Adventist Cyclists Arrive in St. Louis After More Than 2,500 Miles

 

Team of church leaders and others finish journey that combined fitness and mission.

July 3, 2025 | St. Louis, Missouri, United States Marcos Paseggi

There were exclamations of joy and a deep sense of fulfillment as the iwillgoride cyclist team arrived in the Kiener Plaza Park in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States, on the morning of July 2. The team of riders, which included church leaders from the General Conference (GC) and the South Pacific Division (SPD) of Seventh-day Adventists, completed a grueling 2,535-mile (4,080-kilometer) ride from May 30 to make it to St. Louis, venue of the sixty-second General Conference Session from July 3 to 12.

From California to Missouri

The journey took cyclists from Elmshaven, the last home of Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White, in St. Helena, California, to San Francisco, and across the states of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. The team included GC associate Ministerial secretary Anthony Kent, SPD president Glenn Townend, and other pastors based in Australia. It also included 16-year-old Leland Gray from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“Praise be to God for all of them being so healthy!” said GC president Ted N. C. Wilson as he and other world church leaders welcomed the team to the square at the end of their journey. Wilson highlighted not only the physical aspect of the team’s adventure but also its strong missionary component. “I want you to see their pouches,” Wilson told the Adventist leaders, family, and sympathizers who welcomed the cyclists at the square. “They carried books and flyers there, which they shared with people along the road. Despite being focused on the ride and making it to St. Louis on time, they didn’t hesitate to stop to share this wonderful message from God with people along the way.”

An Idea Is Born

The cycle rides are Kent’s brainchild, who during the pandemic thought of a way of keeping fit in the outdoors and doing mission concurrently. Throughout the ride the cyclists chatted with passersby and small convenience stores across the U.S., handing out copies of The Great Controversy and Arthur Maxwell’s Your Bible and You. They usually found people to be very receptive to what they had to share, the team reported.

The ride was inspired by pioneer literature evangelists Phillip Reekie and his nephew Frederick, who rode bicycles to share literature in remote parts of Australia in the 1890s. One of the persons Reekie met was Tom Kent, a recently widowed farmer who accepted the Adventist message and started sharing the newly found Bible teachings with his children and neighbors. It is estimated that from Tom Kent’s family and others who first accepted Bible truth in 1896, more than 20,000 lives have been transformed. Anthony Kent is one of Tom’s descendants.

Volunteers for a Cause

During his brief remarks at the end of the ride July 2, Kent explained that the initiative followed a volunteer-based model. “We used our own vacation time, we paid for our meals and lodging and other expenses, because we wanted to set up an example,” he said. Still, Kent thanked those who sponsored the initiative, including Adventist World Radio, the GC Health Ministries Department, the10,000 Toes campaign in the SPD, and other lay member-based companies.

For most of the cyclists, it was not their first ride, Kent explained. The group already rode from Washington, D.C., to St. Louis for the previous GC Session in 2022, which included a documentary sponsored by the Adventist Review. Since then, they have participated in several other rides across Australia.

The Greatest Sponsor

In the end, among the sponsors listed on their cyclist gear, Kent highlighted what the team chose to write on their collars. “It reads ‘Psalm 121,’ ” Kent shared. “We lift up our eyes to the hills to find where our rescue comes from.”

Wilson agreed. “Certainly, your help and support has come from the Lord,” he said. “We praise God for it!”

Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review