Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/1471816
In The Beginning… Marty Edwards 1999 The first crash: What did we know? We were just five Christian men who had bought Harleys and wanted to serve Christ with them. We didn't even know each other very well! Many of you have heard the story of how we began: Michael Butters, an employee of Quaid Harley-Davidson (Temecula, CA), was killed on the way to work one morning. He was only 19 years old. I had just bought my first Softail from Quaid and was starting to get to know some of the employees and a few HOG members. When I heard about Michael, I immediately rode to the dealership to see if there was anything I could do. Rich Quaid, the owner of the dealership, was at the front door looking pretty grim. I said, "Man, I am so sorry to hear about Michael. Is there anything I can do?" He responded with, "Pastor, this place is so f*****up right now, you can do anything you want! His eyes were red and filling with tears. I proceeded to go into the shop and ended up spending several hours praying with employees in the different departments; clothing, service, sales, etc. That's how our ministry began. The first Christian riders I met were Denny and Donna Coggins. We were about to roll out on a HOG ride when I spotted a little cross on his vest. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said something like, "Absolutely!" I responded with, "What do you say we take care of these HOG members?" (400 in the chapter at that time) He replied, "You bet!" Denny and I, and later Ron Trader and Jim Facile, "Mike" formed what would become the first chapter of BSHDFC. While I was still the senior pastor at The Lamb's Fellowship, the five of us rode into the church parking lot one day with our loud v-twins and fishtail pipes. My church secretary ran out of the office and greeted us with, "Well lookie here! It's the black sheep of our flock!" And that is how we got the name! We made a small 2"x 4" patch to wear on the front of our vest (like a Costco employee). It was the first patch to bear our bare our name. The second crash…came when I decided to introduce our new ministry to our monthly HOG meeting. It was a Sunday morning, and the room was full of hairy, tattooed HOG members, chomping down on donuts and guzzling free coffee. When the meeting was ready to start, everybody was asked to take their seats…. you know, in those white plastic stackable chairs that become brittle with age? Since I was not on the agenda, I was praying, "Lord, how am I going to get noticed and be invited to introduce the Black Sheep?" It was at that very moment (no exaggeration) that my chair exploded beneath me, and I found myself on my butt, on the cold cement floor, with 400 bikers staring at me. The HOG director stopped and said, "Perhaps now would be a good time to introduce Marty Edwards…he and his friends are starting a motorcycle ministry called Black Sheep." Our first "real" patches were the same as those today except the color pallet was black, silver and red. When I presented them to the Los Angeles COC (confederation of clubs), the predominant MC objected to the colors as well as the Old English font, which they insisted were too similar to theirs. God works in mysterious ways, and the rest is history. The first chapter was Temecula, and then Hemet (twenty miles to the east), and then Livermore, east of San Francisco. The rapid growth began to REALLY accelerate after ABC World News Tonight came to Temecula with camera crews to film and interview us for a major news story. The day the story aired on national television, my email began to explode with people wanting to know how to start a chapter! (No bylaws, no mentorship.) Before long, I would have to choose between leading a strong healthy growing church or the motorcycle ministry. Today I know I made the right choice! To God be the glory for 23 years of the Black Sheep ministry! Thank-you to all of those who have been so faithful for so many years! God bless your service! Photo Above: First known photo of the Temecula Black Sheep. Notice the bright yellow truck and trailer behind the members. These were lettered with our name and used for rescuing stranded bikers on the highways. ¿