Wheelchair Ministry: 'A Sermon On Wheels'

SIOUX FALLS, SD (June 10, 2000) - "Then Peter said, 'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk.' " (Acts 3:6)

How can one local church touch the lives of thousands of people throughout the world?

Harvest Covenant Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, found a way, thanks to a wheelchair refurbishing organization started by Mark Richard, one of its regular attendees.

Richard helped Hope Haven International Ministries (HHIM) in nearby Rock Valley, Iowa, develop a wheelchair distribution program and has participated in a number of trips overseas to deliver wheelchairs. Harvest Covenant has established a special relationship with several Vietnam villages, and one family in particular.

In March, Harvest Covenant (sponsored through HHIM) sent two teams to Vietnam to distribute 250 wheelchairs. Hundreds more are on the way via other ministries. Overall, HHIM has helped distribute 14,000 wheelchairs in five and a half years in more than a dozen countries. The accompanying photos demonstrate the impact in one individual's life, showing the individual both before and after he received his gift of mobility.

Richard originally directed a wheelchair ministry called "Wheels for the World," a program that is part of a ministry operated by Christian author and speaker Joni Earickson Tada. Richard also has received help from South Dakota State Penitentiary, which refurbishes nearly half of the wheelchairs delivered throughout the world. The original connection to the penitentiary came through a prison ministry in the area.

"These guys in the prison are doing a wonderful job," Richard said. "And the wheelchairs that they make are better than when they were brand new. We've gotten a lot of corporate support and the inmates love the opportunity to do something," he continued. "They love it. They feel good about helping people, and it's vocational training."

It didn't take much to convince Harvest Covenant pastor Steve Hickey about the importance of a wheelchair ministry. His father-in-law pastors a Covenant church despite having been confined to a wheelchair.

Another reason why Richard's work excites Hickey is the unique opportunity the wheelchair ministry provides for sharing the gospel to an area where the gospel is seldom preached. According to Hickey, the communists have closed nearly 300 churches in the country. While many underground churches exist in Vietnam, only nine official state churches remain open. The lone bible school in Vietnam was closed in 1975. Experiencing how the giving of wheelchairs and the gospel changes lives in Vietnam moves Hickey greatly.

"We gave wheelchairs to people who were relegated to the back room of a hut and it moved me to tears to see some of these people," said Hickey, who traveled to Vietnam in August 1999. "The wheelchairs gave these people dignity. You can't preach the sermon (legally) in Vietnam, but there are probably 3,000 people in this country who are sermons on wheels. And just on one trip alone, 750 sermons were delivered," he continued.

"They're still killing people over there for their faith, and yet these people really have a thirst for God and his Word," Hickey said. "It's crazy. I met a person in a remote town who had learned English from the Wycliffe Bible translators and whose prized possession was a New Testament given to him in the 1950s."

Hickey's 16-day trip to Vietnam was meaningful in a variety of ways. Hickey was the first foreigner to preach in Nha Trang since 1975, according to local villagers. Two hundred people were there to hear Hickey that day as local police stood by to monitor his message. Later in his trip, Hickey preached at a leper church that Harvest Covenant Church has supported.

Changing lives with the gospel is a primary focus of the wheelchair ministry to Vietnam. However, one boy won't have to use a wheelchair because of the care given him by a Harvest Covenant member and a host of others. Dr. Scott Ecklund, who attends Harvest Covenant and serves as a family practice physician in Sioux Falls, was able to bring back a child from Vietnam to the United States in order to perform an operation that allowed him to walk again.

The child, Xuan Nguyen, had been injured and his broken left leg did not mend properly. An operation to fix the leg would have been impossible in Vietnam due to its lack of medical resources, so Ecklund petitioned to have Nguyen flown to South Dakota for surgery. From there, Ecklund and others saw God's hand working mightily in creating the means for a happy ending.

First, Xuan and his father Sang received passports on short notice, a rare occurrence. Then Sioux Valley Hospital and University Medical Center paid for both of them to fly from Vietnam to South Dakota. Local doctors volunteered their time to operate and provide care for Xuan. A local physical therapist gave free service as a translator, and the local Vietnamese community cooked Vietnamese meals for Xuan and Sang. Even Wal-Mart pitched in, donating clothing for the father and son during their four-month stay in Sioux Falls.

Hickey and wife, Kristen, traveled with Richard and his wife, Sandy, to the Gaza strip in Palestine to deliver 175 wheelchairs, sponsored by Covenant World Relief. Hickey said the cost to send the chairs was $4,000, or $229 apiece, which he considers a small amount for reaching people with the gospel.

"It brought our people to the persecuted church, and now it is just part of our DNA as a church," Hickey said of the wheelchair ministry. "The ministry that Mark Richard started is great, and it's wonderful that the government is allowing him to come back. We brought the gift of mobility and the good news."

Richard said that one way that Covenanters can aid the HHIM ministry is by collecting wheelchairs in their areas, similar to one completed in Lees Summit, Missouri, by Deerbrook Covenant Church.

Additional information on HHIM and the wheelchair ministries may be obtained by contacting Richard by telephone at 712-476-3181 or by e-mail at mrichard@hopehaven.org.

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