PARKERSBURG - A minister who has logged more than 200,000 miles on bicycles brought his ministry to the Mid-Ohio Valley this weekend.
The Rev. Johannes Myors of Americus, Ga., stopped here because of the torrential rains and was afforded protection from the storm through the hospitality of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Belpre.
Myors was on his way to Cincinnati to meet with a sponsor before heading to the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas in Minnesota.
His latest crosscountry journey will also take him to North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and then back to Americus, located near Plains, the home of former President Jimmy Carter and the headquarters for Habitat for Humanity.
An evangelical minister ordained 13 years ago, Myors works with the Methodist and Episcopalian churches. He started the Pedal Prayers Ministry 17 years ago and he ministers along the way of his travels, volunteers at Habitat construction sites and will bike to disasters if they are close enough.
Myors has trekked crosscountry for 200,000 miles and seven bicycles. The latest is a recumbent dubbed "Alice" in part for its frame made of aluminum, which is abbreviated Al on the Periodic Chart.
He was born in Germany of Orthodox Jewish parents who did not accept his conversion to Christianity.
Myors' parents disowned him and convinced friends and family that he committed suicide.
"They actually had a funeral for me," he said. "They even put up a tombstone with my name on it."
Myors has had no contact with his family for 34 years. It's difficult at times, he said.
"But it says in the Bible sometimes you have to forsake your family to follow him," he said.
