Springdale Baptist Church in Dublin, Ga., found that bicycles in disrepair can find new life with children in need and serve as a tool to share Christ’s love in the process.
The church started a ministry to fix donated bikes and give them away after church member Kenneth Fontenot saw a small bicycle discarded at a metal-recycling collection station. His first reaction was to fix it up and take it to a local battered-women’s shelter, where children there could use it.
That act of generosity grew into the ministry at Springdale, which received donated bikes in disrepair, fixed them up and gave them away to needy children. The bikes came to be known as “Christ-cycles.”
Handwritten Scripture references for the Roman Road were attached to a copy of the New Testament, which was tied to each bicycle.
“We tell them we’re doing this because Jesus loves them, and we love them,” Fontenot says, “and when they ride those bicycles, to remember Jesus loves them.”
