Courtesy of Robert Lilwall

"Our tent sits in an icicle-shrouded forest, halfway across a vast glacial valley which stretches and winds its way westward to the plains of Yakutia. Every breath exhaled instantly crystallizes—beard, sleeping bag, tent roof—all is covered in ice. We stumble from the tent, gasping our way drunkenly through the bitter dawn to check the thermometer strapped to my handlebars. We are elated and awed to discover the temperature has now dropped down to minus 40 degrees (Centigrade and Fahrenheit converge at this point)."

Sounds like something from the movie Never Cry Wolf, doesn't it? More enjoyable to watch on the big screen than suffer through yourself. But British schoolteacher Rob Lilwall isn't opting for the armchair. He's in the midst of an ambitious cycling tour from Russia to China to Australia and all the way home to England—a journey that will take him thousands of miles and put him in touch with hundreds of people along the way.

That's exactly why Lilwall is making this extraordinary trek. He's not just going for adventure, though he's quick to admit that's part of it. At the heart of this trip are the children he loves back home—and the millions of children worldwide who are suffering from disease, war, abuse, and famine.

Wherever he travels, Lilwall speaks at schools and churches about the ministry and vision of Viva Network, an international coalition of Christian ministries working with children at risk. Based in Oxford, England, the network coordinates outreach to street children internationally, and organizes training conferences that attract workers from groups like Compassion International, World Vision, International Justice Mission, and many others. It also publishes a journal for those working with children at risk, and operates a job center matching Christians who want to help children with ministries seeking workers.

But Lilwall's not just promoting the ministry of Viva Network; he's also raising funds. Following his talks, schools and churches have donated money that he gives directly to Viva Network. (Lilwall pays for his travels out of his own savings.) To date he has raised more than $15,000.

Out of Russia
Lilwall began his adventure in September 2004 in Magadan, Russia. Located on the northeastern coast of Siberia, Magadan is miserable, especially in the brutal temperatures of winter. Stalin used Magadan as a gulag—reportedly forcing more than 2 million prisoners to work in the gold mines. People understood that if Stalin sent you to Magadan, you were never coming back.

Magadan holds a special place in Lilwall's heart. "[A friend and I] were invited to stay by the local Catholic church," Lilwall recalls. "The man who runs it told us how people in his church had been sent to the gulag just because they were Christians. One of them, an 80-year old man, spent 10 years there and survived. Now he's serving in this little church."

It's these kinds of people that feed Lilwall's soul, especially because the highway can be such a hair-raising place. In Russia, three men assaulted Lilwall on "the road of bones," as locals call it, stealing his wallet. Later in his travels, he awoke to chaos as a gas explosion destroyed a café next door to where he was sleeping. Another time, Japanese policemen mistook him for a robber and confronted him with torches and clubs. (They apologized when they realized their error.)

Such experiences only reinforce how grateful Lilwall is for the Christians he's encountered along the way. He says meeting so many Christians from different traditions has stretched him spiritually: "I've been humbled by visiting with gulag survivors and encouraged by praying with passionate young Christians in Korea. I've always attended nice, middle-class, English churches, so this was quite a change. I appreciate so much the kindness of Christians I've met who invited me to stay with them or helped me along the way."

Ministry in action
Following his adventures in Russia, Lilwall bicycled down through the Chinese countryside to Hong Kong, then island-hopped through the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua, New Guinea. Since there are no ferries across most of the seas in the area, he hitchhiked rides on English yachts, Filipino cargo ships, and New Guinean dive boats.

While in Manila he spent three weeks visiting some of the Viva Network organizations working with street kids in the Philippines. There he was touched by the heart-rending conditions in which the children lived, and excited to see the ministries in action.

"One day we went to visit some children living in a cemetery—they were sleeping on top of the tombstones, many of them emaciated and drugged up on glue sniffing," he recalls. "In contrast, it was a privilege to see the smiling faces and happy conversations in the charity refuge centers which do their best to give these children hope and a future."

The road home
Where in the world is Rob Lilwall now? After New Guinea he headed to Australia, where he was caught up in the after-affects of Larry—the cyclone that lashed the North Queensland coast in March, causing extensive damage to crops and property. He plans to remain in Australia until September 2006, at which time he'll turn his bike wheels north and cycle home through Asia, hopefully arriving back in London in January 2007.

Whatever route he takes, Lilwall is sure to encounter many dangers along the road. But he's also likely to discover Christians who give him a warm welcome, feed him, pray with and encourage him, and send him on his way. And that makes the journey well worth taking.

Steven Gertz is a freelance writer who formerly served with Viva Network. If you want to stay current with Lilwall's travels, visit his weblog at http://tblogs.bootsnall.com/rob/. For more information on Viva Network, visit www.viva.org.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine.
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July/August 2006, Vol. 44, No. 4, page 39

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