I Will Go!
I first read about Frederick Reekie in a short history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Western Australia when I arrived there to lead the conference as president in 2003. He was the first Seventh-day Adventist in Western Australia and had a significant impact.
Frederick was a gardener at Kew gardens in London and migrated with his uncle Philip Reekie and four cousins to Melbourne in the late 1880s. The Reekies attended public meetings by Pastors JO Corliss and Mendel Israel that convinced them of the biblical truth of the Adventist message in 1889.
Frederick was convicted to follow Jesus and the biblical message the Adventists proclaimed by selling books. Frederick and his new wife Marion (Lowrie), also a “canvasser”, were sent to the colony of Western Australia in 1893.
Marion worked until their first child was born in 1894. To travel economically and not miss anyone Frederick’s transport was a bicycle. He rode from Perth to Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, and Albany and most places in between, on sandy roads, selling Adventist literature and taking Bible studies in the evenings with those he stayed with. If you have ever ridden on the sandy roads of Western Australia, you know the incredible energy needed to stay upright and mobile. Frederick showed real dedication and churches were started.
In 1899, Frederick was called to Avondale to become a gardener. Ellen White, who was living at Sunnyside near Avondale, challenged him to go back to literature ministry. He eventually based his family at Avondale and did literature selling tours, riding trains and bikes in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. He inspired dozens of Australian and New Zealand young people to buy bikes and sell Adventist books in their areas.
I like cycling—mainly for my health. Frederick’s faithful ministry inspired me and others to do two "I will Go” rides. One from the General Conference building near Washington DC to St Louis where the GC Session was held in June 2022 and either from Melbourne or Brisbane to Avondale University in February 2023. We gave the people we met Glow tracks, and Adventist health and biblical material—honouring the pioneers that established the church in Australia on bicycles.
You can read more about Frederick Reekie here: www.encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=F83C&highlight=Frederick|Reekie
For more information on the I will Go bike ride, visit: www.iwillgoride.org
Verse of the day:
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)
