Pastor's Cars Stolen, Hearts Touched, Life Lost

July 10 was a typical Sunday morning for Pastor Dwight Moore and his wife of 32 years, Rachel — it was a 20-minute drive to church and they had people to pick up on the way, so it meant an early start. After a quick breakfast, they headed out the door of their Schenectady, New York, home and suddenly it was no longer a typical Sunday morning. Both of their cars had been stolen!

The Moores, who pioneered Clifton Park (New York) Assembly of God 28 years ago, were stunned. Stealing their 8-year-old Honda CR-V seemed plausible, but who would want to steal a 2004 Ford Freestar, a minivan, with more than 200,000 miles on it?

The loss, at initial impact, left the couple in shock. Vehicles were key to their ministry and jobs. Dwight, a bivocational pastor, also drives a school bus and Rachel cleans homes to help make ends meet. Not to mention, others depended on them for a ride to church.

“I wasn’t angry, I was just stunned,” Rachel says, reflecting. “I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it — I was shocked.”

“Schenectady is a fairly rough town and there’s lots of vandalism, poverty, drugs, and a lot of a lot going on,” Dwight says, “but our specific neighborhood has been wonderful to live in — though a few weeks ago, someone slashed two of the van’s tires.”

With about 15 to 20 attending on Sunday mornings, Clifton Park AG is not a large church. In fact, the church meets at the city’s adult community center, with hopes of one day having the finances to build a facility of its own on the property it already owns. Dwight admits it has not always been an easy road, but every time they feel like perhaps it’s time to move on, God does something to confirm His calling.

Oddly enough, God used the theft of their cars to encourage the Moores!

“It almost started right away,” Dwight says. “People in the church sprung into action, volunteering to pick people up for service — the church really pulled together through this. And within 24 hours, we had 15 calls from people offering to lend us their cars to use.”

“The whole support we’ve gotten is just incredible,” Rachel agrees. “People calling to check if we’re okay, offering us vehicles, bringing us meals . . . .”

Rachel says that through the loss of their vehicles, God has revealed the extent of their footprint in the community. “I’m glad we live our daily lives like Christ would want, like Christians,” she says, “because you never know who’s watching you — who we might be affecting without realizing it.”

The Moores have also been overwhelmed by the response to a Go Fund Me account that was set up by a friend of the family, Kathleen Mancuso, to help replace the their vehicles. Nearly 100 people have donated to the cause, with funds still being donated.

“The Moore's church, Clifton Park Assembly of God, is small but their ministry is huge!” Mancuso states in her appeal. “They have touched the lives of countless people in the Capital Region and beyond. The Moores have a reputation for hospitality, giving, ministering, and an incredible work ethic.”

“I am stunned at the Go Fund Me page,” Dwight admits. “It’s almost inappropriate, but certainly affirming.” He says those who have donated include people they’ve known for years along with a lot people they don’t even know, who possibly learned about the loss through friends or the coverage by local media.

“It’s crazy,” Dwight laughs. “I’ve been a pastor for 28 years, we have a good ministry with our local Christian school, I’m a chaplain at the local nursing home, I’m involved in prison ministry . . . and it turns out that to catch the media’s attention, we have to have our cars stolen.”

Rachel says that through the loss, they’ve had multiple opportunities to share their faith, and pray that perhaps even some of the reporters interviewing them for local news have been given cause to consider Christ.

Yet the story has taken an unexpected and deeply painful twist. Nearly a week to the hour that the Moores’ vehicles were stolen, a 17-year-old was killed while driving the Moores’ stolen minivan. Reports state that the driver crashed through a utility pole before the van flipped several times. Two other minors in the car were also seriously injured.

This tragic turn of events has left the Moores with powerfully conflicting emotions — a deep gratitude for the outpouring of support for their family when they were in need, but also heart-wrenching grief for a family who lost a son and for the potential other families (if the other riders were not related) whose children are now hospitalized.

“We don’t know if this young man was the person who originally took the van or if he came by the van in some other way,” Dwight says, “but when I learned of the accident Sunday (July 17) morning, I was just devastated — we went to church and we all just sang for awhile then prayed for awhile, sang some more and prayed some more.”

“This has been very difficult,” Rachel says. “But it has also given us a sense of urgency to get the gospel out there as there are kids who are lost and people who are not living the lives that they should.”

The Moores are hoping that somehow God will make a way for the church to be able to minister to the families of those in the accident.

“I was sort of sick at losing a car,” Dwight says, “but I can’t imagine losing a child like that . . . . I saw pictures of the van, and frankly, I don’t know how the other two riders even survived the accident. We’re hoping and praying that they will be okay . . . and that one day we’ll have great opportunities to testify to the Lord’s goodness to them.”

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.