ONE

I am but one. One among many. So, here’s my thought: I enjoy travel. I like adventure and arguably come from a very adventurous family. My Mom is a world traveler and has been to close to fifty different nations. My Dad has been to several with her and always enjoys exploring the wilderness with loved ones. My sister has traveled criss-cross around the country and has also done a fair amount of traveling and missions work in other nations. My brother has traveled in Eastern Europe and road tripped through Central America. He is currently enrolled in a 2-year mountain guide school that has taken him from Alaska to Patagonia to Spain and back again. With all these travels comes many experiences and meeting new people, eating new foods and doing new activities in amazing and not-so amazing settings. So, in a word: adventure. Therefore, it is not by mistake that I would pick up the same adventure gene and want the same for my life. The same ‘ole thing gets kind of boring and the world beckons for attention.

I am but one. There is one of me on this Perfect Circles odyssey next summer. Granted, I do have a support guy that is in as well. And for that I am very grateful and welcome him and his wife with open arms as they did to me a few years ago. However, for the sake of argument, there is one going on this trip. I have clumped me and my friend into the “one.” I have made the route publicly known and have sent out advertisements for companions. I have invited anyone who wants to come along for any leg of the journey. I have had a few minor interests, but nothing definite. I know everyone has their lives and not many people can just take a summer and leave, but no one even has expressed so much as a “awe man, I wish I could go.” I have tried to gain supporters and raise any funds for said trip that would’ve been a support raising journey for the start of a camp or a bicycle trip ministry, but within the past year I have had zero interest. I am not saying I don’t have support. I do. I have people who believe in me and support my decisions. But beyond that (save from my family) I have had zero interest. I ran into the same obstacle with my dream to start a Christian camp ministry. In my journey I have discovered that no one is willing to “get their hands dirty” but many are willing to “support me.” I don’t really know what “support” means to a lot of people, but it seems to me that they use that word all to frequently and it has lost some of its meaning.

I ask, “Where have all my good friends gone to?” I was thinking just the other day that if a friend of mine was in my position asking for companions or whatnot, I would have been all over that. If nothing else, I would be excited for them. This is not a complaint blog. It is more of an observance blog. With four months to go until departure day, I can’t help but notice and observe the lack of support. This trip, I hope, goes hand-in-hand with my dream of staring a camp. “Perfect Circles” is not just a name I devised for this 2014 trip, it is the name of a hopeful future bicycle adventure ministry. This trip, I have made it known will hopefully be the first in many trips and adventures (with differing locations) in a series of “Perfect Circles” journeys that will, God-willing reflect research and support-raising for a future in Christian camping that may first take form as a bicycle adventure ministry for youth and adults.

Here’s to hoping a future blog will claim two or three or thirty-four.

I do thank all of you have expressed some form of support for me and my trip. Gratitude goes out to. But for now…keep the wheels rolling and the sending the prayer upwards. I will update more as “Perfect Circles” is formed and I talk to my present comrade-in-arms. Peace to you.