A Challenge From Above

This is how it began.....

Last year Incline student ministries (the youth group of Monroeville Assembly of God church) held its annual box-a-thon, an event for the teenagers to raise money for Speed the Light (STL). Speed the Light is an organization that supports missionaries around the world by helping to purchase vehicles, electrical, audio/visual equipment, etc to help them more effectively spread the good news of our savior Jesus Christ to others who would not otherwise have to opportunity hear the good news. Our youth pastor (Pastor Anthony) challenged our teenagers to think outside the box and use their interests and talents to raise an absurd amount of money in the year 2011. He challenged them to raise $35,000 to buy a vehicle for Bettina Weaver, a missionary to Myanmar (Burma). My brief research leads me to believe she's also a nurse (as am I).

At the time, I thought his goal was ridiculous. Although, as much as I wanted to just dismiss it, something inside me felt compelled to be an example to our teenagers and do something outside of my comfort zone to help reach this goal...to show the kids that even as a youth leader (which is my role in Incline) I care and will do my part. Of course, that was late October 2010 and after several months, I had done nothing.

February 26, 2011, very early in the morning, I was praying before my first big race (running 10 miles) and I felt like God interrupted that prayer and told me to run a full marathon for STL. I told my husband (Matt) about it that morning but still couldn't say for sure it was really God talking or just my pre-race excitement that morning...I mean, let's face it...God just doesn't typically talk to me like that.
I ran that race (beating my goal by 3.5 minutes) and went about life. I was really doubting that God actually talked to ME. I expected the idea to die down and that would be the end of it. I really had no desire to run 26.2 miles! Seriously, I had just done 10 and that was hard enough!

As the next several weeks unfolded, the opposite of my expectations ensued. Instead of my thoughts about the idea fizzling away, they continued to build! I was constantly thinking about it and getting more excited. I was not getting excited about actually running such an absurd distance but about WHY I wanted to do it.
I continued to fight internally about this, just thinking..."God doesn't talk to me like this..it couldn't possibly have been from him..I'm crazy to think I can actually run a marathon..but yet I keep getting small signs that this is all God..." I literally spent the next 4 weeks looking for reasons not to do this and finding nothing but reasons to do it!

Why is it that I consider myself a christian, a believer in and lover of Jesus, but when he talks to me, I don't believe it's really Him? Or that when He tells me to do something, I ignore it because "God doen't talk to me like that?" During that month Pastor Anthony had been teaching our Incline students about Elijah and how he had miraculous faith. It was pretty clear that I thought I had faith but when it was challenged, I saw that my faith was really pretty poor. I didn't have enough faith in God to:
1) believe this was really something from God
2) believe this was something I could actually physically do (and live through even though my good friend Nicole tried to convince me otherwise)
3) believe that I could put in enough training hours and not take to much time away from my family (I have two little girls)
4) believe I could find enough (very inexpensive) childcare for my girls all summer while I trained

One Friday night at my Incline lil' group (small groups for the teenagers), we (mostly the kids) were talking about their faith and sharing stories about God being there to help them and giving them answers when they seeked...how their faith has helped them in the hardest of times. It was eye opening to see that my teenagers (well, some of them) had more faith than me- one of their youth leaders. I felt compelled to share my whole situation but didn't want to because I still wasn't sure I would actually follow through. Well, my good friend, Merissa, made me! Merissa was our lil' group leader/teacher....and a very good/insightful teacher, by the way! (You can access her blog by clicking on the link above.)
Reluctantly, I shared my story up to this point.

Two days later we were driving to church and I said to Matt, "just watch, there will be some little thing someone does or says this morning that will be God throwing this in my face again." Well, it was more than some little thing! The sermon outline was handed out and on the paper our pastor (Lance Lecocq) had the word "marathon" written with a star next to it. My thought, "Thanks God, it doesn't get more clear than that but, I still do not want to run 26 miles..." That morning after church, I read my note sheet from the sermon. It said...
> you are not alone
> there is victory in endurance
> when the going gets tough, the tough get growing
> perserverence creates hope
> you only lose if you quit
> don't focus on what is happening to you, but on what God is doing in you

At this point, I was 100% sure that God wanted this and I just have to have faith that He will work out the details. So, did I turn on the computer and sign up for a race? NO.
I am very blessed by the husband God chose for me. I cannot tell you how many times Matt said to me, "you have my full support to do this." That really meant a lot to me but it still didn't convince me to commit.

Two days later, I took a Runner's World magazine to work thinking, "maybe this will be the one day all year that I have a few extra minutes to read a magazine." Well, I actually had 30 min at the end of my shift so I opened the magazine. The first headline I saw read "Running on Faith" and it was referencing Christians and church congregations running together.

"OK, I GET IT...I WILL DO IT...GOD, THIS IS CLEARLY YOU...I GIVE IN!!"

The next morning I officially registered for a marathon on September 18th at Presque Isle (a place where I spent a large amount of time growing up, especially during college). I never felt such a weight lifted of my shoulders as I did when I finally obeyed my God and signed up.
Both Matt and Merissa told me, "you will likely regret it forever if you do not do this but you will never regret being obedient." I know that is completely true.

God didn't stop there. He knows me better than any other and knew that one more sign of affirmation might be a good idea. That night at our Incline service, the very first thing I heard Pastor Anthony say (after I stopped talking and turned on my ears) was, "...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" from Hebrews 12:1. WOW!! God is so amazing! Now I know that I know I am doing what God has commanded...and I'm excited about it!

More details will come later on exactly how I plan to raise money to support Bettina Weaver and STL, however with just a few suggestions from my good friend, Nicole, I've got a good platform of ideas to build from. Nicole was the first person to introduce me to running (she's a hardcore runner) and is an inspiration to me and I am very blessed to have her along side me during this whole experience!

I plan to use this blog to serve multiple purposes:
1) to record my strengths, weaknesses, feelings, challenges and triumphs...both physically and spiritually as I train and work towards this God-sized goal.
2) to keep you updated on the fundraising aspect of this and the specific missionary we are supporting
3) to reach others that may be lost, not knowing Jesus as their Savior, or just struggling in their own faith
Hopefully all of you reading this will see that an ordinary person can do extraordinary things through the power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Scripture:

~ "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." Phillipians 4:13

~ "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1
~ "..let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1b

Our Incline motto:
~ "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13b-14