Becky and I attended a memorial service last week. I didn’t know the man well. The service touched me more deeply than I expected. I left with two lasting impressions. I felt like I knew him better. His friends and family shared memories in an incredibly personal, vulnerable, and yet perfectly authentic and appropriate manner. Tears […]

The essential element of the FREEDOM TOUR is community. Of course we raise funds and awareness for the kids at the HOME OF HOPE. And we enjoy riding bikes. Cycling, fund raising,and fighting human trafficking comprise the face of the tour, but its DNA is community. In what might be a classic understatement, our friend […]

This video comes from one of our team traditions. As we prepared to climb Raton Pass on the first Freedom Tour in 2013 our friend Kristen pulled out her phone. “You guys have to listen to this song.” So we crowded around and listened as she played SNOWIN ON RATON by Townes van Zandt. We’ve repeated this […]

If you hang around cyclists you’ll notice their shoes make click-clack sounds when they walk. Cycling shoes have special cleats molded into the soles. The cleats attach to a particular pedal, so the rider can both pull and push on the pedals. You “clip in” by pressing your heel straight down and “clip out” by twisting your […]

Justice is a big, complex concept. The FREEDOM TOUR cycles to bring hope and freedom to kids rescued from human trafficking. We focus our message and our fundraising on one HOME OF HOPE and one group of children, but of course we’re concerned with broader issues of justice as well. We believe one small candle can […]

On the final day of the FREEDOM TOUR our team shared a different sort of meal. In a place called THE REFUGE, in a courtyard with gates titled Wait and Be Still, we gathered in peaceful stillness around the Lord’s Table. A circle of people bonded by shared sacrifice stopped to express gratitude and humility. Simplicity. A boom […]

I wish everyone could experience the initial gathering of the FREEDOM TOUR team. After months of training, preparation, and anticipation we’re finally together in the same place. Some come down the street, some across town, and some travel hundreds of miles. Some are old friends, many meet for the first time. Eighteen team members, a few […]

The FREEDOM TOUR creates all sorts of ripples. When a bunch of passionate people get excited and begin telling stories about this amazing adventure, there’s no way to predict how the impact will spread. It’s fun, interesting, and humbling to hear some of the ways God uses this crazy experience. The old (former?) teacher in me […]

“Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” John F. Kennedy Perhaps it’s time for an empathy check. On the last night of the FREEDOM TOUR several members of our team gathered around a flickering campfire. After a week together, in that setting, barriers tend to disappear. The discussion drifted to the […]

The biggest problem with change is…you have to do something different. Last time I talked about stones and altars. I told you each member of the FREEDOM TOUR team wrote a burden on a stone and left it behind at the top of Raton Pass. A note from a friend reminded me it’s not so simple. You […]

Have you ever carried a burden? On the FREEDOM TOUR there’s a lot of conversation about rocks. Some might say you need a head filled with rocks to do this crazy thing, but that’s another discussion. Each of our team members carried two rocks with them during the entire 500-mile journey. Stones were symbols in ancient Israel. […]