A Steady Job

Johnny Mote, an Amarillo contractor, wasn’t looking for more work, but it found him anyway.  This past April, he joined up with 8 men to take a missions trip to New Orleans, part of the ongoing restoration of this city devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Their project was the parsonage of a Methodist church that’s situated near one of the main levees that broke and flooded the surrounding area. 

The team tackled finishing the interior of this 2600-square-foot house: texturing and painting, hanging doors and cabinets, putting in baseboards and trim, installing a new garage door.  They helped another group tear out windows at a house down the street, and in the process got invited to attend a church service where they “had a good time in praise and worship and heard some good preaching.”

A month later Johnny and a team of 15 headed out of town for another missions project – this time to Juarez, Mexico to work on the orphanage headed by Trinity members Jeff and Patty Graham.  They started from the ground up –  framing walls, sheetrocking, installing electrical wiring, and building stairs. In two days they completed so much that the project is now months ahead of schedule, according to Jeff Graham.

What made him decide to answer the call to missions work? “I like sleeping on hard floors,” he said, laughing. “And drinking water that’s not good for you; that’s always fun.”

After a moment of contemplation, Johnny spoke from his heart. “I guess the best thing about any mission trip is, number one,  you get to be Jesus to these people, to help them and bless them,” he said. “And second, there’s a bond that’s created between the people that go on the mission trip. It’s more than a friend; it’s a brotherly bond.”

In 1996, he went on an evangelistic missions trip to Mexico, his first, and ever since then God has been impressing on him to keep going. “Like Pastor Marty has been saying in his messages, we need to go out, into our hometown, to our neighbors, our friends, family, to just start where we’re at,” he said. “If you’ve ever stepped out and led a person to the Lord, you’ll never forget it.”

In addition to missions trips, Johnny volunteers at Trinity’s Bethesda Outreach Center on Wednesday mornings, providing security for the 300+ families that come to the weekly food service. He also helps out on the usher/sentinel team for Trinity’s weekend services.

Larry Miles, Trinity’s pastor of missions and outreach, calls Johnny a “steady, good man,” and he cites Johnny’s faithfulness as one of his main attributes. “He’s a guy that I can count on, and I don’t give that term away loosely,” said Pastor Larry. “What I’ve observed is that he uses all of his God-given talents to further the kingdom.”

So when the next opportunity to sign up for a missions trip comes around, Johnny’s name might be on the list. And chances are, there will be more hard floors in Johnny’s future, but he doesn’t really mind. “When you get done, you don’t remember all that,” he said. “You remember the good parts.”