Five Years ..

Has it really been five years? Five years ago, we started panicREV. It is hard to believe it has been that long. It has been an amazing five years, and it is been refreshing to sit down and look at all God has done and built.

It all started with the simple idea of passing out free water at the race track with www.panicrev.org labels. Our goal was to get people to visit the website which had the gospel message on it. God blessed that effort and in the first year there were a half a dozen people who were saved simply by checking out the website. It started with such a simple idea, but God soon revealed he had a lot more in store.

Soon, God opened a door for us to be a part of the San Diego round of the 2004 Supercross Series. We were fortunate enough to get in for free and set up a booth in the stadium with the guys at Five8 Mx (a Christian motocross ministry that has since moved to Texas). We spent the day passing out free Bibles and post cards with a short message on them. That was also the day that I first heard the name Jason Ciarletta. I never had the opportunity to meet Jason in person, but Jason changed my life—Jason opened my eyes to how delicate life is. In a day time qualifier, Jason went down and passed away as a result of his injury. That week I wrote an article for the website. Check it out: http://www.panicrev.org/articles/jason/

To this day we are still in touch with Jason’s family. In fact, I pray for them all weekly. I am honored to be able to call them friends.

God soon opened doors at the local race track. God gave me the vision to take church to the race track and begin to minister to motocrossers where they are. We soon started spending time at the race track without our bikes. Why without our bikes? Because my focus began to shift—from going to the track to ride and doing ministry on the side, to going to the track to do ministry and sometimes riding on the side. To this day, this continues to be my priority. The focus is way more on people than riding these days. Anyway, we began to bring prayer and devotionals to the track on race days. We started at Perris and soon began making visits to Starwest and even Glen Helen for their monthly SRA Races. God really began to help us build relationship with people … LOTS OF PEOPLE! It was, and still is, amazing. We were, and still are, just a group of simple guys obediently following to Christ. We did not have anything flashy or catchy; we simply showed up and followed where Christ led. And do you know what? God blessed that obedience in abundance. To this day, I don’t have numbers of how many souls Christ has won through us or how many seeds have been planted, but I know God has used panicREV to impact and love on many people. It has been amazing.

I could go on and on with stories of God working through this ministry—from our race team, to putting on the memorial event for Bret Klein, to God working a miracle and healing Sean Borkenhagen; however, for the sake of time, I will save that for the future.

What is in the future? I cannot say for sure; however, God has placed it on our hearts to move forward in planting a church out of this unique movement. A little over a year ago, we started a Bible study in Corona for the riders that we had been serving the previous four years. Over the last year, God has really blessed the group; four of them chose to mark their commitment to Christ by getting baptized, and one was saved, making the choice to follow Jesus for the first time. It has been amazing and I look forward to the next five years. I prayerfully hope you are all as fired up as I am and follow the Lord in obedience as He directs your life. If you would like more information on being a part of what God is doing here with this ministry, please email me any time!

In Christ,
Scott Parkinson
scott@panicrev.org