Motorcycle Chaplain Finds His Frustration Transformed into a Powerful Ministry Opportunity
Motorcycle Chaplain Howard Raney was in a hurry, but God slowed him down so he could be at the right place, at the right time.
Dan Van Veen
U.S. missionary and motorcycle chaplain Howard Raney was in a hurry and, of course, it seemed like the world was working to slow him down. His frustration was growing and his patience was beginning to wear thin as delay after delay piled on. And then God just stepped in and did something so ridiculously Godlike that Raney was just left shaking his head in amazement.
Raney was a fulltime pastor for 32 years before becoming a motorcycle chaplain in 2015, and a fully appointed U.S. missionary in 2017. He is a member of the national leadership team for HonorBound Motorcycle Ministry, which operates under the authority of AG U.S. Missions Chaplaincy Ministries.
Nearly every year, Raney spends time at Rapid City First Assembly in South Dakota working a ministry outreach to bikers. He and other chaplains and volunteers detail and bless the bikes of riders headed toward or already participating in the mammoth Sturgis biker rally held for 10 days every year in early August in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
However, on this Friday, he and his fellow longtime biker friend, who goes by the name of Shadetree, had taken a break to get a broken heat shield on his Harley welded. Wanting to accomplish the task as quickly as possible, the men headed for a nearby shop.
“The guys there were wanting to close the shop early and you could tell they really didn’t want to do the job,” Raney recalls. “After taking it back to their shop guys, they came back and told me they couldn’t weld it.”
Unfortunately, Raney’s only other choice was a shop on the other side of town — meaning additional time spent away from the outreach . . ., but it had to be done.
Jumping onto their bikes, it soon became clear to the pair that there were a whole lot of people “taking off from work early” as the traffic was heavy . . . and if there was a red light, it found the pair and if there was someone who felt “led” to go 25 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone, it was like they were hunting for Raney and Shadetree.
It was just that kind of a day!
And then things went from bad to “you gotta be kidding me!”
“We turned to go down the road to the muffler shop and the crossing gates goes down — it was a train and, of course, it was moving slow!” Raney says with a chuckle in his voice.
But that’s exactly where Raney was supposed to be — God’s time, God’s place.
Raney, who serves as a chaplain on the annual Run for the Wall cross-country bike ride to the Vietnam Memorial, still had his “Chaplain” sign on his motorcycle’s windshield.
“We’re sitting there in traffic waiting, cars in front of us and behind us, when a guy in front of us jumps out of the passenger side of the Jeep in front of us and starts running toward us,” Raney says. “That was not a good feeling, and this guy was as big as a mountain — I was trying to figure out what we had done!”
And then God’s purpose became clear.
“The first words out of his mouth were, ‘You’re a chaplain? Really, a chaplain?’” Randy recalls. “I told him I was, and I pulled off my helmet. Then he says, ‘I need prayer,’ and tears started coursing down his face.”
The man told Raney that three of his family members had died within the last month.
“He told me he didn’t know what to do and that he needed prayer,” Raney says. “So, right there, in middle of traffic, we laid hands on him and prayed for him. As we prayed, a peace came over him. When we finished praying, he thanked us and went and got back into the Jeep.”
And, just as the prayer ended, the trained finished passing through and the gates lifted. Raney and Shadetree drove to the muffler shop without any additional interruptions.
“The guy at the shop, I guess he saw the chaplain sign on my windshield, was able to weld the heatshield right away,” Raney says, “and then when I went to pay, he told me I didn’t owe him a dime!”
In reflecting on the event of that afternoon, Raney says that encounters with people in unexpected places happen to him regularly.
“God, I think, was just telling me, ‘Howard, you need to slow down a bit. Sometimes the delays in life aren’t really delays at all, but bigger opportunities I’m preparing for you.’ I think about that — if we wouldn’t have been slowed down all along the way, we would never have gotten the opportunity to minister to that guy . . . God has a plan, and He knows exactly when to implement it.”
Raney was a fulltime pastor for 32 years before becoming a motorcycle chaplain in 2015, and a fully appointed U.S. missionary in 2017. He is a member of the national leadership team for HonorBound Motorcycle Ministry, which operates under the authority of AG U.S. Missions Chaplaincy Ministries.
Nearly every year, Raney spends time at Rapid City First Assembly in South Dakota working a ministry outreach to bikers. He and other chaplains and volunteers detail and bless the bikes of riders headed toward or already participating in the mammoth Sturgis biker rally held for 10 days every year in early August in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
However, on this Friday, he and his fellow longtime biker friend, who goes by the name of Shadetree, had taken a break to get a broken heat shield on his Harley welded. Wanting to accomplish the task as quickly as possible, the men headed for a nearby shop.
“The guys there were wanting to close the shop early and you could tell they really didn’t want to do the job,” Raney recalls. “After taking it back to their shop guys, they came back and told me they couldn’t weld it.”
Unfortunately, Raney’s only other choice was a shop on the other side of town — meaning additional time spent away from the outreach . . ., but it had to be done.
Jumping onto their bikes, it soon became clear to the pair that there were a whole lot of people “taking off from work early” as the traffic was heavy . . . and if there was a red light, it found the pair and if there was someone who felt “led” to go 25 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone, it was like they were hunting for Raney and Shadetree.
It was just that kind of a day!
And then things went from bad to “you gotta be kidding me!”
“We turned to go down the road to the muffler shop and the crossing gates goes down — it was a train and, of course, it was moving slow!” Raney says with a chuckle in his voice.
But that’s exactly where Raney was supposed to be — God’s time, God’s place.
Raney, who serves as a chaplain on the annual Run for the Wall cross-country bike ride to the Vietnam Memorial, still had his “Chaplain” sign on his motorcycle’s windshield.
“We’re sitting there in traffic waiting, cars in front of us and behind us, when a guy in front of us jumps out of the passenger side of the Jeep in front of us and starts running toward us,” Raney says. “That was not a good feeling, and this guy was as big as a mountain — I was trying to figure out what we had done!”
And then God’s purpose became clear.
“The first words out of his mouth were, ‘You’re a chaplain? Really, a chaplain?’” Randy recalls. “I told him I was, and I pulled off my helmet. Then he says, ‘I need prayer,’ and tears started coursing down his face.”
The man told Raney that three of his family members had died within the last month.
“He told me he didn’t know what to do and that he needed prayer,” Raney says. “So, right there, in middle of traffic, we laid hands on him and prayed for him. As we prayed, a peace came over him. When we finished praying, he thanked us and went and got back into the Jeep.”
And, just as the prayer ended, the trained finished passing through and the gates lifted. Raney and Shadetree drove to the muffler shop without any additional interruptions.
“The guy at the shop, I guess he saw the chaplain sign on my windshield, was able to weld the heatshield right away,” Raney says, “and then when I went to pay, he told me I didn’t owe him a dime!”
In reflecting on the event of that afternoon, Raney says that encounters with people in unexpected places happen to him regularly.
“God, I think, was just telling me, ‘Howard, you need to slow down a bit. Sometimes the delays in life aren’t really delays at all, but bigger opportunities I’m preparing for you.’ I think about that — if we wouldn’t have been slowed down all along the way, we would never have gotten the opportunity to minister to that guy . . . God has a plan, and He knows exactly when to implement it.”