What is Run 4 Haiti?

Run 4 Haiti is basically my feeble attempt to raise money for a mission I am privileged to be a part of.  Mountain Faith Mission began in the late 1940’s and now touches to lives of over 5,000 Haitian people on the central plateau of Haiti.  These people are my friends whom I love very much.  The life in Haiti is a life of struggling.  Connecting with Mountain Faith Mission has opened my eyes to the lives that many children of God live, which is a life of struggling.  Thus, I felt as though I could do a small something about it.  

I love running.  Since 2005, I have been logging miles.  My first full year (2006), I ran a little over 300 miles.  My second year (2007), I ran my first full marathon in 4:16:32 and logged around 700 miles for the year.  In 2009, running has increased.  In the winter, I was able to log almost 1000 miles.  I had a personal best in the marathon at 3:50:54 in the heat.  This fall, I will be racing in a 5k and a 4 miler before retraining for a spring marathon. I love running.  As I began training for the Country Music Marathon 2008, the people of Haiti flashed through my mind.  I thought of them regularly.  I prayed for them regularly.  But, I wanted to do more.  That’s when I began to see all of the things that people ran marathons, half marathons, and anything else for.  What could I run for?  I could run for my friends in Haiti.  Thus, the birth of Run4Haiti began.  

It was a slow start.  I might have contacted around 15 people personally, and then just made general comments on Facebook and MySpace.  Still, with as little publicity as it received, almost $300 in support came in.  So we find ourselves here.  The summer 2009.  Almost a year worth of efforts.  My goal is to continually raise money for Haiti.  They are my friends.  My chosen people to work with.  I love them all.  None of the money that would come in would even go to me.  Every bit of it goes to Mountain Faith Mission of Haiti, which in turn would be used to feed hungry mouths and make life better for the Haitian people, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  

So how can you help?  You can pray for Mountain Faith Mission of Haiti.  Check out the site.  It’s an ever changing website (that I have compiled in the midst of everything else going on, so sometimes I’m a bit slow in updating it…)  Soon, on the MFM website, I hope to have a link for information on how to support Run4Haiti.  This blog is simply my way to journal about my runs and the things that I think about while I run.  Occasionally, I plan on having my hero of the week, or something of the sort, when I tell about a certain child or adult in Haiti, their story, and what they mean to me.  

If you’re interested in supporting Run 4 Haiti, please leave me a comment here, and I’ll be more than happy to email you and connect with you to give you more information.  I hope to have an email set up within the next week via the MFM website.  I even think it’d be awesome if maybe you are a runner, and you’d like to help support by running your own races and gaining support and then sending money.  We can work on that one, too!  Maybe we can get t-shirts!  Everyone loves t-shirts…right?  Anyways, drop me a line, email me, just talk to me. 

Thank you for your time reading, and may God bless you.