Days 6-7

FYI, We’ll eventually get the last two days up here for ya! But you’ll just have to check out days 1-5 for now. Next year we’ll publish all of this straight to www.thesaltcompany.com.

Day 5

Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”

That was our verse for the day on Thursday, and the weather alone played it out for us! We left Shelbyville feeling good but expecting to get wet. We looked at the radar frequently throughout the morning and watched a major line of thunderstorms develop to the southwest and begin working its way toward us. As we took off Thursday morning, everyone was biking well. The day of rest on Wednesday had really been a help to everyone. We felt good and we biked better. It was a fun morning.

Then we rolled into our first break in Hope, Indiana.

When we mapped the trip back in early April, Chad and I weren’t even sure how this spot would work out for our break. There didn’t seem to be any bathrooms or shelter available, but it was really our only option so we took it. It was at the baseball diamonds in Hope, and as we learned on Thursday right next to the elementary school. As my group rolled in on Thursday morning, every group had been biking great and were all still at break. Normally we wouldn’t see some of the groups at the break as they’d be further ahead or behind and our timing wouldn’t line up. Today, though, with everyone biking so well we came in as the first group was getting ready to send off again.

Thankfully, though, we were able to stop them from taking off when we got there. We wanted to get online and check the radar first to see where the storms were at. Rocky pulled out his iPhone and pulled up the weather. We checked a few different things, taking some time to figure out how fast the storms were moving at us. After a little bit it became clear that the storms had grown in strength and were bearing down on us fast! We moved everyone up towards the school. Thankfully it was open for summer cleaning. Chad and I walked in, found some staff and asked if it was ok for us to seek shelter there while the storms passed over. They kindly agreed and we started moving people and bikes inside.

Literally, just as we moved the last few bikes indoors, it started POURING! Like Noah’s Ark pouring. We took a snapshot of the radar at the time with Rocky’s phone. Here’s the image, we were right in the middle of it in Hope. (Evidently we were very close to the other Milford, IN, too! Not sure it’s much of a town, but it and our Milford both show up when you search for Milford, IN in Google maps.)

We sat around at the elementary school in Hope for about an hour as the storm passed. It was a huge blessing that God provided for us. A “shelter from the storm” is how Isaiah describes Jesus in Isaiah 32:2. In another cool way we experienced God as our shelter, refuge, and provider. It was good! There will always be those times in life where God allows circumstances that force us to stop, get off our bikes, and wait.

So we waited…

After about an hour it had cleared off and we decided to get everyone back on the road. It was still raining and it was incredibly COLD. By the time we got to lunch in Columbus, IN the rain had quit, the wind died down, and the sun was coming out. Before long it was just plain HOT! It was amazing how much the day had changed in such a short amount of time, and we were reminded very easily of Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”

When we arrived in Seymour on Thursday, we had planned on going to the pool to cool off and clean up. But because of the cold rain only a few hours earlier in the day the pool had closed for the day and we were stuck without showers. Thankfully our host at Seymour’s Central Christian Church had called ahead to find out the pool was closed. She took the initiative to clean out some showers at the church that had never been used, but had only served as storage closets up to this point. Thankfully we WERE able to shower and God provided for us again.

The rain delay caused us to arrive late to Seymour, and showers took a lot of time, too. As a result our session on Thursday night was cut short and we spent most of it just sharing about the day. The teaching for the day was on the spiritual habit of tithing. Tithing our time and our stuff. Due to the short time we simply talked about holding on to our stuff and our time with a very light grip. Recognizing that it was all God’s. He is the one who owns it all to begin with and has simply entrusted us with a little bit. I encouraged the kids to live out 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.“

One of the things that drains me personally more than anything else is a complaint-filled person. And when I read the story of the Exodus (in the books of Exodus & Numbers) I believe that it is one of God’s most hated attitudes as well. If you read those accounts you find that God’s people quickly forgot all that he had provided for them, and instead of being thankful they began complaining… about EVERYTHING. As a result, God allowed them to remain and continue wandering in the wilderness. I think the same is true for us today. When we live lives full of complaint, rather than thankfulness, God allows us to wander around in a spiritual wilderness that can be incredibly lonely, draining, and absolutely brutal. Part of the reason God wants us to tithe, to give of our time and our stuff, is so that we keep a right attitude about it. He wants us to recognize that all of it is his to begin with and that we ought to be thankful for all that he provides. When we fail to recognize that he owns it all, we can quickly become selfish and full of complaint, and that’s a bad place to be.

We talked a lot of about attitude tonight and how everyone had done such a great job at rolling with the punches on Thursday. There were only a few who we ever heard complain on Thursday. It was good to see the vast majority of the group live out 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18! We continually reminded the students that they choose their attitudes. They can either complain or they can have an attitude of thankfulness. When they choose to complain they choose to sin. And when any of us chooses to sin we choose to suffer. But their other option is to choose faith and receive God’s blessing. Choosing faith is choosing to obey God’s word – no matter how I feel about it! In this case it meant choosing thankfulness and trusting God for a good result! Thursday was a day filled with attitude choices and it was a blessing to see most of the group choose faith!

Day 4

Wednesday was a great day on the bike trip! We had a short day, about 38-39 miles from Pendleton, IN to Shelbyville. It was nice because we were able take the afternoon off and get some rest. After arriving at Shelbyville Community Church, we ate lunch, unloaded, and a little over half of the students went to the pool to cool off and relax for a while. The rest of us just lounged around the church, took naps, read, etc.

Wednesday were good days, too, for a couple students who had some challenges on Tuesday. Malea was pretty sick most of Tuesday, and even Wednesday morning was struggling. She had a desire to fight through it, though, to get back on her bike and keep going. She struggled Wednesday but made it through. It was a great life lesson in how there are many times that God allows struggle into our life. Sometimes intense struggle where we’re not sure if we have what it takes to go on, and where we may not even want to go on. But as we press forward and continue along the path God has set before us (think Hebrews 12), God grants us the strength, mercy, and grace to carry on. He wants us to grow and to overcome, trusting him for the strength we need.

Brian is another student who had a rough Tuesday, but came back strong on Wednesday. On Tuesday in the rain, Brian had an accident that caused him to fly over his handlebars and literally kiss pavement. His lip and nose were bloodied up and his bike got banged up, too. (I joked with him afterwords that I’d hate to see the other guy!) Brian and his group got off the road and sat to rest for a while, helping Brian to calm down a bit and wait for one of the roving team vehicles to come help. When one of the rovers showed up (Myra, I think), they helped Brian get cleaned up and loaded his bike up onto the bike rack of the car. The rest of Brian’s got back on their bikes and got going again. Brian rode in the car for a few miles, needing some time to calm down and get his mindset right again. An accident like that can be somewhat unnerving and it was good for him to get off the bike and ride for a while after being shaken up like that. A few miles down the road, though, and Brian was ready to go again.

They stopped his group of cyclists and unloaded his bike. The memory verse on Tuesday was Romans 12:12 – “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” One of the guys in Brian’s group referenced the verse as Brian was getting ready to start biking again and thought it would be a good thing to obey that verse and pray for a bit before getting back on the road. They prayed for Brian and each other, then got back at it. Because of the delay the accident caused, their group was the last to make it into Pendleton Tuesday, but when the rolled in Brian was biking with them.

We were proud of Brian! He got knocked down, was beat up, even had to take a little time off to recover riding in the car. But in the end he overcame the trial. He trusted God. He trusted his friends. And with both God’s help and their support he kept going and finished well. It will be huge for all of those guys to remember this experience as they go through life. Sometimes sin, Satan, and/or our circumstances can knock us hard off our bikes. Sometimes it will require some time off to heal and recover. But God never abandons us, and neither will our true friends. He’ll help us through it, bring healing and courage, and by his grace we’ll get going again and finish well.

Wednesday’s memory verse was from Psalm 100:2, “Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” On Wednesday night we talked about the spiritual discipline of serving. Of being involved in the church and helping to build God’s Kingdom. We talked about what it means to serve Jesus with gladness and how so many miss this and only serve out of obligation and drudgery.

I believe it’s true that when a Christian doesn’t work to develop these spiritual habits in their life (bible memorization, prayer, bible study, serving in ministry, etc.) that they quit growing and begin shriveling. And when they quit growing they forfeit the joy of the Lord to instead grow old and grumpy. I really believe it’s true that when you run into an older saint in the church that you will quickly be able to tell what kind of effort they’ve put into developing their relationship with Jesus by simply observing their fruit (or lack of) in the way they interact with people. Those who have developed spiritual habits and been disciplined will be very much like Jesus. Those who haven’t will be apathetic, draining, and complaint filled, demonstrating little to no fruit of the Spirit in their life (see Galatians 5:22-23). That’s sad. By God’s grace I hope never to regress like that, but always to press on and pursue Jesus in every way.

Meet the Mapping Team

Meet the Mapping Team! The mapping team took out the video camera with them Monday night as they painted the route. Here’s a little look at their work. (Click the little four arrow icon on the bottom of the video, left of “vimeo” to view full screen.)

Day 3 Video Rewind

Each day Angela is taking photos and making a slide show of the day in iPhoto. Here is the slideshow from Day 3 of the Bike Trip – Tuesday, June 16, 2009. (Click the little four arrow icon on the bottom of the video, left of “vimeo” to view full screen.)

Day 3

Everyone is just now laying down to get some rest. We had a good day, but a challenging one. Thankfully we didn’t hit much rain at all, but the wind was strong all day, blowing from the southeast. During our session tonight there were many stories told of how the students helped each other biking. The stronger riders would take the lead, creating a draft for those who were tired and struggling.

One of the coolest things about the bike trip is seeing how the struggles, successes, and teamwork involved relates back to everyday life and our spiritual walk. For instance, take the example of the wind today. In life there’s many times where you struggle, things get tough, and it seems impossible to go on. You feel like giving up, throwing in the towel, getting off the bike. Left on your own, there’s a good chance you would. But when you have others with you on the journey who care about you, want to see you make it to the finish, and are willing to step up and help you get there, you gain hope and confidence that you can. Suddenly you gain the strength to press on and finish well. Life is hard, especially in a world messed up with sin, so why would you ever want to just go it alone?

God has designed and created us to be relational. To need others to help us, shape us, and go with us. One of the biggest goals of the bike trip is to give students a tangible experience of what that’s like. In the process, they come to understand not just their need of others to help them bike into a strong headwind, but their need of others to spur them along in their faith and life. Hebrews 10:24-25 is just one of many verses that talks about this. Spurring one another on, encouraging one another, loving one another.

Each day we have a memory verse that’s printed on the maps. The whole group is encouraged to memorize it and take time to dwell on it at times while they’re biking. Today’s verse was Romans 12:12, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” It was a great reminder and encouragement in light of the struggle today.

Tonight’s teaching session was on the spiritual discipline of prayer. In it’s simplest form prayer is just talking with God. It’s carrying on a conversation with the Creator of the universe. But it’s more than that, too. There’s one pastor who describes it as a “walkie-talkie in a time of warfare”. That’s a good analogy.

A lot of times we can pray to God as if he were just some big genie in the sky who grants our every wish. Or like the person on the other side of a drive-through window who takes your order and then gives you what you wanted as you drive around. Prayer is more. It’s a full-on dependance upon God. Seeking his direction over our own messed up thinking. Seeking his will first above our own. That’s not to say we shouldn’t bring our requests and concerns to God, we should, and he wants us to! But our first goal ought to be seeking God’s desires.

Prayer can be hard for a lot of us, so we talked about learning how to pray, too. After the week is over, I’ll come back and post the teaching notes here for anyone who’s interested.

Tomorrow is a short day, destination Shelbyville. We’re done biking at lunch! I think the total mileage is only 38(ish) miles. We’ve biked about 157 miles so far. After lunch tomorrow we’re heading to the pool to swim and relax for a while. It will nice to have a little down time in the middle of our week. If we get wifi again in Shelbyville, the plan is to post some videos tomorrow afternoon.

Day 2 Video Rewind

Each day Angela is taking photos and making a slide show of the day in iPhoto. Here is the slideshow from Day 2 of the Bike Trip – Monday, June 15, 2009. (Click the little four arrow icon on the bottom of the video, left of “vimeo” to view full screen.)

Day 2

Sorry for not many updates. The mobile updates don’t want to work for us very well – but we’ve got wifi tonight! We’re at Lakeview Church in Marion right now after biking 64 miles today from Columbia City.

It’s been a good start! Everyone is a little tired, but doing well. Tomorrow is generally the hardest day each year. For whatever reason the third day of biking tends to be the most challenging mentally, then by Wednesday and Thursday everyone gets their legs under them and bikes really well. Tuesday is always the day you’re thinking, “Why in the world did I sign up for this???”

We just finished supper and the food has been outstanding! They cook crew does a great job. They prep for weeks ahead of time each year. On the trip we bring three refrigerators and two standing storage cabinets on wheels full of food that get strapped in the back of the box truck. Each day the cabinets get wheeled into the kitchen of the church we’re staying at and they work from there. You’d be VERY impressed to see it in action.

In about 15 minutes or so the mapping team will head out and paint the route for tomorrow’s ride.We map the trip online over the winter, then Chad and I drive the route in early April each year. We go out and find churches that will let us spend the night and make sure that all of the roads we mapped online are actually paved and bikable. When we get on the trip, this team goes out each night and drives the next day’s route again. They check to make sure that no roads are closed for construction that weren’t in April. As I mentioned before, they also paint the roads. We put small markings on the pavement at every turn and stop sign to help students navigate the route. Today there was one road we had to re-route on the fly, though, as they had started construction work and closed it just TODAY! That was a surprise, but our roving team did well to reroute the cyclists and get us on the back route. Just like in life when you get a curveball thrown at you, God provides another way, and he did that for us on our bikes today. The mapping team is taking the video camera with them tonight, and we’ll be editing a video of their excursions in the next few days. Once it’s done we’ll try to post it here for you to see.

Our session last night was based on Hebrews 12:1-3. We talked about the Christian life being a marathon, not a quick sprint. It takes time, work, and preparation to live it well. You could even compare it to biking 300 miles to Louisville. We talked specifically about the need to train for that type of race. If you don’t train, you’re bound to have a long, hard go of it. It’s the same way in living the Christian life, if you don’t train yourself and grow in your faith, life becomes a long, hard go of it. This set up the rest of our week talking about Spiritual Disciplines, or spiritual habits, that we should develop that help us grow up in our faith and refuel our spiritual tanks. At some point I’ll post the teaching notes here.

That’s it for now. I’ll post some pictures with this post as well.

Thanks again for your support and we’ll continue to be in touch both through the blog and text messages! (If you haven’t signed up for text message updates yet, you can do so online via our website at thesaltcompany.com.

Day 1 Video Rewind

Each day Angela is taking photos and making a slide show of the day in iPhoto. Here is the slideshow from Day 1 of the Bike Trip – Sunday, June 14, 2009. (Click the little four arrow icon on the bottom of the video, left of “vimeo” to view full screen.)

Day 1

We made it through day one. Here’s a few pics. We start our session at 7:30 and we’re teaching from Hebrews 12. We’ll post mostly photos. Rocky and will upload ‘em from our phones.
Hopefully we can get access to wifi at some of the churches to post more photos, videos, and more substantial updates.