William T. “Will” Purinton began his time at Wesley in July of 2021. Pastor Will is from the Midwest, where he has lived in the connected states of Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Illinois, and most recently in faraway South Korea. He served in the US Army for 5 years and studied at the University of Kansas and Nazarene Theological Seminary. In 1993, Pastor Will was joined in Christian marriage to his beloved wife Kumok and began his pastoral ministry.  After 9 years in Illinois in churches from south to north, Pastor Will became Dr. Purinton with a PhD in theological studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. It was about this time that Kumok was diagnosed with Lupus and the couple moved to South Korea (Kumok’s home) to continue her medical treatments, as Will began teaching on the faculty of theological seminaries there. After 18 years of ministry in the classroom and pulpit, the Purintons returned to begin ministry in the Missouri Annual Conference of the UMC.  While Will pastored in the Gateway Central District, Kumok was hospitalized and after three months on a ventilator went to her heavenly home on Christmas day in 2020. Pastor Will continues to believe that only the gospel has the words of hope to carry people through every challenge and difficulty of life in 2021, including the Covid-19 pandemic. While he drives up and down the hills and hollows of Missouri and crosses her many rivers, he listens to bluegrass music. His favorite song? That would be “Great Judgment Morning” by George Jones and the Smoky Mountain Boys.