Dr. Clay Quarterman (PhD, Univ. of Wales) is a church planter with MTW in Odessa, Ukraine, and is President of the Evangelical Reformed Seminary of Ukraine.
He has lived in Odessa for 14 years, but he has been with MTW for 31 years.
Clay was raised in First Pres Jackson. His father Palmer and his grandfather "Pop" Quarterman were elders in FPC. Their ancestors were Puritans who moved to Boston in 1630 to avoid religious persecution in England, then to Midway Georgia, where his Great-Great-Grandfather was a Presbyterian pastor.
Clay met his wife Darlene at Belhaven, and their first date was to the First Pres Missions Conference! They were married at First Pres in 1973. Darlene is also from the West Hopewell PCA church in Virginia.
Clay attended every school near FPC: Power, Spann, and Casey Elementary, Bailey, Murrah (1970), Belhaven (1974), took music at Millsaps, and worked at UMC and Baptist Hospital. He went to kindergarten at Trinity Pres. and received his MDiv and Doctor of Ministries degrees from RTS-Jackson. He is a member of the MS Valley Presbytery since 1978, when he was ordained as an Evangelist. He received his PhD in Theology from Univ. of Wales in 2005.
Clay is especially thankful for FPC, where he grew under the ministries of John Reed Miller, Jimmy Turner, and Don Patterson. But it was Brister Ware that God used to lead him into a personal relationship with Christ in 1963, and he has enjoyed the friendship and ministries of Jim Baird and Ligon Duncan.
The missionary call came early to Clay, and his counselor at Bailey Jr Hi thought he was out of his mind for it. Clay started preaching in the Gateway Rescue Mission on Gallatin.
The FPC mission conferences were a highlight of every year, where Clay especially remembers Paul B. Smith and the missionary families. Because of the FPC Mission House on Gillespie St., he developed friendships with children of missionary families such as the Kyles, Lintons, and Longs. Clay, Paul Long, and Glenn Camenisch developed a missionary vision, becoming the Portugal Team of MTW in 1979, after gaining pastoral experience in Matherville, MS, Prattville, AL, and Savannah, GA.
Clay worked in Lisbon for 14 years, planting a Presbyterian denomination and teaching in the Portuguese Bible Institute. He is fluent in Portuguese and Russian.
In 1994, God called them to Odessa, Ukraine, where they were the first resident couple of the MTW church-planting team. They have now seen the start of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ukraine with 11 churches, and they founded the seminary where they now serve. Clay was head of MTW's largest-ever capital campaign, raising $1.1 Million to restore the historic church building in Odessa—in which FPC took part.
Clay and Darlene have been married 35 years and have a granddaughter Kendra who lives in Jackson. They have 4 grown sons, all born in Lisbon: Matt (& Erin in Seattle), Nate (& Malaika in Jackson), Ty (& Irina in Odessa), and Alex (Belhaven). Clay enjoys photography, scuba diving, playing clarinet, archery, sailing, and choral singing.
web: www.clayq.com email: clay@paco.net October 30, 2008
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