The Bishop of Chester is using his love of motorbikes to help hard-to-reach communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rt Rev Mark Tanner set up a Biking Bishop’s Mission Fund, which has so far raised over £13,000 to provide motorbikes for two of Chester’s linked Congolese dioceses, Aru and Boga.
Last year, donations of £6,000 enabled the purchase of eleven bikes, and since then, a further £6,900 has been raised, with contributions still coming in, raising hopes that even more bikes can be provided this year.
The bikes are used by clergy, as well as midwives, nurses and teachers who are connected with the Anglican mission, and they’re essential for delivering vital services to remote communities.
Bishop Mark told Premier Christian News he was inspired to set up the fund after visiting Congo two years ago and seeing how popular motorbikes are there for everyday use: “The reality is, their best roads are like our very worst. So most of the roads are just tracks through the jungle or over farmland, and the problem is, you get a flood or a river, and you can't get a Land Rover out without about 10 blokes to pull it out. But a bike you can pull, so they have bikes in every village, and they borrow them and hand them around. Then I discovered it costs just $1,000 (£744) to put a bike on the road, and I thought, ‘We can do this’.
He continued: “I think for us British Christians, we don't really have a sense of just how rooted the church in Congo is to providing not just the kind of spiritual welfare which leads people to faith but also in so many other areas such as nursing and education. So it's not like you're just giving a bike to a vicar as you'd imagine in Britain, it's used for all kinds of services which are provided by them.”
The bishop, who fell in love with motorbikes as a young teenager, also spent Easter weekend leading a motorbike journey around his own diocese to raise funds for the Biking Bishop’s Mission Fund. He said he also uses his passion for motorbikes to preach the gospel:
“I don't think you always associate bikers with Christians or with bishops, so I think it's good to get rid of that divide. It's such a good image of faith as well. I quite often, when I'm preaching, say ‘following Jesus is about trust’. If I had a second helmet, and I held it out and said, ‘Will you hop on the back of the bike?’ And Jesus says, ‘are you willing to put your life in my hands? Are you willing to hop on the back of the bike? Will you trust me?’ So we quite often talk about biking in sermons as well.”