Sometimes it’s easy, when confronted with conflict, to turn to a narrative that most aligns with our belief system. This human tendency often puts us on one side or the other. I traveled with the People’s Convoy for four days in March to complicate the narrative around COVID-19. Mandates. Public health restrictions. Vaccines. And human beings. My time with Ben and other truckers let me learn more about this conflict and, hopefully, write a story that doesn’t fit into a blue or red mold. At Source Media Properties, we follow a set of principles that allows us to “complicate the narrative.” The goal for you, the reader, is not to change minds or beliefs or political affiliations. It’s to gain a more nuanced mindset when it comes to confronting conflict in our lives so we can treat each other with more respect. Part I was published on March 21. Part II was published on March 22.
Ben Bowman’s choice to join the People’s Convoy didn’t surprise those who know him well.
When he called and told his aunt Laura Lund, his aunt who lives in Hudson, he’d be jumping into his SUV to be part of the convoy, she thought: “Yeah that’s something Ben would do.”
“I didn’t quite understand what they were trying to do, though,” Lund said. “I feel like the pandemic is over, so what are they trying to accomplish at this point in time? It’s kind of a year late or something. But he’s all in on what they are doing. So I support him in that.”
Several people commenting on Facebook posts during his journey chastised him, and others, for being part of a group of truckers “whining they might have to wear a mask.”
The backdrop for this story includes Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. One Facebook commenter said: “If you want to know what real freedom fighters look like, look to Ukraine, not these folks. These people don’t speak for us all and I don’t think anyone is interested in them at this point.”
Ben’s reason for joining the People’s Convoy cannot be fully understood without knowing about an angelic encounter — one that left him vexed but filled with a newfound passion to figure out what it all meant.
On Sunday, March 6, Ben tops off his Honda Pilot with a few gallons of gas for around $12. Before getting back into the driver’s seat, he opens his passenger door and makes sure his gear — a binder full of Bible scripture and the PA system— are in place.
It’s 11 a.m. on the dot, the same time his church back in Ashland holds its weekly services. He touches his Bible that rests in the middle console as reassurance it’s there, ready to be used. He does this to a crucifix, too, which is also placed in a compartment on his SUV’s middle console.
The crucifix is joined by a visor clip with Saint Christopher, the Catholic church’s patron saint of travelers. Inscribed on the visor clip is this prayer: “Protect me, my passengers and all who pass by with a steady hand and a watchful eye.”
He utters a prayer for himself and rolls out of the gas station, ready for the religious experience this day marks.
On the way, Ben tells me he received a vision while anesthetized for a quadruple-hernia removal surgery in December 2018.
His nurses administered the drugs to put him under, and the next thing he remembers he found himself “floating in a big, white endless void.”
He described seeing three angels, one male and two females. The male angel embraced him, while the two females each took one of his hands. And then the male angel spoke to him.
“‘We want you to know that we love you so much, we’ve always been with you. You’ve never walked alone.’ He told me that ‘we’re always with everyone through their entire life, even those who don’t believe. We just wish that more people would only know it,’” Bowman said, fighting tears.
Before the end of this encounter with the angels, the male angel also told him: “After this, things are going to be better because you’re going to be better.”
Bowman took that to mean he wasn’t going to experience the inner turmoil from his past. No longer would he feel apathetic toward living life. No more would the physical pain from the presence of hernias in his body hold him back from living a more fulfilling life, one defined by faith.
“I can’t even put this into words, but it was like nothing else I had ever felt in my life. In that moment, I knew that God … is three things: light, love, forgiveness. It’s his true love that conquers all,” Ben said.
From that moment on, his new mission in life would be to fulfill the angel’s wish: “… that more people would only know it.” The “it” would be that these angels are with every single one of us, on every day of all of our lives, protecting us and moving us toward a more fulfilled life.
Ben has never gone to seminary school to learn about how to deliver this message. He’s not a trained pastor and he isn’t an accredited chaplain. For a while he’s struggled to know how to best deliver the angel’s message.
“I wanted to go out there in the world to do this. But there were times I struggled to find out the right way to do it,” he said.
For the last three years, he’s relied on the one thing he knows how to do best and the one thing that gives him the most joy — hugging. Embracing complete strangers doesn’t always do the best job of conveying his message. He knows this.
That’s why for years he’s waited for a clear “calling.” He’s gotten more active in local activities at his church and community, participating at council meetings and flag-waving demonstrations (some of which at times got heated between Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter demonstrators).
So when he discovered the People’s Convoy, a tribe of people who happen to share many of his political beliefs, would finally push back on a government he views as overreaching, he knew he’d be part of it because, in a way, he already was. It was his duty to go. The Peoples’ Convoy, for Ben, represented a mission he had been waiting and praying for since his encounter with the angels.
It’s also why critical comments on Facebook did not sway him.
The People’s Convoy was not just a protest or demonstration for Ben. For this 36 year-old indiscriminate hugger, it was a pilgrimage.
This pilgrimage served as a training ground, so to speak, on how to best convey the angels’ message. He founded a new Facebook page, calling it “Chaplain Ben of the Rock Church.” Ben used the page to update people about his time with the People’s Convoy and to pray over livestream videos.
That’s why Ben hugged so many people. That’s why Ben got emotional so many times. That’s also why Ben broke away from the People’s Convoy for a time. He was figuring it all out in real time.
Ben’s pilgrimage isn’t something that, on its face, makes a whole ton of sense to others. He knows this. Agree with him or not, it’s something to admire, said his aunt.
“He follows his heart,” she said. “He stands for what he thinks is right. If you agree or not, that’s still something to admire in somebody.”
Ben’s trek with the People’s Convoy ended on Saturday, March 19, a couple days after a man named Eric from Seattle, Washington joined Ben and others from the Hagerstown Speedway “church.”
Ben said Eric caused trouble with the wrong people, ultimately leading the Maryland State Police to respond by telling Eric, and the other half-dozen or so people of the church, they needed to leave. The troopers gave Eric and the group trespassing notices.
“They told us that if we come back (to Hagerstown Speedway) we would be subject to arrest,” Ben said. “I was devastated.” So Ben made his way back to Ashland that weekend, stopping first in Pennsylvania to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial.
Ben made it back in time to attend his church’s weekly service on Sunday, March 20, ending his trek that lasted 17 days. The People’s Convoy continues to make laps around the D.C. Beltway.
Ben’s pilgrimage, however, will continue, he said, vowing to make the title “Chaplain Ben” formal both in name and function.
“Revival happened in my heart and soul,” Ben said. “I want to continue doing the work of God and the work of Christ … And so I know the day will come, God willing, that I will formally be a chaplain.”
