Throw Out My Back, a Visit to Glacier National Park and Team Training -all in one week.

On the road to Team Training!
On Thursday, May 26th I flew out of Phoenix to Minneapolis to make some final preparations for the tour. Friday morning, my co-leader, Dustin Burkhart and I were at the venture offices printing off maps and packing the van and trailer for the tour. Gatorade donated 137 lbs worth of food/drink mix for one of Venture’s tours! When Dustin and I went to set down the box after moving it, I felt something pull in my back. Later that day I found myself hunched over in the parking lot, laughing in pain because my back hurt so much that I couldn’t even walk to the van. That day, Ryan Skoog, co-founder of Venture, Dustin and I prayed for God to heal my back. A number of family and friends have been praying for me and day by day I have felt better. I went to a Chiropractor on Saturday and Monday to get it adjusted. After a week of prayer and caring for my back, I got on my bike tonight to ride around the parking lot a week after the it started, without much pain at all! What a living and active God we serve! He is involved in every moment of our lives.

Monday,

On Monday, we left Minneapolis in the van to head to Seattle, WA with Erin, a leader from Venture, Dustin, and three of our teamates. We drove through the night and our GPS led us on a more ‘northern’ route than we planned… But it actually worked out for the best! On our drive, Brian Elliot, a good friend of mine from some other Venture Expeditions, saw our van in the middle of Montana, made a u-turn and caught up to us! What are the chances of that!? We continued on to visit Glacier National Park on our way to Spokane, WA where we would spend the night at a hotel. Click on this link to see some pictures from our trip and the amazing Glacier National Park:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1936311680545.2111994.1024940869&l=83d8287de5

On Wednesday afternoon, we arrived in Sammamish, WA (near Seattle) to do our training with the team for the tour! We’ve spent time talking about team dynamics, safety and bike maintenance with the team. What’s more important is we spent time talking more about the cause and how the Just+Hope campaign connects the local church in America with the local church in SE Asia to seek Justice in a number of areas. Here is a quick 2 minute video about the Just+Hope Campaign.

Last but not least, our team went on our first training ride today. We road from Samammish, WA (near Seattle) to Kerry Park, overlooking the space needle and Mount Rainier. That’s where our team picture on this blog was shot. Everyone did great! We had 3 people fall over, but no injuries!

ps. I’ll keep my blogs shorter and more frequent in the future! 😉 And I’ll have more pics up soon!