David Jones is one of the rare citizens of the First State since he is Delaware born and bred, and after many years living elsewhere he is here again. Dave’s family lived in Elsmere DE when he was born “back in the day,” WW II. When Dave was two years old, his dad answered God’s call to ministry, sold his business and moved up to Chester PA where he pastored the struggling little store-front church. He remained there till his retirement in 1970. Thus Dave was raised as a preacher’s kid.
At age 11, Dave gave his hear to the Lord following a very scary incident. Shortly thereafter, Dave’s Mom led him to Christ during their family prayer time. While working on staff at Summit Grove Camp in New Freedom, PA, Dave felt called to be a missionary at age 15. He returned to Chester High School determined to take every course offered that would help him on his path to the mission field, graduating in 1960.
He entered the then-Nyack Missionary College in Nyack NY, graduating in 1964. While there he met Judy, his life-long love and best friend. After post-grad study at Jaffray School of Missions (now Alliance Theological Seminary), the Joneses moved to Brazil in 1967, where they served with the Christian and Missionary Alliance for a total of 31 years. Over the years, Dave and Judy worked in evangelism, church planting, discipleship, field administration, leadership development and teaching and much more. It is their great privilege to have arrived a few years after the Alliance mission arrived in Brazil in 1962. Today there stands a Brazil C&MA that preaches the four-fold gospel message, has missionaries serving in various countries, and growing in Brazil.
They also worked in the National Office of the C&MA in Colorado Springs for about 7 years, where Dave was director of the Dept. of Missions Mobilization and Judy was administrative assistant to the director of CAMA Services. Following a pastorate of almost 5 years at the First Alliance Church in Hockessin, DE, Dave resigned and soon was appointed director of the resident program at the Sunday Breakfast Mission in Wilmington DE. He served in that fascinating role for two years when God led him to once-again resign and enter full-time into a ministry directed toward the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) church.
Thus in 2012 he began Portuguese World Outreach, which takes him to Brazil, Portugal and Cabinda, Angola for extended periods of time. There he leads College of Prayer (Escola de Oração) ministry modules, preaches and teaches in seminaries and Bible institutes. As God leads, Dave is also involved with mentoring young pastors and Christian workers in these countries, as well as occasionally leading support work teams. Thus, Dave is considered a “non-resident missionary” to the Portuguese speaking world and will do so until the Lord comes or he drops, whichever comes first.