Final thoughts...

While nine weeks might have been a little long to be a nomad, I truly appreciate the opportunity that I had to experience God’s creation as well as the interaction with His people. Even before the tour started I told myself to expect the unexpected, and I would say that my anticipation of what was to come was certainly met, and even exceeded. I recall from my first blog listing several things that I would miss while on the tour – and while the coffee and beer often left something to be desired, this was made up for in other, more important areas. The sense of community and the relationships that were formed as we traveled together from one location to another made this experience a great blessing. The idea that this was essentially a church on wheels (forgive the terrible pun!) gave deeper meaning to much of our actions and interactions.

Furthermore, I was excited to see the church take hold of a cause, poverty in this case, and genuinely engage the members of the communities through which we rode, bringing awareness to the needs of others. There was much discussion during the tour regarding the practicality of investing so much money into a bike tour – why spend so much on bikes and food and lodging and other ‘stuff’ for ourselves when we could have each stayed at home in our respective communities and invested that money in other agencies that directly assist the poor? And while there might be some truth in the math of dollar figures spent in areas of need, I don’t think that it is our place to judge the value of something that is done in the name of Christ. All along the tour, we as cyclists interacted albeit briefly with numerous individuals, and it is difficult to determine the effect that our words or our actions might have had on them. We may never know the lasting changes that were set in motion by the ‘simple’ act of riding across the country, but we can hope and pray that lives were changed for the better because of this tour, and that those affected by the ministries of the organizations we raised money for are blessed in tangible ways.

What now? During our last communion together my friend Julie gave a brief testimony, and in it she referenced a book – I think it was called ‘Touching the Void’ – about a man’s journey up Mount Everest. The main idea described here is that the top of Mount Everest is just another plot of land, no different from another except that there is nowhere else to climb. Julie made the link that in our tour, the last day of riding is no different from any other except that there would be nowhere else to ride. While at the end of such an epic journey some of us might have been searching for a memorable climax in that final day, it is really just another day with its own challenges and decisions to be made… which will in turn lead to yet another day at its close, and so on and so forth. What is important is not how many miles we biked and how fast we did it, or how many flat tires we changed, but rather the attitude we have and the decisions we will continue to make in light of what we learned while on the tour. Let this not simply be an end of something that will be missed, but an encouraging beginning to what lies ahead in each of our lives, and let it cause us to be mindful of the plight of others and receptive to how we might be the change in this world.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, if you have any input, questions, responses etc. I’d love to hear them. Feel free to e-mail me any time: r_vyn@hotmail.com.

Cheers,
Reuben