Couple dedicates three decades of service to Convention

By Barbara Denman / July 20, 2007

JACKSONVILLE—(FBC) With more than 63 years of combined service to the Florida Baptist Convention, Bill and Lily Wimpee could be compared to the Old Testament people of God who served as “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” and worked behind the scenes to promote the work of the Lord and His people.

Since 1976, Lily Wimpee, a native born Cuban who came to the States as a teenager, has served as secretary in the Language office and later as administrative assistant in the Language Division. Bill Wimpee, a Jacksonville native, worked in the Convention’s mailroom since 1975.

This summer the Wimpees, who have been married for eight years, will leave the Convention. She will take retirement, effective Sept. 30, and he was given long-term disability after having been diagnosed this past Spring with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also know as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

When asked why they have worked with the same organization for 30-plus years, the Wimpees see eye-to-eye. “I enjoyed my work and the people I worked with,” said Bill Wimpee. “I felt I was in the center of God’s will for my life.”

Lily Wimpee credits “God and a sense of ministry. I have felt through the years this was exactly where God wanted me to be. He has confirmed it by giving me joy in serving here.”

Many changes have take place in the past three decades as the convention grew from a “small family” that typed memos and letters on stationery and carbon copied all correspondence to a “big Christian family with lots of computerization,” including e-mails and internet services, said Bill Wimpee.

And as the state’s language population swelled to 4.5 million persons, Lily Wimpee saw her original office function within a department to a department with three employees and then as a division with ten staff persons to start and develop language congregations. The organizational changes signaled the convention’s increasing commitment to reach the state’s burgeoning ethnic population.

“When I came here, there were 14 Haitian missions,” said Lily Wimpee. “And now there are 289 Haitian churches and missions. At that time there were only 200 language congregations total,” she added, a number that since has increased to 649 Florida Baptist congregations worshipping in 21 languages.

“Lily will be greatly missed,” said Language Division Director Frank Moreno. “Her loyalty, friendly nature, servant spirit, and commitment to excellence have impacted the ministry of many, particularly among our language pastors and our division staff. She has blessed our lives immensely and has contributed to God’s Kingdom in many ways.”

“Taking his job seriously and loyalty and commitment to his work were Bill Wimpee's greatest attributes,” said Steve Baumgardner, director of the Business Services Division. “Bill faithfully and cheerfully provided postal services to FBC employees for over 32 years.”