Member Article
By DENNIS Hartman |
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MATTHEW
13 is a familiar story of the Sower and the Seed . The first seed is one that was put on rocky soil . Not all the seed sown in a bad growing place gets eaten by the birds . Some of it stays on top of the soil just waiting for a chance to be put somewhere else to grow . I was that seed . Today , I ride with CMA , the Bay City Chapter , called the Trinity Riders . I am the Chaplain of this chapter . If you knew me years ago , you would never have believed I would end up here .
My dad was an alcoholic , and I could count on every Friday and Saturday night being a fight and my mom getting beat up . When he was done with her , he would start on me . Eventually , I got to the point that I would not cry when he beat me and that made him even madder . He would take me outside to the big tree in the back yard and tell me to raise my hands and not move , then he would point his pistol at my head and dare me to move . He would say , “ just move so I can blow your brains out . You messed up my life , are worthless and always will be . Now move so I can put you out of my misery .”
During these days at home , my mom sent me to the church down the street . The bus would go by , and I would get on . She was able to clean up the mess left from the fighting on Friday night and Saturday . This is where the seed got planted , but on rocky soil .
As I got older , I vowed he would never hit me again . I got a job at the
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grain elevator and built my arm muscles up by throwing 100-pound beanbags all day . I got so I could climb the ladder on the elevator , which was 90 feet high , just by using my arms .
I was a drinker and rode with the wrong crowd . I would go in bars and look for the biggest , meanest guy I could find and pick a fight with him .
One night , I saw this big biker in the bar , eating a burger and drinking a pop . I thought he would be a good one to pick a fight with , but he would not fight . Instead , he started talking to me about the bikers he rode with . His name was Cal Vennema . He rode with CMA and talked to me about God . He picked up that seed and moved it to better soil . I tried this CMA stuff , and rode with them for a while in parades and runs , but it seemed it wasn ’ t much fun . They didn ’ t like me doing wheelies and burnouts in the parades . I thought the other bikers were more fun . There , I could ride the way I wanted and get drunk .
July 6 , 2003 , I just came from an biker rally and I learned my little brother got in a bad accident . They said he would never walk or breathe on his own . That news made my mother have a heart attack . So there I was with my mother in one hospital bed and my brother in the other getting ready to be transferred to Saginaw .
My other brothers stayed with
our mom . My wife and I went to Saginaw with my little brother . He had to have surgery on his neck . I called Cal , he called Earl “ Woody ” Wood , and they started a bike prayer chain . I was not sure about this because they told me my brother had the same fracture in his neck that Christopher Reeve had , but I thought I would give this God a chance .
Dr . Adams said it was useless to do the surgery because my brother would never walk again . I told him he could not make that call . I had God and the CMA bikers on it in prayer and he needs to just do the surgery . After about six hours of surgery and the CMA bikers praying , the doctor came out . He had tears in his eyes and was shaking . He said he never seen anything like it before . He was shaking when he started surgery but the incision was perfectly straight and when he opened my brother ’ s neck , a miracle happened . The bones and spinal cord were mending themselves . He said it was God , not him , that saved my brother .
It was then I knew there was a God . He answered the prayers of the CMA bikers . My brother walked out of the hospital six weeks later and is still walking today and living a normal life .
That night , I gave my life to God and joined the CMA bikers . Thanks to Cal , Woody , and CMA , the seed sown on rocky soil was moved to better soil . I love the Lord and will serve Him for the rest of my life . CMA saved my life and my brother ’ s life too . That is how God won me , put me in CMA , and now I ’ m the Chaplain of the Trinity Riders today . CMA
Dennis is a member of Trinity Riders chapter # 514 of Bay City , Michigan .
09⎪DECEMBER 2020⎪www . cmausa . org