A few of you know of a thing my friend Andrew Brose and myself started 3 years back called the Eugene Burrito Project (EBP), or often referred to as Bikes and Burritos. This was an interesting idea that Brose ran across on the internet that summer and e-mailed me THIS youtube video. We took the idea and made it our own and started it in Eugene that year. At the time we had a strong passion for the bicycle culture in Eugene and were well connected and known in the community. We were both active bike builders and car-less riders who made cycling a part of who we were. We wanted to start an activity to represent Christ to our Christless friends in the cycling world and thought that this idea was not only an amazing way to love the homeless (which we both also had a huge heart for) but we would be able to set ourselves apart in that culture. The bike culture I speak of is not the Tour de France spandex donning calorie counting group you may think. Instead it was quite the opposite in fact. Many of us rode a relatively unknown type of bicycle at the time (though in the subsequent years it exploded as one of the most popular type of cycling) called a fixed gear. The bicycles were made for Velodrome racing the big banked circle tracks you see in the olympics. The bikes have no free wheel, one gear, and many have no brakes, the way the bike works is simple, if your legs are spinning the rear wheel is spinning, if they are not the wheel isn't. So the idea is that you are completely connected to the bicycle, Clipped in no coasting, no hand brakes, only you your mind and your muscles to control this beast. HERE is a video of some of the crazy things these bicycles are capable of. More importantly and one of the driving factors behind our idea was the culture that these bikes embody, picture drugs, beer, ratty clothes, tattoo's, piercings, and a bicycle that is often times illegal because the state doesn't recognize a fixed gear bike as a bike with mechanical brakes. Now that description of people don't walk through the doors of my church often and are typically written off as arrogant youth. In all reality that culture stigma is true, but the people behind it are caring, educated, friendly, outgoing, fun people and we cared for them and wanted to find a way to bring Christ's love to them.
Both Brose and I had a real heart for the homeless population here in Eugene which abounds and were pumped to love and reach those guys too. So here was the EBP that we formed. We started out with just a few bucks we had and some money that a few of you contributed and went to costco and got all the necessities for Burritos. We would meet around 7 and cook the rice and beans, and then assemble the burritos with the help of a few friends from our College group. Check out one of my bags loaded with supplies from the grocery store, 25lbs of rice, 24 cans of beans, 500 squares of tin foil, 100 tortillas, and a costco bottle of Tabasco. You'd be amazed what you can do when you don't have a car :) We are lucky to live in the NW where vegetarians abound and were actually better off using vegetarian burritos since many of the homeless ate a vegetarian diet (when they ate that is) and that saved us money. We didn't want to involve any organizations because we didn't want to be obligated to "love" these people in any way other than how we knew how, basically we didn't want to make this a formal ministry where we hand out tracts with our burritos and turn people away, we wanted to love in our deeds and prayed that the Spirit would lead us to those conversations if he willed.
Since we had no formal support we had to fund it somehow. We created a spoke card to sell to raise the funds (to the right). A spoke card many times is nothing more than something to stick in your spokes to personalize and express yourself on your bicycle. They started as a sort of identification for underground urban races called Alley Cats (which by the way turn out to be a ton of fun). We made a bunch of these cards pictured below and raised enough money to support it for a whole school year. EBP went on for just over a year for Brose and I, and we had the time of our lives meeting all the homeless guys and knowing their names and where they came from, as well as all the cyclist in town. All in all I think we only saw one guy come to Christ but so many people were affected by the ministry and Christ's love was shown all the time. It was one of the best things I've done in my life and today a pretty cool thing happened that reminded me once again of what we had, it made the paper! A few of my friends approached me last year about the project and wanted to take it over for Brose and I who had slowed down due to school and life. I sat down with them and gave them all of our different routes, with maps and locations of different camps and homeless populations throughout the city and told them how we did what we did. These guys were not cyclists at all and some didn't even own bikes, their passion was for the homeless not the cyclists and wanted to give it a go. They did it all last year and partnered with CCF to find cooks and deliverers. Borrowing bikes and safety equipment at times they just made it happen and have done a great job with it. Sure their vision is slightly different than our's was but they are still loving people to Christ and challenging themselves with it and I couldn't be happier for them. Well today they made the paper and it's been a hot topic in town as the first formal recognition of what is now officially "Bikes and Burritos." HERE is a link to the article if you want to hear about the legacy we started and hear about some of the people you can remember and pray for in this great city!
Here are two of the bikes I used when doing this and two of my most used bikes, for your viewing pleasure. The first one is not a fixed gear, but it is a sinlge speed bike and still very much a part of this bike culture I spoke about.
This is the best bike I've ever built! I still have it and ride it all the time as my commuter. The rack
on the front is made locally and it makes going car-less possible, check the picture at the top of the page to prove that point. I've put a 180lb friend on it and given him a ride home on it :)
This is my old white Killo TT daily fixed for when I wanted to go fast and do tricks and such. I love this bike also one of the best bikes I've built, but a knee injury last year forced the sale last spring.
