At 34 years of age I’ve decided that I need to learn to ride a bike. This was a skill I was taught as a child but growing up on the farm, learning to drive realllly early, having no where to bike, and fear of hurting myself all combined to mean that this was something I never learned how to do. But It’s surprising how God uses things that stretch you to teach you about compassion.

It wasn’t under my own instigation that I started this journey. A friend/mentor/woman I greatly admire asked me if I would organize a ride in my community that would support Defend Dignity, an organization seeking to end human trafficking. This woman, who I admire so much, could ask me to jump off a cliff and I’d hope there’s water at the bottom because I’m jumping. So I said yes, with the disclaimer that I didn’t know how to ride a bike. Didn’t matter so here I am.

So the journey so far has led my wonderful husband to purchase me a bike (name still as yet undetermined) and I have logged some kms so far. It was after a ride today, which I’m really starting to enjoy, that some of the meaning of what I’m doing began to register in new ways with me. I opened my Facebook page to read a prayer request for a 9 year old girl in Cambodia who had been raped, likely by her father, and had been hemorrhaging for 6 days and might have to have a hysterectomy. While praying for this God pressed it upon my heart that for people in prostitution around the world and in Canada, statistically, they are extremely likely to have a history of abuse, rape, and violence. These women trapped were once little 9 year old girls who do not choose the abuse they suffer.

I’m grateful that God has presented me with this opportunity. I’m grateful that he’s showing me that in even a small sacrifice of ourselves it takes us OUT of ourselves and focusses us on others. I am being taken on this journey for something and the benefits for me are likely just the side effect. We are called to cry out for change, be change, make change, and be changed. We sacrifice for others, stride out in faith and conviction so that this doesn’t have to happen to any more children and women. So I ride, I stretch, I give, I grow, I pray, and I learn more and more about the calling to see and sacrifice.