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Wanna learn about a unique ministry?
Posted : 27 Nov, 2010 06:52 AM
There's a group of brothers and sisters in Christ who love riding bikes ... and they've turned this love into a unique ministry they call Comminicycle ... here's an article that shares all about it from October issue of In Touch magazine that I was blessed to read this morning ...
Barefoot Enjoy!!! :hearts::hearts::hearts:
Steve
Ride On
Communicycle: Building Bikes and Friendships
By Sandy Feit
At first glance, it looks like a street festival�kids are  , playing, and hovering near the snack station, while clusters of moms chat on front stoops. A tent on the lawn shades a small throng of men, women, teens, and children, along with bikes of every color and size.
People are clearly having fun, but Communicycle�s mobile shop day is also serious business and an appreciated service in Atlanta�s district known as International Village. More than 300 nationalities are represented in this unique community comprising 395 acres around Buford Highway, its main drag. Josh Feit, �spokesperson� for the bike ministry (www.communicycle.us), describes the locale as �a place where, for a number of reasons, people have difficulty obtaining a driver�s license. If they are able to drive, a lot of times it�s really tough to afford a car. And public transportation is lacking, at best.� So for many residents, bicycles are the primary mode of transportation.
Unfortunately, there�s no cycle shop for supplies or repair within five miles�though to be honest, one might prove of little help. Josh points out that labor rates run between $50 and $75 an hour, whereas the typical street bike is worth half that. �So people basically just keep pedaling through really broken bicycles. Repair is a genuine need and a tangible way to touch folks with the love of Christ.�
Mobile shop day is just one aspect of Communicycle, a bike co-op with the goal of building relationships while helping people access sustainable transportation. The two-year-old ministry includes a weekly shop night, where eight core volunteers repair bikes and teach maintenance. By helping out, kids or adults can earn a bike to assemble from the donated, dismantled, and refurbished parts. In addition, leaders have held group rides, led workshops, and started exploring ways to advocate for safer biking conditions around Buford Highway. Asked how this unique ministry came about, Josh cites his church�s change of focus (and location) plus one other factor: daily confinement in a windowless office.
Being a Neighbor
Josh and his wife Margaret are members of a fellowship he describes as �a really small place with a really big heart.� The church was originally located in a wealthy neighborhood where its impact and relevance seemed limited. Then, Josh explains, members began to understand a key teaching of the Gospels: �Christ is really clear about what the two greatest commandments are: to love God and to love neighbors (Matt. 22:37-39). If those commandments shape all the other laws and ideas in the Bible, then that�s what we should be focusing on.� As the church family started to personalize this calling, they felt drawn to the low-income housing and apartment communities of the Buford Highway corridor�and relocated there in 2004.
Josh describes the environment and its challenges as �a very complex situation, with language barriers, all kinds of things related to people�s views on politics, immigration policy and reform, and on down the list.� He stresses that the move had no agenda beyond coming in and learning to be neighbors. �We didn�t really know what that looked like,� Josh says, �but it started to take shape in interesting ways, mostly affecting the youth. Through working with kids in after-school programs, volunteers get to meet families, and that�s how they build relationships.�
Several of the church members partnered with an existing tutoring ministry in the neighborhood. The experience was so energizing that they urged the whole congregation to participate and see how it felt to �come to life.�
Who wouldn�t want to feel alive? Intrigued, Josh signed up for two months. But he quickly made a discovery: �I�m not someone who enjoys time in a classroom or elements of formal education. I actually found it a real slog to teach and help with homework, which was outside of what was natural for me. The kids were fantastic, and I saw a lot of opportunity for relationship, but the venue was not fit for me, mostly because I felt I was sort of a poor teacher.�
So he started to pray, �Lord, I want to feel alive while I�m serving You. What do I enjoy doing that might bless others without draining me?�
Needing Exercise
Several years earlier, Josh�a graphic designer by profession�had been �working in a closet� and felt starved for light and air. When painting the walls Goldfinch Yellow failed as a substitute for sunshine, he bought a bike, started pedaling to the office, and quickly shed 15 pounds. He felt so much better that he began to ride for fun after work.
On one such jaunt, Josh noticed a sign with the bike logo and an arrow pointing up into the woods. Assuming the symbol indicated a trail, he tried riding but found the path �ridiculously hard, with steps, rocks, and all kinds of things.� Just walking his bicycle up was a struggle, and he figured the sign was wrong�this couldn�t be a real trail.
But �all of a sudden,� he says, �from out of nowhere, this guy comes BOMBING down the trail, shooting down this hill, and I�m seeing him jump off things and fly. And I just start salivating. I cannot believe what has unfolded: this thing that I viewed to be completely unbike-able�I saw someone fly down it in all of 30 seconds, and I knew, �Okay, this is something I want to get into!��
Re-Cycling
So began his passion for mountain biking�and his realization that the hobby�s expensive: �Not only do you need a lot of gear, but your bike breaks all the time. I was constantly bringing it to shops and paying incredible labor fees.�
Fortunately, a buddy of his�a former mechanic�offered to do a few repairs, and Josh watched, mesmerized: �I started to notice it wasn�t really that complicated a machine. I�m not especially intuitive with tools but felt I could learn.�
Meanwhile, he read an article about fixing up an old �rustbucket� as an urban commuter bike so that damage or even theft would be no big deal. Inspired, Josh bought one at a junk shop for 20 dollars and took it apart, down to the last bolt. �In the process,� he says, �I learned pretty much everything about how a bike is put together.�
�So,� Josh summarizes, �I�m learning repair, I�m getting interested in recycled bikes, and I�m praying to serve in a way I�ll love. And what I come up with is: I�ll buy a bike at a junk shop and fix it up in my garage on weekends. Then I�ll contact our partner ministries to see if someone needs transportation. End of story.�
The church didn�t have resources to offer, but this was such a small initiative that Josh figured he�d simply get started. Looking back, he says, �Communicycle has really built my faith because I�ve seen things happen much greater than anything I dreamed. It�s one of those stories that smacks of Christ telling the fishermen to cast on the other side of the boat�and all of a sudden, they have so many fish they don�t know what to do with them.�
Though it�s unclear how word got out, Communicycle was birthed when someone called to donate 25 rusty bicycles that had been lying around his property. The windfall caused a new dilemma, as Josh had to scrap plans to work out of his garage. But his church had just relocated to a warehouse near Buford Highway. �So,� Josh says, �we set up in there, and all at once, I was panicked! I felt something happening that was much bigger than I�d anticipated. That�s a really good thing, but it can also inspire fear. You know, you have your life and the things you do, and you�re not always ready for the boat to be rocked. It goes to show we�re not really in control of the boat.�
Josh soon discovered he wasn�t alone in the boat either. Of the hundred or so members at his church, a core group of eight started showing up Tuesdays to disassemble bikes and organize parts.
�We had no vision statement, no oney�I mean nothing,� he recalls. But eventually there was a small budget for tools and disposable parts like grips and cables, so Josh taught volunteers what he�d learned about maintenance. �Then,� he reports, �what really got us off the ground was the decision to offer an on-site bike repair day at one of the apartment complexes.�
For that initial mobile shop, the Communicycle team started setting up a half-hour before the 1:00 p.m. event and quickly realized what an ordeal it was lugging supplies and tool bins. Josh admits to having second thoughts: �I was wondering if we�d done all this work for nothing�would anyone even show up?�
He describes his amazement at what unfolded: �It wasn�t 12:35 before we had a line of people with bicycles to fix. We made the mistake of jumping in to help before we were actually set up, so the whole day was a complete mess�there was stuff all over the place; we couldn�t find anything. Everyone was sweaty, everyone was hungry. And it was raining. But it really showed us that there was a seed of an idea here, just waiting to grow�and that there was a real need.�
Growing, Morphing
Subsequent mobile shop days drew similar turnouts�and a surprising number of young people, who started attending weekly shop nights. As relationships developed, the ministry started focusing more on teens.
Last winter, a burglary left the group without tools for several weeks. Far from hampering the operation, however, the theft ultimately enhanced it�volunteers and youth continued to meet, shooting hoops instead of fixing bikes. The kids washed cars to earn money for new tools, and shop night eventually resumed. But by then, several teens realized basketball was their greater interest, so several members began formulating plans for a sports ministry.
A Key to Ministry
Communicycle is a good illustration of what Josh calls the �paradox of ministry.� Volunteers started out with the desire to demonstrate God�s love through a �presenting vision��helping people acquire sustainable forms of transportation�as well as through the deeper vision of building friendships. The paradox is that �without vision, you are wandering around, doing not much of anything. But vision isn�t meant to be rigid�ever�and must be held really, really loosely.�
Tapping into an existing passion has given Communicycle added momentum. �As Christians,� says Josh, �we�re servants; we want to do whatever God wants. But I�m good at doing just a few things and really not good at doing a lot of things. So to say, simply, �I�ll do whatever the Lord wants me to do,� on one level, yes, I will�there�s merit in doing something outside our ability. But it also makes sense to look at what we�re naturally good at and let something flow out of that as an expression of Christ�s love.�
Copyright 2010 In Touch Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved. www.intouch.org. In Touch grants permission to print for personal use only.
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