The Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure began in Seaside, Oregon, on May 28 and is expected to end in Portland, Maine, on Aug. 8. As riders follow the route, they are raising money and awareness for the Fuller Center for Housing.

“People along the way stop us and ask us what we’re doing, and all the time, we get to talk about the amazing stuff we do,” said the group’s media liaison, Tyler Strenk.

Based in Georgia, the Fuller Center for Housing is a Christian nonprofit promoting partnerships with individuals and community groups to build and rehabilitate homes for people in need. Since launching in 2005, The Fuller Center now has partners in more than 70 U.S. communities and 20 countries.

A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Millard Fuller was co-founder and a president of Habitat for Humanity International before founding and serving as president of the Fuller Center for Housing until his death in 2009.

JILL SCHRAMM/MDN Mark Kinzer pedals his recumbent bicycle on a Minot street in the Tuesday, June 23, leg of the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure.

Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure launched with a single ride in 2008. Now with multiple shorter rides annually in addition to its cross-country event, the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure has raised more than $7.3 million. More than 2,200 riders have pedaled more than 2 million cumulative miles, according to Fuller Center information.

About 15 cyclists stopped at Immanuel Baptist Church in Minot after traveling from Stanley. They planned to head to Harvey on Wednesday, June 24.

Mark Kinzer, 70, a Michigan resident, signed up for the trip at his wife’s encouragement that he celebrate the anniversary of a cross-country bicycle trip he had taken with a college group 50 years earlier.

It was no small decision. Kinzer had sustained a head injury after he was knocked off his bike by dogs in 2017. Later that year, he was severely injured, suffering multiple broken bones, in a vehicle crash. He came home from the hospital in a wheelchair.

“My doctor said, ‘You’re never allowed to ride a two-wheeler again,’ and that just about crushed me. I asked him, ‘What about a three-wheeler?,'” Kinzer said.

Jill SCHRAMM/MDN Jeff Pickens, a participant in the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure, nears the finish of the Stanley to Minot leg of the cross-country trip.

With his doctor’s approval, he built up his endurance on a three-wheeled bike, he said, because he wasn’t going to give in to his injuries and quit. He has joined friends on rides in various parts of the country and has participated in rides in Michigan, including riding the Michigan portion of a previous cross-country Fuller Center route. He currently is riding a recumbent bicycle across the country.

“I’m thankful I’m not in a wheelchair. I can feel everything, although it’s painful sometimes with the biking, but it’s a wonderful group to be with,” he said of the Fuller Center riders.

Kinzer wears an engraved identification bracelet that includes the biblical reference, I Timothy 4:8. The verse speaks of physical training having some value but godliness is valuable in every way.

“It’s good to do things to be in shape, but are you biking for a higher purpose or a better purpose than just biking?” he said. “When I was challenged to bike with a purpose, that’s when the Fuller Center ad popped up on the internet. I researched, looked it up and said, ‘OK. This what I want to do.”

Like Kinzer, most of the Fuller Center riders are traveling the full 4,000 miles, with others sometimes joining them for shorter periods. Strenk said the 10-week adventure includes 56 ride days, with rest and volunteer service days along the way.

The cyclists helped with a home build in Othello, Washington, and will help with another in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

Cycling participants pay for their own expenses as well as raise money for the organization. Partners along the way, such as churches and schools, welcome them with space to rest and make meals or sometimes even provide a meal.

Neil Mullikin, who is among the riders, joined the Fuller Center in 2021 as coordinator for the bicycling events. He said he was working in finance but felt called to do something different. God’s clear message of a cycling ministry came in answer to his prayers over a different topic.

“So, I followed that path, and I’m glad that I stepped through the door,” he said.

Roughly 94% of donations to the Fuller Center are directed to projects benefitting families, but 97% of funds raised by the bike rides pay for projects, Mullikin said. Families who receive help in obtaining homes pay back the funds at no interest, enabling the money to be recycled repeatedly to help more families, he said.

“Our largest fundraisers are actually the beneficiaries of the homes. They actually pay it forward to the next family,” Mullikin said. “It makes you realize, especially as you meet families, both here in the U.S. and around the world, what kind of impact you’re making and how it’s multiplying.”