By Paul Leighton
BEVERLY — For a man who has been in one place for 20 years, the Rev. Mark Coleman admits to a "crazy wanderlust." Now he'll get the chance to act on that inclination.
On Sunday, Coleman presided over his final service at North Shore Community Baptist Church, where has been the pastor since 1989. Today, he'll hop on his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle and head out on a 7,000-mile trip across the country.
Coleman's trip, like his ministry, won't be without purpose. He is riding to raise money and awareness for Peace and Hope Trust, a nonprofit organization run by his son Peter that helps poor people in Nicaragua.
"It's been a dream of his for quite some time anyway," Peter Coleman said of his father's cross-country ride. "It's great that it can be a fusion of his being able to manifest his dream and us being able to reach out and help people."
The 67-year-old Coleman plans to ride to Minnesota to visit his daughter, to Oregon to visit his sister, and to Arizona to visit his brother. He'll stop at camp sites along the way and at an occasional motel, "when I need a good shower."
He'll raise money through donations and per-mile sponsorships.
Coleman has been riding motorcycles since 1972. He has often gone off on three- or four-day trips around New England, but nothing to this extent.
"I see it as perhaps a first step in decompressing," he said. "I'm finishing 41 years in pastoral ministry. This will give me two months to do some reflecting."
Coleman, a native of Braintree, spent the first 21 years of his ministry in Minnesota. Since he arrived at North Shore Community Baptist Church in 1989, the Beverly Farms church has expanded its outreach programs and quadrupled its donations.
The church supports local causes like Beverly Bootstraps and the River House homeless shelter as well as career missionaries in places like Africa and Spain.
Sunday attendance has grown to more than 450, Coleman said, and the average age of the congregation is 37. The church has a nursery to provide child care during worship services and baby-sitting for mothers of preschoolers who want to get together for brunch.
As the church has grown, Coleman has made a point to "know and care about each one," church member Steve Crowe said.
"The most amazing thing about Mark is that he really deeply cares about people," Crowe said. "If anyone is in the hospital he's there within an hour. He's just everything you could ever expect and hope for in a pastor."
Coleman apparently passed along his compassion to his son. Peter Coleman, 35, has lived in Nicaragua for eight years as the field director for Peace and Hope Trust.
The organization has provided relief in the wake of hurricanes and floods, refurbished schools and churches, and built an orphanage, medical clinics and rice mills.
Mark Coleman said his son works with "the poorest of the poor, on the back side of the back side," including children who live in a dump and survive by eating the garbage.
Peter Coleman called his father's cross-country trip, which has raised $8,000 so far, "a real blessing to the organization in a time of economic crisis."
"This type of publicity is really life-saving to the people we're trying to reach out to," Peter Coleman said.
Mark Coleman credited his wife, Gordon College social work professor Sybil Coleman, for supporting his ministry and his motorcycle trips. In his retirement, he plans to take a course on teaching English as a second language, visit the families his church has supported around the world and perhaps fill in at churches that need an interim pastor.
"Looking back, I cannot think of anything I'd have rather done," he said. "It has been immensely meaningful. I'm so grateful we could serve the Lord that way."
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Donations can be sent to Peace and Hope Trust Inc., "A Ride for Peace and Hope," P.O. Box 242, Salem, MA, 01970.
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by e-mail at pleighton@salemnews.com.
