and Paul Archer will serve their Church in Central Africa

BY FREDA MIKLIN STAFF WRITER

Paul Archer was the GOP candidate for Colorado State House District 37, comprised of Greenwood Village, west Centennial, and Foxfield, in November 2022. He lost that race to Ruby Dickson, an environmental economist, who is now the youngest person in the State House at 27 years old.

Paul developed an interest in government in part from his experience with our state’s highly complex sales tax system that had a significant impact on his business, Automated Business Technologies of Centennial. A perennial problem solver, Paul wanted to use the knowledge he’d developed during years of working with state government to simplify the tax system. He also had other ideas to make government work better.

Now he is embarking on a new mission, literally. In a few days, Paul and his wife Carol will head to Utah for a week of training, followed by a 17-month stint in Central Africa as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints. Once they leave for Nairobi, Kenya, Paul and Carol will not see their five children or their twenty grandchildren until they return in January 2025.

The Archers are a Senior Couple in the Church. Their area of expertise is communications. They will take those skills to the Central Africa Area, which has 495 million people in 17 countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Somalia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and South Sudan.

Melinda Luke

Paul told The Villager that the Democratic Republic of Con- go is now the second-fastest growing country in the world for new members of the LDS Church.

Paul and Carol’s duties as missionaries who are communications specialists will be to teach church members in Central Africa how to connect with government and the media, which is what they do for the Church here in Colorado.

Paul told us that he and Carol had expected to be sent to Washington, D.C. to complete their mission for several reasons, but when the Church told them that their mission would be in Central Africa, they didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“If that is where we are needed, then that is our calling,” he explained, without missing a beat.

What about leaving his children and grandchildren for 17 months? What about leaving his business for such a long time?

Paul Archer smiled and said, with abundant clarity, “My faith is the most important thing in my life. Then comes my relationship with Jesus Christ. Next is my family, then my work, then my community. I’ll see everyone in January 2025.” fmiklin.villager@gmail. com