David and Celia Dick

Retired missionaries, David and Celia Dick, served with the Evangelical Congregational Church since 1975 and under One Mission Society since December 1980.

David and Celia originate from western Pennsylvania, raised within 10 miles of one another, met during their high school years and married in 1966. They have two adult sons, Ryan and Daniel. Ryan, his wife Leanne and their daughter, Kathryn, reside in Scottsdale, Arizona. Daniel and his daughter, Elise, reside in Lexington, Kentucky.

Following graduation from high school, during the Vietnam War, David served in the U.S. Air Force in 1966-1970 (Louisiana, Montana, Thailand, Louisiana), and Celia worked as a legal secretary and graphic arts composer. Upon discharge from the military, David worked as a manufacturing engineer, and Celia worked as a medical secretary until they received God’s call on their lives to cross-cultural missions.

Obeying Christ’s call, and under OMS direction for career missionary service, David enrolled in Asbury College (now University) where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in Bible and biblical languages. Subsequently, he received his master of divinity degree in world missions and evangelism from Asbury Theological Seminary, and 21 years later, a doctor of missiology degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. During Dave's seminary days, Celia returned to work at Asbury Theological Seminary in the Academic Dean and Registrar's office, and from there she transferred what she learned to the mission field in the South Pacific where she served as both seminary academic registrar and librarian.

For their first decade with OMS, David and Celia were assigned to the South Pacific, where they engaged in evangelism, church planting and training the sons and daughters of the host country. Dave served in the seminary and in the evangelism and discipleship ministries as well as field director. Celia served as field secretary and as the seminary registrar and librarian, pioneering the first ever formalized academic registration and grade transcripts as well as designing the first permanent and fully equipped, functioning library.

Transitioning to the States, for the next 15 years, David served as the executive director of International Ministries and served as the longest tenured officer in the first 100 years of the mission. David served under six OMS Presidents (Dr. W. Duewel, Dr. E. Hunt, Dr. E. Erny, Dr. J. B. Crouse, Dr. D. Long, and Dr. R. Fetherlin), and was indirect supervisor of today's current OMS President, Dr. J. Edwards (when Jeff was assigned to Brazil). David worked at the U. S. World Headquarters, becoming physically and emotionally exhausted, carrying a burden for the world and his colleagues serving around the world, constantly traveling, visiting more than 70 nations, accumulating more than 2.5 million air miles, he voluntarily stepped aside in August 2007.

David continued to serve as vice president-at-large, continuing to serve OMS in a variety of strategic functions, including establishing the first-ever mission desk specializing in ministry among Muslims. David was only the fifth VP-at-large to serve in the first 100 years of mission history, succeeding such notaries as 1) Founder E.A. Kilbourne, 2) Dr. Bill Gillam, 3) Dr. Ed Kilbourne, and 4) Dr. Helmut Schultz.

Beginning in 2017, David was invited to serve as the second president of the Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., publishing, distributing, and promoting the trust's 10 major titles in over 56 languages, reaching over 2.5 copies in circulation worldwide among the most under served and overlooked peoples of the world. Besides compiling a memorial book following Dr. Wesley L. Duewel’s passing, he also posthumously completed the autobiography of Dr. Duewel, published in 2021.

David formally retired from OMS in December 2022 with 40+ years of active ministry with OMS (46 years when counting the 6 years of directed preparation) in order to focus his remaining time and energies on caring for his wife, Celia.