Welcome to my new series! Each month I will highlight a “Farmville Favorite”, someone who is an advocate for Farmville--working hard to make it a better place. Who should be next month’s Farmville Favorite? Email your nominations to me at navona@ahomewithhart.com.
The first time Dr. Thomas Robinson visited Farmville, it rained all weekend. But even the wet weather couldn’t dampen the spark of love at first sight.
“It’s been a case of never looking back,” says Tom. Even with a doctorate, everyone just calls him Tom. He accepted the call to pastor at Farmville Presbyterian Church 6 years ago. After spending almost 24 years in the Midwest in various pastoring positions, Tom and his wife Sue found themselves yearning for the south.
A Long Island native born of southern parents, Tom earned a degree in history from Mercer University in Macon, GA. He worked as a sports reporter for seven years before attending seminary. Sue is a nurse practitioner at the Centra Southside Satori Medical Center in Keysville.
”We really wanted to come back south” says Tom, “so coming to Farmville is like coming home.”
“Even though it’s a small town in a rural area we have been pleasantly surprised by the level of sophistication,” he adds. He and Sue have a special appreciation for the widely thrown origins of the people who call Farmville home.
“There are folks here not just from outside the area but from outside the state and from around the world. There's a lady around the corner from Germany and a lady down the street who is originally from England,” says Tom. “In our neighborhood, the folks across the street are native Farmvillians, the guy next door is from Michigan and the folks behind us are from New Jersey.”
Add the fact that Tom’s favorite local haunt is run by Belgian baker Philip Fenaux and his wife Synthia Starkey and you have a perfectly blended cosmopolitan cocktail of backgrounds and cultures.
When he’s not enjoying The Bakery or strolling the Avenues with Sue, Tom’s days are full. In addition to being a fulltime pastor, he serves on the board of the Southside Virginia Family YMCA, on the Moton Museum Council, and works closely with Farmville Area Rescue Mission, which serves the area’s homeless. He has also been involved with the Farmville Downtown Partnership since its inception and the Piedmont Community Health Coalition.
If it sounds like a full plate, that’s because Tom draws no distinction between work done for the church and work done for the community. In Tom’s eyes, it’s all God’s work. To him, attending a Farmville-Area Chamber of Commerce meeting or filling a bag with food for the local food bank is just as much worship as delivering the sermon on Sunday.
“Nothing is outside the realm of the sacred,” says Tom, “That is part of the gospel ministry for me.”
As someone who has always been passionate about the church’s involvement in the community, Farmville has given Tom the perfect setting to live out that calling and he doesn’t see he and Sue going anywhere any time soon.
“We love the place,” he says with a smile, “we love the people.”
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