Posts Tagged ‘Christian’
Finale Draws Diverse Crowd
March 14, 2011 | 
Author DAYTONA BEACH — It seemed like an odd place to find Jesus, in the midst of motorcycles and leather-(and often scantily)clad women. But there was Glenn Taylor, a 63-year-old South Carolina preacher, standing next to a table of Bibles and other Christian literature along Main Street on Saturday.
Taylor was one of several veteran Christian bikers who, in the crowd of Bike Week 2011′s grand finale Saturday, saw ample opportunity to spread the Word. Despite an event that, at face value, seems to be incongruous with Christianity, Taylor and others said they usually get a good response from the bikers, and that this year’s crowd has been the most receptive yet.
The key to success, according to Taylor and others, is a hands-off approach.
“There are two main kinds of bikers,” Taylor said. Taylor described the “yuppie biker crowd” who ride on the weekends for fun, and the “hard-core crowd” who would make a career of biking, if they could. If biking were a religion, the hard-core crowd would be the fundamentalists. While yuppie bikers will trailer their bikes for long trips, hard-core bikers abhor the idea.
There is one trait both groups share, though, according to Taylor — they ignore preachers.
So, Taylor took a quiet approach to proselytizing, standing next to a table of books available to take home for free. He only spoke when spoken to. Hector Lopez was a different kind of preacher. Lopez, a.k.a. “The Orlando Birdman,” brought six of his 16 birds to Main Street on Saturday. Three of them stood on his bicycle Saturday afternoon while he arranged the other three — two Macaws and a Cockatoo — on the shoulders of a woman.
Lopez, 49, snapped a picture of the woman, handed her a card so she could get the picture later, then asked for a donation, “to feed the birds.”
When asked about his bicycle, Lopez explained he had “gone green” six years before and didn’t drive anywhere. He wanted to travel the country, he explained, preaching to people that they don’t need to rely on cars and fossil fuels to get places.
But how did he get to Daytona Beach on Saturday from Orlando?
“I drove him,” said Samantha Rovnak, 24, a neighbor of Lopez’s and fellow animal enthusiast who brought her bearded dragon — a lizard — to pose along with the birds for pictures. “We just threw his bike in the trunk and headed over.” Andrea Pressimone, Lopez’s roommate and partner in the birdman business, said this was their second Bike Week. “It’s a great crowd,” said Pressimone, 37. “We’re thinking about renting an RV and coming back next year for the whole week.”
Chuck Pickett, another Christian biker parked along Main Street on Saturday, has come to Bike Week off and on for 15 years to hand out Bibles. In years past, three or four people per day would thank Pickett, 70, of Inglis, for his quiet evangelism.
This year, Pickett said, 30 or 40 people per day are thanking him. Why? “The hardness of times, I think,” Pickett said. “People are hurting.”
Parked next to Pickett was John Britz, who rode his bike down from Export, Pa., for the 21st consecutive year to pass out Bibles at Bike Week. Britz, 65, echoed what Taylor said earlier, that the aggressive preaching style favored by those with megaphones and large signs inspires apathy at best among bikers, ignorance and anger at worst.
Britz also made it very clear which of Taylor’s two biker crowds he fit into.
“I ride here. Every year. I don’t trailer. Put that in bold letters,” he told a reporter, in a tone more serious than he used to discuss anything else, even his religious beliefs.
“I don’t trailer.”
Source: News Journal-Online
Full Story: “http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/03/13/finale-draws-diverse-crowd.html”
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Motorcyclists Share Hope With Lowell Inmates
More than 20 motorcycles, complete with leather-clad bikers, roared into the yard at Lowell Correctional Institution in a surprise visit to the women’s state prison on Saturday morning.
The motorcycles were part of a non-denominational Christian outreach program that visits correctional facilities across the state to try to spread hope to those inside.
Organizing the event was ROOT Outreach, based at Fellowship Baptist Church near Ocala (ROOT stands for Running Out of Time). Members of several other ministries attended the event as well.
Many of the bikers at the event have checkered pasts themselves, pasts that are used as examples of how anyone can be reformed.
“I usually end up talking to the mean ones, because I used to be a mean one,” said Debbie Whisenant of ROOT. “At one time, I was property of a one-percenter biker gang. We’ve done exactly what they’ve done, but God saved us.”
The one-percenter designation is biker slang for the 1 percent of bikers who belong to criminal and outlaw motorcycle clubs.
“We talk to people who are depressed and despondent because they think they have done too many things wrong. We’re here to let them know that it’s never too late,” she said. “Some people don’t like that we do this for the inmates. I feel that they might deserve to be in prison, but they don’t have to go to hell.”
Willie Allen, who spent 15 years on Florida’s Death Row and 26 years in prison before his conviction was overturned, was back near familiar ground.
“I spent some time at Marion Correctional Institute (the men’s prison) across the street. I’m familiar with this area,” he said “I know what they are going through, but I can say Jesus got me out and kept me out. That can be true for anyone here. I was institutionalized for 26 years and broke that old theory that if you’re in for more than five years, you won’t stay out long.”
Allen travels across the country and abroad, sharing his story to other prisoners.
Parked on the basketball court area inside the prison gates, the motorcycles drew the attention of the inmates. Dozens of them began filing into the area to get a closer look. The most popular was a custom chopper built by Al Paquette. The bike, named “Doin’ Time,” features a prison motif with a miniature working cell door on the gas tank. The rest of the bike is adorned with handcuffs, razor wire and other items seen at prisons.
The inmates freely mingled with those at the event, talked about motorcycles, compared tattoos and even started dancing to the ministry’s music.
“I’m glad that they did this for us. It’s great to just meet people and talk to them. In here it’s a daily routine,” said Debra Touchet, one of the inmates at the event.
Source: OCALA
Full Story: http://www.ocala.com/article/20110129/ARTICLES/110129647/-1/news?p=1&tc=pg#
Sydney Bikie Loses Parking Fine Fight
A Sydney court has rejected a motorcycle club member’s attempt to contest a fine for parking illegally outside the New South Wales Parliament.
Greg Hirst, from the Brotherhood Christian Motorcycle Club, was one of at least 30 bikers who gathered outside parliament in June last year to protest against the State Government’s anti-bikie legislation.
Hirst told the court a police officer gave them permission to leave their bikes outside parliament while they went inside to deliver a letter to the Attorney-General.
The court heard they were not issued fines on the day but police took video footage of the bikes and sent the $84 fines later.
Police Inspector David Maguire, who was in charge, denied giving verbal permission but said he did not ask the bikies to move in an effort to keep the peace.
Magistrate Alex Mijovich rejected the application, saying Hirst admitted to knowingly parking there.
He was fined $200 plus court costs.
The fines given to the other bikies are scheduled to be dealt with in a fortnight.
Source: ABC
Full Story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/21/3144475.htm
Christmas in Dixie Ride benefits Christian Services
FORREST COUNTY, MS (WDAM) – Motorcycle enthusiasts from around the Pine Belt got together Sunday for a ride to benefit Christian Services of Hattiesburg.
The event is called The Christmas in Dixie Toy Ride and is in its 11th year. Each of the riders donated $10 or a toy that will help fund Christian Service’s Birthday Party for Jesus that benefits area needy children with toys for Christmas.
The 28 mile ride took the bikers through the Dixie Community, down highway 11 to Purvis and ended with dinner and entertainment at the Elks Lake Lodge. More than 100 bikers took part in the ride.
Christian Service’s Birthday Party for Jesus is Saturday, December 11th at the Ben McNair Center in Hattiesburg.
Source: WDAM
Full Story: http://www.wdam.com/Global/story.asp?S=13577884
Clinkscales and others help kids enjoy Christmas
Before she can finish one project to help the needy of St. Clair County, Eleanor Clinkscales is already making plans to start another.
As the last of the Thanksgiving food baskets were being delivered, Clinkscales had her sights set on toys for needy children at Christmas. It is the 24th Christmas Clinkscales has spent helping needy children throughout the county.
“Our goal is to help 200 kids this year have the chance to open presents on Christmas morning,” Clinkscales said. “Each child we help will be able to open five presents on Christmas.
We put the toys into dark garbage bags and give them to the parents and let the parents put the toys under the tree so the parents can have some pride.”
Clinkscales said it is just a good feeling to know she has helped children enjoy Christmas.
“I will not see the children open their presents, but I will know they received toys,” she said.
This year, the Toys for Kids project was helped by many individuals, organizations and churches. The Pell City Bikers for Christ chapter of the Christian Motorcycle Association donated 22 tricycles. Other entities and individuals donating to the project include Kay’s Auction, Johnson Auction, St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department, Friendship Baptist Church, Gray’s Chapel Baptist Church, Odenville Presbyterian Church, Lawley’s Chapel Methodist Church, Pleasant Hill Methodist Mission, Lister Memorial Baptist Church, Coosa Valley Baptist Church, Refuge Baptist Church, St. Clair Bar Association, Phil Seay, Robert Minor, Denice Daffron, Doris Stubblefield, Frank Riddle, Bettye Wright and Lottie McClantoc.
Full Story: http://www.thestclairtimes.com/view/full_story/10727443/article-Clinkscales-and-others-help-kids-enjoy-Christmas?instance=home_news
New church aims to attract the ‘unreachables’
The Rev. Kenny Rice decided five years after “planting” Set Free Baptist Church in Dahlonega, it was time to create a church with the same rock ‘n’ roll, biker feel in Gainesville.
With the help of the Chattahoochee Baptist Association, Good Samaritan Baptist Church was created and it had its first service last Sunday.
“I’m kind of a church starter; we were up there for five years and it was time to start another one,” he said. “That was my seventh church, so that seems like what we do – start them up and then get another one going.”
Set Free was known for its nontraditional meeting space in Dahlonega – an old converted chicken house.
Rice hopes that he can reach the unreachable in Gainesville.
Hummer crash: Bikers Laid to Rest
As two bikers were buried in Pretoria’s northern suburbs on Friday, police were still hunting for the man who allegedly drove the Hummer that killed them.
The bodies of bikers Peter Coetzee and Johannes Kruger were escorted to the Zandfontein Cemetery by a cavalcade of about 180 bikers from Pretoria’s Kameeldrift suburb.
The two were killed last Saturday when they were struck by the Hummer on Rachel de Beer Road in Pretoria North. The two motorcycles and the Hummer caught fire. Coetzee and Kruger died at the scene. The 31-year old Hummer driver fled the scene. A third biker, D Coetzee, was injured and still in hospital.
Warrant Officer Matthews Nkoadi said police were looking for the man. Earlier this week there were unconfirmed reports he was hiding in Zimbabwe.
Source: The Star
Full Story: http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=3268&fArticleId=1.688135&fFeed=breakingnews
Knights on Bikes: New ministry on two wheels
By Marilyn Rogers
Rogers Correspondent
FAYETTEVILLE — During this October’s Bikes, Blues and BBQ rally, Michael Huber was busy herding a parade of motorcycles, as riders looked for a place to park on Dickson Street.
As one of the founders of the newly formed Arkansas chapter of Knights on Bikes organization, Huber and others volunteered to park bikes to raise money for the Knights of Columbus Council #6609 at St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville.
Huber described the event as a complete success.
I met several Catholic men who had no idea that our group, Knights on Bikes, existed,he said. They all wanted to know more about how to join, so hopefully our membership will grow larger, helping our Knights of Columbus councils in Arkansas.”
After joining the Knights of Columbus in 2008, he and a brother knight, Jack Otten, both motorcyclists, discovered Knights on Bikes, an organization started in 2005 in Fort Worth, Texas.
We wanted to get together with others who enjoyed riding,Huber said. We researched and found to our surprise Knights on Bikes. It seemed the perfect way to recruit members into the Knights of Columbus.”
Otten, a co-founder, described this new ministry as another avenue to draw parishioners closer together by sharing common interests. Because we have just started this group, it is a work in progress. We hope to visit other parishes, offer assistance to them, and maybe create some of our own fundraisers.”
When Huber and Otten established the Arkansas chapter in 2009, the national organization of Knights on Bikes had chapters in only three states. Today there are 19 state chapters and one city chapter in Washington, D.C.
The Arkansas chapter presently has 20 members from Rogers, Bella Vista, Springdale, Fayetteville, Hot Springs Village and Conway.
Bikers mowed down with ‘stolen’ Hummer
Virginia Keppler, Beeld
Pretoria – Two motorcyclists died on Saturday morning and a third was badly injured when an 18-year-old youth from Pretoria North crashed into them as they were on their way to a prayer meeting.
He’d apparently taken his mother’s pricey Hummer and later crashed into the motorcyclists in Rachel de Beer Street, Pretoria North.
The young man fled the scene shortly before the Hummer started burning.
JP Kruger, 32, and Pieter Coetzee died at the scene, while Coetzee’s son Pieter jnr, 25, is in a serious condition in the Montana hospital in Pretoria. The three belong to the Christian Motorcyclists Association (CMA).
At 05:35 they were on their way to Groenkloof in Pretoria, where they gather with other motorcyclists to pray every Saturday morning at 06:00.
According to police spokesperson Matthews Nkoadi, the motorcyclists were riding in an easterly direction in Rachel de Beer Street and the Hummer was travelling westward. However, the Hummer was in the wrong lane, facing oncoming traffic.
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Service unites bikers as they profess faith, tell stories of past
Bikers with shaved heads, long beards and leather vests may not look like typical churchgoers, but dozens gathered Sunday morning to profess their faith at American Heat Motorcycle Weekend.
I traded in my suit and tie for leather chaps and boots, but I don’t think God would love me less if I don’t wear a suit, Sören Samuelsson sang to kick off the Christian Motorcycle Association service on the event’s main stage at Tahquitz Canyon Way and Palm Canyon Drive.
About 35 people sat in front of the stage as Samuelsson and other CMA members sang and told their stories about trading a life of drugs, alcohol and abuse for one of faith.
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