Our people: From farm to freight to food bank

From the farm to the pulpit, Wayne Boydstun has worked many fulfilling jobs in his lifetime. But for the Clovis native, the most important part of any job is the people he's helping. Whether he's volunteering at the food bank or watching his grandkids play basketball, Boydstun is in the business of making sure others feel seen and loved.

Boydstun has lived in the area his entire life and takes pride in having raised his sons as fourth-generation farm hands on his family's farm. For the first 20 years of his professional career, Boydstun worked in the freight business with his father. For the last 16, he's worked fulltime as a pastor at the Parkland Baptist Church just south of the mall.

In the last nine years, his family has blended with that of Boydstun's wife, Kenda. Between them, the couple has five sons, four daughters-in-law, and 11 grandkids.

Q: What is your most memorable childhood Christmas gift?

A: An electric trainset my parents bought me when I was probably 10 or 11 years old. The reason it is so memorable is I still have the engine. I couldn't tell you where the rest of it's at, but I have the engine.

Q: What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?

A: Probably when I took the job at Averitt Express. I mean, that was a big major life decision but that was probably the most spontaneous thing that I've ever done. I made that decision and was working for them within a week. There just wasn't a whole lot of thought. We just jumped.

Q: What was your first job?

A: I grew up on the farm so from the time I could push the brakes in or the clutch in on the tractor I was driving the tractor. But my first job outside of working for Dad was working for a gentleman out south of town. His name was Quentin Hill. He was a custom harvester, had a combine and equipment and trucks and I spent two summers working the wheat harvest with him. So that was probably my first job outside of working for Dad. I would have been 15 and 16.

Q: What is your favorite Christmas movie?

A: My wife would tell you I don't have one. You know every Christmas they play the "Die Hard" movies and they're really not Christmas movies. I just don't know that I have a favorite Christmas movie ... I did enjoy "The Grinch," when they remade "The Grinch," - the Jim Carrey one. That would probably be my favorite one, because that was a hoot.

Q: If you could meet any character from a book or movie, who would it be and why?

A: I would love to meet Luke because I've spent so much time studying what he wrote. I would love to meet him because he knew all of the disciples - he knew Paul, he knew Peter, James, John. I just think sitting down with Luke would be an interesting conversation.

Q: What's the best part of your job?

A: The best part of my job is being able to help folks. We do a lot of different things around here in different styles of ministry. I volunteer at the food bank every other Friday. I still have my CDL (commercial driver's license) and I get to drive their truck down to Portales and help them with the food distribution. I thoroughly enjoy that, we have a lot of fun. I love the crew at the Food Bank and love working with them. And we've met a lot of folks down there.

But probably the best part of the job is being able to help folks - whether it's somebody who's just needing counseling or a shoulder to cry on, or whether it's a family in need with a funeral situation who've lost a loved one. We do an awful lot of that ... trying to help them ease the grief a little bit. I love helping people and just being able to minister to folks. I love the preaching and teaching. I love the studying and the prep that goes with it.

I love Sundays. You know preachers live for Sunday and we really thoroughly love the preaching and the teaching. But just helping people is the best part.

Q: What is your favorite book of Scripture?

A: The Book of Acts is my favorite. Of course when you're talking about Scripture it's really hard to pick a favorite. But for the last seven or eight years I've spent an awful lot of time studying different aspects of what went on in the first church, in the early church and as the Gospel began to spread. I've just really been studying what they did and how they went about it in a culture that was as difficult as our culture - but in a life that was really simple. They just didn't have a lot of what we have in the church today and so church was just a very simple process and so I love studying the Book of Acts.

Q: If you could go anywhere for a day, where would you choose and why?

A: It would be to go into Israel and see some of the spots of the locations around Jerusalem that you see in the Gospels and just experience it for a day.

Q: What is your favorite holiday tradition?

A: When I became single I had to kind of remake some of our traditions and it became a tradition for us to get all the kids together and do family pictures. We've only missed one or two in the last 12 years. But getting all the kids together and doing family pictures - it's always a hoot. Trying to herd all of those grandkids and get them all lined up - it's absolutely priceless. That's one of my favorite things to do as far as traditions.

Q: What is the best advice you've ever received?

A: My dad was never a (professional) preacher or a pastor. He was a farmer, a truck driver. I don't know if I'd call him a philosopher but my dad was a preacher because he preached a lot of sermons to me over the years, and my siblings would agree to that as well.

Dad just taught us so much and gave me so much. But I think the unspoken advice - the best I ever got - was how to be a "papa." My dad was a really good granddad and my boys loved him. To this day they still do and they still tell stories about him while they're laughing.

My dad showed me a lot about how to be a good granddad and my goal is to love my grandkids the way he loved my boys.