SEU alumnus Jay Stewart, who graduated from SEU in 1985, is a pastor who resides in North Carolina. He set out on a coast-to-coast journey to raise funds for a nonprofit organization by completing a 3,135-mile bike ride across the United States — from California to South Carolina — to raise funds to put an end to abortion and to support orphans and pregnant mothers in need.
God first gave Stewart the desire to ride his bike across the country while he was a student pursuing a Bible degree at SEU. At the time, Jay only saw the ride as a fun adventure. However, over the 40-year period from being called to the bike ride to actually doing it, he said, “It became all about the Kingdom and nothing about me.”
Stewart spent the past 40 years in full-time vocational ministry. He was on-staff at SEU as the assistant dean of men until his wife Melanie (Dean) graduated from the university in 1987. Stewart served in various pastoral roles at churches in Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Mobile, Alabama. He and Melanie moved back to Charlotte in 2004, where they planted The Refuge Church — which began in the basement of a friend’s home.Today, they continue to lead as co-pastors, and about 3,000 people call The Refuge their church home. The church has grown to include a second campus in Greensboro, North Carolina, and two campuses in Brazil.
Cycling for a Mission
Over four decades, Stewart’s mission became more clear: he was supposed to ride to raise money for somebody — only he didn’t know who. As he prayed about which organization to support, God kept leading him back to an organization that the church had been partnering with since 2016: Love Life. Love Life seeks to unite and mobilize the church to create a culture of love and life that will end abortion and the orphan crisis. Since working with the organization, The Refuge has experienced an increase in their passion to care for orphans and adoptive families, and to put an end to abortion. Members of the church have attended peaceful prayer sessions at abortion clinics, and the church has opened an orphan care ministry, which supports foster families in their community.
LifeRide is Formed
On May 17, 2022, Stewart met with Justin Reeder, the founder of Love Life. This collaboration inspired the name for Stewart’s ride across the United States: LifeRide. In creating LifeRide, they came up with two goals. The first was to raise $1 million to give to Love Life’s ministries. Second, they set out to have 1,000 churches across the country register as House of Refuge Churches. A House of Refuge Church is a local church that has a clear plan in place for how to care for those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. In addition to responding to the situation, many Houses of Refuge will disciple the women with unplanned pregnancies, celebrate baby showers for them, and continue to provide support for them after their babies are born.
To get ready for 41 days on a bike, Jay cycled over 2,000 miles. In addition to physical exercise, he had to garner a lot of support. When he told his church about LifeRide, members cheered him on, gave to the cause, and spread the word. As enthusiasm grew, Jay and the LifeRide team came up with the idea for people to form teams across the country and compete against each other for LifeRide while riding along virtually with him. Nearly 400 people from 36 teams across the country joined Jay’s LifeRide virtually. News sources even picked up his story — including Fox News — the night before the ride.
On May 4, 2023, he dipped the back wheel of his bike into the Pacific Ocean in Corona del Mar, California, and set off toward the East Coast. The next seven weeks were filled with strenuous 70 to 110-mile bike rides — riding through rain and deserts, grabbing snacks from his team’s van, steering away from angry drivers, seeing rattlesnakes and alligators, and praying constantly.
On day seven of his journey, Stewart faced the mountains of Arizona. “That was a brutal day,” he said. “It was the hardest by far. It was one of the only days I wondered, ‘Am I really going to be able to do this?’” He gained 8,000 feet of elevation that day. His body still hadn’t gotten into the rhythm of riding, everything hurt, and he wasn’t yet used to being on the bike for up to seven hours a day. “I pictured myself carrying my bike across the beach in South Carolina and dipping my front tire into the Atlantic Ocean.” Encouraged by this vision, he knew he would never again experience anything as difficult as day seven.
On June 21, 2023, Jay arrived on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Charleston, South Carolina. Hundreds of people, many of whom were members of his church, prepared a reception for him at the beach. The support of people like his wife, Melanie, who followed alongside him in the van, and his brother, Scott, who came and rode with him for several days, pushed him to accomplish his goal. He also emphasized the importance of his church. “They prayed me across the country.”
Jay exceeded his goal of raising $1 million, over 100 new churches so far have signed up to become Houses of Refuge, and entire networks of churches have since met with Love Life to learn how to join their mission.
