Bikers Cross State to Raise Funds for Home Repairs

OPELIKA – Wednesday, May 2, 2012 – From Friday, May 4, through Sunday, May 6, 10 bikers will be crossing Alabama to raise awareness about the housing needs in some of the poorest areas of our country, while raising money for home repairs in Lee, Macon and Sumter counties.

The Third Annual Cycle of Service benefits Alabama Rural Ministry (ARM), a home-repair ministry based in Opelika. Most of the families ARM serves are led by the elderly, disabled or single parents who live on limited or fixed incomes, said Lisa Pierce, ARM’s executive director. ARM also hosts two free summer camps for underserved children in Livingston and Tuskegee.

This year’s goal is to raise $30,000, which will be applied to the cost of purchasing the construction materials the organization uses in repairing homes for up to 30 families, Pierce said. As of today, riders had already raised more than $13,000 toward that goal. Sponsors include the Alabama Retail Association, Best Copies, Carr Allison, Country’s Barbecue, Dilworth Development Inc., Dynamic Sports Products,  James Bros. Bikes, J. Smith Lanier & Co., Mann’s Wildlife Timberlands, Scott Bridge Co.,  Shakey’s Pizza, Singleton Marine Group, Leigh Ann Tyler/State Farm Huntsville and Young Photography.  Other contributors include the 122^nd Troop Support Command Selma, Aldersgate United Methodist Church (UMC) Montgomery, Auburn UMC, Epworth UMC Columbus, Livingston UMC, Memorial UMC, Montgomery Multisport, SES Montgomery, St. Mark UMC Columbus and Tuskegee UMC.

Donors can contribute to the cause now and throughout the three-day event by credit card at http://cycleofservice.arm-al.org

Bikers participating in the Cycle of Service will ride during morning hours before stopping to serve communities in the afternoons. Profiles of the riders can be found athttp://cycleofservice.arm-al.org   The ride begins at 6 a.m. Friday at the Southern Sportsman Hunting Lodge in Livingston and should end about midday  Sunday in Phenix City.

Some riders will participate all three days, while others will join various legs of the ride, mostly along U.S. 80:

• State-Line- to-State-Line Challenge including the Century Ride, 250 miles from the Alabama/Mississippi to the Alabama/Georgia borders,  begins in Livingston and goes through Cuba, Selma, Montgomery and Tuskegee, then ends in Phenix City
• Century Ride, 115-miles ride on the first day of the three-day ride.
• State-Line- to-State-Line Challenge, 223 miles from Cuba to Phenix City.
• Blackbelt Tour, 168 miles starts in Livingston and ends in Tuskegee, or 135 miles, starting in Selma and ending at the Chattahoochee River in Phenix City.
• Final 45 miles from Tuskegee United Methodist Church parsonage to Phenix City. This leg begins at 8 a.m. Sunday, May 6.

A community service work day in Tuskegee will be held from 8 a.m.  to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 5. ARM needs volunteers to serve in local home repair and other service areas on that day.  Anyone wanting to volunteer should contact Christina Walton at             (205) 910-5399       or e-mail Christina@arm-al.org for information by 5 p.m. Thursday, May 3.

For more information, go to http://cycleofservice.arm-al.org  or www.facebook.com/Bikebama

All the details are on the Cycle of Service web site www.cycleofservice.arm-al.org. But in summary, we’ll meet in Livingston on Thursday evening,  May 3^rd. The ride launches early on May 4^th from Southern Sportsman lodge. Our destination is Selma. The next day we ride to Tuskegee and participate in a home repair project. The third day, we complete our ride in Phenix City at the Chattahoochee River.

Riders gain sponsors and we our team goal is to raise $30K! So come on out cycle and serve!

Registration is open now until April 20^th! See you on the ride!

As a snapshot, the first day, five of our riders completed a Century ride actually riding 112 miles from Livingston to the state line in Cuba and then onto Selma. We were grateful for the help of Memorial UMC who hosted us that evening and the National Guard armory that provided showers and ice. The other riders were shuttled to the state line in Cuba and launched from there. Our ride was 88 miles!

On the second day we rode from Selma to Montgomery; a shorter but “hillier” ride. Our destination this time was Montgomery FUMC where we were met by our friend, Nathan Atwood, who hooked us up with a great lunch and more importantly, an afternoon mission. That afternoon, we helped load a horse trailer full of supplies heading to Cordova. This included bottled water, diapers, food, mattresses, and other furniture items. I believe the mattresses were a bit sobering as we thought about families not having beds any longer…it made the Cycle of Service meaningful and purposeful. That night we were hosted by St. Mark UMC in Montgomery who provided dinner, breakfast, and a place to sleep!

Day three started bright and early. Our legs were cramped by now, our “seat” sore, and most of us sunburned despite the constant lathering of sunscreen. But it was going to be a fun filled day-our goal to reach the state line in Georgia would be achieved. We left St. Mark UMC and arrived at the Tuskegee parsonage in record time. The ARM board of directors and ARM Tuskegee staff greeted us with lots of great treats and ice cold drinks. Family members began to arrive to cheer on their riders and participate in the family portion of the ride. Soon we were off to Phenix City. The first part of our ride was a scenic county road that would have been perfect except for all the hills-it was a real challenge. Highway 80 was a smooth ride but busy with Sunday afternoon traffic. It seemed to go on forever! But finally, we reached the signs of Phenix City and the beginning of the end. As we raced toward the Chattahoochee River and the bridge the anticipation continued to arrive-and then there they were! The welcome party of Epworth UMC from Phenix City and our friends from St. Mark UMC of Columbus cheered, yelled, and clapped as we came through. Three hard days of cycling, an afternoon of serving, and many times of reflecting now completed-but in many cases just beginning.

Nine riders committed to sharing the love of Christ through home repair and other forms of service. The impact of making a difference in someone’s life one family at a time. And new friendships built! And the fundraising part-you helped us raise over $12,000 towards this effort which also includes tornado relief! We are so blessed and encouraged as more homes can be repaired and more families served in Christ’s name so that they can give glory to God through our small and humble deeds! Thank you again for all you continue to do to support and grow the ministry of ARM in our state!

Grace and peace-see you on the ride next year!

lisa

Launch from Livingston

Over the Edmund Pettus Bridge

As we get ready, it’s a few last minute details to bring this together. There are so many making this happen.

Southern Sportsman Lodge on Thursday night hosting us and dinner at Livingston UMC with Rev. Wilson Kendrick speaking. And Wilson is  a support driver on Friday!

The folks in Selma at Memorial UMC feeding us and providing sleep space to the 621st BsSB National Guard unit providing showers

Montgomery FUMC is providing lunch on Saturday and our work project of tornado response. St. Mark UMC in Montgomery will feed us and provide sleep space.

Tuskegee UMC will be our reception area on Sunday and then Epworth  UMC in Phenix and St. Mark UMC in Columbus are the final reception teams! Great stuff and many hands to help.

If you would like to sponsor a rider, please feel free-they have been training hard and have huge hearts!

See you somewhere on HW 80!

lisa

Who are our riders? Keith Foster, Kevin Voyles, Mark Young, Tara Lontz, Ginger Purvis, Chase Crowson, Scott Middleton, and Lisa Pierce. Lisa, Tara, Mark, and Ginger will do the Black Belt Challenge from Livingston to Tuskegee while the rest will go from State line to State line! What an incredible challenge and witness. The state line tour will include a Century ride of 103 miles the very first day! It’s going to be intense.

In a few days, we will announce those participating in the Tour for Tornadoes. This leg of the journey is designed to help tornado victims and all proceeds for this will go to rebuilding homes in West Alabama. The ride is rich with purpose and meaning!

Please pray for this group and help them with their challenge!

Tomorrow our first set of work teams begins working in Tuskegee with Mrs. Long. She lives by herself in a home her grandfather built. The roof started to leak and over time, all the sheetrock has fallen down. With no insulation, and no sheetrock, not only does the rain come in but all the other weather causing extreme cold in the winter and now extreme heat as the temperatures soar. Ms. Long has asked for work and enjoys sitting with the elderly and helping as much as she can. Our teams in Livingston have been serving families there and working with families who lost much of their homes in the recent storms.

Please pray for us and send messages to their Facebook pages as they travel across!

Blessings!

lisa

In conjunction with our Cycle of Service, we are hosting benefit ride options for tornodo victims. We are calling it Tour for Tornadoes. There are two options.

Saturday June 25 Selma To Montgomery: (55 miles)

 The ride launches at 7:00 AM from Memorial UMC in Selma, AL. located at 2150 Broad Street Selma, AL 36701. The ride will end at St. Mark UMC in Montgomery, AL.  located at 1785 Taylor Rd . You can leave or participate in an afternoon service project with us.

 You are welcome to stay the night with us in Selma on Friday night. Please let us know if you are staying overnight so we can add you into our meal list. A packing list is provided in the rider’s manual. We need you to arrive No Later Than 7:00 PM that evening.

 Sunday June 26, Tuskegee to Phenix City- 42 miles

The ride launches at 11:15 AM from Tuskegee UMC in Tuskegee. The address is 202 S. Main Street, Tuskegee, AL. 36803. The ride will end at the 14^th Street Bridge in Phenix City (subject to change). There will be a small reception and you are free to leave at will.

All funds raised for this will be applied to rebuilding efforts underway in West Alabama. Registration goes through June 20th and nd is $25. This covers a t-shirt a water bottle.

As we visited Geiger, we came upon a group cleaning up at a church. The church was solid brick with a concrete floor-it might as well been a deck of cards. There was nothing left…nothing left standing except the church drumset and a lone microwave. Where sinks and commodes were once installed-only the piped studs. Unreal. Heartbreaking. When you turned you could see the billowing smoke from where some items were being burned. In the background was the sound  of chainsaws, bulldozers, heavy trucks, and voices. One guy had his pickup truck loaded with water and drove around to hand it out to all those working. One town-gone. That’s just one…

The Cycle of Service is designed just for this. Sometimes homes become damaged over time due to not being able to stop a small thing like a leak from becoming the weak spot in the bathroom floor. Other times damage comes, quick, suddenly, and without warning-much more destructive and a true blindside. Both are difficult to manage. We ride for both. So, I hope you will join us on this amazing journey across our state to ride, serve and raise funds for families needing home repair whether they are from storm damage or just over time.

I pray I will see you on the ride!

lisa

Along the way, a car stopped and asked what we were doing, why we were riding. Our riders explained the ministry of repairing homes and serving others-of tangibly sharing the love of Christ. That person was inspired and touched and gave an immediate $10 donation.

We participated in worship at Montgomery First United Methodist Church on the last day of our ride. The sermon focused upon Psalm 51 and The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It really had to do with confession and being able to speak our faults before God so that repentance becomes a real change within us. As I rethink some of those points, I think about how poverty comes to be. I thought about how people can be forgotten, how people can be misjudged and then marginalized because of it. I thought about how we must continue to simplify our lives so we can be more responsive to others.  If God is blessing us with the ability to make more money and amass more things…should we not use that for the sake and service of others? Is that not what the blessing is for-to bless someone else?

On day two of the ride, just as we were preparing to head out, I was inflating my tire but lost my grip and my bike fell over-it broke the valve and I had no way to air up my tire and inadvertently flattened it. Fortunately Chase had a spare tube and replaced it. Awesome and good to go! About half way through the ride-just as the hills were getting bigger I heard a loud whoosh….and my tire went completely flat…it seemed fitting for a rest break. I had what was called a pinch flat, where the tube gets a pinched in installation and flattens itself. This time Keith was Mr. Fixit and put on another tube. Everyone received a much needed fifteen minute water and bathroom break, then we were off once again. The hills were grueling and I felt drained-I found it difficult keeping up with everyone. I began to feel frustrated as I strained against the hills-hands sweating, sun in my face, and all I could do to get up the hills. Then I happened to look back at my tire…there was my problem…another flat…here we go again. The other pack was way ahead so it was me and the support trailer. Instead of fooling with my bike, I swapped seats for another bike, did a quick check on how to work the gears and was off. This bike was really too big for me and my legs were nearly hyper extended and it worked my hips a bit more. I still had about 20 miles to go though and had no intention of quitting. This bike was extremely efficient, though and I was able to ride faster although it was somewhat uncomfortable.  We finally made it to the church in Montgomery and prepared to go and serve at the community center.

I was grateful for those who helped me that day; thankful for spare tires and even a spare bike; thankful that we were somewhat prepared. Isn’t that always our call? Whether we are bike riding or seeing that our neighbor needs help with their lawn or that family stranded on the side of the road. Maybe our extras and preparation are so we can serve someone else and then be able to give a reason for this service. Still so much to learn and experience. Grateful for new friends and new experiences. Thankful for a loving God who wants all of us to know His constant love for all of us. May we continue to live in that and tell others as well!

Cycling to Serve,

lisa