Despite having lived across the world, Rev. Tracy Hoskins is happy to now live in Purcell serving as  Trinity United Methodist Church’s new pastor.

“[Purcell is] a bit bigger than any of the other communities that I’ve served,” she said. “The church is fantastic as far as I’m concerned. They are very friendly.”

Hoskins was previously the pastor of Hobart First United Methodist Church in Hobart from June 2020 to November 2023. Before then, she was the pastor at two United Methodist churches in Morris and Schulter, two rural towns near Okmulgee.

Hailing from Bixby, Hoskins has a bachelor’s degree from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in drafting and design. For several years, she did graphic design work for an Oklahoma City engineering company, whose main business was oil.

She got that job right out of college, but it wasn’t long before the late ‘90s oil crisis struck and prices plummeted.

“They were starting to cut back on jobs, so I was going to be laid off,” she said. “I had always wanted to go into the military, but I hadn’t yet, so I thought ‘Well, this is a good time.’”

Hoskins spent 10 years in the Air Force servicing radios in air traffic control towers. She was stationed first in England then Arizona, where she met her husband, Scott. Eventually, they were both stationed in Japan, and that’s when they started attending the base chapel, where she later became its religous education director.

“That was where God’s call started,” she said.

After leaving the Air Force and returning to Oklahoma with her husband, Hoskins taught technology at Tulsa Public Schools for eight years before deciding to go back to school to become an ordained minister. She received her Master of Divinity from Phillips Theological Seminary in 2017.

Now that she is in Purcell, she wants to impact and influence her new community but does not want to duplicate what others are doing.

“I’m trying to find those places that don’t already have someone, some church or some organization that’s filling those holes,” she said. “I want to find other holes because there’s plenty of people who need assistance or need other services, who need to know that God loves them.”

Trinity UMC is holding its Vacation Bible School from July 29-31. For more information about it and Rev. Hoskins, check out purcelltrinityumc.com.