Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/1510917
"Nuestra Promesa" Laz Alba, International President, BSHDFC On the first weekend of October, I took a 255-mile ride to Yuma, AZ with a few of my Death Valley Black Sheep brothers to celebrate the patching of Frank and Letty Rodriguez and the commissioning of our new 14:23 Yuma, AZ chapter. Praise God we now have 4 chapters in Arizona with more coming soon. By the way, kudos to the 30 plus Black Sheep that came from SoCal and Arizona to witness the patching and commissioning of this new chapter. As I've written before, I enjoy attending our patching ceremonies. I love to hear the testimonies of new members on how they came to know about our ministry and about the relationship they've formed with their mentor(s). I also love to hear how excited they are to officially join our ministry and on how God has worked within them through the mentorship process – it never gets old! My favorite part of patching ceremonies is the reading of our pledge. Listening to them reciting our BSHDFC pledge always seems to choke me up just a little bit. Frank and Letty's patching was unique because it was the first time that our pledge was recited in a language other than English here in the US. Letty decided to recite our pledge in Spanish because Spanish is her primary language. As I stood there listening to Letty, I had two thoughts. My first thought was that the Lord appears to be doing something special within our ministry as we've had a recent increase of Spanish speaking members join our flock. This is extremely exciting for me because it allows us the opportunity to minister to a segment of the motorcycle community unreached and that's the Spanish speaking motorcycle rider. In Matthew 28, Jesus commanded his disciples (and us) "to go into all the world…" It's what we call "The Great Commission." I plan to soon have a meeting with our Director of Hispanic Ministries and all our Spanish speaking members to discuss how we can better minister to and reach the extended Spanish speaking motorcycle community. My second thought was how blessed I was to witness the fruit from what took place so many years back. It took me weeks to translate our documents and I did so because our ministry needed them translated and I was able to assist in this area. Now years later, I found myself in Yuma, AZ and Letty was reading aloud "Nuestra Promesa" and all the work and long hours that it took to translate now seemed so worth it. My encouragement to you my brothers and sisters is to remain faithful to where the Lord has you serving within our ministry. Don't get discouraged when you don't see fruit right away. Sometimes it can take years for you to see it However, if you are blessed like I was to see the fruit for yourself, it will all be worth it and remember that everything happens according to God's timing. a Nuestra Promesa (Our Pledge) El Espíritu de Dios me obliga a unirme con Black Sheep; Harley-Davidsons for Christ. Entiendo que esta es una MISIÓN y que ahora soy un MISIONERO. Entiendo que H.O.G. es nuestro campo de misión principal, pero que compartiremos el amor de Cristo con cualquiera que lo escuche. Entiendo que este es un ministerio en el que sirvo y no un club al que simplemente pertenezco. Me comprometo, por lo tanto, a participar y estar activo en mi capítulo local lo mejor que puedo. Me comprometo a crecer diariamente en mi caminar con Cristo y Su Palabra. Me comprometo a apoyar y asistir a mi iglesia local regularmente. Me someteré a mis líderes de Black Sheep y rezaré por ellos a menudo. Me someteré al espíritu de nuestra Declaración de Fe y Estatutos. Me comprometo a decir la verdad con amor, perdonar cuando se me ofende y nunca participar en chismes o comportamiento divisivo, porque somos el cuerpo de Cristo.Me comprometo a servir, sacrificar, dar, escuchar, amar y andar en el nombre de Cristo, ¡Así que ayúdame Dios! Soy Black Sheep; diferente y apartado para Cristo y su Reino. Que Dios nos dé favor en nuestra misión y nos mantenga seguros mientras montamos. A Él sea toda la gloria, amén. a