Here We Go Again

2 years ago I contemplated this crazy idea of riding my bicycle across the United States. And at the time I couldn't even say "my bicycle" because I didn't have a road bike. $5,000 needed to be raised and just the thought of doing something like this blew me far outside my panic zone.

2012 Just+Hope NYC

I was encouraged by many and support came in. GOD PROVIDES. I began my cross country trek. Before I had even finished I discovered within my soul a passion for physical sacrifice and the want to inspire and be inspired through meeting communities to rally and bring bodies together to help countless others near and far. Because of this discovery I had also decided that I was already going to do another cross country tour.

2013 Across America Team Rockaway Beach, NY

My second time across God taught me incredible things about community and began to introduce the concept of "unconditional love". Seeing people from my past tour and continuing to impact and be impacted by many. Sometimes I can't believe my life, honestly. Straight up, Gods got His plans of refinement and growing pains. It is incredible to witness and be witnessed within this discovery process.

And now I am about to begin my 3rd bike tour. This time it is much different. 10 days VS 8 weeks. 11 people. Riding down the coast of California for Restore International. Our tour name: LOVE DOES. Some of these teammates I know and some I do not. I am not fully funded yet, but God is good and He will provided abundantly. I know it for a fact! 

From the time before I new my identity in Christ to a year after re-devotion, I couldn't comprehend how incredible Gods plans have been not only for me but for many others. In the time before I moved to California to the year following, again, I can't comprehend! From before I went to South Africa to after I went the second time, mind blown of who God is and how much my soul yearns to know more and more and devote more of my life to serving Him. And from the time that I first got on my saddle to begin my first 3500 mile trek across the United States to about to begin my 3rd tour with Venture Expeditions, there is no denying that God is Good, all the time! 

Even with being diagnosed with depression, high stress jobs and seasons with people. God has placed it all with in these adventures to continue to show and teach me that regardless, He is faithful. Through bitter loss, and attack, He is faithful. Through finance struggles and loss of direction. He. Is. Faithful

Praise God! From whom all blessing flow!

Here WE go again. Because you continue to ride along side me in this journey. Your support, prayer and encouragement continue to blow my heart and mind away. I couldn't think of a better way to travel!

Thank you again for all that you do! 

2 days after my wreck in NJ, 2013

Prayer needs:

-Funding: $1400 still needed to reach my goal of $3400

-Safety for our team

-Our community and the communities we will be riding through to share our campaign with.


-Keep Adventuring!

Safety First...For Serious (Part 3)

People ask me what my highlights were from my course in Wyoming. Instantly my mind floods with ambition to determine how much time I have to speak and which specific highlights I think about most often VS depth filled moments VS views VS insights. One story that I never leave out is the couple days upon our second excursion to the Teton Wilderness.

Let me remind you that our time in The Voo (See my previous entry) was rather structured yet unstructured. We had a plan and we stuck to it pretty spot on. As soon as we left Laramie to head 6 hours North West, God through our plans out the window. We reached the road we would drive 6 miles to the trail head and camp the night before hiking into the abyss for 10-ish days. We drove about 2 of those 6 miles and found that there was a lovely gate we weren't expecting. After talking to Leslie and her husband Bob outside of their cabin near the gate, who thought we were just some random kids wandering in the woods about to be slayed by Grizzly bears,  we headed back to town to figure a plan out.

Bear School Kev-Kev

We prayed that Gods will be done and that we would seek Him through it all, seeing that He clearly knew what was needed and what He wanted to do was communicate. So after going through some "Bear school" to learn more about how to shoot bear spray and react if a Grizzly bear were to attack or approach our team. After all we were heading into Category 1 Bear country.

We were thinking about pitching our tents right in the nice grass of the US Forest Service but thought perhaps that wouldn't build the best relationship with them. A thought struck my head and my heart that said, "Malinda"! Not just some random name, but the name of a lovely woman who worked at the gas station we had stopped at close to the road with the closed gate. My mind instantly went into Bike tour mode and I told the team we should ask Malinda if we can camp behind the gas station. We hopped into the van with our bear spray and headed back to the gas station. 

Jay hopped out and luckily Malinda hadn't left yet. The gas station was closing for the evening but Jay found her before she left. Now to understand Jay better, you honestly can't always tell what's on his mind or what's happening with him because his composure if priceless. He came back to the van and told us that he had an update for us. We waited intently while he pulled out patience thin and said, "Malinda said we could stay at her church!" 

We followed her to down town Du Boise, WY. and pulled in near her church. She ran in to see that everything was good to go. She came back out and said that she had bad news. That we couldn't stay in the church because there was a cycling team staying there as well... WHAT?! Is this real life?! Awesome. The good news was she still let us stay but we pitched our tents in the back yard of the church and then went over and debriefed the first part of course over some very needed burgers. Bliss.

The next morning we felt ambitious and headed back to the road with the gate that was still closed and decided to hike the 7 miles we needed to get to the Continental Divide. Reason being we only had permits to camp across the Divide, so either way we needed to get there. We hiked the 4 miles on a dirt road to Brooks Lodge to the "trail head" and stopped to use a real bathroom one last time in the 1920 built rustic, STUNNING, lodge. 

We hit the trail and as soon as we got to the bottom of the hill near the lake, of course, it began to rain. So we started taking our 70+ lbs packs off to grab rain gear. Now when you're in category 1 bear country, not only is it protocol to have the safety on your bear spray off at all times, ready to shoot. You must also be on top of "bear calls"... We spent the next 10-ish days yelling "Hey Bear"! You can imagine we became creative.

Nikki's eyeball on FIRE!

Jay took his pack off to put on his rain jacket and his pack fell on his bear spray which then caused it to barely spritz. But the spritz that came out went into Nikki's eye. We spent the next 10 minutes flushing her eye out. The reason? Bear spray is 10 times more potent than normal pepper spray.

We encountered more storms, more rainbows and again our minds were blown by the terrain and the views. We began hiking at 9am-ish and made it to Brooks Lodge by around 1pm. From Brooks Lake to The Divide it was 3 miles. We arrived at our destination literally on the other side of The Divide at around 9pm. Because of the time of year that we were hiking in Wyoming, there was still a lot of snow but there was also a lot of mud. so that created ankle deep marshes and thigh deep snow every couple hundred feet.

By the time we made it to where we could set up camp we had set up our tents just in time before the rain began. God's good like that. 

So we had been thinking about food for hours and couldn't wait to cook some good hardy beans and rice in the rain. Then the lightning and thunder set in and we settled for a handful of trail mix so that we could just go to bed. We carried our food bags down to the bear hang areas so that the food wasn't near us to deter Grizzlys. So we headed a little ways down and across a creek. Yelling, "Hey Bear"! the entire time. As we took the bags off our bodies to secure them for the night, I took a bag off my back and it landed on the bear spray that had its safety off in my pocket. There was a long loud spray noise and we all dispersed...

This night just got better, right? Luckily no one got a direct hit. We all just were consumed in the cloud of bear spray. Nikki was hit for the second time in less than 12 hours and Kevin shouted saying that it felt like someone had rubbed a jalapeno into the side of his lip.

The direct hit went all over my had. My head lamp looked down at my left hand and it was doused in orange liquid. The force of the jet stream caused it to shoot up my jackets all the way up to my elbow. We got soap quickly and I tried to wash it off in snow...My hands were on fire for the next 3 days. Let me remind you that this was the first night of our 10 day back packing excursion...WOOF!

The next morning I washed my jackets the best I could and several days later was using my puffy jacket as a pillow on our solo time in tents and my face began to burn... I cussed pretty loudly in my head to say the least.

So moral? Even if you're in category 1 Bear Country, ALWAYS keep the safety on when you are on the WMPC Team 2 in June, 2014. Clearly we couldn't handle the responsibility. But luckily we never actually encountered Grizzlies... Directly at least.

The Storm (Part 2)

"Yet he did not waver through Unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God." Romans 4:20
"Immediately the boys father exclaimed, "I do believe; Help me overcome my unbelief!"- Mark 9:24
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall". Proverbs 16:18
"In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God".- Psalm 10:4
"Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice".- Proverbs 14:3

Let me paint you a picture...

Imagine eating dinner outside with your cooking group. As you begin to clean up and your instructor gives you a time to meet back up for this evenings teaching on "Pride and Unbelief", you turn behind you and square on you see this massive, gross, soaked black cloud. Literally it is about to burst with electricity and wetness.

Imagine our teams faces as we see it rolling toward us and begin to wonder how we will continue with this particular lesson. Jay, our instructor, tells us a few encounters with storms while we begin to "Bombproof" our kitchen/ eating location and begin to put on rain jackets. Jay begins to pray, hands up toward the storm and sky. "Lord Jesus, I pray that you would physically move this storm and completely move it from our vicinity. I pray that you would teach us and exemplify upon this teaching on Pride and Unbelief and provide a teaching and learning opportunity in your Holy, Holy name, Amen".

Jay and Olivia, in the middle of bomb proofing, don't budge but instead watch as the wind begins to pick up and the cloud bellows toward us. As students we begin to put on our rain jackets to prepare for the coming rain. However our teachers exemplify pure faith in being obedient to God in NOT putting their rain jackets on. We begin to lean against the wind on this flat slab of Granite and while this cloud bubbles and curdles, the lighting becomes more elegant and golden.

Now really begin to picture these details:
Off to the right you look and see that in all of the wind and darkness there are glory rays piercing through the clouds where there is a sunset beginning beyond this storm. Still straight in front of us is this very real storm, this conflict within our hearts clearly reflected upon the wind that God has provided for us to feel and feel Him stripping this unbelief away from us. This storm begins to sway to our left while it continues to break apart on the right. In front of us our hearts and minds are being blown to bits as we begin to worship and praise The Lord in the palm of His creation in His wild land of Wyoming. We are spread out and you look to your left, This storms darkness is now swaying more than ever to your left moving toward Cheyenne, Wyoming. In the darkest part of this repulsive feeling, in the middle of this raging storm you see a rainbow illuminating vertical limit. You fall to your knees because you know tangibly that God is very present in this moment. You thought at first that maybe, Just maybe it was by chance this storm began to move around us but when you see that ROY-G-BIV you can't control your knees and you fall, tears overflowing in awe.

Our team spread out experiencing our heavenly Father in the ways that He has called us to. The ways that He had planned this evening out long before we had even been in existence.

Then you remember seeing those glory rays and within all of this commotion, you almost forgot to look. Truthfully everyone had. We become so focused on the darker aspect of what our fate should have been. The lightning, the rain that didn't even spill a single drop upon us. We rip our eyes back to the right. "Jay!!! Look!!! Look at the Sunset! You're name! It is written"! You can't believe it, your team can't believe it but there it is, Jays name written in the clouds above the sunset. J-A-Y.

You begin to realize that God just took the lesson of Pride and Unbelief in His own hands and let Jay have the night off. Instead He overwhelmed Jay by answering above and beyond anything that we could have ever imagined. Who does that?! A loving Father. A Fathers love that is UNCONDITIONAL.

Can you imagine all of this? Can you believe it?...

He is jealous for me...And for you.

Believe it, because this really happened...

These Sights and Great Heights...Part 1

"The mountains are calling, and I must go".- John Muir

Left to right: Andrew, Olivia, Emily, Kevin, Bridget, Rachel, Daria

The mountains speak indeed but the words that come from them glorify God more fully than I had ever imagined. 

"God called me, so I went."- Me and many other faithful servants who follow God on the daily and sometimes it's not the direction we WANT to go, but God NEEDS us to go in. With this being said, I went to Laramie Wyoming not really knowing what I would be getting into.

Truthfully, It is very hard for me to even compartmentalize what happened in this last month of revival, growth and discovery in what God knew all along would happen.
So I have an idea. I feel like one long post wont do my experience justice or make an impact worth lasting. So I will be writing posts as segments of my course and specific highlights that impacted me and those who were on the course with me.

I got on a plane and left California with a checklist of what was requested to be brought with me for a course that I really wasn't completely sold on. Between building lesson plans for topics I knew but didn't know how the topics should best be taught and meeting strangers in a random new location (one of my favorite things) I was pretty torn on how to even approach specific feelings on how best to react to this new unknown.
There were five students:
Kevin
Andrew
Bridget
Rachel
Me
There were three instructors:
Olivia
Emily
Jay
I was thinking from a leader perspective the things that I needed to work on and strengthen myself more in. However, God had better plans. My perspective was completely different than what His need for my life really was. With this in mind with in the 1st day alone my world was rocked to see what type of community God had placed me into and the intentionality of those who were facilitating the course. The genuine love and longing to be in Gods creation and understanding Him and who He is making us into on a daily basis. On top of that focusing on who and what we can be to one another with soul focused upon Him. The who and what is Jesus and Love. Genuine Christ like love. and my world was beautifully wrecked by the end of day 1. This was a full 3 1/2 week course mind you!

One of the first questions that was asked was this: Why do we do wilderness? Jay asked us to list as many people in the bible as possible that retreated to the wilderness to seek God. Paul/Saul, Jesus, Elijah, Ezekial, 12 desciples, Abraham, Jacob, Israel, Joshua, Jonah, Hagar, Job.

We took two days to prep our things, sort through gear and be oriented on how the first part of course would run. Efficiency was a huge component and my thought process and perspective already began to change and my respect levels rose tremendously for what SROM (Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries) was all about.

The wild can be pretty wild. Gods creation can rock your world in an instant. The cool thing is that He doesn't even need mountains or meadows or rock faces or lakes or oceans to awe us or woo us. But He knows our desires and what pleases us because He's created us with these things in mind.
It is not simply a beautiful or harsh place to be it is a place that holds answers and promptings from God. In these places we must go outside of ourselves and the hard casings that have formed around us via electronics, white noise and distraction. When we began to strip these things away, I quickly began to feel a sense of guilt. There was unstructured time with in my day that I hadn't experienced in almost 6 months. Literally, I sat and stared at a tree for an hour and a half during out "Time Alone with God" (TAG time), thinking, not writing, or reading or praying. Just staring.This self understanding quickly caused me to redefine my role with in my job as a servant and as a daughter of God. How can I ever pursue intimacy in a relationship with God if I can't even designate time daily where I am FULLY focused on Him. Not partially focused. But fully focused and not feeling guilty for it? I needed to begin to let go of these insecure imperfections of pleasing those who I was afraid to let down. I needed to become more human. First step admitting I am human and allowing myself to just be. Baby steps...Baby steps.

Through out the first part of the course we spent a lot of time on rocks. We learned hard skills relating to Sport and Trad climbing. Anchor set up and belay rescues. We spent our time in Vedauwoo, Wyoming. A majestic part of Gods land where the volcanic rocks are shaped like potato chips and the granite cuts your hands deep. But man is it good climbing and absolutely unreal looking. Miles upon miles of stunning views and rocks so big we look like micro ants.

In the weather, cracks and intimate discussions we discovered more of ourselves in these places. I am pleased/thankful to say that our team was already so vulnerably strong and humble in so many ways. We were all wondering what it is God was specifically teaching us on this course and more than ever it is so many things. One of these many lessons was to love who ever He puts in our lives completely and entirely, Unconditionally. Whether for a day, an hour, a week or the full course. God teaches in incredibly blessed ways.

While in "The Voo", we encountered a lot of different things. We experienced warfare and blessings. We encountered wildlife and crazy storms. We bid farewell to one of our beloved instructors, Emily, and welcomed Jay back to the team after spending a week battling pneumonia.

Clearly I can't fit life into a blog post. But I can say that this is only the beginning. This is just the intro into a beloved love story of how God carried His sheep and brought them in closer than ever.

And I can't wait to tell you more...

-Keep Adventuring