Rise Up and Take Courage...

It's been almost two months since I posted an entry on my blog which I am pretty sure is one of the golden rules of "what not to do" as a blogger.  My excuse...training for a Marathon was way more difficult than I could have ever imagined.   Last January, I made a bold decision to run the Chicago Marathon.  I am not really sure what I was thinking.  At first it sounded like a really great decision.  Earlier that year, I had been challenged by a member of my Youth Ministry Cohort to run a Marathon.    That same month I had the opportunity to travel with World Vision, an organization that fights against injustice and poverty, to Mozambique, Africa to look at some clean water projects.  When I found out that you could run with Team World Vision at certain marathons, and raise money for clean water, it sounded like the perfect thing.  I began talking with a few of my friends, one who has a huge heart for Africa, and in January 2015, we made the decision that we would run.

I'm not sure we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into.

For the past 20 weeks we have spent most of our free time training.  We have run on beaches, in the woods, on the street, on bridges, on canals, and on treadmills.  We have run in New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Kentucky, Maryland, and Boston, all to make sure we didn't miss a run.  We have laughed, cried, felt accomplished and felt like quitting, all on the same run.  We have been injured, felt old (way more than once), gained a few grey hairs (ok so that's only one of us), and worn out a few pairs of shoes in the process.  We've taken hundreds of selfies, posted thousands of pictures, and put out about a million pleas for people to donate.  We've questioned our sanity, questioned our call, and in the end, haven't quit because of one thing...there are people without clean water and we have the means to do something....so we run.

Last night, I attended the Team World Vision Dinner in Chicago with 3 friends, who have not only chosen to take this journey with me, but who have become family in the process.  We sat around a table as we listened to person after person share about the "why" of running for clean water.  We watched video after video talking about the "effect" of what happens when clean water arrives in a village much like the ones I visited last September.  We were inspired by every day people who have decided that it's not ok for people to not have clean water and have chosen to do something about it.  Because of those kind of people, 28,000 people were given clean water for life.  And that's just this Marathon.

The founder of Team World Vision, Michael Chitwood, said this at the dinner last night, "Almost every amazing thing God has for us is on the other side of fear.  You have to step through fear to get to it."  Getting up at 4am tomorrow morning to finally do what we have been training to do for the past 20 weeks of our life...it scares me.  At the same time, I think there is something pretty epic that God is doing on the other side of my fear.  And so tomorrow, I will run.

I will run for those who have no voice.
I will run for those who have no hope
I will run for those who feel forgotten
I will run for those who struggle to survive
I will run for those who God has said...I see you, I love you, you are my child.

RISE UP...TAKE COURAGE...AND DO IT (Ezra 10:4).  NEVER STOP RUNNING.












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