Meet The Pastor
Rev. Wilma Reyes
Pastor Wilma Reyes is a Licensed Local Pastor with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. She is a single mother who raised two children, now members of the United States military: Joel David Castro-Reyes (US AirForce), and Nicole Marie Castro-Reyes (US Navy).
Wilma’s involvement in ministry training traces back to 1984, when she became the leader of her high school’s Christian youth program. This was only the beginning of 30 plus years of connection to diverse areas of ministry which included district youth leader, member of the board of a Christian fraternity in college, leader of short term mission trips in the same fraternity, missionary to Peru, teacher in a two-year Christian leadership training program, pastor in Puerto Rico, and later ordained minister in a local ministerial association at the same location.
Wilma was called to ministry during her first year in college, interrupting her plans to become a doctor in medicine after being accepted in a fast-track medicine program at the University of Puerto Rico. After two years of discerning her next steps, she transferred to a local Bible College where she earned a Bachelors in Pastoral Studies with a minor in New Testament Biblical Interpretation. She continued her studies at a graduate level and completed a Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling, majoring in behavioral modification.
Notwithstanding her extensive studies, she understood the Lord had a further calling in her life, and in 2003 joined the United Methodist Church, where she immediately felt at home with its missional focus and social justice tradition. A year later she was awarded a scholarship to begin her seminary studies at United Theological Seminary, Western New York Campus, becoming the Student Pastor at Primera United Methodist Church in Buffalo, NY. After relocating to Florida, she served at First UMC, St Cloud, while continuing her seminary studies at Asbury Theological Seminary, graduating with an MDiv on May of 2018.
Wilma has worked in the translation of theological materials throughout her life. She translated a four-year curriculum for the Association of Evangelical Gospel Assemblies, and more recently worked with Asbury Theological Seminary as part of the translation team for Seedbed Publishing.
After serving for six years as Administrator at First UMC St Cloud, Wilma received her first appointment to Wildwood United Methodist Church in 2016. There she joined a pastoral team in charge of overseeing the United Methodist Churches at Wildwood and Oxford.
In 2017, in an interesting turn of events, she was appointed to her home church, First United Methodist of St Cloud, where she was received with open arms by her church family.