Sire

(written March 23, 2015)

“Say goodbye to the asphalt!”

When Fanosie made this declaration from the backseat of the Toyota Corolla we were traveling in, I expected the washboard gravel roads that I have traveled countless times in my years on the prairies…suffice it to say, I was not prepared for what I experienced for the next hour or so – this was hands down the worst road that I have traveled upon in a car.

 

Massive tire busting stones jutted out from the road bed, combined with deep gulley’s that threatened to swallow the car or at minimum leave us hanging in the middle of the road.

Travel was slow, but Solomon managed to find a way to get us to Sire in time for the morning worship service at the Meserete Kristos congregation in the community. We were ushered to the front bench. Minutes later Fanosie was asked to preach! Sire is Fanosie’s hometown and he served as pastor of this congregation for a period of time. As Fanosie jokingly noted several times throughout the morning, this really is a Mennonite Church because everyone is related to everyone else!

The choir welcomed us in song and Fanosie gave a stirring sermon from Matthew 25…at least I think it was stirring by the reaction of the congregation!

 

 The rest of the day was spent visiting Fanosie’s family – his parents, grandparents, and his youngest brother who was recently married.

  

At the end of the day we had the opportunity to make one more visit to a pastor’s home. Fanosie was making a culturally mandatory visit as the pastor’s wife had recently experienced the loss of two family members.

During our visit, Fanosie invited the pastor to share his story of ministry with me. The pastor serves a congregation that lives in and around Sire and up to a distance of 10kms away in every direction. The pastor often spends hours walking or riding a bicycle to the homes of church members – they own neither a car nor motorbike.

Sadly there is often open hostility towards the church in these rural communities – Fanosie mentioned that there was a time when his home congregation in Sire was the target of stones thrown onto the roof to disrupt times of worship. So I guess it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when the pastor shared that while traveling the roads to visit his congregation he had been beaten…with the scars to prove it!

I struggled to come to terms with this scenario…a minister of the gospel, beaten simply for being a minister of the gospel! In Matthew 10:34 Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” These words have begun to make sense to me in this context…evangelism is dangerous! The gospel is dangerous! But only because the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to change lives forever!

Since hearing this pastors story I have heard the stories of several other pastors who share the same experience…no car, no motorbike, and walking or riding a bike in rural communities visiting church members puts their lives at risk…so many have experiences of being beaten and having their lives threatened…

This is the place where I began to fervently ask God why it has to be this way. And the answer that has come back consistently over these weeks is another question: What are you prepared to do about it?