Bikes and Bibles
Clergy and lay leaders display their certificates and bikes after a Bikes and Bibles training session at the Child Rescue Center in Bo, southern Sierra Leone. Members of the Anglican Church, United Brethren in Christ and United Methodist Church took part in the training.
Since the Bikes & Bibles program began three years ago in Sierra Leone, churches have been planted in communities that previously were Muslim or practiced traditional African religions.
In Kortumahun, a new congregation of 70 members worship where there were previously no Christians. In Sembehun, a new congregation of 92 has grown out of a community that had only practiced traditional religion. Gbanahun, which was predominantly Muslim and had a few African traditionalists, now has a Christian congregation of 92. The New York Section of rural Bo City, which started with just 10 members, now has a congregation of 145, said the Rev. Francis Charley, Bo district superintendent.
Steven Senesie, circuit minister for the Mongere Circuit in Bo, received a motorbike from the Bikes & Bibles program in 2015 and said his experience has been great.
“I work in a very difficult terrain where mobility is a huge challenge,” he said. “The commercial motorbikes are so expensive that a pastor cannot afford paying on a regular basis, and pastors have to reach out to congregations in remote communities all the time.”