Dig Deep

I saw this man. He was tall, strong and had a great sense of pride when you looked at him.

As I walked in this unfamiliar place I felt like I didn't belong there.  What was I doing I told myself.  It took you an hour to get here and then you work Saturday and the run is the next day. Your going to be tired.  Why did you sign up for this run?

The competitiveness then sank in my soul, then my confidence was destroyed.  I managed to look around the shop, find my way to the booth to where I would pick up my packet and then headed over to look at the shops merchandise.

There was Gilbert.  I didn't know who this Gilbert was or what he went through.  Somewhere online I saw a video of him and a group of  Burundi children walking to get water.  No shoes. They would walk several miles each day to get contaminated water for their families.  It made me cry.  As a mother you would feel the same way.  I couldn't imagine my little Emily walking miles to get us water.  And not clean water so it would be worth the effort, but dirty water filled with bacteria that the kids often get sick and die.  My entry into the race guaranteed one Burundi person with clean water.  They dig wells. We run.  It's called Run For the Water and is hosted by the Gazelle Foundation.  Easy enough. I do 10 miles all the time.  Racing has never been a competition for me.  I run to Live. I run to Pray. 

 Every ounce of my soul wanted to meet this person.  I even asked the volunteer there as I pointed to him if that was indeed Gilbert.  Of course I knew it was him.  My boldness shrunk, I felt so intimidated, so mundane compared to this magnificent person.  I rehearsed in my head what I would say to him.  It went something corny like, I think your doing a wonderful job.  I even thought about sharing my faith with him.  Little did I know, he is a devout Christian. God tugged at my heart several times, but I failed to approach him.  Till this day, I'm still disappointed in myself.   I think  it might not have mattered what I had to say that day, but I do know that tomorrow that my presence alone says it all.

"For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land." Ezekiel 36:24

I did a little research and found out Gilbert wrote a book about the Genocide he survived (in fact he was the only one to survive).  I won't go into detail about what happened.  You can read it for yourself.

Pick up a copy of his book at Amazon.com, I know I'm going to .

Until Next Time,
Eat Organic!
Eat Gluten-Free!

Jennifer  ( I will be eating Pizza and Whataburger Tacitos tomorrow. Yummy!!!!)