Roy Rissanen

With tensions high in the Middle East, a new Motor Bike club is breaking down religious and cultural barriers in Jerusalem. Gospel Riders is a club based on Christian values with a Christian based constitution. With Moslems, Jews and Christians as members, they are open to anyone who agrees with their principles. Paul Calvert spent some time with founder Roy Rissanen to find out more.

Paul: How many members do you have?

Roy: So far we have about 20 members both local and international. Most of them live here all the time and some of them live abroad. We have been very happy with the growth so far. We haven't really put the full effort in to this yet as we wanted to establish it first.

Paul: Do you have people from different cultural backgrounds and religions in the group?

Roy: Yes we do we have Christians and people from other religions; we have Jews and Moslem's who ride together and it works great, we are just one big happy group. That gives us the opportunity to share what we love doing and that's the motor biking, but of course we are learning from each other as we are exposed to each other, Jews, Arabs, Palestinians and we want to have it that way, we want it to be an open forum where we meet, socialise and strengthen our spiritual being.

Paul: Do you have a symbol for your organisation?

Roy: Yes we have a crown of thorns and a cross as the emblem; that seems to have been taken very well in the local context by all religions which is a good thing. A lot of people seem to appreciate that we are very visible in what we do. The bikes and the bikers draw a lot of attention naturally as well.

Paul: Are there many bikes here in Israel?

Roy: There are, but it's more in the coastal areas. In Tel Aviv there are bikes but in Jerusalem there are not so many. The problem with bikes is that there are some restrictions, especially when it comes to buying a bike. The insurance is very expensive and there is a very high import duty too. Weather wise its ideal though and the road network is perfect.

Paul: What is the main aim of Gospel Riders?

Roy: We see it as part of our Christian witness, just being present here and praying for people and joining with other Christians. A lot of Christians want to belong to a group and this is a great opportunity; but we still want to make it open to everybody. Our other aim is to provide a social network for other bikers too, to enjoy the shared riding. We do trips to parts of the land, this is something which is very special especially when it is done in close formation; actually it is quite challenging as well. It brings a lot of unity to those who participate in it. We are one group so if one bike falls apart we all contribute to fixing it or trying to find a solution. We also want to network with other Christian motorbike clubs internationally too; we sometimes get visitors from them.

One of our aims is to promote disciplined driving; being a disciplined driver means that the driver is in control of the bike and obeying the laws of the land. When it comes to riding we don't want to be seen or perceived as a reckless group of riders, so we want to show that as a reflection of how we behave spiritually. If our outward behaviour in traffic is under control we want to give the impression that our spiritual lives are in control too, there's a direct relationship with that.

Paul: Now bikers seem to have this hard man image, are Israeli bikers interested in the Gospel message?

Roy: Yes, we are always ready to share about what we believe in; we also understand that this can be a sensitive issue when it comes to meeting with people from other religions, so we like to take a natural course in that. We are interested in them as people and as bikers, as people who love to do what we love to do. That's a common thing so we build on that, everything else that follows whether its a discussion on our spiritual beliefs or some other issue like motor bike maintenance, it comes naturally. It comes as we build up friendships and trust so this is very important.