A Night of Games

This past Saturday, myself and the other riders from Immanuel CRC held a Progressive Euchre Game Night. We also put together a bit of a silent auction.
Though it was a bit smaller of a turn out then hoped, those that came had a great time. On an agreement of all we decided to continue our Silent Auction till next Saturday when we host the Bike Bike Breakfast at Immanuel CRC.
If you are in Hamilton next Saturday, 8-10am come out for some great food. The whole works - eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes and more! Maybe even waffles! Then while there check out our great selection of Silent Auction items.
**Side note: The breakfast fundraiser was a huge success. In total from all 3 fundraisers the Immanuel Team put on we riased approx. $3600. Thanks to everyone involved and for coming out (special thanks to a few of my friends for their support, so glad you could make it out).

Shifting Gears

That's the title of our accompanying sea to sea devotional (which has just been finished being written and is off to print, go to http://www.crcna.org/pages/sea_shiftinggears.cfm to order your copy) but I also thought it worked well for this blog as I've been finding myself constantly having to shift gears in various ways over the last few weeks.

I finally found myself a therapist for my knee. He is performing something called ART (active release therapy) and it seems to definitely be helping (sighh of huge relief here). Over the last while I have had to shift my gears in my urgency to get training and to really learn patience and absolute dependence and trust in God (though I'll admit every time I read another cyclists blog about how many km's they've put in I ache to really get out on that road). It's been a constant prayer thing and it's been what's been getting me through and of course the many encouragements from friends, family and the church.

I'll say though even though my training has slowed down it seems like nothing else has. Fundraising is definitely a big task and can be very time consuming but when it's for such an important cause it's the push needed to keep going with it all. Especially when this past week they announced in the news with everything on the rise as far as costs go that another 100 million will be in poverty now. THAT'S ANOTHER 100 MILLION!! We can say it over and over and over again but does it every really hit us as real? That it's happening all over all the time.

"It is estimated there are more than 3 billion people in the world who live on less than $2 a day," Bellamy said. "Half of these are children and half of those are living on less than $1 a day."

I just finished reading a book titled, "They Poured Fire On Us from the Sky". It's a true story about 3 Lost Boys from Sudan and their journey across Sudan to Kenya and then to America. Throughout reading the horrors that they go through once again I find myself reminding myself that this isn't just a story, this really happened. When I was 13 and doing what young 13 year olds do (sleepovers, stuffing our face with junk food, etc) these boys were starving to death, only surviving by eating dirt, grass and bugs. Many of these boys were only 4 years old when they started to walk across Sudan to safety!!

It's things like this that has really pushed me to be a part of this tour.

I've also found though that even though this issue ways so heavy in my thoughts and in my preparation for this summer I sometimes catch myself not talking enough about that aspect of what this summer is about. We do all these different fundraisers and people come and spend money and that's great and all because in reality that is what we are hoping for but our focus still needs to be more about bringing awareness to those around us. The awareness is just as important because in awareness people can learn what they can do to help in this word wide issue.

The other week an e-mail was sent out to us cyclists about an idea that the Sea to Sea committee was looking at putting into action. Community Projects during the tour! On some of the lower km days of riding, a number of cyclists will go into communities that we pass through to help out in whatever way we can. Whether it's working in a foodbank or painting graffiti off a church, I'm so excited about this idea because even though I feel like what we are doing this summer, as far as riding goes, is no small feat but here we have the opportunity to really get involved as well. I think that one of these community project days will end up being a highlight of tour.

So in ending, first I ask, have you had a chance to support this cause of Ending the Cycle of Poverty by supporting one of the many cyclists going on this tour, financially and spiritually?

Also what more can you do? Remember the story of the boy and the starfish:

The Boy and the Starfish
A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.
As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.
The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied,"I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. "But", said the man, "You can't possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can't possibly make a difference." The boy smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied,

"I made a huge difference to that one!"

~Author Unknown~

They're Finally Here!!

I have finally finished all my paintings for my card fundraiser. I'm so excited about them and have already received great feedback. Below is a poster for the cards - Everyday Occasions - One of a Kind Designs.

There are 3 different designs (2 of each in a set), all are copies of my original paintings. Each card is also signed on the back. If you would like to order a set please e-mail me at: w_stephanie@hotmail.com.

(Just a side note that I want to make clear, after receiving encouragement from others, I came to the decision to use this as a personal fundraiser to help me out in the various expenses that I have and expect to encounter. However, if there is a great response, I definitely will be looking at splitting the money and giving part directly to my $10,000 goal.)

A week of fundraising

Dirk and I had our first big fundraiser on Wed - a Soup and Chili event. It was such an amazing evening. Soo many people showed up...felt like nearly the whole church.

But backing up a little I'll admit two weeks before there was a little freak-out on myself and my mom's part on it seeming like all of a sudden there was so much to do and get ready and the event was right around the corner. I had to find volunteers for the evening, make sure I had enough people making pots of soup or chili, right cover letters for donations from the grocery stores, etc. The wonderful ladies of Brantford's Coffee Break offered to supply many of the pots. Such wonderful ladies. My mom asked a few of her friends to help out and then even more came then first asked. So awesome!!! As the time drew closer things were definitely falling into place.

The only disappointment was that 2 Sundays before talking to Dirk he didn't know if he would be able to get back from his trip in time (he drives a truck for Voortman cookies). I hoped for his sake as well that he would be able too.

Well, it was Tues night, the night before the event and I had to go pick up 10 tubs of 4L Ice Cream from Food Basics. Headed over to the store, down the ice cream aisle, down to the veggie section...wait, what? Where's the ice cream? Back up, look again, back and forth I go. Oh NO, where did all the tubs of ice cream go that were JUST there a few days ago. Okay no worries there are still 2 other stores I can use my donation voucher at. So I head off driving all around Brantford to no avail. All the stores were sold out! How could this be. I nearly wanted to cry by the 3rd store.

However, I started to realize that God had already worked everything out. He'd provided and I hadn't even stopped to think about it or to say thanks. Shortly before I went out to go get ice cream Dirk had called first to say he would be able to make it for the fundraiser (yeah!!) and also to see if I wanted him to bring some Voortman cookies along. I said sure you can bring a few, we are having ice cream though. Standing in the store I remembered this and shot home to give Dirk a call back. I asked if he would mind bringing all the cookies he could after all and we would serve them instead of ice cream. Thanks God for providing for me. Here I am (along with many others) putting on this event for him and I forget to really depend fully on God. Too often we seem to need a reminder.

Though I won't lie, a few parents had to explain to their children that no, there would be no ice cream after all :P lol.

Another note was after I made a reminder announcement in Church on the Sunday before, myself and Dirk's wife, Elaine ended up being asked numerous times from others in the Church if they could make a pot of soup/chili for us!! What a blessing and in the end we certainly needed it as I was saying the turn out simply blew us away. It was such a blessing to really feel the church fully supporting us in being apart of this tour and raising funds for poverty.

We ended up raising $2273!!! Thanks again too all who helped out that evening!

Now for the next one...only 3 more to go.

Great News!!.....I think

First off I want to start with thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts over the last while. God truly has been great. I managed to get a really quick MRI apt and already have my results only 4 business days later when told it would be 7-10 days.
My first bit of news which is an answer to prayer for sure is that my meniscus is not torn! Yeahhh!
What I do have is ITBS (Illiotibial Band Syndrome) where the IT Band is sliding over the Lateral Femoral Epicandyle (I know, I know your probably thinking whatever that is, lol) and causing friction which then causes fluid and swelling in the knee. Basically it effects the soft tissue within the knee area and causes pain, inflammation and discomfort. However, it's heal-able!!
The hard part still is taking the time to rest and to not overwork my knee, which will be hard when I'm trying to get all this training in. This is where I really have to depend on God to help me find the patience within myself and to not stress out about my lack of training over the next while and to ask God to help me in making various decisions (like should I enter the Paris to Ancaster Bike race that is already only a few weeks away, April 20 or would that be pushing it). It's times like these that I am so thankful that I know God and know that he is always there watching over us all. He never said things would be easy but he always promised to be right there and to carry us over any obstacles that we may encounter along the way as long as we ask for his help (and really even when we don't). What an amazing, loving God that we have the blessing to know.
So where do I go from here? Not a 100%. I have booked an apt. with a Soft Tissue Chiropractor in hopes for some help and direction on what sort of exercising/stretching I need to do to make my knee stronger again. And of course I'll continue to ice.
All things will work out I know and of course I am still very much looking forward to this summer!! I can't believe it's only 13 weeks away now!
On another note, I'm having my first big fundraiser tomorrow - Soup and Chili :) mmm. Again God has blessed me there and I have had an amazing amount of people who have offered to help out that evening and to make pots of soup or chili. I really appreciate everyone's help and support. It's wonderful to see others get involved as well and to really back and support such a wonderful cause! Praise God!