I launched a 3 minute promotional DVD on my 'Footplate Padre' ministry to a cross-cultural audience during a Country Town Tour to Melbourne, Victoria a few years back (as I have all over Australia).
It was pleasing to see how astonishingly well it was received by all those who watched. Yes, a steam engine pumping video.
I was a locomotive engineman on the New South Wales Government Railways for 10 years during the last vestiges of steam in the late '60s before going into the Christian ministry in 1977. I was invited in 2007 to become the Footplate Padre for the 'On Track' Railway e-magazine.
Since 1984 I have written 16 books on train drivers' anecdotes. Moreover, served the Australian cricket fraternity as their chaplain since 1984, first as the Australian cricket team chaplain, then moving sideways in 2001 to 'Life After Cricket'.
One of our Well-Being Australia’s ministries over many years are Country Town Tours taking elite athletes and coaches in role-model and mentor roles to rural Australia.
This particular Tour began at a cross cultural outreach function at St Judes Anglican Church in Melbourne city.
One might think that university students (young men and women), many of them Asian, would be the most inappropriate audience possible for the inaugural promotional showing of a 3 minute DVD which included steam engines roaring through the Australian countryside.
My wife, Delma Tronson. had some doubts as to how it might go over, but was delightedly taken aback by their engagement. It was a magnificent hit! They delighted watching those huge wheels and rods of steam locomotion at high speed and the nature of the Footplate Padre's ministry.
It illustrated that ministry is not restricted to the confines of the parish walls.
This opened a whole new ministry door to the role of the Footplate Padre. It is one thing to 'talk' about this ministry but a dramatic short DVD initiating such a presentation brings the subject alive and gives it a whole new meaning.
The effect is remarkable.