What have you signed up to do this time?

It's been 15 years since some friends and colleagues organized a group to visit the Fuller Center's Global Partner in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  So, it is time to go back to the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains to cycle and raise funds to build a house in the Congo. 

Why are you doing it?

As you may know, I've ridden the Skyline Drive in Virginia several times and twice with my son Levi to build houses Nepal and to fund the drilling of a well in Ghana.  But, Riding the Blue Ridge has been a childhood dream.  The climbs are epic and the views are amazing!

But this year will be a physical challenge as I'm overcoming a fall in September last year that resulted in a broken ankle.   The recovery is slower than I had hoped, but I'm back at it, commuting 10 miles each day to work and back.  I've got to find some hills to train on soon. 

As a founding board member of the Fuller Center for Housing and as someone who has visited the Congo, I know this challenge will be well worth the hours and miles in the saddle.

Thank you for anything you are able to contribute.  The family that will benefit from your generosity will be doing sweat equity and paying back the cost of the materials on a biblically inspired 0% mortgage.  The proceeds of that mortgage payment will be recycled again and again in their community. 

Climbing mountains on a bike is hard.  Building a house is hard.  But love is easy.  Thank you for sharing your gifts and prayers to make this crazy world a little better.

Blessings,

Kirk

PS. To inspire you here are some photos I took from our visit to the Congo 15 years ago but first a picture of a more recent project...

We had a flat tire on our trip to Mbandaka, a City in Équateur Province.  The children came out to greet us and Ryan taught them how to shout "Oye!"  Millard and Linda Fuller said that translates roughly into "Great Job!"   The kids probably thought we were crazy.  We are.  As a follow-up, Ryan remembered the moment a little differently... "I don't deserve credit for teaching the kids to Oyee -- since that practice came from the Congo, they already knew it! I was trying to learn how they do it, and did have fun doing it back and forth with them."

The above is one of the original houses built by Millard and Linda Fuller's Partnership Housing program which was described in Millard's first book Bokotala which was published in 1977.  It is still in great shape and enjoyed for generations. 

Ryan riding a bike near the equator, bringing new meaning to Bike Adventure!

Our co-founder and President of The Fuller Center for Housing, David Snell had the forethought to bring a copy of the Americus Times Recorder with him.  The front page featured the story of our trip. The ATR used to publish photos of local travelers with the newspaper.  That was a thing back then.  My t-shirt was from the United Church of Christ which co-sponsored the trip, and it was their motto, a quote from Gracie Allen, "Never place a period, where God has placed a comma. God is still speaking."