For the third year in a row, our church has done amazingly well in raising money and awareness in the fight against multiple sclerosis. We had more than 90 people participate (either volunteering or biking) in the "Tour de Farms" MS 150, a two-day bike ride around DeKalb. Our goal was to raise $40,000 and, at this point, we've topped that by $4,000.
I rode 35 miles on Saturday with probably about 20 folks from Christ United Methodist Church (others rode longer distances). As we were gathering for our 7 a.m. send-off, I noticed again the numerous businesses who were present. They weren't hard to miss because they had employees/representatives wearing very nice biking gear with their company names emblazoned on them. Allstate was there. So was CDW, Walgreens, Harlem Furniture, and others I can't recall. I remember noticing them last year and wondering how expensive it was to buy those outfits and whether we could find someone to buy some for us.
(I had the same hang-up in high school. When I ran cross-country my first two years, we had these pretty ugly uniforms and old sweats. Other teams had the latest, greatest gear. I jokingly (?) complained to our coach that we needed new uniforms. On the contrary, he said, he loved it that we looked the worse. That way other people would underestimate us.()
CUMC had nice cotton t-shirts and some people wore them. We were actually a mish-mash of different clothing, abilities, and bicycles. I heard one of our youth say, "We're like a bunch of outcasts." I'm not sure if he meant that in a bad way, but his comment was right on. We were a bunch of outcasts in more ways than one. We weren't all dressed the samewe didn't have the best gear in the world, but we were a community of faith on wheels, people proclaiming (and huffing and puffing) that Christ is Lord. That makes us outcasts, and I was so proud to be a part of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment