Donald Alva Bowles

Donald A. Bowles, age 80, of Picayune, Mississippi, passed away Tuesday, April 14, 2020. If there is one word that typifies Don Bowles, the word is minister. As an ordained minister, he certainly fit the definition as "one who is authorized to perform religious services." However, even more than that, Don lived out the word minister in verb form: "to attend to the wants and needs of others." thefreedictionary.com
Born on February 9, 1940, in Ohio, Don Bowles learned to have an excellent work ethic. As a teenager, he became the main provider for his mother. In 1962, he married Mildred Waugh and proceeded to provide for and care for her until her passing 56 years later. He and Millie shared the care and raising of their own three children, as well as countless other children: granddaughters, nieces, nephews, younger siblings, neighborhood children, church children, children of friends, and children they never met. Don prayed for innumerable children over his 80 years. Many children were introduced to a relationship with Jesus Christ because of the ministry of Don Bowles.
Along with all these children, Don ministered to adults in immeasurable ways. He attended Bible college in the late 1960s and attained a Bachelor of Religious Education in 1981. Ordained in 1975, he and his family moved to minister to the people of Columbus, NE, as church planter and pastor the next spring. In 1982, God sent Don and family to Picayune, MS, to minister in a different way. As a Lance foods delivery man, a small cleaning business owner, a housing authority member, and a 25 year Wal-Mart employee, Don met and ministered to tens of thousands of people. It seemed everyone knew Mr. Don at Wal-Mart. So many people brought him their troubles and concerns and prayer requests. Many employees would bring him their spiritual questions and study the Word with him. It is safe to say that Don Bowles acted as the hands and feet of Jesus.
Don accepted Jesus as his personal savior in his early 20s and lived to serve Him. He loved to study the Word of God and pray and praise and worship his heavenly Father. His Bible was usually in one of two places: beside his bed or beside his chair depending on the time of day. He loved the old classic hymns and found much peace and comfort in listening to them in the past year. He believed John 14:6. "Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by Me." He liked the verse in I Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." He lived this out in the way that he always put others' needs above his own and in how he always wanted people to see Jesus in him. Nothing was more important to Don Bowles than pointing people to a relationship with Jesus. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:16-18
Don was preceded in death by his wife, Mildred Waugh Bowles, his parents, Alva and Jessie Bowles, his brother John Edward Bowles, his sisters Lodene Wion and Ruth Snouffer. He is survived by his loving children, daughter Terri Bowles, son David Bowles and fiancé Myla Osurman, daughter Lori Bowles Ola, son-in-law Alan Ola, son Micheal Pugh, daughter-in-law Inna Pugh, granddaughters Elizabeth and Anna, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, and numberless friends all over the world.
It is the opinion of many that on April 14, 2020, Don Bowles heard his master say the words found in Matthew 25:21. "Well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord."