By: Dave Abrahams
Cape Town – Each year, a couple of weeks before the Toy Run, the New Apostolic Church in Bellville holds a special service dedicated to motorcyclists, and in support of the largest biker-driven charity event in Southern Africa.
On Sunday 16 November the congregation brought toys – piling them up in the vestibule in a stack as high as the saddles of the racing motorcycles parked there to act as bookends - and riders from far and wide arrived, in clubs, in families and singly, their bikes polished to within an inch of their lives, to be part of this extraordinary outreach.
For every aspect of the service – the text, the hymns, the sermon and the testimony – was chosen for its relevance to motorcycling, drawing parallels to the loyalty of the riders to their club and their fellow bikers, not to persuade them to join the church, but simply to make the visitors feel that their presence on this special day is valued.
Because at the end of the service, the children of the congregation – from toddlers to teens, took toys from the pile and stood outside, forming a guard of honour.
As the riders came out of the church they were almost mobbed by a sea of young faces, filling their arms and in some cases, their crash helmets with toys of every description, and charging them strictly to “deliver these toys to the Toy Run”.
EXTRA LOVE AND CELEBRATION
Nobody had told the bikers this was going to happen and there was scarcely a dry eye in the churchyard as they packed away these symbolic gifts from children for whom Christmas is a time of extra love and celebration, to those too busy battling to survive to celebrate anything.
Members of the New Apostolic Church will deliver the rest of the toys to the end venue of the Toy Run on 30 November, and you’re invited to join them at the William Herbert Sports Ground, for the biggest biker party of the year - just bring toys!
The 32nd annual Motorcycle Charity Toy Run will start from the Grand West Casino at 10.30am on Sunday 30 November, and will end at the William Herbert Sports Ground on Rosmead Avenue, Wynberg, where there will be refreshments, memorabilia and biker gear of all kinds on sale, live music and top comedy acts to entertain you and the incredible sight of toys by the ton.
Yet there are never enough; each year more grass-roots childcare initiatives approach Toy Run convenor Rodney Ford for toys. As big as the Toy Run is, it cannot reach every child in need in Southern Africa, which is why Ford has issued a personal invitation to every Capetonian to be there – and bring toys!