La Poderosa

La Poderosa ha caido. The Mighty One has fallen. What is La Poderosa you may ask? She's my bike. My baby. An old touring bike from the 80s (I think?), she has been through thick and thin. However, today, she fell. I pedaled her into something that, although unidentified, was both big and sharp. It slashed about 3/4 of an inch of the tire.

Now you might be thinking, "Andy, cry me a river. What's all the fuss about?" The fuss, my friends, is over the fact that I thought we were going the distance. I thought she and I could go all the way without a single flat tire. That changed today. Yet a wise man once asked, "Why do we fall?" He proceeded to answer himself, "So that we can learn.... to pick ourselves up." Turns out, as I examined my wheel later, I saw a broken spoke. We must now take La Poderosa, or more affectionately "La", to the shop. But she will pick herself back up. She may be physically broken, but she remains spiritually alive. I'd like to consider the women of the Congo here. Though they have fallen, through Christ's message of hope and light and love, they learn to pick themselves up. Or, rather, God picks them up in all his awesome power.

It behooves us to mention that Jon Felker is the last samurai to have ridden without one flat tire. Let's give him a round of applause. We'll see how long he lasts.

Today, the team cycled through our first day of hill country and did quite well. We left the Brown's house with gusto and arrived at a lovely Episcopal church in Henderson, NC called the Church of the Holy Innocents. The charismatic/brilliant minister, Father Don, took us out to a nice dinner coupled with even nicer conversation. A short tidbit-- he went to college with my neighbors in Albany, GA the Daughertys. So Mike and Syndee Daugherty, if y'all see this, hello. Mike we have got to go golf later this summer.

We live in such a small world, but isn't it amazing when we find that as believers, we are connected in an even more profound way? The night continued peacefully as the group walked and talked together and later did our bible study. Each day, we see the power of prayer, and for me at least, the ease and cohesion with which this team gets along and works together is astounding.

One final thing-- I'd like to start a tradition for this blog. We'll call it.....Word of the Day. Original, right? The Word of the Day, or WOD, will be relevant to the activities or conversations of the day, and more often than not, intellectually stimulating. Such words of past days on this trip have been jocular (Bryan Dougan), lethargic (Shannon Cutlip), cognizant (Tom Trageser), and immutably (Andy Clack). Today's WOD is not up to standard, because I'm not even sure it's a word. But somebody's gotta throw Marianne a bone. And so, the WOD is.....odigy. We suspect it is a synonym for indigestion. Marianne used it at the dinner table this evening. Thanks, Mari. And with that, we bid you goodnight. Fare thee well.