If Larry Gibson could see what has happened in the immediate aftermath of his tragic death, then he would surely be flashing that signature smile familiar to all who knew him.
His wife, Anita, making and posting an evangelistic YouTube video within hours after he was killed in a motorcycle accident; at least three people choosing to follow Jesus after hearing his story and watching the video; a nation of F.A.I.T.H. Riders finding a new level of motivation to share Christ; a church and community rallying around his wife and five children to celebrate his life and finding their own renewed energy to live each day to the fullest and keep Jesus as the top priority — the stories are endless.
But all this doesn’t surprise Steve Thomas, pastor of Wilsonville Baptist Church, where Larry was a deacon, Sunday School director and member of the F.A.I.T.H. Riders chapter.
“The work that he did, the time he spent, the love he shared, the example he put before us and even his death — I think in his death, he taught us as much as we saw in his life,” Thomas said. “He died serving the Lord, died doing what he was supposed to be doing.”
The Gibsons were among about 160 volunteers from across the nation who participated in the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota Aug. 4–11. More than 4,800 motorcycle enthusiasts attended the rally, and 539 made professions of faith.
It was the sixth year for the annual ministry to bikers, biker-wannabes and onlookers organized by the Dakota Baptist Convention (DBC) and supported by the participation of short-term missions volunteers.
Those volunteers are drawn by word-of-mouth and www.sturgisbikegiveaway.com. Motorcycle enthusiasts make up one of the nation’s largest affinity groups, and the rally is the largest sporting event in North America, drawing about a half-million participants each August.
This was the second year the Gibsons volunteered. Larry shared the gospel in his routine enthusiastic fashion all week and got to leave on a high note as he led the last person he talked with at the rally to the Lord, said Garvon Golden, DBC interim executive director and coordinator of the ministry.
A YouTube video follows Larry as he walks down Main Street in Sturgis, wearing his F.A.I.T.H. Riders “colors,” smiling, joking, passing out “poker” tokens and evangelistic “playing cards” — both give a Christian witness — and jovially sharing his faith at every opportunity.
A second video posted the night of the accident — and within hours of the Gibsons leaving Sturgis — shows Anita in a hospital bed in Newcastle, Wyo., sharing her faith and her husband’s faith. (Do an Internet search for “Sturgis seed sower extraordinaire” to see both videos.)
Larry died Aug. 12 after the Harley-Davidson they were riding left the road just over the South Dakota state line into Wyoming.
“Our prayers go with the Gibson family, the Wilsonville (Baptist) Church family and the Alabama F.A.I.T.H. Riders family,” Golden said. “We’re just really saddened by the accident, but we know where Larry is today. Something like this helps us see the urgency of what we do at Sturgis.”
Buddy Newsome, national director of F.A.I.T.H. Riders and a minister on staff at First Baptist Church at the Mall, Lakeland, Fla., showed the two videos to about 85 people during his chapter’s Aug. 18 “bike night.”
“It was powerful to see [Larry’s] passion for sharing Christ,” he said. “He never missed an opportunity to share the gospel, and his wife was mature enough and confident enough in her salvation that she could use that as an opportunity to share the gospel.
“He is still sharing the gospel through his life,” Newsome said. “That is extraordinarily powerful to me.”
Jeff Smith, F.A.I.T.H. Riders chapter director at Wilsonville Baptist, said the group’s members are working through their grief and holding each other up.
“It really hit me because we all went to Sturgis together last year,” he said. “Larry was so instrumental and … let the Lord use him.”
“At Sturgis and home he got up every day willing to serve,” Smith said. “He was a model for all of us to go by. He was kind, compassionate and had the biggest heart. Whether it was the children’s work he did in Ukraine (with orphans) or day-to-day stuff, his heart and pocket book were always open.”
Thomas, who helped lead the Gibsons to the Lord about 12 years ago, said, “His life was about Jesus. That’s who he was.
“He knew what he was living for and he lived. … He was on mission for God. He loved life and loved to live life.”
And Anita was always right there with him.
“She is strong in the Lord and loves the Lord,” Thomas noted. “It has been amazing to watch her.”
But Anita merely sees it as living the life she’s supposed to live.
“It’s not my strength I stand on but the strength that God gives me,” she said. “When we are not telling people about the love of Jesus, we are losing precious minutes.”
And so she determined she would not waste one minute to tell people about Jesus, shooting the YouTube video on her iPhone alone in her hospital room.
“I couldn’t imagine being in such a tender place again in my life. God can better use me broken than He can use me fixed,” she explained.
“The reason I’m making this video is to tell you how short life is and how important it is to get your life right with the Lord,” she says on the video.
To read more about the Gibsons, the rally and F.A.I.T.H. Riders, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org and search for “Larry Gibson.”
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