About this website - a note from the Webmaster...

IveyMission.org  is designed to assist the Arthur Ivey family communicate with the supporters of their Christian mission work.  The site is designed and managed by a friend and supporter, Jim Davis of Dalton First United Methodist Church in Dalton, Georgia.  Not all the information contained herein is generated by the Iveys, but the information pertinent to the Ivey's mission is approved by Arthur before posting.

It is my hope that the posting of this information will accomplish several goals:

•     To keep you, the supporters and prayer partners, up to date on activities of the Iveys. 
•     To provide a quick reference to frequently asked information regarding the Iveys
•     To enable Arthur and Mary Alice more time to spend on their primary mission, rather than answering redundant questions regarding their lives and mission.
•     To provide a "meeting place" for answering your questions and soliciting your input and support.

    If you have had the privilege to spend time with the Iveys in the field as I have in both Costa Rica and Peru, I am sure that you were amazed at the diverse activities that claim their time.  Living in a third world country is usually very difficult and stressful.  One does not run down to the 7-11 and pick up a loaf of bread, or drive to Lowe's for a few hardware items.  The "county courthouse" is sometimes a day's drive away, and the line for the clerk needed is another half-day long.  Then, depending upon the whims of that clerk, an additional signature or attachment may be demanded, necessitating a return trip home and the process beginning from square one.

The transportation system is often a public bus on an infrequent schedule, or a ride in the back of a truck with a sympathetic produce hauler.  If roads exist, travel usually is dependent upon weather, mud and rock slides, and flooding.  A normal two hour trip may turn into a two day affair due to these circumstances. Cell phones, computers and such means of communications are usually not functional except in the larger cities, so one can readily realize the uselessness of time schedules as we are used to maintaining.  Arthur spends a great deal of time with the church leaders in his district, as well as assisting short-term mission teams from the States. Please bear this in mind when e-mailing the Iveys with questions and not receiving an immediate answer.  Sometimes it may be several days or even a week or more before e-mails are read under these circumstances.

If you have not accompanied a short-term mission team to Peru, I encourage you to contact a church sponsor and make your skills available. But be forewarned that a short-term mission is in no way a vacation, and I can almost guarantee you that you will return completely worn out, maybe with an upset stomach, dirty clothes, and flat broke.  But you will also have the supreme knowledge that you have helped where no one else did, that you shed a light where none had existed, that you labored in the vineyard for His sake, and that you are a better person for having served.  I can also guarantee that your life will be changed forever.

Thank you for your interest in missions, and for the support you provide for the Iveys in particular.  If you have suggestions or comments, by all means let me hear from you.

Your Friend in Christ,

Jim Davis