Community church

Meet Beverly Dawson

       
Beverly Dawson, a missionary in Guayana, grew up in the Community United Methodist Church.  She attended Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois from 1964-1968, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Education.  Her major was in elementary education.
Photo at left was taken in Guyana, her mission post.
Here is her account of her mission call.
"I had always been active in church, and tried to live a good life, and missionary work had always sounded sort of exciting, but I had no idea what a missionary really did. The summer before I began college I realized that all my good works did not make me right with God. I asked Jesus to live in my heart and take over my life, accepting that his death on the cross paid for my sins.

Through the EUB church I attended at college, where I became involved in Bible studies and learned to spend time with God each day reading my Bible and praying. I began to understand more what Christ has done for us. At the same time I realized how many people in other parts of the world did not know about Christ.

During my freshman year in college I told God that I would go wherever He wanted me to go, and serve Him in whatever way He wanted. During my junior year I learned about the Summer Institute of Linguistics which was held at several college campuses during the summer months. The courses were taught by experienced missionaries, and were training people how to learn and write down a previously unwritten language. I attended the course at the University of North Dakota and was amazed to learn that there were over 2000 languages in the world that had no written Scripture. This need really spoke to my heart, and I applied that summer to become a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators.

After graduating from college, I taught first grade for two years, then attended Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon. In the summer of 1971, I again attended the Summer Institute of Linguistics, this time at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, taking courses in literacy. Fran Tracy, on furlough from her work in Guyana, was also taking these courses. She was needing a partner and invited me to join her in the work with the Wapishana Indians. After five months of "Jungle Camp" in southern Mexico, I joined Fran in Guyana.

Click on Charles Young to view his service.