MONROE

Charlie Keyser served three years in Vietnam, where he was shot in the back and died on the operating table. The doctors brought him back to life.

“The Lord wasn’t done with me,” Keyser said.

It was more than three decades before he became a Christian — just last year, with a push from his 6-year-old granddaughter — and he hasn’t looked back since.

Keyser is part of Bikers for Christ, an international group of riders with a heart for serving others. He started a Union County chapter about eight months ago.

John Sink, a member of Freedom Biker Church of Monroe, was one of the first to join.

As a former bouncer, Sink had guns and knives pulled on him on a regular basis. He used to enjoy getting in brawls, he said, because he got bigger paycheck.

These days, Sink is more likely to be found working alongside Daniel Bigham at Operation Christmas Child or ministering to fellow bikers.

Bigham, a Bikers for Christ member, is the pastor of Monroe’s Cedar Grove Family Worship Center, an International Pentecostal Holiness church.

The 23-member church was founded in 1951 when a member wouldn’t dare show up in leather chaps, he said. Most Sundays, he rides to church with a Bible in his saddlebag.

Rolling up his sleeves, Keyser revealed several tattoos that he said could deter people from striking up a conversation. Once his “Bikers for Christ” jacket is on, though, “they’ll just come right up to you.”

The same goes for church, Bigham said.

Where a man in a suit and tie may be intimidated by the tattoos, bikers with tattoos may be intimidated by a suit and tie, Keyser said.

“A lot of times, there’s the stigma where people feel like they’re going to be judged walking into church,” Bigham said, even if that’s not the case. “Then all of a sudden, they find out there are bikers in church.”

Sink has attended many traditional churches and enjoyed them, he said, but it can be hard to find common ground with people who haven’t been in his shoes.

Keyser remembers one night a while back, sitting in a bar at 4 a.m. “I drunk myself sober,” he said. He vowed to seek a more meaningful life and found it that day in church with his granddaughter.

“From then on, I had a clear path.”

Since then, Keyser and other Bikers for Christ have participated in a handful of projects, such as Biker Down, a ministry to injured bikers, or Eyes Wide Open, a motorcycle event to raise money for humanitarian work in Sudan.

Keyser’s wife, Donna, also joined the group and rides with her husband.

The members have other hobbies — fishing, riding ATVs, golf, woodwork — but always come back to the open road and hope to gain more riders.

The only stipulation? “No mopeds,” Keyser joked.

Reach Bikers for Christ by visiting www.ucbikersforchrist.webs.com or on Facebook under “Union County Bikers for Christ.”