The REAL joy of biking

Do you remember learning to ride your first bicycle?  My dad steadied me with a hold on the handlebars and seat and ran by my side as I pedaled down Coronado Drive.  It turned out that balancing  wasn’t difficult for me but learning to stop was.  Thankfully my father hadn’t become too winded by the time I was able to brake and put my feet down   For me, speed, distance, and freedom took on new meanings.  I imagine it does for all new bikers.

Last Sunday, at the Union Avenue Christian Church in Litchfield, IL, I was reminded of that adventure when a pediatrician spoke to the congregation about the five-day Tour d’Haiti that he and twenty-some other bike riders had participated in.  Over the course of 200 miles, the men visited Haitian children’s villages and gave away 200 Mongoose bicycles to orphaned and abandoned children.  The video presentation was heart-grabbing, while some of the statistics he shared were heart-wrenching.  For example, it’s estimated that there are over 250,000 orphans in Haiti, 100,000 in Cambodia, 85,000 in Chad, and nearly a million orphans or other vulnerable children in Rwanda.  These children need cared for, educated, and loved.

The Global Orphan Project (transforming lives through orphan care), www,globalorphanproject.org, is doing just that.  Although not affiliated with any denomination, the heart of this ministry is to “exist and operate as an expression of Jesus Christ’s radical love in a fallen world.”  It’s mission is based on James 1:27 Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Donations go to meet the critical unmet needs of children and for investment in agricultural and economic development to make local orphan care sustainable.  Donors can also sponsor a home or village. All administrative overhead and fund raising expenses have been covered by some very generous givers.

Please visit the web site and see this money at work  Then see how you can become involved.  You have the chance to be God’s hands and feet in a very concrete way.  You have the power to transform the lives of orphaned and abandoned children.