Preaching to the Cowboys

Suddenly the steer is loose. World steer wrestling champion Rope Myers bolts alongside on horseback, leaning down from his saddle to reach for the steer's horns.

Suddenly the steer is loose. World steer wrestling champion Rope Myers bolts alongside on horseback, leaning down from his saddle to reach for the steer’s horns. Dirt flying, he upends the animal, leaving it on the ground, legs skyward. Myers downs the steer in four seconds, guaranteeing the winner’s purse at a Dallas rodeo.

After tipping his hat to the crowd, Myers heads to the grandstand to kiss his wife, Candice, a former Miss Kansas and present-day Christian country singer.

“God is good,” he tells Candice with a grin. “God has given us more money for our ministry.”

In 1999, Rope (his real name) became Candice’s partner in her White Riata Ministry, named after loose translations of their names: White for Candice, and Riata for Rope. At churches, fairs, barns, school gymnasiums and rodeo arenas, the two provide a powerful combination as she sings and he preaches the gospel.

“I speak what is on my heart at the time,” says Rope, 37. “I make sure to say, ‘God loves you and he likes you, too—he’s willing to be your friend.’”

Candice, 39, expresses those same views through her songs, which she writes in her home’s music room in Van, Texas (pop. 2,362). Since 2000, five songs from her albums have topped the Christian country charts, helping her gain repeated nominations for Female Vocalist of the Year by the Christian Country Music Association.

She describes her music as positively positive. “It has the typical country sound, so it might be considered ‘secular’ by some,” Candice says. “But the lyrics are about the God-kind of life—love, peace, joy, successful marriages, pure love and families that stay together.”

Evangelist Jackie Davis, of Decatur, Texas, has seen the impact Candice’s music has on an audience. “When you hear her sing, you know she’s anointed,” he says. “Her music breaks down barriers and prepares everyone to hear the gospel message.”

All in the family
Both Candice and Rope were born into rodeo-ranching families in Kansas, where their fathers ran separate indoor arenas. Rope’s dad, Butch Myers, was also a world steer wrestling champion, in 1980. The two youngsters grew up together, traveling to rodeos with their parents and celebrating their birthdays on the same day.

“I never doubted that Rope would spend his life rodeoing,” Candice says. “Competing was in his blood.”

In his formative years, Rope won numerous saddles, buckles and titles at youth rodeos and at the National Little Britches Rodeo Finals. In 1991, he was the College National Finals Rodeo Champion, and every year since 1995 has qualified for the National Finals Rodeo, the World Series of professional rodeoing. In 2001, he won the world title in steer wrestling, and took home the gold medal at the 2002 Olympic Command Performance Rodeo during the XIX Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Religion and rodeo
As young adults, Candice and Rope lost touch, their careers separating them. But in a fateful encounter in 1995, they met on an airplane and learned they lived near each other. During their courtship, Rope began regularly attending church services and soon became influenced by Candice’s strong Christian values.

Today, he is an integral part of her ministry, often using his fame as one of the world’s best steer wrestlers to draw crowds to his Sunday mornings services at the rodeo grounds.

“People who aren’t spiritually alive don’t come to see me because I’m a God-fearing man,” he says. “They want to see a champion. But if they come out of curiosity, they’ll hear what I have to say about God changing my life, and perhaps God can change theirs.”

Rope also has used his fame and talent to minister to youth. In 2005, an employee of Sky Ranch, a nondenominational summer camp in Van, asked Rope to build a ministry around the ranch’s horseback riding activities.

“It was an answer to a prayer,” says Myers, who often travels with Candice to Bible camps across the country, instructing kids in rodeo activities during the day and preaching at night. “Rodeoing is all I’ve ever done and I’d been wondering what I’d do when I retire. Although I’ll probably compete for at least five more years, I’ve been wanting to stay home more.”

Every year nearly 10,000 kids participate in trail rides at Sky Ranch. Under Ropes’ leadership as senior director of cowboy ministries, a rodeo arena was built to help train children and teens in various rodeo events. In August 2007, 100 youngsters attended the Champions Rodeo Camp, where Rope and other rodeo champions were on hand as instructors.

Tyler Bullard, 18, of Fort Worth, has attended several of the Myerses’ camps. Since then Tyler’s father, Glen, has watched him win numerous saddles and buckles at junior rodeos. “It really doesn’t matter if Tyler wins or not,” Glen Bullard says. “When I see him in the chute with his head bowed in prayer before the gate is opened, I know he’s been influenced in a positive way by Rope and he knows what’s really important.”

Trey Green, 19, and Kyle McKnight, 18, also participated in the Bible camps, both at the Myerses’ home and at Sky Ranch. McKnight describes Rope as “one of the greatest guys I ever met—the kind of role model I needed to help me on my spiritual walk.”

Green, who’s attended eight camps, aspires to be a professional bulldogger, too. Rope is someone who “makes things easy to understand,” Green says, “and relates easily to everyone—the kids and the staff.”

When they’re not at the ranch, the Myerses still travel thousands of miles a year, striving for a balanced relationship and keeping their priorities in order. “Our relationship with God is the most important thing,” Candice says. “Our marriage and children (sons Layton, 11, and Holden, 8, and daughter Tierney, 3) come after that, and what time is left we spend on music and rodeo.”

Linda Owen is a writer from San Antonio.

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