Executive Director
Rev. Barbara JP Thomas serves the Lord as a leader in several areas including education, community development, and ministry. She is an ordained minister, wife, mother of three sons, and a grandmother.
|
She accepted Jesus as her personal Savior in the spring of 1984. In 1987, Barbara felt the call of God to preach the Gospel. She began her ministry by teaching Sunday school, working with youth groups, singing in choirs, and occasionally speaking. Her ministry has taken her throughout the United States and as far away as France. Founder of Victorious Women in Christ (VWC), this ministry helps women to be victorious in their calling and faithful over the things of God and to seek first the kingdom of Heaven and trust everything to the Lord.
She is a proud graduate of Rochester Institute of Christian Education (R.I.C.E.). After earning two diplomas, one in Christian Education and the other Pastoral Care from RICE, she went on and received a B.S from SUNY Empire State College in Christian Education and Religious Studies. She is presently pursuing a Master’s Degree from Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College. She is the first woman appointed Executive Director of Rochester Family Mission and RICE. Barbara is rapidly moving RFM to the forefront of human services.
Barbara serves on the Board for Greater Rochester Association of Evangelicals (GRAE). She is part of the “Think Tank” at Roberts Wesleyan College and on the planning committee for Flower City Work Camp. She is also on the Southwest Fest Committee with the Southwest Area Neighborhood Association and Greater Adams Street Church of God By Faith. She serves with a number of urban groups working to improve the lives of those in Rochester’s inner city. She has served with the Boys & Girls Club of Rochester, the Southwest Colts, and the Parent’s Committee at John Marshall High School. She has facilitated youth workshops at Zion Hill “Reuniting the Families” seminars. She is an active elder in her church, Greater Adams Street Church of God By Faith. She co-chairs the Southwest Fest community event each year. Highly esteemed by friends in the community and by human services agencies in Rochester, she is seen as an effective mentor.
Barbara’s life Scripture
is: Phil. 3:12-14, “Not that I have already attained, or am already
perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ
Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have
apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the
goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Family Mission