This year, Bible Society’s Bike For Bibles celebrates thirty years on the road, but there’s a very human face to this longevity. Thousands  have faithfully supported Bike For Bibles (BFB) over the years, coming back time and again for the “fun, fellowship, fitness” and opportunity to share the gospel worldwide.

For Bob Forrest, the association goes back exactly thirty years, as Bob was part of the first group to cycle and fundraise for Bible Society. The group rode from Sydney to Melbourne, as will the team on the 30th Anniversary Ride this April. Bob’s son Dave and a friend invited him along on their bike trip, and he gamely agreed. “I hadn’t ridden a bike seriously since the age of 16! But I agreed to do it because I’d heard on the radio some weeks before about a Mary Dewberry who had walked the same distance to raise funds for Bibles. That inspired me; if she could walk, I could ride!”

“Tom Tresedor, a former Director of Bible Society laughed when I told him, but suggested that if I was going to do it, why not raise $2000 in the process for a Bible Society project to help Indonesian children.

“We did raise the money, and doing the ride was a wonderful experience. I had no intention of continuing, but then I was prompted by the Lord, and he prompted others. A few of my mates asked me to repeat the ride, and in 1996 we did, raising $10,000. And from there it’s just snowballed. Who’d believe that more than $13 million has been raised since!

“I’m just part of the team, however—a cog in the wheel. There’ve been many others, and it’s God who’s blessed the ministry.”

In April, many long time Bible Society and BFB supporters will be part of the 30th Anniversary Ride. Like Geoff Deutscher, who in 1978 at age seventeen, rode 400km solo to fundraise “because the Bible Society was important to us as a family.” Geoff Phipps, who’s helped as support crew for more than 20 rides, will also be there. Current BFB Ride Coordinator Jim Blaxland will lead the group, and Bob Forrest himself will ride the final leg with the team.

While many eyes will be on this BFB pioneer, for Bob, it will be an opportunity for him and the other “cogs in the wheel” to celebrate a cause that God has blessed greatly for the past thirty years.

Get behind Bob and help him raise funds for Bible Society on the 30th Anniversary Ride. Click here to donate!