Brainstorming with UIC Students

Today 7 University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) students came to HWI office to gather information for the US trike feasibility study they are doing for us as a class project. I (Alice) thought they were Masters level students but today I learned they are all undergraduates completing their degree in kinesiology, the same degree I got from UIC back in 1990.

Our trike team spent 3 hours answering their questions, telling how our trike division evolved and when their brains were spinning from all the technical information I got to share my personal story and give God the glory. The energy, enthusiasm, excitement, and interest they had for the project was electrifying. 

 

Watching them try the trikes, hearing why they chose the project, sharing some good laughs and exchanging great ideas was all a plus.One student was a marathon runner. He said he would love to use one of our trikes to train for marathons, getting his upper body in shape. He took it for the longest ride. Kevin our engineer said, “I haven’t seen anyone burn rubber on the trike yet.” So this guy took it as a personal challenge and gave it his best effort. Afterwards Kevin said, “I saw rubber burning.”  My eyesight wasn’t quite that clear!

How is your eyesight?

When I left the joy in my heart bubbled over and out. Today God gave me much more than I could have ever imagined. My dream was to teach physical education and pursue my PhD in exercise physiology but my disability made that an impossibility.  

Mailbox Surprises

Today I received two fun pieces of mail. 

The first was a letter from an St. James Episcopal Church in New Hampshire. Before opening it I thought, "Who heard about us in NH and how did they hear about us." The check was accompanied with a short note that said, "With our prayers and support Tobias and St James Episcopal Church." The note made my, Alice's, day because back in 1983 I lived with Tobias, Rose and their then three children in Harare Zimbabwe while doing a nine-week mission trip. While using their family bike, I thought,"if I only had a brake cable and a tool I could fix this bike." It was then that I knew God was calling me to provide tools so the nationals could serve their own people. The idea germinated for 20 years until 2003 when a Tanzanian mentioned how valuable a bicycle would be to help nationals help there own people. Thanks Tobias, Rose and church family.

The other piece of mail said, "My sister bought a bike at your bike sale last week. I am interested in volunteering to help with working on bikes. Thank you! 

Nearing Completion of my 1st book proposal

I have 11 more paragraphs to write, which are chapter descriptions for my book proposal. The sample chapter is ready, the cover letter is ready and hopefully next week it is off to publishers. What an exhilarating and exhausting feeling all at once.


Thanks to all who have made my memoir a reality. They include those who challenged me to write the book, those who've read the book, those who walked through the journey as I lived the book first, those who are doing final read throughs and all the other people who contributed in so many unique ways to my life, my character and my growth.

Question & Answer

Here is a question someone asked me

Q: “What have you discovered about God and yourself as the result of starting His Wheels. 

A:  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome refined my focus, but first it destroyed all my personal dreams. Only then could God give me the desires of my heart.” I thought my dreams equaled the desires of my heart. However I’ve found that “the desires of my heart” require the creativity of a Sovereign God to implement. My dreams are the highlighting threads woven amidst my heart’s desires. I shudder to think what I would have forfeited if I insisted on fulfilling my dreams my way and turned against God’s word, which says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.” (Ps. 37:4-5)

Sharing the ride with others

Kim, featured the following on her blog http://road2beautiful.wordpress.com/

This has become feature week at the Road to Beautiful where I seem to be highlighting some of my friends and what they are about...I hope you don't mind, because really, the people I am highlighting are all on their own journeys towards Beauty in their own way and it is good to notice it is not all about weight loss...

Today I want you to meet Alice.  I met Alice a few years ago when I spent a week at ELIM.  Remember, the race team I was part of when I ran Nashville a few weeks ago?? Alice is one of the stateside ministry workers who came to ELIM for a week of rest before setting out into the rest of what God had called her to.

This is what I remember of Alice from that week on the banks of the Huron River.  She was kind and sweet-natured.  She was quiet, which I tend to notice because I am NOT quiet.  Yet, in her quietness, she was passionate about the ministry God had given her and how He was using her in practical ways to serve others and that passion was contagious.  Her ministry you might ask?  It is called His Wheels International and is a ministry that provides bikes to people.  They take donations of bikes, fix them up and give them away and have given away bikes to people affiliated with 85 different countries.  They reach out to immigrants, refugees, international students, ex-offenders and missionaries who may be in need of a bike.

HWI also has a global ministry.  On an international scale, Alice and her team created a prototype for a hand-pedaled three wheel bike, they call a trike.   This trike was designed with people in third wold countries who have been disabled due to things like polio or land mines and do not have use of their legs any longer to be able to pedal.  Providing a trike gives them a sense of dignity as they can now get themselves places and care for themselves without having to drag themselves through the dirt to get where they need to go. How fantastic is THAT?!

Currently on the global scale, HWI now provides plans, resources and information for the development of these trikes with the hope and vision that these trikes can be manufactured locally, thereby not only providing one person with transportation, but a community with a means for employment.   More dignity to be had...

If you can't tell, I am awfully proud to know Alice, honored to call her friend, and humbled to have been able to serve her in some small way at ELIM.  In a small way, I feel like I have had a part in impacting the world, by serving her.

Since I recently finished Nashville and all the fundraising, I wanted to highlight a few of the people I met so you can see the impact ELIM has and how it practically impacts the rest of the world.  I asked Alice to write something about what ELIM was for her.  Here is what she has to say.

Alice on the original prototype for the hand pedaled trike they designed. Isn't is cool!

“And the word of the Lord came to [Alice], Depart from [Wheaton,IL] and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith [Elim Retreat Center]…And the ravens [Mars Hill Church folk and Elim staff] brought [Alice] bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and [Alice] drank from the brook. And after a while the brook dried up [my week at Elim]…Then the word of the Lord came to [Alice], Arise, go to [Wheaton, IL- resume ministry with His Wheels International].” (I Kings 17:2-8)

Warning! Big things ahead! The Lord directed me to the early part of Elijah’s work while on a Sabbath retreat at Elim Retreat Center June 1-5, 2008, after 21 months of intense Christian Service. “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” (I Kings 17:1) Elijah was obedient to God, delivered the message to King Ahab and then departed to the brook Cherith.

While studying this section of scripture I was struck by how importance it is for me to follow and obey God even if I don’t understand why at first. The Lord knows best the timing and rhythm my life needs. Elijah’s ministry had just begun and so had my position as Founder and Executive Director of His Wheels International (HWI). The events in Elijah’s life were only going to get bigger and grander. But before He got to the next event, the Lord told him to go and drink from the brook Cherith where the ravens would feed him. The Lord did the same for me through the opportunity to go to Elim Retreat Center for a week of being pampered and cared for.

While at Elim God impressed on my life again the importance of keeping Sabbath rest, as a lifestyle, even amidst the hectic times of being the Founder and Executive Director of His Wheels. Then I’ll be a little more pliable and able to handle more things as they come.

The Lord knows when I need time for “self-care,” just like Elijah did. Time to fill up on Him before yet another intense season of ministry.  Going to Elim was a time to relax, laugh, rest, play, enjoy God’s creation and spend time alone with my Savior. The location in the forest of Michigan was conducive to turning my cell phones off (especially since I couldn’t get reception), shutting down the internet (since it wasn’t easily accessible), and resting from the schedules that blared in my head.

Kim thanks for running the race to make it possible for Christian Ministers to stop their hectic pace of ministry and get refilled at the brook. To get a glimpse of the ministry God has called me to, I’d invite you to take 5:18 min. to enjoy the ride that I’ve enjoyed over the last 7 years as the Founder and Executive Director of His Wheels International. You will see that God wasn’t kidding. There were and still are big things ahead for HWI. Our goal is 400 hits on our new youtube video by the end of May. We are at 360 hits. Can you help us far exceed our goal? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htdxAYSNqE4. Visit our website atwww.hiswheels.org

Alice Teisan

Thanks for reading guys.  I hope you will enjoy the HWI video like I have and that you will be blessed by getting to know Alice a little bit and the ministry she provides to her community and to the world.

Battles Bicycles Beliefs God has a Plan

*Battles * Bicycles * Beliefs

God Has A Plan

BATTLES

At the age of thirty, only days prior to a 1,000-mile bicycle trip, I came down with an invisible, debilitating, flu-like illness. Months later it was diagnosed as Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), which doctors say feels like having AIDS. My symptoms included severe pain and a persistent low-grade fever. When standing still, my heart rate would rapidly rise from 80 to 160 beats per minute. As a nurse I knew medicine did not have answers for CFIDS. This left me devastated. My health was now unreliable and resulted in the inability to continue practicing nursing. Of course, I was depressed and scared. “Why me?” I wondered. Does my life still have a purpose? I realized it does, but I also realized I had a choice: “Will I become bitter and give up, or will I embrace God’s new vision for my life?”

Still fiercely battling CFIDS eight years later, I recognized my sense of security and identity were both physically and emotionally crushed. I doubted whether God really had a plan for me. I was about to sell my bicycle, but a friend said, “You can’t sell your bicycle. Selling your bicycle means you are giving up hope.” I knew she was right. I kept my bicycle. That decision became a turning point in how I adapted to my condition. II Corinthians 12:9 came alive to me: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Unexpectedly, I lost my private disability income for CFIDS three years later. Again, I became despondent and questioned whether God really had a plan for my life. Yet, God pursued me. He wanted me to invite John and Carolyn Lutembeka, a Tanzanian couple, over for dinner. Three months later I finally obeyed. From the Lutembekas I learned $100 would buy a bicycle, allowing a pastor in Tanzania to travel to five villages. On average the distance between villages can be a six-hour walk.

BICYCLES

My bicycling passions, buried since the onset of CFIDS, rushed to mind when the Lutembekas shared their need. They were unaware that cycling was woven into the matrix of my life. Before I was diagnosed with CFIDS I had bicycled 10,000 miles on four continents. I rode from “Coast to Coast” across America twice, around England and Scotland, in Zimbabwe, Africa, and through Israel. Late that evening, after the Lutembekas left, God challenged me to provide them with $1,200 in order to buy bicycles for pastors in Tanzania. Due to my financial crisis I wrestled with God’s challenge. He won, but I did too. Within a week of giving $1,200 I received $1,500 unexpectedly from three different sources. This sparked a new vision for my life.

Out of this vision His Wheels International (HWI) was born. HWI is a not-for-profit Christian bicycle service organization. We provide bicycles and bicycle expertise to individuals and Christian organizations throughout the world. We have also designed and built hand-pedaled three-wheelers, which we affectionately call trikes. The trikes are for those disabled by landmines, polio or birth deformities. We are assisting and encouraging nationals to build trikes locally. In Wheaton, Illinois, volunteers refurbish, repair, and recycle bicycles for those in need. HWI’s purpose is to mobilize God’s work worldwide. HWI has provided bicycles for individuals from six continents and our trikes are on five continents.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). When CFIDS struck, I wondered whether God still had a plan for me. Now I know the answer to, “Why me?” I am living life for His glorious purpose. Through HWI I have gone further around the world than I could ever have imagined before I was stricken.

BELIEF

Do you struggle to believe God has a purpose for your life? The truth is God already has a plan for you. I have found this to be true in my life, especially in such things as the ministry of HWI. You can find it to be true in your life, too. Accepting Jesus Christ as Savior was my first step to finding God’s plan and it can be yours too.

The Bible says that we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, and who He made us to be (Romans 3:23). But there is hope. If we humble ourselves and admit we are sinners, He will forgive us and give us a brand new start (1 John 1:9).

If you have questions, please contact me.

Alice Teisan

His Wheels International

P.O Box 423

Wheaton, IL 60187-0423

www.hiswheels.org

alice@hiswheels.org

@2009 Alice Teisan, Bible references @NIV.