So what has been happening the last while? Well we are officially the biggest tour to cross North America! We now officially have 104 cyclists riding straight across! Another 46 are doing sections of the tour! This is so exciting. It's hard to believe that the tour is only another 6 months away. I sent out fundraising letters a couple of weeks ago to my church but hope to really launch my fundraising come January. It's great how many of my friends and family have already showed their support and want to help me in my fundraising in whatever way they can. Many e-mails regarding fundraising ideas and other bike related items have been flying back and forth between the cyclists on the tour. It's so great to see how others are doing and how they are coming up with the funds for the tour.
Obviously though I have stopped biking outside. With 3 storms having hit our area already there is no way you will see me outside on a bike in this weather. Instead I have retreated to the gym for spinning classes twice a week, soon to be 3 times. I even ended up taking a course to get my own spinning instructor certificate. My friend Mari has been so wonderful and has given me some pointers, so over the holidays I hope to put some spinning sets together and then hopefully in the new year I'll be able to start teaching at my own gym :) I'm kind of nervous in someways (as I've never felt that I had the qualities to be a teacher of any kind) but I have had so much encouragement from those who know me well that I am also really excited about this new venture and feel I need to push myself and try something out of the box for me.Lately I've been reading the devotional What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey and it amazes me how so often we forget that is exactly what God is about. What us Christians should be about. Giving grace. Just today I listened to this YouTube post about a boy who talks about
how he had to put down his sick cow and he yelled out to God, "Why, she was special to me?" and God answered him, "You know, my son was special but he died for a purpose and it's kind of the same thing." God understands when we go through these moments because his own son died for us so that we might live. At this time of the year though we remember the birth of Jesus. How he was sent to earth to give grace to those of us who are so underserving. Sometimes we as humans (myself included) forget that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more or nothing we can do to make God love us less. I pray every day that I can lead a life of grace to those around me because God showed me grace. I pray that God may use me and challenge me to become a living answer to those around me who desperately want to know Grace in their lives.Well I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May God bless us all as he always does and may we all enjoy our time spent with family. I can't wait for the days I'll get to spend with my family. See you in the new year!
