DavisCH

Clarence Henry Davis 戴天德,

Elsie Mary (Morgan) Davis, and Beatrice Amy (Collins) Davis

Bruce W. Lo 2017

Basic Biographical Information

Born on March 16, 1895 in Canowindra, NSW, Australia, and died on August 26, 1978 in Loma Linda, California, USA.

Spouse: Elsie Mary Morgan (June 21, 1893 to November 12, 1915), and married Beatrice Amy Collins on August 18, 1918.

Children: Clarence and Amy had two sons, Alwyn Davis, and Milton Davis; and two daughters, Violet Bates, and Phyllis Edwards.

Service Highlights: Clarence and Amy devoted 49 years of mission service to the Asia Pacific region, in China, Taiwan, and Korea, having been in publishing ministry, mission president of Honan, Hupeh, North Fukian Missions, and Union president of Central, South, and West China Unions, as well as the president of South China Island Union and Korea Union.

Story of His Conversion

The following story was told by one of Clarence Davis' daughters.

The year was 1906, sixteen year old Julie Davis asked her two older brothers to accompany her to attend an evening religious camp meeting in the town of Lithgow, just west of Sydney on the other side of the Blue Mountains. But neither of the two brothers wanted to do it. In desperation, she went to ask her younger brother, Clarence Davis. "Would you be willing to accompany me to the meeting?"

Clarence was not really interested. But he thought for a while, and felt sympathetic towards his sister. It was not safe to ask a girl to walk alone to evening meeting in the dark, especially there were no street lights and no tar sealed road, for the path from their small village to Lithgow. So he said to his sister, "Okay, I go with you this once. But please do not expect me to go in the future, because I don't really enjoy attending religious meetings."

So he lit up an oil lantern, and walk Julie to the meeting place. As he walked in the dark on the dirt road, he could still felt the warm dust on his bare feet. When they arrived at the meeting tent, Julie and Clarence sat quietly listening to the itinerant preacher in the front, who was telling them how much God love sinful human beings and how He sent His Son to save them. he was fascinated with the preacher's message. "We need people who had experienced God's love to proclaim to others about this Gospel message.", the preacher added. The closing hymn sang by the congregation that evening at the meeting was, "I go where you want me to go, Dear Lord". Clarence Davis was so impressed with the message that he could feel the true meaning of each word of the hymn as he sang.

From that evening onward, he was a changed person. Clarence and his sister kept coming back to every night for the entire series of meetings. They both decided to join the baptismal class to study more about the Bible. At the end they were both baptized. Almost immediately after Clarence was baptized, he decided to join the colporteur ministry.

Early Years

Service in China

Service in Korea

Retirement

References

1. Godfrey (2002), Story of Clarence H. Davis, in Samuel Young (Editor), Chinese SDA History (in Chinese), Chinese Union Mission, Hong Kong.

2. Shultz, James E. Elsie Mary Davis Obituary, Asiatic Division Mission News, Decmber 1, 1915.

3. Life-sketch of Pastor C.H. Davis. Australasian Record, February 19, 1979.