WHAT TYPE OF PERSON ARE YOU?

A little over a week ago I was challenged with this question, and it has stuck with me ever since.  Every year our students get the opportunity to step out of the school setting and participate in what we call Service Emphasis Week (SEW).  Every week through out the year we have an assembly on Monday mornings for the secondary school.  The two weeks before SEW we usually have assemblies that help to prepare and encourage the kids before going out to serve. 
  This year the assembly was lead by Steve Larmey.  He is a missionary here in Tanzania along with his wife and 4 kids, working with Young Life.  He talked about three types of people that are out in the World these days.  They are the I have to, I want to and I get to people. 
  It made me think about my attitude and how I function on a day to day basis.  To often I think about things in a "I have to" mentality.  I have to get out of bed in the morning when the alarm goes off.  I have to go to work.  I have to teach in the hot, humid weather.  The list can go on and on of the things that "I have" to do. 
  Steve challenged us though to think about things with the "I get" to mentality.  I get to go to school and teach every morning.  I get to teach kids to appreciate exercising, even in a place that is hot and humid.  I get to serve God in Tanzania and be apart of what He is doing in this part of the World.  As I served alongside the kids from Saturday to Tuesday the following week I found myself really thinking about the "I get to" mentality.  It was amazing how much it could change my attitude just by thinking about life in that way. 
  I challenge you to go throughout your day and think about things that you "get to do", because of where God has placed you.  It is easy to fall into the I have to or I want to thought pattern, but I have realized how much more joy I have throughout the day when I focus on the day through the perspective of "I GET TO".  I am thankful for this challenge that was presented to me before I GOT TO go out and serve for a few days with an amazing group of students....see the next blog for more on that.


WHAT DO YOU GET TO DO TODAY? 

KILIMANJARO HALF MARATHON WEEKEND

Last weekend I had the awesome opportunity to travel to the town of Moshi, Tanzania and check something off my bucket list.  For years now I have dreamed of running a half-marathon, but figured that after surgery on my legs it probably would not be the smartest thing to put on that many miles.  Then one of my friends told a group of us she was training to run the Kilimanjaro Marathon and she would love to get a group together to go for the weekend.  There was a little talk in those early months about possibly training for the half, but I soon gave that up thinking there was no way I could do it.  I figured I would settle for running the 5K fun run.  Long story short about 4 weeks before the race I decided I could do it.  I had been running 3 or 4 times a week, but really had not been doing long runs.  I decided to go out and see if I could do an 8 mile run and if I could do that I figured I would give the half-marathon a try.  I did that and the next week I did a 10 mile run, so I was ready to go  It was an amazing run.  The first 6.5 miles were uphill, for the most part it was a gradual uphill, until the end.  My goal was to run the whole thing, but as much as  I tell myself I was still running at mile 6 it probably looked like a walk as I struggled to finish the last part of the uphill before the turn around.  It was an extremely fun and beautiful run. One of the highlights was seeing all the amazingly fast Kenyan and Tanzanian runners.  It was a little crazy to have the fast marathon runners pass me as I was on the downhill part of the half-marathon.  It was incredible to run through small towns with adults and kids out cheering for us as we passed.  Also enjoyed just running through the beautiful countryside.  It was a little crazy to run up to a water station and have a person try to hand me some Coke to drink.  I probably gave them a bit of an odd look and proceeded to keep running.  They did also have some water, so I was thankful for that.  I can't say I wasn't warned about the Coke hand-outs, but I was still a little taken back by it. :)  Overall it was a fun weekend with great friends, amazing views, and cooler temperatures.  See some pictures from the weekend below....



Our view of Mount Kilimanjaro the first morning.

The town of Moshi

Pasta dinner the night before the race

On our way to register for the race on Saturday

Lauren was already off and running the marathon!
This is all of us before running the half. Ali (far left)
and I went into this weekend planning on running the half-marathon.
the other 4 were planning on doing the 5K, until
breakfast on Saturday morning the two girls on the
right decided "why not try the half-marathon for fun" :)
So they convinced the others and THEY DID IT ! 

The marathon runners who passed me out as I ran the
half-marathon. 



I FINISHED :)

The group of runners plus Ben who took all the
amazing pictures along the way.

The celebration meal...all you can eat meat!