Pam was raised in an Easter and Christmas church-going family. Faith in God was never part of the family discussion, but Pam as a 5-year old developed a personal faith. She walked by herself to the nearby church and received the sacraments of the church. She attended faithfully until her teens when, being disillusioned by the imperfections of man in the church, she walked away and lived without God in her life for many years. In her mid-twenties, Pam accepted a friend’s invitation to church, where she heard the message that God loved her for the first time. This awakened her childhood desire to know and be known by God, so she started seeking Him through Bible study and Christian home fellowship. The Lord, ever faithful to His promise that if we seek Him, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13), revealed Himself to her, and she accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior shortly thereafter. As a public profession of her faith, she was baptized.
Over the next 15 years, Pam struggled to grow spiritually, allowing life’s vicissitudes to distract her from building a firm foundation on faith. However, when she became pregnant with her son, Andrew, she realized how much she needed the Lord to be the mother she desired to be. Drawing closer to the Lord, drew her into serving in His name, which was when she truly started to grow in faith. As she served Him, she discovered gifts and talents she had not imagined she had. She joined the choir at Grove Ave Baptist Church where she used her beautiful alto, soloist voice to praise the Lord. She became the choir director for the young children and later became the Children’s Choir Coordinator for all the children at Grove. She was surprised to discover her talent for narrating musical productions.
When Pam became a single mom, she developed her gifts of administration, service, and leadership, not only in her job as a loan officer at a savings and loan, but as an affiliate with the Women’s Counsel of Realtors. She organized and led numerous highly-successful fund raising activities for them, later parlaying this experience into fund raising as President of the PTO at Andrew’s school.
She continues to use her passion to serve and help people grow in faith in Jesus’ name as Director of the Precious to God ministry to trafficked and sexually exploited women in Richmond, as President of Serving in Jesus’ Name, and as Secretary of the Grove Ave Baptist Church Endowment Fund. She organizes and leads the bi-monthly Singspiration praise and fellowship gatherings at Grove, where the body of Christ can gather to sing old hymns and southern Gospel songs. Until recently, she was Director of the Single Mom’s Bible Study at Grove, which she helped start in 2004.
Until his passing into glory in February 2020, her faithful husband, Paul, who she married in 2000, was ever beside her on her walk with the Lord. When Pam talks about Paul, her face lights up as she shares about what a wonderful spiritual leader he was and how he had the greatest influence in bringing her to spiritual maturity. She loved him devotedly and misses him dearly.
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
