Like Going to a Bar Without the Booze
Sheldon was the first Freedom Convoy trucker to visit the Bikers' Church in Ottawa.
Part 1: Time to Move On! Â
Sheldon's worldview is unabashedly Christian, but with a twist. "I'm a church-going guy, but I'm not a religious person," he says. "Religion is full of rules for people, telling them what they can and what they can't do. I'm just a regular guy that goes to church and wants to bless other people, and help people, and volunteer. You know, it's about making friendships."
He attributes his leadership skills to that part of his life. "I got my training through an amazing church, an amazing pastor, and an amazing walk of faith through God. And that's why I am strong enough for this. I just lean back onto the scriptures I've heard and been raised with."
The day after he arrived in the nation's capital, Sheldon visited the Capital City Bikers' Church for the first time. Located three kilometers to the east of their block of trucks on Nicholas (about an eight-minute drive away), it ministers to one of Ottawa's most challenging neighbourhoods. Paul, who was part of the main crew, had a pickup truck and a sister who lives in Ottawa. When Sheldon said he needed to go somewhere he could wash up, Paul's sister said her church was open.
"So we go to this church," Sheldon remembers, "and it just felt like I was walking into home. The praise and worship music was there, the love and the joy." He told the podcaster the church had helped "a bunch of us guys" get haircuts today. "They've been praying for us" and supplying occasional meals, he said. "It's been a ton of fun."
In his view, the Bikers' Church was "a lighthouse to people who typically never go to church." Asked about this later, Sheldon remembers walking up the stairs to the entrance and being greeted by Melissa McKee, the wife of ordained minister Rob McKee. "Are you a trucker?" she asked. In fact, he was the first one to walk through their doors.
When he told her he had, indeed, showed up in a semi truck from Manitoba, she gave him a hug and
started asking questions, and I don't even remember everything that happened. I got to go downstairs to the bathroom there and wash up. Wash my face, brush my teeth. You know, feel a little bit more like a human being, have a little bit of a bird bath there.
And I walked upstairs and they're giving me food. It just let me recharge my batteries. There was a church service that night and then Melissa found out where we were parked. She'd go downtown just to be a blessing to people, and talk to people, and encourage people. She kept coming by.
Most of the guys in our group were believers. There was maybe two or three that were undecided, but they still came to the church. We'd go there for services, and just kind of hang out.
Like his spiritual community back home, Sheldon says the focus of the Bikers' Church is on being helpful. The neighbourhood isn't the prettiest, he says,
There's lots of homeless people there, lots of drug people, lots of people with abuse issues. But that church was full of just great people. And they weren't the religious people that, you know, look down on you. They were just normal people.
It was lively, it was fun. It felt just like going to a bar without the booze, if you know what I mean. It's just what I needed, when I was far away from home.
final installment of Sheldon’s story: Windows Were Smashed, Guns Were Drawn
I want to go there right now!