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Pat's Virtual Run Across America
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- North America
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Location Date California 1503702000 Arizona 1500073200 New Mexico 1490914800 Texas 1486166400 Louisiana 1463698800 Mississippi 1457740800 Alabama 1456012800 Florida 
1453507200 -
Location Date Pensacola
1453507200 Fort Walton Beach 1452902400 Seaside 1452297600 Panama City Beach 1451606400 -
Location Date Sat, 30 January 2016
1454157780 Sat, 23 January 2016 1453555620
Greetings from Ensley, FL & January Charity Reveal
Run Stats:
Day: 30
Miles Completed: 122.05
Miles to San Diego: 1978
Avg Miles/Day: 4.1
Playlist Favs: FM Static, Willow Creek CC (B. Hybels) podcast
Bible Verse of the day: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16 (NIV)
Running Reflections: Well, am coming to the end of the first month of this journey. I'm pretty pleased with the mileage completed this month and that my legs are holding up so far. Based on miles completed, I've traveled north through Pensacola and have made the left turn onto I-10 heading west. Today I'm somewhere along I-10 south of the small town of Ensley, FL. It's 64 degrees and sunny in Ensley today. Ensley is really a suburb in northwest Pensacola off Hwy 29. It has a population of about 20K, a median resident age of 33.9, and some of the top 10 restaurants include: Dinner India Grill, Taco Rock and Founaris Brothers (greek, pizza). Ms. Victoria Burton is the current teacher of the year at the Ensley Elementary School and I'd like to give a big shout out to all the teachers and para-professionals - what you guys do is incredible, you make a huge difference in the lives of kids everyday!!
Today I am going to be sharing some inputs from two leaders who have had a huge influence in my life in recent years - Bill Hybels and Bob Goff.
While running this morning, I had the chance to reflect upon the state and direction of our country and our world while listening to a podcast from Willow Creek Community Church, a large church in Chicago led by Senior Pastor Bill Hybels. The podcast was from their Jan 9/10 services and Bill was interviewing CNN analyst David Gergen to unpack "How the World Has Changed" and included discussions on ISIS, terrorism, the upcoming presidential election and hope seen in the millennial generation. It was a great talk and I'd highly encourage you to check it out. You could either look for the willow creek podcast and listen as I did or you can watch a streaming video of it on the Willow Creek website. Just go to: www.willowcreek.org, go to the "more messages" tab on bottom right, then hit the "archive" tab on top menu bar, and finally click on the "January 9/10 Bill Hybels" square on top right. This might sound hard but, trust me, this talk is worth the effort.
January Charity Reveal: When I think about others who are trying to make a difference in the world, Bob Goff comes to mind. Bob is the author of the bestselling book "Love Does", a book he wrote so he could donate the proceeds to fight for human rights and opportunities for kids around the world. The book is an 18-time New York Times bestseller that has been a true source of inspiration for me as an example of how to live out love on a daily basis. Bob originally founded the group Restore International in 2003, and they have been active in building schools, safe houses and orphanages in places around the world including Uganda, Somalia, Nepal, India and Iraq. They have recently decided to merge Restore and Love Does together and information on who they are, what they do, and volunteer support opportunities can be found on their website: www.lovedoes.org.
I recently got some correspondence from them indicating that their biggest need right now is funding for their newest school, located in Northern Iraq. The school is for refugee kids who fled with their families from ISIS and settled in the mountains in an area called Soran. They started the school for them so their lives wouldn't be permanently interrupted. If it wasn't for this school, most of these children would be forced into the adult workforce at an early age and could never continue their education. Their website has a short video clip on the Iraq school (and their other projects too). I've included a picture of Bob and some of the kids at this school.
After discussing it with my family, we are choosing to make a donation to the Iraq school for the mileage completed in January. I'd encourage anyone who reads this to check out this group and consider how you might be able to support them or another group like them who are trying to make a difference in our world.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for those who have submitted comments and encouragement. Let me know if have any questions about the talk and charity mentioned here or if you'd like to join me on a run - either in person or virtually.
Cheers,
Pat
Run Stats:
Day: 30
Miles Completed: 122.05
Miles to San Diego: 1978
Avg Miles/Day: 4.1
Playlist Favs: FM Static, Willow Creek CC (B. Hybels) podcast
Bible Verse of the day: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16 (NIV)
Running Reflections: Well, am coming to the end of the first month of this journey. I'm pretty pleased with the mileage completed this month and that my legs are holding up so far. Based on miles completed, I've traveled north through Pensacola and have made the left turn onto I-10 heading west. Today I'm somewhere along I-10 south of the small town of Ensley, FL. It's 64 degrees and sunny in Ensley today. Ensley is really a suburb in northwest Pensacola off Hwy 29. It has a population of about 20K, a median resident age of 33.9, and some of the top 10 restaurants include: Dinner India Grill, Taco Rock and Founaris Brothers (greek, pizza). Ms. Victoria Burton is the current teacher of the year at the Ensley Elementary School and I'd like to give a big shout out to all the teachers and para-professionals - what you guys do is incredible, you make a huge difference in the lives of kids everyday!!
Today I am going to be sharing some inputs from two leaders who have had a huge influence in my life in recent years - Bill Hybels and Bob Goff.
While running this morning, I had the chance to reflect upon the state and direction of our country and our world while listening to a podcast from Willow Creek Community Church, a large church in Chicago led by Senior Pastor Bill Hybels. The podcast was from their Jan 9/10 services and Bill was interviewing CNN analyst David Gergen to unpack "How the World Has Changed" and included discussions on ISIS, terrorism, the upcoming presidential election and hope seen in the millennial generation. It was a great talk and I'd highly encourage you to check it out. You could either look for the willow creek podcast and listen as I did or you can watch a streaming video of it on the Willow Creek website. Just go to: www.willowcreek.org, go to the "more messages" tab on bottom right, then hit the "archive" tab on top menu bar, and finally click on the "January 9/10 Bill Hybels" square on top right. This might sound hard but, trust me, this talk is worth the effort.
January Charity Reveal: When I think about others who are trying to make a difference in the world, Bob Goff comes to mind. Bob is the author of the bestselling book "Love Does", a book he wrote so he could donate the proceeds to fight for human rights and opportunities for kids around the world. The book is an 18-time New York Times bestseller that has been a true source of inspiration for me as an example of how to live out love on a daily basis. Bob originally founded the group Restore International in 2003, and they have been active in building schools, safe houses and orphanages in places around the world including Uganda, Somalia, Nepal, India and Iraq. They have recently decided to merge Restore and Love Does together and information on who they are, what they do, and volunteer support opportunities can be found on their website: www.lovedoes.org.
I recently got some correspondence from them indicating that their biggest need right now is funding for their newest school, located in Northern Iraq. The school is for refugee kids who fled with their families from ISIS and settled in the mountains in an area called Soran. They started the school for them so their lives wouldn't be permanently interrupted. If it wasn't for this school, most of these children would be forced into the adult workforce at an early age and could never continue their education. Their website has a short video clip on the Iraq school (and their other projects too). I've included a picture of Bob and some of the kids at this school.
After discussing it with my family, we are choosing to make a donation to the Iraq school for the mileage completed in January. I'd encourage anyone who reads this to check out this group and consider how you might be able to support them or another group like them who are trying to make a difference in our world.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for those who have submitted comments and encouragement. Let me know if have any questions about the talk and charity mentioned here or if you'd like to join me on a run - either in person or virtually.
Cheers,
Pat
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