Craig's Blog of Destiny

“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike.” ~ John F. Kennedy

I’d like to talk with you a little about bicycles. I’ve always had a little bit of a fascination with bicycles; the first time I got on a bicycle I rode it quite well – in a straight line. I had no idea how to turn around so I just kept going until I was so far away from home I was scared to go any further so I let myself crash into the grass on the side of the road. Later I had a bike with the raised handle bars and the cool banana seats – a great bike for doing “wheelies.” When I was twenty my primary mode of transportation as a missionary was a bicycle. As an adult I seem to gravitate to bicycle riding as my exercise of choice, not the off road variety, but the long, marathon type rides. I’ve done many century rides (100 miles) and have done the Seattle to Portland ride (200 miles) once. But I gained an even greater understanding of my feelings about bicycles when I read this quote from Bicycling Magazine:

“Faith, Love, Freedom? Is this too much to ascribe to a simple machine on which we are both engine and fuel (as well as passenger and pilot)? Can there be so much that’s so elemental in something most exquisitely designed to zoom down hills? The answer is right there, in your bike right now. Put a leg over one, and you can instantly see across that bridge from adult to child. There are about 1.1 billion bicycles making that trip right now. A billion people are pedaling with freedom and joy and innocence on the grandest, noblest toy in all the world.” – Bicycling Magazine, “The Noblest Invention”

A bicycle may be the noblest toy in all the world, but it is also so much more, it can bring so much freedom and joy; way more than it’s simple design would hint at.

As some of you know, a portion of our charitable contributions over the last couple of years has gone through See Your Impact; one of the projects we helped fund was to provide a bicycle for a young mother of two teenagers who are using their bicycle to get to the land they farm, the market and to school.  Because of my interest in bicycles, this year I am supporting another bicycle providing organization.

On June 30th I’m riding 100 miles from Redmond to Bellingham, Washington to raise funds and awareness for the global work of World Bicycle Relief and the community work of Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation; World Bicycle Relief is a nonprofit organization providing access to independence and livelihood through The Power of Bicycles across Africa. Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation engages more than 26,000 Seattle-area youth per year by teaching elementary school students to ride and helping families find safe routes to school.  I would appreciate it if you could contribute to the cause.  You can easily do so from here:

Craig’s Fundraising Page

Even if you can only contribute a small amount, every little bit helps.

Thank You!