We've come to the Shetland Islands.
The reason being, there's 23,000 people here,
and not a single Adventist.
We want to reach them with the gospel,
and we'd love to see them ready for Jesus to return.
The Shetland Islands are part of Scotland
and the northernmost part of the United Kingdom.
Anthony Kent,
the associate ministerial secretary at the General Conference,
put together a small team of pastors from Scotland and the UK
to spend one week cycling through the islands
to tell people about Jesus and hand out Christian literature.
After an overnight ferry ride to reach the islands,
the team prepared to set off to reach the unreached.
As far as we know,
there are no Adventist members on the Shetlands.
And how do you approach trying to make contact?
What would Paul and his associates do
if they were doing a missionary journey
and they landed in Lerwick,
and they were to start in the Shetland Islands?
Maybe Paul also would have used a bicycle
to share Jesus with people today.
The team set out to ride through every inhabited street,
stopping with anyone they met.
Much like the apostle Paul,
Anthony and his team had to endure hardships
in the form of wind, rain, and hills.
It's cold.
But this is still really good fun and people's hearts are open.
The weather's cold, but the people are warm.
Praise God for that.
This isn’t the first I Will Go bike ride.
Anthony has led a cycling ministry trip
from Washington DC to St. Louis, as well as some in Australia.
What we found is, it's a wonderful way
to generate significant but brief conversations
and an opportunity to share the gospel.
So it's worked in the past,
and we thought we'd give it a go in Shetland.
There’s a special reason
the Shetland Islands were chosen for this ride.
A man named Philip Reekie
emigrated from Scotland to Australia in the late 1800’s.
He rode his bike thousands of miles around Australia
sharing the gospel with anyone he rode past.
One of those people happened to be
Anthony Kent’s great-great-grandfather.
Philip Reekie rode up to him on a bicycle
and shared with him the Great Controversy,
and it completely transformed his life.
Now, in our family,
there are seven generations of Adventists,
as a result of Philip Reekie doing that wonderful ministry.
Our dream was to take the spirit of Philip Reekie
and his desire to lead people to Christ back to his homeland.
Following Philip Reekie’s legacy,
the team took Jesus’ call to go to the ends of the earth
and applied it to their work in the Shetlands.
We’ve literally gone
from the very south of the Shetland Islands,
to Sumburgh,
and we’ve gone all the way north as far as we can ride a bike.
From sea to sea in a sense.
We haven't just stayed on the main roads.
We've deliberately ridden past homes.
We've seen people out and about,
whether they're cutting their grass, putting their washing out,
walking their dog, farming, working in the outdoors.
We've gone to where people are available,
and we've had wonderful conversations with them.
Although this is not the way they normally witness,
they've seen the value of trying unique methods of ministry.
We have here a group of pastors.
They're not cyclists.
They're willing to go to the ends of the earth,
even if it means riding a bike, in wet, cold, windy conditions,
if it may lead one person to Jesus.
My dream is that people will look at unentered places.
Places where we don't have any followers,
and do what you can do to reach them.
Please pray for ministries
such as the I Will Go Bike Ride, and others around the world
who are using unique methods of ministry
to reach the unreached.
Thank you for your support of Mission.
Well, first of all, when I ride this,
it's so much fun,
and I literally feel like a kid again.
Like a young person with wind blowing in my face,
and through my hair, what hair is left.
And I really sense the pleasure of God,
that this is something that we're doing together.
When a witnessing opportunity comes, we do that together,
and it's just incredibly good, fun.