Peter McLean headed home for Thanksgiving on Oct. 9, concluding a coast-to-coast bicycle journey of 77 days and more than 8,500 kilometres that raised money for his father’s Bible translation project.
By the time his journey ended, over $10,000 had been donated to the Presbyterian Church in Canada’s International Ministries department, earmarked for a translation of the Bible into Hakka; his father, Rev. Dr. Paul McLean has been working on the project for more than two decades. There are about three million Hakka people living in Taiwan, making them the country’s largest ethnic minority.
McLean’s journey also raised money for Canada’s Bikes for Bibles project and the Bible Society of Taiwan.
It began on June 18 when McLean dipped his wheel into the Pacific Ocean on the coast of Vancouver Island, and concluded on Oct. 5 when he did the same at Cape Spear, Nfld., the easternmost point in North America.
“I learnt a lot about myself physically, mentally, and spiritually,” McLean told the Record the day before he returned to Toronto.
“The most important thing I learned about was what it means to fear God … When you look at the vastness of the country, the distance I travelled by bicycle, and that there were other accidents on the road … I realized that God could arrange my death at any point, but He loves me and allows me to live my life and enjoy His creation. But even death shouldn’t be something to be afraid of. When you know God, have had your sins forgiven and know you will live eternally with God, there is nothing to be afraid of. So maybe it’s not fearing God, but having reverence for God. However you want to put it, God is amazing, He loves us, and that is absolutely amazing.” — C. Purvis
