Brookside Church
Home
Who We Are
Community
The Church
Resources
Josh and Gloria with their children
Josh Ames
Josh was born at a United States Air Force Base in Azores, Portugal. He lived in the Azores, in Texas, and New Jersey before ending up in Pennsylvania. Gloria was born and raised here in Pike County, and attended Blooming Grove Baptist Church, where she entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and was baptized early on. The two met as juniors at Wallenpaupack Area High School.
In 1992, Josh and Gloria participated in a Christmas production at the Tri-State Family Christian Center in Port Jervis, NY. It was at the dressed rehearsal of that production that Josh decided to give his life over to Christ.
In July 1993, Josh left PA for basic training in the United States Air Force. Upon completion of his training in Texas and Colorado, he received orders for England, and proposed to Gloria. Upon his return to PA in December of 1993, Josh was baptized and he and Gloria were married at the church she had grown up in.
While they served at New Testament Baptist Church in Kenny Hill, England, they both felt God leading them to serve Him in a full-time capacity.
In 1995, Josh separated from the Air Force, and he and Gloria headed for Jacksonville, FL to Trinity Baptist Church and it’s college by the same name.
While at TBC, they served together on the Sunday School buses that ran into the projects to pick up children for church on Sunday.
Unable to focus, working two jobs himself, while Gloria was working full-time, and with only one car between them to manage it, Josh did not finish his schooling at Trinity. Years later, Josh found out his inability to focus was due to ADHD.
Josh, Gloria, and their daughter, Hannah, moved back to PA in 2001. Josh interned under Pastor Bob Jones at Cole Memorial Baptist Church, speaking Sunday messages while Pastor Jones was ill. When Pastor Jones passed away, Josh and Gloria felt the need to start a new church in the area that would be more contemporary and reach more of the younger crowd.
In June of 2004, on their son Luke’s first birthday, the Ames', their children, and 5 other families met together for their first Bible study as Brookside Church. The group moved into the Hawley Kindergarten Center in October of 2004, where they still meet today.
For more information about Brookside Church, please check out the “About Us” section of this website.
For more information about Brookside Church, please check out the “About Us” section of this website.