Down a new path

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2016 (2760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local pastor and missionary had been living in Mozambique for the last eight years when God called him back home to Grunthal.

Nearly two months ago, Rick Neufeld stepped into the role of senior pastor at the Grunthal Abundant Life Fellowship (GALF)—a non-denominational church he watched his father help build from the ground up.

In June 2015, Neufeld’s father, Dave, died in a plane crash. Dave Neufeld pastored at the GALF for 30 years, overseeing the church’s expansion from its first gatherings at South Oaks School to congregating in its current building on Provincial Road 205.

It is quite scary stepping in to a role that his father held for three decades, Neufeld said, particularly because most pastors don’t stick around that long.

“It’s been scary because most pastors don’t last more than five years and my dad was here for 30 years. Then he dies. When somebody dies, all of a sudden they have no flaws,” said Neufeld.

“Not only are you coming to fill a pastor’s role who has been here for 30 years instead of five, now he’s also perfect. So, you’re this punk kid, if you will, saying ‘I’m going to be a pastor now!’ You worry about stuff like this, because you recognize that these are shoes I can’t fill.”

But filling his father’s shoes isn’t Neufeld’s goal.

“My first Sunday here, I told everybody, ‘God didn’t tell me to fill dad’s shoes.’ Dad’s shoes are too big for me. I’m not here to fill his shoes—I’ve actually got bigger shoes to fill. I’m here to fill the shoes of Jesus,” said Neufeld.

“My goal isn’t to do things like my dad. Everybody knows I’m not here to do things like my dad. I’m going to do things the way Jesus did things. So, if Jesus fed the hungry, I’m going to do that. Jesus’ shoes are much bigger than dad’s.”

Becoming a missionary and pastor wasn’t necessarily to follow in his father’s footsteps either, Neufeld said. Though he grew up in the church because of his father, Neufeld said he’s experienced God do some incredible things in his life and it comes down to loving and serving God with all his heart.

“God led me to go to Africa. We prayed about it and prayed about it. Dad took me to Mozambique when I was youth pastoring in Killarney, so I just felt that was what God wanted,” said Neufeld.

While working with SAM Ministries in Mozambique, Neufeld and his wife, Heather, trained pastors, worked with orphans, and ran a school of 280 children.

“It was basically built on the idea of love God, love people,” said Neufeld. “If you go to church, but your church is doing nothing, you’re doing something wrong, because God said nobody should be hungry, nobody should be cold, nobody should be naked, nobody should be lonely.”

The Neufelds adopted two children, Tendai and Ryan, while living in Africa.

When Neufeld came home to Grunthal for his father’s funeral last year, he went back to Africa with no intentions of leaving again.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to leave Africa. There’s no greater job than doing [missionary work there],” said Neufeld.

Neufeld is a self-described redneck—rough around the edges and not your typical pastor. But this, he said, made Africa the perfect fit for him.

“We had two children at our school die from crocodile attacks. I was the resident redneck, so I was the only one who was willing to find this crocodile and kill it. That was my job,” said Neufeld.

“I got to do the whole ‘let’s teach you about the Bible, but I also got to go swimming in the water to find a crocodile,” said Neufeld.

In the past year, Neufeld had been asked several times to come back to Grunthal.

“I remember talking to my wife. I said, ‘I don’t want to go home, but I feel that God is telling us to go home.’ She cried and said, ‘no,’” he said.

After praying about going home for two weeks, Neufeld said he revisited the idea with his wife. She said no again. After another two weeks of praying, Heather finally said God wanted them to go home.

Neufeld and his family flew back to Canada on Aug. 4. Neufeld was behind the pulpit preaching the following Sunday.

“We didn’t want to come home, but I know God has something in store. I know something great is going to happen, but I don’t know what it is,” he said.