To respond to your first comment, BikeMovementAsia is a “movement” in a number of ways. Because of our affiliation with and growth out of BikeMovement USA we are a movement in that we continue with this name, but also with many similar goals (although dropped into a new setting). We also have committed to a movement of funds, as we attempt to continue the fundraising goals of Mennonite World Conference’s AMIGOS. As our vision statement articulates, “…while BMUSA strove to engage open conversations regarding young adult visions and perspectives for the church as they visited Mennonite churches across the USA, BMA seeks to realize the potential for global Anabaptist community-building through open and engaged immersion in the lives of our sisters and brothers in Southeast Asia.” In this way, we hope that we are part of this broader movement called the global church, seeking to move into new and growing relationships, new and growing understandings, and this movement of conversation exploring who we are and why we find ourselves a part of this global Anabaptist community. And perhaps we are also a movement as we fit into a constantly evolving Anabaptist movement/history, who’s stream is always shifting with the times, with an evolving composition and context. (For more very relevant thoughts in this vein, check out the thread on “Stories and a Global Anabaptism.”)

And how does this benefit our church? Again, we can only hope that as people enter this conversation, this flowing movement (whether by cycling, by opening their homes and stories to us here in Southeast Asia, by offering funds to AMIGOS, by contributing thoughts and reflections on our website…), our experiences are shared in concentric ripples, distributing our learnings, fueling conversations with our questions, breathing new energy and food for thought into the church.

We also recognize the privileged place we are in and acknowledge that this sort of trip is possible for only a very few -hence our attempts to share our experience broadly, while also committing to wealth distribution. And we do not deny that we are also on vacation (I don’t think we ever tried to say otherwise), but do believe that there are more dynamics to this adventure than pure leisure.

This said, your challenges are important ones, and raise questions we need to keep in mind as we shape our vision for this trip, for other BikeMovements, for any sort of movement. Have I responded sufficiently to your questions? And how would others respond? How could we be doing this thing better? What is the value in what we are doing – for our sending communities, for the communities we are visiting, for the global Anabaptist community as a whole?