Rising Star Award - creating social connections between motorcyclists
It’s Monday night in a cold, damp Cathedral carpark. Ten blokes are standing round admiring a motorcycle, holding cups of strong, hot coffee, complaining about dangerous Wellington drivers and talking about life’s challenges. On the face of it, it doesn’t look like much, but for those in the know this is a significant moment. Significant to the people involved, because it has become a place of belonging, acceptance and community. And for myself, this is nearly seven years of God given dreams come to reality.
It all started in a smoko room. It was 2016, and my family and I had recently moved to Wellington to take up the self-supporting role of curate at St Thomas’ in Newtown. I was working as a motorcycle postie alongside a good friend, fellow St Tom’s member and Urban Vision member Joey. We already had a sense that God was moving in our work place and had been praying every week. We were confirmed in this when one of our fellow posties asked us over smoko if we wanted to “do a thing where we get together, read some of the Bible and then talk about it.” So, Joey and I started Awkward Conversations About God.
Every week for Awkward Conversations, my wife Jessie would make a huge pot of soup, and several motorcycle posties would consume a whole loaf of bread each and several bowls of soup after a long day delivering mail. We would then have a Bible study and time of prayer. We also ran bike nights and tried to build a race bike (that is still half finished in my garage). I wish I could say we saw people become disciples of Jesus, but we didn’t. What we did do however, was create a space for them to hear about Jesus for the first time, and find belonging and support in the midst of challenging lives.
One day, as I was out delivering mail on my postie bike, God gave me an idea: a DIY community motorcycle workshop: The Motorcycle Collective. A DIY workshop with all the tools you need for your bike. A motorcycle community, a place where anyone could find belonging and support. Next time we met up at Awkward Conversions I said I had an idea to share, but one of the blokes said he wanted to share his idea first: a DIY community motorcycle workshop!! What we had found together was worth creating for others.
We started scheming and planning! But then we came up against our own limitations. Where would we find the money? Where do we start? What about health and safety‽ Our scheming fizzled out and then life happened. After three years of Awkward Conversations, we each moved on. I found myself as Vicar of St Augustine’s in Petone. Others went on to study and moved away. Joey went overseas. Perhaps it was all for nothing?
I was convinced The Motorcycle Collective was a God idea and not just a good one. So, I kept the idea in the back of mind, often thinking and praying about it. Then at the beginning of 2020, as the pandemic was taking off, I found an email in my inbox from Movember and The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. They were asking for submissions from around the world for experimental pilot programs to create social connections between motorcyclists. They would give $78,000 (NZD) to the 12 most promising programs. I sent in a submission for The Motorcycle Collective with the help of Josh Bruce, another Urban Vision member and owner of Impact Consulting. And we got the funding!!!
Now that I had the funding how would I make it happen? I was pretty much on my own. But God just kept providing. As I reached out to the Wellington motorcycle scene for help, people heard the call, and God seemed to send just the right people, with the right gifts, at the right time to make this dream a reality. We now have a team of 12 volunteers (including Rev’d Digby Wilkinson), a part-time paid coordinator, and a fully equipped workshop trailer, that we park up and run “pop-up” Bike Nights around the region on a weekly schedule for anyone to come to. Other wins have been free coffee from Gumboot Coffee, organising the Wellington Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, raising $23,621 for men’s health, and receiving the Rising Star Award for Hutt City from the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards.
If you want to find us, Monday evenings we are in the Cathedral carpark, Thursday evenings in Upper Hutt at a bike shop in Trentham and Saturday days parked outside St Augustine’s in Petone. On these evenings we simply hang out and drink too much coffee, we run courses in mechanics and link younger riders with mentors to help them work on their bikes. But more importantly we are creating a healthy and supportive community. All our volunteers have training in how to have courageous conversations about mental health, identify risk factors and help people access mental health services if they need them. And for myself, I haven’t stopped introducing people to Jesus. Being an Anglican priest means I just can’t hide it even if I wanted to. And I hope and pray that in the future I might be asked to start another Awkward Conversations About God for another group of motorcyclists.
By Rev’d Jethro Day
The Motorcycle Collective is supported by the Bishop’s Community Development Trust, along with Trade School Industries and Capital Zone Basketball who came runner-up in their categories in the Hutt City local finals for the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards.
