Perseverance and Passion

 It's been 18 days since I left the trip.  I've already gained back 9 of the pounds I had lost on the trip.  I am also still wearing the Desperation Conference wristband that I got the first day I arrived at that.  So what do you really take a hold of after spending 4 and half weeks on a bike riding half way across the country? The first thing I learned, by far, is perseverance.  Right from the get go, that first day of biking, your muscles already feel like quitting, but you have to just keep going.  Climbing up to Skykomish in the rain, wanting to stop as much as possible to warm up, but you have to just keep going.  Climbing up Stevens Pass as the temperature drops and snow is seen on the ground, wondering every pedal if you are any closer to the top, but you have to just keep going.  Biking 100 miles of hilly terrain, becoming delusional at the end, with your muscles shaking because of lack of energy, but you have to keep on going.  From 3 flat tires the next day, to getting lost the next, from going up 3 hills (one on gravel), to biking uphill in the heat, to biking through consecutive days of 80 miles in the wind, to having riding partners wanting to quit, to climbing 9,500 and 11,300 ft mountains, to crashing and having to get stitches, YOU HAVE TO JUST KEEP GOING.  Life isn't always going to be peaches and cream, in fact it might be lemons and cream (imagine with me that lemons and cream is the opposite of peaches and cream).  You might have obstacles that jump in your way, some that seem insurmountable, some that seem 11,300 ft in the air, but you can't give up.  Perseverance is the only way you are going to make it to your goal.

But it's hard to have perseverance for something you couldn't care less about.  so what is your passion? That's the other thing I learned most of all on this trip.  If you don't have passion for what you are doing, it is a lot easier for your mind to give in and give up.  Every day as I was riding was a different experience.  On mountain days, my passion was uphill climbing (that seems weird, but trust me, i love it!) so i bolted as fast as I could to the top of the summits and left nothing behind.  On flat, monotonous days, the passion that kept me going was God.  The fact that I was doing this bike ride for Him, and for His mission, was enough for me to keep pedaling, and pedaling, and hours of pedaling.  When the trip concluded, I got to cap it off in a very unique, awesome, inspiring, passionate, Desperate way!  The end of my trip concluded at the same time as the Desperation Conference in Colorado Springs started.  I was able to cap off a ride of desperate passion and perseverance with a conference that was all about being in desperate pursuit of God, of having no empty prayers, no singling lies, no token vows.  During every worship set, I saw a passion in the youth in that room to ignite a generation, to tell their friends, to change their schools, to change everyone around them and bring them to a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.  That's our goal guys! "To go and make disciple of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. and sure I am with you always, even to the very end of the age."  Are you passionate about that? Are you desperate to pursue that goal?  or is that just something you skim over as you fruitlessly scan through the bible? If that is your passion, then persevere on!

"Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. " - 1 Corinthians 9:26-27

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." - Hebrews 10:23

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." -  Hebrews 12:1

"He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels." - Revelation 3:5

So hold strong! Find your passion in the Lord, desperately pursue Him with all perseverance!

Rabbit Ears named Berthoud

Segment 4: Where do I begin? (you get pictures this time)

Well Eastern Utah was pretty boring. After Salt Lake City we traveled over two 1500 ft mountain passes to get to the city of Heber which is a beautiful little place. Everyone got to swim in a crater hot springs. It was a delightful place. The city of Midway, nearby, is designed to imitate Switzerland. After Heber, we had 100 miles over a 2500 ft pass into the city of Roosevelt and then the next day we had 80 days into Dinosaur Colorado. pause. Did you say Dinosaur Colorado? yes, yes i did. A town of 300 people, 330 when we were there, where the main tourism attraction is Dinosaur National Monument. Other than that, the town is pretty boring. We got to celebrate a riveting 4th of July that night. (The lightning was a better show)

In Colorado, things began to look up (literally). We climbed gradually up to the city of Craig. We had a build day in Craig where we all seperated into 7 different groups and helped people with any thing they needed done to their houses. I picked "Scottie's" house for obvious reasons. Turned out Scottie is a grandma with a broken hip and leg. Wasnt expecting that one. We helped her oil her log cabin, mow her lawn, trim her tree, cut her firewood, weedwack, and various other small jobs. She was very thankful as she laughed it would have taken her twenty minutes to plug in the weedwacker. And I am officially a manly man now that I can axe wood. It's a pretty cool talent.



After Craig we started toward the Rockies where we climbed over Rabbit Ears pass at 9426 feet and then dropped back down to the city of Kremmling at 7000 ft. It was a very fun 94 mile day. During the day, we passed through Steamboat Springs where I grabbed a sweet little sticker at the tourist center. My bike is getting pretty covered. The next day we climbed even higher as we crossed over Berthoud Pass at 11,300 ft. If you want to visit sweet, awesome little towns, go to Winter Park. That place is the Beesnees. At the top of the pass, we were greeted with a torrential downpour of hail for 30 minutes, making us all scurry to the bathroom for shelter. Lets see, what else happened that day? OH, 6 miles away from Idaho Springs, I took a doozy of an accident where I dislocated my shoulder temporarily. After assessing the road rash, gashes, and getting my shoulder to move again, I carefully hopped on my bike and rolled the last 6 miles down hill to the church where I was taken to get 4 stitches in my left leg. That wasn't going to stop me from completing my last two rides though, so be sure in knowing that I rode the next day, 50 miles downhill into Downtown Denver, two blocks from the Capitol Building. Luckily, we had a day off in Denver which is a pretty cool city (Portland is still better though). And finally, yesterday, we biked to Colorado Springs in the wind, but it was well worth it as we descended toward Pikes Peak. This morning, I spent the sunrise at Garden of the Gods and got some sweet photos. Ill post those later so be looking forward to that.

Well, the trip is over. I traveled 1800 miles over 6 states, climbed at least 10 major mountain passes ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 ft elevation gains, struggled through wind, basked in the sun, persevered through painful crashes, lived up every city to the best of my potential, but most importantly, I had numerous spiritual conversations with people, and I helped families in need that desperately needed it, all to the glory of God. It's taught me a lot about myself! I will definitely write another post about all the things I've learned and experienced but that's for another time. Thanks so much to all of you helped pray, support, or read along the trip. I couldn't have done it without you! Thank you for helping taking part in this story in my life, and in the life of our Savior's work.


Until next time,. . .

Wind and Potatoes

There is a lot to catch up on! I must get right into this. I haven't had much time to write . . . well you'll figure out why

So we got to Yellowstone and had a day off exploring the park which was (wait for it) AMAZING!!! We saw like 250 Bison and even had a herd surrounding our van as carefully meandered down the street. It was crazy. We also got to see the beehive geyser (which is bigger than Old Faithful) and Old Faithful erupt while we were there. I was so close to the bee hive geyser that I got completely soaked. Turns out later you aren't supposed to stand under the water. whatever. We also got to drive out to the Yellowstone Canyon and check out the raging waterfalls there. Turns out, that's where the "yellow stone" is. I also started a tradition of putting stickers of all the cool places I've been on my bike. So if anyone has a Seattle sticker, or leavenworth sticker, or Spokane sticker, or Couer D'Alene Sticker or Missoula Sticker, you get the picture. let me know, it would be awesome if you could send that to me.

After leaving Yellowstone, the real fun began. We had 4 days in a row of 80 or more miles. The first day we biked into Rexburg and got the VIP treatment by one of the BYU-ID professors and his students. They made us dinner, gave us a tour of their brand spanking new renovated campus, even let me break the dress code and run on their track. Of course I went straight to my events. Turns out, I can still jump 5' 8" pretty easily with tennis shoes on. That surprised me. Oh and astonishingly, I got to weigh myself that day and every day sense. I thought, with eating 7000 calories a day, I would have maintained or gain weight, especially since I don't weigh very much arleady. False, I have lost 11 pounds since I first started. I found the secret guys, bike 70 miles a day!

Rexburg was hard to leave, especially after being treated so nicely. But Pocatello was awaiting us, and so was a 35 mph sustained headwind. 80 miles? try more like 100 with that wind. It was a terrible day. I felt like quitting. I couldn't breathe, I ran out of water every 5 seconds. It was miserable. That's really all there is to say about that. God got me through it and gave me strength and mental perseverance when i had none.

The next day was a 95 mile day into Utah, more specifically into Logan. I got to sweep that day because I wanted to relax. So i took it easy in the back. Fortunately, nothing bad happened with the riders and I was just able to ride. Although, there was a 55 mph wind at one point blowing us sideways. But Logan was a beautiful city! The church made us a huge baked potato bar with everything imaginable! (ironic that we didn't even touch a potato in Idaho) I didn't get to do much else in the city because I was so exhausted so I ended up just watching a movie with my friend and heading to bed at 8:30

And finally, yesterday, We biked the last part of the segment into Salt Lake City. It was quite possibly, one of the best days yet. There's nothing like riding into the Salt Lake mountains and having a gigantic lake to your right. There was even an 1000 ft mt pass that we climbed. I, of course, went as quickly as possible up the thing. I think we should have a polka dot jersey on this trip, as per the Tour de France. I love climbing mountains. Most of the rest of the day was biking through cities, since Salt Lake is so huge! When we got here ( at 2:20 pm i might add, we made good time ) we even had time to visit around the University of Utah campus.

We are planning on making the most of our day off today. Me and a friend or few will be walking around Downtown Salt Lake (where I can finally take pictures THANKS MOM) I have been dying to eat at Rio Cafe since we left Washington. So that is of course on the list. Other than that, thanks so much guys for supporting me and the fellow riders on this trip. We couldn't do it without your prayers.

If you would still like to donate to help me out in getting to Denver, click on one of the links in my last blog posts. I still really need monetary support to get to Denver in the next week. So far my support gets me as far as the Colorado Border and I just need about 300-400 more to get to Denver. Thanks so much for all of you who can. And if you would like something to pray for, please pray for a few of the friends I have met on this trip. They have never really had a relationship with Jesus from what I've come to know and I have been talking immensely with them about what it means to be a follower of Christ and the importance and priority that has in your life. There's been some great conversations. I'll keep you updated how things go with that.

Arrivederci

Purple Mountains Majesty

"What are the purpose of mountains? Everything has a purpose right?" - Heather


"The purpose of mountains is to be awesome and to point to God's awesomeness." - Me


It has been quite a beautiful 4 days since my last blog. Montana is an amazing state! Our first day we biked into Missoula which reminded me in so many ways of the Tri-Cities but with trees surrounding the hills. The city was gorgeous and quaint and bike-friendly and gorgeous. I made the most of my day in Missoula by walking around all the older buildings and eating some Asian food, then hiking up a hillside to peer over the city, and finally walking around the University of Montana. It was a wonderful rest stop and I wish we could have stayed longer than one night.


The second day was not so good. Probably because we had to leave Missoula. It might have also been due to the 77 miles on an uphill slant in 80 degree heat. I felt like hopping in the support vehicle and just getting driven the last 20 miles. I was on the brink of pure exhaustion. But I finished and ended up in Phillipsburg which was a beautiful city on the Scenic Pintlar Mountain Route. A lot of stuff happened that night. First we started off by going to the local burger joint and all getting the burger challenge. This challenge consisted of eating a huge 1 lb of meat triple bacon cheeseburger with fries. We went 5 for 5 and all got free ice cream. To add to the calories, I got a vanilla milkshake and bought varying types of fudge from the CANDY PALACE! (echo echo echo) For the 5000 calories I burned that day exercising, I probably consumed atleast 6000 in that short two hour span.


The next day rocked my world yet again. God has a way of doing that by taking beauty and blowing your mind. 13 miles out of Phillipsburg we climbed over the Pintlar Pass and were met with snow-capped peaks, a majestic and peaceful Georgetown Lake, and most importantly a 20 mile downhill. It ranks very closely to my favorite spot on earth so far, just behind Crater Lake. At mile 60 we got to Butte Montana and were met with another mountain pass and a raging thunderstorm. Hail and rain poured down as thunder ruptured the sky. I personally didn't feel like putting my life in danger going over the mountain pass so I rode in the van the last 20 miles of that day.

And finally today, a nice 51 mile journey gave us a well needed rest. With only one 800 ft climb at the very end, we got to relax and enjoy the scenery surrounding us. Oh, and at the local town of Cardwell Montana, a lady gave a group of us all bug spray to fight off the raging mosquitoes, and then proceeded to take our picture to place in the newspaper. And now we are in Ennis Montana which I thought might be the starting place of Ennis Fine Furniture but apparently not. But the Rockies surround this city and even now as I write this, the sun is setting on the rain clouds hovering over the mountains. It is a gorgeous place. I can't say that enough. gorgeous, gorgeous, Gorgeous.

Tomorrow we have a 70 mile day into our rest weekend location of West Yellowstone. I am very excited to see the park and all the crazy wildlife, mainly the grizzlies and the moose. But that is all the updates so far. Hopefully we get wi-fi again soon. It has been such an amazing ride so far and I can't thank you all enough for praying for us and for supporting me personally so that I could experience all of this glory that God displays for us, and help these people that so desperately need adequate housing. I love hearing from you all, and much appreciate all the encouragement! You guys are awesome. Talk to y'all later.

Montana

So it's been almost 4 or 5 days since i last had wi-fi to blog (the school we were at in Idaho had everything blocked, even blogger). So after we left Spokane, we biked through Coeur D'Alene, over 4th of July Pass on the I-90 and then into Wallace Idaho where we spent the weekend. Apparently Wallace is known as the center of the universe and the silver capitol of the world! Crazy stuff. We had our first build day in Kellogg Idaho which was an absolutely awesome experience. I personally helped paint the entire inside of the house but as a group we also gave the house insulation, shingled the shed out back, and dry walled most of the basement. The owner of the house got to come in after work and see the day's progress and was absolutely blown away. On Sunday we got to choose between 4 churches, all of which were either catholic or some form of a small older styled church that was very structured. Needless to say, I spent most of the rest of the day listening to podcasts that I need to catch up on. But all in all, Wallace was a fun town to relax in and give my muscles a break.

Today, we continued on with our second segment into Montana. I now know why it is called God's country. It's pretty fantastic! We had 3 pretty big climbs, the biggest of which being Lookout Pass at 4860 feet, our highest elevation so far. You may be wondering what I do to pass the time on the road. Well, I'll have you know that I went over 809 rumble straps on the stretch of I-90 we were on. It has been a pretty eventful day. Some of our team had numerous flats and ended up hitchhiking down the pass to the first rest stop so that they wouldn't be left behind. It's quite a story but I wouldn't do it justice. And then just recently, about an hour ago, one of our oldest bikers went over his handle bars on the way back from showers. He wasn't wearing a helmet and ended up taking a pretty big blow to the head. He has been taken to the hospital and I hear he might be aired over to Missoula to get Stitches and such. He is doing well but could use a lot of prayer for a quick recovery so that he can begin biking with us again as soon as possible.

We're about to eat dinner so I can't write anymore but I thought you could use a quick update before we lose wi-fi again.

Addio per ora

Flat Tires

I am not a big fan of flat tires! But before we get to that, I have to catch you up.  Two days ago we left the beautiful town of Wenatchee and biked through the Columbia River Valley with a severe head wind.  Twenty or so miles later, we climbed out of the canyon.  I researched how high this climb would be and it said it went up 1000 feet.  Oh, how I was terribly misinformed! We ended up climbing 2000 ft at a 7% grade.  It was so painful especially after Stevens Pass, the day before, we only climbed 3000 ft.  Well anyway, When we got to the top there wasn't too much downhill.  For 70 miles, it was just rolling farmland which killed my legs.  BUT WE FOUND WILBUR! we may have crawled in our hands and knees but we made that 98 miles! Yeah, I felt pretty much like a pro after that. 


And then came the next day, yesterday.  We biked from Wilbur to Spokane.  It was supposed to be a nice 66 mile recovery day.  I learned very quickly that things never go to plan.  10 miles into the monotonous farmland, I drove right over a nail.  My biking buddy missed me yelling but luckily the guy behind me stopped and helped me replace the tire.  We filled up the spare tube I had on my bike in about 10 minutes, just to find that it had a hole too! By now, the sweepers (that's what we call the two people in the back that never pass anyone and make sure everyone is alright) had stopped and given me another tube which would allow me to most likely get back to the van (we stop every 20 miles to get a snack and rest a wee bit) so that they could check on it.  Well the van had gone 24 miles so I high tailed it over those remaining 14 miles trying to catch up.  The van sent me on my way after pumping up my tire to it's designated PSI.  Six miles into my trip I hear, "popppppheeeeeeeeeeeeeewww".  ANOTHER FLAT.  By now, I am just ready to quit.  It just wasn't my day.  I still have 40 miles to go and I am probably 30 minutes behind everybody.  I walked a mile before the van eventually caught up to me and replaced my entire tire this time.  And with a quick "thank you very much" I was off to the races because I was determined to catch back up to my partner (keep in mind I am probably like 45 minutes behind that group.) Averaging 25 MPH, I eventually caught the very back end of the last group who had just left the second 20-mile stop.  I went flying past the stop without slowing down, zoomed right past the group with a few quick hellos, and kept trekking.  I wasn't even letting hills slow me down.  I would sprint up them like I owned them.  Well I never did catch my group, but I pulled into the Salvation Army only 10-15 minutes behind them.  What a day!


Once we got to Spokane, I showed some of my friends around the Spokane Riverfront Park and obviously took them on the wagon slide.  Can't pass that up!  We even had a little Zips to acquaint them to the NW.  oh oh, and get this, we went to Dutch Brothers because I told them it was one of my favorite places ever and they came through for me.  We told them about our trip and they gave us all free drinks and even advertised our flyer in their window.  Ok where was I? I started thinking about that smoothie again, ummmm oh yeah then we had dinner at the Salvation Army.  We got to sit down with all the homeless / impoverished families and hear their stories.  One family had a daughter that was going into 6th grade who had brought her best friend to sleepover tonight at their house.  They were the cutest things ever! To my friends disappointment, and to my approval, both girls loved math and hated English class (She is an English teacher).  It was interesting getting to share dinner with them and seeing how all of them get their food.  I didn't eat much because we have 90 miles again tomorrow and the food wasn't really the best quality for my stomach but I did eat a little just to be able to relate with their experiences.  It was hard to see some of their situations.  Most had kids, some had disabilities, some had no jobs.  We felt very out of place because we all have it so well off, it felt like we were taking food from people that needed it. 


Last night the Salvation Army gave us cots to sleep on and I slept like a baby! So much so, that I woke up at 4:45 to write this because I felt so well-rested.  Today we have our last day before our weekend break.  We are biking from Spokane to Kellogg Idaho.  It will be another 90 or so miles through rain and storms.  We will have completed our first state today.  It's tough to say goodbye to Washington but I'll have to try.  Speaking of which, I am still only 500 dollars short of getting to Denver.  I have also opened the door up to go as far as my donations get me.  Let that be Salt Lake City or Washington DC.  But I still need your help.  These houses we are building for this organization tomorrow go to people like the families we visited today in Salvation Army.  People desperately need houses! It may rain on us for a few minutes and it may be cold for a couple hours, but some people go without shelter for days, months, years! And internationally, in countries like Sri Lanka, Haiti, Armenia, we build houses for people who have had everything but their lives destroyed! There's a lot more that goes into and if you want more info you can go to fullercenter.org .  If you would like to donate to me just so that I can help out with this group a little longer you can go to Fuller Center Scottie and place my name in the ride you would like to support.  Thanks once again to all of you have got me this far and gave me this experience. 


Talk to you at the next stop (with wi-fi)

Rainy Days and Sunshine

Did you know that it has been 12 days since the last fatality climbing highway 2 on Stevens Pass? And that there is an 8-mile train tunnel that ascends up the hill that causes trains to lose air so they have to pump the tunnel with air so the engines can still work? And that Skykomish has a bear problem because Seattle catches bears with donuts and brings them up here to be set free, but the bears have nothing to eat so they enter this hinky dink town of 300 to find more donuts at the local general store? And that this town used to be a thriving milling and lumber town but government imposed regulations so now hardly any one has jobs and 50% of them live on under 8000 dollars a year? AND that this city was part of an underground oil cleanup process so they lifted all of the 100 year old houses out of the ground and replaced the soil and then reset them back into position? Yeah, neither did I, until last night when we had a guy give a riveting presentation of the history of the area. And I don’t mean that lightly, It was quite interesting and quite funny!


Yesterday we biked 36 miles from Monroe to Skykomish, WA. It was a change in elevation from about 55 feet to 950 feet. Minus the fall, the minor scrapes on my right ankle, and the rain the entire way, I would say it was a very successful climb. Speaking of which, yeah, it rained the entire way! I could hardly see through my glasses, especially when a Semi would go whirling by. But the climbing was not over. Today we climbed another 3000 feet up to the top of Stevens Pass and then descended the 50 mile journey down into Wenatchee. The descent down the mountain was one word: hypothermia. I though I was going to stop breathing as the cold wind flooded my lungs at the high speeds we were escalating to. But 5 or so miles down the clouds dissipated and it started getting extremely hot, per usual in eastern Washington. Now we are just chillin in Wenatchee. Tomorrow we have a 96 mile journey to some ho dink town in the middle of no where named Wilbur. It will be my longest ride that I have ever completed!


So what do you take away from Stevens Pass in two days? Well sometimes you are going to have rainy days. You aren't going to be able to see; you are going to be wet; you are going to be cold; and your gonna think you can't finish. But the next day will always bring sunshine. God will always bring you back out and show you His glory in every storm. So next time it rains, remember there is always sunshine on the other side of the mountains.


Hopefully I'll be able to update again when we reach Spokane in two days. until then, God bless and keep praying for us!

New Beginnings

Before I begin, I have to make an important announcement: McDonalds now has a Rolo McFlurry! Needless to say, I got one on the drive up to Seattle and about passed out due to it’s intoxicating grandness.  If you have the chance, I highly recommend driving to McDonalds in the next 15 minutes to taste it yourselves! You wont regret it.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, I guess I should tell you that I made it to Seattle safely thanks to my awesome nephew.  The first two nights, we stayed at a church right across the street from the University of Washington.  Such a beautiful campus! During our stay, we had our orientation and even got the chance to bond by touring around Downtown Seattle.  It’s pretty exciting knowing what’s in front of our team, and also what is behind us( and me personally).  I must thank all of you for all your support and prayer in these last few days.  I raised 1000 dollars in a matter of 36 hours just before I left and it overwhelmed me.  God is definitely coming through in powerful ways already.

This morning at church, we talked about Pentecost where the Spirit came upon the Disciples as they were in the upper room after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The pastor-leader-person of this particular church talked about how this day brought about change and new beginnings to the disciples who now began to go out with the spirit telling people of the good news!  It really resonated with me, especially on this trip as we take off about this new beginning.  And not just the beginning of the trip, but of my life(and a lot of my friends lives) as we head out into something new.  Remember that the Spirit is with us and uses us and empowers us to tell people about the good news! So wherever we all end up, at least we know one thing we will be doing! And that’s exciting. 

I find myself in Monroe, WA now after our first leg, which was a great moderately challenging first day.  My legs are already sore and burning!  Tomorrow we get the honor of climbing over Steven's Pass.  I’m a little scared. It's basically a 40 mile uphill journey. It’s going to be a rigorous beginning to the trip.  If you could, definitely pray for our team and me personally as we climb up the mountain range.  I’ll try to keep you updated whenever we have wi-fi.

So far the group seems awesome! We have one guy who is riding the whole way on a high bike! It’s definitely a sight to behold.   Another couple is celebrating their honeymoon by riding a tandem bicycle! 

An update on my financial situation: I am still down 500 dollars to get to Denver.  If you would still like to help, follow this link. This is an amazing organization and you are helping out in huge ways to provide homes to those in poverty. 

That's all for now, Talk to ya soon

Home Sweet Home

Well it's been crazy the last month, but I finally got everything set to leave Arizona and made the drive back to Kennewick WA. It was a wonderful drive. I sent my bike before I left and it's supposed to arrive today so now I can ride around the river. yes, RIVER. So nice, having TOO much water up here (all the rivers are above flood stage) It's good to be home. Tomorrow, me and and the mother are going to Portland! If you can't tell, being home really excites me!


Yesterday I did my first training here by running up Badger Mountain. It's about a 1 mile steep path up the mountain. I used to run up it every week trying to get a better time each run. Last time my best was 12:52. Yesterday my time was 14:14 so not quite to top times yet but a good start. Getting to the top of the mountain was so majestic. There were wild flowers and wild grass everywhere and I could see the entire city.


I have sent out my last letters before I left Arizona and now I am just praying the support comes in. Once again, if you would like to support my trip to build and repair inadequate housing around the world, while biking to Denver, click on this link. I am still about 1400 dollars short with under 3 weeks to go before I have to be in Seattle. But I'm not worried. If the money comes in, then God has something great in store for me, if it doesn't, God still hasn't something great for me. It's a win win.


Thanks so much for all your prayers and support. Until next time,


Ta Ta for now

Trial Run

It has been so long since my last post. It's not that I haven't had anything to write about, mainly that I have not been in a writing mood. It is sometimes quite hard to sit down and try and write. Fortunately I am in that mood tonight. It might have something to do with Applegate's Saturday Night Worship playing on my computer. It might have something to do with the time of solitude, reflection, and devotion i find myself in right now, compared to the last few days. Whatever it is, I miss it! I have quite a few updates for you.


Almost two weeks ago (its been that long) I went down to Mexico for my first time ever, despite living in Tucson for four years now! The mission of the trip was to complete a house for a family down there. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I was able to get some first hand practice at building a house, but more importantly, I was able to see the desperation for housing just 5 minutes across the border. There is such a need for a simple shelter around this globe! The house we built wasn't much compared to American standards. It was basically a simple 300, maybe 400 square foot house made of brick and mortar with a slanted metal ceiling with Styrofoam insulation. Not much at all and yet they were so grateful! It protected against the sun, against the rain, against the wind, It was shelter. The kids in the area were such a blessing too! I met (and by met, i mean saw) 20 kids who all wanted a tennis ball. They smiled and played catch, and bounced their new toy, biked with them in the spokes of their tires. The kids were hands down the best part of the trip. One kid loved juggling a soccer ball with his feet and he was sooooo good at it. I would always count how many times he kept the soccer ball in the air while his little friend / brother(?) would yell out a number twice as high! CUARENTA!!! It was such a blessing to be able to help out with the house.


Regarding support letters, I was able to finally write them all of the people that asked for one and gave me their mailing address. I still have some to write to various churches I am a part of. Up until today, I was waiting to send them because I had no stamps, but on further inspection and a quick cleaning of my room, I got that taken care of. So if you asked for a letter, be encouraged that it is on its way. It was so fun writing them and I am blessed to have your guys' support on this trip!


The last thing I have been doing lately is training more frequently. Yesterday, I ran 8.5 miles. I haven't been biking much, except on the weekends, but the running is keeping me in shape. One of these days I plan on biking of Mt Lemmon to practice before I have to bike up Skyhomish pass on my trip. I hope all of you readers, supporters, friends, and family are doing amazing! I am once again so blessed to have you in my life!


Ta Ta for now

Dreams

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.
George Bernard Shaw

Many times in the Bible, dreams are used profoundly to guide someone or to shape the way one makes choices. Joseph was a dreamer. He foresaw all his brothers bowing down to him. And through God's hand, his dream came to be as he became second in command to all of Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had the opposite dreams which told him that he wouldn't end up to well unless he turned away and that is exactly what happened. He purposely denied the dream. Even the Magi in the new testament had a dream to not return to Herod after seeing Jesus. The dreams guided them to safety. Over and over, the Bible tells stories of people having dreams. Elijah, Ezekiel, John, etc.

I have even heard stories of dreams shaping my friends lives. But none of them have directly been involved in my story. That is, until now. I just had, quite possibly, the coolest morning story ever, in the history of my morning stories. See, I have this friend with whom I went to high school with. We've hardly seen each other sense then except on a random bocci ball excursion one time when I was back home visiting. Life has taken us on extremely different paths. And yet, the stories still find away to impact back to one another.

She had a dream where she was driving down the street and saw people building a house. She realized on closer inspection that I was one of the people building the house so she turned around. I (my dream me) showed her around the house and ways that she could help. She ended up helping until it was all finished. She immediately messaged me upon waking up and told me her dream and asked how she could help.

That is a crazy story and I am so glad God works through dreams. We barely have gotten this story rolling and It's already getting crazy. I can't wait for what God has in store next. How do you top a dream like that?

well, ta ta for now

Opening the Book

“We live in a world where bad stories are told, stories that teach us life doesn’t mean anything and that humanity has no great purpose. It’s a good calling, then, to speak a better story. How brightly a better story shines. How easily the world looks to it in wonder. How grateful we are to hear these stories, and how happy it makes us to repeat them” Donald Miller – A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (I just finished this book so a lot of my blog will be based on his ideas that have inspired me)

We are all writing a story with our lives. Each story has the power to captivate an audience or bore one; to change the lives of those that hear it or to be just as easily forgotten. The stories that always seem to leave an audience with their jaws wide open and a passion to change the world always contain a few core characteristics:
Selfless love – A love that helps with no strings attached.
Courage – One that attacks any obstacles or fears that attempt to stop it.
Growth – Stagnation is boring. A character must mature and grow and learn.
And Sacrifice – Which leaves it all behind, security, pleasure, and selfishness.
My goal is to live a story that inspires and helps others to a better story. A story written by God.

Sometimes, the part that takes the most courage when writing a story, is beginning it. Stepping out into the unknown can be scary. I remember over spring break, entering Zion National Park. Coming in from the east side of the park, you go through, what you come to find out, is a HUGE tunnel. I always use to play a game when I was a kid where I would hold my breath through tunnels. My favorites were the tunnels on Mercer Island in Seattle (because those were the longest I had experienced, especially in traffic). So we enter in to the tunnel and I start holding my breath. And holding . . . And holding . . . And holding. I mean this tunnel is a good 3 or 4 miles long. I obviously was unable to keep holding my breath and soon started wondering if there was an end. But eventually the light cracked through and we were out. Now what did that story have to do with anything? That is a great question. When you first start writing an intentional story with your life, sometimes you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. The light behind you quickly vanishes and soon you are just in darkness driving for miles. That kind of feels like where I am at right now.

For those of you who are new to this story (not that I am any more experienced to it), I am going to be biking from Seattle to Denver (possibly to Washington D.C. depending on how much support i get) with an organization called Fuller Center.  Many bikers will be pedaling the 3600 mile journey from June 10th to August 14th. Along the way we will be building and repairing houses for the organization and we each are asking for a dollar of support per mile we ride to go help support the building of these houses. It's an amazing opportunity! And I am excited to share it with you via this blog.

There is a lot to figure out still as I get the wheels rolling. I still need a lot of gadgets for my bike and for my trip to ensure safe travels. I need to train. I need to figure out how to get myself and my bike to and from the starting destinations. And most of all I need support. (which if you would like to help please go to this link - SUPPORT HERE)

I look forward to keeping you updated on the road up until the start of the trip as well as along the 1700 mile journey to Denver. I'm sure God will give me a lot to say! Ta Ta for now