Tour de Faith

On October 4th I'll be biking and running in State College, PA for a cause very near and dear to my heart - Play By Faith Ministries.

When I was in college I met a fellow athlete wise beyond his years my bible study called "Athletes in Action" (maybe you're heard of it - or AIA as I affectionately refer to it!). We became good friends and we were both very close to our bible study leaders Tim & Denise McGill. Over the years we spent Wednesday nights at their house or in a little room off the gym discussing the most pressing questions of life - why are we here, what is our purpose, what do I want my life to look like? Sometimes even though bible study was only an hour I'd end up staying for two or two and half because things got really interesting and although I should have been studying, I just couldn't leave! The debates were so good! So many interesting ideas were shared. It really changed so much for me and Tim and Denise will always be special friends.

Play by Faith Ministries was a spin off organization started by Joe Rose and his Wife Ginger to do the same type of things with schools like Penn State. They work with athletes of all types and do wonderful things in the community like outreaches and lots of work with the Ronald McDonald house which helps families as their children are staying in the Hershey Hospital for extended periods of time. Sometimes Joe, Ginger, their two daughters and the athletes go visit the kids or sometimes they make meals and bring them to the families who are couped up in hospital rooms all day eating not so great food and not getting too much outside interaction!

I know times are tough right now, but please check out their website and if you feel compelled to help me raise the $200.00 total I need to raise to participate and help fund their ministry for the year, please donate. I already have me and two other people in for $20.00 flat donations so I only need seven more donations of $20.00 to reach my goal. If you'd like to help them continue on their mission of helping others, please email me and I will tell you where to send your donation - kxd185@hotmail.com. Your check needs to be marked payable to "Play by Faith" and they are a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization so every donation is tax deductible. They WILL send out a receipt after the event when you give me your address and phone number.

Every little bit helps so if you can donate $1.00, we will take it! Every last bit of proceeds will be used to support their day to day ministry operation. I can't do this stuff on a daily basis, but I always feel I certainly can help support those that do. Check them out - http://www.playbyfaith.com/ . Thanks for anything you can do! I'm praying I can reach my goal!

In other news, I'm headed to Washington, DC tomorrow night to get ready to roll on Sunday for The Nations Triathlon! It's a fun Olympic distance race and it's the day before my Birthday (Race - Sunday, Birthday - Monday) so I am excited that I get to race yet again. I'll be in the elite wave so if you happen to be watching be sure to cheer loudly! I have no idea how it will go but I hope to be able to run a bitter better than I did at steelhead (ok..I ran/walked there but whatever) so I can have a better feeling going into Clearwater this November. I'm thankful I'll get to race again and see some friends as well. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm pretty fired up and had a tiny tiny taper so we'll see!