By Jennifer Taylor
Several years ago, Jerry and Debbie Cramer, members at Tyro (Kansas) Christian Church, began Gifts for the Nations, a ministry dedicated to providing medical equipment, educational material, clothes, bedding, and other supplies locally and internationally.
“They began working with missionaries in northern Africa,” says David Bycroft, Tyro Christian”s evangelist. “When they learned the farmers there were using cow bones as hoes to prepare fields for planting, they wanted to send a tractor.”
Jerry and a small team restored the first tractor and partnered with FAME (Indianapolis, Indiana) to ship it to an African village. The team bought additional tractors for parts, received some as donations, and worked together to restore a second one.
Trial and error and a few more junk parts created a plow; the men sandblasted and painted both so they looked new.
“When we were done, I knew that little “˜Farmall A” looked better than when it first rolled off the assembly line,” Bycroft says. “But the true beauty is what they will accomplish””helping more people grow more food.”
If you are interested in tackling a similar project, contact Bycroft at davidb@tyrochristian.org for more information.
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Jennifer Taylor, one of Christian Standard”s contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Read her blog at www. christianstandard.com.
Is your church leading innovative ministry? Send a brief description and contact info to buzz@standardpub.com.
I read about your project in one of my farm magazines and think that what you are doing is a great thing to help people and spread God’s word.