6 Months and Counting...

6 months from today, cailyn and i will begin pedaling eastward from jamestown, va on our cross-country adventure on two wheels. and so in honor of our 6-month countdown...here are a few more thoughts about the trip...

we have been talking and researching a lot lately about food. doesn't seem like a huge deal normally...but when one is burning calories basically for the better part of 10 hours straight, it becomes a much bigger deal. (in case you were wondering, we will likely need to intake somewhere around 5,000-6,000 calories a day...yes, that is over twice the normal daily intake.)

as i mentioned, we have been researching, and one thing that we learned recently, is that we need to basically be eating while we are riding to the tune of 1/2 gram of carbs for every pound of body weight each hour. honestly, we are not exactly sure what is going to be the best method for accomplishing this.

we will likely take things like animal crackers with us that can easily be eaten (from a fanny pack around the waist...i know...i know...it is not the greatest of fashion statements). we also plan on keeping bagels and peanut butter with us as much as possible and we hope to run into many fresh fruit stands along the way.

in some senses, it seems incredibly exciting to basically be able to eat as much as we want...but on the other hand...i have an inclination that this trip is going to taint some of the enjoyment in eating because it is going to have to be monitored so much so that we don't run out of "fuel" along the way.

i am sure that the science of calorie-intake is going to continue to be a huge point-of-interest for us over the next 6 months. and hopefully we continue to learn and become educated more and more about what it takes to power the amazing God created machine that is the human body.

i look forward to the challenge and learning experience that it will be!

T-Minus 7 Months...

i commented back in may about a cross-country bicycle trip that Cailyn and i will be embarking on during the summer of 2010...

i plan to take a laptop with me on the trip and to blog facts, highlights, and insights from the trip as regularly as i can (as close to daily as possible). i thought some about starting a second blog for these thoughts about the trip, but i have decided to just blog the trip here as well.

so...i am going to do a little bit of writing periodically during the next 7 months about the trip. talking about our prep and planning...some of our fear and excitement...and other interesting details to the process.

in case you have yet to make the connection...today marks the 7-month mark until we will depart on our journey. spending two days driving by car to the east coast where we will then mount our bikes and start our trek westward.

i am incredibly excited about the entire process...however, i have been particularly excited lately about the incredible amount of time Cailyn and i will get to spend talking and communicating with one another.

communication is key in a marriage...and any opportunity to grow in that area is something i cherish immensely. and this trip will most definitely be a chance for us to grow. communication will be key in many areas. talking about our route and plan for each day, keeping each other aware of traffic and other potential hazards, making sure that we getting enough water and calories to keep our energy levels up.

communication will definitely be instrumental in the success of our trip.

i expect that our communication will grow as well as we spend time on a daily basis processing what God is revealing to us through His creation and through the people that we are interacting with. i expect that there is going to be so much to learn...but that learning will be maximized only if we are sharing thoughts as we go along.

communication is often not easy...but it is so rewarding...just as i know this trip will be...and so i am incredibly excited about what we will learn about communicating .

Common Meal...

for a number of different reasons we have felt led and convicted to be taking communion regularly when we meet together on wednesday nights. we call the time "common meal", which is what they call it at a church that my friend mark nelson planted in knoxville.

it has been a great experience to share in this time over the last couple of weeks. here is an excerpt of an email that i sent to mark this week telling him about this time:

"We shared in a time of common meal for a second week in a row with our community of students this past wednesday. we have really been trying to expand their horizons of what this time is all about, and so we have been trying to bring a collision between the immensity of what Jesus has done with the celebration that should exist in this time because of what he has done. and what transpired this past week was awesome. our time of "common meal" was this time of celebration...some people were contemplative...others were praying together...others were sharing in real conversations...and then the final worship song that followed was probably the best most sincere, "all-out" moment of worship that i have seen take place in this community since i have been here.

It has been awesome too to hear students processing through all kinds of things with this as it goes along. Processing why we are doing it weekly...why it isn't just a somber thing...what part of it is supposed to be a community thing...and just a ton of other things like that. It has been so good...i share with them all the time the words that you always say..."i want you to leave with more questions than answers"...and they are definitely asking questions and i hope that we can breed a culture where they are able to seek out and find those answers in this process of finding their way back to God. It has been a great couple of weeks in our community for a ton of reasons...and this time of common meal has certainly been good!"

Amazing Leaders...

so...after a summer away from writing...i figure it is time to try to get back to writing regularly...

the school year is now into it's third week and it has been an unbelievable start! and i think that a huge reason for that has been due to our student leaders...

this year we have 10 student interns giving of their time and investing in our ministry and it is truly awesome! they are out of this world!! i don't think that words on this page could accurately describe how great they are...how much i enjoy them...how much they challenge me to grow...and how excited i am to see where they are able to help guide and direct things...

and as if that is not enough...only 1 of them graduates this year!! that is a nice little bonus for sure.

i have spent much time reading about leadership and i have heard many people talk about it...but once you actually begin to experience real, solid leadership it is truly unbelievable!!

"Coping Out"...

i got a call here at campus house this morning and the conversation went something like this:

me: christian campus house, this is brad...

female voice: do you help people?

me: you are going to have to explain to me what you mean...

female voice: well, my family and i have to move back to new mexico and we really don't have any money

me: well, we are just a student organization and so we really don't have money. we usually send people to ____. (and i gave a name of another organization in town)

female voice: okay, thanks...bye

me: bye



and as i got off of the phone, i started to think about the conversation that i had just had. i realized that when i said that we really didn't have any money, that it was really my way of coping out and of not having to really care for this lady and to at least take the time to better understand her need.

i realize that as an organization, we do have a limited amount of funds available, but that certainly doesn't mean that i can't find out more about this ladies situation and see what i/we might be able to do. i know for sure that Jesus wouldn't just cop out on the situation, that is for sure.

i am not completely sure what the right approach is, but i am positive that my approach was not it.

Reflection...

i have been reminded much today of the trip that i took with students to Uganda two years ago...

i got an email from Adam Hunt this morning and he said that he and his wife Beth had arrived at NMSI and were about to start their 8-week missionary training.

and then i got pcch's most recent newsletter that talked about Tim and Nicki Six who are hoping to be able to return to africa and to the full-time mission field.

all four of these individuals were on that trip to uganda and it is just so cool to me to see the way that God used that trip to work in students lives. and then i think back to just the way He orchestrated that trip and the way it even happened. God was totally working some amazing things. He does work in mysterious ways.

A Precursor to the Transamerica...

as you may know, in the summer of 2010, cailyn and i plan to bike across the country on the transamerica trail...so this summer we are dedicating quite a bit of time to training, practicing, and preparing.

we have been doing quite a bit of riding, but this weekend we will get our first real adventure cycling test...

missouri lays claim to the longest rails-to-trails route in the US...the katy trail...

we will be riding saturday, sunday, and monday with our great friends justin and tracy schroeder, hoping to make it from st. charles to sedelia...totaling roughly 240 miles. it is exciting to just have a chance to get out in God's beautiful creation and to be able to share it will friends.

it will also be really good to test where we stand in preparation for next summer. what it feels like to pull a fully loaded trailer, what it is like to ride major miles on consecutive days, how many calories we need to take in and in what intervals...

there is so much fun stuff to begin to learn. i am excited...it should be a great time.