Hope And Courage Across America Journal

  July 18, 2008 ~ Friday

There are those times in life when you just know that you are in the right place at the right time.  Well, today was one of those times.  We were riding through a little town in Indiana when both Bob and Nicole got flat tires.  We were looking for a shady place to change their flats.  We stopped along side of the street.  I noticed we were in front of a newspaper office.  I wondered if I should go in and tell them about our journey across America.  I looked at the door and they were only open a couple of days a week and one of those days was Friday.  I went in and told the editor about our ride and she was very interested and felt this was a really big story for their town.  She said she thought we had a flat tire in her town for a reason.  Her name was Angel.  Everyday on the journey God had blessed us with an angel and today she was, literally, our Angel.  We fixed the flats and did a newspaper interview at the same time.

As we headed off, Angel told us of a road to take that would be a nice scenic route for biking.  She was right.  Our path took us through a beautiful Amish community with lovely farms.  We shared the road with horse drawn buggies and Amish bike riders.

We saw a little sign along the road that read ’Bake Sale’.  We followed the sign…and a dream of mine came true.  We arrived at an Amish farm.  We got off of our bikes in our neon yellow clothes and rang the doorbell.  The man of the house opened the door and invited us in to take a look at their baked goods.  He disappeared into the next room and his wife soon came and introduced herself. I was in heaven!  I have always admired their simple lifestyle and their dedication to keeping it that way.  And to think I had just been invited into their home was truly a special gift to me.  A banquet table was covered with a wide variety of delicious looking baked goods.  She was a young mother of three (2,4 & 5 years olds) and this was her second weekend of offering baked goods out of her home.  We wished we had bigger bike bags.  We chose buttermilk cookies and a loaf of fresh bread.  They were both baked without electricity. 

We had a nice long visit with her.  We told her of our journey and our message of hope in Christ and the courage to use that hope to face our challenges.  Bob told her how he lost his limbs.  She and her family had been in a car/buggy accident when she was 14 and her 12 year old sister was killed in the crash.  She said for a long time they wished her sister back but now accept it as God’s will.  We were so sorry to hear of the tragedy.  We mentioned what had happened last fall at the Amish school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  She didn’t know any of those families but said she had heard those Amish families had built a new home for the widow of the man who had killed their children.  I was so touched by their ability to forgive and the way they truly accept what happens as God’s will.  A lesson for us all to learn. I am always amazed at how the Lord is encouraging and inspiring us each day of this journey with such a wide variety of people from a wide variety of places. 

I will always cherish this memory of pedaling away from an Amish farm with a warm loaf of bread in my bike bag and my heart filled with joy knowing how blessed we are to see America in this way.  And a lesson in God’s will.