Portrait of Charles Love. IMB Photo

Charles Peyton Love, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Guyana, St. Lucia and East Asia, died Feb. 1, 2025. He was 96.  

Charles was born Sep. 9, 1928, in Salem, Kentucky, to the late John Lockett and Mary Evelyn Love. He graduated from Boulder (Colorado) High School and received the Bachelor of Arts from Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas, and the Bachelor of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.   

After graduating from high school, he spent the next six years serving in the U.S. Air Force. Upon returning to the States in 1951, he moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he met his wife Mary Elizabeth Leech. While dating Mary, he felt God calling him to prepare for ministry. He married Mary on June 3, 1954. They both attended college, and he served as an associate pastor in a local church. Following graduation from college, they moved to Fort Worth to attend seminary. 

While seeking missionary appointment, he recalled, “As a result of the fine evangelistic and missionary emphasis at Southwestern, as evidenced in the classrooms, in the chapel services and on the campus; as a result of the missionary spirit of my wife and her family … and as a result of the wonderful spirit at South Fort Worth Baptist Church, where we joined and worked during our first three years in Fort Worth, Mary and I both felt that God was calling us into foreign missions.” They made their decision public. 

During his final year at seminary, Charles and Mary felt the Lord calling them to a church in Beatrice, Nebraska. He wrote, “Feeling from the very beginning of the work here in Beatrice that we would stay here all our lives if this were God’s will, we still could not get away from our former decision concerning foreign missions. … so, we contacted the Foreign Mission Board.”  

In 1965, the International Mission Board appointed Charles and Mary missionaries to Guyana. Charles helped start, and then taught at, the Guyana Baptist Theological Training Center. He also pastored several churches; planted church missions all over the country; mentored, hosted and coordinated numerous volunteer mission teams; and helped build the Guyana Baptist Camp. He also served as the Guyana Baptist Mission treasurer. After retiring from missionary service, they felt God calling them back overseas and served in St. Lucia and East Asia. 

Charles was preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Mary Elizabeth Love; and a granddaughter, Michelle Edwards.  

He is survived by his children: Debi Mulkey (Richard), Kathy Edwards, David Love (Ginger), John Love (Marjorie), and Donna Elizabeth Tiemeyer; 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.  

A funeral service was held Feb. 8 at First Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas. 

Read an obituary here.