David marrie
d Zena Margaret Anne Corps on 27 April 1955. She and her whole family had converted in a crusade meeting David had organised in his church. Zena was the Carnival Queen for Knaresborough in 1953 – quite a catch for a young pastor! As a talented pianist, Zena soon began to help David in his evangelistic efforts and became part of his evangelistic team. Even today she still serves in the music team in the church which David founded in Dewsbury through his crusade there in 1959. Her testimony of her many years as David’s wife is: “I always let him go!” – Although this has always been at some cost, especially when he was arrested in Czechoslovakia in 1972 with 5000 Bibles on board his tour bus. This was at the height of the Cold War, a highly sensitive political issue, and she was instructed by the Foreign Office to tell no one. So for several weeks she carried this burden entirely alone. Even today, her eyes well with tears when she thinks of this period.
David and Zena had twin girls, Carol and Sharon, in 1956. As teenagers,
they went on some of their father’s Bible smuggling trips. Little Mandy was born 12 years later in 1968, so she had three mothers! She was still only three when her father was arrested, so she never got further than one time hiding herself on the bus with her teddy bear as David left on one of his smuggling trips with the two older girls. Fortunately, he spotted her in the rear-view mirror as he was driving off…
Called to Europe more than 60 years ago, David says: “My brother Aubrey was called to India, my sister to Africa. Europe was not considered as a mission field back in those days. But I knew from the very beginning I was called to Europe.”
