Have bible, biker priest will travel
A SEXTAGENARIAN biker who is also a preacher, is scheduled to reach next weekend’s South Coast Bike Fest after riding “the long way” from Gauteng.
“I’ll be doing the mountain passes around Maclear,” says Rene Changuion, who believes one is never too old to have a happy childhood.
Last weekend – Easter Sunday – he handed over his bikers’ church in Midrand to his son to “go back to the streets”.
“That’s where I started: at the bikers’ ‘jorls’ and the rallies where normal pastors don’t go.”
Changuion says bikers are a group ignored and shunned by many spiritual leaders.
“I can understand that. For many years I worked to be the worst possible self. I’ve been there, got the T-shirt and realise there is another way of life.”
He started out his adult life as a motorcycle mechanic followed by army conscription.
“I had an exceptionally bad accident while I was awol. I got into lots of trouble with the military police and the South African Police.”
After finding religion, he studied theology and headed north to volunteer with the Rhodesian Army, where he became a military chaplain during the war that led to Zimbabwe’s independence.
“I used my Kawasaki 1000 to visit the troops,” he recalls.
“It was a door-opener. People would not see me as a padre. By the time they discovered who I was, they had used all the swear words.”
Changuion says instead of taking church parades he would go out on patrol with troops and talk to them.
When the war ended, he started the Christian Motorcyclists Association as an affiliate of an association in the US. It boasts 1 000 members.
“The goal is to win motorcylists and their friends to Christ. It’s important to know that God is not the antifun police.”
Commenting on South Africa’s present stressful times, Changuion says he does not believe there is a clear political solution.
“There are so many politicians with their own selfish agendas we see over and over,” he says.
“I encourage people to see that change is part of life and that constant change is here to stay.
“If we fail to change we’ll become fossilised.”