A group of three 60-year-old West Virginia Lutheran pastors and best friends are on a “mission from God.” The trio will ride their bamboo bicycle built for three through Sumner Tuesday as part of a 65-city, 100-day, 13,000-mile tour to end world hunger.

The pastors hope to raise $5 million for the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.

“We are just three guys who like to ride bikes, being used by God for a wonderful purpose,” said the Rev. Reinold Schlak Jr., a pastor with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Schlak’s two friends, the Rev. Frederick A. Soltow Jr. and the Rev. David A. Twedt, are also pastors with ELCA congregations.

The three will arrive in Sumner about 1 p.m. and ride the Foothills Trail from Puyallup to South Prairie, then back to Sumner Library on Fryar Avenue. At 6 p.m., they’ll ride to Edgewood for a potluck dinner at Mountain View Lutheran Church.

Schlak said they chose a bamboo bicycle “because people in Ghana are lifting themselves out of poverty by harvesting locally-grown bamboo and forming it into bicycle frames and attaching the necessary bike parts.”

The triplet-bamboo bicycle designed for the pastors is the first of its kind.

“Cycling is the most advanced transportation a lot of hungry people can afford,” Schlak said. “Whether it is a modern American city or a small village in Africa, many people ride bikes because they cannot afford a vehicle with a motor.”

Calling their journey the “Tour de Revs,” the pastors’ mission and goal is threefold – revelation, revolution and revenue.

“We want to support the church in communicating our God-given opportunity and responsibility to provide for those less fortunate, so that all may have adequate nutrition to sustain life and wholeness,” said Schlak about its revelation goal.

The journey will also stress the need for Lutherans to take a personal responsibility for health and wellness, he said.

The second goal is revolution – to stimulate the 65 synods of the ELCA and the 10,448 congregations to formulate and implement realistic plans to eradicate hunger, and to make wellness a higher priority in the church.

Soltow said Tour de Revs is allowing him “to fulfill his call, which is proclaiming the message of Jesus as witnessed in Scripture.

“We are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and work for justice and righteousness,” he said.

For more information about Tour de Revs, visit www.tourderevs.org.