I talked this afternoon to John Wheeler who is the chaplain for Transport for Christ, a ministry to truck drivers. As I mentioned in a previous post it seems that God is opening up some kind of ministry to truckies.
Being just about right on the highway and havng plenty of parking along the street has to be a positive.
Margaret and I have been thinking about what such a ministry might look like, and as yet we have no clear direction. Margaret has a vision of groups of drivers sitting around the tables out the front of the church, drinking coffee, smoking (let's be realistic!) and doing a Bible study.
John is going to send us some of his printed material just to have available. We may see about helping out with the Convoy For Kids when it happens again in October.
We are taking baby steps along a ministry that we can't even imagine yet. But it just seems right to take the baby steps.
Ironically, in the past I've been accused by people looking for a justification to change churches of being too academic for "real blokes". It's not about how much education you've got, but whether you've got the guts to be honest with people.
I would value lots of prayer.
You have it. Wheew! What a big undertaking! I see a lot of signs on our highway here which runs the entire length of the country (Interstate 75) north and south at truck stops offering Christian things - a Christian radio station particularely geared to truckers, places in the truck stops for prayer and meditation etc. You might do some research on line, the one I saw that looked kind of extensive was http://www.tccministries.org/default.htm. Also there was a guy on Opera who was a Christian trucker, "Big Dad Gibb". He has a new web site at http://www.bigdadgib.net/ I would think radio or CB ministries would a good option because a trucker's time on the road is so precious. However they do have to stop for a certain number of hours to rest (here anyway, it's a legal requirement to avoid fatique).
ReplyDeleteArthur used to be a trucker, and his suggestion was to go out to the truck stops and talk to the truckers to see what their spiritual needs might be.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Lois. We are looking at material put out in Australia by the Transport For Christ chaplain and thinking about offering support for our local Convoy For Kids which is a trucking fund-raising event.
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