Читать книгу When Quitting Is Not An Option - Arvid Loewen - Страница 5

Foreword: November 10, 2013

It was June 1999, and I was sitting in the front seat of an RV making my way through Canada’s immense Rocky Mountains. But this was anything but a vacation. Amidst the picturesque offerings of mountain grandeur, what I was actually fixated on, just on the other side of the huge picture window, was a small man on a bicycle. He’d been climbing the excruciating grade of the Coquihalla Highway for the past hour at 8 km an hour and simply hadn’t stopped pedalling. As a media coordinator, I had been asked to tell the story of Arvid’s first Vancouver to Winnipeg ultra-marathon cycling attempt. I couldn’t imagine how what I was watching was possible. Fourteen years and thousands of kilometres later, there is still something unbelievable about the story that follows. Unbelievable, that is, if you aren’t prone to acknowledging the strength of a vision and the presence of God.

I actually cycled a few kilometres alongside of Arvid on the bald prairie of Saskatchewan during that first trip. We still share laughs about it to this day, given how difficult I found it to keep up with a man who had been on a bike for 18 hours a day, climbed the Rockies and was bucking stiff prairie winds. I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be part of this story by riding a bike. But those five days from Vancouver to Winnipeg did invite me into a much larger story, a story of faith, compassion and tenacity, a story of setting aside the false belief that the world’s problems are too big for any one person to make a difference.

I invite you to read this book with an open heart. If I know Arvid at all, I know he would never want you to read this story as if it was about him and his cycling accomplishments. His singular vision has always been that we would have eyes to see the world through the eyes of Charity, the tiny rescued girl who renewed his sight and filled his heart.

I count it a privilege to have been invited, on several occasions, to share Arvid’s story with the public media. Today, I suggest to you that this story is worth reading because it offers a picture of a life worth living.

David Balzer

Winnipeg, MB

Assistant Professor of Communications and Media, Canadian Mennonite University

Media coordinator (Spoke ’99, GrandpasCan 2011)