Wednesday, July 18, 2012

So Close I can Taste it!

I ride a Giant Bicycle
RAGBRAI is so close I can taste it!  For those of you from outside of the bicycle-mad state of Iowa, RAGBRAI is an acronym for Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  This year it starts in Sioux Center, Iowa and finishes one week later in Clinton, Iowa.  We are going to brave the heat (the forecast calls for 90F weather) while we make our way along 471 miles of county roads with thousands of others.  I'm ready to go - my training has gone well.  And I'm ready to start sampling the best pies the Iowa-church-ladies have to offer.  If last year's pie effort is duplicated in 2012, RAGBRAI may need to be re-named: Rag-Pie!


I ride RAGBRAI for fun but also to raise funds for New Life Prison Community.  We set an outrageous goal of $20,000 a few months ago.  Believe it or not, we're already 95% of the way there.  We only have a few hundred dollars to crash the $20K barrier.  Will you help us get to the finish line?  Donate today!


New Life Prison Community
408 Maple Street
Pella, IA 50219

Great Book


I really enjoyed this read from Henri Nouwen.  I've read it before and I'm sure I'll read it again.  Nouwen wrote about the renewal of people working in ministry.  He describes how the spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude and prayer can draw a person ever closer into the heart of God.  It was a good reminder for me as I seek to serve men in prison with compassion.  Nouwen transports me to Scriptures and the desert fathers in order to make his case. It's a convincing case - those who want to fill others need to be filled themselves: By the Spirit of God.

I give you my heart.