Dr. Jenny Rea "Jerry" Herman
First Lady of Christ Temple, Kalamazoo
First Lady of the Northern District Council
Dr. "Jerry" Herman is the long time bride (60years October 9, 2009) of Bishop Harry L. Herman, Diocesan of the 5th Episcopal District of the pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., which includes the state of Michigan and a part of Canada. She and bishop celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Oct. 9, 1999 with a cruise to Hawaii, where they repeated their vows on board the ship U.S.S. Independence. Dr. Herman was Born in Pearl River, a small Louisiana town on November 25, 1929. She is the Mother of five sons, John, Phillip, Robert, David (deceased), and Michael.
She was baptized in the name of Jesus in May 1949 and received the Holy Ghost on January 29, 1950. She spent her first saved 18 years in Christ Temple, known as the "Mother Church", in Indianapolis Indian, under the leadership of the late Bishop Morris E. Golder and the late Bishop Willie Lee. Her first appointment was teaching a Sunday School class and soon she was working in the A.B.S.A. (Indiana Council) and in the Young People's Department.
After moving with her family to Michigan in 1966, she became active in the Northern DIstrict Council and served as Treasurer of the Sunday School Department, Assistant Treasurer of the Missionary Department, Parliamentarian, and the President of the Minister's Wives from 1984 thru 1988.
She has been First lady of the two councils her husband was Diocesan over, (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Dakotas for 6 1/2 years and the Northern District Council since March 1996- present). She served in both councils as President of the Minister's Wives Auxiliary. This experience has helped her serve the IMWMWA for many years.
Dr. Herman has been very active in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. She served the IMWA/IMWMWA for 19 years, beginning as their Assistant Treasurer in 1985. She moved to the office of Second Vice President in 1998. Within a month of the election, the newly elected President, Dr. Geraldine Davis, passed and Dr. Herman became President in 1998, and served until 2004.
Dr. Herman is known for many firsts in her administration, appointing a special group of Minister's Wives known as the "Greeters"; established a TASK FORCE; sponsored the renaming of our auxiliary IMQA/IMWMWA to include widows; the printing of the "Book of Remembrance"; named the scholarship fund the "Dr. Geraldine O. Davis Scholarship Fund"; renamed the Great Ladies Hall, the "Dr. Elma Jean Bowers Great Ladies Hall", located in the PAW Headquarters' Office in Indianapolis, IN; and made sure every ministers wife during her administration has her name on file in the PAW Headquarters in our "Hall of Fame" cabinet. Dr. Herman feels greatly honored by the Minister's Wives to have had the privilege of working with the honorable and outstanding women of God so long. When her work was finished they honored her with a lovely banquet in the beautiful dinning room of the Church of God, Pastored by Bishop Arthur M. Brazier and first lady Isabelle Brazier, of Chicago, illinois.
Dr. Ada Parker closed her personal remarks with this statement, "Dr. Herman is never at a loss of words, even when she is standing before thousands of people. However, her greatest and most profound expression is in the "bear hugs" she gives to everyone, friend or stranger, that says, "I love you, and you are special".
We Love Our First lady !