Sister Mildred Archie was born and raised in Springfield, Ohio. Her parents, who had relocated from Alabama, remembers attending St. John as a fidgety four year old child. She joined in 1943 under Rev. B.E. Edmondson. She attended local schools and remembers being the only "colored" in some of her early classes. After graduation, most young people if they did not go into the armed forces, worked at the Department of Defense at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB). However, she continued her education by going to night school and upon graduation received the honor of having one of the longest tenures from start to finish with a degree in Sociology in 1990 from Wittenberg University. The education included interruptions in schooling while working for WPAFB for 19 years and then transferring over to the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer for an additional 22 years which included Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Central America, South America, Tunisia, Nigeria and Vietnam.
In 1990, Sis, Archie was asked to do some missionary work with the American Baptist churches, USA. She was the first American Baptist Missionary to be assigned to South Africa, where she worked for five years. Other work in Africa included two years in Zambia and four years in Ghana. One of the churches in Ghana decided to name a church after Sis Archie. While there, she assisted other African churches on the continent as necessary. From 2002 to 2009 she again worked in various countries in Africa as assigned by ABC, which included Nicaragua and Angola. Also, in 2008 she assisted St. John nurses and health care providers on a medical trip to Ghana. While there they attended to more than 1500 people in the outreach clinic.
Sis. Archie worked from an early age, with various groups, Choralettes Choir, Junior Girls Group, Chair for Missions Ministry, taught Sunday School, Assistant Church Clerk, Discipleship Ministry for the church history, St John Women's Ministry, worked with the ABC/Ohio Mission support, Dayton Baptist Regional Executive board and Women's Ministry.
Sis. Archie states, " I can honestly testify that my Faith has always been deep and continues to grow in Christ. I know for a fact that the Lord has been a blessing in my life in that on top of allowing me to contribute to the work of the church, He has also given me an opportunity to live and work among so many of my sisters & brothers around the world. For these reasons I can not help but to serve and trust Him always".
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Mildred J Archie, please visit our floral store.