Mike presents the check to Greta from the PRC and John-Paul from SFLI

After the donations from generous people like you stopped rolling in we made the final calculations and cut the checks to the Pregnancy Resource Center and Students for Life of Illinois.

The total amount that YOU helped us raise was $14.953.73. This didn’t quite make our goal, but it is more than we raised last year! This number was split in half and then donated to our two charities.

We called the Pregnancy Resource Center in order to present the check and it just so happened that they were going to be doing an ‘Adoption Dedication.’ We were able to participate in this ceremony in which a young 17 year old mother placed her new baby (Kathryn Rose) for adoption. It was a beautiful thing to see and a great witness to what your support of our biking can do!

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!

For the Babies!

– The Biking for Babies Team

Mike got to hold little Kathryn Rose at the Adoption Dedication

Team Wisconsin Finishes!

One day after the conclusion of Biking for Babies 2010 we find ourselves nursing some beaten down bodies and tired spirits. Our fatigue is only made sweeter though by our renewed strength from the Lord and His faithful stewards who have supported us and the pro-life cause in self-sacrificing ways. Thank you so much to all those who have and continue to pray for B4B, for our benefactors, for our charitable hosts, for our friends, for our families, and all of those who live as advocates to the worth of life.  We cannot thank you enough and are so appreciative to all you do!

We finished up the week of riding with the wind at our back after four days of a nonstop brutal reminder of all the opposition to the pro-life cause coming into our faces.  And let me tell you, it was glorious with the wind behind us!  We flew…averaging 27 mphs on the way from Effingham to Champaign, after averaging 12-15 mphs into the wind.  Spirits were flying high as we arrived in Champaign in the early afternoon, just in time for a beautiful beautiful Good Friday service, again uniting our week of biking to something greater than ourselves.

After the service we were able to visit the Champaign Pregnancy Resource Center and take a tour seeing where half of the total money raised in Biking for Babies goes.  This was where it all became worth it.  Even just 5 minutes of the tour would have been worth biking 1100 miles just to see the passion and love for life exude from Greta, the director’s, eyes and smile.  She must have mentioned the word precious at least 100 times in our tour when referring to the young women they serve and their babies, but I cannot think of a more fitting word…precious… that is what they are…precious gifts from God above, nothing is more innocent and pure and lovable…nothing is more….precious!!!

A final thanks again to all those who support B4B, in word, deed, and action.  You were there with us, grinding out the last couple miles of each day, climbing each hill, burying your heads and gritting your teeth with us as we pushed into the wind for just a little bit longer.  It could not be done without you, it cannot be done without you.  Life cannot be preserved and sanctified without you.  This two week ride was a pouring out of all our undying passion and love that cannot give up…that refuses to give up!  However, this two week ride was just that, two weeks.  God’s love needs defending always, not just for two weeks, not just for 1100 miles.  It must not end there!  Protect God’s most beautiful creation anywhere, everywhere, in any way possible!  There is so much you can do, Biking for Babies is just the beginning! Go! Act! Love! “And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love.” -1 Corinthians 13:13  Hope for a better day, take faith in a perfect God, and love God and all those you can as best you can!

God Bless and so long until next year (B4B 2011 baby)!

Jared

Waking up was somewhat difficult this morning, mostly because the beds we slept in were so darn comfortable. Thanks once again to the Brown family, who stuffed us with a delicious breakfast and saw us on our way.
Mother Nature is the most boring person. We found ourselves once again riding into 25mph headwinds for most of the day. I don’t know why wind always comes from the south; maybe it doesn’t. But it sure seems like it, and it’s not very fun. However, we know the struggles help to win grace for those who can’t defend themselves.
I won’t whine anymore. Today was a great day, and we are sitting safely in the Brummer residence near Effingham after 102 miles for the day.
Highlights of the day include:
Jordan’s rear wheel falling off while in motion.
Stephanie’s endless complaining about spending a week with “gross boys”.
Special thanks to Grover Everett for showing us the bike path from Taylorville to Pana.
Going north for a half mile; it felt amazing to have the wind at our back.

I feel like more happened today than I can remember at the moment, but I am tired and want to keep this post coherent. I will post more after I sit in a hot tub, or something.

Thanks so much for the continued prayers and support!
Sweet dreams beautiful world.

Greetings faithful supporters and friends,

I apologize for the delayed update from team Wisconsin.  I must say, the story of our experience keeps getting better and better.  Satan certainly does not like what we’re doing.  That in mind, we must persevere!  Keep praying:  Lord, We are weak.  Make us strong!

DAY 2:  All day we fought 16-27 mph winds and lost one of our riders towards the end of the day (that rider happened to be me).  Long story short, yesterday ended with a pleasant visit to Proctor hospital and two IV’s.     

DAY 3:  So, after getting discharged and returning back to Bradley, I settled in for the evening at 1 Am.  Woke up a few hours later to celebrate mass with the team and cheered ‘em on as they began their trek southbound to Springfield.  I spoke with Jordan earlier this evening and it sounds like they had another battle against the winds, but finished up in Springfield with a total of 100 miles for the day. 

Prayers. Fasting.  Almsgiving.  Offer it up for His greater glory and know:  “It’s not the size of the army that victory depends on, but strength comes from Heaven” – 1 Macc 3:19

Brother in Christ,

Jimmy

Sister Mary Joseph — Pray for us!

P.S.  I’d like to send my appreciation and honor my Uncle John for taking care of me and his family for welcoming us in to Peoria!  I’d also like to thank  Fr. Brownsey and the FOCUS missionaries for their hospitality.

While complications continue for Team UW on days two and three of the week, all of the riders are continuing to keep their heads up and have recognized an increased need to deepen their prayers.  The name of the game was wind (strange name for a game – we know) with points tallied in calories spent and lots of sweat.  We were super blessed to have a great night’s sleep at the Graf residence on Tuesday before heading out for Peoria. The day started off innocently enough, but by the afternoon it became pretty obvious that things would not go exactly as planned. Jimmy had persistent stomach cramps that would not go away – and when he had to get off his bike to ride in the car, everyone knew something had to be up. It wasn’t just the continuous hills or 20+ mile an hour winds, but he had to go to the hospital later that night for dehydration. A few IVs later he was released, but for his own health and safety he is now a prayer warrior for the team – and offering his suffering for the unborn, their mothers and fathers.  Thanks again to the Newman Center at Bradly for housing and feeding us – especially when we rolled in around 8:00 p.m.  Winds continued all throughout the day from the south – which was just our luck since we were headed that direction! However, 100 miles were logged onto the bikes and all the guys have sunburns to prove it. Many many thanks to Vicki Evans for the great conversation and clean bathroom. She displayed true Midwestern hospitality when she opened her door to two strange men in biking shorts who were in severe need of a bathroom. Also, the night ended on a high note at the Brown’s house with plates piled with meat (check the whole crew out in the photo above). We also found out that doctors are very normal people (wink) – although maybe not that normal if they’ll let three smelly bikers stay overnight.

Check out a couple videos from the end of our night with the Brown family:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWppjkh0hw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdrYmgUHMRU

Below you can listen to the Rock for Life podcast that features, among other things, Biking for Babies. Jimmy Becker is interviewed in the second half of the show. Check it out!

Biking for Babies

Rock For Life Netcast

Team Illinois had some technical difficulties with YouTube while on the road. However, your wait is over because we finally got the videos from Days 2 and 3 up online.  Days 4 and 5 are on their way as are the videos of Team Wisconsin starting with Day 6!

Enjoy!

Day 2 Video:

Day 3 Video:

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” A popular phrase based off Murphy’s Law and what would seem to be an appropriate title for Day 1 Team Wisconsin Edition of B4B, day 6 overall. Since this blog would be way too long to even try and attempt to explain everything that went awry we’ll just list a few:

1. Untimely forgetfulness to pick up Jordan’s bike from Effingham the day before our trek
2. Bike rack doesn’t fit on Jimmy’s car, take Fr. Eric’s van supposed to be used for 20 hour car ride service trip to Mississippi, and leave them with Jimmy’s car
3. 3 am calls concerning Jimmy’s car breaking down on the way to MS
4. No biking shoes and clips for Jordan’s bike (props to Nick and Jordan for rigging the best ever shoe cage made out of water bottle holders, zip ties, and LOT of duct tape.
5. Planning the route for today at Olive garden the night before
6. Up till 2 am with bike repairs before a 6 am start
7. Minor concussion within the first two miles of biking
8. Three flat tires
9. Directions leading us to a gravel road completely submersed by water.
10. Rounding off a tough day of biking and arriving in Moline at 8pm!

…And a couple shout outs to those who helped us along the way

1. Randy, a fellow triathlete, whom we met at the Paw Paw gas station and greeted us warmly

2. Belinda and John for the personal escort to the Graf’s House in Moline, IL

3. Grafs for their unbelievable hospitality in letting us stay at their lovely home

…And this is all in just one day! We have not become discouraged though, for we only have to look to the holy word of God spoken at Mass this morning for strength, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights, I have put my Spirit upon him… he will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth… Thus says God, I have taken you by the hand and kept you… to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” -Isaiah 42

Despite our minor setbacks we are able to rejoice in hope together, and persevere in love. Continue to rejoice in hardship and persevere in love for Christ with us… please!… we need you now more than ever!

Well… so long and good night from Moline, until tomorrow… for the babies!

Team Wisconsin

okay so this isn't exactly our picture, but it is exactly what happened to us

Stacy and I finally rolled into Aurora, IL last night around 6:30p.m. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to welcome our arrival at the Planned Parenthood. Good luck to Team Wisconsin which begins their trek today, leaving St. George’s in Aurora and making their way out to Moline.

Yesterday’s ride, on my part, was one of the toughest. Extremely strong winds of 20 something mile per hour head winds made it very slow going from the Newman Center at Bradley in Peoria to Planned Parenthood in Aurora. Stacy and I were able to maintain pretty good pace along the Great River Road where we were able to hide from the wind behind John Paul’s car and the Illinois River bluffs. Her brother Brian Hague, who joined us starting in Champaign rode the second half of yesterday’s ride with us–his presence was a great boost to morale!

Traffic entering the outer suburbs definitely got a bit crazy compared to the mostly un-trafficked country roads or secondary highways that we’d been traveling on the majority of the trip. Speaking for myself, it’s always a bit of a rush though–dodging cars with the excitement of your final destination!

While riding along somewhere in the middle of the trip it was a huge surprise to have my buddy Joe Puhr coincidentally drive right past us on his way back to U of  I! Crazy, small world.

Once again, thanks to everyone who made the ride possible for Team Illinois–Stacy and her brother, John Paul for driving and other admin jobs, Rose Schmallen for some really good videos she made (please check those out!) and putting up with moving at a snail’s pace in the car for many parts, the Brummers, my parents, the Daystar Community Center in Cairo, and the Newman Center at Bradley for housing and feeding us, and also the Newman Center at EIU for feeding us; and great thanks to those who prayed and supported the pro-life movement financially! You can still donate and keep Team Wisconsin in your prayers this week as they’ll be finishing in Champaign on Friday!

Finished up day 3 of riding here in Champaign this afternoon. I think I may be speaking for Stacy too when I say that mustering up the motivation to get on the bike this morning was more than a challenge after being forced to cut yesterday’s ride short due to “unfavorable” conditions. Just to recap–yesterday we only got in 77 of the 114 miles due to 30+mph headwinds, driving rain, and temperatures dipping into the low 40s. Veteran cyclist Frank Brummer, at whose house we stayed at called the day “the most miserable he’s ever experienced riding”. Well, I guess it will work. The pro-life students at the Newman Center at EIU put together a great lunch of spaghetti for us–thank you to them. We experienced some nasty headwinds again this morning until lunch which made relatively slow-going–about 15 or 16 mph for the first 40 miles. The head wind turned into a moderate cross wind in the afternoon which allowed us to ride around 19-21 mph for most of the afternoon back up here to Champaign. Special thanks to our driver John Paul for blocking the wind for us in his car.

Highlights to mention from day 3: great breakfast by Cathy Brummer in Teutopolis/T-Town, sunny day, below freezing temps for first couple hours of riding, great lunch at EIU, nice weather and good riding speed from EIU to Champaign, supper with donors Hank and Tess Wilkinson, a few positive signs of encouragement from passing drivers, and a few negative ones along with that.

Tomorrow, we’re riding to Bradley University in Peoria. Stacy’s brother will be joining us for the last two days. 40 Days for Life ends at the end of this week so keep that in your prayers as well!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!