Mission 66 on Route 66
It may be one of the most fascinating and diverse group of cyclists anyone traveling the “Mother Road” of Route 66 could ever hope to encounter — a Canadian evangelist, a 79-year-old Olympic qualifier from the former Yugoslavia, a Ph.D. student from the Congo, some members of the Pentecostal Church of Canada, and a mixture of men and women of various ages from the Family Life church of Penns Valley, Pennsylvania, all led by an AG pastor who once biked across the United States for missions with his longest outdoor training ride only being 26 miles!
However, the “Mission 66 . . . If My People” ride from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, taking place Sept 6 – Oct. 7, isn’t about raising funds or to see how fast it can be accomplished. According to K. R. Mele, pastor of Family Life — who learned some valuable lessons on his cross-country bike ride several years ago — this ride is about praying for America and calling people back to God.
“We chose Route 66 because it was the old road and symbolic of our desire to see America to return to the old way of thinking — a return to biblical values,” Mele says. The Scripture that inspires the ride is 2 Chronicles 7:14, which states: “If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
It might be hard to imagine how riding a bicycle could impact lives for Christ, but God has been answering the group’s prayers for “divine encounters” all along the way.
“We’ve given out hundreds of Mission 66 tracts and prayed with so many people,” Mele says.
Lloyd Vandenberg, a Pentecostal evangelist for the past 32 years from Paris, Ontario, says the ride is a sabbatical for him, but also an opportunity for God to use him in unexpected ways. He says he began talking with a young woman during a stop at a convenience store. She had fallen away from God. “I asked her if she would like to rededicate her life to the Lord,” Vandenberg recalls. “She asked me, ‘How do I do that?’” Shortly after, he led her to the Lord in prayer.
The ride team is currently made up of six riders and a four-person support team who provides food, water, and carries supply for the trip. Most of the riders sleep in a tent or hammock along the way, though if indoor accommodations are offered by a local church, they gladly accept. Austin Findley, is the group’s videographer, documenting the journey and posting videos and pictures on the Mission 66 Facebook page.
Mele, who makes daily posts to the Facebook page about their experiences on the ride, shares in those posts about multiple encounters with people who they have been able to present a tract to, pray with, and even lead some in prayer to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
But the impact the team is making isn’t limited to those calling the central and southwestern portions of the United States home. “Many people travel this road and stop at all the points of interest,” Mele explains in one post. “I was able to meet and give a ‘Mission 66’ tract to people from England today . . . and Italy yesterday. What a blessing to meet people from all over the world.”
The team varies in size as the ride progresses as not everyone has the time or stamina to ride the full distance. Riding six days a week, the group averages about 88 miles a day, not including Sundays. On Sundays, they don’t ride, but instead have ministry engagements at AG churches along the Route 66 path.
One rider that can’t help but catch a person’s attention — or ear — is Zeljko Pocupec. A 79-year-old who immigrated to Canada from the former Yugoslavia (now Croatia), Pocupec has a heavy and interesting Croatian/Canadian accent. But despite his age and rocking walk, he is a powerful rider. Mele says that Pocupec frequently leads the team in topping hills. But he does have an advantage over all the other riders — his father was an Olympian in 1936 and he himself qualified for the Canadian Olympic Cycling team in his younger years.
For most of the ride, the team has been blessed with good riding weather, although recently the temperatures have started to heat up. But the team is committed to completing the ride and sharing Christ and their mission with those they encounter. It doesn’t matter if they meet someone in a store, at a rest stop, or along the roadside, that person is destined to hear about Mission 66, Christ, and offered prayer.
“It’s been exciting to see lives changed,” Mele says.
Follow the Mission 66 team’s experiences all the way to Santa Monica via its Facebook posts by clicking here.