In The Clouds

Today we rode up Mt. Lemmon. We had a pretty decent group of about 7, for a Thursday morning. Everyone rode up to various points and then turned around. But the cool thing was the clouds hovering on the mountain. The more we climbed, the more we rode in the clouds. It was a cool site as well as a cool feeling, giving the August temperatures here in Tucson. Clouds all around. That reminded me of God's word, Psalm 97:2

"Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne."

What an awesome God we serve and can ride for. What an awesome creation and a wonderful site we saw this morning. I wanted to "mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." as it is written in Isaiah 40:31. I wanted to take a picture, but had none ready. Here is a link to a picture what it looked like.

May God Bless you and open your eyes to His wonderful Creation.

Breakfast Ride July 9, 2011

Thank you all for attending the IC3 Eastside Breakfast Ride today. You all looked great with the IC3 colors and other people definitely noticed us on the road. What a blessing it was to have such a great turnout and have new people checking out the group as well. I want to apologize for being a couple of minutes late - Michael did a great job pacing me into town on the "ride before the ride". But once on the road, we were able to travel on a few roads that we normally do not see and riders had options to go around the loop at SNPE and Pistol Hill. I went with the group that toured the loop drive at SNPE and everyone did a great job of riding. our group had about 1240ft of climbing on the way to breakfast - not a bad way to earn a pancake! Hee hee! Let us know what you thought of the Breakfast Ride and whether we should do it again sometime - I for one really looked forward to it and it did not disappoint - the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ is priceless! My family expressed a particular joy at being able to help as well. Praise to our Lord for helping us do this activity - may we always be mindful of our Lord and always joyful in His Blessing.

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