Daytona Bike Week Ministry 2020

Daytona International Speedway during Bike Week 2020

Greetings to all my friends and supporters of DMEM!

Let me say first that I love and appreciate each and every one of you. I felt compelled to send out letters and Facebook requests asking for prayer that I might finish my life’s work, my autobiography, within this year. Having started on this book in 2017, now more than ever I want to complete the work soon, in part that my precious, 93-year-old mother might have the honor of reading about her impact in both her husband’s and my lives.

During the period of preparing the mailings, another ministry opportunity presented itself for the annual Daytona Bike Week, so I naturally joined the two events together in my quest for prayer. In this report are the results of your collective prayers for this special week.

Joining the F.A.I.T.H. Riders in Daytona

First, some background information. While on a ministry/writing retreat in Toccoa, Georgia, at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in February, I met my new brother Terry who invited me to join his ministry group, F.A.I.T.H. Riders, during their time working for the Lord at Daytona. Becoming involved with F.A.I.T.H. Riders was very much familiar and attractive to me, due to my time as a member of Bikers for Christ at my church in Fayetteville, NC. For a time, I was their chaplain and led the group in evangelistic training.

Going down to minister with F.A.I.T.H. Riders in Daytona, my sole purpose was to share the gospel and to minister into the group in any manner possible.

My plan was to arrive ready to begin sharing Christ on Sunday and to leave the following Friday at 12 noon to go back to North Carolina. I arrived Saturday evening, met the team, and attended the evening worship service. Daily ministry sessions were scheduled as follows: Session 1: 9a.m.-noon; Session 2: noon-3p.m., and Session 3: 3-5p.m. This F.A.I.T.H. Riders format is one of genius and one they follow during each of the Bike Week events at which they minister around the country several times each year. They rent a large tent at the Daytona International Speedway. The tent is parallel to the large walkway that hundreds of people walk by each day. In front of the tent is a brand new, 2020 Harley-Davidson motorcycle which they give away the last day of the week—in this case, March 14, 2020. F.A.I.T.H. Riders has two main groups of people who work in teams: Those who work inside the tent sharing the gospel, and those who stand outside near the bike to invite people to come into tent to register to win the Harley. The people outside who invite people in are called “catchers”. They tell the people that to register to win the bike, they are asked for only three minutes of their time to come inside the tent that people can share the gospel with them and pray for them.

In addition, there are also bright yellow “chaplain” vests for the F.A.I.T.H. Riders ministers to wear and walk among the larger crowd and minister to them through helping, consoling, praying, and sharing the gospel as the Lord allows.

At First Baptist Church Daytona, where the ministry group is housed, breakfast is served at 6:30a.m. and at 7:00a.m. we have a devotional time. After the ministry shifts throughout the day, the ministers return at 5:30p.m., and eat dinner at 6:30p.m. Finally, there is a worship service at 8p.m. consisting of praise, worship music, and a gospel message.

Ministering to the ministering!

The Lord led me to minister back into the F.A.I.T.H. Riders themselves in several ways during my time. As the coronavirus spread was beginning to be more concerning in our country, I saw an opportunity to serve by preparing the plates and utensils for each member at mealtime, wearing gloves and preparing and handing them their items. One of the bikers said Sunday night, “Hey Dallas, that’s a good ministry for you here.” On my first night there, I overheard a pastor saying that he was to preach at a church about an hour and a half away, and it was too cold for his wife and daughter to ride on her bike to go with him in the evening. So I said, “Hey, I’ve got room in my van. Let me unload it, and we can all ride together.” I had the great privilege of transporting and fellowshipping with this super Christian family and listen to their firebrand preacher/husband/Dad pour out the gospel. Would you believe that the church he was preaching at was the very church where Billy Graham was saved and baptized?

One day, I had a few minutes to visit the F.A.I.T.H. Riders portable “store” tent located on the church grounds to buy a ministry t-shirt. While inside, I started sharing with them “the greatest story ever told with a sheet of paper” as just another fun and exciting way to share the gospel. Not only did they want to see it; they wanted to video it and put it on their Facebook page. That was pretty cool, I thought. You can check it out when you have a few minutes.

I also was able to contribute and add to the handouts the group had available by sharing a brochure I designed years ago that outline the next 10 things to do as after becoming a believer in Christ. You can access this handout here and use it (even customize the back side with your ministry information, just leave the 10 steps side as-is)—here. This brochure was created to give new Christians something tangible to help them understand and begin the next steps for growing in Christ.

Bike Week, for me, ended earlier than planned. In the morning on Wednesday, right after I had served and eaten breakfast, I received a call that my mother was not doing well. That’s all I needed to hear. I then asked the lead pastor to pray for my precious mother as I prepared to leave early and be with her. I drove straight up to Columbia, SC and was with her for the next three days. It seemed to possibly be her heart. She had been experiencing stabbing chest pains, which, thankfully, turned out not to be associated with anything serious and eventually subsided before I returned to be with Lenore and her mother in NC.

Thankful for being used by the Lord

During and beyond the time I was in Daytona, about the continued power of your prayers, the Lord certainly brought a harvest of souls. The F.A.I.T.H. Riders ministry team together led many, many people to the Lord. As for the part the Lord allowed me to have, I was allowed to introduce several people to Jesus. The first person came to Christ on the first day, Sunday; her name is Karen, and she is a Bike Week vendor.

On Day 2, Monday, I was under the tent with about 15 others. I had the privilege to lead nine people to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ during a double session from noon until 5p.m. They are: Tracy from Illinois; Craig from New York; 83-year-old Buddy from Florida; Charles from New Mexico; Herlon and Cheryl from Canada, Robert from Suffolk, England; Paul and Bob from New Hampshire. I was allowed to take photos with some of these individuals.

On Tuesday, I was asked to be a catcher. “Okay”, I said to myself; “I’d rather be sharing the gospel, but I want to be an obedient servant so I’ll be a catcher.”

Now, from the moment I arrived, I had this incredible sense of joy all inside and around me. James used this word “joy” in the first chapter of his book to describe a spiritual disposition when facing trials and temptations, but I was overflowing with it—and it is still pouring out.

But at this time, as a catcher, I was simply overwhelmed at being fully released in the Spirit of God to love on people and to guide them to hear the gospel. It was just so Pauline! I didn’t have to think about what to say. I simply walked along with people and joyfully shared about our ministry. I would say something like this: “Hey, I’m Dallas, a minister. This is our Christian group,” pointing to our tent. “We are giving this new motorcycle away, and all we ask of you is three minutes of your time to let us tell you about Jesus and to pray for you.“ That was the core message. I was just so straightforward about it. Typically, in my daily life as an evangelist, I have trained myself to discern everything I can about a person when I first meet them: their clothing, their accent, their nationality, their attitude, anything to use as a positive touchpoint to make a connection and hopefully have an opportunity to minister to them. The time as a catcher was just incredible and supernaturally heightened in my ability to do this.

After a while, I was floating past our tent zone boundaries trying to reach people. Not wanting to get in the way of other tents, I asked for the chaplain’s vest that I had used on Sunday. Then, I was really free to venture anywhere to catch people. There was a second walkway just beyond the first one separated from it by palm trees and bushes that wasn’t the normal place to “catch”. That became my new fishing hole! There were so many people, I just kept thinking about Jesus and his parable about going into the highways and the hedges to get them. It was amazing, the people that were following me back to the tent. Now that I was really set loose, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me the scripture about whole households coming to Christ. Don’t just ask one, two, or three: Ask whole families to come! And whole families started following me.

I felt and looked like a machine—going, gathering, leading them in nonstop for five hours. When it stopped, it was over—time to shut down and go back to the church, our temporary home for the week. From serving at 5:30p.m. until the worship service and fellowship was over, I walked to my van at about 10:30p.m. to go to sleep.

However, rest was not yet to be. One of the pastors with his sister stopped me on my way and told me that they had never seen before what he saw that day. “Dallas, you just kept bringing them in, nonstop. You just didn’t stop! How?” he said. At that moment, all of my letters and all of my internet pleading for prayer warriors saturated my mind. Their petitioning and prayers to the Father allowed this to happen. It happened because of all of your prayers. Even as I marveled, over the next few hours as we talked, at what the Lord had allowed to happen, I realized the power of prayer again in my life. How can I say I love you…how can I say I thank you? May I say that I do truly love and thank all of you.

With all my heart, Thank you!

Your brother, Dallas