Dale was born in Granite City, IL on April 5, 1958
while his father was stationed there with the U. S. Army. The military family
moved frequently, living in France, Kentucky, Alaska and various parts of
Virginia. Dale came to understand the good news of Jesus Christ through the
witness of a good friend during his freshman and sophomore years of high
school. Upon moving from spiritual death to spiritual life, the understanding
that God wanted Dale involved in ministry and missions was almost immediate. While
at Denbigh High School in Newport News, VA, he was actively involved in his
church youth group as well as Youth for Christ. During his junior year, Dale
founded a Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle group where he was
instrumental in introducing several of his fellow athletes to a personal
relationship with Christ.
In
1980, Dale South received his B.A. in International Studies and Economics from
VA Tech, where he was heavily involved with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship,
serving as small group leader and chapter president. He later graduated with a
Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South
Hamilton, MA in 1983. From there, he pastored Long Green Baptist Church in
Baltimore County, Maryland for nine years. They enjoyed the Lord’s favor there,
seeing the congregation grow from a group of about 25 to around 175.
After
both being appointed as missionaries with the International Mission Board of
the SBC, Dale and his wife Celia left Maryland to study Spanish for a year in
Costa Rica. From there they served in San Lorenzo and Asuncion, Paraguay from
1994-2003, working with church planting and university student related
ministries. While there, Celia also worked as Chaplain at the Baptist Medical
Center, founded a support and educational group for girls with eating disorders
and did extensive ministry with those going through grief.
After
Dale’s father died in 2003, they stayed in the USA to be more available to
Dale’s mother, Gladys, who continues to live independently in Newport News, VA.
In 2005, Dale and Celia were both appointed as missionaries by the North
American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dale served as a Church Planting
Missionary with SBC of Virginia among Hispanics in the Northern Virginia area
from 2004 through May of 2007. In that role he was instrumental in seeing
several new Hispanic congregations established. He and Celia currently reside
in Woodbridge, VA, but spend most weekends in Washington, D.
C., where they have been working to plant a diverse center-city church among
mostly secular people.
As a complement to his work with the Southern Baptist
Conservatives, Dale and Celia enjoyed the opportunity to serve respectively as
men’s and women’s chapel leaders to the Washington Nationals major league
baseball team for the 2006 -2008 seasons.
Celia
currently works as a Dental Assistant in Fairfax, VA using her job as a
platform for ministry. Daughter Sarah is married and works with refugees as a
licensed Social Worker in Washington D.C. She and husband Brad live in
Shirlington, VA, are devoted to following Jesus and are active in
ministry. Son Joseph graduated in
May 2007 from Wheaton College in Illinois and now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada
where he works with Citadel Communications. Joseph is very involved in Kingdom
work through the local church in a self-supporting role.