left Belize at the age of 19 years, leaving her special friend Jimmy, to study nursing in Jamaica and later England. She became a registered nurse, migrated to Canada, met with Jimmy again after 5 years separation and accepted his proposal of marriage in July 1964.
She practiced nursing in Montreal for 32 years and retired as a Nurse Clinician Educator in 1996. She was then able to go into full time ministry as Administrator, teaching and preaching the Word with a passion for discipline and structure in every aspect of the church. She finds it rewarding to see people grow spiritually, exercise their gifts and prosper in all their endeavors.
Pastors Jimmy and Shirley were both born again in the year 1977/1978, within 6 months of each other and immediately became active in the church they first attended; at first as musicians and then as teachers in children and adult Sunday School, and afterwards in administration and other ministerial duties. They were baptized in the Holy Ghost in their own home one evening in April 1979. A visiting Evangelist was a guest in their home that day and as he ministered to them, the powerful anointing of God came and filled Shirley at first. Then Jimmy began to give God praise for this and the Spirit of God also filled him with His power and they began to speak in other tongues. The anointing carried over to the next day in the Church Service and many more Believers were filled, children and adults alike.