Training season...

Training season.  At the beginning of the year, many of our programs are in the training 'mode'.  Everyone is busy hiring and training new staff, training program staff on new curriculum, training staff on leadership and management of their programs...everywhere you look some sort of training is going on!

This past month I have had the opportunity to go to all three of our bases.  In Foya, the CLP (literacy program) spent a week training new trainers and facilitators as they prepare for so start their classes.  It was great to see our CLP management staff teaching, leading this great group of people through the different areas of the program; literacy, numeracy, business skills and Bible study.

CLP staff working hard during their training...

I walked past the CLP training to the next meeting room where another training workshop was being conducted.  This one was a training workshop on photography..."what?" I know sounds weird right?  But there are methods to our training madness! Every program has a responsibility to send pictures from the field (every program has a field camera) to Joni our Communications Manager.  Joni then collects these photos along with stories about the project or the people in the photos to send to our SP office and donors.  These are crucial.  This is our opportunity to SHOW and TELL our funding offices and donors the impact their investment is having in people's lives and for the Kingdom of God.  But we can't just send poorly taken pictures!  They have to be a certain size for the communications departments at SP and they need to be good enough to use.  Joni was being sent a lot of pictures, but not many of them could be used due to their quality-so, she has been giving our program managers and coordinators a one day workshop at each of the bases on how their camera works with all the settings, how to take good pictures and what information is needed for impact stories.

Joni teaching her 'area'

It was fun to watch the staff practice taking pictures of each other in different settings.  It was even funnier when Joni took every one's memory cards and put the pictures they took on the projector to 'grade' each others photography skills!  

I left the base to go and see the WASH training that was happening at a nearby church.  CMP and CDF staff that work in our communities in the area of WASH were also present to learn about our new WASH programming.  Having other program staff present helps with consistent messaging to our beneficiaries.

Taya and her staff at their training

The training didn't stop in Foya!  Last week Joni did another photograph workshop at our base in River Gee.  Here, in Monrovia as I type this our Program Development staff are training our program managers on monitoring and evaluation, activity planning and reporting just to name a few of the training topics!  

Building capacity within our staff is key for the success of our projects.  But it's more than that-we are investing in our staff so that they can continue the good work that God has started in them. For some the training is just for one day-but the skills they learn will last them a lifetime.  For others training is a week long, very intense-but at the end of it they are ready to head out to the field to implement their programs with confidence!

In running, training I believe, is more important than the race or run that you are training for.  Training is hard, very hard, it's the runs and work outs that take place in the early morning hours, when you are tired and don't feel like running.  These past couple of weeks our SP London marathon runners have been training hard.  I mean they are in the THICK of marathon training-anyone who has trained for a marathon knows what I am talking about.  Those long runs of 16, 18 and 20 mile runs.  The long week day runs-anywhere from 5-7  miles.

Two very tired runners training...

 

It's during training, when you realize how far you can push yourself physically and mentally.  It's during training that you realize that every long run is a run into new 'territory' and new mileage you have never run before.  It's during this training that you start to realize how strong you really are and that you can accomplish the goal set before you.  I love training-sounds weird but the journey that one goes through during training is amazing.  In every training season I learn something new about myself-how much more I can do how much more I can push through obstacles and focus on my goal.  Paul talks about this in Philippians chapter 3:12-14. Go look it up-great verses on perseverance and focusing on the goal that is ahead of us.  Training is all about this-pressing on-forgetting what is behind-and pressing onward to the goal that God has called us.

 Great quote by a great guy!

 

Pray for our staff who are going out, that they will trust the training they have received and be ready to do the job God has called them to do. Pray for our marathon runners that they will press on through their training as it gets harder. So that at the start of the London marathon they will be confident and trust the training and hard work and long hours they have put in.  To reach a goal or to do our jobs, training is necessary-but we have hope that when we do the work we can trust God to see us through to the finish.

 

For more information on how you can encourage our marathoners and give towards our SP Liberia hospital project and other projects please go to: 

 

http://runtolove-liberia.blogspot.com/2013/11/running-to-love.html 

 

It would be a HUGE encouragement for them if you gave! 

The Ultra-experience...

It's done. 60km/37.5 miles done.  Yes, we did think it was going to 70km/43.75 miles, but when we took the exact mileage from where we wanted to start and end we were pleasantly surprised it was 10k shorter!  I have been trying to think how to put into words about the whole experience...but I am at a little bit of a loss for some reason.  

 Our first sign left by our crew...

So, I will give you some facts to get us started along with plenty of photos along the way.  Hopefully, this will help me capture some of the emotions, highlights and low points of the very, very, long day...

Facts about my first Ultra-marathon:

• 5 months of training = approx. 500 training miles

• RUN DAY:
• 3 pairs of socks and shorts and 3 shirts, oh and 2 pairs of shoes.
• 21 Gatorade's topped with the electrolyte powder of one electrolyte capsule.
• 18 large frozen water bottles
• 5 power bars, 12 GU's and 4 packages of Cliff blocks, salty crackers and homemade peanut butter balls of goodness!
• 1 scale and 1 portable blood pressure gizmo...(medical term)

  

Early morning BP check

• 1 MPH/nurse to run the BP gizmo and keep track of our weight...

Checking in at mile 10 with Keren our stellar nurse

• 6.5 pounds lost 

Weighing in at mile 20

• 1 med kit with ibuprofen...administered by the above person

BP time...

• 8 or more support crew 

This is just what I remember...I am sure there was a lot more because the trucks were full and stuff was scattered everywhere. 

Here are some of the highlights of the day:

• A great dinner and night friends place in Voinjama.

 

 Night before sunset before the rains came!

Relaxing the night before with Audrey...

• Answered prayer for RAIN!  It is dry season-it rarely rains this time of year-but we needed some rain to help with the terrible dust.  When the thunder clapped just before bed-we were overjoyed of the miracle that was taking place.
• 5:22am weather was perfect and cool-sky was overcast-again, answered prayer!
• No stomach issues...trust me this is a blessing there are no porta-potties on the road!
• Meeting our crew at mile 19 great to see the boys and everyone else.

 Support crew getting signs ready

 

 Crew taking a break...Isaac and Steve are getting hot!

 

Kendell ran his 12 marathon training miles with us-great support

• The signs that the crew made and left on the side of the road.

 

One of the many signs left by our crew!

• Sasa and drum playing by our crew whenever we got to the truck for food/fluids.

 

 Taya and her Sasa/drum band...

 Heading out for another 5km before our next pit stop

Soon to be Marathoners...

• Seeing Kou on the four wheeler in Kolohun along with missionary friends cheering us on.

• The moment we realized we had run a marathon and had entered the ultra-zone.

 

Joni joined us for her 12 miles

 

Still smiling! 

• Realizing we were 5km away from Foya

 Our last crew stop..

 Kendell telling us we were 2.4km away from Foya..

 All we wanted to do was sleep...

 

Getting ready to head out

• Seeing staff on the road as we entered Foya

 Let's go!!!

 Alisa found some sort of 2nd wind!

One foot in front of the other...

• CROSSING THE FINISH!

Of course there were some low points...not many but still, come on-you are going to have some over a 10 hour period of time right?!

• PAIN-feet pain, left IT knee pain.

Ice on the knee...

How much farther...

• HILLS-Ironically, going up hill didn't hurt my knee, downhill was a different story.  I got up to a 8/10 for pain-not a fun place to be.

 

Up the hill in the company of a chicken.

Actually, that's it.  Just two, and two that we knew were going to happen-there wasn't any surprises.  Running this far you are going to have pain I don't care who you are.  After training on the road for the past 5 months we knew the hills would be tough-and they were!   

 

Our final stats...and no my heart rate was not 10beats per min. at the end! 110..

Overall, it was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget.  I am so grateful to God for a perfect day, the rain the night before, no serious injuries, no dust, hardly any traffic and our AMAZING crew that took care of us every single step of the way.   I am sure I will write more about this experience, but for now I hope the facts, pictures and some of the emotions of the day give you an idea of the journey.  When I think about running a marathon now, it seems like it's not that far anymore! HA!

Joni put all the video clips into a mini-documentary and at the end she interviewed Alisa and I and asked: "Would you do it again?"  There is a slight pause and then and the exact same time without any pre-planning our answer we both reply "YES!" and burst into laughter.  That's what it is all about-looking back at the journey, God's faithfulness through the ups and downs and still wanting to do it all over again...

Adjusting...serioulsy?

I am sure many of us have heard someone say "God has such a sense of humour!" As you chit chat over a latte at Starbucks or in the church foyer. It could be about how you accidentally bumped into someone that you haven't seen in years, who you had 'just been thinking about' and BAM there they were!  God is so fun like that eh?  Or the couple who are about to finish their adoption process to receive a child and BAM they get prego!  LOL! Don't worry...I am not pregnant...not sure how funny I would find that :). You know what I am talking about.  But then there are times, at least I find, that it's more of a 'hardy har...sooo funny' (insert thick sarcasm) or even an 'are you kidding me' (insert troubling gaze to the sky...)

Well, in case you are wondering where I am going with all of this-first go back and read my last blog post.  You know the one about "adjusting with Grace" then come back and start reading this post.  Ok, you done?  Let me start by quoting myself from that last blog...

"I am glad that I am starting the year with a long run that will make me practice what I preach that will lead me to His grace."

Little did I realize that it would be more than just a long run that would test me to practice what I preach!  Of course the passing of David has been a huge adjustment, but I can say that God has given us all grace and comfort to move forward. One of the reasons I was looking forward to being back in Liberia was to be with our SP team during this time of grieving.  Well, God's timetable was a little bit different than mine.  The first major adjustment was the amount of flight delays and cancellations due to weather that kept many of our staff arriving as planned.  At the time when we all just wanted to be together and see each other-we had to wait.  For some it was just a few days for Joni it was a whole week!  Yeah, I would give myself a 5/10 on gracefully dealing with all the delays. But finally, we were all together-now time to plan for our big run!

The reason for flight delays...

Or maybe not...my running mate Alisa, came down with a terrible stomach bug-I mean this bug was having a party in her tummy!  She was down and out for two days-the week that we were supposed to attempt our 70km/44mile run from Voinjama to Foya.  The decision was easy, postpone the run until healthy.  This was probably the easiest adjustment-there was no way we were going to do this run with one of us not at 100%!  Still, we had to adjust-picking a new date that was not easy, we are both pretty busy people :) We also adjusted our training plan to add a few more weeks no prob bob.  New date: Feb 9th...pending any adjustments...  I would give myself a good 7/10 for this one.

Voijama to Foya road...we are still coming for you!

The last major adjustment (there are little ones everyday but I am used to those :) is the recent resignation of one of our program managers that works closely with me.  Rachel has been our CDF PM for the past two years and has done an incredible job-I am so thankful God brought her to us!  She has been offered a great job and we are proud to send her with our blessings.  But, we have to adjust again-to find someone to fill those big shoes and also adjust to not seeing a great co-worker everyday.  I would give myself a 9/10 on this one, mostly because we always encourage our staff that if they have an opportunity to further their career we want them to take it.  Also, I know Rachel has left the CDF program in great shape.

And then there is Kendell...with the London marathon 80 some days away-he has been suffering with plantar fasciitis.  So we have had to adjust his training program a bit.  It has been frustrating for him and trust me nothing is more frustrating to a runner than a nagging injury!  However, he is taking care of it and after taking a week off he is back running small small.  I think the adjustment has been harder for him than me-as I have been injured before and know that you can come back and still get the job done.  For that, I give myself a perfect 10/10 :)

Good point...

All of these big adjustments were in the first week of being back.  Isn't funny how God works that way? (again insert sarcasm).  The words I wrote in my previous blog seem to be 'slapping' me in the face and I will admit at times I forgot about that big bowl of grace. I have been drawn to a very simple verse- John 14:1.  Jesus is comforting His disciples, He has just told them about how He will be betrayed and denied by them and instead of getting mad at them or giving up on them He states:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.  TRUST in God, TRUST also in me." (John 14:1 NIV)

BAM! Simple truth, from the mouth of our Savior.  Trust that bowl of Grace, trust the One who fills that bowl everyday for you and I.  My heart was troubled, I won't lie, but this simple verse read over and over has once again has my heart soaked in His grace.  I either have to believe on this or stop writing blogs on practicing what I preach.  Isn't God funny that way? ;)

Adjusting with Grace...

As we enter into 2014 and look back on 2013, many of us have had to or will have to make some expected and unexpected adjustments. I had to adjust from running in +30C weather to -17C on snow covered trails (with the odd deer passing by!). Some of these adjustments were successful, some a little more painful-but if there is one thing that I have learned this past year-it is how to adjust with grace.  

My new running trail...sharing it with deer!

I have not always been willing to adjust with grace-no, at times I resist not wanting to adjust, "Why must I always be the one who has to adjust?", I whine.  In our projects we have to adjust to bad roads, unpredictable breakdowns, staff sickness and beneficiaries not always cooperating.  I am very proud of our staff for adjusting when we had to-many times exemplifying grace that only God can provide.  

Adjusting to running in the cold and snow...

However, the hardest adjustments came in the form of loss. In early Spring we lost one of our CDF's (Community Development Facilitators), suddenly to sickness.  James was a great worker, engaged with the community and had a true heart for his work and for Christ.  A couple months later, we as a family lost one of our security guards.  Our house has four security guards that have been with us since 2005 when we arrived.  David got really sick and passed after fighting a month of sickness.  He too was a strong man of faith-it was heartbreaking to tell my boys that their 'uncle' had died.  The final adjustment that I am still hard to adjust to-is the sudden loss of our finance officer David MacDonald-a fellow Canadian who died of a heart attack over Christmas holidays. Again, as a parent, the hardest thing to see is your kids try to deal with such devastating loss.

These blows to our heart are the hardest to adjust-never mind with grace.  I was reminded over the holidays (by my amazing sister-in law) that God gives grace to handle every day. I visualized it as a huge bowl brimming to the very top full of grace. Available for us to draw on at anytime. He knows exactly how much we need for that day-and it never runs out, the bowl is never empty. And if we use some of it-the next day it's full again. He soaks us with his grace when our tears flow, when we are angry and ask difficult questions and when we wonder how we can keep going on.

You see, it's easy to adjust to the good things, like a new plane this year that has made travel a lot easier for all of us, new families and staff that have joined our team and how God has faithfully supplied us with resources to keep doing what He wants us to do!  Oh yeah, grace is flowing easy when things are going smoothly, when everyone is healthy and when the roads are clear.  I am sure all of us look back at 2013 and remember the sudden adjustments that were great and those that were painful.  But God's grace is there, everyday, that big bowl full to the brim just waiting for us to dip our cups in.

2014 is starting with an adjustment without David our finance officer, our friend.  It is not going to be easy-but I know I need to adjust with grace, or it will be a long year!  Plus, I know David wouldn't want it any other way :)  We have three SP staff members training for the London Marathon-for Kendell and Joni it will be their first-trust me they will have to adjust!  And I know there will be plenty of unexpected adjustments that are just waiting to jump out of their boxes in the next 12 months.

Many people make resolutions, to adjust their lives for the better, to change.  But I want to challenge you that when those life altering adjustments come this year, dip into the bowl and let His grace adjust you.  In a few weeks I will run the farthest I ever have-and throughout that 70km/44miles there will be plenty of adjustments that I am going to have to make. I am glad that I am starting the year with a long run that will make me practice what I preach that will lead me to His grace.

Running Tired...

I am tired.  All of our programs work on a January-December cycle so we are nearing the end of another year of hard work.  It seems this time of year I need more sleep and find myself yawning more than normal! When I was up country last week I could see it in our staff too-everyone is moving a bit slower, many of our staff are getting sick and everyone is trying hard to push through this last month.  When I came back home I could see it in the staff here in Monrovia too-even my boys are tired and looking forward to a break from school!  This is the time of the year where the rubber meets the road-can you push through and finish strong through the exhaustion?

How I feel...

 What I need to remind myself...

 

Yes, there is still a month left of trainings, programming, reporting and assessments.  There is still work to get done-and I can't give in and start shutting down.  Sometimes to keep moving forward we need to take a look back and see what has been done-how far we have come, to know that the finish is getting closer!  

 Looking in the review mirror to see how far you have come-helps us push to the finish.

It's like when you are running and you are so tired-the end is in sight but all you want to do is literally crumple on the road and sleep on the ground.  But, when you think about your training, how far you have come and how you will regret quitting when you are so close to the finish-you can't help but to keep running-no matter how tired your legs are.  

 

The last couple of trips to projects I have had the opportunity to see many of the amazing things that God has allowed us to do this year-the lives that have been changed and the hard work our staff have put in.  Here are some highlights (photo's by Joni Byker and Theresa Blankers):

Well technician Ju and community members with their new well

Community Development Facilitators (CDFs) Andrew and Henrietta in Ngalhun 1 where they live teaching Bible and health lessons.

Literacy classes-teaching women to read, write and do math.

Amara from our sheep and goat program distributing animals to community members.

Cpt. Roy filling up the chopper with Christmas Shoe boxes-taking them out to the jungle to...

kids like this little girl! :)

It's time for the final 'kick' in our race to the finish. It's time to see how much work has been done, to see God's faithfulness throughout the year-and now kick it up a notch to finish strong.  In Hebrews 12:1 the end of verse says "...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." It's a great reminder to keep on the road that God has us on-persevere not matter how tired we are!

Right now I am in the middle of training for an ultra-marathon.  No, it's not a sanctioned race-but something that I have wanted to do for a while.  Run farther than a marathon.  So in January, co-worker, friend and fellow runner, Alisa and I are going to run from Voinjama to Foya.  Anyone that is familiar with this stretch of road knows that not only is it 43.75 miles/70km-but it is very, very hilly!  One of the biggest differences between training for a marathon and an ultra is the back to back LONG runs.  For example-last weekend while in Foya, our training schedule called for a Saturday run of 3 hours followed by a Sunday run of 3:40min. It's long, slow running so I don't get caught up in how fast I am going it's about time on my feet and finishing.  In those 2 days of running I covered 33 miles and burnt over 3300 calories in 6:40 minutes of walking for 3 minutes running for 12-whew!  Our longest back to back runs are a 4 hour run followed by a 5 hour run at the end of the month.  The idea is to get your body adjusted to running when you are tired, when your legs feel like jelly and you mentally have to find a whole other level of motivation.  After a long Saturday run, I soak in a cold bath, eat and drink as much as I can, nap and try not to think about running again the next day!  But you know what?  My body is adjusting-the training is working and just like work, even though I think and feel like I am tired I actually can keep pushing and finish stronger than I thought.

Mile and hour who knows what on my long Sunday run...

I may be tired going down hill to the finish-but there is always someone else with a bigger load heading up hill that is just as tired!

I am so thankful for all the amazing things God has done through our projects.  It has not been easy, but He promises never to leave us-He is with us until the very end.  It is up to me to keep moving forward, find another gear, start my final 'kick' and not give up when the finish line is so close.