The Christian Motorcyclists Association, founded in 2003 and with chapters in 8 of Portugal’s 18 Districts ranging from Bragança to Faro, is mostly known for their Christian evangelistic work among bikers. Frequently seen at rallies and other biker events, the men and women of Cma Portugal distribute creative and contemporary New Testament portions of the Holy Bible with full color testimonies in the front and back sections of the Bible. All of the testimonies are real-life stories of these bikers and how they converted to the Christian faith, some of them following lives of “sex, drugs, alcohol and rock ‘n roll”. In March of 2015 they ran out of these Bibles. Three editions, a total of 30,000 copies had been freely distributed all over the country! There were no Bibles left to present as gifts. Many would come looking for these books, so loved and appreciated by the national motorcycling community, at the big summer rallies such as the massive Faro Rally.


Founding-national president, Eddie Fernandes, came up with an idea of riding from Lisbon to Finland to raise the large quantity needed to publish these Bibles in very difficult financial times. He was invited to be a guest speaker at the European Motorcyclists for Christ Rally to be held in Finland and hosted by the Gospel Riders MM. His idea was to challenge friends and family to sponsor him with as little as 1c/km. Expecting to ride at least 8,000kms his hope was that many would catch the vision and sponsor 1c/km or a total investment of 80€ per person. Two other members volunteered their time, effort and money to join him on the ride: João Carvalho (Chapter president of Cma Coimbra and Pastor of Riverside Church in Coimbra), and David Campos (Chapter president of Cma Faro and training pastor of a forming Riverside Church in Albufeira).


Cma Portugal set four goals for the trip: first, raise funds to publish the 10,000 Bibles; second, raise at least €2.300,00 for Isabela Marques’ bicycle (the amount outstanding for the €5.070,00 bicycle); third, preach at the EMC Rally and other places in Finland; fourth, pray over the European continent as they rode, stopping to pray at every border and all historic sites, asking God for Europe to remain a Christian continent.


The ride was completed between 22 July and 11 August. Eddie rode his old Honda Goldwing GL1500 while João and David each rode their Yamaha FJR1300’s a total of 9,120kms, crossing the borders of 11 countries! They spent 7 days ‘in the saddle’ on the way there, spent 7 days in Finland and then rode 7 days back home to be greeted by a multitude of people in Belém. All four goals for the trip were successfully completed and the amount raised was a whopping €22.295,10! The mounts donated ranged from a €2,00 offering to an amazing 15c/km sponsored by another lady! All donations contributed to the cause and were greatly appreciated. Hundreds of Biker Bibles were distributed freely to bikers this summer. This past Saturday, 12 September, dozens of bikers rode to Marinhais to present “Associação Tampinha Solidária” the pledged cheque that included an additional donation from Riverside International Church to total €3.672,18!


Riverside International Church, an English-language non-denominational church, also founded by Pr. Eddie and Marta as a house church in 1996, has multiplied from Cascais to Porto-Minho, Coimbra, Sarilhos Grandes and Feijó and is planting a new church in Albufeira. All of the daughter churches are Portuguese-language churches except for Cascais and Porto-Minho that are English-language congregations. Pastor Eddie’s closing remarks to the Portugal News were: “I thank God for generous people who help others in times of crisis. Without good people coming together associations like Cma or Tampinha Solidária could never do the great work they do. We need a network of loving and giving people to impact the world. The ride was extremely tough to complete as we rode almost the entire way under rain, sleeping in tents and often eating freeze-dried rations but we did it and came back in one piece. The News covered the ‘To Russia with Love’ project we completed in 2006 and you will remember in that ride we had two causalities. Both Ramon Changuion from South Africa and I completed the return trip home by plane to be operated on following tragic accidents in Russia and Poland. This time there were zero injuries and we were so blessed by the tremendous response. I especially thank the Riverside church network for donating almost one third of the funds raised. We received many donations from friends around the world including friends of the Bible living in the Muslim world in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar! We give all glory to God.”