Kentucky is known for horses. From the famed Kentucky Derby to the beautiful horse farms that grace our landscape, horses are part of our state culture. Happy Trails Ministry, led by Kentucky missionary Chris Clarke, uses the love of horses to share the gospel.
EBO is at work helping this ministry purchase truck fuel, Bibles, and other ministry supplies. Chris wrote in a recent report, “Thanks to EBO, we were able to travel to 12 ministry locations and engage individuals in various equestrian ministries, including Cowboy Church services, scripture distribution (Cowboy New Testaments), witnessing tract distribution (“The Simple Plan of the Master Horseman,” provided by the KBC), and bottled water distribution.”
All of this is provided free to people in the equestrian community as a way to engage them in meaningful conversations and offer spiritual guidance and support. Chris is in his 13th year of equestrian ministry and finds that this ministry helps him to share faith in Christ in a non-threatening way (particularly with the bottled water ministry). As Chris meets people, he encourages the lost to turn their lives over to Christ and begin living for Him. Due to the rapid growth of cowboy churches across the country, many of those that Chris reaches join a cowboy church. If they live in western Kentucky, Chris invites them to Kentucky Lake Cowboy Church in Draffenville.
In an email last December, Chris wrote to tell me a little more about the Kentucky Lake Cowboy Church. “I am so proud (in a good way) of our folks…. Many of them have little to no church background when they become part of our fellowship. I tell them often that I am going to preaching tithing and giving because Jesus did and it’s in the Bible…. They haven’t had many years of stewardship education on which to build a firm foundation. They simply want to be faithful to the Lord. So I challenge them, I teach them, I show them the videos, I pass out the prayer guides, I pray, I do everything I know to do … then the Holy Spirit does the rest!
“Giving is only a part of their commitment. Once each month a group of 10-12 will go to our local food kitchen to prepare and serve a meal, then clean up after the meal. I’ve challenged them to embrace the teaching of James and prove their love by their deeds. They love those folks at the food kitchen and enjoy serving the Lord by serving the less fortunate. In fact, some of the folks from the food kitchen are now attending our church. I recently baptized two of them and two others joined.”
EBO is at work sharing Jesus with people attending equestrian events in Kentucky. And many of those people are now giving back through the Cooperative Program and Eliza Broadus Offering.
Joy Bolton is executive director-treasurer of Kentucky Woman�s Missionary Union, P.O. Box 436569, Louisville, KY 40253; (502) 489-3534; kywmu.org
Joy Bolton