Obituary of Bobbi J. Adkins

Bobbi J. Adkins, age 90, currently of Cazenovia and formerly of the Little Falls area, passed away peacefully on Thursday morning, May 19, 2022, in the privacy and comfort of her home. Bobbi was born in Harlan, Kentucky on April 26, 1932, a daughter of the late Grant and Ruby Jones. She grew up in a mining community where, because her mother was the postmaster, their home was the center of community activity. Bobbi grew up with her younger brother, Doug, and younger sister, Peggy, both whom preceded her in death. She also was blessed with a half-brother, Grant Jones, who resides in Texas. As a young woman, Bobbi worked for author, Dale Carnegie, travelling, speaking and encouraging women. It was while working in Virginia Beach that she met her husband to be, Howard Adkins, whilst he was attending Dale Carnegie’s men’s meetings and stationed with the military in Virginia Beach. After Bobbi and Howard were married in the late 1950s, they settled in Ocean View. They both accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in the mid 1960s and Bobbi became part of a secretary pool that Pat Robertson of CBN used in his early years. It is here that she met Wade Taylor as he accepted the deed to a property CBN Ministry owned in Upstate New York; a property that would later become the Pinecrest Bible Training Center. This meeting changed the direction of both Bobbi’s and Howard’s lives. While attending Rock Church in Virginia Beach, they started taking hungry believers to Spirit filled conferences at the then, newly established Pinecrest Training Center in Salisbury Center, NY. Originally this building and property were an old Tuberculosis Sanitarium, after which it was converted to an Italian Assembly of God Bible School. Bobbi and Howard felt the call to join the ministry at Pinecrest and relocated to the Little Falls area in the 1970s. Both Howard and Bobbi became an integral part of the Pinecrest family and Bobbi was proud to be its longest serving employee of over forty-seven years. While there, she tended to her administrative duties and was responsible to bring international students through the process of coming to the school. She oversaw the children’s Sunday School department, developing Principles of the Kingdom curriculum for children and overseeing the Church finances. She was also rumored to be the lead instigator who encouraged the development of the “Brother Hoyer Library.” She brought together the bible school and community by creating the “Kings Provision” ministry which provided food and clothing to the poor and had an intercessory prayer group that met each week for years. We know her heart gravitated in her senior years to the ministry and work started by Sparrows Gate and later developed into a ministry that Bobbi came to along with Jeri Goots and many faithful others. They were led by Verna and Tim Springer and would help the Oaxacan migrants that settled in the Ensenada area by bringing them water and starting building projects to those living on trash dumps. In Tecati, Mexico they built a beautiful daycare to care for the communities’ children that to this day is run by Elva and Jose, and mostly funded by this ministry; as well as a daycare in Belize for a foster mother. Bobbi retired three years after the bible school relocated to Virginia Beach, under the new name “Pinecrest Bible Training Center, DBA Bethany Bible Training Center” and under the leadership of Jack and JoAnn Piccataggi. At the age of 82 she continued to be a faithful intercessor and was, for the first time, able to sit in on the first and second year classes. At the 50 year reunion, Bobbi was presented with an Honorary Biblical Studies Degree. Unfortunately, at the age of 84, Bobbi was forced to retire because of her progressive dementia diagnosis. It was while taking a short visit to see her niece and nephew that she decided to return to New York in December of 2016 and called her friends, Mike and Bonnie Manion, to “pick her up” from the airport. She went on to celebrate her 85th and 90th birthdays, all the while living with them. Bobbi became an important part of the Manion family, as well as their church, up until her passing. After a long battle with unfortunate complications which sent her from hospital to nursing home multiple times, Mike and Bonnie were able to bring her home to be with them on May 18. She died peacefully and without struggle in the early morning hours of May 19,2022, as her name was called up in glory. Bobbi touched many lives and we can testify that she has left an indelible mark on each of us. Bobbi is survived by her half-brother, Grant Jones, Jr. of Texas; her nieces, Melissa Thomas of Texas and Joyce Jones of Ohio; her nephews, Wayne Riehle of Ohio, Bill Jones of Ohio and William Jones of South Carolina; her dear friends and second family, Mike and Bonnie Manion and family of Cazenovia; as well as all of her dear friends and church family at the Community Covenant Church in Manlius. Friends and relatives are invited to attend visitation for Bobbi on Friday morning, May 27, 2022 from 10:00AM - 11:00AM at the Enea Family Funeral Home, 24 West Monroe Street, Little Falls, NY (315) 823-2424. Bobbi's funeral service and Celebration of Life will commence on Friday at 11:00AM at the funeral home, immediately upon the conclusion of visitation, with Pastor Thomas Worth of the Community Covenant Church in Manlius, officiating. Procession will follow to Salisbury Rural Cemetery where Bobbi will be laid to rest with her husband, Howard. For those wishing to do so, please consider memorial contributions in Bobbi’s memory to: Community Covenant Church ATTN: Bobbi Adkins Mexico Mission 107 Pleasant Street Manlius, NY 13104 Final arrangements have been entrusted to Funeral Directors, Harry and Kevin Enea and Martin L. Ciaccia. Online notes of sympathy may be left at www.eneafamily.com.