Jerry's Latest Miles 4 Meals Update

Right now on the Miles4Meals site it shows the team about 50 miles from Albuquerque traveling at 11 miles per hour. This update is from last night.

Hello Everyone,

The Miles 4 Meals ride continues! As of today, we have surpassed the $17,000 point in our fund raising. That will provide 77,272 meals for starving children world-wide. That is good, but we have a God sized goal of 500,000 meals so that we can feed 1,370 starving children, every day, for a full year!  I know we can do this. You can follow our teams progress, both our location and our fund raising at 5oaks.info/m4m, and if you would like to provide a life-saving meal for a hungry child, please donate a $ or two. [I think Jerry means a hundred or two.]

Today, we crossed into New Mexico and rode into Gallup. We are experiencing the fatigue, aches and pains you would expect after seven days of long rides through very hot temperatures, but the team's spirits and determination is still very high. We have witnessed God's hand in this in so many ways and have been truly blessed. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for us.  

Tonight we are the guests of Bethany Church, Don & Margo, Alan & Lizzie, and Scott. We just had a wonderful meal that Margo prepared for everyone. You would think that riding 100 miles per day would result in weight loss, but sadly we have been too well fed by our hosts. Not a bad problem to have. We were also interviewed and photographed by The Gallup Independent who will be running a story on our ride.

Yesterday, we were the guests of First Baptist Church in Winslow, AZ.

They provided us with roomy sleeping quarters in their new building. 

This past Wednesday, we were hosted by North Point Church in Flagstaff, AZ. We stayed in the homes of Dan & Elizabeth and George & Nevitta. Each of our team were also treated to a half hour massage by Theodora, who is a church administrative assistant for North Point Church and a licensed masseuse. The massage was such a blessing and it made the next day's ride so much more pleasant. Thank you again, Theodora!

Again, one of the true blessings of this event has been the time we have shared with our brothers and sisters in Christ. These churches and families have been so generous, hospitable and just wonderful. I cannot say enough about them. I am so looking forward to meeting our future hosts.

Tomorrow, we will be cycling to Albuquerque, NM and our hosts, John & Joletha Sturdy!

We really could not do this without the support each of you has offered us.

Thank you again and God bless!

Jerry Meras
Outreach Director

Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have four things I want to share with you today.

#1- One of our small groups has been conducting an evening VBS for Karen refugee children this week. They're running it for the kids at the apartment building of the Karen family they're connected with. What an undertaking! They've had almost 100 kids most nights! I can't tell you how proud I am of them. That's Christ, his kingdom and Five Oaks Church there at that building. And it's not just the adults from the group who are serving but their kids as well.

#2- The Turveys move to Peru is going to be featured on House Hunters International (HGTV) on August 29, 9:30am. Read about it here: "A Young Family Downsizes to Help Other in Lima, Peru."

#3- Tim Bubar is racing in the Faster pastor car race in Somerset, WI. Maybe you've seen the weirdly colored car behind the building. That's his race car. The race is this saturday at cedarlakespeedway.com. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for students, age 5 and under are free. For tickets, contact Gail Schroeder on Facebook or at gschroeder@fiveoakschurch.org right away. I know some other local pastors are racing and so is Vince Miller. I hear there's been a lot of trash talk going on between Tim and Vince. Let's see who makes it past the first round.

#4- This week's message is on prayer from Luke 18:1-8. What can we learn from a parable about a unjust judge and a widow who will badger him until he puts her in jail or addresses her concern? Come and find out. 

See you this weekend and God bless you, Pastor Henry