MOULTRIE — Pastor Bill Turner has spent most of his life here in Moultrie, working side by side with his wife, Dixza, to minister to the local Hispanic community.

The Turners started their pastoral work here in 1990, establishing El Aposento Alto (The Upper Room), an independent Pentecostal church on Circle Road. Since that time, they have also founded churches in Tifton, Ga., Crossville, Tenn., and Hidalgo, Mexico, where the couple also renewed a center of rehabilitation for drugs and alcohol abuse.

The Rev. Turner died Monday at the age of 75. See his full obituary on Page 2A.

Odilio Hernandez, a member of El Aposento Alto Church, said that Turner had taught him “through the word of God” how to be free from drugs.

“I give thanks to the Lord because Pastor Bill impacted my heart and his testimony taught us to love, by his example, as he loved others. And I give thanks that through his ministry I was rescued from a life of drugs and alcohol. For me, he is a servant worthy to imitate,” he said.

The Rev. John Eubanks, co-pastor of Friendship Alliance Church, said he had known Turner and his family for quite a few years. He said Turner could be seen all over Moultrie in his van ministering in the community, including taking people to the doctor and hospital.

“He was a real servant. … Even when his health was bad he was always among the people working and serving the Lord,” he said.

Turner had been in an accident that had put him in a wheelchair for a time and Eubanks said he would still go out and minister to his congregation.

“He was full of energy. He was always out,” he said.

“Our heart goes out to their church and the loss of their pastor. We’re praying for them and love them,” Eubanks added.

The Rev. Johnny L. Ward, pastor of Outreach Family Worship Center, said that Turner was extraordinary.

“I mean he was someone special to me,” he said.

Ward said, laughing, that when he was sick for about six months, Turner would go over to his house and make sure that he had lunch, even though he had family taking care of him and would sometimes even bring him a banana split from Dairy Queen.

“He was just a person who loved God and loved his people. He was a friend in the truest sense,” he said.

Ward had traveled to Mexico to minister with him and said there was a boy there who was severely disabled and could not leave his bed much less his house. He said that Turner took a motorized wheelchair and somehow converted it into a movable bed so the boy could go outside.

“He shall be missed. The people in his church love him. … He continued ministry up until his last day,” he said.

Pastor Omar Hancock of New Covenant Church, who had known Turner since the late ’80s and early ’90s, also told of going on mission work to Mexico with him. He said Turner saw a disabled man crawling across the street on his hands and this moved him to weep. He said the pastor got out of his van and spoke to the man and soon started bringing wheelchairs into Mexico for the people who needed them. Hancock said he drove up to New York to get them. He also remembered the boy who was confined to his bed and was helped by Turner.

“It’s just one story after another,” he said.

He said Turner was a fantastic minister and that Turner and his wife were the most giving people he has ever known in his life.

“If he seen somebody in need, he took care of them. He just really had a heart for people. There was no end to the giving. … To me, it was a great loss of a great friend,” Hancock said.

Turner’s daughter, Lisa Bauman, said her father started his missionary work in 1956 in Panama with the Guaimies Indians in the Islands of Chiriqui.

“One of his greatest accomplishments during his missionary trip was the translation of the Bible into the Guaimies native language. After this labor, he continued to spread the word of God throughout Central and North America,” she said.

She also said that he never thought of himself but always gave to others and led by example.

“He was not only my father but he was also my pastor,” she said.

Bauman also remembered the story of her father being moved as he watched a disabled man crawling across the street.

“This was the beginning of what we know as ‘The Wheelchair Ministries,’” she said. “Since then, he has taken more than 50 chairs to those with needs.”

Memorial contributions may be made to “The Wheelchair Ministry,” 211 Circle Road, Moultrie, Ga. 31768 and individuals may direct their questions about the ministry to upperoom@yahoo.

“Our Pastor Harold ‘Bill’ Turner’s teachings to love one another, to serve expecting nothing in return, and each day become more like our teacher Jesus Christ, until we reflect God’s glory, will not end. It will live through us. Pastor Bill, all your desires, goals, and dreams will be carried out through us as we follow your steps having in our hearts the same hunger as you,” Bauman released as a statement on behalf of the El Aposento Alto congregation.