It was the final night of our Hopetown Kids Camp tonight in Blair Park....and we studied about how to put our faith into practice with the story of Daniel.  In our Olympic "Fit Bit" we learned about athlete, Abebe Bikila... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQ0r4L25cg.  He has quite the story of glory, tragedy, and purpose!

His story intrigued us to learn more about him because he won gold in his first marathon as an olympic alternate....and barefoot :)  Can you imagine that?!  I don't even walk through my house barefoot....I am weird about my feet.  This is also a fun part of his story....when he was told he would be running, his coach just said watch for #26 because that was the number of the fastest marathon runner to that point.  However, the day of the marathon, #26 received a different numbered bib....#185, but Abebe didn't know this.  So, the whole race he is running, passing people and looking for #26 (I LOVE THIS!)  He finally catches #185, but he can't see #26 ANYWHERE, so he determines he will run alongside #185 until nearing the end, then beat him and have to take second place to #26....haha!  Imagine his surprise when #185 is #26 and there is no one in front of him....hilarious!

I was super excited that we had a couple kids in our group who wanted to know more about salvation, that we were able to talk about it and pray with them, but my prayers for them will be that they can put some of what they learned about focus, perseverance and faith into practice.  It is hard to believe the amount of drama they have already seen in their lives as some told us about parents or close relatives in jail and gave us a glimpse into their home life.  Practice means consistency and I am really feeling challenged that a summer kid's camp in this neighborhood is not enough to be called practicing evangelism.....it was hard to walk them home tonight and have them say, "see you next year."  Maybe something can be done about that...