James Lee Perdue

James Lee Perdue was born January 6, 1944 in Smithers, W. Virginia. He was the second of five children, and the only son born to Ralph and Irene Perdue. At the age of 10 he received Christ as his personal Savior in Sunday School. Sometime around age 11, his health caused the family to move to Florida, and settled in Brandon for five years, and then to the St. Pete – Largo area. He attended and graduated from Largo High School in1962. While in high school he became interested and involved in an engineering apprenticeship program.

He soon realized that God was calling him to fulltime ministry work and thus in obedience to God’s call, he began Trinity Bible College in Dunedin, FL. At the end of his first year, he was challenged to become involved in a children’s ministry called Child Evangelism Fellowship for the summer. There he met Sharon and served the Lord for 2 summers. They were then married on May 24, 1968, and he then finished his last year of Bible college. They sensed God’s call to CEF local directorship and thus attended CEF 3-month leadership training school in Muskegon, MI, after which they came to Orlando area in August 1969, and have served the Lord in CEF fulltime until December 2013, when he had to retire due to failing health.

He continued to faithfully reach children in the CEF Good News Club school ministry until one week before he passed away on April 5th, 2018. They had 3 wonderful children, Rebekah, Timothy and Jamey, who gave them 7 wonderful grandchildren: Daniel, Anna, Marcus, Randal, Raymond, Grace and Austin. Jim and Sharon missed reaching their 50th wedding anniversary by 49 days (May 24th).