Among the groups that answered this call to a gospel witness in El Salvador were representatives of the American Bible Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society, as well as missionaries of an independent, undenominational mission board. After about twenty years of work by these groups there were nearly two thousand evangelicos among the Salvadoreans, and many of them wished to become a part of a denominational group, preferably Baptist. They were convinced that only believing Christians should be baptized. It was one of these persuaded Baptists, Emilio Morales, who first wrote to Dr. Lemuel C. Barnes, field secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. He asked for missionaries to be sent as ministers to these groups of evangelical Christians who were banded together for worship and fellowship. In answer to this request, the mission board asked the Reverend William Keech, a British Baptist who had previously served in EI Salvador, to accept an appointment to become general missionary in this field. And thus William and Martha Keech, with their two small sons William and Howard, became the first missionary family to serve American Baptists in Central America. Mr. Keech was given a budget that was 'not to exceed four thousand dollars for the year 1911.' He must have been able to stretch this small amount to cover the expenses of both his family and the mission, for he served in EI Salvador until 1923 when he left the field because of his health. Courtesy Land of the Lighthouse by Grace Hatler, Judson Press, 1966, page 17.