On March 2, 2005, a nine-member mission team lead by Pastor Shawna Rogers from River Valley Wesleyan, left snowy Halifax and for a ten day Mission Trip to Guatemala. We were the first Canadian short-term mission team to work with the Guatemala Wesleyan Church. Our team had two objectives, building a house for a church member as part of a Habitant for Humanity type project, and doing evangelistic activities such as vacation bible schools, a hospital visit, and basketball based street ministry. What impressed me most was not the thriving young church, the smiling faces that were everywhere or the warm tropical weather that contrasted so sharply with the blizzard we had left behind in Halifax. What impressed me most were the people that we met. And I would like to tell you about one of them.

I meet Pappy at breakfast on my first morning in Guatemala. His house is across the street from the university dorm where Wesleyan mission teams stay in Guatemala City. He has a large kitchen and a big patio where the mission teams eat. As I sat at the breakfast table, I listened as he talked to Rev. Shawna Rogers from River Valley Wesleyan Church. Pappy had a soft spot for women ministers because his wife was the first woman in Guatemala to graduate from seminary. As I listened to Pappy sharing with Shawna about the ministry I knew I was witnessing something special.

I pieced Pappy's story together over the course of our stay. Pappy had been saved before the Second World War by one of the early missionaries. His family was poor and Pappy earned his living by cutting firewood, carrying it to the village on his back and then selling it. There was a rich man in Pappy's village who owned a radio, and for a few pennies he would let people listen to it. By saving carefully Pappy was able to buy a few hours of radio time each week and he would listen to Christian radio shows. When Pappy was 17 the people of his little church asked him to be their Pastor. By memorizing the radio sermons and then reciting them on Sunday, Pappy was able to lead his congregation.

When he was 19 Pappy decided to go to Bible School so that he would be able to serve God better. He got his first pair of shoes and traveled to the capital city where he was given an interview, and accepted into seminary. After his first semester, he was call to the principles office and told that he would have to leave the school so that others, able to do the work, could use the space. Pappy was totally illiterate, and while he could recite the sermons that he memorized from the radio, he could not read the Bible or do any of the written work. Pappy asked for, and was given another chance, someone gave him an old notebook and Pappy used a few of his precious pennies to buy candles. Every night after lights out Pappy would light his candle and stay up half the night copying the Bible word by word, teaching himself to read and write. After finishing Bible School, Pappy served as a Pastor for 63 years. During that time he planted 54 churches. He had a successful radio ministry, and has written several books.

He and his wife have five surviving children and I was fortunate enough to meet three of them. As I listened to them talk it was clear that Pappy considered his duty to his children to be a vital part of his ministry, and his time was well spent. All of Pappy's children are involved in full-time or parachurch ministry. One is a key organizer for South America Crusades with the Billy Graham organization, another is a pastor’s wife who heads up Woman and Children work in Guatemala for the Wesleyan Church and World Hope and another is an evangelist who has a radio program that is broadcast to a potential audience of 45 million people daily and who is scheduled to preach at rallies on four continents this year. Pappy is 87 years old and although he no longer pastors a church, he still preaches three times a week.

As I put the pieces of Pappy's story together I thought about what Pappy, the old Pastor nearing the end of his ministry, had said as he talked to Pastor Shawna, a young pastor just starting her ministry, at breakfast on that first day in Guatemala.

Pappy, the man who had started preaching at 17, who had over come illiteracy to finish Bible School, who had led his family in such a way that all of his children are Christians in active service. Who had planted 54 churches in 63 years of ministry, who had a successful radio career and been published repeatedly. Pappy, the man who at 87 - is still preaching three times a week.

At breakfast on that first day in Guatemala, Pappy told Shawna that when he prayed, he asked that God would give him 100 more years to serve Him.