After the success of the I Will Go Ride in the United States in 2022, the cyclists are about to set off on a new adventure, this time in Australia.
Seventeen cyclists, including seven of the eight cyclists from the US trip, will embark on an Aussie version of the I Will Go Ride. This time the cyclists will be in two groups, with one team setting off from Melbourne on Sunday (January 29), the other from Brisbane on Tuesday (January 31). Both rides will wind up in Cooranbong, where most of the cyclists will be involved in the Australian Union Conference’s (AUC) Empower meetings at Avondale University.
Following a similar approach to the US ride, the cyclists—mostly church leaders and pastors—will be stopping in Australian towns along the way, chatting and praying with people, sharing their faith and distributing Christian literature, including copies of The Great Controversy and Signs of the Times magazine.
Having had such a great experience on the US ride, AUC general secretary Pastor Michael Worker is excited for what the Aussie ride will bring and the faith-sharing encounters they will have. He is leading the group riding from Melbourne to Cooranbong, a distance of some 1200km.
“We hope that many will be led to know Jesus through this ride,” Pastor Worker said, “and that this will inspire others to think of creative ways to share their faith.”
For Marcus Pereira, pastor of the Fox Valley Adventist Community Church in Sydney, this will be his first long-distance ride, so he’s anticipating “pain and plenty of it”!
“I am actually looking forward to the sense of community that doing something like this brings and meeting people along the way where we can listen to their story and offer a sense of hope,” he said.
The inspiration for both the US and Australian rides comes from pioneer literature evangelists Phillip Reekie and his nephew Frederick, who rode bicycles thousands of kilometres through remote parts of Australia in the early 1890s to share literature.
Follow the ride on Instagram: @iwillgoride
