2 Weeks! 2 Weeks!

It's finals week and things are crazy around North Park these days. Everyone's swamped with work, catching up on all of the reading we should have been doing all semester but instead, we were planning a bike trip.

We had our final team meeting last night. We talked logistics for about an hour and a half, finding ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of work still to be done. There are so many loose ends heading into these two weeks at home before we fly out to San Francisco from our various homes across the country.

I'm trying to let go of worrying about all the details, trying to trust that there are people and powers working on our behalf and that the phone calls will be made and the maps will be drawn. The sparrows, after all, eat quite well.

After getting ourselves stressed out with details, we spent some time in prayer together. We broke bread together, serving one another communion, turning to the person next to us, looking them in the eye and saying it slowly, deliberately.

"This is Christ's Body, broken for you."

"This is Christ's Blood, shed for you."

It was good to celebrate together and to remember the heart of this trip. Christ's work on the cross and his triumph over the grave is the reason we ride. The kingdom made alive in the work of Christ is the reason we took on this trip, with all of its logistical nightmares and daunting physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges.

And we prayed together, yearning to be a part of the Kingdom work this summer. Christ is setting the captives free. He is breaking down the barriers that we've set up so firmly along racial and socioeconomic lines. And He is weeping with the mothers who have lost their children and with the widows who have lost their husbands. He is breaking through our segregation and our comfort. He is bringing us diversity and moving us gently, lovingly, towards the way life should be. He is moving us towards justice in our homes, in our churches, in our friendships, in our country, in our world. And we are thankful to be a part of it all and to be able to share the work with those we will meet. And we are humbled by the opportunity to learn about the work from those we'll speak to.


We've been getting a bit of publicity and we're thankful for that. Stan Friedman at the Covenant Companion wrote a nice article about us, which you can read here. One of my professors, Scot McKnight, also wrote us up on his blog, encouraging his readers to donate a few pennies for each mile we ride (all 3,700 of 'em)! Feel free to read about it and please consider making a donation to either Spark or Acirfa. Again, we're thankful for all of the people praying for us and supporting us in countless ways, visible and invisible.

Peace to you.

-Matt