Humbled

Wow. The week that I look forward to every year, Ride:Well week.

Each June a team of approximately 18 cyclist begins the journey of biking from the west coast to the east coast. They do this to raise awareness and support for Blood:Water Mission. Having been a part of a trip similar to this (climbing Mt. Kili) I know how emotionally and physically strenuous something of this nature can be. That is why every year when the team rolls through Dallas my friends and I do the best we can to make it a relaxing and memorable week for the team.

Our young adults community, The Gathering, has made it our special mission to make sure the team feels loved and supported for the few days that they are with us. One of the ways we do this is to host an art benefit that features local artist from our community. We auction off all of the art that is donated to us and then give the money that we make to the Ride:Well tour.

Last year we had about 80 pieces of art that were donated and we raised $3,500. That was huge for us considering the statistic that says $1 provides 1 African with clean water for 1 year. This year, we wanted to surpass that amount by $1,000, so we jumped in head-first. For the past two months a very committed team of people and I would meet every week to brainstorm, plan, problem solve, create and build a plan to out-do our last art benefit.

Well, the event was a huge success. We had about 150 art pieces donated and through it all we raised about $5,000. Although I've been involved in the planning process for this event for the past 2 years I've never been impacted the way that I was last night after we counted the money. I was humbled by the commitment of my community to spend late nights and countless hours putting this event together. I couldn't contain it. Tears flooded my eyes as the realization that the hard work we put it and the love that we gave to this benefit was going to provide 5,000 people with clean water. Does that even register with your brain? 5,000 lives changed. My life, changed.

Last night I realized, deep inside, that this lifestyle of giving until it hurts is not just a trend. This group of people that I'm surrounded by, they really care. We worked so hard and the team has cycled so far all because we want to see the water crisis in Africa ended.

This is crazy but we believe it's true: We are going to change the world. What we do every day is going to change this world. And I do believe that we will not rest until we see the change.

As I was driving home I was listening to a song that I love. One of the lyrics goes like this, "Rivers and roads. Rivers and roads. Rivers 'till I reach you."

I'm so humbled to be surrounded by a group of people that are willing to cross any river and travel any road until we reach justice.

Rivers 'till we reach you.