Pastor helped children deal with his profession
While the children of the Rev. Vince Winfrey love their father, they didn’t always love the idea of him being a pastor. “We could take being a deacon’s kid, but a pastor’s kid, it was hard. We weren’t ready for that,” Jason remembers. “You always had to watch what you said or did, cause if you didn’t people would tell on you.”
But the Winfrey children said their father helped them in dealing with the teasings from other children and the high expectations.
“He always taught us to ‘be yourself,'” Scott said. “He taught us not to do what everybody else does and not to care about what others think.”
They said their father taught them right from wrong, and advised them based on his own experiences in life, but always allowed them to make their own mistakes and find their own way.
“I always told them that they had to learn life on their own. I always told them not to be afraid to tell me anything. I might not like it, I might yell, but after the yelling, I’m going to love them anyway,” said the Rev. Vince Winfrey.
That same strong, unconditional love Rev. Winfrey displays at home, is the same love he displays in the community. Rev. Winfrey was honored this year at the first NAACP Community Appreciation and Recognition Day Breakfast for “giving of his time and providing children with a role model in leadership and commitment.”
He was also honored for his years of dedication to basketball and players in the community at the Pittsburgh Hoops Classic Skills Contest at Uniontown High School.
Vince Jr., the oldest the Rev. Winfrey’s five children, said his father has always been committed to the community and deserves the recognition. For years he said he watched his father come straight home from work, change his clothes and go right back out the door, either fulfilling his pastoral duties or duties as a coach and father.
“By the time he would get home and settled in at night, it would be midnight. It was almost time for him to get up for work the next day,” Vince Jr. said.
The Winfrey children say they admire their father for the love and commitment he shows his family, church and community.
“He gives the Winfrey name respect and that feels good,” said David, the youngest of the Winfrey children.
“It feels good to know people see your father as a powerful man of God,” Jason said. “Instead of loving five, he’s loving 100, and it’s just the kind of love he has at home, strong love and he shows that love to you no matter who you are,”