George Davis, Missionary to the World

I was sad­dened to find out that my uncle passed away recently. My heart and prayers go out for his wife and my aunt Dr. Billie Davis. Rev. George Davis for all my life was a mis­sion­ary with the Assemblies of God. Now, I prob­a­bly have a seri­ously skewed view point of him so you will have to put up with that per­spec­tive here, for I have always been proud of my aunt and uncle Davis — actu­ally, all my aunts and uncles are great! I do have a great family.

Unlike many mis­sion­ar­ies that focus on mis­sions work to one or a few related coun­tries or soci­eties, my uncle was, at least to me, “the mis­sion­ary to the whole of Central and South America” and later “to the world” through his work with the International Correspondance Institute, now a part of the “Global University.” His wife of course worked right along side of him and sup­ported him greatly even when she was pur­su­ing other endeav­ors (for exam­ple, she retired as a pro­fes­sor at Evangel University, my alma mater).

I remem­ber fondly the sto­ries he would tell of God’s great­ness pro­tect­ing him as he flew around Central and South America in his plane deliv­er­ing Sunday School mate­ri­als, other sup­plies, and gen­eral sup­port to the other mis­sion­ar­ies. Especially in the 60’s and 70’s, get­ting around South America in a bush plane wasn’t easy. Finding land­ing strips and fuel was just a part of the dif­fi­cul­ties he faced. Yet God was always there, direct­ing him to the right place or direct­ing oth­ers to him to help him.

My aunt and uncle Davis have given me a per­sonal feel­ing for mis­sion­ar­ies. We often look at the mis­sions work and see how impor­tant that is and over­look the mis­sion­ar­ies them­selves, as peo­ple with needs, wants, and desires. It is so impor­tant for us to pro­vide all kinds of sup­port to our mis­sion­ar­ies, not only the ones out in the field but also those here in the States seek­ing sup­port for them to get into the field and espe­cially for our retired mis­sion­ar­ies. Don’t just send money and pray for them (and please do that!). Write to them, encour­age them, and be there for them.