The year was 2006. The network’s annual conference was scheduled to take place in Plain City, Ohio, and Merlin Miller of Middlebury, Indiana, had recently taken up biking. “I thought, Rosedale’s not that far away. Maybe I should bike to conference,” he remembers. “When I brought this idea up to my father, he said, ‘Well, you should take some people with you. And what about raising some money?” They didn’t know it at the time, but they’d just created Ride for Missions.
Merlin connected with Rosedale International (then Rosedale Mennonite Missions), and together, they worked out logistics. “Support RMM by joining other cyclists to ride from Goshen, Indiana, to Rosedale, Ohio, for Conservative Mennonite Conference’s annual conference,” a promotional brochure read. “Over three days, you will cover 220 miles, passing through eastern Indiana and western Ohio. There is no registration fee, but riders are asked to solicit financial support from sponsors.”
That first year, seventeen others joined Merlin on the ride. The group traveled a total of 225 miles, relying on map printouts to show them the way. They slept in a small country chapel on Monday night; on Tuesday, they crowded into the home of Dr. Roger Kauffman (found in Mennonite Your Way directory). When they arrived in Rosedale on Wednesday, RI staff welcomed them with cheers and applause, flags, and noisemakers.
That evening, Merlin tallied the group’s donations once, twice, then a third time. “I thought, this can’t be right,” he remembers. “We had twenty-five thousand dollars! Joe (RI President) and I looked at each other and went, ‘Wait a minute—this could be something! We’ve got to try this again and see what happens.”
“Ride for Missions has grown into one of RI’s most important yearly rhythms.”
Twenty rides later, Ride for Missions has grown into one of RI’s most important yearly rhythms. Just over three hundred people have traveled a total of 6,370 miles, raising $1.7 million to support RI’s work around the world. But the last two decades have yielded far more than monetary gain. For many, the Ride has become a church body on wheels—a congregation practicing the disciplines of partnership, trust, suffering, and celebration.
Ask any rider about their time on the road, and you’ll hear tales of sweating together under a scorching sun, working to patch yet another flat tire in the rain, or breaking the wind to lessen another’s burden. You’ll learn about trust through the story of a foggy ride in Kentucky, navigable only by following the rider ahead. You’ll learn that drawing strength from another rider makes the uphill push out of the Ohio River Valley just a bit easier. You’ll discover the joy of biking alongside a first-time rider, encouraging her toward her goal of a 100-mile day.
It is barely an exaggeration to say that long-time riders speak of the experience with reverence. And no wonder—it is not often that one has a chance to become immersed in such a clear picture of what it means to work together in community. “This is a rolling church,” Merlin emphasizes. When a fellow rider doesn’t feel up to the task ahead, “the rest of the group says, okay—we’ll get you through it. And then you ride with them, encourage them, pull them through. It’s not a solo ride.”
Wonderfully, this commitment to care for, encourage, and support each other extends beyond the Ride. Friends would would not have met but for RFM now celebrate, sustain, and pray for each other through life’s peaks and valleys. For the riders who return year after year, it is this community that keeps calling them back.
On July 19, forty riders will hit the road again, traveling from Goshen in a near-perfect repeat of the very first ride. Make sure to say hello if you see them—they’ll be the group in yellow shirts that read, Twenty Rides: One Mission.
From the beginning, Ride for Missions would not have been possible without the dedication and collaboration of so many. Thank you to Merlin, who started it all. Thank you to Wayne Yoder, who coordinated the Ride from 2007 to 2017. Thank you to Scott and Jeanie Kauffman, who have facilitated Ride for Missions Florida since 2016. Thank you to all who have ridden, volunteered, or supported Ride for Missions these last two decades—you are deeply appreciated by the RI family.
