The welfare of the youth of his community has long been a priority for the Rev. Herb Robbins, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Artesia.

Robbins came to St. Paul's in 1974 as an interim, non-paid priest while working in Roswell during the week.

"A ‘weekend warrior’ is what they used to call us," said Robbins.

"I was not in the full-time ministry at the time. I was doing something else at the time.

"Basically, I’ve been a bi-vocational priest most of my life, which means I’ve always had two jobs since I returned to the Church."

That tradition continues for Father Herb, who can be seen every day around town driving Bus No. 14 for Artesia Schools.

Originally ordained as Methodist clergy in the 1960’s, Robbins was active in the Methodist Church for about 10 years, when he left the active ministry to go into youth work.

"Most of my youth work has been done in Roswell," said Robbins.

"We started a half-way house for juvenile delinquents; I started out as a counselor and ended up being a director ... It was really pretty much by happenstance; ... I was in between jobs and somebody came to me and said they needed a youth counselor.

"They said they couldn't afford a full-time counselor, so they asked me if I’d come to work for room and board and a small salary."

Robbins decided to take a chance, and from that time the youth services program started to grow.

A drug program was added, then a first-offenders’ program to help youngsters going into court for the first time.

He worked as youth counselor and recruiter, traveling three states to bring agricultural workers who were high school drop-outs to the Roswell campus of Eastern New Mexico University to complete their GEDs.

It became apparent that a more permanent facility was needed to deal with the needs of the communities’ troubled youths.

This need was met by the establishment of a permanent group home in Roswell.

Robbins worked as the first director of the facility, known as Assurance Home.

The home’s current director, Ron Malone, was hired initially as Robbins’ assistant and collaborated closely on obtaining funding for the project.

"Projects Herb’s been involved with have really had a great impact on the lives of many people," said Malone.

"Because of Herb we’re the organization we are today."

Robbins worked with members of Grace Church, Carlsbad, in establishing Grace House, a group home for troubled boys.

Members of St. Paul’s have also been involved in the project.

Robbins, a native of Hampstead, Long Island, NY, and his wife, Kelly, are the very proud parents of three sons, Ty, Kirk, and Jake. All are graduates of Artesia High School.

"My sons grew up in Artesia," he said. "I made a decision to stay in Artesia for same reason many people did.

"It’s a wonderful town to raise children. There are a lot of good programs, youth programs.

"We need a lot more programs for a lot of youth that we're not serving, but it still, even with all of our problems and our needs, has been a wonderful place to raise our family.

"Youth services," said Robbins, "are always important. Mentoring programs, whether they be Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Grandparents, whatever, any kind of mentoring programs can be helpful.

"Unfortunately, a lot of towns the size of Artesia don't get those programs until the problems get out of hand.

"The expense is always a problem, and we try to do the best we can with what we have, but it's still a lot cheaper than when you let it go and we have to deal with it later."

Robbins has kept a low profile as far as helping public agencies, with the intention of letting other leadership, whether clergy or lay persons, in other churches step forward to get involved.

He recognizes the good work that is being done in Artesia, but his vision goes a step further.

That is to see the Church work together as a community to serve the common welfare and needs of all.

A "pet peeve" of his is the divisions that have grown up between the various denominations, resulting in much duplication of efforts.

"We’ve got more churches in this town than we have gas stations," he said.

"To me, the divisions within the Christian church have really hurt the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"The divisions are our own pride, our own lack of being able to talk with our brothers and sisters who think differently, and really still end up worshipping and working together and supporting one another."

But with focus and cooperation, Robbins is confident that any difficulties can be overcome.

He recognizes that there are many large churches with sufficient funds to carry out successful programs, in addition to small churches doing good work as well.