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~