In 1904, Everett and Emma Gill moved to Italy, where Everett took on the position of superintendent of the Italian mission. During their time in Italy, the Gills experienced the political upheaval of Lenin’s rise to power, the formation of the Triple Entente and the ever-approaching WWI.

Everett served as hospital inspector for the American Red Cross in Italy during 1914. He and Emma then returned to the United States until WWI was over. The couple was reappointed as the FMB’s superintendent for Europe in 1921.

They traveled to Russia that year, where they sought Russian Baptists and refugees to strengthen and encourage. Baptists throughout Eastern Europe, specifically those in Russia, struggled under the rule of Lenin and later, Stalin. Russian Baptists and refugees were going hungry, some even starving to death. However, their hunger for God’s Word did not falter.

One Russian Baptist friend told Everett how he had shared the gospel with a particular town that had never heard the gospel before. When the townspeople heard the gospel found in the Bible, they were outraged that the Russian Baptists had not brought each one of them a Bible. Everett traveled throughout Eastern Europe, taking requests for Bibles, reporting back to the States what he had seen and doing all he could for his fellow believers.

During their time in Europe, the Gills lived in Italy, Romania, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain and Scotland. Everett reopened a Baptist seminary in Budapest and opened new seminaries in Bucharest, Barcelona and Belgrade. Emma served as director of a Baptist Training School for women in Budapest and taught at a similar school in Bucharest.