We made our way from our home nestled in the woods in Alabama to New Mexico to celebrate Christmas with our families. This trip always conjures up mixed emotions. We love our families, but both my wife and I are a bit jaded by experiences here in our home town. When we arrived into town a week ago we decided that the next two Christmases would be spent in the comfort of our own home as it is way too hard to drive across the country with three kids, one of which is still in diapers and the other has a bladder the size of a dime.
But being here you feel the pull. I find myself running old areas, trying to find new ones. I catch myself thinking about how beautiful it is here. If only I didn't have to deal with the mentality of some people...but that is everywhere I go, the people that think they should be handed life on a silver platter, ones that are either afraid to or just do not want to work and give all they have to contribute to the community. Yet, those few seem to be the ones that poison places for me. Until now...
We went to church here. The Adventist church is falling down...come to find out, the Catholic church that was built in the 1600's that is a national historic site is also falling down and condemned. There was a rift in our church and though a site and earnest money was placed forth to build a new church the agendas of men took priority and the church never got built. My mind started working to how awesome it would be if my hone town had what I now have in Alabama. A campus with a lifestyle center, bookstore, church, dorms, a country life store and vegan restaurant town. Some thing to help the people here spiritually AND physically. How awesome that would be. My mind starting working to where it would go...just across the river 2 miles out of town where we could grow our own crops, a place that I worked a farm as a nine year old boy.
Through conversation with my mother-in-law I found that the site that had earnest money put toward it was not even a mile from where I am thinking of. Coincidence? I think not. He is at work here. I haven't the slightest clue of how to make it happen, but I do know that I would eat my words of "I'm never coming back..." with a smile on my face if I were doing the Lord's work. This town needs an Uchee Pines, but more so it needs HIM.
I have 24 hours for Him to tell me how to go about it, who to ask and where to find mentorship. The Across the Years 24 hour event is on the 29th, I have not been training more than 18 miles a week since Pinhoti, more along the lines of 5-8 miles meaning this event will be through faith on every level.
There are many things calling me back. People asking me about setting up races to help the mustangs that range close by. A gentleman that made my custom belt for Pinhoti has asked to sponsor me and about setting up a race in which runners would literally run with the horses through a portion of their range in a 50k. How awesome is that?
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