We arrived in Alexander around 9:30 PM. As they said, besides a few homes, there was nothing there but the rest area and a grain elevator. But as the rest area was maintained by the state like the ones on the interstate it was very nice. I had some trees from which to hang my hammock, the boys set up their tent on a nice, level lawn, and the bathroom was clean. A few travelers stopped by during the night but we still slept really well.
We left at 7:30 headed for Sterling about 100 miles away. There was camping at Rush Center and Larned but both of them were too close so even though we weren’t too keen on a 100 mile day, Sterling was really the only viable option. So we hit the road hoping for and easy ride and friendly winds.
My addenda from the ACA alerted me to the fact that the 30 miles of road between Rush Center and Larned had become unrideable because they’d since rumble striped the shoulders. No worries, I thought. We’ll just take the alternative route. But the problem included a 10 mile stretch on gravel road. You’ve got to be kidding me…! Neither of us was satisfied with that option. So Plan B was to ride the 13 miles to Rush Center and see if we could hitch a ride to Larned. I stuck my thumb out for about 30 mins. One man stopped (with a bed too short) and seemed inclined to help. I said, “Can you fit 3 bikes in the back?” “Can you?” he replied. He told me we should be fine riding the road and also suggested we take another road (head further E and then S instead of S and then E). I really didn’t want to be on a road where the local drivers were not expecting loaded cyclists. We asked the guys sitting around at the gas station drinking coffee if any was going to Larned. None was and they said the road wasn’t that bad. Finally an older man stopped and said he sees cyclists on this road all the time and we should be fine. I figured the Lord was telling us just to go for it. After all, we’ve driven hundreds of miles on roads with absolutely no shoulder, putting us in the lane itself. So we headed out. The shoulders were indeed unrideable and we were forced into the lane, but the truck traffic wasn’t any worse than we’d braved so many times before and we were soon in Larned. Thank you Lord.
I didn’t want to ride into Sterling without a plan for lodging so when we stopped on the way to Larned for a snack, I called every church in Sterling hoping to find help. Every number but one rang off the hook. I left a message and planned to try later. A few hours down the road I tried again. Same thing. I didn’t leave a second message. Did the Lord have a different plan? Was I knocking on the wrong door?
Since I always carry the map and have the GPS, the boys are always asking “How far to the next town?” “How many more miles?” As I was studying the map to add up the remaining miles I noticed that while Sterling was 3.5 miles off route (3.5 there + 3.5 miles back in the AM = 7 miles out of the way), Nickerson was only 8 miles further and on route. Maybe I should call the churches in Nickerson… I Googled and found several churches. The first in the list was Christ’s Bible Church. I’ll try that one. It rang and the answering machine picked up. I started with my message. Before I was done a man picked up. I gave him the who and what and he said, “We have VBS this week (that’s why he was there late) but yes you can stay here.” I hung up the phone with a thankful heart and said to the boys with a smile arising from God’s sweet, fatherly providence, “We were never supposed to go to Sterling. We were always supposed to go to Nickerson. Let’s go!”
We arrived at the church a little before 8 PM (107 miles). The parking lot was loaded with cars and I knew Phillip was still busy with the VBS so we waited outside. Within 15 mins a young man came out dressed like Robin Hood, reached for my hand with a huge warm smile, and said “Hi! I’m Philip. I don’t always dress like this!” Soon we had 20 people around us eagerly asking questions about our bike ride. One was the church secretary who heard my partial message. “Did he announce our coming?” I thought. It’s like we were celebrities or something. Both adults and kids had questions. It was fun to see their interest.
“So you can stay at our house or you can stay here.” said Philip. “We’re okay to stay at the church…” “Well, why don’t you come to our house so we can feed you breakfast in the morning; otherwise you’ll be fending for yourselves.” “Sounds good to me!” We biked the few blocks to Philip and Torey’s (sp?) house and they welcomed us warmly. Torey heated up some spaghetti and we sat around the table like the Christian family we are. They have 2 kids, Keziah and Malachi. We had such fun asking riddles of Kezi! I think she’s 10 but she acts much older than that and gladly served us with warm hospitality alongside her sweet mother. It was such a nice visit! I can’t believe we never got their last name! I think it might be Lee but I’m not sure. In any case, thank you Philip, Torey, Kezi, and Malachi! God bless you and your church! I told them of warmshowers and of Karolina and they were quick to say, “Send her here!” What warm hearts… Mt 25.40.
We left Nickerson around 8:30 heading for Newton, KS–around 50 miles. There was also an addendum about that ride but I was confused by it and figured we’d just stay the course. The ride was fine and we arrived in Newton at about 1:30. We were so excited to visit the legendary Newton Bike Shop. I’d seen pictures of it in the blogs of others. We needed repairs. Rocky needed a new tire. We’ll get to sign the wall, joining the hundreds, maybe thousands?, of others. And they have ice cream.
My heart sunk when we reached for the door only to see a sign which read, “Temporarily closed for much needed expansions. We will reopen in mid-August.” What!? You’ve got to be kidding me! We rode over 2500 miles to get here and it’s closed? We were so disappointed. I knew I needed to quickly bring my heart to my condition. Complaining would be a sin and I couldn’t change the situation anyway. The same God who’s cared for us this far is still in charge and has a better plan than I did. I remembered Mark Davis (who lives in Wichita and with whom we’d be staying until Monday morning) mentioning that there were good bike shops in Wichita. I quickly texted him to let him know that he’d need to bring his bike rack and that we’d need to find a bike shop in Wichita for our repairs. He said no problem, grabbed his bike rack, and headed out for Newton. Meanwhile his wife Debbie got on the phone to see which shop could get us in. She called the Bicycle Pedaler. The lady was genuinely sorry that she couldn’t help. They were 2 weeks out (facing an overload because the Newton shop was closed) and she only had one mechanic on duty today. Ruth got on the phone with me to give her apologies and said she’d see if she could find help for me at another shop. Soon Debbie called back. The other 2 bike shops Ruth had in mind were closed. So we were to head to the Bicycle Pedaler and Ruth would see what she could do.
We walked into the Bicycle Pedaler and Ruth knew who we were immediately. She explained that the other two shops were closed and that there was nowhere else she could send us. So instead, we were to bring our bikes in and she/her mechanic would evaluate them and see what they could do quickly. Mike came out right away and looked at began to look at the bikes. After explaining that he couldn’t help us and that he was 2 wks out, he suddenly said, let me see what I can do… The next thing we knew he’d fixed Forrest’s handlebar and kickstand and he’d replaced Rocky’s rear cassette and chain. My bike also needs a new rear cassette and chain–and had he had one, he would’ve put it on but he didn’t. We ended up calling ahead to the bikeshop in Pittsburgh, KS so he could order it (along with a new 48 tooth chain ring for Forrest’s bike) and get it in before we get there. What a wonderul providence. Thank you Mike!
When Mark pulled up to where we were to meet him in Newton the kids said, “That’s gotta be him; he looks just like Johnny.” And Mark was thinking, “Is that James?” With my beard shaved off he hardly recognized me… We stopped by the store on the way home so Mark could pick up some more taters for Debbie. So when we pulled up, I let the boys start unloading all our panniers while I headed straight to the kitchen to bring the taters to Debbie… I walked in and said “Hi Debbie!” and reached out to give her a hug. I thought she looked a bit standoffish and cautious but I hugged her anyway, hoping for the best. Turns out, the reason she was so cautious was because she didn’t recognize me 😀
We have had such a great time here with Mark & Debbie. They’ve spoiled us with great food and wonderful fellowship. They’ve put their arms around us like family and really made us feel at home. We’ve laughed together over funny things, had our eyes well up together with tears over God-things, shared stories of amazing providences, and enjoyed the blessing of Christian fellowship. We’ve even played a few rounds of Hand and Foot together (a card game) into the wee hours of the night.
Yesterday Mark took us on a field trip to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum in Strataca. It was so cool. We went 650 ft underground and toured the place from which they mine the salt which the trucks put on the roads in the winter. Apparently they mine 500,000 to 1 million tons of salt every year from this mine and ship it all over the country. The next time you see a truck spraying salt on the roads it probably came from Strataca. Also, because there’s no humidity in the mine and the temp is a steady 68-70 degrees and there’s no varmints that can live down there, it’s a perfect storage vault for all sorts of things. We saw costumes and outfits that movie stars have worn in films and we saw thousands of boxes filled with who knows what that businesses, companies, and Hollywood have paid to have stored in the mine. It was really cool. Thank you Mark!
Today we went with Mark & Debbie to their church, Newspring Church (newspring.org). It’s the first mega church I’ve ever been in (though it’s a lot smaller than a lot of mega churches) and it certainly was different than we’re used to. But we were blessed. For starters, when Mark introduced us to the greeter at the door, he said “Oh, you’re the cyclists! We prayed for you this morning.” Really? Us? Wow! Thank you God. Upon entering the foyer we met another greeter standing at the door to the sanctuary (I think it was the other greeter’s wife) and she excitedly greeted us and said, “We prayed for you today!” Really? You too? Wow! Mark & Debbie were really hoping that we could meet their pastor but knew that in a such a huge church it was very unlikely. Before heading off to get our coffees, Mark saw the pastor and flagged him down. He stopped and Mark waved us over and introduced us. He greeted us joyfully and wished God’s blessing on me as a fellow pastor and on the remaineder of our bike trip. Mark took us down the hall to the coffee shop and we ordered our drinks. While we were waiting he introduced us to one of the couples serving drinks and they were also very excited to meet us and wished us well on our trip.
We sat down in the second row and waited for the service to begin. The worship team led us in three songs before the pastor came out to greet the congregation and give a few quick announcements. He then went to the other auditorium, I suppose to do the same thing, and returned after one more song–the theme song for the message series on which he was preaching. His message was on the after life, comparing and contrasting heaven and hell as fixed destinies. He spoke from Lk 16.19-31. I would’ve preached the text differently but I appreciated several statements he made regarding Christ as our only hope. But most of all, I appreciated the love and welcome we received from every person to whom Mark introduced us.
It’s been good to be reminded on this bike trip that the Church of Jesus Christ is bigger than the OPC. Regardless of our differences and disagreements on many things, it’s clear that God has seen fit to spread His people across many different cultures and denominations. We’re not all meant to be in one church right now and differences are a testimony to the diversity of Christ’s Church. How much better would the Church be if we focused more on the things that unite us than the things that divide us? If we accepted where God has people in their stages of growth rather than trying so quickly to change them to be like us as if we’re perfect? Debate is good, discussion is good, and we all need to grow, but not until heaven will we all be on the same page. We’ve enjoyed seeing that God is at work in all the hearts where His Son is King and Lord. Given my heart and my convictions I’m thankful to be in the OPC and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. But I’ve really appreciated seeing that God is at work beyond my denomination and outside of my church. I’ve appreciated being reminded that while denominations must exist for the time being it cannot annul the oneness and unity we share as the body of Christ. And one day soon we’ll all be gathered around the Table of our Lord as the one people that we are.
We’ll be leaving the Davis’ tomorrow… Instead of driving us north back to Newton Mark’s going to take us east to Rosalia and we’ll get on the bikes there. Monday night should find us is in Toronto, KS and Tuesday night should put us in Girard where we may need to rest for a day until our bike parts arrive at the shop in Pittsburgh. That’s my plan… I’ll let you know what God’s is after the fact 🙂
Our time here with Mark & Debbie has been both a blessing and refreshing. We’ll miss them a ton. There’s simply nothing like the family of God and the love of God’s people. Thank you Mark! Thank you Debbie! May God bless you for blessing us, Mt 25.40. True selfless and self-sacrificing hospitality is shamefully uncommon in Christ’s church and it has been a real privilege to see–and receive–so much of it in our journey across the country. I pray God’s people recover the true joy of Christian hospitality. The world needs it. And God’s people need it.
Thanks for praying and thanks for following.
Until next time … 🙂
