George Miller, 72, of Carnegie, Oklahoma, passed away 28 May 2023. He was a retired missionary who served for 27 years in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Philippines. Miller was the pastor of Carnegie Church of the Nazarene at the time of his death, having pastored the church since 2020.
George Manley Miller was born to Clyde and Violet Miller on 10 October 1950 in El Reno, Oklahoma. George grew up in a small country church and gave his life to the Lord as a young boy. As a child, he felt God call him to serve as a missionary. He always loved missionary services and felt “homesick” when he heard missionaries speak.
George attended Bethany Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University), where he received a degree in biology. At BNC, he met and married Nancy Sides, who had also felt called to missions as a young child. In the first few years of their marriage, George graduated from college, they had two children, and they moved two times, finally settling in Carnegie, Oklahoma, where George worked as a lab and x-ray tech at the hospital.
He also became an actively involved layman in the Carnegie Church of the Nazarene and became involved in the Gideon organization. During their early years in Carnegie, George and Nancy’s application to the World Mission Department was not accepted. George always said, “We were missionary rejects.”
He continued to try to fill his longing for the mission field by serving his local church and going on short-term mission trips to the Dominican Republic and Swaziland.
As a counselor at a boys and girls camp, George was sanctified completely. God gave George three tasks: (numbered list)
- He was to work towards ordination and start a children’s church in Carnegie.
- He was to pray for his wayward brother because God was going to save him.
- He was to make sure his house and affairs were in order because God would send his family to the missions field.
As was George’s custom, he obeyed God wholeheartedly, and God was faithful.
God called George and Nancy to Papua New Guinea in 1989. They packed up their house and took their four children to PNG, where they served for 10 years. George worked in the hospital, started a school to train lab techs, and planted a church at the local coffee plantation.
While on his second furlough from PNG, George finished the coursework he lacked for ordination, and he was ordained as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene. The church asked him if he would go to the Solomon Islands to be the district superintendent. George and Nancy faithfully loved and served the people of the Solomon Islands for 15 years.
During the last 18 months of their missionary career, George and Nancy were in the Philippines, where George served as the chaplain at a Nazarene school in Baguio. They loved the time they spent there, and their Filipino friends were so helpful in caring for Nancy when she got sick.
George retired from his missionary career in 2015 and was looking forward to spending time with his grandkids. He spent most of the next few years providing care for Nancy as her health gradually declined, and she passed away in 2018.
George found love again and married Jeanne Martin in 2019. Their combined family grew to eight children and 32 grandchildren. George and Jeanne enjoyed traveling, spending time with their family, and playing games.
Retirement didn’t last long as they were asked to pastor the Carnegie Church of the Nazarene in 2020. George loved serving as the pastor with Jeanne by his side.
George was preceded in death by his parents, Clyde and Violet Miller; his brother, Wesley Miller; his wife, Nancy; his infant daughter; and his granddaughter, Natalie.
He is survived by his wife, Jeanne; daughter, Gloria Nelson; sons Greg Miller, Geoff Miller, and Gary Miller; stepdaughter, Tiffany Stout; stepsons Eric Templeton, Mark Martin, and Aaron Martin; 32 grandchildren, two great-grandsons, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.
by Nazarene News Staff
