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Bi-vocational pastor, 90, savors ‘excellent life' in Lafayette County
Mar 2, 2010
By CAROLYN NICHOLS
Newswriter

PASTOR &8200;Ed Wimberly celebrates 30 years at Mt. Paran Baptist Church this month. Courtesy photo
BRANFORD (FBW)—Ninety-year-old Ed Wimberly believes contentment is the key to happiness in ministry. In his 50-plus years of serving as a bi-vocational pastor, Wimberly, who has spent the last 30 of those years at Mt. Paran Baptist Church in Branford, said pastoring is a blessing that contributes to his happy life.

“I have had a good life—an excellent life, really,” he told Florida Baptist Witness.

Raised during the Depression in Carbur, a logging community between Perry and Cross City, Wimberly grew up under the influence of parents, Henry Edward and Carrie Wimberly, who “lived above” the hardships of dire economic times. They taught their children to be happy with little, he said.

After graduation from Dixie County High School and two years at University of Florida in Gainesville, Wimberly was drafted to serve in World War II. Because he is blind in one eye, he was stationed at Camp Blanding in north Florida, and discharged after only eight months.

“The Army found out they couldn’t get as much out of us limited servicemen as the others, so they honorably discharged us,” he said.

Wimberly went to work at a car dealership in Hastings then moved to Mayo to work in a Live Oak car dealership. By this time he was married to Laverne, and together they were raising three boys. In 1959 he also began serving as pastor of churches who could not afford to pay a full-time minister’s salary.

“There are so many little churches out there that can’t afford compensation for a full-time man, and I have been blessed by every one that I have served,” he said. “I tell you, though, it will sure stretch you thin.”

Wimberly said he is thankful for deacons and W.M.U. groups in small churches that do some of the work of a pastor, freeing a bi-vocational pastor to minister to the congregation instead of having to plan the events of the church.

“I also have been blessed to serve mostly harmonious groups,” he said.

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Judith Jolly (3/2/2010)
I loved the story of Brother Ed Wimberly. What a faithful servant! What an inspiration! Made my day!!

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