A Year of Blessings

A Year of Centuries has been one of the best experiences of my life.  At the beginning of 2013, I had no idea just how wonderful it would be to combine one of my favorite activities (cycling) with service to others, all from a sense of gratitude for my recovery from the terrible crash I had in a bicycle race in April 2012.  I still can’t say that I’m glad for the crash, but I wouldn’t trade A Year of Centuries for anything.  I’ve had some of my most memorable rides ever, and I’ve met so many terrific people.
 
Throughout A Year of Centuries, I have prayed that God would do good things.  My intention was for these good things to be on behalf of the people and animals served through my 12 charities.  God has answered these prayers but – in typical fashion – in an even bigger way than I anticipated.  I myself have been so blessed this year!  On this last day of A Year of Centuries, I’d like to share a few of these blessings:
 
1) As A Year of Centuries was just getting started last January, Robert and I went on a cycling vacation in Costa Rica over the week of New Year’s.  One of the books I took along to read was Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, which describes his founding of TOMS shoes and the ideals the company is based on.  TOMS doesn’t just make comfortable, fun shoes (of which I happily own several pairs); for every pair of shoes that a customer buys, TOMS donates a pair of shoes to a child in need in another country.  What a fabulous business model!  This turned out to be a really inspirational book as I started A Year of Centuries because it’s not just for entrepreneurs; it encourages all of us to look for ways to give in our everyday lives.

Our cycling trip was an organized event that included about 20 people from across the U.S. and even a few foreign countries.  Robert and I made a great new friend named Jose, who is from Spain.  Jose works for a company called Stravalue, which advocates good corporate citizenship, i.e., giving back to the community in addition to making a profit.  This is exactly what I was reading about in Start Something that Matters!  I told Jose all about TOMS and gave him my book at the end of the trip.  He was also interested to learn about A Year of Centuries because it's about giving back at the personal level.  Jose has been a big source of encouragement to me throughout A Year of Centuries - all the way from Spain!

2) On March 2^nd I participated in a community event called “Seuss on the Loose.”  It was a fundraiser for the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy, my September charity, but I also got to promote Bicycles for Humanity (B4H), my March charity, at the same time.  I set up a booth at “Seuss on the Loose” based on Dr. Seuss’s book Oh, The Places You’ll Go!  Bicycles were the perfect tie in!  An amazing thing happened.  I spoke with a fellow Jasper County resident named Bruce, briefly describing the work of B4H.  It just so happens that Bruce is the housing director at Kennesaw State University.  At the end of each term, students leave behind perfectly good bicycles.  Bruce had a warehouse full of about 70 bicycles that he needed to get rid of.  I was able to put him and B4H in touch with each other.  Those bicycles made up a significant portion of a shipment that went to Namibia, Africa in June.  The people of Namibia have a great need for bicycles for transportation.  I still get excited when I think about being in the right place at the right time on that day back in March.
 
3) In April I rode one day of the BRAG Spring Tune Up.  I especially wanted to ride that weekend because it was the perfect chance to meet the BRAG Dream Team, my May charity.  About a week later, BRAG posted on Facebook a beautiful picture of a field of flowering canola plants from that weekend.  The photo was taken by Bonnie Chislett, someone I worked with over 20 years ago when I was a co-op student at Law Engineering.  I commented on knowing Bonnie, and she saw my post.  We’re now reconnected as Facebook friends :)
 
4) A Facebook page called “Why I Ride” was launched in late February.  I started following it shortly thereafter and have enjoyed reading the wide variety of reasons why everyday people like me like to ride their bicycles.  Sometimes they are fighting back from difficult circumstances, or they might simply get a rush from feeling like a kid again.  I submitted my own story about my crash and how it led me to do A Year of Centuries.
 
As the one-year anniversary of my crash approached in April, I tried not to make too big a deal of it in my mind, but I’ll admit that I had a slight uneasiness that day.  Can you believe that that was the day that “Why I Ride” published my story?  (Somehow, I don’t think this was a coincidence.)  What a gift to read all the affirming comments from so many people.  It reminded me that we all need to encourage each other and share the positive as much as possible.
 
There’s even more to the story.  The creator of the page “Why I Ride” is Stephen Auerbach, director of the film Bicycle Dreams.  This movie chronicles the Race Across America, which is a bicycle race that covers the entire U.S. in about 10 days.  Stephen Auerbach is now compiling a book of “Why I Ride” stories from Facebook.  It may be published as an e-book rather than a hard copy book, but either way, I eagerly anticipate reading it!
 
5) Bat Conservation International (BCI) saw my blog, sent me an encouraging message through Facebook, and asked for more information about A Year of Centuries.  They happened to contact me just a few days before my July century on behalf of BCI.  I gave them a brief description of A Year of Centuries and said that I would be posting a ride report the next weekend.  Afterwards, BCI shared my report on its own Facebook page!  What thrilled me the most about this was the list of people who liked BCI’s repost of my ride report.  I could tell from the people’s names that they come from a number of different countries.  One “like” even came from a nonprofit group whose name was in Hebrew!  I love that, even in this smallest of ways, I am connected to people all around the world whom I don’t even know and that bats helped make that connection.

6) Over the summer, my pastor Rindy planned a series of sermons to help our congregation start focusing on our upcoming 185^th church anniversary, which will be in 2014.  She even asked several members to deliver the sermon on a few of these Sundays.  I was one of those members.  Rindy was going to be out town with our middle school youth on a mission trip, and because of A Year of Centuries, she thought I would be a good substitute to speak on “Transformed by Grace: A People Called to Serve.”  I was humbled and pleased to do so, but I have to admit that I’m glad that I don’t have to preach every Sunday.  As my friend John Stork said, “It’s a lot easier to ride a bicycle a hundred miles than it is to preach.”  Amen, brother!  Despite my nervousness, I pray that my words were God’s words.  That day’s worship service certainly was a blessing to me.  Rindy had prepared the order of service before she went out of town, and later I found out that she selected the particular prayers and hymns with great purpose.  (There was even a prayer by my hero St. Francis.)  I had told Rindy that I would be preaching from the entire chapter of II Corinthians 9.  However, I don’t think she knew the significance of the particular verse that she chose for the front of the bulletin that day.  I had first noticed this verse right before Easter when there was a bulletin insert for a special offering called One Great Hour of Sharing.  It made such an impression on me that I adopted it for A Year of Centuries:

“And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” – II Corinthians 9:8

 
 7) Later in July, Robert and I went to North Carolina for a weekend of cycling.  He did a road race, and I rode while he raced.  The finish line was on a mountaintop.  I could climb the backside, which offered me a great workout without having to get on the racecourse.  Before I started my ride, I hung out for a little while with a few friends in the local coffee shop.  When I went back outside to my bicycle, a young man asked me if I was familiar with roads in the area.  I replied, yes, a little bit and described the route I was about to do.  He explained that he was with the Changing Diabetes team.  This team consists of young people who all have Type I diabetes; being on the team helps them to manage the disease.  Many of the members are from other countries.  One of the riders was a 16-year-old girl from The Netherlands.  She had ridden in the pro race earlier that morning but got dropped, and so she wanted to do some more riding.  The man asked if she could accompany me on my climb to the finish line, and I enthusiastically said yes!  Her name is Susanne, and I thoroughly enjoyed riding with her up that mountain.  It was that unexpected but wonderful ride with Susanne that particularly opened my eyes to God’s goodness and graciousness on every single ride.  In fact, that day I adopted a new motto for myself: Expect Adventure.
 
8) On August 29^th I posted about Bruce McDonald, a fellow greyhound and cycling enthusiast who lives in Indiana.  Bruce had a personal cycling challenge called Climb for the Hounds that benefitted two terrific greyhound rescue groups: Greyhound Pets of America – Indianapolis and Prison Greyhounds.  I was so excited to hear about Bruce’s Climb for the Hounds.  I sent a donation for both greyhound groups.  Bruce wrote me the nicest note, and he also made a donation to Southeastern Greyhound Adoption, my April charity.
 
As a follow-up, you’ll be happy to know that Bruce did successfully climb Mont-Ventoux on his bicycle – six times in one day!  Amazing!  He is now a member of “Club de Bicinglettes,” a group of only 69 people (and 2 Americans) who have accomplished this feat. 

9) Although I personally know most of the people who have “liked” my Facebook page for A Year of Centuries, a few are strangers to me.  They come from several other states, and recently I even got a “like” from someone in Brazil!  I don’t know how everyone found me, but I’m thrilled that they have come along for the ride.  I wish them all the best on their own journeys.

A common thread runs throughout these experiences.  That common thread is the importance of connections: connections with God, connections with each other, and connections with all of creation.  As much as I love the solitude that I often find on my bicycle, these connections are what matter most in the end.  (And riding my bicycle energizes me to stay connected!)  It’s like we’re all pieces of a giant quilt that is sewn together to make a whole.  Each piece is important and necessary to complete the picture, even if we don’t see right now what that picture is.  It might turn out to be a crazy quilt, but it’s still beautiful.  Our job is to attend to those places where the threads are loose.  As Neil Peart puts it in Rush’s song “Entre Nous”:

Just between us
I think it’s time for us to recognize
The differences we sometimes fear to show
Just between us
I think it’s time for us to realize
The spaces in between
Leave room for you and I to grow.

I could fill many more pages with the blessings that I have received through A Year of Centuries.  My greatest wish, however, is that God has blessed many people and creatures of all kinds in hundreds of ways that I’ll never even know of.  Ride on!

Everyone is Buzzing about Heifer Bees

Bees help pollinate plants and provide a sweet treat to eat.  Their travel from plant to plant means more produce from crops, gardens, orchards – and flowers, too.  Beekeeping can be done part-time to supplement family income, with small start-up costs and homemade equipment.  Honey and beeswax can be sold for income that allows families to meet basic needs.

Bee Facts

• Bees produce about three times as much honey as the hive needs.
• A bee colony includes one queen bee, a few hundred drones, and many workers.
• When a bee returns to the hive, it “dances” to tell other bees where to find pollen.
• A starter colony is about 20,000 bees and is shipped to Heifer International partners in a 3 ½-pound package.

Bee Tale

Heifer International bees helped Agaba Jimmy Zab of Uganda buy a bicycle.  As instructed, he placed beehives near his field of maize, beans and tomatoes.  Crosspollination by the bees resulted in better crops than ever before, and he got a good price at the vegetable market.  With that money and the sale of honey, he bought the bike and is saving to buy land.  He happily passed on a bee colony to a neighbor and says, “Long live Heifer!”

Hound Haul

Today I finally reached a goal that I’ve had all year: helping with a hound haul!  Volunteers with Southeastern Greyhound Adoption (SEGA), my April charity, transport greyhounds from the racetrack to our kennel in Acworth, Georgia.  This is the first step for these newly retired greyhounds to find permanent, loving homes.

Hound hauls occur about every six weeks or so.  I’ve particularly wanted to go on one this year, but the scheduling has never worked out until now.  The hauls usually occur on Saturdays and are announced about a week in advance.  Every other time this year, I had already planned a century or other big commitment on hound haul days.  This time the haul was on a Friday, which is unusual, but I could finally make it work by taking a half day of vacation from work.  I’m so excited that I got in a hound haul just under the wire during A Year of Centuries!

Most of SEGA’s greyhounds come from Florida.  They used to come primarily from the Jefferson County Kennel Club in Monticello, Florida, but that track has closed within the last year or so.  Today’s greyhounds came from various unknown places in Florida, but they were processed through the adoption kennel at the Ebro racetrack.

There is a special place reserved in heaven for Pam and Glen Davis, two saints who transport the greyhounds on the first leg of their journey.  Pam and Glen live in South Georgia and pick up the greyhounds at the track.  They carry as many greyhounds as possible and meet other SEGA volunteers farther north in Georgia.  Today’s meeting point was near Newnan, Georgia at Summerwind Farm, the home of John and Laura Parker.  John is president of the Southeastern Greyhound Club (SEGA's parent organization), and both he and Laura are longtime, avid greyhound supporters.  Four other haulers and I gathered at Summerwind Farm for the greyhound handoff from Pam and Glen.

We unloaded the greyhounds one at a time and let them walk on leashes and take a nature break.  It was so fun getting a first glimpse at all of these new greyhounds up for adoption.  Today’s haul included four males and six females in a rainbow of colors.  I walked Superior Tally, a large, beautiful female:

Here are the other nine hounds:

This is Pam and Glen’s greyhound haul vehicle:

Today they carried the females in crates in the van and the males in the trailer, which has a separate space for each dog.

Because I was driving by myself and don’t have any crates, I was assigned to carry Dancin Tweety and Flying Stella, two pretty mellow females.  They were extremely sweet, despite not cooperating for this photo opp:

If the greyhounds aren’t transported in crates, they are muzzled to make sure everyone stays safe during the drive.  Riding in a car – along with just about everything else – is brand new to these greyhounds.  If only they knew all the good things in store for them!

Stella and Tweety did fairly well on the ride.  Tweety did try to climb into the front seat with me a few times, but I managed to keep her in the back.  Particularly when we were on the interstate, they mostly lay quietly on the dog beds that I had spread in the back of my vehicle.  Tweety also “tweeted” (barked) a time or two; she has a cute bark.

I had been listening to an audio book on the way to pick up the greyhounds, but I was too focused on driving safely and keeping an eye on the dogs to listen to it after the pickup.  Instead, I turned on the radio.  They liked Lenny Kravitz the best.

Pretty soon we arrived at the SEGA adoption kennel, which is located at the Lake City Animal Hospital in Acworth, north of Atlanta.  Additional volunteers were on hand to help unload the hounds.  A few at a time, the greyhounds were turned out into the fenced-in run:

Tomorrow morning, still more volunteers will bathe the new arrivals.  Dr. Toby Carmichael and his staff at the Lake City Animal Hospital will check the hounds over, spay or neuter each one, and provide any other needed medical care.

I don’t know what the plans are for these particular greyhounds, but some newly retired greyhounds go into foster homes.  By utilizing foster homes in addition to the SEGA kennel, we can bring in even more greyhounds.

As you can see, greyhound adoption is a multistep process that involves numerous volunteers.  I’m honored to work with such a great group as SEGA and to help these magnificent greyhounds find their forever homes.

The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

Merry Christmas!  Today Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Emanuel.  God with us.  During his ministry, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Heaven is not just someplace we hope to go after we die; we can be partners with God to start bringing it about here and now.  Heifer International’s work on behalf of impoverished people gives us a glimpse of heaven.

1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
² The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
³ and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness will be his belt
    and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,

the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11:1-9

Get Someone’s Goat – No Kidding!

Goat milk is rich in protein and makes tasty cheese and yogurt.  Goats thrive on otherwise unproductive land and are often fed in zero-grazing pens to keep them from eating ground cover and crops and damaging fragile terrain.  Their families supply them with food and water, including twigs, leaves, and grasses.

Goat Facts

• A goat can give up to a gallon of milk a day.
• Keeping a goat costs about one-sixth as much as keeping a cow.
• Children who can’t digest cow’s milk can often drink goat’s milk.
• Goats often give birth to twins or even triplets.

Goat Tale

Goats are friendly creatures that nuzzle your hand and nibble your buttons—they’re curious to find out all about you.  Sometimes, Heifer goats build friendships where there were only bad feelings before.  That’s what happened in Albania.  An unsettled political situation and economic hardship had everyone on edge, especially in Alarup, a mountain village where Heifer has a goat-development project.  People there depend on goats as a primary source of income.  Two families, both members of the Heifer group, had been feuding over politics for decades.  Things came to a head when a young man from one family and a young woman from the other wanted to get married.  Their families refused, and the unhappy young woman was married off to a lad from another village.  Twenty years later at a Heifer group meeting, the two saw each other again. How would the families react? The Heifer group came to a wise decision.  “We will pass on the offspring of our gift goats to these two families first,” they said.  A longstanding feud ended; the villagers cheered, and, from all appearances, the goats were happy, too!

But Wait, There’s More!

If you want to give a Heifer animal in honor of a loved one, here’s a fun add-on.  Along with the Heifer honor card, give your loved one an inexpensive item associated with that animal.  It might be something very practical, too.  For example, for Christmas I gave my mother and stepfather a Heifer International goat plus a variety of products containing goat’s milk, including soap, lotion, cheese, and caramels.  Additionally, I made them a crafty goat with clothespins, a Popsicle stick, and a piece of pipe cleaner (see my Living Gift Market post on December 13).  Also, my mother had said she would like a purse hanger, which allows you to hang your purse from a restaurant table rather than place it on the floor.  Can you believe that for just a few dollars, I found a purse hanger with a goat on it?

I added one other item to their gift assortment: a yeti Christmas tree ornament.  This has significance for several reasons.  First, I bought the ornament at a bazaar that had merchandise from Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade retailer.  Proceeds from the bazaar benefitted needy families in my own community through the ML&J Fund, my June charity in A Year of Centuries.  In addition, the legend of the yeti comes from Nepal, a country where my stepfather has done extensive work.  Finally, Heifer International has a special goat project in Nepal this holiday season.  Nepalese women are now facing extreme gender discrimination.  Heifer will provide goats and business development training to these women, allowing them to transform themselves into powerful small-scale farmers and business women.  Even more potent, a group of generous donors has given $3 million in matching funds for this initiative.  Therefore, the gift of a Heifer International goat provides not one, but two animals.  That’s a goat worth getting!

Early Christmas Present!

An early Christmas present just arrived.  It’s a quilt made from the T-shirts from my centuries this year!  I am so thrilled to have this special memento of A Year of Centuries.  My quilt is a wall hanging made from nine T-shirts.  Seven of my centuries – March, April, May, June, July, September, and October – were part of organized rides that had T-shirts.  Although my other five centuries – January, February, August, November, and December – didn’t have T-shirts associated with them, I came up with just the right T-shirts to fill in my two remaining quilt squares.  One was the T-shirt that I bought in October at the Buddy Walk, which benefitted the Middle Georgia Down Syndrome Society.  Finally, I included my Life Is Good T-shirt that has a guy on a bicycle and the phrase “Ride On,” which has been a theme and inspiration for me throughout A Year of Centuries.  This made the perfect center square! (kind of like Paul Lynde)

A number of years ago I had a T-shirt quilt made for Robert.  We both had accumulated beaucoup shirts from various 5Ks, triathlons, and charity bicycle rides.  I had a T-shirt quilt made for him as a Christmas present.  A few months beforehand, I raided his T-shirt drawers and picked out an assortment for the quilt.  What’s so funny is that he didn’t even notice that they were gone!  (This goes to show just how many T-shirts we have).  He did mention later that it seemed like his drawers closed a little easier, but he didn’t give it much thought at the time.  I hired a friend of mine who is an avid quilter to make Robert’s T-shirt quilt.  She did an excellent job, but I think it was a bigger project than she anticipated.  I wasn’t about to impose on her for my quilt for A Year of Centuries, and so I looked online.  I hit the jackpot!

I researched several companies and decided on Keepsake Theme Quilts (KTQ) in Columbus, Ohio (www.tshirtquilts.com).  They did an outstanding job for a very reasonable price.  Their ordering process is easy, and they worked with me every step of the way.  I even made several changes, which they graciously and professionally incorporated.  Also, there’s something else special about KTQ that made me want to choose them.  KTQ is a mission-driven social purpose business of Deaf Initiatives, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.  KTQ was created to hire, train, and promote deaf employees in an environment free from communication barriers that limit deaf job seekers.  Almost their entire staff is deaf, and every employee is fluent in sign language.  KTQ has a deaf friendly work environment with features like large, open rooms to promote communicating through sign language.  I can’t think of a more appropriate group of people to help me commemorate A Year of Centuries.

I arranged my shirts in chronological order, starting in the top left corner and going clockwise.

March was the first century this year with a T-shirt.  It was the St. Patrick’s Century in Dublin, Georgia.  My charity of the month in A Year of Centuries was Bicycles for Humanity.

April’s century was a Journey for Autism in Macon, Georgia.  My charity of the month in A Year of Centuries was Southeastern Greyhound Adoption.

May’s century was Up the Creek Without a Pedal in Rome, Georgia.  My charity of the month in A Year of Centuries was the BRAG Dream Team.

June’s century was Wheels to the World in Athens, Georgia, a benefit for Women to the World.  My charity of the month in A Year of Centuries was the ML&J Fund for Children and Youth.

July’s century was Pedal for Pets in Senoia, Georgia, a benefit for spay/neuter programs.  My charity of the month in A Year of Centuries was Bat Conservation International.

September was the Nut Roll Century in Albany, Georgia, a benefit for Chehaw Park.  My charity of the month in A Year of Centuries was the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy.

October’s century was the Ferst Annual Lewis Grizzard & Catfish Memorial Bike Ride in Moreland, Georgia.  (Notice the blue silhouette of Lewis Grizzard in the background of the shirt.)  It benefitted the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy in Coweta County.  In addition to this extra connection to my September charity, I also rode for the Jasper County Community Food Bank, my October charity in A Year of Centuries.

Although the Buddy Walk doesn’t involve cycling, this T-shirt that I purchased at this event is a wonderful way to remember the Middle Georgia Down Syndrome Society, my November charity in A Year of Centuries.

KTQ includes up to three lines of embroidery for free.  I included my motto for A Year of Centuries: Expect Adventure.  Also, the embroidery is usually placed on the bottom right edge of the quilt, but I asked KTQ to place it in the center square.  This balanced out the blank space in this square and gave the embroidery a more prominent position.

At no charge, KTQ will embroider a hand making the American Sign Language symbol for “I love you.”  At first I wasn’t going to include this symbol, but then I thought about how love is really the basis for A Year of Centuries.  The symbol is on the bottom edge of the quilt and will always remind me of the wonderful way that KTQ supports deaf people.

I got a kick out of an extra item that KTQ included in my package:

I was all smiles when I saw my quilt, though – no tears for me!  However, I’ll put these tissues to good use over the next few months; when you ride your bicycle in cold weather, a runny nose is inevitable.

What a Week of Groceries Looks Like Around the World

In the book Hungry Planet, authors Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio have compiled an amazing array of photos that show what a week of groceries looks like in a number of countries around the world.  It’s a study in nutrition as well as the cultures and economics that shape what people eat.  Although this isn’t specifically a post about Heifer International, Heifer works in countries as varied as the foods in these pictures (and actually does provide services in many of the countries shown).  We all can strive for a world where everyone has adequate and nutritious food.

Photos from this book are available at a number of websites, but I like this link because it gives some good cultural context with each photo.  Interestingly, the photos from some of the less affluent countries depict a healthier diet than that of the typical American.

http://humansarefree.com/2013/08/a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around.html