I was born July 6, 1958 in Dayton, Ohio. My parents are Virginia and Louis Dumas. Mom died six years ago and dad lives in Henderson, Texas. He raises Boar Goats and is doing very well for being 86 years old and living alone. My siblings are Jerry, Teddy, Nancy and Cynthia. Ted died in 1971, Jerry lives was living in Georgia. Nancy is married to TJ Horbowy and lives in Florida. Cynthia is married to James Fox and lives in Ohio. I have five nieces, two nephews and have 13 great nieces and nephews.

My wife is Chris and we’ve been married 21 years on June 2012. We met back in St. Louis and have a son Zach and a daughter Sarah. Zach graduated 2012 and is attending SMU in Springfield, MO studying Construction Management. Sarah is completing tenth grade and enjoys playing basketball, running track and playing the piano.

My hobbies are simple, I enjoy walking and food banking. First UMC Jeff City has a food pantry and to increase what we offered to patrons we partnered with the Central/Northeast Food Bank in Columbia. That led to feeding programs called Food for Kids and Buddy Packs. Food for Kids offered sack lunches after summer school let out until school resumed in August. My role was to coordinate volunteers, food supply and clean up. They fed 150 children every week day during mid summer for the past seven years. The Buddy Pack operation began six years ago. We partnered with the Food Bank and rented a warehouse to store food supplies in Jefferson City. The Food Bank purchased the food and delivered to Jeff City. We coordinated with the elementary schools how many children were going home hungry until Monday where back at school they received their free breakfast and lunch. For the past two years we had six teams of folk preparing bags of food and delivering to the JCPS and surrounding county schools a total 1,350 Buddy Packs every week during the school year.

Mission has been a big part of my ministry. I entered full time ministry July 1999 as a student local pastor serving Union and Cedar Grove United Methodist Churches. March of 2000 a 17 inch rain over Union flooded 300+ homes and trailer homes so I became a part of the recovery effort. Since then we’ve assembled teams to work in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Missouri following the disasters Mother Nature has provided. Since 2006, we assembled and led crews to Waveland, MS following Hurricane Katrina. They finally closed Camp Love this year, mostly due to the lack of funds because there remains many survivors waiting for assistance after seven years.

My call to ministry came back in 1996 while taking a Disciple Bible Study. I had served as a Certified Lay Speaker and filled several pulpits while pastors were on vacation or ill. Several folks in my home church, Maplewood UMC in St. Louis saw in me the ability to share God’s word and lead worship.. I enjoyed singing the hymns and praying so it made sense to pursue this open door. At the same time, Chris was receiving her call as well. She was working at Barnes Jewish Hospital as a physical therapist. Pastoral Care is her gift so we began the quest of ministry. Both of us attended Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis and were ordained June 2003.

I never really had a career I wanted to achieve growing up. I knew from age 11 that Christ was my savior and was called me to ministry. The pastor said to try other things before answering the call. That taught me to never delay taking action because it took 20 years to come back to that call. Days off are times to regroup for Sunday or tutoring at Jefferson City Correction Center. Habitat for Humanity is a favorite activity because it is something interesting outside of my ability and they accept me for what I can do while teaching me new things for the sake of benefiting someone else.

What is your favorite Ice Cream? Spumoni ice cream.

Who is your favorite Actor/Actress? My favorite actor is Tom Hanks and actress is Julia Roberts.

Do you like scary movies? Scary movies are not for me but my son loves them. They give me the heebee geebees.

What was your first car? My first car was a Ford Pinto hatchback. I think I can repair my 1995 Chevy Pickup when it breaks but more often then not I haul it to the repair shop.

What was your proudest moment? My proudest moment comes every time Chris or the kids do something great and that is often. Laughter is good for us so anything funny or odd.