Mennonite Bikers Move Towards Better Communication

Matt Styer

Kristin Swartley (left) leads a pack of Bike Movement riders. Beginning in Portland, Oregon, the group traveled 42 days before ending up back on the East coast in New Jersey. They averaged 80 miles a day at about 15 miles per hour.

On Aug. 25, after thirty-five hundred and eighty-four miles and 10 states, Bike Movement, a group of young adults with a mission, finished its 42 day bicycle journey across the country in Ocean City, NJ. The bikers started July 10th in Portland, Oregon.

The riders averaged over 80 miles a day at with an average speed of 15 mph. On their best day they accomplished a "double century" (200 miles). "By lunch break at mile 132, the riders were well over halfway to their double century mark. "I was having my doubts around mile 116," Kendra Nissley said. "But then we stopped and we ate something, and I felt a lot better." Tim Showalter was even more confident. "It wasn't even hard yet." He later added, "I love doing stupid stuff like this." After a half an hour lunch break, the riders were anxious to get back on road," said Denver Steiner.

Bike Movement was comprised of over 59 different riders and support crew members with as many as 16 riders at a time. Some participants joined the group for a day or a week, but a few core riders stuck it out till the end. The Bike Movement participants that completed over 75 percent of the trip include: Alicia Horst-communication and research editor, David Landis-general coordinator, Denver Steiner- video & web communication, Drew Foderaro - trip DJ, Kendra Nissley, Llamabull - trip mascot, Teresa Lehman, Nathan Maust, Sarah Thompson, Tim Showalter, and Timothy Shenk.

Writing in his journal,Tim Showalter recounted this experience, "95 miles today. Behind us now are the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains; Tim Shenk was almost clipped by some motorcyclists on his downhill crash and Kendra careened into the side of the car that the mayor of Lander, Wyo. was driving. Seven of eight bikers have taken some sort of spill - we refer to them, reverently, as 'wipe-outs.' We've outsmarted black bear, coyotes, rattlesnakes - in some ways it feels like it's us against the elements - the world. Some days I surmise that the Anabaptists would be proud. And at other times I realize that the hardest parts are yet to come. Because we're doing community - we're doing life together - we're doing church."

In her journal, Jenny Hartwig wrote about other aspects of the trip: "In order to intentionally develop a community on this trip, we have undertaken the task of telling and listening to one another's stories. Each person takes a turn and can choose to share any piece of their history with the goal of helping the rest of the group to better understand why it is that they believe what they believe and struggle with some issues and not others."

Bike Movement is a Mennonite affiliated group that sports the tag line, "Cultivating a relevant community through conversation." The group carried out this idea by traveling through Mennonite population centers from the west coast to the east coast. Bike Movement states, "The journey was a call for the church to reemerge as a movement rather than an institution."

The groups also intends to open dialog with the Mennonite churches in the US, but also to get the attention of the church on a global level. Sarah Thompson, of Elkhart, Ind., "Our future in the church is linked to the future of the church globally. We aim to connect groups of young people across the country and the world to think about how they conceptualize church and the message of Jesus in their lives."

Bike Movement also used this as way to raise money to help youth from the global south to be able to attend the Mennonite World Conference Global Youth Summit that will be held in Paraguay in 2009. They hope to get donors to give $15 per mile to reach their goal of $50,000.