Happy 4th of July

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance."
Psalm 33:12

Happy 4th of July. We had a great Freedom ride this morning. What a blessing, we started riding at 6am with a cloud cover. It was a prayer answered because we desperately need rain here in Tucson, AZ. But most of all we need the rain of the Holy Spirit to revive this nation and bring it back to it's roots. "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." Chronicles 7:14 And it all starts with us, do we harbor sin in our lives and don't treat our neighbor right. Well today we join as a spoke together to ride together and lift up the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

May you have a blessed celebration of the freedom we have in this country. Be safe and God Bless You and God Bless America.

"Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sin is a reproach to any people."
Proverbs 14:34

GDOP Tucson Cross Walk

"If My people, who are called by My name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wickedways,
then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

2 Chronicles 7: 14

The Global Day of Prayer Tucson (GDOP Tucson) Cross Walk was from June 2. - 11. Each day a cross was carried from a ministry to another ministry, to be finally delivered to the UfA Mall for the final event of the Global Day of Prayer.

We picked up the cross at EWOG (Eagles Wings of Grace) which is located at Pima near Swan Rd. We took turns carrying the cross shouldered, down Swan Rd to Broadway. Everyone who did not walk pushed their bike following the cross. Right before Broadway we met a cyclists named Joshua. He was shirtless and on his way to an appointment. He asked if he could join us to carry the cross. He shouldered it and carried it the fastest all the way to Broadway. We talk a little more, prayed and sent him on his way. From Broadway we went to Alvernoon, down on the bike path to 22nd and back to Columbus where we dropped off the cross at the Sober Project/Giving Tree church. We met Lesa who welcomed us when we dropped off the cross. We prayed together and rode our bikes back to EWOG. Thanks to everyone who participated and especially praises to our Heavenly Father enabling us short notice to participate in His event.

Ride For Hope in Phoenix

On Monday, Debbie from Fellowship Of Christian Athletes and I met some of the riders from the "Ride For Hope" about 45 miles west of Phoenix and rode quite a distance with them toward the host church in Tempe. The late afternoon temperature was above 100 F. We had a great time on the ride. As we neared Tempe it was obvious the time got away from us and we needed to be at the host church by 6pm for a dinner and ministry presentation. The SAG vehicles came to the rescue. The meal was great and the presentation was way cool. Got back to Tucson near 11:30pm.

Interestingly, one of the riders ran over a metal shard which punctured the tire tread and sidewall so badly that the "o'le dollar bill liner trick" would not work. Tire and tube replaced, we continued. Their progress was updated on the KLOVE radio network. There were some honks from motorists along the way. Those drivers must have been listening on their car radio to KLOVE. The honking certainly had nothing to do with my perfect cycling form. Tuesday's route takes them toward New Mexico and cooler temperatures. Hopefully the Arizona fires won't interfere with their travel. Jim Ulmer

Other Events Besides Cycling

Another passion of mine involving cycling are triathlons. Praises be to our Heavenly Father for blessing me with this gift. I starting doing triathlons in 1992 in Rostock, Germany. My last triathlon was in 1996 in Germany racing for SG Fiko Rostock in the Bundesliga. It was a fun race. Soooooo, after many years of not swimming and running, but only cycling, God enabled me to again participate in 2 events this sprint.

The first one was not a triathlon, but rather a duathlon (run, bike, run). It was the US National Championship which took place in Oro Valley at Innovation Dr. The run course had one challenge towards the end of the run leg. It was up the hill of Innovation Dr. The bike course were 2 loops around Rancho Vistoso Blvd. which were light rollers which we know from the El Tour de Tucson.

I participated with a few members from FCA-E (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). It was great to show unity with our yellow jerseys. May God be glorified in all we did leading up and during the race.

The Tucson Triathlon was 3 weeks later. It was a sprint distance triathlon, 825 yards swim, 12 mile bike and a 3 mile run. The swim and the bike distances were great and felt easy. However the run was a different story. After exhausting myself on the bike, there was little left for the run. That's why I am a cyclists. Or maybe I just got to run a lot more. Well I placed 8th overall and 4th in my age group. WOW, 40-44 is a tough age group to compete in. It was fun nonetheless, all those 40 year old showing the young once how to do it :-). It was fun, even after all those years. WOOOHOOO !!!

2011 Ride of Silence

2011 Tour de Mesa

We headed down (or up) to Mesa to participate in the Tour de Mesa (formerly known as Tour de Phoenix). This was the first year of the same race under the new name. The name change only reflected that the majority of the race took and takes place in Mesa. I think at it's closest point it comes within 15 miles of Phoenix and does not even pass through Phoenix. So it only makes sense after so many years to change the name.

God blessed us with the ability to promote IC3 in the Greater Phoenix area at the expo which took place at the Mesa expo center. We handed out Hammer gels, Hammer Fizz, sampled some of their HEED and even handed out some Daily Devotional Bibles. Thanks to Hammer Nutrition for providing all these goodies over the years. We talked to many riders, some interested in the club, some interested in just riding with Christians and others just interested in the free Hammer goodies. It is always a pleasure to give away free things at these expos. And because this expo is small in comparison to the one at the El Tour de Tucson, you got to interact with the riders on a more personal level.

Giving away free things also reminded me of Jesus, to Him and His Father be all glory and honor, now and forever. Free things are not free, and so is our live in Christ. Jesus had to die so that we might live. It's not cheap grace, it cost the Father everything.

On race day, Todd, Harry and I participated in the race. The race starts out with almost all riders heading down University Blvd. at 27 miles/hour in a decent sized group (500 people or more ?!?). We usually take up 3 lanes escorted by police motorcycles. And at 6:15 in the morning we don't upset too many motorists that have to stop at the intersections we are racing through. We even tripped a few red light and speeding cameras. I guess they got confused with all those cyclists riding over the induction loops. All that training payed off and I was able to improve my time from 2009 and finished in under 3 hours (platinum time). Todd finished in shy of 4 hours and Harry finished right around 5 hours. We had a great time at the race, no injuries to report, even though there were a few crashes. We established new relationships with riders from Tucson, that have been part of our training rides. Racing gave it a special bond.

We are looking forward to the Tour of the Tucson Mountains (TTM) and next years Tour de Mesa.

Training Hard And Being A Witness For Christ

In preparation of the 2011 spring races we rode hard and used the God provided opportunities to share. We participated in the Early Shootout which is a well known local training ride, leaving on Saturday mornings at the UfA. There are 2 Shootout groups, the Early group (the older more relaxed riders, yeah right) and the adrenaline filled youth :-) Both rides start at the UfA, go on Mission Rd to Helmet Peak, to Green Valley and back Old Nogales Highway. It's about a 60 mile loop which averages about 22-23 miles/hour (that's the Early group).

Anyhow, it is the usual crowd of riders, some you know by name, some you know by jersey and helmet :-) After some good efforts up Mission Rd and after the first sprinting point, a rider pulls up to me and said, "Hi Mike, you don't know me, but you are an inspiration.". WOW, riders that don't even know me are watching. Well, praises be to our Heavenly Father, because me being in my IC3 jersey and with references to christiancycling.com, what a witness for Christ. I hope and pray that they saw HIM in me and not me.

Along the same lines, one of our older IC3 members did his Saturday ride a little later in the day. He rode 51 miles and after about 45 miles "slugging up Rancho Vistoso" as he put it, a rider pulled up next to him and said, "keep going, I'm tired too, I'm with you brother and God is good, HE's the only way" pointing to the sky and yelling "God is GOOOD !!!". Keeping riders focused on HIM, mission fulfilled, at least that day.

And posting all those wonderful little God encounters on our ArizonaIC3-Rides Yahoo! email list, got the entire list fired up for another week, looking forward to more God encounters.