5 Questions with Pastor KR Mele

Penns Valley native Pastor KR Mele, after biking from coast to coast across America, has founded Rock-n-Roll Ministries. He also wrote a book about the trip, Don’t Quit.

The bike ride, which came to be known as Coast 2 Coast 4 Jesus, began in April 2014 and lasted 38 days. During the trip, Mele and his friend, Harold Morgan, not only saw much of our beautiful country, but also raised money to build a well in Africa and spread the word of God. Rock-n-Roll Ministries seeks to combine philanthropy and the love of biking in and about God’s great creation.

T&G: Can you tell me a little bit about the logistics of the trip? Where did you sleep? What did you eat? What did you do for hobbies along the way?

Mele: Parts of the trip, we already had designated friends or churches that would house us, and that was great. We had the chance to speak at a few churches along the way, but most of the time, we would just show up in a town and find a hotel. The food was amazing because we could literally eat as much as we wanted to and I still lost 10 pounds. We were burning, I think, anywhere between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day just biking that much. Harold’s wife and his sister drove a support vehicle, so they kept all of our supplies and all of our food. The team that I had with me was pretty incredible. Also, each night of the trip, I would journal, as tired as I was after doing my Facebook post.

T&G: You mentioned that you’d only biked 26 miles before the trip. How did you physically and mentally prepare for your journey across the country?

Mele: I don’t think we really realized what we were getting into until we were into it. I bring it all back to the word of God, because my wife texted me the third morning. It was a Psalm, Psalm 121, that talks about lifting our eyes to the hills, and I lifted my eyes to the hills, I thought, “Where does my help come from?” And my help comes from the Lord. So Psalm 121 became what I memorized, and everyday I got on the bike, I recite these verses in my heart, and His word gave me strength to overcome. And that’s kind of the message of the book: No matter how hard life gets, His word can help you overcome. Physically, I did some biking. But it was winter [when we were training]. I always enjoyed exercise, so I’d go to the gym and I did some spinning classes, which were fun. And I did some early morning boot camps with some people out in Penns Valley.

T&G: I understand that on top of the book you published, Don’t Quit, you also founded Rock-n-Roll Ministries. Can you tell me about that?

Mele: I founded Rock-n-Roll Ministries on a verse in the bible that says, “My Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” So, the slogan is “The Lord is our rock, so let’s roll and tell someone about him.” It’s kind of like a biking ministry where we not only go out and exercise and enjoy God’s creation but also tell others the good news about how much Christ loves them and cares for them. My goal is to do some shorter rides, but every once in a while, go on longer missions trips on bikes.

T&G: What were your highs and lows of the trip?

Mele: I’d have to say the highlight was the people that we met and the ones that came to know Christ as their savior. That’s what I love to do. Some of the biking highlights would have been when we climbed 8,200 feet in New Mexico and stood overlooking everything, or biking over a Mississippi River bridge and right on top of that bridge, we had just hit 100 miles for that day. We just stood up there and thanked the Lord for the moment up there. We each had seven flat tires, as well, so those were some hiccups. We each had to replace our back tire once. And the book is titled Don’t Quit because on day two, I wanted to. I just wanted to be done. On day two, we did 95 miles. The next day was hard coming up, and before I left PA, I’d never biked more than 26 miles in a day, so to do 95 miles on the second day and to end at this really steep hill was really hard. But I attribute everything back to the Lord and his word.

T&G: I know you said that on day two you were thinking you wouldn’t do it again. Do you think now, reflecting back on it, that you would?

Mele: I found that as I was riding, peddling up some of the hardest mountains, the Lord kind of spoke to my heart and said that it’s going to be hard now so that you finish strong later. So it’s kind of like in life when you want to quit or give up, the Lord can give us strength to keep going, and we’ll be stronger because of it. So, yeah, I would.