When I am weak, then I am strong.

When I started putting this whole bike trip idea together I had great hopes of what could come from it. I thought about all the kids and how much I wanted to send them to camp. Well I can’t really send them, I don’t have enough money for that, but I wanted to use what I’ve got to help.

So after a couple weeks of trying to raise money, putting in hundreds of miles of training, getting a video out, and talking it up it was kind of hard to hear that I had raise exactly $0. Since then I’ve heard a few people tell me they are gave or plan to but I’ve not heard anything official.

Anyways, few nights ago I got kind of down about it. If you know me you know I struggle a little when circumstances outweigh my effort. When I can’t try hard enough to make things work. So after I have putting in 250 miles over a few days on my bike and keeping up my regular life so I was physically kind of tired. On top of that I have about a thousand other things weighing on my mind. Needless to say I was exhausted. My diet wasn’t keeping up with the calorie deficit I’d been racking up over the week.

Physically and monetarily my resources seemed to be depleting. My list of people to call or email about fundraising ran out. I did have a little victory, got in a good meal and a few more over the weekend to try and make up for the weight I lost a little too rapidly than is healthy last week.

Even so last night I was wondering how this will all work out. Then it kind of clicked, not an answer or anything, but the fact that even though my resources are depleted I’ll be hard pressed to deplete God’s resources. So my hope is that rather than because of me but despite of me this will all work out. Where I run thin is where I pray God runs thick. I can bike, I can talk, but I can’t give all the money or share the idea with people I don’t know.

There is peace for me in this verse that has been my biking motto ever since I started biking a lot 4 years ago. It’s even etched by knife into the paint on the frame of my bike right below my handle bars. After biking for hours my neck gets tired and my head drops and I’m forced to look at it.

“When I am weak, then I am strong”

It’s been there for years now so the letters are filled with rust as to serve a fresh reminder of some old advice. I remember it when I hit my wall at mile 50 and get over it, when it’s mile 120 and my legs ache like you’ve never felt before but keep moving, and the next day on mile zero when I have to convince myself just to get back on the bike and do because I have something more to think about. It runs through my head.

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses,

in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

This will always be there for me. When I struggle on the hardest of bike rides, when I can’t make sense of everything, when my weaknesses are glaring or when I am not sure when they’re coming but only that they will come. I remember that I have to trust in it. Believe in it. Invite myself into it and invite others into it as well. Because if I when I was weak I was weak I would have given up a long time ago. I would not have tried to send this kids to camp merely because I did not have the money. But fortunately that is not the case.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

*I invite you to think about helping out with this in mind. Maybe give a little past what you think you can remembering that you’ll still be ok. Even a penny a mile would be $8 closer to sending kids to camp. Click here to help send a kid to camp.

Here is the link to my online giving site if you would like to share it

https://giving.younglife.org/dp/donate/controller.cfm?ministry=area&classcodearea=campership&sponsoring=Travis%20Rieth&fundcodearea=MI25&appealcode=&fundcodeareadesc=Holland

Love you all.

121 miles

Yesterday I went for my first long ride. I’ve been training up in mileage biking or running and least once or twice a day.

The past 2 weeks I’ve spent a little over 26 hours on my bike for a total of 400 something miles. Yesterday was my longest day. I woke up at 5am to get on my bike. The sky was still really dark but I threw on my sunglasses to keep the gnats out and started on my way. At that point it was a comfortable 64 degrees and stayed so for a long time. By the time the sun was rising I had made my way through Saugatuck and to my favorite stretch of road right above the shore over looking Lake Michigan. The water was reflecting the sun perfectly off the small waves letting the whole lake glow gold.

5 hours later I had made my way south of South Haven, turned around and was back at that point of my ride overlooking the lake. Now the clock on my bike read 93 degrees but I felt surprisingly good. I hit a wall around 50 miles but was well over that at this point and kept up a good pace all the way back to Holland. I’ve never ridden or ran for a cause other than to figure out what I can do. I’ve had things on my mind, friends and stuff that keep me going, but it’s different now knowing that this effort could help change a kids life.

When I got back to Holland I had only gone 90 miles so I biked to the north side towards the beach and returned home to put in 101 miles by noon. Then I went to a couple open houses of Young Life guys and a couple guys I coached. Seeing them, knowing them from when I was a freshman until now, hearing from their parents about how glad they are involved reminded me why I became a Young Life leader in the first place. To help kids through high school, have fun and set them up for the rest of their life.

It’s so much in my desire for kids to have that I would do most anything. Especially the kids who don’t fit in, don’t have the families of the kids I visited yesterday, and haven’t known how good this world can be. With that on my mind I went home and ran three miles, got in a little workout in and then headed out for another 20 miles on my bike.

The good news is I’m feeling great today and feel like I could head out for another 120.

In more important/exciting news I’m looking for business and family sponsors for the trip! If you, your family, or business would like to sponsor please shoot me an email (travis.rieth@gmail.com) and we’ll talk!

Thanks!

7 Days. 800 miles. One cause.

One of my favorite things in the world is taking kids to Young Life camp. The first time I went was four years ago at Timberwolf. I’ve gone back there a couple times, to Castaway and Frontier Ranch. Knowing how awesome camp is and the good it can do in kids lives makes we want to go to great extremes to get kids there.

So when I learned a couple months ago The Dale House (where I worked last year) needed some help sending their kids to Young Life camp this year I had to do something. I took the kids last year and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I was able to see the kids that went have so many first experiences, step outside their comfort zone, but most importantly got to see how accepted and loved they felt by getting to go to camp. Most of the kids grow up in abusive and neglectful environments. Watching them go to a camp where they are treated like royalty, get to know so many new friends, and are truly loved for who they are was one of the most amazing representations of how God loves people that I’ve ever seen. I know for a fact it changed those kids lives.

Coming back to Michigan I started being a Young Life leader again and know there is a monetary need here in Holland to send kids to camp as well. When I heard the DHP needed help too I knew I just had to do something. I really wanted every kid who wants to go to camp to be able to go and saw a need.

To give online click here or call 616-392-6555 to make a donation. Thank you so much for joining with me on this. I’ll keep you updated on how the fundraising is going.