Tim Scott, the adventuring missionary of TBN’s “Travel the Road” put it in one of the best descriptions I have ever heard; “You get one pass at life, to live and become all that you can. To adventure beyond your reach and discover who you are. The time we are given is a quest; A quest to deliver the message of hope. It is a journey that leads you to the end of the earth, into the face of the unknown. It is a life lived for ideals, for the road is uncertain and the dangers are real. It is a moment when you step out of the normal life and live for something more. It is an expedition measured not in distance...but in the everlasting. This is the story of our journey that has brought us around he world, to witness the moments of eternity.” This Journey began in 1997, when another one ended, but it had its roots in the history of this nation, and the first time I heard the story of Lewis and Clark and their great journey up the Missouri River. It was a journey that forever changed me, and how I looked at missions; One where I discovered you can go to another culture, indeed another nation, and never leave our shores. You don’t need airfare; you don’t even need a passport. All you really need is to confirm the call…and go.
After BIKERussia ended, I kept looking for a chance to go back to Karelia, which I had come to dearly love. The door never seemed to open for me, until late in 2008, when EEMN director Bill Moberly invited me to go to Petrozavodsk in the dead of winter; January, 200 miles from the Arctic Circle. I’m a winter person. I thrive in the cold. I had sources of clothing and gear that I knew could benefit the team. My pastors and friends agreed that it sounded like a missions trip made just for me. I signed up to return to Russia. One by one, the rest of the team dropped out. The trip was not meant to be, and it never happened. I was bummed.
Facebook ™ is an interesting phenomenon. All sorts of people can contact you and read all about, some of whom you may know, and others that you haven’t a clue about. Early this year Overland Missions, an organization which I support, announced on Facebook that they would hold a missions conference at an undisclosed location on a Native American reservation in the American west. Using the GPS coordinates that are the only clue they give to the conference location, I found out that it would be held at a location near the Lewis and Clark Trail, long a route that I wanted to travel. In response to Overland’s post, there was a post on Facebook by Elaine Harris, who with her husband, Pastor Tim, are Assemblies of God missionaries, asking for help with “A Day in the Park”, an outreach planned for the middle on July on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. The Yankton Sioux were the first of the Sioux that Lewis and Clark
encountered on their “Voyage of Discovery”. All of these “coincidences” stirred something in my heart, because about five years ago, I had the idea of taking a team on bikes over Lewis and Clark’s infamous snowy September passage trail through the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, to the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base at Kamiah, Idaho. I looked at a map, and the Yankton Reservation also lies on the L&C Trail. Slowly the idea, the vision started to unfold; Build a team, take them to the Yankton Rez for a “shakedown” training trip, then take a smaller team out to the Overland location (Which I am still not divulging because it has not taken place yet.) and take part in that outreach. Well, that was my vision, or so I thought. But I can’t see with God’s eyes. I responded to Elaine, that maybe we could help; after all we are only one state away from there. She replied that they would welcome our team, and we could help in the areas of First Aid and Prayer Ministry. I set about doing what I thought was “God stuff.” (Shows what I know.)
To make a long story very short, the Overland Missions conference was moved back a week, because it was supposed to coincide with a large Native American/First Nations Pow-Wow at the same location, and we already had our annual summer vacation bought and paid for on that new weekend. In addition, the “team” started shrinking from 12 members to 6, to 3 to just me. Summer work schedules, doubts about cycling ability, and funding problems all took their toll, and by the middle of June, it looked like I was heading to Yankton alone. I e-mailed Tim and Elaine and asked if they still wanted me to come as an “army (or “corps”, as in Corps of Discovery) of one. They replied with an enthusiastic, “Yes.” As long as they were in agreement, I was at peace with that. Ultimately, it took me more than a little while to realize that, just as Jefferson had sent Lewis and Clark to explore and open up the west for the many that would follow, God was sending me under the leadership of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to explore doors that would be opening in the future for ministry among the Sioux.
The day I was to leave, I was running typically late, and even doubting whether I really should go. My friend and brother in Christ, Larry at Trailhead Cycle in Champlin, MN, had adjusted, tuned and “tweaked” my Bianchi Volpe road bike, affectionately named, “Clark” after William Clark, so that it was in it’s best running condition ever. I had picked it up at his shop the night before. My emergency medical gear, guidebooks, maps, GPS, and anything else I thought I might need were finally loaded in the van and ready to go. I called Ellen, ranting about the delays, and letting her know I was finally on my way. Less than five minutes later, I called her back, and fighting the big lump in my throat, told her I was okay and everything was going to be fine. She asked why, and I told her... As I headed down the road from our house, asking God and myself if I was really supposed to be doing this, He gave me the confirmation I needed; A Bald Eagle flying low over the road before me. The Traveler was proceeding on The Journey.
After BIKERussia ended, I kept looking for a chance to go back to Karelia, which I had come to dearly love. The door never seemed to open for me, until late in 2008, when EEMN director Bill Moberly invited me to go to Petrozavodsk in the dead of winter; January, 200 miles from the Arctic Circle. I’m a winter person. I thrive in the cold. I had sources of clothing and gear that I knew could benefit the team. My pastors and friends agreed that it sounded like a missions trip made just for me. I signed up to return to Russia. One by one, the rest of the team dropped out. The trip was not meant to be, and it never happened. I was bummed.
Facebook ™ is an interesting phenomenon. All sorts of people can contact you and read all about, some of whom you may know, and others that you haven’t a clue about. Early this year Overland Missions, an organization which I support, announced on Facebook that they would hold a missions conference at an undisclosed location on a Native American reservation in the American west. Using the GPS coordinates that are the only clue they give to the conference location, I found out that it would be held at a location near the Lewis and Clark Trail, long a route that I wanted to travel. In response to Overland’s post, there was a post on Facebook by Elaine Harris, who with her husband, Pastor Tim, are Assemblies of God missionaries, asking for help with “A Day in the Park”, an outreach planned for the middle on July on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. The Yankton Sioux were the first of the Sioux that Lewis and Clark
encountered on their “Voyage of Discovery”. All of these “coincidences” stirred something in my heart, because about five years ago, I had the idea of taking a team on bikes over Lewis and Clark’s infamous snowy September passage trail through the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, to the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base at Kamiah, Idaho. I looked at a map, and the Yankton Reservation also lies on the L&C Trail. Slowly the idea, the vision started to unfold; Build a team, take them to the Yankton Rez for a “shakedown” training trip, then take a smaller team out to the Overland location (Which I am still not divulging because it has not taken place yet.) and take part in that outreach. Well, that was my vision, or so I thought. But I can’t see with God’s eyes. I responded to Elaine, that maybe we could help; after all we are only one state away from there. She replied that they would welcome our team, and we could help in the areas of First Aid and Prayer Ministry. I set about doing what I thought was “God stuff.” (Shows what I know.)To make a long story very short, the Overland Missions conference was moved back a week, because it was supposed to coincide with a large Native American/First Nations Pow-Wow at the same location, and we already had our annual summer vacation bought and paid for on that new weekend. In addition, the “team” started shrinking from 12 members to 6, to 3 to just me. Summer work schedules, doubts about cycling ability, and funding problems all took their toll, and by the middle of June, it looked like I was heading to Yankton alone. I e-mailed Tim and Elaine and asked if they still wanted me to come as an “army (or “corps”, as in Corps of Discovery) of one. They replied with an enthusiastic, “Yes.” As long as they were in agreement, I was at peace with that. Ultimately, it took me more than a little while to realize that, just as Jefferson had sent Lewis and Clark to explore and open up the west for the many that would follow, God was sending me under the leadership of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to explore doors that would be opening in the future for ministry among the Sioux.
The day I was to leave, I was running typically late, and even doubting whether I really should go. My friend and brother in Christ, Larry at Trailhead Cycle in Champlin, MN, had adjusted, tuned and “tweaked” my Bianchi Volpe road bike, affectionately named, “Clark” after William Clark, so that it was in it’s best running condition ever. I had picked it up at his shop the night before. My emergency medical gear, guidebooks, maps, GPS, and anything else I thought I might need were finally loaded in the van and ready to go. I called Ellen, ranting about the delays, and letting her know I was finally on my way. Less than five minutes later, I called her back, and fighting the big lump in my throat, told her I was okay and everything was going to be fine. She asked why, and I told her... As I headed down the road from our house, asking God and myself if I was really supposed to be doing this, He gave me the confirmation I needed; A Bald Eagle flying low over the road before me. The Traveler was proceeding on The Journey.
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