With the passing of Lindsey’s grandmother, traveling, many other things on my mind, and youth group events, I was quite busy last week.  I had time to do my long run on Friday and Saturday, but I was lazy and skipped them.  I was worried Sunday whenever instead of 15 I ran 3, but somehow I think this was the smartest thing for me to do.  It put things in perspective as far as training goes that I’ve got to step it up somehow and begin to get into “training mode” instead of “run and build a base mode.” For the non-runner, this won’t make any sense.

Yesterday was a great run.  I started off and ran 2 easy miles around 8:40 pace. I then upped it and knocked out three at my projected marathon pace of 7:40 (hoping this will drop dramatically by the time a marathon gets here) and recovered for half a mile. After that I knocked out one mile at my current half marathon pace of around 7:10 and then recovered half a mile. Back to a marathon pace mile around 7:40 which hurt, then half a mile of recovery. Finally, one more half marathon pace mile and slowly jogged it home for the last 1.5 miles for a total of 11 miles in about 1:28:40 – 8:05 pace.

I got to thinking yesterday how much I’ve really just neglected trying to do any fundraising through my running. Next week for Christmas, I want to do some video work and whatnot for a video, but I also want to talk to my father about the different ideas that he might have for fundraising for MFM this year. Likewise, my brother is a financial counselor on the side so all he does is think about money and crunch numbers (think as nerdy as you can get because he’s a geek – and I can say that because as far as I know, he never reads this…) and get his input about things maybe he has learned to do in order to raise funds. I’d love to get something started this year that lasts.

I know that’s a pretty repetitive topic here on my blog for the ones who read it fairly regularly. I hear of some people who are able to raise tons of money for their organization and this and that, and I’d love to do that, no glory to myself, but in order to promote our mission and inform people about the needs of Haiti. I’d love to have people become aware of the needs and have them see face-to-face with children and adults who need their help. I just haven’t quite figured out how to do so.

Honestly, at times, it’s frustrated me because last year I sent out about 15 letters to different churches who contacted me first about wanting information in order to support and donate money…suprisingly, and at the same time, not surprisingly, only one church followed through. 

I know that people are busy and people are donating and that there was a “recession” recently, but at the same time, I catch myself doing the same thing where I think, “Man, I can’t give because Lindsey and I have to get our debts paid off because we need a new car and a new tv…” And then I think of Sandia, Lanise, Shaylah, or Hermithe and think, “Wow…maybe those things can wait because these girls need an education, or clean water, or food, or clothes, or all of the things that I don’t even pay attention to…”

This was unintended to head this direction, but as I was about to publish this post, I looked at the title of this post – “I Skipped A Long Run” and realized how many things in my life matter to me so much more than what is really important. I beat myself up mentally on Sunday because I skipped a long run and I was worried how that would effect my training. Aren’t there more important things in life? God has really been rocking my world lately regarding His will for my life – and not just my life but every single Christian’s life. Almost as if we’re missing a great point of what it truly is to follow Him. I don’t ever want to be like the rich, young ruler found in the Gospels, but sometimes, in fact, most of the time, I’m afraid that I have become just like the rich young ruler. And to make myself feel better, I say, “Jesus didn’t really mean to give everything to the poor because then that would put me in danger or starving and make my life too uncomfortable.” But, what if Jesus really did want that? Isn’t that giving up everything to follow Him? Isn’t that trusting Him completely? 

There’s too much comfort in America when it comes to following Jesus. We’ve made it too comfortable.  We’ve made it too easy. We’ve said, “Come follow Jesus. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. In fact, just pray this prayer and you’re good.” There’s something much bigger. There’s this world-wide expansion of the Gospel where I feel like American culture is missing out on it because we’re too distracted. I don’t want to miss it. At times, my involvement with Haiti is purely for selfish gain. I go there and I get revived. I get away from the distractions of America, I don’t run, I don’t talk on the cell phone, I don’t watch tv – and I focus on Jesus Christ and His power to change the lives of mankind. I fellowship with believers and I teach Christ’s commands. And when I come home, I see the Taco Bell sign, turn on my cell phone, and forget that it was Jesus that changed my life that week as well as the many other people who were present.

It’s turning into incoherent ramblings, but the point of all of this is maybe to inspire one person to reflect and say, “Is there something I can do?” I don’t mean for Haiti, for Mountain Faith Mission with Run 4 Haiti…I mean in your relationship with Jesus. Is there something that will move you from typical American Christianity that is so fluffed up when it comes to following Christ that there is really no discipleship and nothing but good feelings and high fives – to something more genuine, real, loving, giving, and powerful through Jesus Christ? Whether that’s in America, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Africa, Australia…I don’t know. There’s more to this than meets the eye.

I never met Madame Paul, but the emails I have received regarding her death have made me realize that she was a mighty woman of God. This is the most recent from the Turners:

It was very unexpected. She had not even been sick. She had a couple days that she felt bad. Then on Thursday she got real bad and they sent her to PAP to the hospital and she passed away on Tuesday. She left her husband and ten children and we really don’t know how many grandchildren.

Pastor Charles took charge of the service and Pastor John preached the message. The Minister of Cultes, which is like a cabinet member here in the states, sent condolences to be read at the funeral. He also sent three officials under him plus five more of the staff. The Director General himself, spoke, Pastor Turner spoke. One of Pastor Paul’s daughters read the eulogy. I asked one of the officials about so many of them coming. He said that MFM has had a close relationship with the Dept of Cultes and that Joel Donne, one of Pastor Paul’s sons, is a secretary at the Dept of Cultes. He inferred they usually don’t send that large of a delegation to funerals even if it were a very VIP who had passed away. The Donne family themselves, have different ones who hold fairly high government offices. I think many people came for the positions of the family as much as for the family.

It was really sad that Bro Turner did not have  the new Saut d’ Eau church finished. It would have literally been packed out. I was told by one of the Haitians there were between 1200-1500 people there.

Pastor Paul as well as numerous family members asked me to send you all a big “Thank You” for your prayers and financial help on the funeral. The casket itself was very simple. We understand she wanted it that way. She had been in a coma but on Tuesday morning, she awoke and asked for all her children. Several of them are not Christians. They say she preached them a real message-the first and last one of her life. She told them she was going on to be with Jesus and encouraged them to meet her there.

The funeral was last Sunday. On Monday morning, Pastor Paul was at my house. He knew that on Tuesday morning we were leaving for the states. He said he had never cooked a meal, washed any clothes or cleaned house. She had been the perfect wife. He did not know how he was going to make it. He asked me when I got in the states I would contact all my friends and have them pray for him. Please don’t forget.

Later I heard arrangements had been made for one of his girls to stay there with him for awhile. I think Madam Paul was 14 when they were married. They lived extremely poor. Never owned a vehicle, never had electricity up until recently when the mission purchased a generator for them. But they led hundreds of people to Christ.

Great is her reward!!

Honestly, as I read Pastor Paul’s comment about not knowing what to do, I was emotionally moved. I hope that you’re moved to pray for him. I have never really communicated with him directly (ie. talked to him w/out a translator) but I do know that he is a magnificent servant of God who deserves each Christian to unite in prayer and lift his name before the Great Healer in Heaven.

Join me as I pray for the Donne family.

Life has been uber busy as of late.  I’ve completely neglected doing much of anything except for running.

I was unable to run the Kris Kringle 4 Miler due to the death of my wife’s grandmother. We had to travel to Tennessee for the funeral. I wasn’t too disappointed to be missing the race given the circumstances. Likewise, last Friday evening my throat began to hurt and was fully hurting on Saturday morning at 7am. I figured by today I would be doing okay, but no – I am taking lots of cold medicine, cough drops, and shoving tissues as far up my nostrils as possible.  Not fun. A lot of sinus pressure.

Running-wise: My runs have been progressively faster and my legs are responding well.  Monday was 7 miles at about 8:25 pace. Tuesday was 3.5 miles at about 8:30 pace (it began to rain so I cut it short). Yesterday was 7 miles in 30 mph winds and snow (glorious conditions) at 8:16 pace. I get done running and I feel looser than normal.  I’m not quite sure what to make of it – whether it is just my body is responding well to the past two months of regular consistency, or if it is due to the fact that it is cold, or maybe a bit of both. Who knows?  I just like the fact I can run faster, recover faster, and feel well all in the same day.

I received an email two weeks ago about Pastor Paul Donne who is the pastor at the church at Lamarre (Lamar, Lamarr, Lamare; just want to cover every single possibility of Creole spelling) within our mission. Pastor Paul has been a pastor since the early days of the mission and I believe he was converted in the 60’s and became a Pastor soon after. His wife began to decline in health and passed away last week. Thankfully, many Americans responded to the call to have her body transported back from PAP to home so she could be buried. I know it has to be a very tough time for the family so remember them and Pastor Paul as he is one of the officials within the mission, and a wonderful man of God.

Oh yeah, I’d appreciate prayers for this sinus infection to abandon my body and go off and die somewhere.  Stupid sinuses.

Since I’m in ministry, obviously around Christmas I’m not very busy.

There’s only something going on EVERY WEEKEND between now and Christmas.  Plus, parties and gatherings and teaching and etc.

It’s okay though. 

As for lately, my in-laws came up for Thanksgiving.  I think I gained about 8 lbs.  I hit 50 miles last week.  And I got new shoes for Christmas (as they’ll be traveling to see my sister-in-law and her husband in Laos for Christmas.)

Things are going well.

Legs are feeling good.

Brainstorming to figure out exactly how to execute R4H 2010. How do I go about to motivate?  How do I go about to share with people about what I am running for.  How do we actually make R4H something bigger, not for my name, but in order to raise money to help out the mission?  These are the thoughts I’ve had lately.  

Btw, I’ll be racing this weekend.  The Kris Kringle 4 Miler here in town.  It’s on Sunday afternoon.  We’ll report how it goes.

Lately, on Twitter and Facebook, many of my friends have made comments about “Wow, you run a lot!” or “Is all you do run?”

This is for you.

Yep, I run a lot.  It didn’t used to be that way.  Let me explain.

In high school, I was fat. Some people knew me then and can vouch for that. This isn’t a sob story at all.  As a sophomore in high school, I was at 240.  By the time I graduated, I had dropped a little bit by being more active in playing baseball my senior season.  I entered college at 225.  I simply didn’t want to be at that weight.  My senior year, I would go to the middle school track in my town and run a mile or so.  I can remember going and running a mile in 7:48 in the spring of 2004.  It was the fastest I could squeeze one out.  And of course, after that I was so spent I couldn’t do anything else.

I got to college and was able to get a job at FedEx Ground. From the beginning of September to the end of September, my body became used to moving for 5 hours straight in the back of a truck.  I lost 20-25 lbs. in the first month of working there. I eventually moved into being more active and got down to right about 200 lbs. and stayed there for a while.

The summer of 2005, as I was more active, I began to run more.  It’d be two miles, one mile, mile and a half; that was all.  I began to read online about 5k’s and races and running and it piqued my interest. I began to go running regularly. I would go up to the same middle school track and run. When I did a mile time trial on June 3, 2005 (the day before my niece was born…only reason I remember the date is because as soon as I got done, I got the call that we had to travel to ATL for her birth on the 4th). I ran that mile in 6:18.  That’s a huge change.  1:30 in a little over a year.  Weight helps.  I began to run 3 miles at a time or so. Total miles for 2005 = 62.5.

When I got back to college, I ran 4 miles one Sunday night and thought I would die.  It was horrible. I continued to run 3-3.5 miles throughout the next college school year on occasion. By April 2006, I had started a new job working at the Hilton downtown Nashville, Tennessee which happens to be the headquarters for the Country Music Marathon.  I was still running often, reading the magazines, and keeping up with the sport. The atmosphere on Friday before the marathon was so ridiculous.  I was hooked. That afternoon, after never running more than 3.5 miles, I started running.  I ran.  7 miles.  I hurt horribly the next day, but I was hooked. The atmosphere was amazing. I continued to run throughout the year.

In August 2006, my father began to experience some chest pains.  At the doctor’s request, he checked in and they performed a five bypass surgery. It was a scary time, but amazing to see God through quick recovery, as well as through friends. Dad recovered great. Before we left the hospital, the surgeon came in to check on him in his regular room (he was out of ICU post-surgery a full day before the normal time…God’s hand) and essentially just old the entire family that heredity had everything to do with it. It was at that point, I realized I had to do something.  I was 20 years old at the time and it was scary to think of my future like that.

The year continued with a few more miles here and there. On Thanksgiving day, three years ago today, I got a call from my wife (just a friend at the time) and she said, “Did you hear about G?” G was a friend of my roommate’s, and he had become a friend of mine. Gerald Lynn Turner was the student body president of the college we attended. While playing football on Thanksgiving with his wife’s family in Florida, he dove after someone to tackle them and never got up off the ground.  His heart stopped.  He had been married 2 months and working as a youth pastor at his home church in Mississippi.  It was scary, again.

At that point, I had decided I had to do something.  I was going to run the Country Music Marathon in 2007.  I got my buddy Alan Skiles to run with me.  We started training around Christmas.  I had it in my head that we were running for G. When we got back to school, I talked to a teacher and a scholarship was set up.  It was official, we were running for G. 2006 total miles = 304.8 miles.

2007 rolled around by running 4 runs a week.  Alan and I trained and trained and trained. We raised money for the scholarship for the G foundation that was set up.  April rolled around and the marathon hit.  Alan and I had no idea how to run or train or any of it, but I finished in 4:16:32.  I crossed the finish line with tears in my eyes.  I had accomplished what I had seen as impossible for me in high school.  I had run a marathon.  It was an amazing feeling.  My mother was there.  My girlfriend (wife now) was there.  I just stood and talked with tears in my eyes.  The rest of the day was filled with amazing feelings.  I lived on that high and was hooked.  

For the rest of the year I ran here and there.  I was close to 400 miles in April.  The summer came and I did a youth ministry internship.  I got back to college and ran here and there.  But, when it finally rolled around to December, I knew it meant I had to run more in order to get to the finish line faster. In the mean time, in September 2007, I took my first trip ever to Haiti. To say the least, I was moved. The quality of life embarrassed me at how selfish I had been. The love of the people convinced me that I don’t love enough. Something needed to happen. 2007 total miles = 698.3

2008 rolled around and suddenly I was running more.  It was 5 days a week.  In March, I ran a 15k where I finished 18th overall with a 1:07:55 – a 7:16 pace.  Say what?  Three years prior, I couldn’t run one mile at 7:16 pace, let alone 9.3.  The spring was great.  April rolled around. I ran by myself this time.  My mom and girlfriend were there for me and saw me at different places, along with Alan who was unable to run and his girlfriend, who turned into his wife.  It was a struggle, but the training paid off as I crossed the line in 3:57:50.  It was awesome!

While training, I sent out letters and MySpace notices that I was raising money for Haiti.  Of course I called it…Run 4 Haiti.  That year, I had a few donations that totaled about $300. I ran for them.

It was awesome until I realized that I was capable of more.  You see, there are runner-people who have figured out that based on shorter races times what you should be capable to run at other distances.  Based on my 15k time, I knew that I was capable of running faster than what I did.  The answer?  Run more.  In fact, the saying on the website that taught me how to run from a group of amazing runners that congregate there is this: Run lots. Mostly easy. Sometimes hard. It began to make sense.  The more you run…the more your body thanks you for it. 

I graduated college in May 2008 and moved to New Castle, Indiana.  I ran a little bit each week after the move. I returned to Haiti in September 2008.  I was moved even more.  This time, I felt that God really wanted me to do something for Haiti.  I felt like I was involved.  Suddenly, I came back and Mountain Faith Mission of Haiti was almost life to me.  I built a website and began to do whatever I could.  

Running wise, well, Run 4 Haiti was essentially born a little over a year ago on the web.  I ran a 5k last fall in 20:18 – a 6:33 pace – who’d a thunk?  I ran a 4 miler last December in 27:02.  I just ran.  A year ago next week I began a streak of running at least 50 miles a week.  A year from Saturday, I began to run every day (a streak which broke on August 22 when I left for Haiti after 264 days). Total miles for 2008 = 1684.9.  It was a significant difference and my mileage increase showed through my better times.

2009 rolled around and suddenly I had this running thing down.  In March I ran a half marathon in 1:34:21 – a 7:13 pace…the numbers just kept getting smaller.  I toed the line for Nashville’s marathon hoping to run a 3:25, but mother nature heated up and was a punk.  But, I still crawled in at 3:50 – a 7 minute improvement simply because of the training.  The summer brought a lot of busy-ness.  Marriage, youth trips, travels, so the mileage decreased.  

Haiti 2009 really did something though. As I had mentioned, I felt like a part of something bigger.  Since then, my work with MFM has manifested itself in new ways.  

The fall brought a 5k with a 25 second improvement.  It was a 19:53.  I broke 20…that’s crazy.

And so, now it’s Thanksgiving.  I find myself reflecting today on what I’m thankful for: family, friends, church, job, God, finances, etc.

But really, I’m thankful for running.  This really long post is really what my life is about a lot of days.  Yes, I love to run.  I run lots of miles.  In fact, after today, my total for the year will be 2018 miles.  But it’s what motivates me that I’m thankful for.

Health motivates me of course, but Haiti is it.  People pay money for people to do stupid things, like run.  And I want to do those stupid things because I enjoy it.

MFM has use for money of course.  It’s a poverty-stricken country.  I don’t ask for money for my benefit, but I ask for money for those people in Haiti that I know can use it.  The Sandia’s who was just happy when I gave her a ball-point pen for school.  The Milan’s who called herself my sister at VBS this year, laughing, and then with a serious look asked me if I was taking her back home with me since she was my sister.  And for the Jean-Bofet’s, who live in the orphanage that MFM runs.  What does money bring?  It just brings the ability for God’s work to be done.  It makes their life easier.  It changes the life through others.  The missionaries there want to change life’s both spiritually and physically.  It just happens.  But, it doesn’t happen unless someone gives.  It doesn’t happen unless Christians give.

That’s what I want to motivate. I want to motivate those people who think, “Man, you’re stupid because you run so much…” to give.  It does so much. In fact, if there’s a specific way and area that you want to give…then I’ll make sure it gets done.  

But that’s why I run.  I run for them.

Today’s run officially put me at 2000 miles for 2009.  This puts me on pace for somewhere close to 2250 for the year if my running continues.

The running has been going very well lately. I’ve been able to consistently hit my 50+ mpw and have been recovering well.  This past week I increased the mileage up a bit.  Tuesday’s midweek run was at 10 miles and Saturday’s long run was at 15 miles.  Both of them had some speedwork included.

The 10 miler was 3 miles warm up, then 3 x 1 mile @ 7:00 pace w/ 3:00 minute recovery, then 3 miles cool down.

The 15 miler was 5 easy, 3 @ marathon pace (7:45ish), 2 easy, 2 @ mp, and 3 easy.

This week is Thanksgiving, but I’m hoping to continue the running mileage up this week.  Beginning in December, I am hoping to hit out a few doubles a week, so we’ll see how that rolls out.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Top 10 Most Corrupt Countries

Congratulations to Haiti for making it for another year.  Although, it seems to me that in the past when I’ve looked at these lists, Haiti has been higher on the list.  

We’ve always joked about this aspect, as horrible as it is, that “Voted 10th Most Corrupt Country Three Years In A Row” isn’t exactly something that you’d want put on your “Welcome to Haiti” sign.

I look at these things about corruption, and honestly, they don’t move me too much.  And for some reason, that really bothers me this morning.  I’m about a third of the way through Richard Stearns “A Hole in Our Gospel” and it’s really good. The fact that Christ has definitely called people to love God and love others is very apparent.  But I truly appreciate Stearns in saying that there is a third greatest command – to go and tell people this Gospel so there life too can be changed. How amazing is that?

Corruption is a human creation. Redemption is a gift of God. God can bring Haiti, or any country on that list out of the “corruption” statistics that they frequent. But, how do the people who are so “corrupt” find redemption? Only in Christ. 

I’ll admit, there are times when I’ve been in Haiti where I get sidetracked.  As I’ve mentioned before, there are groups that I’ve talked to who have gone down to Haiti and only focused on humanitarian efforts the entire time (and I have no problem with this…)  But we’ve talked to people, who have made it their sole focus as a Christian to only give clean water to the people, or to only give the people food.  Because of talking to those people, I’ve seen the very need of spreading the Gospel.  Thus, whenever I go into Haiti, I feel that sometimes I neglect the physical needs because I think I am more holy by just meeting the spiritual needs.

The truth is though, they must go hand in hand.  You must meet them both.  Sure, the spiritual needs are the ones that count in the long term.  The spiritual needs are commanded to be met.  That is the way that redemption happens – someone meets Jesus Christ and he redeems them from corruption.  But, what if I just give them the Gospel and don’t meet their physical needs?  What does that say to them about the love of Christ?  Meeting their physical needs could manifest itself in a number of ways: paying for a child to go to school, buying food, giving clothing, or maybe paying for gas for their car. 

Wait a second – pay for gas in their car?  Haitians don’t have cars!

Yeah…Americans, I’m all for supporting Haiti.  In fact, by the end of March, Lindsey and I hope to be completely out of debt, at which point, we plan to begin pouring regularly into a couple of different international ministries.  But, if we only see abroad, and we don’t see the people who drive through our town ever day, who have the same sort of corrupt, sinful, life that those on the top 10 list have, then I feel we have missed the point of the Gospel.

“Go into all the world” doesn’t automatically mean you have to jump the great ponds and go visit someone of a different race.  ”Go into all the world” means exactly what it says…hit the world.  Your world.  Your immediate world.  And, if the opportunity arises, hit someone else’s world.  But don’t leave the Gospel at home.  Take the Gospel with you.  But be reminded, the Gospel carries the love of Christ with it.

Corruption happens.  But Christ redeems.

I’ve been married 6 months today.  I’m pretty excited about it.  My wife kinda supports my Haiti addiction.  She also kinda supports my running addiction.  She’s kinda awesome.

Last week got in the 50.6 miles.  My legs are really kicking me because I need new shoes, but I’m too lazy and cheap to buy a pair as of right now.  I know I’m getting some the weekend of Thanksgiving though, so I’m basically counting down the number of runs I have.

Finally, I will be starting the book “The Hole In Our Gospel” by the founder of World Vision, Richard Stearns.  I’m kind of excited about it.  I’ll post a review on here when I finish the book later this week.

I also hope that this weekend I won’t be a total loser and that I’ll actually work on maybe a Haiti video or something.  We’ll just have to see what the weekend holds.

This is what the past week looked like:

Monday – 6 mi in 53:28

Tuesday – 9.2 mi in 1:20:41

Wednesay – 7 mi in 1:02:07

Thursday – 7.1 mi in 59:54

Friday – 6 mi in 53:17

Saturday – 3 mi in 29:00

Sunday – 13 mi in 1:49:26

Friday night, I took some of our teens to a state wide youth rally/lock-in.  (I hate lock-ins)  I finally got to bed around 6:15am on Saturday morning and slept till almost 1pm.  When I awoke, I put on shorts and ran the three miles.  My legs HATED me.  So I did a nice, slow, recovery jog.  That was smart, because on Sunday’s long run, I pushed the pace from miles 8-11.  Here’s what that workout looked like.

7 miles easy

4 miles @ marathon pace (7:32, 7:37, 7:45, 7:31)

2 miles easy for cooldown

It felt great while I was running.  The 7:37/7:45 are on slightly hilly portions, thus the pace decreased. 

Anyways, 51.3 miles last week, and my legs are a bit sluggish today.  Feeling good overall though and ready to begin building on it to set some personal records in 2010.

December 6 brings the Kris Kringle 4 Miler back, so we’ll see how that goes.  Should be able to go under 27:00 this year…hopefully.  We’ll see how running distances like this trashes my legs.

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?