27 Million Revolutions

Let me tell you a secret.  When I left on this trip on Thursday, I knew that I would not be able to pedal 27 million revolutions of the wheel over 54 days.  I knew that I needed help.  I knew that it would require some serious amount of teamwork.

The title of this blog is 27 Million Revolutions for 27 Million Slaves because, of course, there are 27 million slaves in the world, and I planned to pedal 27 million revolutions of the bike wheel on my bicycle across the country.  But there's a second reason as well.  To put an end to slavery we need to start millions of little revolutions everywhere: in our personal lives, in our churches, in our workplaces, in our political system, in our communities, in our families, and so on.  My riding is not some thing that one person is doing and you all can follow along.  My riding is a symbol of what one person can do if they start a revolution in their own life.

So here I am in Greensburg, PA, thinking about all the little revolutions that we can and must start to change the world, and I thank God for Thomas, my driver.  To me and all of us he is a symbol of what one person can do to inspire another person to join in and together, as a team, do much more.  Everyday now Thomas has driven up ahead of me, hopped on the trail, and ridden the back-up bike backwards until we meet one another and then we ride back together.  So he hasn't doubled the number of revolutions but he has significantly increased the total.  And today we ran into a heavy hail and rain storm while in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania muddy backroads, and I didn't want to get lost, so Thomas, the ever-adventurous one, decided that he'd do the biking through the mud and the rain.  It just so happened that part of the ride included a massive increase in elevation.  I was certainly very proud of him.

Today was definitely a day of teamwork.  Thomas did the more adventurous mountain-bike type riding and I did the rest.  At one of the hills that I climbed up Thomas checked the GPS to see how high we were: 2,000 feet.  Another 2,000 foot elevation to check off.  Then I descended 800 of those feet in less than five minutes.  I couldn't have been happier.  Together we preserved our bodies, made each other feel comfortable, and encouraged each other as we pushed hard over the hills.

And together we can all start the 27 million revolutions necessary to end slavery.