Otis was asked by the International
Health Ministries Office of the PC(USA) in June of 2003 to deliver
the first AIDS home-based care kit to Malawi and during his visit
there he was invited to preach. The following day he was invited
to return to fill that pulpit for a year. After confering with
Earline and much prayer he was convinced that God was calling
him to serve in Malawi. "I am aware that when Jehovah closes
one door," he writes, "the Holy Spirit opens another."
Earline’s interest in Africa goes back to the late 1970s
when she graduated from San Francisco State University. “I
wanted to go to Africa to teach for a couple of years,”
writes Earline, “however, I was a single parent of a teenage
son who did not want go. I put the idea aside and moved on with
my life. But it seems that life has taken me full circle and I
was presented with another opportunity to go and this time I agreed.
I was then offered the chance to serve in Nkhoma Synod. I feel
that I am now answering God's call.”
Otis is a retired chaplain in the U.S. Army. Following his retirement
in the mid-1980s, Otis was pastor of John I Blackburn Parish in
Waynesboro, Georgia. He was associate executive in the Synod of
the Northeast (1993-1996) and interim pastor at Christ Presbyterian
Church in Augusta, Georgia (1996-2001). Immediately prior to his
appointment to mission service, Otis was parish associate at Belle
Terrace Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia.
Otis holds a D.Min. from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur,
Georgia. He has two master's degrees, an M.S. from Long Island
University and a master's in theology from the Interdenominational
Theology Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
Earline is a self-employed owner of a small business. Her company
provides various business services, such as bookkeeping, tax preparation,
and auto appraising. She holds a bachelor's degree from San Francisco
State University in San Francisco, California.
Otis is a minister member of Northeast Georgia Presbytery, Synod
of the South Atlantic. Earline is an active elder and a member
of Belle Terrace Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia. She
is active at every level of the church, including several different
choirs and committees at her local church, in Northeast Georgia
Presbytery, and in the National Black Presbyterian Caucus. She
was an elder commissioner to the PC(USA)'s 214th General Assembly
where she was moderator of the Peace and Global Issues Committee.
The Smiths have a combined family of four children and six grandchildren.
Birthdays:
Otis - March 22
Earline - October 21
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