To give you a brief insight into how and why I started Fireblade Ministries and also how I purchased the mascot of the ministry I have included two short stories below.

This will not only give you an insight into Fireblade Ministries but also a personal testimony into how God can work in individuals lives independantly and bring them all together in one big plan.

I did not know then that God was going to use both these things to bring my life into line with His will.

Having sat listening to the ten minute "Bible bit" at the end of each Friday night's youth club, I gradually became aware that two thousand years ago Jesus, the Son of God, died for my sinfulness and rose again to make it possible for me to find a way to God, and He is coming back to take His Church to Heaven to be with God for ever.

So it was, that on one of these Friday evenings, I simply asked God to forgive me and to become real to me in my life. I then found myself in an exciting and personal relationship with God as I started to have real conversations with Him, and be aware of Him speaking back to me as I read my way through the New Testament.

All went well until I met up with God's challenge ? to me in Mark 16 v15, "Go into all the world and preach good News to all creation".

Did God mean ME? Was I to preach the Gospel To whom? Back came the answer, I was to preach the Good News to who would hear. So I did.

I started with those friends of mine that shared my interest in motor bikes. I had tried to be a shirt and tie Christian, but knew deep down that for me to be sincere and honest before God I had to be found wearing leathers and boots. (Maybe there was a bit of John the Baptist about me - he was a nonconformist also.)

At seventeen I got my first bike and, having kept my links with the "End of the Lines" bike-club, the idea of a club for Christians who rode bikes occurred to me.

I started to pray to the Lord about it, trusting Him to sort it out, and five years on I read in my local newspaper an article about the Christian Motorcyclists Association wanting to start a group in Northern Ireland. I made contact with them and soon began meeting with other bike fans who were also Christians.

Word about the club soon spread and, as well as attending races and rallies together, we found ourselves being invited to Churches and youth groups where we continued to share our love for God.

Back in the early days of my Christian life, I had often thought how marvellous it would be to be like the preachers in the marquee missions that I attended, speaking to hundreds of people, but God had very different plans for me.

Eventually I found myself amongst fifty thousand bikers of many nationalities, all packed on to the tiny Isle of Man during the TT Road races for two weeks every year.

Here were the fields that were 'white unto harvest' and God had chosen me to labour for Him there. Up until August 1990 everything had been straight forward for me, but then being confined to bed staring at the ceiling for ten weeks I was having to contemplate what God's plans for my future were going to be.

The doctors had informed Donna, my wife, what they thought the outcome of my accident would be, and it was not optimistic. But I knew that with man this was impossible, but with God all things are possible. God was still at work in me and around me.

The first thing that proved this to me was the sense of peace that grew on me, that all this was in God's will. The next was even more fantastic when my mother arrived at my bedside to tell me that she had put her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, after a total of thirteen weeks in hospital I was declared well enough to return home to Donna and our daughter Kerry, albeit still in a body cast. I was so thankful to God for answering the prayers of many friends who had remembered me so faithfully. God is good! Well Lord, what next?

I felt that I needed to be released out of the workplace to give myself fully to the Lord's work. To that end I wanted to set up Fireblade Ministries, a trust which I hope will ultimately enable me to go out as a full-time worker.

Firstly though I had to ask God if this was His plan, or mine and, as a way of testing this, I approached 'Honda UK' to seek permission to use the name of 'Fireblade', one of their top-of-the-range bikes. They agreed within a week and I felt that God had given me His confirmation for his plans for Fireblade Ministries to go ahead.

To the Christian, 'fire' the power of the Holy Spirit, and the 'blade' represents the sword of the Word of God. So I will be taking the Word of God to the 'whosoever' through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Donna has always been supportive of the ministry that God has placed me in, and has always been a great sounding-board, giving advice and guidance when necessary. She and Kerry are great friends, depending on each other and the Lord when the work of Fireblade Ministries takes me away from home more and more.

We are still waiting for the Lord to provide us with the means to go full-time into the work, but meanwhile, it continues to grow. The one thing I am sure of, is that if God was not in all of this, I would not have come this far.

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One day I met representatives from Honda at a Bike show. One man said he was very interested in what I was doing and, out of the blue, two months later he rang up to say that he had three magnificent Fireblades on offer and Eddie could have one for only £6000.

Although I was scared at the amount of money involved, God made it possible in different ways and when the bike arrived it had a very special number plate N188 GLY. (Numbers 18 v8 - "use your offering to the glory of God") - while GLY indicates "God Loves You!"

God has continued to encourage me in many different ways as I try to convey God's love to bikers and non-bikers everywhere. The fireblade and its number plate are often the opportunity to begin to share the reality that God does love us and that He gave His Son so that we can have eternal Life.