Simon Guillebaud

(Arizona scenery) The day got off to an ignominious start for me. Sleep is crucial to recovery in these endurance events, but I woke up at 2am dehydrated, and didn’t get back to sleep at all. I did drink three bottles of water and eat three bananas in the meantime, but largely lay there thinking about how totally daunting this attempt is. Our challenge is that there is almost no room for anything to go wrong, in terms of trying to catch up time, and today something did go wrong. Sleep and food – the keys to lasting the course. […]

When I said goodbye to Geoff last night, he thought he was going to die. It turns out he had had, according to initial tests, a heart attack. What?! His family were flying out, and he said to me he wanted to see them one last time. Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? But Geoff’s no drama queen, I assure you. That’s how bad things looked. We left to find an RV park on the Colorado River, to get some much-needed sleep. A couple of hours later, Geoff was medically evacuated by helicopter. Dad, who has joined our crew for the first […]

(Our beloved Geoff Morris) Nobody would have guessed how today would pan out. It’s been a very memorable day for the wrong reasons this time. It took us a long time to get away. I’d been up since 4am. The views outside under the stars were amazing. Actually it had taken a while to get to sleep because of my sheer elation to have made it through yesterday. And then I had to contend with Geoff’s snoring, closely followed by John’s, and then Craig’s, all distinctive in tone but equally effective at keeping me awake for a while until the […]

Greetings from somewhere in the desert! What a day! We were up at 515 AM to prepare to leave from just North of San Diego.  We dipped our bikes in the sea and began our 3,152 mile journey across this huge country. These are 8 guys with us for the first few days, and they have brought a great team of chefs and supporters to make the start a real cracker.  (Bike for Burundi team getting ready to bike 3,000+ miles!)  (Team dipping their back tires in the Pacific Ocean)(The RV at the beach) We knew the first 50 miles […]

So we’re almost ready to role. In the pictures you’ll see our home for the next five weeks, with John Stinson (driver, chef, masseuse, shopper, etc) and David Strauss (videographer). Here they are putting on our Bike For Burundi stickers, having just driven across the USA from East to West coast in preparation to be our support back from San Diego to Charleston. Thanks again to Todd Gaylord for lending us his RV for the trip, it’s an incredible blessing. So, now you can picture us, please pray we all make it, stay sane(!), safe and healthy, and raise lots of awareness and interest in […]

Greetings from somewhere in the desert! What a day! We were up at 515am to prepare to leave from just North of San Diego.  We dipped our bikes in the sea and began our 3,152 mile journey across this huge country. There are 8 guys with us for the first few days, and they have brought a great team of chefs and supporters to make the start a real cracker. We knew the first 50 miles would be a killer – it was almost all uphill into the mountains and the sun was blazing down on us. I doubted my knees […]

I’m writing this from Cincinnati on my way to LA. So as the big day for Bike for Burundi draws nearer, this is the culmination of hundreds of emails, dozens of hours of planning, thousands of miles of training on the road, on the treadmill, in the pool, etc. And after 5 months of being injured and trying to build up body strength, particularly in my knees, the moment of truth has arrived. How do I feel? Well, I am desperate to make the whole ride. It has consumed so much of my time, focus, energy, and thoughts for eight […]

OK, Bike for Burundi is ready for take-off! Imagine doing 30 marathons in 34 days, through snowy icy mountains, deserts, plains and cities. That gives you some idea of what cycling 3,152miles at over 100miles/day looks like, as I (with three others) prepare for the epic challenge of riding from West to East coast of the USA. It will be a killer, and we’re doing it to raise money for the poorest of the poor, to empower the Batwa (pygmees) and orphans we work with in Burundi, and to generally press forward with our work to see the transformation of […]

So I’m hugging this serial rapist, and it feels OK. Should I not be hugging him? I mean, God’s forgiveness extends to me, but can it really extend to him? It was all very sobering. We spent a full day in a maximum security prison on Friday. The inmates had been working through our ‘More than Conquerors’ DVD and were loving it. The chaplain contacted me last year, and we arranged that when I was next in town I’d come and share face-to-face. So it was a privileged opportunity to spend some time with society’s biggest rejects. Some looked fearsome with their […]

Three Christmas Wishes from the persecuted church Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, What do I wish for you this Christmas? What can I say to you, who live in the free world? The Lord gives us everything we need for our lives. “God did not keep back His own Son, but He gave Him for us. If God did this, won’t he freely give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32) So here are my three wishes for you: “I know everything you’ve done,” says Jesus to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:2, “including your hard work and how you […]

The response for Christmas meat has been phenomenal. Several hundred of you have contributed. The GLO family comprises 195 workers, who each will now receive $90 for a smashing Christmas celebration. Average family size is 8, plus the two orphanages, so that makes over 1600 people laughing and stuffing their faces thanks to you guys.   So this is another MASSIVE THANK YOU from me!   And then a number of you were deeply moved by Sylvestre’s needs, having been kicked out of his house with wife and three little ones. If I back up a little, he was studying […]

Aaargh, I really don’t like getting these emails!  Leaders have tough calls to make, so I’m wanting to share the load with you! Patrice has just written again. He’s our SU Treasurer, and SU employs about 75 people right now. He’s emailing on behalf of them to say that the staff kids are wondering if they’ll celebrate Christmas at all this year. Inflated prices of staple foods means that it’s hard for them to simply get enough food to eat on a day-to-day basis. For an example of how tough the situation is, my evangelism partner, Sylvestre, just got booted […]

Hi guys! Welcome (again!) to my blog – having had problems with the last one, this one is now definitive and is newly-designed and a whole lot better (thanks Viktor!). We’ve added some new features like Sermons and “Follow by email” (every time I make a new post – you will get an email with its contents). Follow me on twitter and check out my facebook page. Feel free to leave a comment if you want to share. Hope you enjoy it, cheers for now.