David Martin — In Loving Memory

David Martin is remembered as a loving husband, a father, and faithful friend to all who knew him. In addition to joining Petros Network, David served for decades on the missions and serve teams at Portland Christian Center, the same church where Ray and Linda Noah, Petros Network co-founders, pastored for 14 years. His responsibility included the meticulous tracking of hundreds of missionaries and their projects, which he did with excellence.  He also ensured funding for a critical part of his church’s missions story through building projects.  His contributions were nothing short of ingenious and a huge gift to the future of the Church, at home and around the world.

Over his adult lifetime he went on more than 52 self-funded mission trips: 

• Portland Christian Center building trips,   
• Little Davey Project trips providing technology assistance for underprivileged children in Latin America,  
• Petros Network trips equipping indigenous leaders to end spiritual and physical poverty.   

As part of the Petros Network team, David managed the monthly data collected of over 7,000 church plants and also played a key role out on the field gathering church planter stories for our donors.  His presence was invaluable, and he worked so hard, but he also had a ton of fun. He was never at rest, and it would be rare indeed to see David without a huge grin on his face.  

On the day of his death, hundreds of church planters on the other side of the world made their WhatsApp Profile David’s picture to honor him. This outpouring of love was in honor of the man who is known to have:

• listened to their stories,  
• prayed with them,   
• given them advice,   
• built buildings,   
• opened a clinic,   
• helped to feed hundreds of children,  
• interviewed and launched women in small businesses,   
• fixed everyone and anyone’s computers and phones,   
• helped to launch hundreds of farms to feed families  
• and lifted the malnourished.   

One church planter wrote to say, “He cared about us. He saw us. He looked at us as one human to another and he loved us.” 

Today, we have an opportunity to carry forward David’s legacy by building the Beacon of Hope Fellowship and Petros Network Training Center that will be established in loving memory of David, a true missionary of compassion and service for the cause of Jesus Christ worldwide. Our goal is to raise $275,000 to build this church and training center, ensuring that the light of Jesus shines in the darkest of places. The Beacon of Hope Fellowship and Petros Network Training Center, located in Kitgum, Uganda will be a haven of love, acceptance, and renewal, where the marginalized find solace, the broken find healing, the lost find direction, and church planters are trained for all of Uganda. This beacon of hope will stand as a testament to the transformative power of missions, education, and service. David helped to unleash a church planting movement, and women’s empowerment and agriculture program in this previously demonically oppressed region in Uganda and he leaves behind a remarkable legacy. 

Many of us continue to live forward, loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and loving others through seeds of kindness, unconditional love, acts of service, and unwavering faithfulness, just as David did throughout his remarkable life. But in reflection of a life lived in service to the calling of the Great Commission, we can ask ourselves, “How am I living to further God’s Kingdom?” 

We hope you are inspired to live as David did… completely in service to Jesus Christ and building God’s Kingdom through missional Redemptive Lift. 

If you would like to learn more about the impact of HOPE into the most underserved communities, experiencing a life-impacting missions trip, giving to the dedicated building project in Northern Uganda, or contributing to spreading the Gospel to those who are still unreached today click the link below.