By this time, cycling was firmly woven into the matrix of my life. I had already bicycled ten thousand miles on four continents, and from coast to coast across the United States twice. My goal was to bike through all fifty states and on all seven continents. Now I looked forward with great anticipation to the upcoming adventure awaiting me.

When the alarm went off that warm July morning, I jumped out of bed. But while tending to my morning routines, I was struck by a violent, three-hour, flu-like diarrhea episode. Completely drained, I tried walking to the phone, but the room was spinning so fast I fell to the ground. All alone in my apartment, I slithered to the phone on my stomach without the strength to even crawl. Out of obligation, I phoned my boss. “I’m too sick to work today,” I whispered faintly. “I can’t even tell you the routine patients who need a substitute.”

My bedridden days blurred into weeks. I had never imagined that one day my health would end and I’d have to struggle to care for my daily needs. But that’s precisely what happened, and I was left unsure where my health was from hour to hour. Forget about being dependable or reliable for work or other commitments.

By April 1993 my hope for relief or a cure was down the drain. After ten months of wandering aimlessly through a daunting medical maze, I had seen nineteen different health care specialists and wasted thousands of dollars on failed treatment options.

Then came the diagnosis: “You have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalitis” (also known as CFS/ME, or CFS). As a nurse, I knew the word syndrome often translates into a “garbage diagnosis.” Worse yet, the health care industry is divided on whether CFS is a legitimate diagnosis or the “all-in-your-head syndrome.” The media dubs it Yuppie Flu. I thought, If I had cancer, the doctors would treat me with respect. They’d follow a protocol that would end my symptoms, or cancer would end my life. But this. . . ?

While CFS isn’t terminal, it certainly felt like it as I left Dr. Skul’s office. I felt doomed to be a prisoner of CFS, shackled and chained to a myriad of incapacitating symptoms.

Between 1992 and 2003, during the great abyss of my CFS imprisonment, I faced three serious relapses. Each relapse left me more debilitated than the previous one. Once able to work as a nurse, now I could only manage intermittent clerical work. The illness changed the trajectory of my entire life. Everything that was previously familiar became a struggle, leaving me reliably unreliable. My energy was consumed with navigating a myriad of unanswered questions and trying to understand what my anticlimactic diagnosis meant.

Later, two researching physicians would confirm my worst nightmare. “At a congressional briefing (1995), Mark Loveless, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and head of the AIDS and [CFS] Clinic at Oregon Health Sciences University, testified that a [CFS] patient feels every day effectively the same as an AIDS patient feels two months before death.’”[i] Dr. Nancy Klimas, a leading [CFS] researcher said, “My H.I.V. patients for the most part are hale and hearty thanks to three decades of intense and excellent research and billions of dollars invested. Many of my [CFS] patients, on the other hand, are terribly ill and unable to work or participate in the care of their families. I split my clinical time between the two illnesses, and I can tell you if I had to choose between the two illnesses I would rather have H.I.V (2009).”[ii]

Prayer as an Occupation

When I first got sick, I decided to make prayer my number one occupation, and upped my prayer time to an hour a day. I wondered how a life of prayer could be more valuable than a life of productivity. During that decade of being hidden away I remained faithful to my new commitment of prayer. It was in the schoolroom of suffering that I learned many lessons that I would need for the next leg of my journey.

In the Fall of 2003, at one of the hopeless points in my health challenges I felt the Lord ask me to obey Him by inviting a couple from Tanzania over for dinner. For three months I argued with God. “I have nothing to offer them.” However the prompting kept coming. Three months later I finally obeyed and invited the Lutembekas over. During conversation I asked, “How could our church help your ministry?” John said, “If every family in the church gave a $100 gift, each gift could buy a bicycle and allow pastors to travel from church to church, which are up to five hours walk from each other.”

When I prayed about our conversation afterwards, the Lord challenged me to give $1,200, the cost of my road bike, to buy bicycles through the Lutembekas. The problem was I was only able to work enough to make $450 per month. After grappling with God for three hours, He won and I did too.

The next day, I gave $1,200 to the Lutembekas to buy bicycles. From there a new dream to give away 100 bicycles in my lifetime arose. Then in October 2004, God again challenged me to give away a second $1,200 to buy bicycles in Nigeria through a missionary. The missionary asked, “Could I use half of your money to buy and distribute five hand-pedaled wheelchairs often referred to as trikes that are built locally in Nigeria?”  Having experienced physical limitations myself, I longed to make life a little easier for others with disabilities.

Before the month was over, I received pictures of the trike recipients. It was startling to see a picture of a schoolteacher dressed in a three-piece suit, walking with his hand blocks and dragging his legs behind him. It melted my heart to see the smile and the hope on each trike recipient’s face. Supporting the national economy was an extra blessing. Before I knew it, my bicycle dream was getting bigger than bicycles!

Soon afterwards I shared the trike pictures with my ninety-two-year-old friend and mentor, Robert Walker. He encouraged me on a regular basis that despite my disability, “God still has a plan for your life, Alice.” Over the years Bob also reminded me, “’I pray daily for you.” Now God was using Bob to help me further embrace His call.

When Bob saw the pictures of the trikes, he said, “You must form an organization and incorporate the ideas God has given you. This vision is larger than your personal goal of giving away a hundred bicycles.”

What had Bob just said? Where had his wild idea come from? I didn’t think I’d ever had aspirations of becoming an executive director of an organization. Or had I?

Trikes as Tools

In May 2005 we incorporated as His Wheels International (HWI) with the goal of providing bicycles to those in need—both in the United States and around the world. We didn’t have any plans for providing hand-pedaled trikes.

However, within two months God had used an Ethiopian government official from Washington D.C. to facilitate the next big dream for HWI: the need for hand-pedaled trikes throughout Africa. He shared that there were many with lower-extremity disabilities resulting from birth defects or polio. Those injured by landmines would benefit from such transportation as well. Landmines were a grave legacy of the twentieth century, having killed and maimed millions worldwide.

I couldn’t get the idea of trikes out of my mind, and before long another dream was born. Now I wanted to take a welding class so I could build a trike. Even though my health condition made such a thing impossible, CFS couldn’t steal my ability to dream.

A month later, as I was leaving a party, God’s next divine appointee had just arrived home, where the party was being held. A friend told me, “You need to talk to Kevin.” However, he didn’t appear interested in a conversation. His body language seemed to say he wanted to make a quick obligatory showing and then dart out again. I was reluctant to intrude on his time, but I introduced myself and showed Kevin the Nigerian trike pictures.

We stuck up an instant conversation. “I hope to take a welding class,” I said, “to learn how to weld so I can build trikes.”

Within minutes Kevin said, “I’m a mechanical engineer. Can I design, build, and pay for the trike prototyping?” Within a week Kevin had designed our first prototype, a hand-pedaled low-rider trike. HWI was only five months old, and we were forming a new division: global trikes. Our plan was to help those in other countries with lower-extremity disabilities. We were off to a strong beginning down the research and development road.

By November 2005, six months after beginning HWI, we had our first low-rider hand-pedaled trike prototype. Thus I contacted Dawn Clark, the disability ministry director at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, to see if she knew anyone who could try the trike.

“I don’t know if I can think of anyone,” she said. “But I have another idea. My son, Jeremy, is in North Africa. He is looking for some type of disability ministry, and this may be a perfect project for him. Could you bring the trike by tomorrow?”

When we met with Dawn the next day, Kevin and I learned she was a physical therapist who had spent many years on the mission field in Papua, New Guinea. She went on to say, “We are leaving in less than a month to visit Jeremy and his family for Christmas. Could we take drawings and pictures of the trike to show him? He doesn’t know how to weld, but he has always wanted to learn. Could you teach him how to build a trike and possibly send one back with him if he is interested?”

By the end of 2005 our trike design was heading to Africa, and the God-sized dream of HWI kept unfolding.

As 2006 began, Dawn Clark informed me that her son Jeremy was interested in partnering with HWI to explore a trike-building project. Our next step was for Kevin to send Jeremy a list of materials required for building the trikes. That way Jeremy could find out what was available in the local communities. Part of our goal for setting up small factories was to rely on supplies available in that country. We wanted to be careful not to create dependency by using supplies that had to be sent from the United States.

In July 2006, when Jeremy returned to Wheaton, he and Kevin met. They first discussed the specifications needed for a trike that would go to North Africa. Then they customized the design for that part of the world.

One change from the original was to use wheelbarrow wheels, since they were available in that region of Africa. Also, since Jeremy would need to show the North African Department of Health the trike before beginning such a project, he suggested building a breakdown model. If it fit into two boxes, it could go as extra luggage on an overseas flight.

Three months later Jeremy had learned how to weld and build a trike. By then he was ready to return to North Africa, and he took the prototype with him.

Gone Global

Over the next several years it was our goal to send trikes to different parts of the world, to pursue the possibilities of beginning small factories, and to continue our research and development of trike prototyping. With these goals in mind, one activity we participated in was to take trikes to a Joni and Friend (JNF) Family Retreat which allowed us to see the strengths and weaknesses of our design as people with a wide variety of disabilities rode the trike.

In 2007 a trike went with a pediatrician working in Togo, West Africa. Another trike went with JNF Wheels for the World to Peru. We also sent our latest version, a first generation Dual Offset Tube Trike (DOTT) with Jeremy to North Africa in September.

By December 2007, Jeremy officially started his trike workshop. He reported, “We are busy getting parts, welding and working out the technical issues.”

In January 2008, a Wheaton College football coach took our first Manufacturing chassis jig fixture pieces to Jeremy, in North Africa. Along with the jig pieces was a paper schematic of where each part goes and how to weld the pieces to a metal frame and a tube notcher.

About a month later, Jeremy wrote, “My jig is up and running, and the tube notcher is saving me big time on blood pressure and time! This project is the best one I have ever worked on, and most of that is due to your wonderful support. It is a great pleasure partnering with HWI.”

By Fall 2008 Jeremy and four nationals had built and distributed six of the twenty trikes they planned to build there. A church in Oklahoma partnered with them, buying the six trikes. Jeremy reported: “All six recipients came dragging themselves through the filthy sand on their hands, but they left in a ‘flashy’ fast trike, The trikes provided dignity and hope in a unique way.”

By the end of 2008 in addition to North Africa, trikes went to Senegal, Angola, and Bulgaria. In 2009 we sent trikes to Haiti, and another trike to Angola. We also did our first two production runs of 33 Dual Offset Tubular Trikes.

Also in 2009 we began brainstorming about helping a hospital in Ethiopia to begin a trike factory. Kevin also taught an indigenous Ugandan missionary who worked in Rwanda how to build a trike in hopes to begin a small trike building program as part of a technical training program. In addition, Kevin also gave him a sampler of the manual industrial arts, showing him all the skills and tools he uses when prototyping.

Another significant event that year occurred when I sensed the Lord challenging me to ramp up my prayer life and begin a 10,000-hour prayer journey. I had no idea how to do that, and in many ways I wasn’t sure I was up for the challenge. However, in the Fall of 2009 I began this new adventure. The Lord again knew what I most needed to equip me as a leader to go forward with the ministry He had for me to do—and only prayer could accomplish His work.

In January 2010, Jeremy and his North African team accomplished their goal of manufacturing and distributing 20 trikes as they completed and distributed the remaining 14 trikes.

By Spring 2010, we had done our third production run of 30 trikes. We packed our first crate of 15 trike kits and one completed trike to send to Soddo Christian Hospital in Ethiopia.

Between 2010 and 2013 we sent trikes to India, Vanuatu, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, and Niger. In Ethiopia, they have fabricated the 15 trike kits and distributed all of them. A Technical School in India has manufactured 10 for those in a leprosy community near Hyderabad. A missionary engineer and others who are working with the Vanuatu Disability Society are in the process of fabricating a trike and seeing how they can implement building trikes.

Sharing the Vision

Now in 2013, as our tike program expands we continue to refine or ministry focus. Beginning in August, 2013 and in our 9th year of ministry after distributing 1,700 two-wheeled bicycles, we will now turn our undivided attention towards our hand-pedaled trike. After designing 22 different trike prototypes and having them assembled, fabricated, and manufactured on five continents, we recognize that this is what makes His Wheels International unique.

Our website will feature an open forum for people to discuss different trike topics. In addition, we have just uploaded all our trike plan drawings, which anyone can access for free online. Our goal is to help in any way possible to see that the end user gets something that is ergonomically correct and can assist them with mobility.

We will continue doing ongoing trike research and development and share our findings through our online forum and as we consult with other organizations involved in trike work.

Over the years, we have become aware of the overwhelming need throughout the world for quality mobility for those with lower extremity disability. We have developed a trike and manufacturing process, but given our expertise and the size of our volunteer organization we are expanding our University trike Consortium.

Our goal is to leverage the energy of college and university students involved in many aspects of the trike process by utilizing a broad range of disciplines. With the world becoming global, many universities are involved in international study projects where they take students overseas on a regular basis to a place where the university has an ongoing relationship. It is our goal to help students see that their gifts and education can be applied to missions in creative ways. So far we have worked with five colleges and universities in the United States and abroad and are adding to our trike consortium each year.

I could never have imagined back in 1983 when I sensed God wanted me to provide tools for nationals that it would be through providing a basic need of mobility. A trike allows a person to get up and out of the dirt—to look up and see the world from a brighter perspective, allowing these individuals to travel further, while also enhancing and providing a more dignified mode of mobility.

A trike enables the end user to gather firewood or water and participate in the life of the community. It provides a way for them to travel to school and gain an education. And for some, it is a way to carry cargo on their backs, creating a small rolling store for selling wares and allowing them to provide for the needs of their families. Trikes provide a way for disabled individuals, often viewed as outcasts, to become valuable members of their society.

Indeed “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.” (Rev. 15:2 NIV)

Excerpt from, Teisan, Alice Riding on Faith: Keeping Your Balance When the Wheels Fall Off, (2012).

Alice Teisan is the founder and executive director of His Wheels International, a ministry that has distributed more than 1,700 bikes and hand-pedaled trikes to people affiliated with 88 countries on six continents. She is the author of Riding on Faith: Keeping Your Balance When the Wheels Fall Off (2012). Alice is also an inspiration speaker who has been a guest on several national radio shows, including Chris Fabry Live and First Person with Wayne Shepherd. For more information about His Wheels International go to www.hiswheels.org