Over a year ago, Webster Groves Christian Church gave funds to a Global Ministries program that provides motorcycles, equipment, and training for pastors serving in remote areas of the southern African nation of Lesotho. The pastor who received the training and the motorcycle WGCC provided is Bonang Nephtali Mapitse, who serves the parish of Tsoelike in the mountainous region in the southeast of Lesotho. Pastor Mapitse serves his main congregation and 15 outstation churches that are spread throughout this remote area. It used to take him 7 hours to walk to the farthest outstation to worship and provide pastoral care and leadership. He can now reach that outstation in less than 3 hours, and can often visit two outstation churches in one day. A few of the outstation congregations were on the decline when he came to the parish, but thanks to the bike that has changed. The outstations see him much more frequently and, as a result, congregational participation has improved.

Pastor Mapitse has been serving this parish as he has been moving through the ordination process in the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa, a process that can often take several years after completion of the five-year theological training program at Morija Theological Seminary (where WGCC pastor Jeff Moore, and CCMA Communications Coordinator Susan Moore taught from 2003 – 2007). Pastor Mapitse’s ordination service is scheduled for the 1st of April. Let us continue to pray for him and the parish at Tsoelike.