Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/1474702
Becoming A Black Sheep Chris French, Arizona BSHDFC My dad was just sixteen years old when my brother was born. The following year I came along. When I was growing up, not long after we were born, our mother committed suicide and left our father to raise us. The stigma that our broader family gave to our father remained until his death. Our father was known as the "black sheep" of our family from the time I was eleven until his passing in 2008. Three years ago I began my own journey to become a black sheep. In 2019 I got a call from a cousin who lived in Wisconsin. He shared with me that he had a Harley- Davidson motorcycle for sale. He agreed to bring it to my home in Arizona while also including a family vacation at Disneyland in Los Angeles. On my youngest daughter's 18th birthday, the motorcycle arrived and I was riding Harleys again after a ten year break. Soon after getting the motorcycle, I rode as much as I could, and soon started meeting people. Once again, I had fallen for riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles. My wife fell just as hard as I did and her first big trip with me was eight hundred and fifty miles over three days. Up to this point she had never even driven more than 150 miles on any single trip. I reached out to a national Christian MC (motorcycle club) and before long we met for lunch. So happens, it was my birthday and we discussed what joining an MC would look like. The sacrifice involved, dues that needed to be paid, steps that needed to be taken and rules meant to be kept. I followed up with researching the club, their history, their acceptance in Arizona, and how I might want to fit in with them. One day I got an invite from this MC to attend a public event being put on by the local dominant motorcycle club in my local area. I declined the invite from the local MC because I had concerns that they were more concerned about numbers and buffoonery than with trying to reach the lost for Christ, so I decided not to follow up with this invitation. Soon after my decision, I started spending time with another national Christian MC. This time I made it as far as "hang around," and spent some time in a couple of MC Clubhouses with my new brothers. Over a period of a couple months I had attended various events, went to bible studies, and started forming some minor relationships. What I eventually discovered, was that we were not riding much, or really growing in our brotherhood. Instead, we just kept showing up to MC clubhouses and shaking hands with people. Not long after starting, I gave back my hang-around patch and realized that I would need to continue my journey for the right motorcycle ministry. My third attempt was to spend some time with a large MM (motorcycle ministry).We met for breakfast, went on some rides, and gathered as a crew for fellowship. This journey also did not last long because the commitment from the MM did not seem strong and the current elder was young and brash. He spoke to men in their 40's and 50's with disrespectful words and tone, while himself was in his mid-twenties. (A bit "wet behind the ears.") For the third time, I knew this group was not for me. I was seeking a brotherhood (sisterhood), to ride with, to meet people, to serve as Christ would, to have a sense of belonging, and to embrace the other riders I would meet. The next riders I would meet were called, "Black Sheep: Harley-Davidsons for Christ." Two years or more ago I visited Arrowhead Harley-Davidson and it was there that I met Dale Tuberville, president of the Arrowhead Black Sheep chapter. I informed him that I would soon be attending monthly Black Sheep Breakfasts. A few months later I kept my promise and went to my first BSHDFC breakfast. One of the men in attendance took my check away and instead paid for my breakfast. To this day no one will tell me who bought my breakfast, but I have a good idea it was Jim "Jimbo" Painter, our Rocky Mountain Regional Director. About six months later, after doing a lot of riding and attending a lot of breakfasts, which included a lot of fellowship, I patched into the Black Sheep. I had arrived and was now officially a member of Black Sheep. It reminded me a lot of my father, but with a whole different understand of what it meant to be a "black sheep." After only nine months, I was asked to take over as the president of the Arrowhead Black Sheep chapter. For more than a month I prayed and sought the counsel of Black Sheep members in California and Colorado and later accepted the position. This has been a divine appointment for me starting in July 2019 when I got my Harley. What is so special to me is my lovely wife was also patched into the Black Sheep at The Gathering in Dallas in May 2022. God is on the move, and it is my (our) job to get out of the way and let Him work through us. To my father: They called you a "black sheep" and meant for it to hurt you, but I became a Black Sheep to the glory of God! ¿ www.BlackSheepHDFC.org - 3