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Ride Day 2 -What Wrecks You?

September 27, 2011 in adventure, thoughts, travel with 1 Comment

Ride Day 2 - 75 miles

we headed out of branson about  8:45 am headed towards our day’s destination about 75 miles down the road at marshall, ar.  it was an incredibly beautiful fall morning.  a little chilly, but a great day for a ride.  was real thrilled about heading down I-65, but that’s what it was.  for three of us, aaron brown-pastor at st paul’s joplin, mo, brad godwin-catalyst dallas and myself it would be the longest ride we’ve made at one time.  all three of us aren’t cyclists and have been training about as long.  tomorrow will be a milestone too, for the three of us as well as a few others as we’ve got about 101 miles to ride.  a couple of step hills, but fortunately an easier day.  for avid cyclists an 100 mile ride is called a “century” and will be fun to have that accomplishment together as a team for the Present:Hope Tour

today i found myself thinking alot about those folks who pushed through the horrors of those days in april and may when towns like tuscaloosa and joplin were forever change.

the sign in front of joplin high school

on image that i’ve got in my mind is a picture from the sign in front of the Joplin High School.  When we went on the ride on Saturday, we came in from the west and rode around the front of the school on the north side.  it was an interesting sight to see how the students had renamed their school by dropping a couple of letters and adding others to rename it: Hope.  That seems to be the going thread.  no matter what may come our way in life our response to it is everything.  when we met with the survivors of the joplin disaster, one of the folks we talked to with is Jason.  he lost his bride of a couple of decades.  Jason was very clear that though he didn’t completely understand what happen…he said he was numb…he knew this much: LIFE wins!  those words have been rolling around my head especially today as we were rolling down the road.

there was lots of great conversation and encouragement as we pushed along today.  the hills were killers.  even on our experienced riders like Gunnar Johnson (a pastor from dallas, tx) said it was an particularly hard day.  we climbed over 4,300 ft.  (yeah!)

yet i loved this quote from another rider, Nina Kee…

 

ok…for tuesday….the question we’re working through on the ride is “What wrecks you?” (hopefully that has nothing to do with accidents!) what things take your joy and what is your response?  i’m praying that it might be like that from Jason at St Paul’s UMC in joplin...make sure “life wins!” its that idea of wrecking why i’m part of this team. having seen the destruction in Pleasant Grove in june and this past saturday in joplin first hand…i had to do something.   grateful to those that invested to make it so.  this is work….hard work…but knowing that we are leveraging awareness for those impacted by the tornadoes is so worth it.

on another note, the team has raised in excess of $45,000 for the rebuilding effort.  there’s still more to be done.  if you’re interested in helping leverage our friends at convoy of hope…click on their name.

its going to be a bit warmer today..when we leave out around 7 am…its going to be 51 with a higher later in the day of 77.  please keep praying…and leave a comment…your engagement is a huge encouragement to me and the team.  blessings!

 

it really was a day of wrestling – ride day one

September 26, 2011 in adventure, thoughts, travel with 1 Comment

9.25.01 - Ride Day 1- Joplin/Springfield to Branson

and so this adventure truly begins. the team split up with some staying in joplin to ride out from St Paul UMC with Pastor Aaron Brown and the rest of us left from Springfield with a team of 8 young men who are on a team of cyclists sponosored by Convoy of Hope.  both teams enjoyed a amazing of worship with these two congregations and huge encouragement as we shared during the service and then were prayed over for safety and protection.

the trip from springfield to branson is about 45 miles.  over incredibly hilly terrain.  for me it was the largest hills

hope community church - springfield, mo worship service

i have encountered yet.  So i was glad (in one sense) that our morning devotion had focused our minds on the idea of wrestling.  i’ll admit there were times when there was a deep seated fear that i wasn’t going to be able to do this.  that sense was leveraged by the fact that the last 25 miles of our ride was straight down the berm of I-65 with the movement of traffic of cars – trucks -buses doing at least 70.  crazy thing i’ve  done yet.

our hosts for the nite in branson is first baptist church.  had the great opportunity to hang with Pastor Mark his students (looking forward to when we launch our student ministry on 10.13)

hanigng with pastor mark and the students at the well- first baptist church - branson, mo

today’s theme is “what is in you?” asking those deep questions about how we’re wired and what talents we can bring to bare to impact the world we live in? today’s prayer focus on for those that are pushing through the mental struggles of having lived through the horrors of those tornadoes.
we’re doing about 75 miles today into akransas. gonna be a cold one…its just 46 degrees right now.

present hope is theme

September 25, 2011 in adventure, travel with 2 Comments

Saturday was an amazing (i need some new descriptors!) after some team briefing and logistic conversations we set off for our first bike ride as a team.  it was a short ride to the offices of one of our sponsors – Convoy of Hope .  We took some team pictures and then toured their amazing facility.  There is a deeper sense of God’s presence in community when the team rides. the word we heard most often on the ride was “grate” as in sewer grate….but GREAT is probably a better sense of what we pushed through.  Here’s a quick video from our morning visit.

its clear from our journey already are many conversations…the Present Hope theme truly is what we are experiencing.  I ‘ll try to unpack that as we go.  grateful to all for your constant encouragement.  So…what present hope do you  sense even now?  leave a comment.  please remember to pray!

 

 

 

Team Training @ Hope

September 24, 2011 in adventure, thoughts with 3 Comments

Ben Skoda (c) one of the tour directors going over using social media. Gunnar Johson and Jeff Jansen.

spent a good day on friday with New Hoper Todd Morris who was on business in the springfield, mo area. he was kind to serve as my driver since i had some time to hang.    we grabbed lunch at panera and then he dropped me off at hope community church (love the thread God is weaving…new hope…hope church…present hope tour).  once the team was a assembled we walked through introductions.  amazing hearts all.  as part of our introductions we had to talk about our fears.  there was real encouragement that all of us share similar fears…insignifiance…injury….failure.  it was a blessing to hear the stories from each of our team members.  such incredible diversity and passion for Jesus.  Big church…small church…vocational leaders, volunteer leaders…but all committed to leverage our effort to raise awareness for the those devastated by the tornadoes in joplin and tuscaloosa.  i mentioned in an earlier post the team has a huge personal connection as Aaron Brown lead pastor of St Pauls UMC in Joplin is on the team.

here’s a quick video from yesterday.

what’s up for today is a early bike to convoy of hope’s hq here.  convoy is leveraging the rebuilding in these communities and a major  sponsor of this ride.  i love convoy’s mission.  for those at new hope you may remember our EVO student ministry hosted a concert – Rocking for Haiti – two weeks after the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and our students and community raised over $2,000 for recovery efforts there.

one of our other key sponsors is Hello Somebody…Hello Somebody is a non-profit brand that exists to impact and change the world through love, passion and creativity. Their purpose is simple: feed the hungry around the globe.  Each of the team members got a sweet watch to help communicate the message.

on another note…Venture Expeditions has provided team kits which includes spandex shorts.  to be honest this a huge stretch (pun intended) for the most of us on the team.  i’ll write more about that later…and maybe send a photo.

my hope is to share a prayer concern each day…one that the team is working through together.  today we want to pray specifically for Convoy of Hope.  Their mission…their work…that our (yours and mine) donation will be inspiring gift to them.  We preay that  the Present: Hope Tour will be a reminder for those we encounter of the damages and cost of natural disasters.  We will be doing a 9 mile bike ride with Pastor Aaron today in Joplin.  We’ll be meeting with families who have lost everything…please pray that our presence will be a blessing.

please leave a comment that you’re praying…many are looking at my blog…your words will be a huge encouragement to all of us.

blessings!

on our way…day 1

September 23, 2011 in adventure, family, personal, thoughts with 2 Comments

i love the folks that call new hope church home.  so many amazing hearts willing to engage in so many good things.  i mentioned on this past sunday during the service that many good things had come about in the prep for my participation in the Present:Hope Tour…training, fundraising, getting my own bike and even the trip home from the end of it all at Catalyst in Atlanta.  One small piece was missing…getting to springfield, mo to leave (small point).  and then immediately after the first service, Jim Gribble came up and said…”the stories you shared convinced me that I should be your ride to Springfield”.  So fast forward to yesterday morning and at 5:59am est Jim knocks at our side door and we load up and off we go.  here’s some video of our 12.5 hr drive west.

Once we got here we were able to meet up with another new hoper, Todd Morris (the world is really a small place)  for an incredible meal together.  Todd currently is a sales representative for a welding wire company and MO is part of his territory.  Lots of great stories and it was fun to settle into the beginning of this adventure to leverage awareness for the rebuilding of Joplin and Tuscaloosa with folks from home.

I’m not sure how much posting i’ll get to do…i hope daily to journal our exploits, but a couple things you can be praying for beyond the Present:Hope Tour itself…as we got in last night, Jim got a phone call from his bride Jeannie saying that his brother had been admitted to the hospital for chest pains.  Jim left early this morning for the 12.5 hr return trip and is concerned.  I talk to my bride (of 32 years!) melinda and she and our emmah are home sick this morning.

had a short conversation with a mother and her son, here at the hotel from the UK after breakfast, the son is considering attending a local university…but in the conversation she mentioned…”life is really about the journey,  is it not?” yep…heard that before.

i’m headed off here in about an hour to connect with the rest of the team.  several are en route via airplanes and will be on the ground after lunch…then we start training.  grateful for your following and investing more later.

 

 

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