Special to the PVT Nita and Cactus Wiggins are local CMA members. Advertisement

Bikers don't usually conjure up images of God-fearing, well-behaved Christians, but that's exactly the kind who make up the Christian Motorcycle Association, or CMA.

And now the national group is riding into Pahrump and forming a local chapter.

Members of CMA focus on reaching out evangelically to the motorcycle community.

And they do this by being bikers themselves.

"A lot of bikers will only talk to other bikers," Ty Hill, a founding member of the local chapter, explained recently. "It's a way to reach out to the biker community and everyone in need."

Members of CMA get "patched up" (meaning they get the organization's patch to wear on their jacket or vest) after being trained to minister to others.

Earning the patch (and being able to wear it) is a big part of how CMA members identify themselves to other bikers.

"Our patch is very well respected and known throughout the country and the world," Hill explained. "You get to know (bikers) and they really open up to you."

Hill said on one occasion he actually met a former president of the Hell's Angels who broke down, repented and prayed with him.

After joining, a new member completes a Ministry Team training program, which consists of an audio CD or VHS and workbook.

Teams are designed to help members use any of their own personal talents and skills in their work for the ministry.

For example, there's a music ministry team for those who can sing and a first aid ministry team for those already certified in CPR or first aid. Another ministry team works exclusively with prison inmates.

The Pahrump CMA chapter has three "patched out" members and three that are getting ready to patch up. In order to have a full chapter, however, there have to be 10 patched riders.

The members of CMA focus primarily on their work as a ministry.

They attend all the big biker rallies and runs, including that in Sturgis, S.D., and often do volunteer work for the rallies.

They'll help with registration, provide riders for charity events, help out with cleanup, and, as Nita Wiggins, the Southern Nevada and Southern California area representative for CMA put it, "let our actions speak louder than words."

"We are Christians, but we go (to rallies) as bikers," Wiggins explained.

In fact, the organization itself has its roots in a biker rally.

CMA was formed in 1972, when a Christian preacher in Arkansas, Herb Shreve, was looking for a way to connect to his teenage son.

So he bought two motorcycles and attended a biker rally, and as Wiggins told the story, "saw the need for Jesus."

Shreve got together with a few other Christians and began putting ads in the local paper to form a ministry group dedicated exclusively to preaching to bikers.

Soon he and his son began receiving donations in the mail, with notes or checks made out to "CMA."

Initially, Shreve sent the money back to those who had sent it, until it dawned on him that "CMA" stood for Christian Motorcycle Association.

Two years later a charter was applied for, and the Christian Motorcycle Association was born.

The CMA does have one major fundraising event each year, the Run for the Son, which takes place on the first Saturday in May.

Riders are sponsored to ride 100 miles. The money raised is divided among different ministries.

Twenty percent of the proceeds go to the Open Doors Ministry, and another 20 percent goes to Missionary Ventures, which provides transportation to ministers in third world countries.

Transportation can mean anything from buying a pastor a horse to a four-wheel-drive vehicle so they can get to the several churches they often find themselves leading.

Forty percent of the proceeds go to home missions, providing literature to be distributed by members to others.

The last 20 percent of proceeds goes to support the Jesus film project, which translates and distributes a movie about Jesus to countries worldwide.

The Christian Motorcycle Association also has a youth chapter, Hill's 12-year-old son Christopher is the first member in Pahrump.

The CMA meets every second Saturday of the month at Lois Layne's Ice Cream and Deli, located on Basin Avenue directly across from Petrack Park.

The meetings are usually at 6:30 p.m. The time sometimes changes but is posted at the deli.

Meetings are spent discussing future events and just generally having a good time, followed by a ride.

For more information, contact Hill at (775) 220-3986.