Getting by with a little help from some friends

I, like many of you grew up in the era where the power of a picture on a television screen became every kid who didn't want to eat his vegetables worst nightmare. You need to eat that, there are starving children in ______ (fill in country of choice) The late night pictures of bloated bellies and emaciated children was generally daunting to me, and remains so to this day. In reality, there is no universal solution to the turmoil of the third world, there will always be impoverished conditions, there will always be corrupt governments and there will always be starving children and that is frustrating. It feels too big. I don't mind big, but like any challenge, I need to break it down into manageable chunks. A marathon is never 26.2 miles. It's four 6.5 mile runs in a row. An Ironman isn't 140.6 miles, it's 22 buoys, four 28 mile bike rides, and four 6.5 mile runs. Sometimes a marathon is 26 aid stations, conveniently spread 1 mile apart. And so on.

To me there has to be a way to make a colossal problem manageable.

A few years back I was part of a small congregation that pooled every man, woman and child's resources and purchased a bore hole for Naygobia, Uganda. The clean source of water was a welcome relief to the town. However, confusion ruled as, generally if a group digs a well it belongs to the group. But this well was sponsored by the church for the benefit of the entire town. One muslim man was so impressed that he donated a piece of land so that we could build a medical center. Out came the little soup cans again, and a few months later a medical center was built and stocked, one brick and one band-aid at at a time. The medical center led to a sewing center (to teach young women a trade) which led to uniforms for orphans to go to school, which led to a school being built by the carpentry center (to teach young men a trade) and the village was transformed. Now, they are a network of 3 villages which share resources and information. It all started with the fresh water of one bore hole. You can read the story here.

The colossal problems of one HIV infected, war torn, impoverished village in Uganda were broken down into manageable pieces and a small group of simple folks gave their coffee money, and their dinner money and their hearts to bring about change. A bond of friendship has formed over these years between the folks in Uganda and the folks in St. Louis Park, MN and that to me is truly the greatest part.

Big problems take smart, compassion driven solutions. So here is one possibility for you, my friends.

As a trainer at the Y, I can take the $60 ish dollars I'd earn training three clients for an hour and put it into my World Vision fund. But, what if, instead of adding $60 I raffled off three-60 minute training sessions to be used for Personal Training or Pilates Reformer sessions with me? I can multiply my resources.

So, if you want to help dig the bore hole, please consider buying raffle tickets! Each ticket costs $10. The winner will receive a PT package of 3, one hour sessions to be used at the Ridgedale YMCA (in home training is a possibiltiy) The winner does not need to be a member of the YMCA and the package can be given as a gift to a friend or relative. Just click on the link by my "Beautiful Feet" and mention raffle tickets in the memo section of your donation

The raffle will be held Sept 15th. But buy early, if I see sufficient interest, we may be adding additional prizes to the pool.

Thanks for your support! Big 20 mile run this weekend--whoo hoo 20 miles