I first heard of Hope Now from a friend of mine, Stas, who was one of the first to receive its services. I met Stas when I was on holiday in Georgia, USA, staying with the Knight family. They had already been to Kompas Park, where they met Stas. While in the US my cousin Danny, Stas and I had a great time and became good friends.

A few months before my arranged date of departure to Ukraine, I was asked if I wanted to partake in the Cycle Tour.  At this point I thought to myself, "Cycling…. I don't cycle… well, how hard can it be?"  I promptly agreed, without really considering the 200 mile distance! As the date of departure approached, I began to feel slightly apprehensive, and decided I'd better begin training. Next thing I knew I was leaving, without having ridden a bike for over a year.

Before the flight, the experience had already begun, through the collection of sponsorship. I enjoyed the sponsorship process for one simple reason: it was all going to an extremely worthy cause. I received substantial sponsorship, which is especially useful as it goes an awful long way in the Ukraine. In my opinion when it comes to gaining sponsorship, lots of small donations are just as or perhaps more successful than trying to hunt down a few large donations. With regards to gaining sponsorship my grandma helped me immensely by gaining sponsors for me through her friendship circles.

Upon arriving at Alpha House in Cherkassy, a town next to the D'nipro River and about two and a half hours from Kiev, I had a couple days of relaxation before the Tour began. On the day of the tour, I woke up to perfect weather for cycling (apparently, I had no clue!) I got ready, got given a bike to use, and had a chat with some of the other cyclists, who were all members of the Hope Now Cycle Club. We set off after a briefing about formations and signals from a more than capable leader.

The tour began, I was paired with fellow Englishman Mike Shorey, who I got on very well with, but we had the problem of not speaking Ukrainian or Russian. In the instances when we were given orders, it occasionally got a bit confusing.  Luckily the majority of the time Stas would come to our rescue and give us all the info we needed. The first day was going perfectly, a nice cool breeze, sunshine, great views, when my worst nightmare came true, I got a flat tire. For me this was a disaster, as I have no idea about bikes and no clue how to fix them. So Mike, Stas and I stopped on the side of the road, waiting for the following mini-bus to give us a hand. The tour was well prepared and so I was quickly kitted up with a new bike for the rest of the day until they could fix the old one. From a pleasant cycle, we now had to play catch up to reach the rest of the group, and this was reasonably tough, but we made up the distance in good time. Thankfully this was the only problem I experienced, and my bike was repaired by the next morning.

During the Tour as well as cycling, we would have breaks in very pleasant, eye pleasing areas, which were great for relaxing and perhaps having a quick snooze after the previous physical exertion. In these breaks you were provided with as much energy boosting food and drink you could possibly want, and throughout the whole tour I was never hungry for more than five minutes, which for me, a growing lad, is rather impressive. For the 'hard core' cyclists, where it was simply not enough physical exercise there were also regular games of volley ball, which was good fun for everyone.

After we had done our fifty odd miles for the day we would be at our destination, a church in a town/village which would be preceded by showing us where we would be sleeping, and then a tasty, large, traditional Ukrainian dinner. I was very impressed with the graceful hospitality and quality of the food throughout the whole trip, far better than school lunches! Subsequently there would be a relaxing, interesting, well prepared Christian meeting organized, often, by the local youth leader. These gatherings not only involved our group but also many of the locals, making the meetings that much more valuable. These were conducted in Ukrainian, but there were many talented translators within the group, making them enjoyable for foreigners like me also.

Throughout the whole tour the weather was fantastic, making it that much more of an experience, apart from the last thirty minutes of the trip, where it absolutely poured, the roads where flooded within five minutes. The rain provided a little extra fun through sliding around the tarmac, and hiding a few unexpected pot holes. Everyone was thoroughly drenched and as we turned the last corner a cheer erupted throughout the ranks.  This was the perfect closing to a very successful, enjoyable and Christ solidifying tour.

To close, I will almost definitely be returning next year to partake in, what I'm sure will be a fantastic, spiritual and physical ride and Camp.

Alex Ferguson (17 yrs old)
London, England