The Midlander Newsletter June 07

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Midlands Branch Newsletter

June 2007

Editor’s Welcome

Welcome everybody to my first attempt at a newsletter for the West Midlands Branch of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. I was honoured and flattered to be asked, because I’ve never regarded myself as a writer. In fact, while I did very well at school in subjects like maths and physics, I flunked English in a big way. In fact I got a better grade in French! Any doctor would be proud to have handwriting as bad as mine, and to some extent, my renewed joy for writing has been through the use of the computer. Freed from the bondage of lousy handwriting, I found that I could express myself quite well. However, I write this I am facing one of those Sundays where I’m leading the 8am, the 10am, and the 6.15 pm services in my Church. The Vicar’s on holiday, and my fellow Churchwarden is also away. And guess what? The subject for this weekend is the Trinity. Of all the subjects to try and come to terms with! Now I’m under no illusions. I am new to preaching and I enjoy it, but the amount of preparation required is immense, even for the easier subjects. I have to confess to a few blank moments this week, and as I write this, all I can come up with is that I really don’t understand the doctrine that well at all. I’ve read plenty and listened to many sermons, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that I really don’t understand. And once I admitted that fact to myself, I became quite relaxed about the whole thing. Because while many people might try to explain the Trinity, I have concluded that their attempts to put God into worldly terms always fail on some point or other. For me, quite simply God is beyond my mortal comprehension. I don’t understand how any being could love me as much as God does, without requiring anything in return. All I do understand is that he exists for me, he loves me, and I want to do everything I can to bring that love to others. So I won’t try to explain the Holy Trinity on Sunday, but I will give thanks for it. Lord God, I look at this world with awe and wonder, I do not understand you, but you have convinced me, through Jesus Christ, that you exist and that you love me and have a plan for me. Help me to discern that plan, and bring the knowledge of your love to everyone I meet. Amen.

With every blessing, Colin.

Secretary’s Jottings

Hi everyone its been a long time since I put finger to keyboard and mouse mat. I’ve been really busy with essays for college, and as you get older the grey matter does not act as quick as it used to. However the branch has been busy visiting various events as well as a church run to Rob’s church, at which we were welcomed very warmly. We then had a run to the biker café in Bridgnorth. We have also visited the Stoke Egg run, the Classic Bike Guide Big Breakfast. The bike show at Craven Arms, had a run to Bala, and a presence at the Red Marley Hill Climb. And also had branch reps, visiting Werrington young offenders and Nottingham Prison to partake in services there. There are a lot events coming up for which we would like your support. Particularly we could do with people to volunteer for marshalling at the Heart of England MAG rally 6th to 8th July.

This year at the AGM we had a really good meeting, we felt it right to again theme this year, and this is to be “Equipping.” As Christians we need to be always ready to give account of our faith, to do this we need to be equipped not only materially but also first and foremost spiritually, our equipping must first come through prayer; we must first take everything to Jesus first. In saying this we also felt it right to have a branch verse for the year, and this is to be Zec. 4 v6 Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. God willing we will be developing this theme at our branch meetings. In this newsletter is included an events list with a branch meeting dates list. I do hope we will see you at some of our events or monthly meetings; it would be great to see you.

Yours in Christ , Paul Raybould

The Stoke Egg Run by John Tiley

The date was 25th March, the meeting place Walton Island (A34) Stone, time 09:30 approx and two branches (Staffs & West Mids) of CMA met, for what?, to ride together to meet "The Liberates" at 10:00 and then onto the Egg Run, Stoke. But before "The Liberates" came chat, fuel and a Ducati 1098, which captured some of the members with mouths wide open and eyes turned green, but thanks to some members, who were more mature who brought order again, we rode off to meet "The Liberates" and guess what? the chat resumed, until we left for Stoke Football Ground, lead by a Honda Goldwing Trike. On arrival at the ground, £1:00 paid to ride the run, we parked up in the car park already almost full of bikes and still they came, all shapes and sizes, including Monkey bikes, scooters. Mixing with crowd and chatting was the order, until the magic time of 11:00 when all the bikes started up and the ground began to vibrate with noise, in the two/three years I've been I've never seen so many bikes together perhaps the good weather brought them out, perhaps it was the cause raising money for children in hospital, but there we were ready for the run. Once we left the Football Ground the run lead by the Mayor took us around Stoke, down wide and narrow streets but ALL lined with families, passer-bys, cars halted by the police outriders, everything comes to a stop for us, it's like a carnival, horns going, waving hands and those of the public stopping us to give us Easter Eggs. There in the midst of all this, are the riders of CMA with white crosses on display. The ride lasts for approx one and a quarter hours. We arrived at the Town Hall to mark the end of the ride, eggs were handed in and guess what more time to mix and chat. A day I'd recommend to any biker.