I (Lisa) have spent many of my growing up years riding bikes with my family. As a gift for graduating from high school my family got me an expensive road bike that was intended for me to use potentially for the rest of my life, so I could do bike tours and races.
About a week before my birthday my bike was stolen off my front porch here in Mt. Pleasant. I was shocked and heartbroken, but with one call to the police and another to my insurance agency, I had a check in the mail for about 700 dollars to buy a new bike.
When they sent the check I went first to craigs list to check and see if I could get something used that would be in my price range. On craigs list there was a bike, the same brand, style and color as mine for sale in Mt.Pleasant. David and I decided to go check it out.
We met with the guy right outside of the bike shop here in Mt.pleasant and it turned out that it wasnt' my bike, and he was selling it for almost as much as a new bike might cost at the bike store, so we explained our ackwardness to the guy from craigs list, and went into the bike shope to look and new bikes.
I was standing there looking at really expensives bikes and pouting and sighing because I really didn't think I could justify buying an 800 dollar bike when I know that I have a hard time paying my own bills, and I know people who have it worse than me.
David was trying to convince me that taking the money to take care of my immediate needs wasn't a problem, when the manager of the bike store came over to convince me otherwise.(those of you who don't know bike store managers... typically they are trying to sell their product... it isn't unusual that they might even try and sell you something you don't need... chough team active...)
Anyways, after hearing his little speach about how owning a bike is good for the environment, and how if I had a bike I'd be able to make a bigger impact on the... yada yada...
David looked at me and and said "it's not like you can take your bike to Sudan next summer, what good will it be there?"
The bike store owner was interested, "Sudan, what will you be doing in Sudan?"
We began to explain that we were going to Sudan to work with a Sudanese pastor, to learn from Him about how to love the least of these, and to feed the hungry where there really is hunger, and to clothe the naked where they don't have clothes, and to know what it really means to follow the red letters in our Bibles. We told him how far the 7oo dollars could go in Sudan, and how badly we just wanted to give it all away.
He looked at me and said, "Don't buy a bike, you have much better things to do with that money, in fact, before you go to Sudan come back here and I'm going to write you a 200 dollar check to take to the Sudanese people."
Praise God. His Kingdom is so exciting, and so inviting that even unbelieving bike shop managers who work on commission get caught up in talk about what God's kingdom coming here on earth.
About a week before my birthday my bike was stolen off my front porch here in Mt. Pleasant. I was shocked and heartbroken, but with one call to the police and another to my insurance agency, I had a check in the mail for about 700 dollars to buy a new bike.
When they sent the check I went first to craigs list to check and see if I could get something used that would be in my price range. On craigs list there was a bike, the same brand, style and color as mine for sale in Mt.Pleasant. David and I decided to go check it out.
We met with the guy right outside of the bike shop here in Mt.pleasant and it turned out that it wasnt' my bike, and he was selling it for almost as much as a new bike might cost at the bike store, so we explained our ackwardness to the guy from craigs list, and went into the bike shope to look and new bikes.
I was standing there looking at really expensives bikes and pouting and sighing because I really didn't think I could justify buying an 800 dollar bike when I know that I have a hard time paying my own bills, and I know people who have it worse than me.
David was trying to convince me that taking the money to take care of my immediate needs wasn't a problem, when the manager of the bike store came over to convince me otherwise.(those of you who don't know bike store managers... typically they are trying to sell their product... it isn't unusual that they might even try and sell you something you don't need... chough team active...)
Anyways, after hearing his little speach about how owning a bike is good for the environment, and how if I had a bike I'd be able to make a bigger impact on the... yada yada...
David looked at me and and said "it's not like you can take your bike to Sudan next summer, what good will it be there?"
The bike store owner was interested, "Sudan, what will you be doing in Sudan?"
We began to explain that we were going to Sudan to work with a Sudanese pastor, to learn from Him about how to love the least of these, and to feed the hungry where there really is hunger, and to clothe the naked where they don't have clothes, and to know what it really means to follow the red letters in our Bibles. We told him how far the 7oo dollars could go in Sudan, and how badly we just wanted to give it all away.
He looked at me and said, "Don't buy a bike, you have much better things to do with that money, in fact, before you go to Sudan come back here and I'm going to write you a 200 dollar check to take to the Sudanese people."
Praise God. His Kingdom is so exciting, and so inviting that even unbelieving bike shop managers who work on commission get caught up in talk about what God's kingdom coming here on earth.
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