Immanuel CRC Team

So this past Sunday (Feb. 3) the Immanuel CRC Team went up in front of the church for our presentation and kick-off for our fundraising there. We are a team of 6 cyclists! Peter Kranenburg and myself are riding the who way and Peter Dehaan, Rick Dejonge, Al Karsten and Dave Van De Woerd are riding the last 2 weeks from Grand Rapids, MI to Jersey City, New Jersey.

Combined together we are raising $36,000. Seems like a lot? Well, maybe, but it can and will be done by God's guidance and blessing! Remember this is all to go for poverty!

We also set up the bulletin board and put up prayer and financial support partner sheets (where you can sign up for a day at $1/km). If all the spots are filled in this would raise about 50% of our goal.

I think everything went great that day and we took a couple of team pictures, sporting this years Sea to Sea shirts (borrowed, thanks to our connection in the office). Already I have had a few calls from those wanting to support us! So exciting! I'll be setting up a similar board at my current church (Hope CRC in Brantford) this Sunday! Dirk (also supported by Hope CRC) and I will be doing a presentation on the 24th of Feb and then Lord willing, a collection will be taken the following Sunday. It's exciting to see things get going now. In the beginning raising $10,000 can be a little overwhelming and mildly stressful if you let it be.

A little side note; so I've taught about 7 spinning classes now. Two Saturdays ago I already ran into a mild dilema! A good dilema I guess in a way... I actually ended up being 2 bikes short! Wow, amazing how the classes just all of a sudden start to fill up! It's so exciting! I've also filled in on a couple of classes when the other instructors were unable to be make it for whichever reason.

I have had a number of new people come to my classes, some who "use" to spin and others who have never spinned before. I really like to make sure that they are set up properly on their bikes (as you can do harm to your knees and other parts of the body if you are not) and have a good first experience overall. I find in some classes the instructor doesn't always take the time for this and that really is unfortunate. Just like making sure that someone coming for the first time realizes they don't have to push it as hard as the others, to just gradually build yourself up. I really recommend to my students to not do alot of tension add-ins the first class or two. Rather just take the time to get use to spinning and especially standing while on the bike. This can really throw new comers and it is definantly something you need to work up too. When this isn't pointed out, they can become discourage quickly and end up not coming back again as they just didn't enjoy it and possibly felt like they just couldn't and wouldn't ever be able to do it.

Anyhow though I'm really enjoying teaching these classes and my goal is to really pass that passion onto those in my class. It's a great time and I encourage you to try it out for a great way of training or just everyday winter exercise!

200 CYCLISTS!!!

Well yesterday was the final day to sign up and as of January 31 there are exactly 200 cyclists signed up!!! Wow unbelievable, nearly 30 signed up in the last 3 weeks. There is still a possiblity of that number rising a little more in the next few days as they wait for the mail to come in, but how amazing is that number! God is soo good! Can you believe as well only 5 more months till we start! Till most of us meet! I can't wait for then.

Didn't sign up to be a cyclists but still feel like you are being called in someway to help? Well obviously there is always help needed financially and spiritually by prayer, but the Sea to Sea committee is still looking for volunteers to share your time and talents with the tour as a member of the support crew? If this interests you there is a spot on the website to go to that lists the positions available. Please pray about this.

In the last few weeks there have been e-mails flying around about specific prayer requests needed. Since those e-mails many of them have been answered so far! Praise God!

1) A permit was needed in order to end the tour at Liberty State Park on the water's edge in New Jersey. Normally, New Jersey government officials do not issue permits there on a holiday weekend and so far the committee had been denied. Well God answered our prayers and the committee has received the okay!!

2) There were hopes to have the tour stop in Grand Haven, Michigan on Friday, Aug. 15 and use the CRC conference grounds and the city-regulated surrounding area for overnight accommodation. Councillors from the township met on Jan. 28 for a final discussion and to vote on the request to stay there and it was approved!!! Thanks be to God!

The latest prayer request as far as accomidations go is: Ed Witvoet is looking for accommodations for Monday Aug. 25 and found the perfect school in Albion, NY. However, they are denying his request because they already have another cycling tour coming through and they don’t want to accommodate a second tour. He has asked a few times as well as some other places in the area but has thus been declined. If we would be able to stay in this area it would allow for they cyclists to cycle by the CRC and RCA churches in and around Rochester. Please pray that things may work out for the best here and that a place may arise that can accomidate us all.

Some other prayer requests have been about cyclists health and safety. Sadly there have been a number of car accidents, surgeries, and just general health problems that have effected many of those participating in the tour. Please remember to keep everyone involved in your prayers during these next 5 months and of course while on the tour. Anyone of us could get in an accident or sick and be unable train for the ride. Please uphold us and continue to encourage as there is a lot involved even before we go.

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!... Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:4, 6-7

A Moment of Grace in My Workplace

I thought I would share something that happend to me today. It's a little personal but I wanted to share it because I had to make a decision today on how I reacted. Earlier I talked about how I was reading the devotional, "What So Amazing About Grace." Well today it really hit home and I am putting some of that grace into motion.
Before today I had yet not asked for the time off from my boss. In December my boss had a serious heartattack while away on business in Japan. He actually died for 5 min. Thankfully there were 2 doctors nearby who helped to revive him (I believe God put them there, others say there are just so many people in a train station in Japan there's bound to be a few). He had to undergo double by-pass surgery and was kept in the hospital for nearly 3 weeks before he was allowed to fly back home. It will be quite the long recovery for him and he is only able to come in the office for a few hours at a time.
My original plan had been to ask for a leave of absense sometime in the early new year (2008, so now) but after what happened I didn't want to add to his stress (much good and bads going on at my company) and decided to hold off for a little while.
Well of course when you are excited about something as amazing as this tour, you generally have a hard time keeping it to yourself and proceeded to tell a few of my coworkers but asked them to not talk about it as I didn't want it being spread around just yet.
Well, today I found out someone let my boss know. He called me in and said he had heard some things and wanted to know if it was true, that I would be asking for a leave of absense and going away for awhile. I felt horrible, first I was just utterly shocked and hurt that someone had betrayed my trust, that they felt it so important to tell my boss to possibly save their own butt? I don't know and then I felt horrible that he had found out this way. At this point, obviously I was straight up and talked for quite awhile about this and various other issues in the office. I apologized that I had not been able to have been the one to tell him.
During the time I was in his office, thoughts kept going back and forth in my mind about how I felt and how I wanted to react. Was I angry? In a sense it was my own fault and in telling someone else within the office I was kind of asking for it wasn't I?
When I came out, two of my coworkers who knew about the tour (and who had noticed I was missing from my desk) were in my office (one I share it with). They softly mouthed, what was that about? I informed them that someone had let my boss know about my leaving for the summer. They were shocked and I think were half expecting me to spit rage. But already I knew that I had to make it clear that I was not angry, yes I was a little hurt that someone decided to break my trust but I was not angry. There has been a lot of anger going around our office and it can sometimes be easy to be sucked into the drama that has been going on as well, but I knew I had to approach this differently. To not get riled up, so that others would not get riled up and more rumours and words flying around behind eachothers backs. They asked who I thought it could have been, but at this point I decided that I didn't want to know who it had been. I didn't want to become angry with anyone and it wouldn't undo anything so what would be the point.
You see one thing I didn't say was that, there is word of layoffs going around our office and something like this quite possibly has put me up near the top of the chopping list. To lose my job with less then 6 months to go could make things difficult. But you know what, I'm okay with whatever happens because I realized how lucky I am. I have Jesus in my life and I know that God has ALWAYS provided for me and that I don't have to worry. It's not the end of the world for me if I do lose this job, yeah things might be tight for awhile but I know I am in good hands with whatever may occur in the next 6 months. But for some of my coworkers this would be devestating for them. There is no "greener grass on the other side." In a small town there are not many other options for the type of business we are in.
So I am not sure how tomorrow will go. I'm sure a few more people will know what happened in my meeting (it's amazing how word can get around so fast), but I want to make sure that whoever knows that they are the one that I'm okay with it and I am not angry with them. It's going to be hard to try and stay out of the gossip game as I am sure I will be visited by a few who want to know more of the details but I think I need to show that it's all okay, no hurt feelings (well maybe a little inside but none shown outwardly). I am not going to start pointing fingers and bad mouthing anyone. There are other ways to deal with issues: and that is to show grace...even within just your workplace.

It's 2008!

Just under 6 months to go! 173 more days!! I can't wait. I feel like more and more the tour is on my mind and I just can't wait for the time to pass till we go.

Things are starting to get underway. I have my first thousand raised! Only $9,000 more to go. No problem! Especially with God by my side. Family (especially my loving mother ;) ) and friends are helping me with great fundraising ideas that I can implement in the next few months.

Already I have put a letter in my church's mailslot and soon I hope to have a decorated bulletin board up in our Church all about the sea to sea and an opportunity to sign up for a day to be my prayer warrior and financial supporter at $1/km.

Looks like I will also be painting some blank cards to sell as well. I'll post a design once I get one done (though it might be another month or so, so don't get too excited yet) and if you are at all interested in purchasing a set, let me know :)

At the beginning of December, I also took a course to get my certification to become a spinning instructor. Wow that was one intense day, let me tell you. From 9:30am to 5pm and we were on the bike at least half of that time! You can say my legs were pretty wobbly the next day (and here I am thinking I am going to start teaching? lol). My good friend Mari again came to my aid and set me up with some of her teaching techniques and music. I really admire her and her teaching practices and how she really puts her heart into her classes. That's mainly why I decided to become certified, I wanted to be able to share that heart in my classes at the gym I go to. She really encouraged me (along with a number of other friends and family) to get my certification. Definantly boosted my confidence.

Anyhow this past Saturday was my first class and it was very successful! I really enjoyed myself and I felt like those participating did as well. The one nice thing I have going is that I am "one of the group" as I have been spinning with most of them for 2 winters now. So they are really good for feedback and offer great suggestions. Two of the guys in my class are also training for the Paris to Ancaster Bike Race that I will be doing again this year, so I really appreciate input and suggestions from those guys.

I will admit in the beginning being a spinning instructor is definantly a bit time consuming as I really like to choreograph my music with the variation of intervals. So right now I need to get use to my music and the beat and once I have a few routines put in place it should come much faster. Looks like I'll be teaching every sat morning till the end of March for sure. I said we will have to see after that b/c if the weather starts looking nicer I am going to have to take my training back outside.

Oh I also purchased new handlebars for my bike. I bought Easton EC70 Carbon Wing bars. I have yet to put them on my new bike but will get to that soon enough. I am excited about them and sure hope they work out. I ended buying them slightly smaller than my old bars b/c I always felt like they were just a bit too wide. I went from a 44cm to 42cm. This bar should also be a lot kinder to my wrists. I often found before that my wrists became quite sore after a ride but these bars have a nice flat top that is suppose to offer amazing comfort and stability for my hands and of course, it's CARBON! So here's hoping :)

Christmas Greetings

Wow, where did the time go. Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner! It seemed to really sneak up on people this year, which in a way seems weird considering the amount of snow we have had this December. You think we would have been long prepared.

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!

God's blessings through friends

When I look back at the last 10 years of my life, I have really seen God watching over me and answering my prayers through the people he has brought into my life. Over the years I have come to the realization that some friends are meant to always be a part of my life and others are only passing through, but with that realization comes also the understanding to truly appreciate those around me while they are in my life. I've learned that some will just drift through and others will touch your heart stronger than you might realize at first but they are all a part of your life for a reason.
There have been a few times were I have sadly been hurt by those in my life and times where I have felt myself rather alone, but when I most needed a friend in my life God has always come through and put that person there.
The first time was when I first started College and all those highschool friends who you thought you would be "Friends-4-Ever" with seem to disperse into their own new lives. At that time I met my best friend, Julia. She has been the biggest blessing in my life and I am thankful to God everyday that she is a part of my life...of course I wish she lived a lot closer as she also moved across Canada 6 years ago but whenever we talk on the phone or get together on vacation time it's like no time has passed. Julia and I have been through hard times and bad times and of course good times, and believe me we have had our share but we have always been there for eachother, always with listening ear, a great big hug and love. Right now she is going through some hard times again with her health and I lift her to God and entrust him as I know he will take care of her and watch over her. I love you so much Julia. Don't ever forget how special you are to me.
Another moment was 2 years ago when I lost another best friend in my life but God came through again and I met the most amazing friends when I started rock climbing. Though some of us don't see each other as much as we use too (down to maybe once or twice a month as most of them no longer climb, you suck guys ;) lol) we have had some great times and moments and I am so glad to still be a part of this amazing group of friends.
Recently I have been going through some other changes. Though I can't go into much detail I've had to give space to someone who I hung out with a lot and is very special to me and it's been hard to not get to talk all the time and hang out one on one but hopefully in due time that will be able to happen again. Another good friend is going traveling for a month and then next May is moving away to NWT.
Now what made me start this blog that seems to not really have anything to do with biking or the sea to sea? Well actually it has a lot to do with them both. Because of biking and especially the tour God has brought a new friend into my life and I am so thankful. Though I love all my friends, I don't have many friends who are christians and lately I have been really needing to have someone who is and who I can talk about things that affect my life as a Christian and to discuss my faith with. Someone who can understand where I am coming from without judging but also will point things out that I might need reminding of.
Last Saturday Hilena and I went out again for another road ride. November 3 and the weather was georgeous still! Beautiful colours on the trees, bright shiny sun and great company. Nothing like riding and laughing as you go along :) I took my camera along this time (though sadly it died after only a few photos, guess I should have checked the batteries) and we had fun taking some goofy shots :) We ended up going for a 50km ride in about 2 hours. Had a bit of wind on our way back in. After riding we got cleaned up and headed out for dinner to fill our starving tummies. It's unbelievable how with some people you just click and talk about everything under the sun. In fact we did so much talking we pretty much missed the movie we were planning on seeing after. LOL. Oh well, what can you do :) It was almost a perfect "date". LOL
I am looking fwd to next year when I will get to meet all the other cyclists on the tour. I know many more friendships will be made, some stronger than others, but all will make an impact on my life and I am thankful for the opportunity.
In closing I just want to say that sometimes it is hard to see people go in and out of your life but remember God is always there and is always watching over us and he will always put people in your life when you need it. Have you thanked God lately for those friends in you life?

"You turned my wailing into dancing...and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever." - Psalm 30:11-12

"But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me." - Psalm 13:5-6

100 cyclists!!

That's right. I checked the Sea to Sea website today and there are 100 cyclists now signed up for the tour!! How awesome is that!
But we still want more. So if you are thinking about it I really encourage you to sign up. Don't think about all the what if's and how am I going to be able to do this and so on. Remember God is a big God and he is always watching over us. If it is in his plan for you to be on this tour things will fall into place. Trust in him.
Just think of all the amazing memories to come! and all the people you will meet.
Please also continue to keep the committe and all those involved in the tour in your prayers.
This is going to be a great summer! See you there!