Missionaries with Biking for Babies speak to parishioners during a dinner at St. Mary of the Visitation Parish in Ottumwa July 11.
By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
OTTUMWA — Four riders and five support crewmembers with Biking for Babies rode into Ottumwa July 11 during a national ride to support pregnancy centers in the U.S.
Nine teams left from various sites, with six teams completing their rides in St. Louis and three in Arlington, Virginia. One team, which departed from Rochester, Minnesota, rode through Iowa with stops in Clear Lake, Ames, Des Moines and Ottumwa on the way to St. Louis, said Biking for Babies volunteer Emily Geinert.
“Our nearly 90 missionaries are partnered with 100 pregnancy resource centers across the country, who are providing vital support now more than ever to women and their families,” she said. “Our mission is vital, especially in this time when the dignity of life is challenged in our nation.”
The teams aimed to raise $450,000 to distribute to the 100 centers. Sarah Wiese, operations and marketing director for Biking for Babies, said teams for the national ride consist of young adults ages 18-39. This year’s team members were ages 21-36.
The young adults, called missionaries, apply for the six-month formation program, built on Christian discipleship, physical sacrifice and partnership with pregnancy centers, Wiese said. By February, they complete an interview and discernment process to determine if they are a good fit for the program. “All of our team leaders are returning missionaries (two per route), and many others return,” she said. “Our current longest-returning missionary has been a part of the national ride for nine years.”
Teams meet virtually for communal prayer, study in pro-life apologetics and Christian life during their six-month commitment. “They develop a prayer routine that includes asceticism and uniting their suffering throughout their training to the cross of Jesus Christ,” Wiese said. Each missionary partners with a life-affirming pregnancy resource center. They learn about the women and families served and about the center’s greatest needs. Missionaries ask how they can pray for the center. They learn to share their testimony and explain how their participation in Biking for Babies’ formation program answers an invitation from Jesus. They invite friends and family to be mission partners who support Biking for Babies’ efforts financially and with prayer and commitment “to renew the culture of life with us.”
The teams ask host sites for permission to seek mission support by collecting donations at a community engagement event, receive a love offering from the host site’s respect life committee or hold a special collection during a Mass with the missionaries. “Oftentimes, they often meet passersby at gas stations and grocery stores who give them donations,” Wiese said.
Father Joseph Sia, pastor of St. Mary of the Visitation and St. Patrick parishes in Ottumwa and St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Bloomfield, hosted one of the groups at St. Mary in Ottumwa. The parish’s Altar & Rosary Society prepared dinner for attendees. About 20 parishioners attended.
The riders spoke on the importance of their mission and took at a collection for the pregnancy resource programs. The evening ended with adoration and confession.
Applications for the formation program open in the fall at
bikingforbabies.com, Wiese said. “We’d like to see applications come in from the Diocese of Davenport.”
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