Face to Face: Tonganoxie’s Melissa Collier Gepford
Name: Melissa Collier Gepford
Born: Longview, Texas
Family: Husband, Bill; parents and three siblings (two brothers and a sister) live in Texas. Gepford also has two nephews.
Occupation: Director of children’s ministry at Tonganoxie United Methodist Church. She also is a contract writer/researcher.
Dream job as a child: Teacher
Interesting fact: Gepford and her husband placed second in a country dance contest a few years ago in Dallas.
Digging deeper: Gepford graduated from Spring Hill High School in 2007, and then went to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. Gepford cheered at OBU and was president of her social club (similar to a sorority, but not a national affiliate).
She earned bachelor’s degrees in Biblical studies and Greek and then moved to Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas to earn her master’s theology.
Gepford met her husband, Bill, in the cafeteria there.
“He convinced me to play on his kickball team, and we went on our first date after the tournament,” Gepford recalled.
The couple got engaged their last semester and married six days after they graduated.
“I don’t recommend planning a wedding while writing a thesis,” Gepford joked.
The couple lived in Colby for two years and then moved to Tonganoxie last summer when the couple took over at Tonganoxie United Methodist Church.
This summer, she will be commissioned as a deacon in the United Methodist Church.
In her spare time, Gepford blogs, gardens and does CrossFit regularly.