Saturday, August 2, 2008

A Week of Miracles

Well, I didn't get a lot of riding in this week. Only 100km, split between 2 days but what can you do.

Instead I enjoyed the week by spending the days with different crew members. It's actually quite nice to view all the different sides to this tour and how much work our amazing volunteer crew staff put into this tour. They really deserve lots of encouragement from everyone and lots of thanks for all that they do for us.

The cool thing for me this week is that even through the hard times of this week God has sent me a miracle and used me for one. This past week I have seen God more then any other week and I am so thankful for these moments.

On Monday, I originally was going to send Erinn Swett off to find me the Knee Brace I needed that was recommended by my Knee Therapist, Conor, back home. In the end though, I thought it would be better to do things right the first time and go with her so that I could be properly fitted and also get my ankles checked out at the same time as I was having major issues with them swelling up like balloons (or as we like to joke, the worst cankles ever - where your calf and ankles combine :P).

Erinn had to go to the airport to drop off a few people and then get a hold of Joy, Pastor Len's cousin, as he had unfortunately forgotten his passport at their house (he stayed with them for the weekend) and she needed to go pick it up for him.

I spent the hour and a half on the phone feeling like I was on a wild goose chase. It was crazy, every hospital or medical centre I called passed me onto the next person. About 30 min in of calls I discovered that in the States you have to have a prescription for the Knee Brace I was getting (this isn't some high tech brace but better then your Walmart special). So now I was on the phone trying to find out how I could get a prescription and trying to find a place that could see me that day. I had nearly given up when I saw Erinn coming up the way. I went to tell her about my no-luck so far when she began to tell me her great news!!

While she was on the phone with Joy, Erinn had mentioned about the fact that I was trying to get a hold of someone about my knee and Joy stated that there is a Sports Injury Therapist that is within their Christian community (who also has worked with the Olympic athletes before) and said she would see if she could get me an appointment.

Pretty much in the midst of Erinn telling me this, Joy called and informed us that I had an appointment for 11:30AM with the partner, Jon Seeman of The Center for Spine Pain and Wellness. We jumped up and down with joy. I new as well that I had a number of people back home praying for me that I would get an appointment of some sort this weekend. Originally I was trying to see the founder of ART Therapy as Conor had told me that he was from Denver, CO but we discovered that his office was a 100 miles away still from where we were staying on the weekend, so that was a no go. But now here God used a number of various people to make it happen, starting with the purpose of Len needing to forget his passport at Joy's because it needed to be something important enough that Erinn had to go and get it and be in contact with Joy! Amazing how things work themselves out. Often you don't have the opportunity to see the effect of how or why the dominoes fall in a certain direction.

So we headed over there and I ended up being in the office for an hour and a half. He scraped at my scar soft tissues to get it to release (which I now have bruises from :P) then used Electrical Stimulation (that was weird as I could see my thigh pulse out from it and of course feel it too). As well as low level laser therapy, MRS therapy and adjustment. I was amazed at how much he did for me. Fitting me in on such short notice with a very long appointment. Was very detailed and explained everything to me as we went along, waved the consultation fee!! so in the end everything only cost me $65 US! I was absolutely blown away. He was and is a great man and I just want to send out a huge thanks to you, Jon and your office.

The rest of the day was great spent with Erinn driving around in her hot (rental) mustang. We went out for lunch and were going to do some retail therapy :) but there really wasn't enough time and I was getting a little tired.

Praise God for his amazing love and constant watching over us. Thank you as well to everyone for all your prayers.

Oh yeah, so my knee is not miraculously healed, but I did find out that even though it is badly agitated as long as I give it lots of rest over the winter I should not have any permanent damage. I just have to keep on top of elevating, icing and stretching.

So that was the start of the week. During the week we had numerous encounters of people coming up to us, praying for us outside of a 7-Eleven (that was so amazing). Art, Betsy and I were in the 7-Eleven and she was like are you that Christian bike group? and we said we were and she said to put all our stuff on her tab! Then Art and I were outside waiting for Betsy and she came up to us saying out she was going to be late but it didn't matter. She felt a strong presence that she needed to pray with us and she prayed a lot for the tours safety which is what we really need this week (well every week). It was so amazing!

Later on that day at our SAG stop we had a gentleman show up and give us a number of free health drinks to try and pass out.

My other big miracle story happened on Friday on my only other day of riding (I also rode part on Thursday). I drove with Julie today to her SAG stop (50km to the end) and started from there. Unfortunately, there was a very strong head wind the entire ride.

I was coming up a road and I could see smoke in the distance. There's been a number of times on the tour that this has happened and usually it's nothing much. I was thinking and hoping that was the case for this time as well. As I rounded the corner I noticed that some of the smoke was coming from a dugout pit that appeared they were burning stuff on purpose and it was mostly all gone already. However, there was another smoke cloud and I noticed that one of the large trees along the propriety was on fire inside the trunk. There was debris right in front of the tree so I wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not but one thing I have learned on this tour is to never assume anything. I saw that there was a house half a mile down the gravel road, so I layed my bike down and walked in my cleats over.

Luckily the women of the house, Deb Swartz was home and I informed her of what I had saw, not knowing that the tree was a part of their new purchased property. We hoped on her 4-wheeler to go check it out. In the time from when I first saw the fire to the time we got back, maybe 20 min later, the fire had spread up and extra 4 feet or so inside the trunk and was starting to near the crown of the tree. The tree was NOT suppose to be on fire and she couldn't believe it. Apparently her husband and a few other men had been clearing some of the debris from the land and since it was more at the smouldering faze decided it was safe to go for lunch. However, the wind had picked up a great deal and I guess a spark jumped out of the pit and spread to the tree. Deb was extremely thankful that I had stopped to let them know. I was just thankful that I had listened to my intuition and heart. I had felt God almost nudging me just to make sure.

Well, in her thanks she asked if I had had lunch yet and sent me to the next town to Kerry's Bar and Grill on her. I rode their while she called the men back from that place and dealt with the fire. I reached there maybe 30 min later. I wasn't sure how to go in and what to say to the people there but they knew who I was right away. I asked if I could sit with some of the locals and had a very pleasant lunch learning about the area and the farming and telling them about the tour. I guess one of the ladies called Deb to tell her I was there as she showed up not too much after. She informed me that sadly they did have to cut the tree down but where so thankful it had been caught when it was so that the fire had not spread to more trees or more of the property. She asked if there was anything that she could do for me but I kindly declined as I was just glad to be able to be in the right spot at the right time (through God's providence once again). She wanted to do something and said she would go home and check out the tour online and make a donation there. That wasn't the purpose of this but was a wonderful gesture. (Deb if you are reading this, I just want to say that I am glad I met you, though not under such circumstances, and I thank you as well. You and your family are in my prayers as you start this next section of your life with your new property and farming responsibilites. God's blessings!)


Later on that day I discovered that a number of others from the tour bumped into her at a Subway and heard the whole story and took some more pictures with her! Too cool.

So the moral of this story though is when you see something that just doesn't seem right, don't assume that someone else has dealt with the matter. Take a moment out of your time to just check things out before you move on. What made me stop was also a discussion I had had with Hilena Zylstra (my friend and social worker from home). She had told me that it is sadly very common for people to not act until they see someone else act first (it's a sociological/phsycological phenomenon that we dissociate ourselves from a situation as we figure someone else is already dealing with it). So we must be in reminder of this and take the lead and the initiative.

Today (Sunday) we also had another Godsend, a few people had to stay back from the church services we were attending to act as security for our stuff. They attended The Good Shepherd Lutheran Church across the street and after the service filled them in on what was going on across the way and what we are about. Since then they have been absolutely amazing to us, opening their doors (litterly), feeding us (with LOTS of food) that they only just started making this afternoon and hasn't stopped coming. They are also allowing anyone to sleep inside in the coolness of the halls. Thank you so much to all the members!! You truly have acted as Christ to us.

Well, I think that my blog is a pretty long one once again so I probably should wrap it up. Thanks to everyone back home for everything. I miss you and love you all and pray that things are well for you too.

Love Stephanie