This past weekend, I bought a second motorcycle. Its a 2001 Kawasaki ZR-7s, a small, lightweight 750cc bike. I first became interested in this particular model about 2 years ago, after seeing one at a motorcycle shop in Watkinsville. I had never seen one before, and began to study them on the web. Kawasaki only made them for the US market from 2000 to 2004, but they were a very well-rounded motorcycle. Plenty of power, great handling, easy to maintain, and could run about 300 miles on a tank of gas. I've been thinking about a small, cheap second bike for some time, when we had the money, and recently Lisa told me, "we have some extra cash, why don't you go find one?" Oh yeah...
I began to search for them on the web, for the better part of three months. They are hard to find, having only been produced for such a short time. They also tend to run from $2500-3500, but one day last week, I saw this one come up. The bike was in east Tennessee, had 19k miles, and was being offered for $2000. I had to check it out. I emailed and texted back and forth with the owner, found out all about it, and asked a friend of mine, Tommy, to ride up with me to have a look.
We set out Saturday morning, Sept. 8, my birthday. It took over four hours to arrive in the owner's town. We were in rain most of the drive up and home, but the sun broke through as we pulled into his parking lot. Turns out, Jesse the owner was a Christian, and lived/worked for a church-run drug and alcohol rehab center that was operated by his family and their church. I rode the bike around, looked it all over, and we negotiated a price. We agreed on $1700, and I was thrilled. It needed some TLC, but was worth every penny of that. I saved $300 as well, which would make my wife happy!
The great part was meeting and dealing with a Christian brother, who was doing a good work in people's lives. The ministry is called "Place of Hope", and before we left, we all prayed together, for each other's ministries. It was a perfect way to end our meeting.
We got home, unloaded the bike, and I thanked Tommy for accompanying and helping me. Our time together talking up and back was as much a blessing as buying the bike and meeting Jesse. Tommy is a dear bro in Christ, and I enjoyed every moment of the day with him. The whole experience was a God-blessed time.
I thanked God for the opportunity to own this fun little bike, and dedicated it to the Lord just like I did the Royal Star so many years ago. God has used that bike to allow me to go places, meet people, and participate in ministry beyond my wildest dreams. May this little ride be used by God to open up even more doors to enjoy and honor Him.