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March HeartBeat

By KEITH Fowler

arrival at the

50th Anniversary International Changing of the Colors Rally, I found that my motorcycle’ s kickstand had broken. I went to the local shop in Mena, and one of the guys tried everything he could to fix it with no success. He called a friend from over in Cove who was a welder, but there was no answer. As I was getting ready to leave, the man he tried to call just happened to walk in. He took a look and asked if I could follow him to his shop. We followed him over to Cove, where he put my bike on the stand and began to work.

He had to weld, heat, bend, reshape, and grind until it held the bike up again. He spent about two hours working on it. As he worked, we shared stories and other things. He told me he had once worked with Herb Shreve. They planted trees together when the

ground had to be heated to dig the dirt. Herb had shared his vision for a motorcycle ministry with him.

He said the guys all got tickled at him and laughed it off. Then he stopped working, pulled down his safety glasses, and looked over the top of them, saying,“ By gosh, he done it.” When he had finished working, he allowed us to pray for him and his family, and he would not take a penny for the work he had done. He just said,“ You are with CMA; enjoy the rally.” Helping each other is what we old bikers do! I won’ t share his name, but God put it all together.

The kickstand, one of the smallest things, had held me back from doing what I wanted; it took heat, fire, and bending to get it back into shape. This experience reminded me of the Gospel. We are just the smallest part of what God is doing. He sometimes needs to put us

through the fire, heat us, shape us so that we can do the job He has designed us to do. And sometimes He uses a total stranger to give you a great lesson and blessing! Hebrews 13:1-2 tells us to treat everyone with brotherly love; we might be entertaining an angel without even knowing it. CMA

Keith Fowler serves as Area Rep for Georgia.