Updating Regularly

I guess maybe more people would read this if it had a bit of substance to it.

Tonight, I should finish up my freelance writing assignment, giving me a couple of months off from it. That means, more time to focus on other things.  That means I can read more books, work on videos, and, well, run more.  One of those things won’t happen more…

It’s kind of a dead time for me, really. I love fall and spring.  They are beautiful times of the year whenever the weather is comfortable.  In the spring, you see growth spurting everywhere.  In the fall, you see beautiful colors on everything.  But, lately, everything has begun to lose its color.  It’s begun to die.  It’s…blah time of the year.

Maybe I’m just a whiney baby, but I really don’t like the winter months.  There’s something about it being dark all the time, cold where you stay inside, and everything being dead.  Maybe whiney isn’t the right term for me right now – maybe its horribly morbid.  Nonetheless, it’s true.  It’s just not a fun time of year for me.  

Fortunately, the run gets me out of the house, whether its in the dark or light, warm or cold, life or death – it gives me something to do.

I’ve often wondered why in my brief trips to Haiti why I don’t see a lot of people down there running for fun.  I mean, it might happen, but not in Saut d’Eau.  Maybe it’s my stupidity curiosity, but I’ve often wondered what natural born runners there are down there who just aren’t given the opportunity to try. Or, how many of them have the knowledge that there are stupid people who run long distances for fun? Who would have thought that a local footrace that you can pay $15 for would be a privilege and blessing that not everyone has the privilege of doing.

Just some crazy thoughts here.

Anyways, I received an email from the Turners (the MFM missionaries) yesterday with updates of things that are going on around the compound.  Some of you might know that MFM has been in the process for the past 3-4 years of building a newer, bigger church building on the compound in Saut d’Eau.  When I say newer and bigger…I really mean those to the extreme.

The church in Saut d’Eau looks something like this (actually, not something like this – this is the actual photo of the church…)At VBS, it’s amazing how many people fit into that building. 700-800?  Plus, more people outside.

Well, the new church is working toward completion.  As of yesterday, many were working to put plaster on the walls, all wall joists, put up trusses, clean up, pour cement, etc.  This new church will seat some 3000 people comfortably according to the Turners.

Ronnie (the treasurer of MFM and long-time friend) and I were talking about this.  Pastor Turner says that God wants that church built in Saut d’Eau.  (A small reminder: The yearly voodoo fest that takes place at the cascades…the great parade will walk right in front of this church every year.) Ronnie and I came to the conclusion that the building of this church simply doesn’t make sense.  I mean, the old church is big enough for the congregation at Saut d’Eau of about 500.  There’s no point in having a bigger church with lots of room.  Except on one condition – God really is a part of it.  Then, it all makes sense.  It’s amazing to see what things God can pull off.  

I think about it quite often, actually.  Much of the world looks at the Bible and says, “The things in that are preposterous!  That could never happen! That book can’t be true!” But my deal is this: it’s God. I don’t use that as a cop-out when I say He’s capable of doing anything He wants.  I say it in awe and reverence to the fact that, well, He can do anything He wants! God can’t be limited. He’s powerful enough to do it.  He’s strong enough to succeed.  In fact, the word “enough” should be removed from those sentences. 

To wrap our minds around how great and mighty God is is impossible.  But when we start trying to, it’s easy to see that everything in the Bible is possible, plausible, and completely logical in light of the God that we serve.

And, if those things start making sense – why wouldn’t building the largest church in Haiti in the same town as the biggest voodoo festival in the world make sense – if God’s involved in the middle of it all?

Tuesday, October 27

Running:

Two straight weeks of 50 miles plus some.  This morning, I got up at ran 4 miles and will hit out another 7-9 this afternoon.  I am going to experiment to see how that might work out…we’ll see.

Life: 

My wife got a job back in September for teaching 4th grade at a local school system beginning November 18.  Elementary jobs are hard to come by here, so to get a full-time subbing position at a great school for a maternity leave position was truly God’s blessing. She first applied for one back in June at this school that would last from August til about October, but she didn’t get it.  I didn’t realize and understand why. But then, in August, she got a call about another position, re-interviewed and got the position.  Not surprisingly, God had other plans as this one is from November until April…possibly the end of the year depending on how mother wants to go with the baby.  Of course, God had greater plans, as the other 4th grade teacher has recently found out she has lymphoma, so Lindsey subbed there yesterday.  She is subbing again today, but I don’t know which class, as we got a text message from the teacher last night that said, “My water just broke!”  Who knows where Lindsey is today?  All I know is that whenever it seems like things aren’t working out in my favor, God is in the background laughing at my worry saying, “Listen, I’ve got a better plan.”

Haiti:

I miss it.  I mean, it’s impacted me, and I’ve only been there three times. I see families who live there and minister there daily, and there is a great respect for them to see all that they sacrifice in the name of Christ.  Likewise though, there is some aspect of envy.  It all goes back to the feelings and emotions that I feel while in Haiti – the challenge spiritually, lovingly, emotionally, physically – it’s indescribable.

Run4Haiti:

No real goals set, just a lot of training for an unnamed goal right now.  Think often of the best route to take to raise support for VBS or a trades school.  I talked to dad last week about the run from the airport to the compound. I had actually told him about it before and he just frowned and said, “No…” Well, back in April, dad came to my marathon run.  I had run two times in Nashville, but he had always been out of town on business.  Fortunately, this time he was able to come.  That day did something to him.  He has been running pretty (in)consistently since then – reminder: he had 5 bypasses a little over three years ago.  I think it’s awesome.  He has a different view towards running now.  He has a respect for the running community.  He thinks a lot about running actually.  It’s pretty awesome.  So when I told him this time, he listened closely and then said, “You know that’s like 45 miles up a mountain, don’t you?”  I just laughed and said, “Yeah, but people pay money for people to do stupid stuff…”  Ain’t that the truth.  So, we’ll see where that eventually gets us.  It’s a dream and a goal for the future.  When?  I don’t know.

So, that’s life in a nutshell right now.  Hoping to finish up some freelance writing I’ve been doing in the next seven days.  When that is complete, my attention will be turned to getting a 2010 R4H video put together.  Ya know, cause that’s how I roll.

Irony

I figure mother nature just wanted to mess with me after posting something about Mother Winter coming early.  Saturday morning, it was below 32 degrees when we went to a football game of a little kid in our church.

It is Wednesday now – the high today is 72°. “Take that, Ryan” said Mother Nature.

Mileage has been fun as of late. I enjoy simply running a whole lot more than training for a 5k. 5k’s make you hurt.  You go out twice a week and run laps around a track at a really fast pace.  That’s stupid.

Somehow, I’ve managed to make myself believe that going out and running 9 miles at a comfortable 8:43/mile pace is much smarter and can somehow be seen as a logical decision in my every day life. 

Anyways – Monday I knocked out 8.2 miles at an 8:46 pace and yesterday I kicked 9 miles out at 8:43.  Today, I’ll be going out for a 6 miler at whatever pace my body and legs decide to let me run.  This weekend, I’m going to try to hit out 14 or so, that way, if I can keep increasing and some random chance to run a random marathon shows up, I can be in shape to go out and run it…

I’m struggling with what race to run in the spring. Nashville was great for three years – but Nashville runs the chance of being a billion degrees.  I want a chance to run a race and do well up to my potential.

I’m still tossing around a big idea to raise money.

You see, back in August when we went in and met with the mayor of Saut d’Eau – he mentioned the idea that it would be good for Mountain Faith Mission to start some sort of vocational school. This thought was echoed by others in the mission who, as one claimed, “After they leave secondary school, they don’t have training for a job. We need to train them for jobs so they will stick around with La Mission Emmanuel (Mountain Faith Mission) and not leave.”

This is really what I would love to raise money for this coming year.  It’s a logical explanation by the Haitians in our mission. Likewise, the mayor wants something in Saut d’Eau that makes the lives of those in the village greater. It gives them a chance to learn. They can be educated in a skill that can essentially provide some sort of income for them. But, it doesn’t stop there as it allows our students within the mission to receive training in a number of areas that will keep them around.  It seems like a win-win situation.  So, that’s sort of my goal.

Essentially, my super-far-fetched-long-term goal, knowing how things can go very very slow in Haiti, is that upon the completion of the school if it were to be built, as a final push for support, I have a run up my sleeve.

Since my first trip in to Haiti, I’ve had this idea that I’ve been working on.  My goal: run from the Port-au-Prince airport to our compound in one day.  That covers about 50 miles or so and it goes from the bay – thus 0 ft. above sea level – to 1250 ft. above sea level at our compound.  This of course does not take into account that you go over all the mountains to get there.  This is obviously a long term goal, but I’ve been dreaming about it for two years, and it’s just really been on my mind lately.  It probably wouldn’t take place for a couple of years, but I’d love to run all day, get to the compound, collapse in front of this school while eating diri ak pwa, and watch a building dedication take place.

Of course, that’s how it all works out in my head.  So over the next couple of weeks, these are my goals to work towards.  I want to see what would be able to be done about a vocational school and begin working toward that goal.  Meanwhile, I will run.  A lot.  Because you never know when you fly into PAP early in the morning, only to put on your Mizunos and make a 50 mile journey on foot.  Of course, when you say it like that, I recognize that my 50 mile jog would seem nothing to some of the people in Haiti who have walked numerous miles.  

That kind of puts things in perspective…

Back Into The Swing Of Things

I’m trying to get back to increasing my mileage. Monday – 8, Tuesday – 9.  That’s a huge change for me from the summer.  Surprisingly, my legs feel better than they would during 5k training.  Funny how that works.

I’ve yet to decide on a spring marathon.  The one I originally wanted to run (Springfield, Ill) has changed to May.  I don’t want to risk a stinkin’ heat wave meltdown again, so I was looking to early April.  Who knows?  I’ll keep looking.

Other than that, I’ve begun to brainstorm the ways I can go about actually trying to raise money this year. VBS costs went up dramatically this year.  Normally it cost $5000 for the week to feed all of the people and other expenses for VBS (this is all the cost to actually execute VBS – I remind you that those of us who take a trip down there for the week pay for our own food, transportation, plus some more to pay our translators and other people…).  This year at VBS, the cost pushed $7000.  Who knows for next year.  I made a small dent last year in that cost.  I mean, I didn’t push or publicize the way that I possibly could have.  I could have done more.

I don’t like asking for money.  I really don’t.  It might come from the fact that I’m as cheap as they come.  As Lindsey and I are trying to get out of debt, I don’t want to buy ANYTHING.  I’m even willing to give up groceries.  But, I recognize that when someone does stupid things, such as run marathons and enjoy it, people are willing to thrown money at it.  I’m just in the middle of trying to figure out how to go from making a dent, to contributing huge numbers.  Not for the sake of “Oh, look how much I raised…” but for the sake of “Oh, look how much we can give!”  

I’d thought about seeing the possibility of having a 5k in my town in order to raise money.  That’s one thought.  I mean, who knows?  The other is of course to go about it the same as I did last year, but this year to actually email and snail mail packets of information to churches.  I have tons of ideas, I just don’t know how to go about executing all of them.  

Anyone have Donald Trump’s number?

3 weeks to 5k

I never used to get sick, but my throat is scratchy.  That would be time #4 for the year.  I think it’s time to find some anti-biotics to swallow.  

Nonetheless, 3 weeks to the 5k.  Training is going well.  Got in a little over 10 miles with intervals yesterday.  Headed out for 8 this afternoon.  Then, headed for about 13 tomorrow or so and 9 or so on Sunday for 50.  That is, if I don’t goof up like last week and have no alarm go off for a long run.  Stupid me.

I thought after Haiti, that life would slow down.  It has slightly, but I still stay constantly busy.  Truth be told, I miss the slowness of the island.  Nothing better than an early morning with a devotion on the front porch while 16 little kids are waving at you to give them a sucker.  

Ministry.  That’s been on my mind lately.  What’s the effective way to minister to my area?  I’ve talked with lots of people with great ideas…for their area.  I live in a different place.  God is shaping me.

Oh well, lots of rambling, not enough work or running.

Training and Missing the Country

Well, last week I began training for a 5k on October 10.  It’s a local one here in town.  I ran a 20:18 last year.  This year I’m hoping to go about 19:45 or so.  Training kicked my butt.  No mileage this summer and whatnot was pretty rough.  I got in 34 miles this past week, so that was great and way above.  No long run because my inlaws are in, but this weekend, I’m hoping not just to get one, but also to hit about 50 miles for the week.

As far as Haiti goes, it’s amazing the transition that happens.  I think and pray every day for them now.  Before every meal, I honestly pray that my kids get a meal that day.  That just is an odd prayer to me.  It’s something that we expect.  We need.  We want.  We know we’ll get here in America.  And I find myself praying that kids actually get one meal for the day.  How surreal to think of.

Nonetheless, this week, I have a busy plate on my hands.  We’ve kicked off a new children’s church at church.  We’re simply surveying the Bible.  Wednesday, I’m hitting on the basics of Christianity with the youth group.  Too many Christians are spiritually illiterate.  They must know about their faith.  We have a big youth group event on Friday night after the high school football game.  Saturday I hit out a good 10-12 miles.  It’s busy.  But life is good.

My wife and I will begin paying on her student loans this coming week.  I don’t know how much they are.  I probably don’t know how much they are.  I long to be debt free.

Short story: I graduated college in May 08.  I had $11,000 in loans from four years, so I was doing well.  I began paying.  In August 08, I went to Haiti.  In November 08, I proposed with a ring and already had the wedding band.  In May, I got married and paid cash for the honeymoon.  At the wedding, I’d knocked it down to $1,500.  In July 09, I paid off my loans.  So, in about 14 months, I paid off $11,000 in debt and well over another $5,000 in other expenses.  Now, the goal is to knock out her anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000 in debt within the next couple of years and be debt free within three years of marriage.  What happens then?

We follow the Biblical commands to give freely.  Why do I want to be debt free?  So I can dive into Haiti and give basic needs, education, but more importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We should all strive toward that, correct?  Become debt free in order to give to the Kingdom of God!

Marketing

I guess this subject has been on my mind lately.  I see a lot of promotional videos for missions, organizations, and the like.  Our mission is tiny in comparison to a lot of those.  An independent mission since 1948 won’t really ever grow to the size of Compassion and World Vision and whatnot.  

Yet, the need is the same.  

So, I leave in two days.  48 hours from now I think I’ll be boarding a plane in O’Hare to head for Miami.  The wheels are turning for ways to promote Mountain Faith Mission.  We’re tiny…but I know that people can and need to know of the NEED in Haiti.  

For all I care, they don’t have to support MFM, but just be aware of the need.  If they want to support through one of the many organizations in Haiti, that’s great.  My goal is to make people aware of the need. 

So, for now, the wheels are turning.  I am writing things down today and tomorrow of ideas needed within our mission.  I’ve got ideas for youth groups/churches to participate in in order to raise money.  

I’ve got ideas for promotion on our website in order for people to buy benches for our new church on the compound in Saut d’Eau.  

I’ve got ideas for videos. 

I’ve got ideas for pictures.

But, I don’t really know where to go from there.  It kinda stinks really.

Thus, I am venting and complaining here, not really knowing what to do about it, other than complain.  

So, I retire with this question:

How do you make people care about something beyond their four walls?

The Time Is Near…

When  I say that, I feel like I should be toting a sign and screaming in a town square at people about the rapture.

Anyways, it hasn’t sunk in that I leave in just a few days.  This has been a crazy busy week.  I’ve had lunch meetings with other youth pastors, meeting new friends about Haiti, my teens started school, visiting EVERY teen tonight to take them cake (long story).  I have packed though.  For the most part, I am completely packed, just a few odds and ends to pull from the next couple of days.

My wife’s 22nd birthday is on Thursday, so I am treating her super special on Thursday and Friday (super special is better than special, she is always treated special).  We’re actually gonna get a hotel near the airport on Friday night because I don’t want her driving back on the interstate at butt-o-clock in the morning by herself.  

All of this is a blur though.  I remember in the past years, leading up to it I was frazzled.  This year, all I do is talk about it, but I also balance that with not worrying.  Life is just busy.  I am looking forward to going, but when I get back, it means my summer is officially over, thus making life slow down.  Maybe at that point I’ll realize I am married.

Until next time.

I’d rather be in Haiti

Life has been hectic lately.

Four weeks from today we head out. 

Needless to say, I’m ready.

I am 36 days away

This summer is flying.  Last week the youth group was in Pittsburgh PA on a missions trip that was full of God.  Pittsburgh is a really hilly town, so I ran minimal miles. 

This week, I am tired and in the middle of VBS, so it’s minimal miles again.  Should get about 3-a-day.  

Last night, 60 kids at VBS.  We’re taking up our missions offering each night for Haiti VBS this year.  Money would be great, but I want young kids to look and see a need beyond themselves.  Whatever works.

36 days and it can’t get here fast enough.  I finally get to sit on the front porch.