Planting Seeds in the Soul

Pastor Trevor Scott of Living Branches Community Church, left, helped Christian Motorcyclists Association members Rudy Lange, Linda Lange, and Anita Wolf give away My Hope DVDs at a 2016 street market in Rocky Mountain House, AB.

Rudy Lange has a heart for evangelism and he isn’t shy about it.

“I want to grab people and say, ‘Hey, do you know the Lord?’” he said with a gentle laugh.

It’s that drive and passion that spurred the 57-year-old resident of Rocky Mountain House, AB, to make the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s My Hope DVD ministry an important part of his outreach.

In 2015, Rudy’s pastor gave him a copy of the My Hope DVD Value of a Soul, and he was drawn to the testimonies, particularly that of a woman named Laura, a motorcycle enthusiast whose life was spinning out of control until she invited Jesus into her heart.

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“Their stories really hit home for people,” Rudy said. “The video shows real people’s lives and how God can change them.”

A motorcyclist himself, Rudy knew his church had ordered 400 copies of Value of a Soul.

Church members distributed the DVDs to Rocky Mountain House residents during a community parade in 2015. That gave Rudy the idea for his local chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association to use the My Hope ministry to share their faith in “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16, ESV).

Club members ordered 900 copies of Value of a Soul then rented a booth for the 2016 season of Market on Main, which operates every Thursday evening in the summer in downtown Rocky Mountain House. The club showed the DVD on a laptop, as an invitation for non-Christian shoppers to stop at the booth. Members engaged in spiritual conversations with the shoppers and gave many of them copies of the DVD to watch on their own.

“The video does all the [evangelism] work for you,” Rudy said. “We used to hand out Bibles, but people were scared to take them. If you offer someone a DVD, they’ll take it.”

The video had such an impact on one man that he met with Rocky Mountain House pastor Kevin Carnahan for conversation and prayer. Carnahan doesn’t know if the man has made a faith commitment, but he knows seeds were planted. “When I hear stories like that, I get more enthusiastic because I know there are faith opportunities out there,” Rudy said.

In some cases, God orchestrated occasions when Rudy could use My Hope DVDs to maximum effect. During one night at Market on Main, he met three people who had lost their jobs in Alberta’s struggling economy.

“I offered them the DVD, explained it was about giving people hope, and some of them simply broke down and cried,” he said.

Since last summer’s Market on Main, the Rocky Mountain House chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association has given away 600 more DVDs, many of them at a motorbike event at a shopping mall in nearby Red Deer, AB.

“As long as the DVD is available, we’re going to get copies and give them away,” Rudy said. “We’re trying to figure out more ways to do this.”

Dave Ingram, director of ministry for BGEA of Canada, said: “We thank God for Rudy and the Rocky Mountain House branch of the Christian Motorcyclists Association, and how they are using My Hope in such an effective way.

“It’s our prayer that more Christian organizations, churches, and individual believers will use My Hope for the sake of the Kingdom.” ©2017 BGEA