Highlights of the Week:
- If you are a new reader, you need to know that each container holds 550 wheelchairs.
- Containers arrived in Belarus and Chile.
- Containers are in route to Somaliland, Cuba, Kenya, India, Ghana, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea and two to Sri Lanka.
- Containers are awaiting shipping to Romania, Pakistan, Mexico; and three each for Peru, Philippines and Viet Nam.
- Thanks to a very successful Ride for Mobility, we ordered containers for Nigeria, Comoros Islands, Bangladesh, Zambia, Nicaragua, two for Iraq, two for Tanzania, three for India, and three for Ecuador.
|
|
FRIDAY STORY: RIDE FOR MOBILITY EDITION
The following is this week's account from Don on the road.a
I know a lot of you are following our Ride for Mobility campaign, and the ride certainly monopolizes our thinking these days too. We are resting now in Phoenix, where we have TV and radio interviews, a church presentation, and a press conference. Sunday we head out to cross the desert - where we will face some new challenges: strong winds and 110 F + temperatures. We so look forward to reaching home, to be with our families and friends once again! We also hope all of you who can will join us either in Duarte for the last 40 miles (11:00AM), along the PCH for the last 10 miles, or at Mariners Church (2:00PM) for our ending celebration. It will be a slow, easy ride. Check out our website for details. |
The ride from Kansas to Phoenix was tough. We crossed the continental divide at 7,800 feet and had to go over a many other mountain passes. The total accumulated climb was just short of 40,000 feet! Going downhill demands concentration. Coasting down at 40 MPH make us feel like we are flying, but a wrong move would be disastrous. Going uphill demands concentration of a different sort. Then we feel like we are the slowest moving objects on earth. Here the challenge can make or break us. We have to find a rhythm for our legs, our breathing, our water consumption, and our thinking. If we do, the effort becomes enjoyable.
The thinking part is big. What works for us is thinking about the faces of the all people who have smiled as they heard of many wheelchairs you have donated. When our legs ache, our hands go numb, our necks cramp, and our bottoms feel sore, we remember that so many of our disabled brothers and sisters feel like this - every day, living on the ground, waiting, praying, perhaps dreaming of a better life. We pray for them, and as we do, it is as if they reach out and absorb our aches and pains. In spirit, they are out there with us. It is a most incredible thing, but we feel like the recipients of our wheelchairs are all around us, raising their hands to cheer us on, over the peaks. |
What we are doing is such a small price for us to pay. I know I have said this before, but each day it gains significance to us. We are almost home already, and THANKS TO YOU, we raised the funds to change 8,545 lives – forever. We have faith we will reach our campaign goal of 15,000 by the time this magnificent ride ends.
Such a small price to pay! |
|
|