His Wheels, her mission: Midland woman creates group that donates hand-pedaled bikes

Less than two months after Alice moved to Midland, Michigan, the Midland Daily Newspaper featured an article about the ministry of His Wheels International. The ministry was brought to the attention of the newspaper by a friend of a friend, a long time resident of Midland. The article is copied below but can also be found by clicking on the link to the article at the Midland News.

His Wheels, her mission: Midland woman creates group that donates hand-pedaled bikes

Midland nonprofit helps people with lower extremity disabilities

In her teens, bicycling for Alice Teisan, of Midland, was more than a hobby. Before she turned 30, she estimates that she traveled 10,000 miles on her bicycle. She has biked in Africa, England, Israel and Scotland, in addition to the U.S.

Her plans to continue cycling were waylaid when she was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This condition made it impossible for her to keep biking at such a pace.

While that news was more than disheartening, it eventually led her to start a non-profit that would provide bicycles, as well as hand-pedaled trikes, to others in need in the U.S and around the world.

From the beginnings of the organization in 2005, through 2013, His Wheels International distributed 1,700 bicycles in the U.S. The group also bought 165 bicycles for people in 12 African countries.

Since that time, the group has been working on hand-pedaled trikes in numerous capacities. The trikes are designed for people who have lower extremity disabilities.

“What we do is promote the design, fabrication and manufacturing of these trikes for people with disabilities in other parts of the world,” Teisan said. “There is a team of us – about 20 people – who have put eyes on it: physical therapists, occupational therapists, surgeons, engineers, nurses – we kind of improved on the design. Since that time we have about 120 of them in 22 countries around the world.”

Individuals as well as teams of people have worked together through His Wheels International to help others across the globe.

“We like to involve students to give them the opportunity to see how their skills can have a global impact,” Teisan said. “Spring Arbor University partnered with a group in India. The students helped buy materials to make 20 trikes.”

Students at Olivet University built a hitch and trailer that can be attached to the trike. The trailer could potentially carry supplies, such as firewood, or goods to be sold at local markets.

And while the trikes provide mobility, they may also lead to employment opportunities for locals where they are being built.

Teisan has written two books: Pray 10K How the Radical Can Become Real: A 10,000 – Hour Prayer Adventure and Riding on Faith: Keeping Your Balance When the Wheels Fall Off; both books are available on Amazon. She is also in the editing stages of a children’s coloring book about the trike.

Teisan plans to attend a conference this fall in Missouri hosted by Mobility Worldwide, another organization that aims to provide mobility to people around the world.

To learn more about His Wheels International, visit www.hiswheels.org 

Mobility Device Provision & Distribution Conference

From September 20-22, 2021 there was the first ever conference for people doing hand-pedaled three-wheeled mobility work along with over 50 who gathered in Missouri, or online for an inaugural conference.

We at His Wheels International were so glad for the  and leadership of Scott Walters, the Executive Director of Mobility Worldwide who had the vision for the conference. His team did a fabulous job of putting together an interesting and varied line up of speakers.

Due to the COVID situation, Alice was grateful that she could still attend via Zoom. She was the final presenter of the conference. Click on the link to  view her 15 minute presentation. It gives a good overview of the work His Wheels International has done over the past 16 years, having begun in 2005.

Thanks to our friends at Messiah College and our collaboration, they took our trike to the conference where it was showcased along with other organizations products. Our children’s coloring book was also passed out.

Out of the conference, I steering committee is being formed, to begin figuring out how to formalize a collaboration. Alice has been invited to be a part of this committee.

Alice presented at the Mobility Device Provision & Distribution Conference 2021. View the video below. It gives an overview of the work His Wheels has been doing over the last 16 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December Newsletter 2019

Read our most recent December Newsletter 2019 and learn about what is happening with His Wheels

(Left) Two trikes were sent from Illinois with Joel to Tanzania as extra luggage in May 2019.
(Below) David, the engineer from Arusha, Tanzania (7 hour car drive from Dodoma) who works in the Arusha Vocational Technical School came to assist Joel in assembling the trikes. David’s specialty is motorized trikes for cargo purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Joel’s smile says it all!

Hope Deferred

Here is a short article Alice wrote for her church. It give a glimpse into His Wheels.

A Hope Deferred

Today’s post comes from Alice Teisan, a member of Church of the Savior.

I had a dream in 1992 — a hope – to lead cross-country bicycle trips. I was four days from going on a ten-day, 1,000-mile bicycle trip, when struck by a life-altering illness.

Proverbs 13:12a says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” John Gill’s commentary from the 1700s described my situation accurately: “If [hope] is delayed any length of time, the mind becomes uneasy, the heart sinks and fails, and the man is dispirited and ready to despond, and give up all hope of enjoying the desired blessing;” My physical reality was out of my control. But, making sure my heart didn’t become bitter toward the Lord would require taking drastic measures, which included regular prayer and intentionally putting on the armor of God (Eph. 6:10-20), to name just two of the many spiritual disciplines I practiced.

Delayed gratification is an invitation to enter into grief, a place where our heart can pulsate with our Savior’s, as we become more like Christ. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness.”

Preparation for Kingdom service requires a time of separating the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12). An unknown future ushered me into God’s schoolroom where I would gain the necessary tools for being effective in the Kingdom work awaiting me. There I began learning how to die to myself while relying on Jesus through faith. In the furnace of affliction, I learned that all he required was my obedience.

The gift of dashed hope challenges us to refocus a little more heavenward, whittling away at life’s comforts. Here in this broken and sinful world, our focus on the goodness of a Sovereign Lord becomes a little clearer and we become more acquainted with the mysteries of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter who lives within each believer.

My 1992 dream — to bicycle in all 50 states and on all seven continents (even though by then I had biked coast-to-coast twice, through 30 states and also on four continents) – was too small. God edited my first draft but kept the basics: a love for cycling, traveling, serving, etc. His edited Kingdom plan came in 2005, when I founded His Wheels International (HWI), a Christian bicycle and hand-pedaled tricycle organization. But before his Kingdom plan, there was soul work to be completed.

Instead of having the thrill of cycling the world, I look forward to hearing one day in heaven how HWI was able to mobilize God’s work worldwide through bicycles and tricycles. I proclaim with Solomon, “A dream fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12b).

To learn more about His Wheels International, visit the website www.hiswheels.org

FrankiSense & More

This Thursday, September 21st , 2017 from 1:00 to 2:00 pm EST Alice will be talking with Frankie Picasso about her new book, Pray 10K, on FrankieSense & More.   Listeners can tune in here and clicking on the ‘LISTEN LIVE’ button on the upper right corner during the live broadcast and listen to it 48 hours later from itunes  and The Good Radio Network.