DORRIS B. WISNER

August 20, 1930 - September 27, 2021

Dorris Bowen Scott Wisner was born on August 20 th , 1930 in Montverde, Florida to Morris and Eldora Bowen. She lived to be 91 years of age and would say in her last few years, "I've lived a good life and have done everything I wanted to do."

Dorris attended Clermont Elementary and Clermont High School, graduating in 1948 with honors. She eloped with her high school sweetheart, Charles Scott, to Folkston, Georgia where they were married on July 4, 1948. They were married for 27 years and had 3 children: Charlotte, David and Tim.

Dorris accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior during her childhood, and she attended Grace Baptist Church in Clermont, FL. She raised her children up in the same church after she became a mother, making sure they attended and were involved in every available activity.

She was a Sunday School teacher and choir member, as well as a Soprano Soloist. She sang for church services, weddings, funerals, style shows and many other occasions. She made sure her daughter took piano lessons and she always had sheet music, hymn books and Gospel quartet song books on the piano in her home so that playing the piano and singing was a regular activity in the home.

Dorris started working as a secretary and office manager a year after her first child was born. She had a loving friend to come live with her beginning family to take care of the children, cook and keep house; her name was Trudie and she stayed as part of the family for 16 years.

That made it possible for Dorris to continue to work and prosper in her career and to provide things for her children they might not have had otherwise. She worked for Airko Mfg. Co. from 1950 to 1966; when that company closed, she went to work at Florida Technological University in Orlando. The family moved from Clermont to Forest City, FL, to Casselberry, then to Maitland FL.

After raising her family and going to work at Florida Gas in 1975, Dorris became single. She was single for 8 years. During that time, she was promoted in her career and became the Executive Secretary to the president of Florida Gas and bought her own home in Winter Park, FL. People would ride down her street just to look at the quaint little cedar shake home with huge pine trees in the yard that looked like a cabin in the North Carolina mountains, instead of a house in the city.

She began attending Winter Park Assembly of God and joined the choir that was under the direction of renown master conductor, Thurlow Spurr. She performed with the massive choir in the "Lifegiver" production as well as other productions that were performed in auditoriums, and venues in the Orlando area. She traveled to Israel with the choir after the "Lifegiver" was over and she was blessed to go back to Israel a 2 nd time later on.

Dorris received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1974 and this life-changing experience led her to a deeper and more consecrated walk with God. She stayed busy, had fun with friends and family but was waiting on God to lead her to what He had for her in the second part of her life.

She met John Wisner and they married in 1983, when she was 53. They became involved with various churches and attended International Bible Institute and Seminary in Plymouth, Florida in 1986 where they both received ordination after completion.

During a conference they were attending at Christian Retreat in Bradenton, FL, a missionary couple to Kenya invited them to go to Kenya and take over the running of their ministry, "Bread For Children," so they could come to the USA for furlough. John and Dorris accepted and ended up working part-time for "Bread For Children" in Kenya, East Africa for two years.

In 1991, John and Dorris formed their own ministry, "Missionaries in Action," and became full-time missionaries in Kenya. They were attending Orlando Christian Center with Pastor Benny Hinn and soon became the official church-supported missionaries to Africa of the Benny Hinn ministry. This immediately gave then financial support, prestige, and popularity.

Dorris raised most of the funds for the ministry through her many contacts and she created beautifully written 2 and 3 page newsletters full of stories and photographs to send to supporters and friends. The ministry grew and Missionaries in Action received enough funds through the 17 years they served in Kenya to start a Bible Book Store on the Island of Likoni on the Indian Ocean; build 5 beautiful stone churches; start Bible Schools in different cities to train and ordain pastors; start tailoring schools for young women so they could learn a trade to help provide for their children. The young women each got their own sewing machine when they graduated!

Mama Dorris founded her own primary school in a remote area where the children could learn to read and write. It was named by the families "Dorris Wisner Christian Academy." Missionaries in Action had feeding programs an worked with "DORCAS" from Sweden to distribute vast amounts of food in the remote areas where there was drought and famine. One of the churches they built became the center for that life-saving distribution.

Missionaries in Action distributed Bibles, clothing, medicine and medical treatments, and held teaching conferences, seminars and evangelical crusades across Kenya, winning hundreds to Christ.

Another outreach of Missionaries in Action was to bring young ministers from the USA to visit and stay with them so they could experience ministering on the mission field. As had been shared with them, they also shared with others. The result was changed lives and ministers who first hand, raised their eyes upon the harvest field in missions. Some even became full-time missionaries themselves. Dorris was always referred to as "Mama Dorris" in Kenya and she has many spiritual sons and daughters in Africa that refer to her by that name.

Dorris was a very gifted and talented woman who used her gifts for her family, church and for the Lord. She was a singer, storyteller, teacher, artist, writer, seamstress, organizer and one the best Southern cooks around. She loved to have family parties and gatherings and good food was always the centerpiece. She was a strict disciplinarian who didn't 'spare the rod.' She brought up her children in the admonition of the Lord and her children rise today and call her blessed according to Proverbs 31:28.

Everyone who has ever known Dorris refers to her with two titles: "Lady" and "Woman of God." She is in Heaven with her Savior and Lord Jesus Christ now, and has heard Him speak those beautiful words, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." She touched hundreds of lives during her fruitful and admired life, and will be missed by all who ever knew her.

• Dorris is survived by 4 children: Charlotte, (Danny), Manchester, GA; David Scott, Clermont, FL; Tim Scott (Shelia), Clermont, FL; Stepdaughter Pamela Wisner Stephens ( Mark ), Quincy, FL; and 4 Grandchildren: Matthew Raines, Jennifer Scott Hall, Clinton Scott and Christopher Hinds, and 4 Great-Grandchildren; Brother Rudy Bowen, Clermont, FL; and Sister, Vivian Doto, Winter Garden, FL.
• She is pre-deceased by her husband John; and brothers Paul Bowen and Razz Bowen.