What happened?
James, Ryan, and Fiona bravely took on the challenge of cycling constantly keeping a static bike going for 24 hours, taking turns to cycle during the day and night from Thursday 30th November – Friday 1st December 2023. Their overall aim was to cover 156 miles, the length of Warwickshire three times but Ryan, Fiona, and James absolutely smashed the challenge and covered over 200 miles cycling the equivalent of the perimeter of Coventry and Warwickshire in 24 hours! What’s more, they amazingly surpassed their goal of reaching £3,000 and raised just over £5,800.
The big day arrived and began with an early start at St Nicholas’ Church in Warwick, with unpacking and setting up the three cycling machines which were already owned, borrowed, or bought specially (it’s amazing what you can find on Facebook marketplace!). The location was decided as Warwick is a key location in which Thrive supports children’s and youth work in the Warwickshire area and Thrive itself regularly works doing ‘giveaways’ with St Nicholas’ Church.
The team set the bikes up in the narthex (fancy architectural term for foyer) and had a trial run before getting going. The cycle kicked off with a countdown and Ryan, Fiona, and James set off on their static cycle challenge!
Just as everyone was beginning to get into their stride, only 2 minutes into the 24 hours one of Jame’s bike straps flung off and, started making an almighty crashing noise every time the pedal went round. Initially James repaired the strap, but it eventually had to be removed to restore the peaceful ambience.
Fiona, James, and Ryan cycled in shifts of 30 minutes and kept to a rota which meant that they had 16 shifts each to complete. Ryan and Fiona started off slow and steady whereas James was enthusiastically off the blocks keeping a quick and consistent pace, which he even increased for the first 3 rounds going up to 11.4km and levelled off about halfway through the cycle.
The first few hours were going well and just as everything was seemingly smooth, Ryan got onto his bike and as he got a good pace going, we all heard a massive crash as Ryan’s bike seat went down. Ryan cautiously continued cycling until Fiona got back on her bike so Ryan could investigate. The bike itself looked alright but it turned out that when the bike seat had been altered it needed to be adjusted tighter.
To keep everyone in the loop and up to date of everyone’s progress the cycle was livestreamed on youtube. It was such an encouragement to have friends and family watching and supporting online and visiting in person. Each person brought their energy with them which greatly lifted spirits and spurred the cyclists on. There was a real variety of visitors from young pedallers to St Nicholas himself (Santa) in St Nicholas Church!
Many of Thrive’s trustees got in touch or turned up and were super supportive joining in during the late hours of the Thursday evening and the morning too. A few visitors very kindly brought sustenance and support along including homemade cake (yum!), bubble bath (for sore feet), and Coca-Cola which was super helpful. Some lovely people from the church of St Nicholas came in and even some nice German tourists had a look around the church and photographed James cycling in his Borussia Mönchengladbach football shirt.
The most difficult part of the challenge were the dark and early hours between 4-6.30am but the team persevered and managed to keep going! After 6.30am things became (slightly!) easier. The adrenaline kicked in and the thought of the end of the cycle kept them going.
All in all, the sponsored cycle was a physically enduring challenge but one that was well worth it. Fiona gained a newfound appreciation for bubble bath but also said, “The challenge was tough, but the reason was totally worthwhile”, in supporting children’s and youth ministries in the local area.
Why the challenge? A bit about Thrive
Fiona, Ryan, and James decided to take on the challenge to raise £3,000 for Thrive Youth Ministries to continue living out what God has called them to do in ministry. The team support, train, and equip churches (mentoring and equipping children’s leaders) to enhance their children’s ministries helping run Sunday morning sessions, all age worship, after school clubs, Messy Church, and more! Fiona also heads up the Thrive Puppet Team that performs puppetry in different churches and at outreach events across our local area.
Ryan and James are Youth Mission Enablers, and they help churches to rethink their youth ministry with young people and bring ideas and assistance in revitalising youth ministry. They help churches to embrace modern and creative means of reaching young people who may or may not otherwise hear about the Good News. Ryan and James use Thrive’s ‘Manifesto for 21st Century YouthWork’ specifically developed and designed to engage with young people, either building on existing work and encouraging and supporting churches to reach out to young people and focus on building relationships with the young people in their local community.
Hope for 24 campaign
We are so grateful to God for His goodness and provision thus far, and those who journey and support us in their kindness and generosity to help enable us to live out Thrive’s vision of seeing every church with a thriving youth ministry. We have a really exciting vision to see every local church in Warwickshire & Coventry with a thriving youthwork. The hope was to raise £24,000 of which we are very grateful that over £17,000 was raised. But there’s still time! To help us achieve our target we would love if it you could support us here. At Thrive we are full of hope and encouragement for the year ahead, and these are our prayers and hopes:
