Articles tagged under preparation Home
Two weeks (& email subscriptions)!
December 24, 2008 | posted by Lars under preparation, updates, website | Comments (3)
With less than two weeks to our departure (it’s at 9:00 am, January 6 at the Virginia Mennonite Conference Center, for those interested), Jon and I are trying to tie the final strings on the preparation for this thang while also taking time to step away from the crescendo to be with family and friends for the holidays (so this update comes from snowy Michigan).
People have been asking about a way to subscribe to our updates by email, and I’ve finally patched something together that should do the trick. Just enter your email address and follow the link sent in a confirmation email, and you should be sent an email whenever we post something new on this website, thanks to a WordPress plugin I found.
That’s it for now, have a blessed and restful Christmas.
Bikes, BINGO, and Beyond
October 27, 2008 | posted by Jon under preparation, updates | Leave a Comment
Over Fall Break Lars and I decided we were going to set out on a practice run for our trip. Destination: Lancaster, PA. We planned to attend my church, Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, and make some announcements, maybe talk to some conference leaders, and just do some publicity in general. It turned out that that plan was never realized. After leaving late on Friday we only rode 30 miles to the Getz Farm (est. 1796) north of Forestville, VA. The Getzs’ were very hospitable and gave us their yard to sleep in as well as a wooden spoon we used to cook our pasta that evening. Sitting around the MSR Dragonfly we realized were weren’t going to make the remaining 170 miles the next day. So, being flexible, we changed our route. We were headed to Washington, D.C.
The following day was 100 crowded and busy miles, and we got onto the Metro with all of our belongings just as it began to get dark. We ended up at the WCSC house that EMU owns, where Becca Yoder and Co. were more than hospitable, giving us food, clothing, and a warm dry place to sleep. The following day, Sunday, we spent visiting a church plant in Anacostia that Lars’ aunt and uncle attend. We were greeted warmly by many there and we also received a plate full of food just for showing up. “I’m glad you’re here,” was a common phrase used in church that morning. After church we had lunch with Lars’ aunt and uncle, and left there with stomachs full of pupusas and a bike map of Washington, D.C, which we used on our way home. We had dinner than night at a hip coffee shop/bookstore/restaurant called Busboys and Poets with some friends before coming back to the WCSC house to make cookies as a way of saying thanks for their hospitality. We ended up going to bed at 2 AM or thereabouts.
Monday morning we left the WCSC house around 10 and rode mostly on bike trails for a good 30 miles. They were wonderful trails, and it was an adjustment “rubbing shoulders” with traffic again after such nice paths. We put in 84 miles that day, and ended up in the town of Amissville on Rte. 211, sleeping at the Amissville Volunteer Fire Company’s fairgrounds. It was BINGO night at the fairgrounds, and we learned just as much about Amissville culture as we did about BINGO variations. They didn’t let Lars leave without at least 2 hamburgers, one of which I ate the following morning for breakfast.
Tuesday we were on the road by 9 AM with two daunting climbs ahead of us: crossing over Skyline Drive and Massanutten Ridge via the New Market Gap. We slowly but surely made it up over these hills and had very enjoyable rides down the other side; fall colors are especially enjoyable cruising at 30+ mph. After a jaunt of Rte. 11 south of New Market, we up the 60-some miles by riding into Harrisonburg, sprinting to try to beat the light cycles, glad to be back home.
Overall it was a good trip. I think it has a lot to teach us about the much larger trip that is ahead of us. First, things won’t always go as planned, and we’ll have to be flexible. Second, hospitality will present itself in the form of clothes to wear other than bike shorts, hamburgers from BINGO night, or the phrase “I’m glad you’re here.” And third, we cannot go where God is not.
You have heard it said …
May 23, 2008 | posted by Lars under preparation, updates | Leave a Comment
…that a group of young adults are biking to Mennonite World Conference in Paraguay. And I tell you, it’s true. Jon Spicher and I are organizing this project and, with the help of many of you, we’re just getting off the ground.
The idea sounds crazy, but it’s one that has been rumbling around in conversation for quite a while now, and we’re not the only ones talking. Here, the idea has evolved like this:
Two summers ago, a group of North American young adults biked across the country, calling themselves BikeMovement. As they biked, they reflected on and talked about their experiences with the church. Their conversations took place in churches, on bikes, and around campfires. They wanted to encourage the North American church to re-envision what ‘church community’ looks like, with the reminder that the early disciples of Jesus were a very organic and motley crew.
We followed them vicariously across the country, and when some of our friends on that trip returned, we continued the conversation. As we talked, we began to recognize that the voices present in the conversations that summer were largely those of white, middle-class young adults - and only a fraction of the church as a whole.
So the need for a broader conversation about being a community relevant to Jesus’ teaching and call seemed clear. The idea of biking to Mennonite World Conference assembly in Paraguay has floated around prior to this, but we think that the action of listening to and sharing stories of the church as we ourselves journey towards the global gathering has the potential to edify and connect the church as a whole - first the Anabaptists, but really all believers.
So, we’ve been actively exploring the possibilities of riding our bicycles over approximately 7,000 miles and 7 months from Harrisonburg, Virginia to Asunción, Paraguay as a way to foster this sort of storytelling and listening, appreciating and critiquing. As an extension of the experiences, we will find creative ways to record our conversations and share them on this website to invite others’ engagement. For the adventurous individuals, we welcome cyclists to join us for sections near their communities; we’d love to hear from you if this vision and journey get you excited like they do us! And of course everyone is welcome to participate by commenting on posted material and continuing to listen, tell stories, and converse about how we can be a family that is radically relevant to God’s Word.
As with the first BikeMovement, we also will be raising money for AMIGOS, so that young adults from all over the world can attend the assembly in Paraguay. In 2006, AMIGOS set the goal of raising $100,000 ahead of the assembly, the remainder of which - $30,000 - we want to raise.
The Church is global and the Church is organic. We hope this project will remind us of that and stir us - together - to follow Christ more faithfully. But this is too much for us alone, for we are only the (two-wheeled!) vehicles.
Together, we follow…
Anabaptists around the world
May 23, 2008 | posted by Lars under mwc, preparation | Leave a Comment
well, not quite, but it’s at least a map showing the distribution of Mennonites, Brethren in Christ, and related churches around the globe.
Check it out: http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/worldmap2003.pdf