Would you trade three minutes of your time for a chance to win a black 2012 Harley Davidson Road Glide motorcycle?
That was the question posed to bike lovers ambling along Beach Street during the 2012 Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Tattooed and leather-adorned bikers strolled down the sidewalks to ogle the latest bike accessories in equipment and clothes as vendors hawked their wares and services.
Stopped by “catchers” wearing Faith Riders T-shirts, the onlookers considered the request: three minutes of their time. Some left, but most were enticed by the potential prize — unaware that those three minutes could make a difference in where they spend eternity.
With a baby strapped in a carrier on his chest, Stephan and his wife pushed a second child in a stroller along Beach Street. Once inside the Faith Riders’ tent, the young African American began talking to Clayton Reeves, a biker from Harmony Grove Baptist Church, Blairsville, Ga.
Stephan was reluctant when Reeves began sharing his personal testimony, but the Holy Spirit was working.
When it came to the question, “If [you] died today would [you] go to heaven?” Stephan answered that he was a good man. “I explained to him that I was a good man,” Reeves said, “but good ain’t gonna get you in heaven.”
Reeves continued sharing the plan of salvation as massive motorcycles cruised along the road, vibrating the ground and sending gas fumes into the air. At the conclusion, Stephan prayed to receive Christ under the Faith Riders tent.
“After he prayed, he didn’t look like the same man,” Reeves said. “His whole demeanor had changed. You could see it in his eyes.” Given a New Testament Bikers edition, Stephan grabbed Reeves before he left.
“He hugged me and everybody else. He wouldn’t let go. He kept saying he couldn’t thank me enough for taking the time to talk to him,” Reeves said.
“He left here a changed man.”
Stephan’s name and phone number would be forwarded to Reeves to make contact within a week. His name also will be sent to a Baptist church near his home for follow-up.
As Stephan filled out a card indicating his spiritual decision, a bell loudly clanged within the tent and a roar erupted from nearly a dozen Faith Riders staked out there, cheering as another life had been changed for eternity.
During the weeklong effort, the bell tolled more than 500 times — as many as 20 times within an hour — for those who prayed to receive Christ as their Savior. In all, the gospel was shared with 3,744 bikers.
Now in its second year of ministry at the World’s Most Famous Beach, the March 10–17 outreach, sponsored by the Florida Baptist Convention and Faith Riders Motorcycle Ministry, drew 145 volunteers from at least 10 states — Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
(BP)
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