Can you ride a bicycle with one person sitting on the top bar in front of you and one on the backseat?
To make things more interesting, can you pedal your friends on a treacherous dirt path through kilometres of fields and forest? And can you do it on an old, worn-out bike with no fenders, pedals that barely stay on, a chain that comes off frequently and a front brake that hangs by a little wire?
If your answer is “yes” to all of these questions, then you just qualified to join Pastor Raji’s evangelism team in India’s Andhra Pradesh state!
Pastor Raji has a great vision to take the Gospel to the many villages that surround his church. And God has given him six young men from his congregation who are on fire for the Lord and eager to help make it happen –so eager, in, fact, that when they go on outreach with their pastor, three of them ride on each of their two old bicycles!
Because some of the young men are students and the others have full-time jobs, the time they have available to visit interior villages is limited to the late afternoons and weekends. And that’s why their transportation is so crucial.
It takes Pastor Raji and his team two hours of walking to reach a village that is three miles away –but they can get there in half an hour by bicycle. With the bikes, they also can transport much-needed Gospel literature for distribution. Most of all, they can travel much farther, visit two villages instead of just one, preserve much-needed energy for their actual evangelism work, and return home the same evening.
On their old, worn-out bicycles, the team took the Gospel to 50 villages within six months. As a result, many souls were saved and churches were planted in several places.
But just imagine how much more they could do if Pastor Raji’s old bicycle could be replaced by a new one and the team could have three additional bikes for their outreach!
No doubt it would greatly accelerate their effectiveness. And the missionaries who pedal the bikes would be grateful if they only had to give a ride to one team member instead of two.
In South Asia, bicycles are crucial ministry tool, especially in rural areas where public transportation is limited and often unreliable. Unfortunately, few of our native missionaries can afford to buy the rugged bicycles that are specially built for the difficult roads they travel.
… It has been reported to me that a least 2000 of our native missionaries like Pastor Raji urgently need bicycles to be able to reach the many communities that lie all around their towns and villages.
And you can make a difference. In fact, you can provide one of our missionaries with a heavy-duty Asian bicycle for only 130$ -and double or triple his or her effectiveness overnight!
The wonderful thing is, the impact of your gift will be seen immediately: Many more villages will be reached with the Gospel, and thousands of people will have the opportunity to receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord –all because of your gift.
So I ask you to prayerfully consider how God would have you participate in this tremendous opportunity to help our native missionaries. Whether you can provide one bicycle or a dozen bicycles –or make a gift toward providing one- you will be sharing the wonderful Good New of Jesus Christ with thousands of men, women, and children who have never before heard His name.
And in the light of eternity, helping others find salvation is the most important thing we can do with our lives. I pray that God’s blessings will be upon you as you follow Him.
Yours for Asia’s unreached,
K.P. Yohannan
President of Gospel for Asia
www.gfa.org
BANK FOR NATIVE MISSIONARIES: 0$/as of May 4, 2006. All of May’s monies will be given toward providing one bike. Please email me gabeleroux@yahoo.ca if you’d like to partake in this neat opportunity!
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