Riding for Jesus
Circuit riders minister to forgotten souls in life
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Newsboy photo/Charles Kerr

An old frontier tradition is alive in Jasper - that of the circuit rider minister who witnesses to anyone willing to hear, anywhere they find them.

As this country grew westward in the 1800's, Methodist ministers were assigned a circuit to ride. It would often take them five or six weeks to complete the circuit. They preached every day of the week everywhere they stopped, not just in churches, but in homes, stores, schools, the jail, wherever people could gather to hear the word.

The Circuit Riders of today have traded horses for Harleys, but the motorcycle ministries still evangelize wherever they see a need.

Mac and Emily McBride of Jasper are leaders in an international association that includes dozens of chapters in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama and Wisconsin. Circuit Riders and the Daughters of Destiny also do outreach work in Mexico, Central and South America, and Mac says more groups may be forming in Germany and Australia.

The modern Circuit Riders don't promote any one denomination, and don't aim to take the place of a church, according to Mac McBride.

In fact, one of the requirements is that members become established in a local church of any Christian denomination. The motorcycle ministries work in conjunction with pastors and leaders reach people that often don't respond to more traditional churches.

They take the message of salvation into the streets, to drug dealers and their customers, to the lost and forgotten. They accept those who, by many standards, are unacceptable.

Some of the Circuit Riders have had a checkered past of doing drugs themselves, of being abused, of prison and violence. Others have joined the group because they find the missionary zeal and the programs the group is willing to tackle to be a match for what they feel is their own of being abused, of prison and violence. Others have joined the group because they find the missionary zeal and the programs the group is willing to tackle to be a match for what they feel is their own calling.

Founder Doc Louviere

Newsboy photo/Sharon Kerr THE CIRCUIT RIDERS showed off their Harleys to youngsters at the recent National Night Out event

Born in Louisiana, Doc Louviere followed trouble to Africa, then came back for more in New Orleans. He joined a biker gang. His life was drugs and dope dealing, parties and violence. He was beaten nearly to death.

Eventually he met his wife Pat, who was on the rebound from a bad marriage, and who, somehow, believed Doc was "Mr. Right." They settled down to marijuana farming, but by then Doc was, by his own admission, a "worthless wretch" who planned suicide.

As he was trying to decide between a .357 Magnum or hanging, Doc granted Pat one favor - that he go to church with her just once.

According to Doc's testament, "My life started changing from that day forward before my very eyes. Each day I am amazed at how He has transformed me from the dung-heap I made of my life into a vessel fit for His service."

Local members

Roger Maas has a story much like Doc's, of a youth wasted by drugs and violence.

Asked if he minds talking for the record, Mass says, "All the bad things I ever done in my life have been in The Jasper Newsboy. It's about time I got in there for something good.

"I was strung out on meth, running straight to hell," Mass said. "I'd been raised in a church my whole life, but I was running from God and was so far gone on drugs I was totally out of control.

"Then one Christmas I went to the altar and asked for deliverance. I told God 'heal me or let me die.' At that instant I was set free."

That last comment is made in hindsight. He did not at first understand the profound change in his life.

"I went two weeks without saying a cuss word before I realized it," Maas said. "God's just exploded my life, turned me straight around. Friends can just look at me and see the difference."

Mac McBride says that's what they call a miracle. "A miracle is instant and a healing is progressive," he explains. Not everyone has had the turnaround Maas did.

Becky Pierson is another of the Mountain Movers, as the local chapter is called. You'd never pick her out as a 'biker-chick' type, and in fact she is the office manager for Jasper Police Chief Todd Hunter.

She was attracted to the motorcycle ministries because "I was looking for a ministry to be involved in that does more ministering than talking."

Trish Chambers agrees. "I have been going to church for years, but this ministry awakened something. I love the fact that all kinds of people - accountants and grocery store workers - they're all real and not putting on airs."

Tawna Lee, who says she was raised in a church family and was never part of the drug scene, came to Circuit Riders through James and Trish Chambers. They first got involved with the music, and then were hooked on the youth outreach missions.

"Through Emily and Mac I learned to stand up and express who I am," Lee said. Neither she nor her husband Michael Lee ride motorcycles, but they mesh with the group. "We all have been through something, and God uses all kinds of people. They (Mac and Emily) can minister to people I can't, but we all serve the same God."

Members Donnis and Ed Faulk have started a nursing home ministry. So far they've been to Timberlake Health and Rehabilitation in Jasper, Shady Acres in Newton, and a home in Silsbee, bringing music, smiles and a puppy along with the word of God.

Just a few years ago, she was a widow praying for her wayward son (Roger Maas) when she walked into a meeting at The Tomb at 243 N. Main.

"I had no idea (what would follow)," she said. She and Ed "just connected" and things have been on a roll ever since. Her wedding present was a motorcycle that she still doesn't know how to ride, but she's learning.

Grey-haired and bespectacled, sans tattoos or piercings, Donnis Faulk was unsure how her boss at Timberlake Insurance would take to her new interests.

Ed Faulk, who looks every inch the biker, said he retired from 24 years in the army, several more years as a special education teacher, and started riding bikes as a hobby.

He likes the stability and organization of the Jasper group of Circuit Riders.

The Tomb

The Tomb would surely make a good punch line for Letterman - salvation for your soul and Integrity Auto Glass all in the same building, next to the Boys' and Girls' Club.

The sign out front, plain black letters on painted yellow windows, doesn't tell you whether it's a house of praise or a Halloween attraction.

Inside, you still aren't sure. The walls are covered with neon-spray painted graffiti that looks like gangs gone wild, until you realize that all the words are Bible verses and prayers.

The Tomb is where members gather on Sunday nights at 6 p.m. for Christian fellowship. Mac McBride emphasizes that they are not a church and this is not a traditional service.

Sometimes the program is music. Afew weeks ago, a youth choir from a local church sang a capella, and the circuit Riders have their own band.

Band members James Chambers, Michael Lee, Wayne Tucker and Mac McBride just cut a CD, "Subject 2 Change: Broken Chains.".

Sometimes the program is inspirational speakers, or people moved to testify how faith has changed in their lives, or people asking for guidance and prayers.

"We're not a church," Mac McBride says, "and the advantage is that people whose beliefs don't allow music in church or allow women to speak up in church can still be comfortable with us."

He named this meeting hall from the verses of John 20:1-15. "The Tomb is where dead things are resurrected," according to Mac McBride.

The Circuit Riders meet at The Tomb the second Monday each month at 7 p.m., and on the third and fourth Mondays they hold classes. Subjects include witnessing on the street, in the workplace, in prisons; discipleship, leadership training, and how to set up bike rallies.

"In the 'Way of the Master' we teach people to talk to the part of the mind that is not argumentative, to go to the part that knows right from wrong and speak to that part," Mac McBride said.

Daughters of Destiny

Daughters of Destiny, the women's outreach that is Emily McBride's mission, meet Thursdays. They assist with the women's shelter in Jasper, and do retreats where they help an orphanage and families in Mexico.

Emily McBride offers her counseling services free to women trying to escape bad situations and start over.

"I know because I've been there," Emily McBride said. "I was abused and hurt from the time I was a child. I just thought that was how men loved women."

It took her years and a life-threatening accident to get off the roller coaster and find Mac McBride, husband #6.

The Daughters of Destiny will sponsor a marriage conference and seminar weekend, "Rekindling the flame," Sept. 14-15.

That's just one event in a seemingly endless lineup of activities, but the Circuit Riders' projects are as varied as its members.

They have numerous youth programs, toy drives, mentoring and counseling. They recently gave away backpacks, and members Brad and Kym Kilcrease helped buy school supplies and tennis shoes.

Several members are participating in the POP (Pastors on Patrol) program at Pineview Apartments.

National Night Out

The Circuit Riders are a 501(c)3 non-profit and participate in benefits and rides to help various organizations.

As such, they recently participated in the Jasper Police Department's National Night Out.

Mac and Emily McBride said when they first came to town, law enforcement was skeptical.

At National Night Out, you could see that parents weren't too sure about the scary people in leather jackets either, but the kids saw only the big Harleys and couldn't wait to sit on one. The bikers were more than happy to oblige.

"Now that they've seen what we do, law enforcement is coming around to the idea that we are not a threat, we are an asset," Mac McBride said. "We're here to stay."