Stove pain and Bicycle pain

Pain. I've heard it described like this on tour, there are two kinds of pain, there's stove pain which, by touching a hot stove, you know that that's something you never want to do again, cause it hurt you, and most likely burned you pretty good. And there's bicycle pain, which is the kind of pain that you have to fight through to become stronger.

The latter of these two is something that I've had to endure pretty much from the start of tour in Seattle, more then a month ago now, but especially the last week and a half or so. Up until this past week I had pretty much ridden every mile that everyone else had ridden. That is until about 5 days ago. As some, if not all of you know, I've had hamstring pain in both legs, to the point where they both got really swollen. It got so bad that I ended having to shuttle in the van for 2 full days, and I tried riding the third day, but had to get in the van again after about 26 miles because it was getting to be to much for me to handle. As you can imagine, it was frustrating. Is frustrating, as the problems are still going on. I've been to various bike shops, a couple of REI stores (outdoor sporting goods store) to get different opinions as to what they think the problem is, and everyone is telling me a different thing. The REI stores I went too, one in Washington, and one in Chicago, both said that my bike was to small and suggested I get a different seat stem to elongate the top tube of the bike, but other hand, the 18th best bike shop in the country, said that bike was fine for my size, and that a different seat stem wouldn't fix problem, if anything it would make it worse, and the problem was the height of my seat. And then today I was able to go to a different bike shop in Indiana, and they said that my seat was a touch to high, so they lowered it, and they also suggested that I try to ride with platform pedals (the stock pedals when you buy a new bike) instead of the clipless pedals (pedals that clip to a special bike shoe to get more power per pedal stroke) that I have been using. I'm hoping that by doing those two things, the problem is fixed, cause to be perfectly honest, it's been overly frustrating to be told so many different things. Nobody really knows what the problem is, and I'm stuck trying all these different things trying to figure out what actually is the problem. So prayer for that would be greatly greatly appreciated.

The motto for Venture Expeditions, the organization that I'm riding with, is, "Benefit the world, Discover your soul". The "benefit the world" part is through raising funds, and awareness for different injustices going on around the world. Currently we're raising money and awareness for the Civil war/Ethnic cleansing going on in Burma currently. It's the longest running Civil War in history, it's going on 68 years, and nobody knows about it. The funds that we raise goes toward care centers set up in Thailand for the people lucky enough to make it out of Burma. At these care centers, they get food, an education, they learn English, and get discipleship. The "discover your soul" part comes through spending 6, 7, 8, 9 hours a day on a bike. All that time leads to some awesome prayer times...and a LOT of time to think about everything and nothing. At the same time. You find out who you really are. You find out what is deep down inside. When the ride gets tough, what's you're first instinct? When it starts pouring rain at mile 70 of a century ride, what is your reaction? In the process, you become more of who God created you to be. It's a learning experience. It's a humbling experience. It's a physical sacrifice for people that put their lives on the line everyday.

I do have a few prayer requests...for me, as well as my team as a whole. For me, that my hamstrings figure themselves out, and get better so I can ride without pain, and finish the tour strong. That, as tour comes to an end (we have about 2 and a half weeks left) that I know what God wants me to do after tour ends. For my team, that we don't take these last weeks for granted. That we press in even harder into tour, that we try to get more out of it now, then we did at the start.

Thanks!
Mark

"Guys we rode our bikes to Montana!!"

These past two weeks have been absolutely incredible!! I have learned so much about myself already. Like, I now know that i'm not a quiter when I'm in the middle of a really tough climb (Stevens Pass, or Thompson Pass). Or that it's okay if you're not AMAZING friends with everyone, cause that's just not possible.

When we first arrived in Seattle, everyone was a little awkward with one another,  but that is to be expected. But that awkward stage didn't last very long, as we all began to get very comfortable with one another very quickly. We all arrived on Thursday, and enjoyed dinner together, and ice cream, and shared some awkward stories to quickly break the ice. On Friday, we did more logistical training stuff, and went for our first training ride as a team...kind of. Three of us were out ahead of the rest of the team, due to the fact that they got caught at a red light, but we in front didn't realize it, so we kept going. The group behind, got lost relatively soon into the ride, and were behind the rest of the way, but it was fun nonetheless to be back in the saddle for a bit. On Saturday, it was our last training day, and first time prepping like it was an actual tour day...which meant "spandex before breakfast". We were all up and in spandex before 7 am. We then had our last training sessions and then headed off on our last training ride to Seattle. 33 miles, and one MASSIVE hill later, we were finally at our destination, and able to eat lunch, which we all enjoyed thoroughly.

Sunday was our first real day of tour. After two church services Sunday morning at the church that had be hosting us that weekend, we took off from the parking lot, and headed to our first destination. It was a short 35 mile ride, but it was gorgeous weather...something we have not had a lot of since. Monday was a nasty day. It was cloudy and rainy for most of the day, and included our first major climb of tour, Stevens Pass...40 miles into our 83 mile ride. We also had our first, and hopefully last, wreck of tour. A girl hit a pothole and supermaned her handlebars, hitting her face on the pavement, chipping a tooth, and knocking one loose.

Since Monday, we have not had decent weather at all. It's been wet, and cold, and miserable for 98% percent of the days. This past Saturday was hands down the worst day of all. It poured the entire day, and it was only in the 40s, so we were all miserable. We also had another major climb, Thompson Pass, Idaho. The few of us that were still riding our bikes, as some had opted to shuttle the rest of the way due to the miserable weather, were about 2/3's of the way up the mountain when we saw the support van coming down...turns out that at the top of the mountain, it was bitterly cold, and super foggy, totally not safe to ride in. So we all got shuttled the rest of the way to our destination.

Sunday was a much needed off day... We went to church, and then had time to explore the town we were in, and clean our bikes...which desperately needed it after 4 or 5 days of riding in the rain. The weather held out long enough for us to enjoy the day a little bit, but the rain eventually did come, and we were back to the wet, rainy weather we've come so used too.

Today, Friday, was the first day of riding in the sun, and warmth in over a week, and it felt amazing. It felt awesome to be hot, instead of cold and miserable.

Thank You guys so much for all your prayers! Me and my team definitely appreciate it, as we've had some awful days, but knowing that there are people out there praying for us daily, has made a HUGE difference.

With the wind,

Mark

sacrifice

Sacrifice. It’s such a simple word, yet it has so many complicated definitions depending on who you ask. Sacrifice might be waking up at 4 in the morning to take someone to the airport. Sacrifice might be going without food for a day or two to pray and fast for those less fortunate then yourself. Or sacrifice might be spending 8 hours a day on a bike saddle to raise money for refugees in Thailand.

Webster defines sacrifice as, “Destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; devotion of some desirable object in behalf of a higher object, or to a claim deemed more pressing; hence, also, the thing so devoted or given up; as, the sacrifice of interest to pleasure, or of pleasure to interest.”

Very often, it takes a physical sacrifice to truly find yourself. From my experience on different missions trips, the minute you stop doing something for you, and start doing it for God, is the minute that you truly find yourself. Whether that be completing a task you weren’t able to complete before, or finding something you truly doing.

For me, it was biking. When I first heard the story of Venture going on 4 years ago now, I thought to myself, “hey, that would be fun…it’s right up your alley…but you don’t ride a bike” and I just kinda left it that for a year. The following year, I had opened to the idea of doing it, and even excited about doing it. But still, a little hesitant cause I still wasn’t a person to ride his bike. But I had three separate people, unbeknownst to each other, ask me if was going to do tour. I got the hint. God wanted me to do tour. I just couldn’t do it the following year, due to a commitment at YWAM Metro New York. I had a year left. But that’s how we get to this point. Within a week of my commitment ending, I was making it a point to ride my bike a little each day. Eventually it got to the point where I looked FORWARD to going for bike rides. I knew the physical sacrifice and the physical toll that the summer long bike ride across the United States was going to take on my body. I had firsthand experience with the cause that we’re riding for. Now, I’m upset when I can’t go for a bike ride. I can honestly say, I never thought there would come a day where something like that would happen, but it has.

So with that…I ask you this one question. What is sacrifice to you?

Summer plans!

I want you to imagine something for me. I want you to imagine that you’re a mother or father in a remote village of Northern Thailand, barely making enough money to feed your family, when a business man from Bangkok arrives in your village, and tells you that he thinks that your son or daughter would be a perfect fit for his company. But the only thing is, is that he or she would have to move to Bangkok with him. Now, at first you’re very hesitant because this is your son and/or daughter we’re talking about right? But then he tells you about all the money that they’ll make working for him. And once you hear that, well, it’s a no brainer. You let them go with him. The only thing he didn't tell you is that yeah, he might run a business, but that “business” is a bar in the red light district. And your son’s or daughter’s job is to “entertain” the clientele, do whatever they want, to make money for this “businessman”. Sadly, by the time your son or daughter figure what’s going on, it’s too late to get out, and even if they did, you would probably disown them for tarnishing the family name. So they do the only thing they can, they stay. Now put yourself in the shoes of your child. After a few months or maybe a year of staying in this one particular for maybe few months or a year, a different “businessman” comes in and works out a deal with your current employer, and you’re on your way to Amsterdam. Now you've just been trafficked.

Human Trafficking really does begin that easily. And in some cases, the parents send their own children to Bangkok on their own. Human Trafficking is today’s “modern day slavery” with 29.8 million people in slavery today. That’s more than the number slaves when President Lincoln abolished it.

But there IS something we can do about it, and there are people doing things to change this. There are multiple organizations doing their part. To name a couple: International Justice Mission, who actually have people who go into these bars, and such to get the girls, and guys out, and Love146, who also help the girls and guys get out, as well have houses setup for recovery. I myself will be doing something this summer to do just a piece of my part to end this injustice. I will be doing a cross country bike trip to raise awareness for Human Trafficking with an organization called Venture Expeditions. They do different “tours” as they call them, to raise money, and raise awareness for different injustices in the world.

We’ll be starting in Seattle, WA on June 6^th, and ending our ride in NYC on August 1^st. Stopping at various churches and schools and such to talk to them about what we’re doing. If you did not receive a support letter from me, and would like to know a little more, or are interested in perhaps supporting me, please send me a message or email, and I’d be happy to talk to you!

With the wind,

Mark

Email: mvacc.ywam@gmail.com

Cell: 516-582-9065