AP Nazarene Church Donates Truck to Haiti Pastor 2013
Southern Florida District donates truck to Haiti pastor
May 10, 2013
The Southern Florida District surprised Pastor Paul and Anncesse Zamor with the gift of a pickup truck at an annual mission convention.
In addition to serving as pastor of the largest Nazarene church in Haiti, Pastor Zamor is superintendent of the Upper Artibonite District, about 100 miles north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Southern Florida District created a partnership with Pastor Zamor three years ago.
After working with Pastor Zamor for nearly three years, we realized he had no way of visiting the nearly 40 churches on his district other than by walking or motorcycle taxi," said Southern Florida District Superintendent David Nixon. "Our district leadership dreamed big for a full-cab pickup truck that would enable Pastor Zamor to not only visit his churches, but so he could also provide transportation for his fellow pastors too.” Word spread throughout Southern Florida about the desire to find a truck for the Zamors, and the district raised $15,000 for the truck purchase, shipping, and custom charges."An unbelievable deal came through that enabled us to purchase a perfect pickup truck valued at $18,000 for just $10,000 — [it] had low mileage and was in great condition," Nixon said. Avon Park Church of the Nazarene purchased new heavy-duty tires for the truck.
The Southern Florida District Nazarene Missions International Council flew the Zamors from Haiti to Southern Florida to celebrate the accomplishments of the past three years.
At the Friday evening service, NMI District President Dennis Moore told the Zamors story. At the close of the service, convention attendees watched on a large screen as Nixon, Work and Witness Coordinator Roy Shuck, and Haitian Lead Coordinator Pascal Permis escorted them to the truck and presented them with the keys. Convention attendees then celebrated with the Zamors at an outdoor reception near the truck.
Since the first visit by Southern Florida leaders to the Gros-Morne, Haiti, church in 2011, the following has been accomplished:
$150,000 was provided to complete a 2,000-seat sanctuary, dedicated by General Superintendent Jesse C. Middendorf in January 2013
$60,000 was provided by Nazarene Compassionate Ministries to repair the school roof destroyed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake
$13,000 was provided to build and equip the only state-of-the-art computer laboratory in the city
$10,000 was contributed to build new desks for the school
$9,000 in scholarships were provided for students attending the church school
Approximately $20,000 worth of shoes and socks were donated so each student enrolled in the school could have a new pair
$1,500 was contributed to drill a clean water well on the church campus
After the celebration, the Zamors stayed up all night praying for the people of Southern Florida and the Church of the Nazarene and expressing their great gratitude for God's blessings.
Retirees in Florida church give 300 percent to missions
February 21, 2013
At Avon Park Church of the Nazarene, in the retirement community of Avon Park, Florida, U.S., it should come as no surprise that most members of the church are living in their retirement years. This is why it may surprise some to find out how much this church gives to missions.
Running an average attendance of about 80 to 90 people, with the average age being around 80 years old, this church consistently raises about $25,000 for their annual Faith Promise mission offering.
And that’s above and beyond the 5.5 percent of their annual expenditures that they’re already giving to the denomination’s World Evangelism Fund (WEF). In all, the church’s giving totals often more than 300 percent of their 5.5 percent budget.
Pastor Randy Rupert, who has been leading the church for the past five years, says the congregation has long had a heart for missions, and that he continues to reinforce that by keeping missions in front of the church year round, not just during the monthly missions meetings they have on Wednesday nights.
“It’s not about your church, it’s not about us, it’s about others,” he said. He tells them, “Missions isn’t just a part of the church; a church IS missions.”
Avon Park, which began in 1925, has a long legacy of mission giving and involvement. It continued when, in Rupert's first four years as pastor, the church set a four-year goal to raise $29,865; actual contributions soared to $65,833. The church doesn’t stop at sacrificial giving, but expresses its passion through attending monthly mission services, praying and contributing to district-wide mission projects, such as the time it collected hundreds of pairs of children’s shoes toward the district’s project to deliver thousands of shoes to children in Haiti or contributed to the building of a church and school in Gros-Morne, Haiti.
The church also frequently sends members to participate in Work & Witness trips organized by the district or other churches. When the participants return, they host a meeting to show pictures, talk about what they saw and experienced and pass around trinkets they picked up while on the trip, said lay member David Coller.
It’s sending out members on these trips, so that they experience first-hand what God is doing in missions, that keeps things “fresh” at the church, said Coller, who recently returned from a mission trip to Haiti.
It’s keeping their pulse on missions that enables the church members to give well beyond their means to World Evangelism Fund – and to be excited about it.
Each year at the Faith Promise service in which the members pledge their annual mission gift to WEF, they plug in lights along a board to show the progress of the pledges. Within about give minutes, the church usually hits the $20,000 mark.
“Once we reach our $20,000 goal, the place erupts in cheers and claps and it’s that kind of an atmosphere,” Coller said. “It’s not one of the places that we have to struggle to get a passion for mission.”
“Our people are not rich by any means, in fact most of them are on Social Security, but we do what we can and this we can do well,” Rupert added.