Greetings, by the will of God and according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus:

I am penning this report from another public library just outside of Charleston, WV. Today, the bicycle ride resumed. I have already knocked out 36 miles and will probably pedal another 20 before we call it a day. God has been extremely good since I last wrote to you all.

On Tuesday, we attempted to go into Pittsburgh, PA and preach the Gospel on the streets. As it turned out, this was not the Lord's will. We drove around downtown for over two hours looking for a place to park the truck and trailer. It did not work out, and we took this as the Lord closing the door. Several other issues played into it as well. Through this cumbersome experience, God once again emphasized in my heart that this trip is not about in how many big American cities I can preach along this journey. It is about being sensitive to His will and divine guidance. What happened next would serve to confirm His leading. As far as Pittsburgh was concerned, we simply trust that the concise Gospel messages displayed on our truck and trailer were seen by people on the streets. May those simple words not return void.

Anyway, to make a long story short, Pittsburgh had so much road construction going on that day that we ended up lost and headed in the wrong direction. At that point, I was wrestling with the Lord in my heart about what to do. Should I try to go back again? Just like Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and refused to let go until a blessing was bestowed upon him, I refused to let go of the Lord in my prayers until He plainly directed our path. Jamie and Chad were asleep, and I was driving down I-376 East, diametrically opposite to the way I should have been going. I told the Lord that I would keep heading east until He did something to show me otherwise. Soon after this prayer, my cell phone rang.

The day before, we had stopped at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, just south of Cleveland, to check out this cool waterfall. I toy around with photography and wanted to take some photos. On the way back to the car, I had to make a sprint to the restroom because of some meatloaf I had just shoveled in at a local deli. Anyway, this seemingly unpleasant delay orchestrated things so that I would run into three young men as I was getting into my vehicle. They were out hiking and noticed the banners on my truck. As it turned out, they were Christians and we talked for a few minutes. I gave them each a copy of my ministry card and requested prayer. That was that; I climbed into my truck and drove off down the road.

Back to the cell phone—On the other end was one of those young men, Scott. He remembered me telling him that we were headed to Pittsburgh and wanted to see if we were interested in crashing at his place for the night. Amazingly, as I was driving down I-376 East, I approached the exit to his house as I was speaking to him on the phone. The Lord knew what He was doing all along, and like He blessed Jacob at Penuel, He blessed us.

That night, we stayed with the Mizener family, and oh, what a blessing it was. He and his wife are about our age, and they have two sweet little daughters and another on the way. They opened up their home, fed us pizza for dinner, and we got to participate in their little two-year-old daughter's birthday party. Late that night, Chad and I went with Scott to a local basketball court, and we played hoops with some other Christians. It was great to get out and run. Then, Scott and I stayed up until 3:00am discussing spiritual things and sharpening one another as iron sharpens iron.

It was bittersweet to leave the joys of Christian fellowship the next morning, but we needed to head back to Fayetteville, WV so as to resume the bike trek. Yesterday afternoon, following an oil change in my truck, we stopped at Friendship Hill National Historic Site, the home of one of our nation's founding fathers—William Gallatin. I am a national park buff and always like to stop at USNPS sites so as to get my little NPS passport stamped. Maybe a little cheesy, but a fun hobby. So far, I have hit over 200 of the 300+ sites, including 41 of the 57 national parks. Anyway, we got to talk with the park ranger, a fellow-believer who expressed a real interest in our ministry. This was a blessing—a much different reception from a National Park ranger than we received from that stiffnecked bigmouth back at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial in Virginia. Last night, we grabbed a cheap room so that all could be rested for the ride today. These two Indian hotel managers gave me a sweet discount when I told them that I was biking across the country. I was able to witness to them and give them a couple of tracts in their Hindi language. May God's Word not return void. After we cooked a weird mixture of chili and macaroni in the room last night, we hit the sack for some much-needed sleep.

Today dawned bright and clear—A SUNNY DAY ON THE BIKE. The ride has been nice and I have been able to hand out a few tracts along the way. Some miles back, I noticed an old woman with a walker limping along the highway. Her car had run out of gas, and she was trying to walk to the gas station to fill up a fuel can. To make a long story short, I grabbed the can, went and filled it up, brought it back to her and put the gas in her car. We then stood there on the side of the highway and talked for about 30 minutes. She is 81 and has been a Christian since she was 10 years old. Right now, she lives in an apartment complex owned by Bobby Cox, the manager of the Atlanta Braves (apparently, he is from West Virginia). As I understood her to say, Bobby's grandson manages the complex and has been harassing her horribly, coming into her apartment at night and trying to get her to have sex with him. He has also gone through her purse while she is asleep, and money has turned up missing. It sounded like a real tough situation. Because of the connection to Bobby Cox, she can't even get the police to do anything. It sounded like she does not really have any family to take care of her either. From our conversation, it was obvious that Lavena was a Bible-believing, born-again Christian, and she earnestly requested prayer for the Lord to intervene in her living situation. I prayed for her right there on the highway and offered to accompany her back to her place and put the fear of God in this crazy young man who has been giving her trouble. She declined the offer and simply requested prayer. Please pray for this situation. I do not know all the details, so do not take the above as necessarily an accurate portrayal, but I do believe that this was another divine appointment along this cross-country journey.

Well, I better get going. The road to Charleston lays open and beckons. Pray with us that the Lord will provide shelter for this night. Tomorrow, we head on to Huntington, WV, then on to Portsmouth, OH where we will put Chad on a bus for home. He has biked about 25 miles with me today, and we will be sad to see him go. His presence has truly been a blessing.

Until next time, we are most affectionately yours in the cause of the Blessed Hope,

Jesse & Jamie Boyd and Chad Currin
Full Proof Gospel Ministries
Revelation 19

a sunny day on the bike