Submitted by co-founder Mike Schaefer; published 5/11/26
Seventeen years ago, on the second day (ever) of Biking for Babies, Jimmy Becker and I rode past my friend Ray’s house.
Ray and I had run my last (and his first) year of high school cross country together and, in the two years since, continued to share weekend long runs on my periodic visits home from U of I. Naturally, I invited him to join Jimmy and I for 40 or 50 miles on the way out of Freeburg toward the day’s destination in Effingham.
We biked the three miles from Mom and Dad’s over to his parent’s place on Cemetery Road—a strip of unlined blacktop that he and I’d run hundreds of miles on even by then. Coming down the hill with his driveway about to come into view, I was hoping he’d be there waiting for us but wasn’t terribly surprised either when it turned out that he wasn’t. After all, it was just a casual invitation and not exactly an ideal day for riding with it being March, grey, 40 degrees, and misting.
Recognizing Ray’s absence as we passed and then rode away, Jimmy and I shouted good-naturedly over our shoulders back in the direction of his house in case he was running late and would be rolling up to the road shortly after we’d passed.
We summitted the hill and proceeded out of Freeburg’s city limits, then Saint Clair County, and for the first time ever in Biking for Babies history—an entire area code. Six days later, we finished at “The Bean” on Chicago’s lakefront.
Frequently, Biking for Babies lore offers charming anecdotes of missionaries who waffled for a year or two before participating. Ray’s red and white Fuji Newest road bike never made it on any of the Biking for Babies rides, but this year, for the first time, it will—under the leg and lung power of Jacob Hirsch of Team Oklahoma. Much thanks to Ray for his passing the bike on to a (worthy!) missionary.
It was a real gift learning about Jacob’s own journey to his first Biking for Babies ride (especially over Bandana’s BBQ!)—his strong distance running pedigree, a life of faith emboldened by the SEEK conference, military service in the reserves, and his relationship with his brothers.
He recounted a recent visit to one of his favorite health stores in Evansville. Training for one’s latest physical challenge, of course, is a natural topic among this store’s patrons—in this case, two women whom Jacob was somewhat acquainted with. He explained how he was preparing to bicycle 600 miles in less than a week this summer and watched them receive his ‘who are you doing it for’. The way that Jacob described it, the women received his ‘why’… I’ll say “thoughtfully”. There was no obvious enthusiasm; nor was there a sense of offense taken at the cause. A cautious smile did appear on one of the women as she turned away from him.
“Faithfulness” is commonly attributed to God and desired in us. I prefer sometimes to think though of His relentlessness—a certain wildness and passion that colors God’s activity into animates little pockets of our lives that can create something new and unexpected years down the road. Biking for Babies wasn’t something that Ray was called to do, but God did have a plan for that bike becoming a necessary piece of its connective tissue one day.
I’m not sure what God will do with that woman’s heart because of Jacob’s witness. I can only be certain that it will be something new and unexpected—maybe 17 years down the road.
