Agony Ride 2012

The Bottom Line:  I (Michael) am riding my bicycle in a 24-hour fundraiser to help at-risk youth and hope to go 150+ miles (Okay, okay, I blew this goal out of the water and went 255 miles).  Will you sponsor me either a per-mile or flat amount pledge?  

https://www.christianencounter.org/events/calendar/agony-ride-2012/agony-ride-sponsor-form-2012/

Michael in the 2012 Agony.  Photo Courtesy of Steve Monck

Hi friends!


 At the end of July, I'm doing a 24-hour bicycle ride called the Agony Ride.  The ride is at the 5,000 foot elevation in the Sierra Valley, just north of Lake Tahoe.  There usually are high winds, and it is always possible to have extreme temperatures (anywhere from 30-90 degrees).  I did this ride last year and rode 210 miles raising over 1200.00 dollars.  To those of you who sponsored my last year, thank you, thank you, thank you!  Last year I actually missed the first eight hours of the ride due to a sudden funeral, so you would think I could ride over 210 miles.  That may be possible, but this year my goal is actually 150 miles.  For the first time, my wife is going to ride as well, and we are committed to riding together.  We have chosen a more realistic goal for someone riding their first year at the Agony.  I am very excited for this shared experience, and the opportunity it affords us to encourage one another as we suffer together for 24 hours.  While the ride is certainly a great personal challenge, the point of the ride is to raise funds for the residential counseling program that is putting it on.  


The ride is put on by Christian Encounter Ministries, a care and recovery program for young people in crisis.  The youth aged 16-25 who enroll (all voluntarily) typically live in this residential program for 1-2 years, and are provided an on-site high school, weekly counseling, discipleship and mentoring, Bible Study and an on-site church, twice-yearly wilderness trips, and live-in staff who sleep in dorms with them, cook with them, work with them, and hang out with them in the evenings as a family.  In fact, I believe it is through these relationships more than any particular aspects of the "program" (such as four days surviving in the snow by building igloos) that their lives are transformed.  The staff become like family to them and it is during the quiet evenings shared together, or during the monotony of raking leaves, or perhaps in watching how they respectfully handle a resident cussing them out, that true growth takes place.  And it really works.  I have personally seen punk-kids with their hat on sideways come in bragging about their gangs and drug use, and a year later they are mature young men spending much of their waking moments considering how best to serve the newer residents.  


I have seen this because I lived and worked at Christian Encounter Ranch for two years.  This program not only seeks to help at-risk youth, but also has a leadership training component as well, and the staff primarily in charge of the residents are all leaders in training.  CEM is near and dear to my heart because not only was I a leader in training with them, but it's also where I met my wife.  We both formed lasting friendships with the residents while working there, and one young man was even a groomsman in our wedding. While we were privileged to be a part of the transformation happening in the residents' lives, both my wife and I would say that we grew more than the residents did.  I learned:  to consistently follow-through on what I say, that the way I word something makes a difference for whether they will accept it or get defensive, that my constant allowing of exceptions to the rule ended up making those upholding the rules look like jerks, how to be firm, to recognize anger as a sign that things feel out of control, that people can truly change, to not despair even when things seemed to be at their worst, to hold appropriate boundaries without feeling guilty, to be patient with someone’s messiness but to be honest about how it makes me feel, and that sometimes choosing to trust that someone's telling the truth actually causes them to tell the truth.  I learned much, much more than this, but I can't fit all 38 pages of reflections I wrote about CEM in this post; suffice it to say that I am a far better individual and parent than I ever would have been without the experience.  


So why am I writing you this?  I'm asking you to please be my partner in supporting this life-changing work with a tax-deductible per-mile or flat-amount pledge.  The ride takes place from 1pm July 27th 2012 until 1pm July 28th 2012, and while sponsorships in advance are ideal, if you are reading this now, that means it is August so know that you can still sponsor me after the fact. To sponsor me simply click on the link below and fill out the form:  


https://www.christianencounter.org/events/calendar/agony-ride-2012/agony-ride-sponsor-form-2012/

Thank you SO much!

Also, stay tuned to this blog for the results-- I will be posting shortly a post-ride recap of how the ride went.