Bike Week once meant drinking, drugs and hopefully a scuffle or two for Jacksonville Beach motorcyclist Russell Victor.
But now he uses the annual Daytona Beach affair, that starts today, to hand out Bibles and share his newfound faith with whom he calls "1-percenters" -- the hard-core bikers who live as recklessly as he once did.
The 35-year-old born-again Christian, who sports a Jesus tattoo on his forearm and a ring on every finger, plans to spend much of Bike Week 2001 in a Daytona Beach church serving free meals, handing out religious tracts, holding services and praying for bikers who request it.
"Some will have their bike prayed for, if not themselves," said Victor, who founded Spirit Riders Motorcycle Ministry through Isle of Faith United Methodist Church on San Pablo Road.
Victor is part of a growing breed of motorcycle missionaries, said Jerry Murray, state coordinator for the Christian Motorcycle Association, a non-profit organization based in Arkansas that trains bikers for ministry through a correspondence course.
Biker groups visit prisons, children's homes and nursing homes. They also visit churches and encourage congregations to be biker-friendly.
In addition to Victor's ministry, there are several others in the Jacksonville area, including Riders for the Sonand Bikers for Christ. Warriors of Christ recently formed in St. Augustine. And some bikers in Fernandina Beach are trying to form their own group, Murray said.
Motorcycle ministries are another effort by Protestant churches to take God's love to people who don't come to church, said the Rev. John Suskey of Anthony, who heads a motorcycle ministry at his church north of Ocala.
For a century, Suskey said, churches have separated themselves from society.
"It's an image that must change to keep the church alive," said Suskey, pastor of Anthony United Methodist Church.
Wearing his "leathers" -- which in biker terms means leather chaps, jacket, vest and gloves -- the long-haired Victor rides his 1975 Harley Davidson FX custom motorcycle to motorcycle events around Florida and Georgia.
He said he hopes for opportunities to share how God changed his life. He said he regularly used drugs, chugged Jim Beam and Coke and fought in bars for sport. He said he's been arrested for driving drunk, carrying a concealed weapon and domestic violence.
"I was on a road to death," Victor said. "I would drink and become 10 feet tall and bullet-proof."
That all changed, Victor said, in 1993, when he saw his biker friend, 49-year-old Billy Hinson, lying dead on a St. Johns County road. Hinson collided with a van on the Palm Valley Bridge.
With his dead friend at his feet, Victor said he had visions in his mind he believes came from God. "I saw myself dead on the ground," he said.
He then saw himself with a little girl who looked like him. She called him "Daddy." He had no children at the time. The girl reached for a joint and a liquor bottle Victor was holding.
He called his wife and told her he was going to ditch his wild life and start attending church.
The first sermon he heard was about the parable of the prodigal son.
His priorities are now God, his family and sharing the Gospel. He's happily married with two daughters.
The Rev. John Hill, co-pastor of Isle of Faith, said Victor's ministry reaches people other