Shaun Newman Podcast - #1104 - Arvid Loewen

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Arvid Loewen is an ultramarathon cyclist, philanthropist, and former business executive. Born in Paraguay and immigrating to Canada as a teenager, he played semi-professional soccer as a goalkeeper before rising to senior management at Palliser Furniture. Around age 49 he left that career to focus full-time on fundraising for Mully Children’s Family (a Kenyan street-children rescue mission) through extreme cycling. He is a Guinness World Record holder (fastest trans-Canada bicycle crossing in 2011 and farthest distance cycled in one month in 2020), a Race Across America finisher (including an age-category win), has logged roughly 350,000 km over two decades while raising more than $12 million for the charity, received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, and co-authored the book When Quitting Is Not an Option. Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

This is Brett Weinstein. This is Tom Lomago. This is Bruce Party. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is Dr. Pierre-Core. Hi, this is Frank Paredi. This is Daniel Smith.

This is James Lindsay. This is Vance Crow and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Tuesday. How's everybody doing today? First off, I just want to say thanks for all the prayers and all the texts and everything else. Mom is in Saskatoon. sounds like she's doing better and is going into surgery had had a heart attack so yeah that's

about as much as I know she is doing better so I just want to say again thanks to all the the prayers out there to anyone who put her in her prayers I appreciate that and I'm sure she does as well and so far so good they made it to Saskatoon and I've talked to pretty much to the entire family now and they were saying mom was in good spirits and you know it was going to have some testing done and and all that good stuff and was under set to go to surgery well by the time this is recorded she should be out but regardless I appreciate all the the prayers and people to send and text and everything else just no I don't know from the bottom of my heart thank you very much I was a little hesitant to put it out here but I'm like you know if there's ever a time to ask a

community for some prayer. It's probably in times like these. So thanks again for doing that and for all the texts. It's, it means a lot. Now, today we're sitting in Dryden and by, you know, we'll be heading off to Thunder Bay when you're listening to this. But as I sit here, I'm in the backyard of the lanes. I spent three here, three years here playing hockey in Dryden. And so they've taken us out for a fishing trip. and the kids and Robin Jann are currently filleting the fish that we caught. It was a good day. We went off into the backwoods of Dryden. And it was an interesting thing.

You'll have to pay attention for the post on X or Substack Instagram to see exactly what we did. But regardless, it's been an interesting day. And then always cool to come back to a place I spent, you know, part of my hockey. days and just such a lovely people. Regardless, there's the update from the road. You know, when it comes to two of the sponsors here, Silver Gold Bull, Bull Valley Credit Union, they're bringing the cornerstone back. They're back on board, title sponsors. It's coming back in 27, May 2027 to Calgary, Alberta. We're going to start working here in August on getting the ticketing website up and everything else, and we'll start announcing some of the speakers as we, as we know

them. So that's just something to keep your ears on the lookout for. But when it comes to precious metals, whether we're in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, now into Ontario, Silvergold Bull, they can get you what you need. You go to silvergoldbill.ca here in Canada, and you just sign up for account online and then take your purchase and they'll ship it right to your doorstep. And if you've got questions, whether in buying, selling, or storing precious metals, down in the show notes, I'm talking about Spotify, Apple. They got, uh, Graham's details down there and you can text or email them and he'll get back to you, loves hearing from all you listeners.

And you can also just shoot me a text if you're having any issues and I can direct you to the right people as well. Rec tech back in my home territory for over 20 years. They've been committed to power products and excellence in the power sports industry. I tell you, the place we went today could have used one of the side by sides. It was some interesting territory. to get into. And when you're looking to have a little bit of fun, maybe an adventure, you want to start over at Rectec. So when you're driving through Lloyd Minster, you should stop in and see Al and the

team there, Ryan the manager. And whether it's on the water, you know, we were out fishing today in a Lund fishing boat. You can get those there at Rectec. Or maybe you want to have a little fun on four wheels. They can do that too. But they've got a little bit of everything in there. when it's in the water, on the ground, in the snow, all the things. Go to rectech power products.com. They're open Monday through Saturday, but you can visit them online and find out everything there as well. If you're online and you're wanting to build a website

or have internet security or, you know, secure your website, secure your online business, Planetcom. They're at a Sherwood Park, but they work with people all over. And for 23 years, PlanetCom has been here to boost your productivity and keep your productivity safely managed online. You know, there's been, in my end, there's been lots of different online hackers and attacks and lots of weird things go on.

And PlanetCom stepped in and has gave me peace of mind. And if you're looking for peace of mind, go to planetcom.com. You can meet Carl and his team. Once again, they're out of Shored Park. They're wonderful people. And make sure that you don't have any fears when it comes to running everything.

on or anything online. The road trip has been powered by, I tell you what, the old suburban has been to some interesting places. It started with Quick Dick McDick, taking us down some of the back roads in Tufnell. And today Rob took me down some of the back roads in the woods out in Ontario.

And, well, that's powered by Zeebs. And it's a family owned and fine-tuned in Chestermeer, Alberta. That Zeebs Performance Restorations. They deliver expert classic car restoration, custom exhaust and performance upgrades. that keep your ride reliable and roaring. And if you're looking for that, go to zebs.com.

And say hello to Zane and his dad, Brian. If you're looking for fuel efficiency, they can help you out there as well. So today we're on our way to Thunder Bay. That's where we're heading off to. That's the next stop on the journey. And if you know of people in northern Ontario that you might think, hey, that might be a good interview,

let me know, drop me a line, shoot me a text. I would love to run into some people in northern Ontario. Now, let's get on to that tale of the tape. Today's guest is a Guinness Book of World Records Holder. I'm talking about Arvid Lohen. So buckle up, here we go. Welcome to the Shaw Newman podcast today. I'm sitting with Arvind Lohen.

I got to tell you this story because it's one of the wonderful things about being on the road and then how things kind of fall in the place. I was at Peter Moran's house, so I was down in Cleefeld, Manitoba, and I was sitting there, and his mom had come over, Leanne, and we were talking about some things, and somehow it came up that I biked across Canada,

and then the kids were interested in seeing where we'd went from and everything else, and somewhere along the way, they asked how many days it took us, and I was saying, well, it took us 69 days, 58 of biking and 11 days to rest and visit with some friends, and they brought up. up something along the lines that was very fast or maybe who is the fastest. And I chuckled. I said, that's funny. I actually know who that is. I read his book. But for the life of me, I couldn't spit

your name out. So I typed it into Google and of course, Arvid Lohen came up. And I'm like, you know, it's funny. I think he lives in Winnipeg if memory serves me correct. Because I'd read your book. Man, it's got to be closing in Arvid on almost a decade now that I first read it. And I thought back then of reaching out because I want to say you left. in the book, either your phone number or your email, if memory served me correct. Regardless, I have to thank Leanne and the kids, because if they hadn't to spurred that conversation on, I would have drove through Winnipeg and never even thought to reach out. But, you know, one of the the cool things about our road trip right now is trying to, you know, find some different people

to talk to out of each province and hear some of their stories and then some thoughts on maybe some of the current things going on in our country. But you have a really incredible story. And of course, a Guinness Book World Record holder as well. And we can get into that in a bit. But maybe for the start, for the audience, just talk a little bit about where you come from and who you are, Arvid. Well, thank you for having me and thank you for coming to our house.

It's wonderful to see you. And yeah, my name is Arvid Lohn. I'm actually better known as Grandpa Arvid. and that gets into the second part of our story. But I was born in Paraguay. I'm the youngest of 10, and we came to Canada in 1970. So I came from a rather poor background.

I have some stories from my years in Paraguay that are definitely prepared me for the work that I'm doing right now. But when we came in 1970, Winnipeg was the whole. I broke my leg because I borrowed a bike from my neighbor in the backyard and somebody was teaching their daughter how to drive and instead of going around me she rode right over me and broke my leg so that was my introduction to Canada as a as a kid without a single word of English so I went to school here Chief

Pegas but it didn't after three months my cast came off and I was born on So I always say my passport is actually a soccer ball. That was my love, my passion. And so that's what I did on a farm by myself because there were no kids to play with. But here the opportunities were to be part of a team. And for my years in Canada here at my beginning years, my teenage years, soccer was absolutely my salvation. I mean, it just got me through all kinds of challenges with the language, but then also with all the rest of the stuff that goes on when you're a teenager,

finding your way. And so, yeah, so that is, I excelled, was a goalkeeper, became the automatic all-star goalie for senior teams in Manitoba. I got to ask being a goalkeeper, because the World Cup obviously just finished. And I watched goalies, I'm like, How on earth do you cover that giant net when you see, like, I don't know, what's a busy game? Ten shots? Yeah.

You know? And then to try and predict, like, you watch some of these kickers now. Like, I mean, it's almost like you're taking a bet half the time if they get an open shot of like, I hope he shoots it this way. Especially on the penalty shots. For me, what made matters worse was I was five feet eight at the best of time, okay? And so now every goalkeeper you saw in a World Cup. They're all 6'4, 6'4, 6'4. Our grandkids, that's why the couches are set up this way.

This was the World Cup viewing location. They would always say, Grandpa, you would have saved that shot. You would have saved that shot. Yeah, right. But, yeah, for me, that was the life. That was my passion, and that's what I did, even until we were married for a couple of years already and had grandkids. but being 5'8 and having to, like I was good.

I was, you know, played against touring professional teams coming from Scotland and Italy. And I was just on the crust of trying to make it into the professional world, but I chose not to pursue that. But I also had some injuries, and I had concussions. Because I was aggressive. I was fearless. You had to be, if you're finally, with eight and you want to go against these forwards okay and so when we had kids I

you know sat back and I said you know what these concussions after a couple of them they come too easy I can't risk it so that's when I quit the soccer at my at the peak at age 26 and very became very inactive live normal my wife would say very normal for 10 years and that felt strange to me to be that normal And my injuries came to me to the point I had knee ligament torn ligaments and stuff that I couldn't play with our kids. So then I decided, what am I going to do? So I one day actually took a Canadian tire mountain bike. I was going to go for a 40 kilometer ride after 30 kilometers.

And on the 40 kilometer ride, what was the longest distance you'd ridden before that? I don't know, maybe 5, 10 kilometers with the kids. Okay. But after 30 kilometers, I called Ruth. It says, pick me up. Please come pick me up. I can't make it home. But it did one thing.

That ride changed my life because I understood my competitive nature of soccer was woken up with that bike ride. And yeah, so that's how my cycling career began. You know, the 40 kilometer ride, the first day we rode across Canada. So we left St. John's. Well, when we flew out there, we pulled the bikes out of their packaging that were ridden on the planes, and they were all disheveled, needed work. So we got stranded in St. John's.

And we stayed with a lovely family. I wish I could remember their names. And they toured us around while our bikes got fixed. And the first day we rode, I believe it was 38 kilometers. And I was thinking to myself, we are never going to make it across Canada. I remember my brother having to talk me off the ledge that entire day, probably that entire first two weeks. because for most people, you know, like, well, it's the longest you'd written before that. For me, out on the farm, I don't know, like you say, three, four kilometers.

I was playing hockey at the time, so my legs were in very good shape. But Dustin and Lori in particular, their knees were bugging them, all the different things of pushing your body that far and then having to do it consecutive days over. I mean, talking to you about it, a guy who, you know, is an ultra-marathon cyclist. I mean, at the end of the day, you are talking, not in the first 40K, but certainly at different times, a different type of pain that they were experiencing back then. Regardless, the 30-kilometer ride, because you couldn't make the 40-kilometer ride, normally you'd think, oh, you made the 40-kilometer, and now I'm like, oh, I want to do this.

What was it about the failure that was like, okay, it's back, and I want to do this? I understood that cycling, first of all, was the perfect activity with the injuries from soccer. My knees, they were damaged, and cycling was extremely good for it. And, you know, it went so quickly from 40, and I said, I like this. So I traded it, not traded, and I bought a bike that was more conducive to long. wanted to do. And then I did the entombe, random nearing. It's self-supported

long rides of 400, 600, up to 1,200 kilometers. What was the first long ride you did? Like, we're talking hundreds of kilometers. I've always, I've skipped the normal process. So I decided that I was going to join this team and a group of about

five, six, Rondonurcyclist in Winnipeg. I called them up and I said, I want to, can I go on your next ride? Well, they said no, because the next one is a thousand kilometers and we will not allow you to come along with us because you're going to not make it and you're going to hold us back. And I said, well, what if I just ride in the back and see how I do? The husband really, that organizes this, he was not happy. He did not want to take me along. His wife, she says, yeah, well, you follow us. we'll see how it goes. It was a thousand kilometers straight through. I'd never done anything

anything remotely close to that. And I made it back to about 800 kilometers with them. And then I took a motel on the side of the road there somewhere for about four or five hours. And then I made it back. And so that was the beginning of understanding. I can go very far on my own power. And we don't know what that limit is. And I always say, as human beings, most of us quit well before we even need to consider doing that. We're created far more, far stronger than what most people allow themselves to tap into it. Ultra-marathon cycling has allowed me to tap into that resource, which is an absolutely wonderful resource when you understand it.

So you would say, or I would think you would probably agree with, we limit ourselves because of what we tell ourselves. Not what our body's telling us, but what our mind tells us. Absolutely. Totally. Yeah. There is, we're tough. We can be tough if our mind. I always say as mentally strong as I am, which people say I am, you have to be to do what I did.

That's still the weakest part of my body. Yeah, you think, I mean, just going, like a thousand kilometers. Some of that would have been maybe a bit of naivity of like, Well, it's not that far. But a thousand K, like... It's a long way. That's a long way. Yeah.

You know? I think our longest ride across Canada, the one... The furthest we did in the day was either... Is it 240 or 280 kilometers? Dustin will fact-checked me on that, regardless. It was well over 200. And it was funny because you still had more in the tank. You could have very well went further, but we were...

I was saying before we started. Like, when I read your... story, I thought, maybe I could break his record. And then I thought about it. And I'm like, I actually in love the pace at which we cycled. I could have went a little faster. But I've done a partial triathlon and a couple of little things like that where you race. And although I love biking, I like the touring mode of it where you're there to see the sites, smell the smells, and you can go a lot longer than you think. But at the same token, there was something different about your story that I'm like,

I just don't have that. It's not that I don't think I couldn't do a thousand kilometers, you know, probably could. If I really wanted to and pushed, probably could. But to jump into it your first long distance go, that's impressive. And I mean, but just to your comment on what I would say is the one thing that people forget is when I've had these conversations

with quite a few people that go as far as what you've gone. I said, you have to remember when you want to double that a distance per day, there's something that happens. You now had 12 days on a bike, 12 hours on a bike, and you had 12 hours off the bike. Sure. Yeah, recovery. Recovery. Well, when you double that distance that you're going to cycle to do what ultramarathon cycling is about, what happens to your recovery time? It's gone.

Non-existent? Non-existent. And that's when a completely different dynamic comes into play that people never think about. What are you going to do when you have no recovery time? When you have no time to sleep, you have no time to go horizontal, you have to stay on a bike. That's when real life happens. Well, talk to me about real life because I'd be curious. I always thought when we bike Canada, we're in what portion of Canadian?

in society less than 1% when you bike across Canada in 13 days six hours and change if memory serves me correct and you can give me the exact time for the fastest man across Canada on a pedal bike you go that is something completely different it's not even remotely in the same class the the the root is generally the same but the pace at which it went you're the only guy to ever do it. Well, yeah, well, actually that record has been broken. Has it been broken? Yeah, but it's a bit, they chose a different route.

Okay, so they didn't ride faster, but they rode a little bit shorter. I chose the route that I wanted to because I wanted the exposure for the Muli Children's family, the charitable organization that I represent. So I wrote about 160 kilometers longer further than that individual did. But, you know, it's, I mean, I can follow the road a little bit. I started in Vancouver City All, and I knew what was lying ahead of me, and the weather was great. We did actually have predominantly westerly winds on the west side of Winnipeg. And I was on a bike for 20 and a half hours a day.

sleeping about 90 minutes a day for the first four days. And I averaged approximately 90 kilometers. I average 540 kilometers per day up to the Manitoba border. That was 90 kilometers per day more than what I needed to do in order to break the record. Okay, so that was always front and center. How much do I have to do? But by the time I reached the Saskatchewan-Manetoba border, I began to retain a lot of fluid my legs

because I never lay down. Okay, hardly ever. Legs started to swell up and it became more and more difficult. And eventually when the legs swell up, it feels like you're peddling underwater. It likes are a lot heavier. The whole rotation, it just doesn't want to go on.

And I mean, I wasn't naive. I knew that things would change. And by the time I reached the lakes east of us, My sleep deprivation was to the point where I began seeing things. I saw things on the road that were not there. I saw mailboxes on the side of the road that in my mind were little girls in the wedding dresses. And then when I drove right up to the mail, up closer, it was a mailbox. So hallucination became part of reality.

And for me then around just Marathon, Ontario, at 2 a.m., I came to a point where I stopped on the side of the road. and took a nature break. And I saw right behind the headlights. I had a support vehicle the whole time, okay? Basically, I do nothing for myself. They do everything for me. My support vehicle had given me some privacy. And my lights from my bike were shining over the edge of a cliff.

And it came to me and I said, you know what? if I push that bike just a little bit, it will topple over, and I have a legitimate reason to quit. Because that's all I could think about is how do I get out of this what I started. But then I look around and my support vehicle came up and they had a perfectly good spare bike on top of the van mounted there. So that would have been difficult to throw overboard by accident. But everything for me changed at that point. up to that point, I am a person of faith. Up to that point, my prayer was, God help me to do this.

And at that point, it changed from, God, I cannot do this. Absolutely not. But I can continue to do my best. And so that was a freeing moment for me because up to that point, it had been me doing this. At that point on the ride, I was 22 hours. ahead of record pace. Okay. So when I say a record pace, meaning the average record pace, what I was done.

And I continued that, so I continued on and about two, three days later at 1 PM on a Sunday afternoon, I said, that's it. My swelling was so bad in my legs that I could barely move the pedals. I was riding at less lower speed than what my average pace needed to be. in order to get to the end under record. So I stopped. We took a motel. I put my feet up for 17 hours.

And the fluid started to drain down my legs. But I also, in my mind, I also gave up on the record ride at all completely. But ultramarathon cycling has taught me that you never make a crucial decision when you are at the lowest point. You wait for a time when things look a little bit better. That's when you make a decision. So 17 hours later, I said, wait a minute. I didn't tell Guinness that we were stopping.

I just took a break. It's allowed. But until 17 hours counted against my time. Okay. And so when I got back on a bike, I was five hours behind record pace, still dealing with emotional struggles wanting to quit, never mind setting a record. But I had brought, and maybe we should have talked about why I'm doing this with Moly Children's

family first, but Charles Moly, and we'll get back into that part of it, I had brought him to meet me on the road. He was going to be part of my support crew. And what I was doing is I was just struggling with the desire to quit. I just wanted to stop, stop. So then I met him just shot this side of Ottawa. And it was an emotional greeting because I had gone through a tremendous amount of stuff already. And he prayed for me.

And you know what I thought he was going to pray for. Renewed strength, renewed enthusiasm. Westerly winds, whatever, all of those things that I desperately needed. But he didn't. He didn't ask God for anything in his prayer. He simply thanked God that I would become the new Guinness World Record Holder. I was flabbergasted. I was actually kind of mad.

I said, how dare you thank God for me becoming the Guinness World Record holder when I'm the one on a bike. But he told me one other thing. He says his wife, Esther, in Kenya, had taken 600 young people because they knew I was struggling as I was lying in a motel. And they spent a day of prayer and fasting back in Kenya.

And, you know, when you're that tired, you're that emotionally broken, those things just hit you. And so I got back on a bike. We were 1,700 kilometers away from Halifax. I went straight through. I took two or three, five-minute naps on the side of the road, and we did make it to Halifax,

I think two hours and 53 minutes, better than the previous record. I had stood up for 20 years. So that's what Ultramarathon cycling is about. it takes you into areas of your life that you never thought you were capable of going. And I really, really appreciate that because those lessons that you learn on a bike, which let's face it, cycling across Canada and record time is not very important in the big picture of life, really. But what you learn from it, if you apply it where it matters, that is.

You brought up Mully's children. Could you explain to, well, just the story behind it? I'll backtrack a little bit. I started the cycling after we talked about my first failed 30-kilometer bike ride. I did that for 10 years. Races in North America, you know, anywhere from 600 to 1,200 kilometers, even when we did a couple of races in France. as well and they were all for personal satisfaction.

When you really think about ultramarathon cycling, it's rather selfish in nature. Okay, and that really didn't sit well with me because I had a young family back home and I was spending weekends somewhere in California racing through the Mojave Desert on a bike for personal gratification. So I said, no, I got to stop this or I got to find a cause. So then I had this crazy idea that I had this crazy idea that I was. I was going to take a tandem bike, is going to cut off the rear pedals, and I was going to put a comfortable passenger seat in the back of the bike.

And I was going to, and I contacted World Vision. I had some connections into Dave Toyson, the president at that time. We already had three conference calls. I told them what I wanted to do. I wanted to take some of his kids and transport them in rotation across Canada so that they could share what WorldVis. vision meant to them. And then boom, all of a sudden the doors closed with World Vision. I think it's a valid reason. I think there was concern about the safety on the highway,

which is a very valid reason to be concerned about, and the exposure for World Vision. It's a big organization. And I couldn't find another organization until one Sunday morning and Sunday school, a friend of mine leaned over and he said, oh, by the way, my son Paul is going on a three months mission strip to Kenya, Africa, to this place called Muli Children's Family, a street children rescue mission, to teach physics and math. And it was like, I always say it with help like God hit me on the head with a 2x4 and said, that's why World Vision closed, I'm opening a door for you. I literally went home that day, typed up a half-page concept proposal to this man

named Charles Muley, who I had never met, never heard about, and gave that letter along with Paul to take to him. And I said, here's what I want to do. Charles Muley is, do we have time to go a little bit and do who he is? You absolutely do. He was abandoned by his family at age six, became a street kid wandering the streets. His father was abusive, alcoholic, and at about age 16, Charles Muli was invited to a church youth rally where he became a Christian.

And he still continued to struggle. Eventually he got a job, worked his way off the ladder. I'll make it short, Charles Moulin became a multi-millionaire in Kenya, Africa. Then, it's now 37 years ago, he had an encounter with God. and simply God kept bringing him back to the streets where he had lived. And so he began selling all his stuff

and taking street kits in. And that one at a time, dozens, he built on into his homes, moved to a larger location. Today, Charles and Esther Muley and their biological family of eight run 11 homes,

or 11 locations where they rescue, rehabilitate, and help children off of the street. They have about 8,000 kids in their care today, and it's 37-year history. They have another 30,000 that have already gone through the organizations. And that organization is called Muli Children's Family, the biggest family in the world. So that is who I had written the letter to,

not knowing anything about them at that point. Three weeks later, I got an email back from him saying, we have prayed about this. We believe that this is a God-blessed initiative, and we will send you three teenagers. The names were Paul, Mumina, and Lydia to Canada, along with my daughter, Dondo, as a chaperone, and you can take them across Canada

on the back of a modified tandem bike in rotation. That's as simple as it was. all of that was on faith I had never been to MCF I didn't know anything more than the little bit that I heard from Paul Boog who was going there so on on May 28 June on May 28th 2005 we we dipped the rear wheel of my tandem bike into the Pacific ocean and I put one Lydia I think was on in the backseat and we were made our way across Canada. A little bit naive because I didn't realize, I didn't want to believe how hard it was going to be to take this bike across the mountains that now weighed 325 pounds

altogether. And the passenger, they did nothing in the back, okay? They were like dead weight in the back. And so I had targeted 240 kilometers per day average, and I had book presentations along the way. But the one thing that it did do is it was a media attraction. It was so crazy, so out of there that people said, like, what is this guy trying to do? This cannot be real. We were accused of putting the kits into the car,

the bike onto there, and then coming to the edge of towns, and then just getting on there to pretend that we had done that. Arbor, could you just point the mic just a little bit towards yourself? I think it's fine, but I want to make sure. Sorry, carry on. You're getting accused of not doing the work. Not doing the work. So anyway, but then once it got into the media,

we were blessed to have 72 media interviews. I had these young people on national television telling their story. Sorry. It's okay. Of what life was like before they had been rescued and what life was like now. and it just completely exploded across Canada and Muley Chilin's family name became well known. And that's how everything started with us.

Now, what I did at that time, and I still carried this bottle with me, is when I started in the Pacific Ocean, I filled this bottle half full with water from the Pacific Ocean. It was my commitment, Ruth's commitment, our family's commitment to partner with Muley Churlund's family. 30 days later and 7,000 kilometers we took a detour into southern Manateau, Ontario, I filled a bottle up with Atlantic, with water from the Atlantic Ocean. And as the two waters mixed, a lifetime partnership was formed.

And nothing has changed since that time as far as our commitment to Muli Children's family. Now if you look in there, there's also a little bookmark of, Little girl, her name is Charity. Charity was born to a teenage mom. And life's family problems, eventually this teenage mom attempted to take Charity's life on multiple occasions. Okay.

And Charity was rescued and put into the care of MCF. When I chose Charity out of 30 kids, it was just a picture. Okay. that we see on TV, magazines that we change the channel or flip the page in the newspaper. That's what represented the reason that I was going across Canada. We called the events, spoke 2005, the Canadian Safari. Then a couple of months later, Ruth and I went to MCF.

This was our first visit. And at one of the evening programs, little kids were running around in the back and we were sitting in the back. I held out my arms and a little girl jumped on my lot. She played with my hands, my fingers. She sat there for 30 minutes. It happened to be charity. I had carried her picture for 30 days.

Now she sat on my lot for 30 minutes. And it was at that time, everything changed for me. God changed a picture into her real person and I allowed myself to be impacted by that we came home after that visit long flight from Nairobi and we said now what I thought I was going to go back to work I was vice president of Palace of Furnitures operations in Transcona I was responsible for a thousand employees on production budget of a million of a hundred million dollars

that's where my life had been until now. So we decided that on a way back, we would, I would quit my job. Because I had started something that needed to be nurtured and to grow if I really wanted to make a difference. How old were you when you quit your job? I was 48. Yeah.

Forgive me, was that a hard decision? an easy decision because you know when you talk about the impact you can see it right like you just you're you're revisiting memories that were very impactful you know personal probably a bunch of words I'm not saying it wasn't a very hard decision at that time because I looked at it as if I'm going to take a three months not three months three or four year major detour in my life and then I was going to go back and look after a family. Because I had enough retirement savings. I was a senior manager. I got a year severance. A lot of that with it because the company believed in what I was doing. So I didn't really look at it as a lifelong decision at that point. Sure. But the hard part came

when those three years were over. Okay. Not what? Before you get, to the three years, um, where the hard starts. If you go back to, you're 48 and you're like, well, we're going to take a little detour for three years, you know, you look at society today. I even think of myself when I, when I quit my full-time job and took the jump into, to, to this world, um, I would say a lot of men and women build themselves around a career. That's what they do. And, and they kind of, you know, I'll work this and telling, you know, is it 55, it's it 65, take your pick of the age,

and then I'm going to retire, and after that we'll figure it out, or I'm going to go sit at a beach, or whatever their thought processes, at 48 to, you know, by what you're saying, you were a very, very successful man. You know, the employees, the position,

you know, just what you were overlooking to walk away from that, even for a small detour, seems like the people around you, if they didn't know you well, would be like, you're sure about this? We had a fair bit of that. You're sure about it.

But the other thing I should add is Palace of Furniture was also changing quite dramatically because it had been owned by three brothers and they were dividing the company, restructuring it, because the competitiveness with China became a real challenge and everything else.

So there was some significant changes going to happen regardless of what I decided to change. I went to the president at that time and said, don't count me in the future of your business. Okay. And so, yeah, it was, it was not easy for some of our family to understand. Our immediate family, we sat right here in this room, and when we came back from Kenya and we told them that that's going to quit his job. We went around the room. Our three kids are all married. And even in the in-laws, we asked them, so what do you think?

And every single one of them simply said, Dad, we have seen you. We are surprised it took you this long to come to this decision. Really? Yeah. We bless you. We know you're going to spend whatever inheritance you were thinking we were going to get. you're going to spend it now in order to be able to do this work.

And that's how we were very fortunate that our immediate family was 100% behind it and still are. What a special moment that must have been to have, I was telling you before we started, how important family and the community is. And, you know, there's always going to be lots of noise in the world on what you should do and how you should act and who you should be. but to have, you know, to sit in this room, I didn't realize it while I was picking this spot, but it's an important spot for you because it holds a time probably more than that because you were talking about sitting with the World Cup as well, a time where, you know,

I would think you're pretty vulnerable. This is what I want to do. But, you know, if everybody said you're not to don't do this, dad, maybe that would have changed the direction. And instead, they all went, I think you just said, I can't believe it took this long for you to get it. Yeah. Like you read our book, Father to the Father, not Father to the Father, is when quitting is not an option. And my son actually did the writing of that book. And I think there's a story inside there that tells this visit in the sunroom here that we had in regards to that. So, you know, our family, I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for the 100% support of our immediate family. the extended family, you know, we're not doing life the way it,

Mennonites typically do it. You know, work very hard, and then you get married, and you provide for your family, and that's how you do life. I quit my job. You got to remember, I come from a very ordinary family. You could even say I come from a poor family. So it's not like I had money coming from anybody. I worked, I started on the floor at Palace of Furniture.

and I said, I'm going to work my way up to the highest level that I'm capable of doing. Okay. So that was my background. That was my 30-year career with Palace of Furniture. So to do what we did is it's a little bit out there. I agree that. Yeah, well, I mean, I was the top-selling salesman of my area when I was leaving the oil field. And I'm sure if I would have applied myself, I could have rose up the company ladder

and gone that way. And I still think of, Mom, if you're listening, how many times she's like, you're doing what? You're all right? And how many phone calls came in? You are right? Because, I mean, you know, like at a time and a place in Alberta where, you know, you make a lot of good money working in the oil field,

you just get it. Just simple. There's jobs there. You know, you got to work hard at it. But if you apply yourself, you can rise up different companies' ladders. And over the course, like a 30-year career. I can imagine where you'd be at 30 years. And to decide not to do that seems very strange to a lot of people.

But they weren't in the conversations with my wife and I. So it's cool to just hear the support that was in your family, I guess. Now you said three years after that, so you're 51. Now the money is starting to dry up, I assume. Yeah. And the hard part starts. Now what? Yeah.

We were just starting. I was never going to take another child across Canada. The responsibility that weighed on me personally of having a real life in the back of the bike was unbelievable. And because they couldn't participate in the cycling, the pedaling, they were like dead weight. Okay, so I carried that 100-pound or 80-pound weight in my hands the whole time, you know, as we were going around.

the corner. Yeah, it's not only the weight, it's the weight of responsibility on you to ensure a safe ride every single day. But you know, like I want to get back to a couple of things that happened on that 205. Yeah, absolutely. But we'll go back to the three years as to what now. But in Spoke 2005 to the Canadian Safari with the kids, we experienced things that, yeah, we believe in miracles. Sure, it's so easy to say. but what do you do you do when you're in a situation where you depend on a miracle?

You know, then your true faith gets put to time. What do you mean? Well? Or what specific time are you talking about? I was, we came into Winnipec in Portishleperry, which is about 70 kilometers here. And for no

under apparent reason my right thigh blew up. Pain so badly on my thigh that it felt like somebody had pliers in there and was ripping the muscles off of the bone I you know you're done cycling my my shoes are feet that clipped in I transferred all my power that I needed to move forward to my left leg I couldn't do a thing with my right leg we came into the legislative later buildings hobbling into the

legislative buildings. I mean, I'm able to handle a lot of pain, but you know, I've been crying almost the whole time from Portia Ferry. That's how painful it was. That's how painful it was. So I'm coming to a big reception on the steps of the legislative buildings with family and friends, you know, supporting us and this thing and in the back of my mind, I'm done. I can't do this. Okay. And so we had planned the only day off because we had a lot of media interview lined up in Winnipeg, churches, presentations, different things. We had planned one day off. When I didn't bike, my pain was gone.

So then the day off went well, and I didn't tell anybody. I told Ruth, that's it. And when we left next morning at 4 o'clock, I wasn't even on the perimeter all the way. yet and the pain came back just as bad. And I figured, oh boy, all this support, people awareness, the story is just really beginning, and I will not be able to do it. So I hobbled that whole day all the way to Canora like that.

And these three kids in the back of my bike, they've experienced a lot of stuff in Kenya. Their life is very different from what ours is. What Muli Children's family teaches is the spiritual side of their recovery program is every bit as big as the physical side. So these three kids, 12, 13 and 14, were in a room separate from us. They called the rest of the support group into their room. I was trying to rest, sleep in the other room, trying to decide what am I going to do. tomorrow morning because I cannot ride another 4,000 kilometers with one leg.

So they organized a prayer for healing. With led by these kids, my support group was part of it. They didn't even tell me about it. The next morning, I got on a bike and I was just waiting like it had taken 15 minutes. You're waiting for it to kick in. I just been waiting to kick it. It hasn't kicked in yet. My leg was 100% healed.

Now, you know, there's probably all kinds of medical explanations to it. At that point, I had none. I still don't. Okay. And when we got, I'll just tell you one more story like that. When we got to New Brunswick, beautiful shoulders, we were approaching the end. We could start smell the water of the ocean and stuff,

like that. So I started at 4 in the morning and I had had next to no bike trouble up to that point, nothing really. I think I had one flat. And all of a sudden Ruth was driving and our son Paul was sitting in the passenger seat behind her and we were going down the highway in New Brunswick and a chain fell off. in the back, you know, on the tandem bike. It's so far back there. I didn't even get off the bike. Ruth woke Paul up and said, hey, dad needs some help.

He jumped out of the car, threw the chain back on. And I would say maybe 30 seconds later, I was back on the road again. Half an hour later, we're coming to a bend in the highway. And I see a pickup truck coming from the front. No problem. I mean, highway is very wide and open. But there was a problem. The pickup truck didn't make the bend.

It came into the traffic lane that I was, the direction that I was going, and then it jumped over that one, and it came onto the shoulder. There were metal railings on the side of the shoulder that we were on, and it smashed into the metal railings, back and forth, jump back and forth, eventually came to a stop, maybe 50, 100 feet in front of us. dust blowing all over the place. But if you think back now, maybe half an hour, those 30 seconds that we took, but the chain off prevented us from being exactly,

and that's what would have been a head on collision with all of us with a pickup truck. And so these are the kind of stuff, experiences that we had. So then three years, now I'm going back to, to, having, wanting to go back to work. We simply said, you know what, we can't. We are going to step out in faith that we personally will be okay. So I said, we're just going to continue until the money runs out. Now, we are still doing the work today, and I have very happily tell you that the money has not run out.

Now, we've done that same work for 17 more years. Some people came to us and simply said, how the heck do you guys pay your bills? Well, sometimes we say we don't really know. You know, we adjusted our lifestyle. We sold the second car. We eliminated any personal traveling for pleasure and that kind of stuff. Eventually refinanced our house.

But they came on board and simply said, can we help you? Can we be on board? Well, I said, I'm a part of a board of directors with Muley Trillian's family, so I cannot legally accept any money. And I'm not stepping down as far as board of directors is concerned. Because then they could have made a donation to MTF Canada, and I could have invoiced them for all the fundraising I was doing, and it would have been all for fine. I said, I'm not doing that. It said, okay, no problem.

We'll just say here's a gift. And we've lived like that for 15 years. never knowing whether somebody is going to be on board next year for sure or not. But we have not. We still have our house. And we're still doing the work. This step of faith, which is really, you say, how hard was it? That is the hardest thing to do.

Because I always say, God lights our path in front of us. But if when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask them, why do you only light one step at a time? It would be so nice to know what the future looks like that you never did. And that's where we're at today. Hmm. The, actually, I'm almost at a loss for words.

I'm like, part of me is the chain story. I'm like, I caught on to that. You know, when I go back in my early episodes, I talked to Glenn Sather, right? Long time. He's got his banner hung up in Emmington. There's a long time, like Stanley Cup winning coach, GM, hockey player, one of the most respected or at a time was one of the most respected men in the NHL.

And he met his wife changing a tire. She was changing a tire on overpass in New York City. And I was like, what is that? And, you know, back then, I probably would have called the universe. I don't know what I could have called it, but you know where I sit now. I'm like, oh, that's God. That's full stop God. So when you talk about the chain, I don't, yeah.

Yeah, I should, I forgot one key component to this. Every time we did in big, big event. And I did a big event like this every year since that time until two years ago. We assembled a prayer team back home. And we had individuals praying for us, one person, for one day and that. We had a friend here back home in that that morning couldn't sleep. He told his wife, okay, I got to get up. I'm going into the basement and I'm going to pray for Arbitt and Ruth and the team. Something is going on. When we take the time with the time

difference, the zone changes, it was exactly at the same time that we were dealing with the issue in Winnipeg. So it can be coincidences. No, it isn't. No, no, no, no. For me, it was not. Okay, for us it never was. That was God saying, you'll be okay.

Just keep on going. Yeah, I'm not going to sit here across you and go, oh, it could have been a coincidence or try and explain it through scientific method or whatever else. I've had my own experiences in life. And that isn't coincidence. You know, have you ever read, I don't know why it keeps coming up in my thought process, but Frank Pretti, he wrote books piercing the darkness in this present darkness.

I've got the Ruth's version because Ruth is a reader. She runs the library in the front. And then I get the cold snows version after she reads all these books. So, yeah. So I stumbled into that after I met Jesus. and I was like, I started reading it, think it was an autobiography. So you know, put people in my mindset. I didn't think it was a fictional novel.

I thought it was, you know, his personal story. And then I got into first, like, what am I reading? And the further I went in, I was like, you know, this could be a fictional story, but it's as close to the truth as I've experienced it. And what you're talking about is, you know, like, it plays out in our lives in very unique ways. it's whether or not we see it. And that is, for a lot of people, difficult to do,

certainly in Canadian society. Like when you tell the story of the, I think you said the 12, 13 and the 14 year old praying for you and leading that, I think in, at least in my life, I'd probably hard-pressed to see a 12, or 13, and a 14 lead a prayer in a way that I assume they did.

Because that story in itself is like, they could see what was going on. And in their, coming from where they're from, it made perfect sense. I assume I'm speaking for people I don't know, but in the story, it just like, yeah. This is what they have not grown up within their families where they were rescued from, but this is what they grew up with, Moly Children's family on a regular day. So to them, this was no big deal.

This was just life. Yeah, let's pray for it. Yeah, let's pray and trust. and God will deliver. And I mean, when I went back for earlier, I said that the 600 young people prayed and fasted for me for 24 hours. Okay.

When you are struggling and you've been on a bike for 20 hours a day and your mind is just coping, you hear that kind of a thing. It does something to you that you can't even really explain it. But it puts you into a completely different zone mentally and physically, spiritually. And we've lived that kind of life for 20 years. And this approach that we've taken, we have been blessed to have supporters donate to Muli Children's family over $14,000,500,000. So Manitoba, Canada, and beyond is a huge part of the Muley Children's Family rescue and rehabilitation

process for over 30,000 kids. And so, yeah, we've lived a life that is beautiful. It's just incredible and probably a bunch of other words. And, you know, like I always, I do a fair bit of presentations or speaking. Sure. In churches, men's groups, whatever it is, I never say no. So when you ask me, do you want to do this interview? I don't say no.

I will do that. Okay. But ultra marathon cycling has taught me to channel my mind into what really matters in that moment. Okay. And I've done race across America, which is recognized as the world's toughest bike race. It starts in Oceanside, California, and finishes. Annapolis, Maryland. And you are part of it.

However, however many other crazy people sign up. And it's usually only between 30 and 40 that actually are brave enough to tackle it. And you have to qualify. I rode 686 kilometers in a race in 24 hours to qualify for that event, just to be allowed to participate. The event has 50% dropout rate. Okay. That's just historically.

That's how difficult, how tough they keep it. We got to go through the Mojave Desert. We reached 49 degrees Celsius on the pavement or on the bike, never mind what the pavement was like going through Mojave Desert. So these are the kind of events. And I tell a story on it was day seven. I was in 2 a.m. in the morning in Kansas. I had been fighting the wind

and then we got into a thunderstorm. The clouds burst open and it was just raining buckets and the wind was directly in my face. I couldn't, I hadn't slept, I couldn't recall when I had slept, not even for a few minutes. But there was one thing in my mind that came back and said, but I know in the van there is a cozy spot to lie down. Nobody will blame me if I quit right now

and just go and lie down in that spot because what I've tackled is not doable but that's very, very typical to reach that spot. But I also realized because I've been here before that if I open that van door and I climb into that vehicle, even with the intent of doing it for five minutes or 15 minutes, I will never get out.

again. Because mentally I will not be strong enough to overcome what it takes to get back on the bike. And so I've not learned to narrow, focus my mind in a way that allows me to only entertain one question. And that question at that moment in time was, can I still ride? The answer was, yes, I'm on the bike. My support crew, they drove up beside me. They rolled the window down to ask me if I needed anything. And they also told me that the two-thirds checkup checkpoint was, I had 100 miles from where we were at that point.

And they gave me the time that I needed to be there. So I knew. There's only one. There was no wiggle room. I have to stay on a bike. So I asked the one question that I allowed myself to ask, can I still write? The answer was yes. And I made it to the checkpoint 30 minutes before quitting,

before I was going to be pulled off the course by the race across America officials. And I began the final 1,000 miles with a little bit of renewed hope. So that's the physical things that the biking has taught me. But then a couple of years ago, Ruth and I were at the MCF with our Canadian board. And because we were visitors, it's kind of assumed that we are going to provide some extra cash to provide a special meal to one of the schools. We were in Vipingo. I think they had about 400 kids, and they had provided a special, cooked a special meal in those big pots, put them onto a serving table, and we as board were asked to provide, do the serving.

It's an honor. It's a system that they have. It's a good way of interacting with the kids. And Ruth and I, Ruth, we went to the far end of the lineup. She was asked to give them two candies, and I got a biscuit, four little biscuits in a package. That was my contribution to them as they filed by. And the 400 kids, it was an orderly, very orderly, it was great, the smiles. It was a wonderful celebration.

But out of the corner of my left eye, I saw another line. I saw 10, 15, 20. Eventually it looked like about 50 kids on the street, little kids forming a line. I didn't know what was going on. These kids carried a container, broken containers. Their clothes were torn, ragged, shirt, no shirt. They were dirty, filthy. And as the lineup from MCF came through, they joined the back of the line.

It was common practice for them to be allowed to come and see if there was anything left. They would get that. And so they came through initially, the portions were. reasonable but then they became smaller and I noticed there was no chicken there was no meat and then eventually no lentils no rice and I will never ever forget the moment that a three-year-old kid a three-year-old boy with beautiful brown eyes stood at the on the other side of the table and he held out his empty plate everybody

had run out of food. He had walked past six people already that said, sorry, we don't have anything. I looked at him in the eye. I put my four biscuits, package on there, and all I could do is a mouth, I'm sorry, that is all I have. But that moment in time is something that I will never, ever forget. Now go back to the story about Ram, where in life, what is the right question to ask when things are very, very difficult? When there's no light at the other. on the tunnel when there's no hope. Well, you know, we were talking about politics. We were talking about drug addiction, poverty, different things that we see in our neighborhood.

It is very easy for me or for any of us to simply say the problem is so big. My little bit doesn't matter. Okay. But I've learned that when things are that hopeless and difficult, You have to create, you have to only allow one thought process. And in this story's case, what can I do? My question is, can I still help? My answer is a resounding yes.

And so that is the approach that we continue to take today and say, yeah, we can't solve, we can't change the world. But we can ask the question, can we still help? All the rest. Sometimes it's just excuses. And that's a beautiful approach that we have been blessed to learn out of our 20-some years with ultramarathon cycling on behalf of MCF.

And yeah, it's wonderful. On Mully's children, if people listening wanted to donate towards that cause, where would they go? I assume they just Google it? They would just go to mcf canada.org. That's our website. MCF.org.

Yeah, MCF Canada. Oh, sorry, mcf canada.org. Yeah. And so there's, I actually have my own drop page on there under Grandpa's Can because I do a lot of fundraising. And the personal connection with fundraising is important. So people like to support and kind of let me know that they're supporting because of us. but they don't have to. Well, I think people listening to this would like to make sure that people know that they've been listening to your story.

And I assume that, you know, I'm going to be honest, you know, like when you're doing lots of these things, you know, I was born in 86. So, you know, I didn't start paying attention in the world until well after 2006, right? And so for a lot of people, I assume maybe they've heard of all these children. Maybe they know exactly what this is. There's going to be a whole bunch of us that went, I didn't know this story, right? And certainly, you know, I'd read a book once upon the time because I was, you know, the competitive side in me

was curious about how to undo a record that you'd done. And now hearing I'm like, man, you should have had the record for all the time for what you've done and the amount of time. How many trips across Canada have you done that? I've done four trips across Canada. Four trips across Canada. Three trips across the U.S., then horse Alaska to Key West Florida.

And then I did multiple local events because local events, but crazy local events, okay? I also hold a Guinness World Record for the furthest distance cycled in one month. How many kilometers did you cycle in one month? In 30 days, 11,619 kilometers. And I was all done here on a route that I had picked. That was a 27 kilometer loop. I can't do mental math. How many loops is that?

I think it was 15 loops every single day on Henderson Highway to Lockport here. So that was a bit, yeah. By the end, were you a little star crazy? It was very hard because it was 30 days. Yeah. Okay. And, you know, it's that we need hope. As human beings, we need hope.

And that I would say is what Charles Moly does. he provides hope for those kids. So when I challenge people and say, can you help? I'm not talking about people helping MCF only. I'm talking about people saying, look around you. You can't tell me that there is no opportunity for you to be involved in to make a difference in the world. And that is what my challenge is to individuals.

Yeah, even if it's one person, right? Like I think that's a good message to have. You know, one of the things come from Alberta. I have two questions, not that we have to end an interview by any stretch of imagination. I have two questions I've been asking every guest I talk to.

One is political, one is way more in my opinion fun because of what we're doing, but coming from Alberta, Alberta has an independence referendum coming up. I've just been curious if I don't know, people have any thoughts on it, if they care, if they've been paying attention to it, if they're worried about anything going on

with Alberta and what your thoughts are Marvin. I mean, I choose not to really get into the politics. Sure. Because when you're, you never know the individual that is across the room from you, what persuasion or what their view are on things. And if I ask them to be supportive of the newly children's family, I first of all don't want to pick a fight before we even start. But for me, Canada has been such a blessing.

When I think is where we came from, my parents were persecuted in Russia. We lived in a chaco. They got one axe, one tent, and one ox to share between two families. That's how they started. My brother came here. He became a Canadian citizen. He knew that he was not going to live in Canada. But he was afraid of what he was going to be exposed

because all of a sudden life would change very much, very different for them. So we feel like Canada is the best place in the world to live. We have a very hard time understanding why anybody would want to leave. Okay. So I do not understand why there are supposedly a certain amount of albertons that say we want to leave. You know, we have a health care system. Yeah, it's far from perfect, but it's free. Well, it's not free, but it is available to all of us. And so yeah, I don't understand why people would want to do that. I hope from my perspective is that it becomes a dead issue like Quebec did for many, many years.

But who knows? Sure. If you'd like some insight, I can certainly fill in some of the gaps for you. Sure. From a lot of the people that I've interviewed, you know, they don't recognize Canada. Not the people, the government, and specifically probably the last 11 years. Some of the policies that have come through, some of the different things going on from, you know, from a Christian standpoint, abortion, or the pro-choice movement,

made medical assistance and dying. In BC, with the land rights going on, that's caused a lot of people to question property rights. COVID was a big one for a lot of people. They thought everything, you know, from the lockdowns to the mandates, just the way the government handled that was not good. And then you go through, you know, the medical system.

And although it is not free, right, we pay for it. But it is accessible to everyone. I would agree with that 100%. What it once was is becoming worse and worse and worse with wait times and the ability to get things done and see a doctor. And, you know, like a lot of people stare at immigration. And it's not that they're against immigrants because obviously your history and my history for them. matter. It's been the amount of people that have come through the immigration process in the last

probably 10 years, but less than that, that have overwhelmed a lot of the different communities and the systems that help all of us live and function. And all that to say, you know, I haven't even got into the economics of what Albertans stare at with money leaving and money leaving their pockets. And they're frustrated. And frustration, when you don't allow the conversation to happen, it only grows the frustration. It doesn't allow that to be talked to. And one of the cool things I thought leaving Alberta is, I was like, I wonder how people are going to respond to this question because you, I don't like to get in politics. And my world is, I like to get into politics, but I love to hear other people's perspectives because I'm just one guy.

Yeah. I don't have all the answers other than one that I think we share, and that's Jesus Christ, which, you know, your stories are, mirrors some of the stories I have in my life. And I think that's something that is beautiful. But as I go across Canada, now I'm into our third province. One of the things I grew up, you know, in Saskatchewan, so relatively close to Manitoba.

But I'd never really been here and certainly never spent enough time with Manitoba. Wonderful people. The friendliness of Manitoba, well, I mean, it's friendly Manitoba, right? But, you know, it really matches it. It's been wonderful to be here. You have a beautiful province.

And I don't think I would have said that line even two weeks ago without experiencing it. And, yeah, I think to really understand the Alberta mindset, people need to talk to the Albertans and understand what's going on. And if I was imploring the federal government or elected officials, that's exactly what you need to do. If your media, you need to go talk to them. Because there is a long line. of frustration and the reason the frustration grows is because they get ignored and the longer you ignore a problem it doesn't go away it grows it grows it's just like you you come from like like i don't disagree with you at all that that there's been a lot of immigrants have come into here

okay but you got to remember i take it a little bit very close to me okay oh absolutely well you have a very interesting perspective on so when you think that what i've done is i've cycled 350 thousand kilometers on behalf of Muley Children's family and over the last 20 years okay much of it is in terrain where we could have had so many accidents I could have I put my life on a line so many many many times and I did that for children that I will never ever meet okay because that's I believe that's what we as Christians are called what is it then uh three, 11, I think it is. If you have two shirts, give one to those who don't have.

If you have food, shared with those who don't have. Treat others as you'd like to be treated. Right. So when you look at it a little bit from that point of view, the immigration, even though it is changing the landscape of Canada, totally. I'm a little bit slow jumping on board and saying, it's all bad. You know, we've done so many things.

Yes, there's a lot of refugees. but I've been in the slum in Kenya. I've seen what a slum looks like. I can only imagine what a refugee camp looks like. So I look for a government that is willing to be involved in that to a certain extent, but then also not let it run wild, but it allows us to not even be able to do what we can to help them. Because if we become like that, then we can't help them either.

So I'm torn with the whole immigration situation. You know, we have here now in Winnipeg, one of the girls, I could tell you her story, but she was rescued by Charles Moly at age probably five, six. Her name is Stella. She lives here in Winnipeg. Somebody sponsored her to get her education to go to the University of Manitoba. Okay. And she got, she's a very bright girl, a phenomenal karate champion. Okay. And she graduated with her masters of human rights. Okay. She's here now in Winnipeg. And she got her papers, and I don't have all the right terminology, but she's allowed to work. Sure. Okay. She graduated. She lives here now.

for now, she has family back home who are living in the slums. And her goal and her vision is that she can help them. A couple of months ago, she got a full-time job. She had to take the night shift because that's what she had to do in order to get the job in there. And she asked me, how do I sign up with MCF Canada to make a monthly donation? Like sometimes I think we are accusing immigrants, refugees.

They come here to take, take, take. This young woman got her first job, barely making men's meat herself is saying, I want to make a monthly donation because I have been helped, so I want to help others. And so that's how I look at it when we have people coming in here. When we came to Canada, we were helped. Yes, we were helped in the Mennonite community. Okay.

But I can go beyond the Mennonite community, and I can help those who are coming here from different places and equally as desperate or even actually much worse than my situation ever was. So it's a bit of a... Well, the story you're sharing, this is why immigration is an interesting one, because it's like, are we all again? immigrants, are Albertans all against immigrants? Heck no. No. But the other story that's

going on in Canada right now is the crime, the, the extortion, the cases that continue to be found all across Canada. You know, it used to, I said it used to be like out in Ontario, and then there was some in BC. I mean, we had a state of emergency in one of the BC cities because of extortion. Yeah. And that has happened. And so I'm not against immigration. Heck, I mean, you look at the Newman family history. We immigrated. But we, you know, the take, take, take thing,

it reminds me at Don Cherry because that's one of his lines that got him in hot water. And yet, I've talked to lots of immigrants too that are frustrated because they came for the dream of Canada of coming here, working their butt off, doing things similar to that you've done Arvid and creating a better life for them and then they get here and you know like we have

hosing shortages we have cost of living has ballooned we have crime you know like one of the ones I forgot was the the the men and women issue of like teaching children

or bringing them around this idea of men and women's sports or or that they're in the wrong body and it just goes on and on. That has nothing to do with immigration, just that in the conversations I've had with recent immigrants, they're confused because they had this idea of what Canada was. And the Canada we're in currently has issues. And we need to not only talk about it,

I don't think we're going to agree on everything. That's quite all right. By my standards, that's quite all right. But the immigration conversation is interesting because I don't think any Albertan's about shutting off the, just let's go to be in isolation. You don't want, half the Albertans have heritage to everywhere else in the world. And they're very much for having immigrants come.

Heck, there's a lot of great people who've come just recently to Canada on our working jobs and making Canada a better place. But we do have to talk about, and it's not only immigrants, there are others that are not only gaming the system or taking advantage of it, are causing danger in our streets. are, yeah, I agree with you 100% on that. My question is, how become independent? How do you avoid

that same situation for Alberta? You can, it's smaller, you know, what are you guys, 3.5 million people. We're actually closer to 5 million. Actually,

I think we're over 5 million now. You're smaller, but does that, does it stop the problems? Yeah, like to me, all I'm saying is with this independent referendum that they're saying is don't confuse the issues

and lump them under the wrong category. Sure. Those other issues are 100% valid and I think the government should and we should all continue to do a lot more than that for that. In regards to all the crime and stuff, I mean, we have grandkids. So

on that, does it end if Alberta became independent? Certainly not. You can look at any country, know how it matter how big or small it is, do all the problems just go away. No. And if you get an independence movement of any country that's ever separated, just look in recent, do all the problems go away? No. And a lot of Albertans who are on the fence about independence or the referendum, don't know how to vote, said like, listen, in order to go to where, you know, independent Alberta is, I need to see a plan.

I need to have a lot of questions talked to because, you know, like I live on a border city are of it. Half of it is Saskatchew. Half of it is Alberta. But you can imagine the immediate question. People ask, well, I literally work on that side of the city. Like, is my job gone? Is there a border crossing there? These are simple little questions, but they're questions that need to be answered. And there has to be thought put into this, not just pull a, or flip a light switch in tomorrow you're a different country. Certainly. Part of the reason the independence movement has come is because of the last election, federal election. We had 10 years of Trudeau.

And in that time was COVID. And in that time was a lot of things that went on that people were upset with. And they thought we were going to get a new government. We thought we were going to have a conservative government that was going to change the tone of where Canada was heading. It was going to start to address some of the issues. And then Eastern Canada voted in and liberals again. And they went, you know, I go back to if you ignore a group of people, that doesn't like their issue doesn't die

and what I think a lot of Western Canadians not just Albertans are feeling is that their voice doesn't matter in kind of federation and the way to get those voices heard or change the formula to have their let's say their vote mean more is a very difficult if not impossible process under the current system and in order to change the current system it requires just almost impossible things to happen of provinces agreeing. Now, we both believe in God, so I don't like the word impossible.

I'm actually pretty much against that. My time of biking across Canada taught me that impossible is nothing. Like it's, you put your mind to something, great things can happen. And so a lot of frustrated Albertans are putting their mind to pushing a question, for Alberta to try and force a Canadian government, and maybe an Alberta government, to come to terms with a larger issue that Canada has. And that is half the country controls what all the country does.

And they want saying it, they want to have their voices heard. And for a long time, maybe the entire time Canada's been formed, they don't feel like they've been heard. Now, obviously, people aren't that old, but that's kind of the frustration again. Yeah. And, I mean, we sit in Winnipeg here, and our MCF Canada board is in Toronto. And, you know, we also say Toronto always believes that they're the center of the universe, okay, right?

And I have a brother that moved from Winnipeg to St. Catharines, okay? So he's part of that. So when we play hockey or football or whatever it is against the Maple Leafs, our conversations are... Well, I chuckled because I grew up a Roughruder fan. Okay. And so part of my thought presses of Manitoba is I've never liked the bombers. And I think of the Bandro Bowl and I think I'm like, nah, the Manitoba. And then you get here and I'm like, yeah, right, they're just people and they're lovely and they're friendly.

And we have our, you know, things like sports are such a jovial thing to, you know, you just watch the World Cup of soccer. Is there anything better than soccer fans? Like, I mean, super cool to watch games, super cool to watch the fans that came into not only the United States. but Canada and Mexico and how they interacted with the culture here, right? Like it's cool to see those large swaths of people come and enjoy themselves. And that's what sports does. It brings out, for the most part, the best in us. Yeah, there's some, you know, I think of Vancouver when they lost, sorry Vancouver,

when you lost the Stanley Cup and then had a giant riot. Obviously, that's not the best of us. But there's other great stories in sports of bringing. people together. I think it was Daryl Sutter who had his press conference once upon a time playing in the Battle of Alberta. He said, you know, there's a few things that bring people together, sports, music, and church. And I thought, yeah, isn't that right? And soccer was phenomenal. And soccer was phenomenal. Yes, it was. We had. Who did you cheer for it? It was an interesting story because I'm from Paraguay. Yes. And so I went, and I'm not usually

a person that gets front and center on any of this. Sure. You won't see me in parades waving any flags very soon. So I went and I ordered on Amazon a small Canadian flag and a small Paraguayan flag and the three banners that were available for three bucks, beautiful World Cup banners and I put them on the driveway garage in the front. And our grandkids go like, what? Grandpa, what are you doing?

Okay. Well, you know, and somebody asked me, what about Germany? because I'm German. I speak fluent a lot. Yeah, German, okay. Nope, I says, you won't see a German flag on my house. And so that was a little bit of a statement. And then, of course, we had opportunity to say why and stuff.

Well, I says, Germans, in my opinion, have always been a bit bold in what they were all about, what they were accomplishing. So I says, I'm not supporting Germany, with soccer, it's very, it's not that big of a deal, okay, but you won't see a German play. Well, so we had all nine of our grandsons here sitting here as we, Paraguay was playing Germany.

And that was a very, very interesting dynamic, okay? Obviously they fully believed in Paraguay now because Grandpa represents Paraguay, okay? And so yeah, soccer has been absolutely phenomenal. when it comes to actually letting countries forget some of the very challenging and difficult times. And then, yeah. And for me, it was my life for the first 25 years of my life. And so, yeah, it's.

Well, my final question to you then is my family and I are going across Canada and other parts down through the United States. and I've been asking everybody their favorite, whether it's camping. I mean, once again, you, your story of like where you biked and your family coming along and the road crew and everything else, I'm like your favorite, it's a, the question basically is your favorite camping story or your favorite road trip, whether it's a father, a grandfather, or back as a kid, do you have one that just sticks out where you're like, you know, where you're here and maybe just. I mean, you're going across. Canada, I will put a plug in for Quebec. By far, Quebec, province of Quebec, was my favorite province to cycle through.

And honestly, Manitoba is the worst. As far as that is the roads? The roads. Not so much the roads. Also a little bit the attitude. Oh. In Quebec, because you got the Tour de France mentality.

You put Guinness World Record attempt, you know, that sign that you saw in a hallway over there. You put that on top of your car. and you get nothing but thumbs up and support going through Quebec. Here, we're sometimes a little bit like, oh, man, do you really have, like, why didn't you get a car and get off the road with the bike? The only place in all of Canada, we had the cops called on us, was Manitoba. There you go.

And the cop came and was like, can you just, you know, if a semi's behind you, can you pull off and let them go? And we're like, oh, oh, yeah, sure. You know, because you've got the, one of the things that probably Alberta and, well, I'm just going to assume lots of Canadians to understand, it's the gravel shoulders make it tough to be on the side of the road when you're riding a road bike in our case. And so that is, that's the, for that. But my favorite trip when you say with family and stuff, in 2007, I qualified for race across America. 2008 I was brave enough maybe stupid enough to she's trying to get over she's trying to go out yeah she's saying it's time to be done we were going across Canada across the US and I had Ruth was the crew chief I had my son Paul who wrote our book father when quitting is not an option with his

wife Jeanette and our daughter Stephanie with her husband Josh they were our five-person support crew. We had two vehicles at the starting line in RAM. They were looking at us. I could sense they were snickering behind our back and say, you think that those five people are going to bring you across Canada, across the U.S. We were the smallest crew and number wise in people, and we were the only family crew. But the experience of having your own family go through those length of supporting us, me across the country, was phenomenal. Okay. Like, and RAM is, it's hard.

Two vehicles, two crews, and they just flip a change around, and you're on a bike. If you sleep, you sleep 30 minutes somewhere, sometimes an hour in a hotel. And so that's how we went across. We came into Kansas, and we came to the point where I had been down, bent forward, so much fighting the wind that my neck muscles totally gave out. I couldn't hold my head up. My head flopped forward. It felt and probably looked like a rubber chicken. So how do you cycle?

And the pain in the back was excruciating. So we came to a side of the road. And I have DNF, I have quit events, okay? And that is a very, very difficult thing to go through. Because you're making such a big hype about it because you're trying to create exposure and then you can't do it. So I thought again, I was at a point where I couldn't do it.

And so we had standing on the side of the road no idea what to do. Formed a circle, praying. that's one of our go-to situations that we obviously go to. And the media crew from Ram, a van comes by. They had two individuals, I won't name the names. Both of them were former Ram champions. One of them was a Christian,

and the other one was a vocal atheist, deliberate. A little bit in your face. Sure. And they came across the scene where our family was praying. About what do we do? So they grabbed out, both of them worked together. They grabbed out a notepad. They sketched something up there.

And they said, Arvid, you're not thinking of quitting. And I'm saying, yeah. And the individual had asked me the question, I knew he had been a ram champion. and he had finished with a condition called Shermer's Neck. That's what this is called. And he had finished with that. He says, this is just the ram.

Shuck it up. You get over it. And I said, you know, I felt like saying, like, who were you to tell me that? And then I remembered, yeah, he finished the last five days with that condition. So they gave us instructions. They sent our son-in-law went to a hardware store that they found. He bought one-inch PVC tubing. He bought a hacksaw, some duct tape.

And our son built a sling out of duct tape. PVC tubing, they contact cemented together, and they built a frame, strapped it on my back, strapped me into it. And for five days, I rode going east. I couldn't turn my head. So every time I needed to check left or right, I had to turn my upper body. But when you say your favorite experience, I had the privilege of going through these kind of challenges with my family. Absolutely incredible.

Like I'm not saying that I wish it on anybody to do that something that difficult. But to have that unified approach, their only goal was we have to get that to Annapolis. Maryland. How do we do it? And they were willing to sacrifice absolutely everything to do that. And when I look at the reaction back to the Canadian question you asked, I don't disagree with you on any of the crimes and all of that stuff. But I do believe the decency in mankind is there. When I started this, I thought the little bit I can do does not matter in the big picture of what the suffering is going on in the world. I just told you that we have raised $14.5 million.

And it helped and rescue thousands of thousands of kids. So never do I accept when somebody says the little bit I can do or you can do doesn't matter in the big picture. So when I look at all this stuff going on around us here, I reverse the challenge and say, let's not leave everything for the big picture. government, let's sit back and say, what can I do today to influence that kit that is high on a street or that's waiting for me to park my bike so they can steal it? What can I do? And so that to me

is the approach that I like to take instead of saying, this government isn't doing that, this government will make promises to do this. You know what? A lot of governments have made a lot of promises. Well, Harvard, you're bang on right at the end here because I go, I've been thinking about a lot in order for, you know, government or Canada in general to change. We have to change. We have to change. And that doesn't mean that immigration won't change in that time frame and other problems. But, you know, one of the things I like about your story of having a device built on your head so you can hold it up. What was the condition called? Shermer's neck. That's an individual that had it first. I still have the frame here in the back.

I can show it to you. One of the things that it was really special about what I'm doing right now. And I left them at Grand Beach so that they could go enjoy the lake and not have to walk around with dad. And, you know, I'm a very, I love people. I love just meeting new people and hearing their thoughts and seeing where, you know, what makes them tick. But what's really been cool is that. them coming along for the ride. You know, I've thought it for my son's 10, and I've thought it for sure for most of his life.

And I spend a lot of, my family or my mom's probably going to listen to us and think, you spend a lot of time with your son. Or maybe, you know, it's like I do spend a lot of time. I just, at the same time, I don't feel like I spend enough time. And so them coming along for this journey, you get to spend quality time with your family. And when you're doing all these events, you're always talking. about your wife being along. I'm like, that's beautiful. How many years have you been married? 45. And then your family coming along. It's like you've got to spend so much time and so many people

tell me you're making core memories when you do things that are a bit off the grid. That could be just camping trip, but your story is definitely outside the box of creating core memories of having advice, sending them, we're getting a hacks, sods, a PVC pipe, or we're We're going to put this thing so dad can finish your race. It looked like I had a rocket launcher on my back. But, you know, you mentioned the family. Like, that's the family. The family is important.

We have been privileged with the grandkids. I mentioned you. We have nine grandsons. Now, here is that I was in manufacturing. And we were scheduling as a big deal when you want to run an efficient production line, right? Our oldest daughter had a baby. six months later, our middle daughter had a boy. Both of them were boys.

Six months later, our youngest son had a boy. Round two, our oldest daughter had a boy, middle daughter, and our son. Round three, oldest daughter had a boy, middle daughter, and a son had a boy. We had nine grandsons born to us in four and a half years in six months. increments. Okay. Like that was a story in itself. Okay. I built a trailer that I pulled behind my mountain bike with five, nine little seats in the back of it, okay, just for a promo video. Okay. But these kids grew up with grandpa biking on behalf of MCF. Then our oldest daughter got into CFS, adopted one daughter, and they today have three children from CFS. They were all fall in line

kind of in the six months increments below our youngest grandson who is, I think he's 10 right now. I've done a lot of local events here. Let's see when I set the Guinness World Record for most kilometers cycled in a month. It was all 10 minutes away from here. You know, they would come out every time of the day, noon or night. They would communicate and all of a sudden I come around the corner and here is 13 grandkids. Shao Deh, Oh, Krabah, go.

Okay. You have no idea how many times I have heard that lie. Go, grandpa, go. And then I come by, and you got the high fives with all 13 of them. That experience. Jean, you can't. I cannot imagine anything in life that is more meaningful. having that.

And with us, we have been blessed to experience that on our regular basis. So, yeah, our life is a bit different. But that's okay. I appreciate you being open to interviews and allow me to cover your house because I really, you know, I've really got to think Peter Moran's family for opening up a conversation that led to another conversation. I'm like, I actually know, yeah. And then you answer an email because this wasn't on the docket. and I kind of forgotten all about it,

but I appreciate you having me in your house and being open with your thoughts and your stories and even your opinions. I think it's great. Once again, I'm just a guy with the mic that when you get to the core values of what Arvid values, I think Sean values roughly the same things, and I think what you've done is incredible.

And I think a lot of people are going to find the story very inspiring and maybe push it. them out of their comfort zone of like maybe I could do just a little bit more. Even if it's just just a little bit, a thimble full more, you know, whether or not they get on a bike and go a thousand and, you know, and pull over to a hotel at 800 kilometers and carry on, you know, it's a possibility. But not everybody has to be our for the moment. Not everybody has to do that. That's right. But I really appreciate you reaching out and giving me this opportunity. Yes, you can see a lot of this stuff that we've experienced over the 20 years,

or 22 years. It's very personal. I wear my emotions on what did I say on my sleeve or whatever the saying is. Yes. You know, the running joke in our family is as soon as the word charity is mentioned, charity is the little girl in this bottle here.

That's going to start getting all emotional. And it's true. Okay. But you know what? I think it's okay for us to be emotional. It's okay for us to be a little bit vulnerable. Because it's through that vulnerability that I think we all become genuine. And I think once we are all genuine with each other, I think the crime rate can go down and win a pipe.

I think good things can happen. Good things can happen. Yeah. Well, Arvid, thanks again for letting me in your house and doing this. All right. You're very welcome and thank you.