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Bike for Bibles (BfB)
IntroductionHow we got involved in Bike for Bibles
Wheels Across Australia 2000
Introduction
Bike for Bibles is an organisation that raises money for the Bible Society through people getting sponsered to cycle. They may cycle very long distances e.g. across Australia or Canada or around Tasmania. However, the distance may be much shorter, e.g. around the church on tricycles or the cycling can also be done on exercise bikes in the church hall or at a shopping mall. People of ALL ages are involved. It's one of those FUN things with a LASTING purpose. For more about BfB, please visit Bike for Bibles on the web.^ Top
How we got involved in Bike for Bibles
Malcolm has previously lived in Melbourne during which he took part in BfB twice. Initial involvement was through seeing a BfB advertisement in a Christian bookshop. The first trip was from Melbourne to Broken Hill. He trained very hard for this first one, cycling around 400km per week. Malcolm was very fit and ran his first marathon (42.2km) two weeks after the ride without even training for it specifically. The funds raised for these rides were for India and for Africa, respectively.
When he lived in Germany, Malcolm was invited to talk at a BfB event that was held in the Baden-Wuertemburg area. It was a one-day event, mainly for kids.
After our wedding we both came to live in Australia and entered the Wheels Across Australia 2000 event.
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Wheels Across Australia 2000
Riding from Perth to Sydney from 12th August until 13th September
We entered at the beginning of 2000 and started training together the last weekend in February. It was great fun and we got up to cycling 500km over 4 days at Easter. But then Elmari decided to rather become a roadie. Her roadie duties started with Malcolm's training rides on Saturday mornings. Up at 4:45am to cycle 150km from Camp Hill, over Mount Cotton, then taking Beenleigh Road to Victoria Point, up to Wellington Point and the same way back. Elmari drove behind Malcolm for the first hour or so until it was light.
The purpose of this ride was to raise funds for the AUSLAN (Australian Sign LANguage) translation of the Bible on video for the deaf community in Australia. There are around 40 000 deaf people in Australia. Each participant (riders as well as roadies) had to raise a minimum of AUS$4000 before the trip. There were around 33 riders participating and 7 roadies. Riders had to cycle the whole distance themselves.
We enjoyed the FULL support of our church in this project. Even from the first day we stood up to talk about it at church, people gave generously towards the project. In March the church had a dinner with someone talking about 'Evangelism'. The proceeds of the evening was given towards the AUSLAN Bible translation project. It was more than AUS$2000! Our parents and some other friends from overseas sponsered us and we went to a few other churches in Brisbane where people were always keen to be involved by giving financially and praying for us. We needed a lot of prayer, because cycling on roads where lots of other vehicles are, isn't always safe. Also the huge organisation behind a big project like this took a lot of thought and hard work.
As a last fundraising effort, which was mainly to inform people, we had morning teas at our work. Ladies from AstraZeneca, where Malcolm works, offered to bring cakes and Elmari baked a milk tart for them. Elmari also baked many muffins for a "Muffin Monday" at Lucent.
The ride itself was very memorable, to say the least. Elmari was shown how to be a roadie by two very experienced ladies: Jan Coggins (the national coordinator then for 12 years) and Loris Garwood (the wife of the Tasmanian Coordinator with a 14 years BfB experience). Malcolm was really fit and found most days 'a piece of cake'! It was wonderful to see how God gave each one of the riders the strength to get through each day. It was also a priviledge to meet God's beautiful people all along the way where people from different churches prepared evening meals for us most of the times and billeted us sometimes. During the ride we had our fair share of wind and rain, but also had many wonderful experiences. There was a wide, wide variety of scenery: from the 90 mile straight roads in the Nullarbor and the Hay planes to the wheat and canola fields and orchards in New South Wales. On the ride Beth, one of the cyclists, accepted Jesus as her Saviour. This was a highlight for us all. Other highlights were to meet some deaf Christians, including the Rev. John Hoopman (minister of the Adelaide deaf community).
We will always be thankful to God for allowing us to be a part of this ride. At the end of the ride we all bowed down to our Faithful God!
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Last updated: 29-May-01