Bikers for Jesus launch Christian ministry in the extreme
By Steve Strickler, The Layman ,Volume 37, Number 1,Posted February 2004, February 26, 2004
Two former bikers, answering the call of Jesus Christ, are transforming people in their community in jails, schools, children’s camps, a youth center and other ministries.
Joe and Karen Morin of Old Maggie Top Ministries.Joe and Karen Morin live in Andrews, N.C, nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains in the far western part of the state.
Their pastor, the Rev. Alan Wildsmith of Murphy Presbyterian Church, rides along with a county sheriff’s deputy on Friday and Saturday nights, ministering to both officers and those who get in trouble with the law.
Joe Morin trained as a commissioned lay pastor in the Presbytery of Western North Carolina and served for a year and a half at the Hayesville Presbyterian Church. Four years ago, he and his wife began a ministry named after the mountain on which their home is built, Old Maggie Top Christian Ministries, now validated by the presbytery.
The couple lives on Joe’s veteran’s benefits, disability and Social Security and conduct their ministry without compensation.
For years, Joe was a leader in a motorcycle club. In 1996, however, a crash almost killed him. The accident, he said, changed his life. After he recovered, he and Karen gave up their former lives and began following Jesus.
Jail ministry
The Morins spend afternoons at the Cherokee County Jail in Murphy. While Joe visits the men, Karen leads a Bible study for the women inmates. “The jail ministry isn’t just for the inmates,” Joe says. “It’s for the guards, too.”
Greeting people cheerfully through the cell bars, Joe shakes hands and shares light conversation with everyone. “Need anything?” he asks. Today, he’s brought writing paper and cigarettes to share.
Joe – a big, strong man with a beard and tattoos – has their attention. Acting as a surrogate father, he listens to their concerns and offers encouragement.
Before moving on to another cell block, he gathers the men and has them hold hands through the bars. He prays that God will bless them, supply their needs, comfort them and provide for their families.
In the next cell block, a volunteer chaplain from the Assembly of God congregation joins him. He’s one of several volunteers from area churches trained by Joe. Members of the group work together to minister to the inmates.
On the way out of the jail, Joe and the chaplain are stopped by a guard who wants them to pray for him. Again, hands are joined and prayers are offered to the Father.
Senior ministry
Outside the jail, Karen Morin’s focus is on senior citizens in what she calls Ministry in Motion. She provides transportation for people in the church who need help shopping, going to doctor appointments and getting to worship.
Ministry in Motion also practices community service, using a dump truck to haul gravel for driveways and help clean up around the property of the elderly and disabled. Area youths help Karen clean up and haul the debris away.
Christian camp
The Morins spend June and July at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters (www.swoutfitters.com), an extreme Christian camp 10 minutes from their house in Andrews. Baptist minister Steve Coleman and his wife, Billie Fae, established the camp in 1997 on 50 acres of family-owned land in the mountains.
Extreme Christian camping involves both demanding recreational offerings and an uncompromising Christian message. Snowbird can accommodate 280 young people, ages 12 to 20, with 15 adult and 60 college-aged counselors in charge from Sunday afternoon to Friday noon.
The camp offers whitewater rafting, rock climbing, mountain boarding, mountain biking, caving, rapelling, zip lines, paint ball, rope swings, swimming and horseback riding, as well as such traditional activities as basketball and volleyball.
Snowbird also provides worship services, Bible studies and calls to Christian discipleship. Speakers – including Joe, whom the kids affectionately call “Biker Joe” – don’t hesitate to preach the blood of Jesus and enthusiastically call kids to repentance and giving their hearts to Christ. Campers also go into the community on weekly mission projects.
A recent skit presented by the camp’s counselors provided an outdoor “End Times” sight and sound extravaganza.
The skit is performed on a grassy hillside just down from the main buildings of the camp. Many of the youth counselors – dressed as angels or demons – engage in cosmic battle while Revelation 18 and 19 are read dramatically over a sound system.
The counselors, carefully trained not to hurt each other, throw their bodies at each other during the battle, but the demons seem to have won. They drag the martyrs of Revelation 18:24 out to a tree and string them up on branches 15 feet above the ground (complete body harnesses protect the actors).
The narrator reads from Revelation 19:11: “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.”
On cue, Jesus (played by an adult leader) appears over the crest of the hill, the sun setting behind him, riding a white horse with a fiery torch in his hand accompanied by a heavenly host. The Lamb of God has arrived!
“And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet” (Rev. 19:20)
A cheer goes up from the audience as Jesus vanquishes the devil and his minions and cuts the ropes that hold the slain Christians. He raises them to new life.
The skit transforms Jesus’ second coming from an abstract theological concept into a graphic depiction.
Last summer, more than 2,500 kids spent nine weeks at Snowbird – not a bad summer’s ministry, considering that only four campers attended the first summer.
The spectacular growth of the camp continues. A man from Tennessee told the Morins that he was so impressed with the impact Snowbird had on his granddaughter that he offered to buy up to 30 acres for a new camp for 7 to 12 year-olds. It is expected to open in 2005.
In the schools
Joe Morin said he enjoys a great working relationship with the local public schools.
He teaches male sexual responsibility through an abstinence program at the local junior high school called “Wise Guys.” The semester-long course is designed for eighth-grade boys.
In this context and through other speaking engagements, Joe also talks to young people about the dangers of gang life and drug and alcohol abuse.
In addition, he instructs them on how to protect themselves from strangers and possible predators on the Internet.
North Carolina is one of a few states that allow communities to provide religious education for children, for which they receive public school credit toward graduation.
In the fall of 2003, Joe and Steve Coleman offered a Release Time pilot program for interested seventh- and eighth-grade students at a new building off-campus. According to the law, students can receive religious instruction as long as it is off school property and is overseen by a certified teacher.
Foster home ministry
The Morins and Colemans also have perceived a need for foster care services in Cherokee County. At a reasonable cost, they have been offered two houses large enough to start such services with six kids each. The team has been in discussions with officials at Grandfather Mountain Home for children to learn the ins and outs of such a ministry.
Other ministry
For more than a year, several churches have sponsored a youth center in downtown Andrews. It is housed in a storefront property (donated through a special arrangement between a woman and the Assembly of God congregation) and known as The Rock. The center attracts teens from three counties for praise, worship and Christian fellowship in a safe drug- and alcohol-free environment.
Joe Morin serves on the board, and he and Karen can be found at The Rock interacting with the young people. Once a month, “Biker Joe” speaks to the gathered teens.
And, considering their background, plans are in the works for a Christian motorcycle gathering designed as fellowship for Christian bikers and outreach to those lost in the violence of extreme biker gangs.
The Morins also have ministered at revivals and travel throughout the Southeast to give motivational talks to teens, young adults and adults (E-mail them at joke@webworkz.com).