Sheppards native Paul Robelen has been ordained as a Baptist minister.

Robelen, who grew up in Buckingham County, studied at Indiana Baptist College, serving an internship in a church, traveling with the college’s vocal ensemble.

After graduating in 2005, he served as the assistant pastor of Independent Bible Baptist Church in Paris, Ill for two years. He later was named assistant pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Burgaw, N.C., where he remained for seven years.

In 2014, he moved back to the Farmville area and began an evangelistic ministry. He became a member of Trinity Baptist Church in Keysville and has helped in the church’s ministry.

Robelen said he recently accepted the call to begin Biblical Baptist Church, being organized in Farmville.

An ordination council met on Saturday, Feb. 18 at Trinity Baptist Church in Keysville and officially ordained Robelen as an independent Baptist minister.