If you had tried to tell me just a couple of years back that I would be spending the last few months prepping for a 140 mile bike ride…I would have told you that you were nuts. The very fact that I actually even KNOW what “Lateral Lunges”, “Renegade Rows” and “Bulgarian Spilt Squats” are… is in itself pretty wacky…but the reality is that I have been regularly performing those crazy things for months-on-end in preparation for this upcoming week.It is all for a really good cause and it is all for some really amazing kids.
I am heading out west to join the leaders and friends of The Scranton School for Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing Children on what promises to be an adventurous [and hopefully profitable!] bike ride from Pittsburgh, PA to Cumberland, MD. The terrific kids from this new school are in need of a van to get them around town for extracurricular activities and community service projects. The vehicle is going to cost $20,000 and a few of us are trying to put a dent in that. The cost that is…not the van!
So why am I telling you all about this? Well, as the senior-est citizen of fit4service, I guess I’m hoping you might somehow conclude that “if that old guy can pull off something this crazy…then there really must be something to all this P.I.E.S. stuff”!
But mostly, I just wanted to share with you how grateful I am for the chance to put "fit4service" to the test!
You see, these kids are really great kids. They range from kindergarten to high school seniors and they are smart and kind and funny and fun…and they also happen to be deaf. And let me tell you…just because there may be a “P” glitch with their ears…these kids have an extraordinary grasp on the “I. and the E. and the S.”!!!
I have had the most remarkable time getting to know them and witnessing their high-spirited goodness this past year. The school opened its doors in September and my wife is the new librarian there. The campus is right up the street from our house. When she was hired, she was challenged to learn a whole new language [American Sign Language] and we have been studying it together at classes in the school. ASL is a beautiful and expressive language and it has been both challenging and fulfilling “getting my I on” in learning all of the intricacies of a whole new language...even as I learned more and more about how really great these amazing young people are.
Last winter, the kids at The Scranton School showed me ~ in a direct and measurable way ~ what Dr. King always said, “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.” During an awful snap of sub-zero weather here last winter, a shelter for the homeless found itself in dire need of coats and clothing. The kids, faculty and families at The Scranton School came to the rescue. In no time at all, they collected and delivered a stunning load of goods to help out. It was so impressive how they all stepped up. The whole effort wasn’t about them…it was about them helping out someone else.
My friends at The Scranton School personify for me the true value of fit4service…living out our purpose to the best of our ability, accessing all our God-given talents and gifts and committing them to serve Him and others. They don’t just talk about being fit4service…they live it!
I am always so grateful for f4s. It challenges us to challenge our bodies, our minds, our attitudes and ours hearts to strive to that ultimate purpose of serving Him by serving others.
So if I have had to endure a whole bunch of seemingly meaningless [yet progressively successful!] exercises in order to participate in this challenging 140-mile sojourn…it will have all been worth it just to be able to say I too tried my best to help out someone else. Wish us luck!
