Day 52 - Waycross GA to Amelia Island FL 88 miles, 5:40

Jesus said He didn't have one here. Paul could have probably called prison his. As for us, we are heading home, at least the Earthly one.

After 60 days of calling our travel trailer home, we are reminded how thankful we are to have even that one. As it is, we return to our suburban fantasy land with a far greater understanding of who exactly our neighbor is.

It doesn't matter where you are in this country, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, you can just walk into convenient store, a restaurant, a campground or a motel, and strike up a conversation with someone about Jesus.

On today's 88-mile ride from Waycross GA to Amelia Island FL on the Atlantic coast, Winston and I learned our neighbors are Donna, Sara and Linda (L). They prayed with us specifically today for Sara's son Brian who needs the kind of heart transplant only Jesus can perform. And then there's Chester (r). He's the owner of Chet's Barbecue in Kingsland GA. Wow, what a mid-ride meal that was. And, when Chet's not cooking and running his business for the Lord, he's ministering and witnessing for Jesus in the local prisons. Keep it up Chet! We love you, man.

Everywhere we've been on this trip, we've seen the same kind of thing. In some places it was more than in others, but it seemed God was using our ministry to pump up His believers at least as much as He was using us to touch the lost.

Over 60 days, we've handed out hundreds and hundreds of crosses in simple conversations with every type of person you can imagine. And today was no different. We even had a conversation at a gas station in Kingsland with a familiar person.

We were just riding down the highway after lunch and there he was waving at us. Hey, he sure looks like Steve Florence, I thought to myself. And he was. Steve drove out to see us to the Atlantic coast this afternoon (photos below). Thanks, Steve, for everything. We've ridden a lot of miles together since March of 2006. Glad you could be here with us, and pray with us.

Wish you could have seen more, but you got a glimpse of God's favor over our trip when Winston and I arrived at the beach in Fort Clinch State Park riding with Pastor Jim. We met Jim at the park entrance and learned that he is a chaplain in the military where he lives up north. He rode the three miles back to the beach with us, prayed with us and went back to his training ride. Good luck in that triathlon, Jim.

Over and over, God amazingly revealed to us how He is using His people as the Body of Christ to be His hands and feet. We are His rubber to road, collectively - pardon the pun. And it doesn't matter to Him where that is.

We so often allow the monotony of our daily routines to turn us into spiritual zombies. We ignore the people God is placing in front of us and ignore God in the process.

Traveling this country by bicycle, and waving our Christ aCross America banner for sixty days out here, got us out of that routine. It put us in a position to be 100 percent on purpose for Christ and we saw, well, the Holy Spirit at work.

I've said it before in these pages: you don't have to be on a mission trip to see that kind of joy.

When you wake up tomorrow morning - and every morning - just tell yourself, "I'm on mission for Jesus Christ today. I am going to open my heart to Christ and to the people He is placing in front of me, and ask myself 'what's my ministry with this person.'"

Please join us in shining a light on the folks in our country who are launched out of the local church into the local mission field to serve the needs of the needy. Think about how you can participate and jump in.

We made a decision to cover over 3,600 miles in around 250 hours on a bicycle to get a better understanding of where God would have us involved, and we're just getting started.

Thanks for tuning in. And thanks to every sponsor, volunteer and individual who was involved in any way with the planning and execution of this mission adventure. Look for a summary update of our 2007 tour to be published sometime in the future.

Also, if you are not on our mailing list yet, please let us know.

Here are some pix from day 52:

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