While talking to a friend the other day it finally sunk in that tour is rapidly approaching. In our last few days at home Lizzy and I are tying up some loose ends and preparing for life away from home. Both of us are in the process of moving (which is kind of funny), I’m finishing up the last two days of my undergraduate career, Lizzy is shoring up the Beef house, and we both are running through some interviews by local news sources. The McMinnville Newsregister was kind enough to give Within Biking Distance some publicity, as well as McTV’s Howie Do’in. The local radio station is planning on talking with us about Watsi this afternoon. (Hopefully we’ll have our TV interveiw up on the site within a couple of days) 

Coincidentally, Lizzy and I were both up in Bellingham last week–neither of us realized the other was going to be there. I was able to meet up with some old friends and summit Buckhorn Mountain on the Olympic Penninsula. It is good for the soul to be on top of a mountain, and I am incredibly greatful to my friend Mary for teaching me that. Mary is a linguist, mountaineer, and Tolkien fan who loves Jesus– and I love math and history and have been reading books covering the Cultural Revolution in China, and the Japaneese Fugo project. . . so you can imagine the hours of invigorating, nerdy conversation that followed us up the mountain.

Mary and her husband Ben are preparing to move to Paupa New Guinea within a year or so and work on a language preservation/Bible translation project. If you are interested in their story, you can follow their blog by clicking Here . 

Thanks for bearing with us through this countdown, it seems we’ve been saying “only a couple more weeks” for a year, but I assure you, we will actually be leaving on Friday the 8th– that’s merely 8 days! YIKES!

Amanda, creater of Worthy of Hessed, a blog to dialoge fatherlessness

Up and up.

Bigfoot crosses the water.

Mountains for days!

While up in the mountains, Mary found this mine. This is the Tubal-Cain Mine, named after Tubal-Cain the copper smith in the Bible. This was a copper mine that opened in1902. It was too far from civilization to be profitable and a few years after it opened, a landslide crushed a significant proportion of the mining operation. The miners simply walked away leaving a big ol’ mountain hole. We camped at the mouth  and explored it a bit in the morning. Fortunately no goblins came out of it in the night!

Click on Mengistu’s picture to head on over to the Watsi site and see him & all the other patients currently in need.

MENGISTU’S STORY

“Mengistu is very likeable and intelligent,” says our medical partner, Ortho FOCOS (OF). “He is currently in stage 1 at a local school and dreams of becoming a doctor!”

 

Eight-year-old Mengistu lives in Ethiopia with his two siblings, father and step-mother. “The family lives in a two room mud house and does not have access to electricity or running water,” says OF.

 

Mengistu has kyphosis- an exaggerated rounding of the back. He has trouble standing straight and is developing a hunch back. He walks at a very slow pace.

 

For $1500, OF can correct Mengistu’s kyphosis and allow him to live without constant pain and discomfort. He is also expected to regain full mobility.

 

“At such a young age with such a severe deformity, this surgery will save his life,” says OF.

 

Let’s help make it happen!

As always, if you enter the Watsi site through https://watsi.org/welcome/within-biking-distance/within-biking-distance your donation will be tracked in our campaign. If not, that’s cool too. We just want you folks to help folks.

-Lizzy

P.S. This kid is the cutest. The end.

Click on Phillipe’s picture to head on over to the Watsi site and see him & all the other patients currently in need.

PHILLIPPE’S STORY

 

Say hi to Phillippe, a one-year-old boy from Haiti! According to our medical partner, Haiti Cardiac Alliance (HCA), “Phillippe is his mother’s first child, and is very popular with his cousins, aunts, and uncles. He learned to take his first steps and is now trying to walk everywhere he can, holding on to furniture as he goes. He is a very sweet and curious child.”

 

Unfortunately, “Phillippe was born with a condition called patent ductus arteriosus, in which a hole that is normally present in the heart of a developing fetus fails to close after birth. As a result, blood can flow through this hole without passing through the lungs to get oxygen, stunting his development and making him weak and sickly,” explains HCA.

 

For $1,500, Phillippe will receive surgery to completely close the hole in his heart, and he will no longer experience any symptoms from his condition. “It’s a dream come true for us that Phillippe can get better!” says his mother. Let’s help Phillippe get healthy!

As always, if you enter the Watsi site through https://watsi.org/welcome/within-biking-distance/within-biking-distance your donation will be tracked in our campaign. If not, that’s cool too. We just want you folks to help folks.

Also, folks, I’m in freak-out mode! Just a few weeks before we hit the road! I’m packing up all my crap to put into storage and doing all sorts of last minute planing, preparing, & prepping. Also, also, you might hear us on the Mac radio station ( KLYC 1260 AM) sometime in the future. We’re trying to get in touch with local media to spread awareness for our cause.

Anyways, have a thuper Thursday.
-Lizzy

Mt. Jefferson: totally irrelevant to this post, but beautiful.

April showers bring May flowers, or so I’ve heard, but I would say April showers bring thoughts about soon-coming, soggy May bicycle tours. The roads have been a bit wet the past few days but we’ve seen worse. Enough complaining.

The calendar marks 24 days until we actually leave. At this point I have resigned myself to the idea that it will be a torrential downpour the first week of tour, and then snowing the second–that way I won’t be disappointed if my premonitions aren’t true.

Lizzy has been busy constructing a Beef House out of a mailbox, I think its coming together marvelously. It is amazing how complex a “simple” problem of on-the-road-rat-containment-systems can be. Beefy had a surgery last week (he had to wear a cone. sadface.) but he has made a full recovery and was even back at church last night. He has just been so excited about leaving he can’t contain himself! There really isn’t that much left to plan, all we need to do is wait.

I guess what I’m saying is . . . We’re really, finally, truly, seriously ready to go! (at least once the ran environment is ready. . .)

–Haley