Day 69

My time: 37:14

So, interesting story, I had this really weird dream last night that I don't remember at all, and when I woke up I was convinced I had forgotten to blog last night. In a blind moment of panic I pulled up this website within seconds of waking up. Needless to say, I was very relieved to find that was not the case.

6 days left!! We're so close to the end, now is the time to donate!!

~Haley

Day 68

I wrote in reverse :)

Before and After

My time: 43:50

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (Galatians 6:9, 10 NIV)

Donate today! 7 more days!

~Haley

Day 67

My time: 42:08

I have been so extremely blessed in my life. I've never suffered anything extremely tragic. I have a great home. Plenty to eat and drink. A wonderful church. A loving family. The most stress in my life is from school, but I have a great one. Good friends, a supportive youth group, a great Sunday School class. Pets. A comfortable bed. A nice neighborhood. A full closet. 

Other people don't have those things. It breaks my heart to see people all over the world suffering, whether it be from hunger, slavery, dehydration, sickness, abuse. And that doesn't even cover it. I may not be able to give to every cause I find, but I can do what I can for this one. I'm trying to raise awareness so people will see the need and help.

There are 8 days left. I'm still going to take donations after this ends but I KNOW we can reach that $1,000 mark by Tuesday when the running ends. I'm counting on you guys, and I'm not the only one-just look at the need! You can help do something about it. Just click the donate button right now.

~Haley

Day 66

My time: 35:22

9 days.

And LOOK AT MY TIME!!! That's the fastest I've gone in a long time!! It was nice and cool this evening and I was feeling a lot more relaxed and prepared. 

 9 days left. And I'll bet you know at least 9 people who you haven't told about this project. Send them and email or a text! And ask them to donate! I know we can reach $1K!

~Haley

Day 65

My time: 39:31

It's the final countdown. 10 days. I'm so amazed I actually made it this far.

 Well my time is somewhat improved. I was really hoping that I would see amazing results in that my times would get a lot better, but really, I've stayed within the same range of times all summer. And a lot of that is because I'm not running with anyone. I always forget how hard it is to run by myself until I actually do it.

10 days. Come on. Please donate if you haven't yet! And tell as many people as you possibly can, I want to end this project on a good note. If we get a lot of people to donate, maybe we can reach $1,000. That would just make it even more worth it. Not that it isn't already. 

~Haley

Day 64

My time: 43:52

I miss running in the evenings. When it's cooler. And not muggy. Or the mornings are nice too but that's kind of my fault for not wanting to wake up. I had to run early today because we were supposed to go to the city and this post is late because we just got back.

...I'm going to attribute my slowness to the weather.

Why don't you guys motivate me and donate?

~Haley

Day 63

 

My time: 42:28

A couple of interesting things have happened to me today.

First of all, you'll noticed ran significantly earlier today. This morning I mysteriously moved from my bed to the couch, and I'm not quite sure how. Then I was visited in a dream soon after by a man who told me it would probably storm later and I needed to run early. (You know, this could've been my dad telling me this as I was half awake. But still.) Not wanting to take chances, I decided to go ahead and run before 8:30 P.M. 

Unfortunately though, I didn't actually wake up until past noon, almost one, and I didn't start running until 2:30. So although it was overcast, it was still hopelessly muggy and hot. 

THEN something else happened. 7 laps around my neighborhood is 3.5 miles, and I run that route about 98% of the time. This time, somewhere around the 5th lap, an older man that was getting his mail asked me how far I was going and I told him and he nodded. Then my last lap I was so hot and tired and going really slow and he came out with a cold water bottle and gave it to me to drink. So I paused my workout for a second and drank it. He asked me what I was running for and I told him and he was just very encouraging and thoughtful because I was so thirsty and hot and I really needed that water. So thank you and God bless you. That was the nicest thing that's happened to me in awhile.

Will you give someone something to drink today? It only takes a few minutes to donate.

~Haley

Day 62

Before and After

 

My time: 38:53

Slowly my times are going back down...thank goodness.

Yesterday while doing my nightly bible study/devo (I use the Devotional to End All Devotionals-I highly recommend it.) I came across a little section in my bible that I'm going to share because I really liked the ideas. (I use the NIV Quest Study Bible For Teens, published by Zondervan)

It was titled: "I'm in a prayer rut. How can I pray in new ways?"

"Here are six suggestions:

1. Journal your prayers. Like the psalm writers, write out questions, heartaches and struggles-not just your requests. Don't forget to journal praises too. And let your creativity show by writing poems or song lyrics or a letter to God.

2. Take a prayer walk. Walk around your neighborhood and pray for the family in each home you pass. Or take a prayer walk on the sidewalk around your school.

3. Pray over your calendar and schedule. Got a test coming up? Pray for peace of mind. Pray for the players (both sides) in Friday night's game, Ask God to bring Christians to your winter youth retreat.

4. Pray over the news. When you read or hear about a troubling or tragic event pray for the people involved. 

5. Personalize the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Take each sentence or phrase from this well-known prayer and write it in a way that directly applies to your life.

6. Be quiet. If prayer is a conversation (which it is!), then you also need to listen in silence. As you listen expect God to tug at your heart, stir your conscience or help you realize something you need to do or change."

I do some of those, but some of them were new to me. I have some other prayer suggestions of my own. I learned this one from the camp I went to recently: pray the cross in every class. Pray for the person in front of you, behind you, and on each side of you. You could apply that almost anywhere you go, not just in school. Something I personally do is subscribe to a prayer newsletter. Every week I am sent a list of prayer requests that I take about 5 minutes to pray for. The one that I use is NAMB's Prayer Connect Newsletter. (And if you visit their website, check out these other prayer resources) Another idea I got from camp is to get a yearbook and pray for a row a week-or daily-for each person individually. Something else you could do is just find a list. I know radio stations like KLove and Air1 have prayer requests on their websites. You can submit one or find people to pray for.

I know another great idea is to pray for this project! Pray that God will touch the lives of the people it serves and pray for those at the organization. And pray that He will bless it to raise even more money to help more people. And if He leads you to donate, please do!

~Haley

Day 61

My time: 40:42

For some reason my times slowly got worse and now I can't seem to get under 40 minutes. That means I have about 14 days to improve them if I want a personal record on my last day. Which is kind of my goal. 

Here is a verse for you today! This came from Air 1's (the radio station) verse of the the day.

The words of this verse are just beautiful to me. "Pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap". The more you give, the more you get back. You can almost apply that to anything thing in life-take sports for example. The more you train, the better you become. 

Would you like to give today? There's a huge opportunity to do that right here. Even if the blessing promised in this verse doesn't appear right away, you will have the satisfaction of knowing someone was helped because of your gift. 

~Haley

P.s. I wish I could say I was creative enough to invent that tribal pattern on the sign myself, but I actually took inspiration from this:

Day 60

My time: 40:58

Well at least my time is a little better...

I'm SO CLOSE to being done. 15 days away. And yes, I messed up again and had two separate times. Also! I was going through pictures last night and decided to make a scrapbook of my summer. I'm going to do a page about the project. I'll post a picture on here when I'm done!

So..anybody notice the new total today?! $715.00. That means we've realized enough to build a new well and provide water for a whole village. That's huge. Through your funds you are helping make people's lives easier by making water more accessible.

We can still do better! Please donate today!

~Haley

Day 59

Before and After

My time: 42:31

Look at how awful that time is Let's meet Bella. Bella is my pesky, overly-energetic, cute little Jack Russell Terrier. She got so excited when I put my shoes on today and I couldn't bear to crush her little puppy soul by not taking her with me. As obnoxious of a runner as she can be. 

For some reason, this animal is a perfect runner when my dad takes her on his, like, 6 mile daily runs. But with me? No. She has to pull at the leash and sniff at Every Single Object in a 10 Foot Radius. Of course, maybe I was just running slow and she thought she had plenty of time. 

Who am I kidding, OBVIOUSLY that's not what she was thinking. She was doing on purpose to slow me down, of course. 

:)

I'm only about 2 weeks from being done with this project! I want to see a big number when I get that total update in a few days! Go on, scroll up and click the little Donate tab. It only takes a minute.

~Haley

P.s. By the way! I know I have two separate time things on there. It is because Haley can be very klutzy and accidentally stopped the workout after a lap and a half while trying to check her time. So yeah, I had to quickly start a new one in the middle of the run...

Day 58

My (our) time: 43:17

My good friend Taylor ran with me today! I've known her for quite a long time. Our parents are coworkers and we went to elementary school together! So a big shout out to her for running the whole 3.5 miles with me! (She may or may not have come in a few seconds before me..)

Unfortunately, as you may be able to tell, my iPod has been misplaced. I hope to have found it by tomorrow. Somewhere between my bed and the living room I set it somewhere I can't remember, so I had to make do with my phone stopwatch for today. 

Read yesterday's post for information on the total! Like I said, probably Monday or Tuesday it will be updated! In the meantime, please donate! It doesn't take long!

~Haley

Day 57

Before and After

 

My time: 39:46

Today I am feeling much better! I'm still sick, but I took some medicine and I can actually breathe like a normal person now. Haha. 

Today I decided to clean out my bathroom cabinets. And like any good blogger, I figured out how I could make that interesting enough to write about. See, as I go through my cabinets I realize just how cluttered I am. All the useless junk is brought to my attention and thrown out. (For example, all the hair accessories from when I went through that phase at age 5). The good stuff I use and need, I organize. Jesus kind of does the same thing in our lives. When we invite him into our hearts, he brings all the bad stuff to our attention and he encourages us to get it out. Otherwise our lifestyles get cluttered with all the junk keeping us from a true relationship with Him. 

I've been told some of you are wondering why your donations are not showing on the total (I know, it hasn't been changed in a month) I emailed the organization today and am expecting an updated total Monday or Tuesday-ish. Don't worry, if you got an email in the form of a receipt, your donation has been counted, I just haven't been notified yet! :) Want to make it even higher for when I get it?

~Haley

Day 56

Before and After

My time: 43:24

It seems my cold has moved to my chest and was getting worse but it's night now and I'm feeling a little better. Really I'm fine, just really congested. It made running somewhat miserable, but hey, if it raises the money for these people that's fine with me. You'll notice my times are worsening, I'm sticking to a slower run/jog until I start to get better. 

For today, I thought I'd just share a link! It's just a resource for in-depth studying of the bible. My Sunday school teacher found it and our assignment was to go through 1 Timothy chapter 1 this week. I'm on verse 3...oops. It really is pretty good, just very time-consuming. I can't even use that as an excuse because I have quite an abundance of time. Here's the link.

Can you take some time and donate to help someone out today?

~Haley

Day 55

Before and After

My time: 43:51

Well, today I felt a little better, but not by much. To top it all off, it was super muggy outside.

Today we had some serious rain, and the power actually went out for about 20 minutes. It was still probably the most relaxing day I've had in awhile. I was actually home on a weekday! (Monday and Tuesday I was working volleyball camp) 

I'm fortunate to have days at home with clean water at my disposal. Others are not. The women have to go and collect it daily. They can be so much better off if you donate! We are so close to our first well!

~Haley