Today we talk about how to use extreme sports to lead people to Jesus. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, we talk to a Brazilian BMX Biker for Jesus…Douglas Oliveira. He flips upside down on the bike, and he helps to turn people’s lives right side up with his preaching.
Learn More About Stunt Dudes for Jesus: https://www.stuntdudes.com/
Summary:
Douglas Oliveira is a BMX biker from Brazil who uses his talent to spread the gospel.
- Oliveira became interested in BMX biking as a teenager and developed his skills through practice and visualization, eventually becoming a professional and competing at high levels like the X Games.
- He has used his BMX talents to evangelize in multiple countries, sharing his testimony and ministering to young people after performing stunts.
- Oliveira encourages young people to use their unique talents and skills to serve God and help others, rather than just pursuing fame or money.
- He emphasizes the importance of making the church and ministry engaging and fun for young people, rather than overly rigid or doctrinal.
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me all the way from Brazil.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (00:09):
Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:10):
Dougie, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (00:12):
King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:13):
Now we are here in Zimbabwe for the Love Zimbabwe Festival, and you have come as a stunt bike rider and you have been absolutely amazing the crowd with some of your stunts. Tell me a little bit about how you learned how to do stunts on a bike.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (00:35):
Well, in Brazil, we lost soccer. Of course, we love skateboarding. And I got in touch with BMX because my friends in school and my cousin. And then I just got interested to see those guys doing tricks and the tv, I was like, oh, I want to do that. I used to love bikes. Anyway, so I just started riding my bike, getting better, and then I ended up going to a skate park where I saw other professional riders and they saw, they said I had talent. I said, all right. So they started supporting me, teaching me tricks, and I was just every day after school working and just trying every day little bit. And I started having this visions, watching TVs, seeing they’re doing tricks, just closing my eyes by faith, just believing I’m doing the tricks, seeing the visualization of the tricks. And then every time I go to skate park, I was learning these new tricks like natural. So kind of like I see that God was pushing me to a place that people are going to help me go up to the place I’m in right now. So it’s basically like you visualize what you’re doing and you
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:35):
Became a professional and have competed at a very high level and even won some prizes.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (01:41):
Yes, exactly. I had a dream to go. One of the biggest competitions in action sports is the X Games. X Games is the dream come true for any action sport riders. And I was in Brazil, I wasn’t not that good yet, but I had faith. Everybody asks me, what are you going to do in five years? Say, I don’t want to go to X Games, I want to go to the world championship. I want to travel my bike around the world to help my family and my friends. Actually five years after that, I ended up going to United States and I rode my first X Games and I did every straight for 10 years riding, making money. I always had this background with teaching kids and stuff. So yeah, got third place in the world championship in England. So all this stuff I spoke before came through after five years. So it’s pretty amazing how God can move through a specific way to train you to what’s coming next with the word of
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:35):
God. And one of the things I really love about you is that you have this amazing talent, but you’re using the talent to build the kingdom of God. And so not only are you a bike rider, but you are an evangelist. And you and I have been together in several different countries. I was trying to think how many countries we’ve been together in now. I think we were in Malawi together, Malawi, maybe Zambia,
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (02:59):
Kenya.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:00):
Kenya. Oh yeah, Kenya,
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (03:01):
So many others.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:02):
And now Zimbabwe.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (03:03):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:03):
And so being around you, I’ve been so impressed that you have a heart for evangelism, and so you do the amazing trick, but then afterwards, when all the kids come over to talk to you, you start praying for them and ministering to them. And so tell me some of your testimony of what God has done in your life.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (03:25):
So basically I came from a background of my cousin’s family and Catholicism, but religious people that spoke about God and marry and Jesus, but act different. And I looked at this as a bad thing. Brazil have a problem with religion that kind of be evangelical in Brazil now is the kind of not good term to the worldly peoples, the peoples. So God showed me a different perspective because the first time somebody evangelize me, they come to me and say, do you want to serve Christ? I say, no. Oh, you’re going to go to hell. I was like, what? Right. Thank you. You want to come with me? So they never explained me. How are God that love me so much? You want to throw me hell? And that’s why he rejected the gospel. But going through so much, my brother was a religious man and I tried to prove my brother that I was trying to prove my brother that he was wrong and God placed a desire in my heart and now I know it’s God to why don’t you read the Bible, prove your brother he’s wrong.
(04:28):
And I was like you, right. So I started for eight years reading the word of God, praying the word, and applying the word of God in my life. And I started get a little weird because things started happening in my life changing for the good way. And I just like, no, no, no, no, no, this is not real. This is not real. For eight years I was trying to reject the true, but then one day I had this encounter with Jesus Christ is supernatural way. And the tree was so deep stuck in my heart that now I understand why God brought me into the situation. So I used the bike to break the religion, thinking about Christianity first. Oh, are you Christian? You have tattoos, you ride bikes? Yeah, I followed Jesus Christ and I started breaking through this. Jesus wasn’t a Christian, he was a Jew.
(05:15):
You Jesus wasn’t a white man. You know what I’m saying? So they started breaking this kind of religions thing of people. And then after like you say, I ride my bike like a normal person, my special gift, and then as soon I see the heart open, I’m able to preach the real gospel and God being so much faithful with me to giving me understanding and knowledge to help others because it’s hard here in Zambia, we have so much going on with the religion, with money, and people get away from God. The people blame Jesus Christ for the wrongdoing of man, but thank God I’m able to actually love them in a way that God loved me. And now understand that God do not send us to hell. We choose between hell and heaven. God loves us so much, they give us the free will. If you want to live eternity far away from God here, God will grant this to you. You’re going to live eternity far away from God. That’s hell. So it is a choice of matter. So learning those kind of techniques from the Holy Spirit helps me to break this down, this religion things, this sick mind of the people and help them come to Christ. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:25):
We’re here with the global network of evangelists and their motto is one message, many expressions. And so this week in Zimbabwe, we’ve had the bike tricks, we’ve had the clown, we’ve had dancers, we’ve had singers, and then we’ve had evangelists preaching the gospel. And so you see many different expressions of the gospel and the young people really relate so well to some of the non-traditional methods. What would you say to a church that wants to reach young people?
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (07:07):
Bible says that God give us a specific gift to which one individual of us. So we can use the gift to help others and be a great steward of the much form grace of God. And so we need to understand that I might be a hand, it might be an arm bride, might be the elbow we together, the body of Christ, the members and Christ the head. We can reach everybody because how you going to cut this off, right? Say it in Portuguese. How I would be able to minister to somebody that used to be a drunker or a drunker. If I’ve never been in this experience, I think God let we go to all this bad experiences because of our choices, but he let we learn the lesson and to be able to have different gifts and understanding help us reach everybody. So the message I give is do not be hard on the youth. First you need first you need to show them fun and love and let the grow in a church small. And then introducing the doctrine, the Bible, do not be rushing them that time. Build up and I see great young and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:19):
Make it fun for the young
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (08:21):
People. Yes, fun.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:22):
They want to have fun. They don’t want to sit there in a straight road.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (08:25):
The Bible has so many stars. The disciples having fun, smiling. I think we just need to understand that we know what’s coming after the end of the times, but we need to understand that if we don’t come nice and gentle with love, those kids, they’re going to reject the gospel early and we are going to be the ones that are going to face the judgment on that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:45):
So what would you say to young people who have a skill, something like bike riding or maybe juggling? I like to juggle. What would you say to young people and how they can use their skills for the kingdom of God?
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (09:01):
I tell my friends that in Brazil that it’s not such a thing or it’s one of the most important things I see in my life. It’s helping others. It doesn’t matter if you’re a bike rider, skateboarding, you’re a basketball player, dj, or if you are a construc or engineer or doctor trying to help people. And you’re going to see purpose in your life. I think the beginning of the fate, should we realize and understand what I am good for and who I do the best, how I can use my gifts to help others. And you can see the joy. So helping others with little thing can make a big change in their future. So just whatever you have God gave to you, just give to them, show them, teach them, let they receive and let them experience what you experience and let God use you as a vegetable. And I think the Holy Spirit will guide you and maybe show you some more gifts. Give you more gifts. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:56):
Dougie, if someone wants to learn more about you, how can they find you on social media? What platforms are you on?
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (10:02):
You can call me Instagram. It’s at O-G-O-G-U-E-T-E is a bmax writer, so you can go in there with Douglas Leyte Veda in Facebook. But we got stunned dudes. We got GE. You can reach out everywhere. Send me a message and I’ll be really happy to answer you and help you with anything I can.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:25):
Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (10:28):
Thank you, brother.
