http://toughmudder.com/event-photos/
Follow Team Quiverfull as we train to run the Tough Mudder December 1st, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. We are raising money for orphans and the pastors who care for them with Hopegivers International in India!
Jay Holland is associate pastor at Covenant Fellowhip Baptist Church in Stuart, Florida where he shepherds folks of all ages. Jay has a passion to support Hopegivers International. We hope you will join him in bringing hope and healing to orphans in India.
In my twenties I was pretty confident of my ability to survive and thrive in nearly any situation. I had attended a military school, gone through mountain survival and evasion training, and led several mission trips to inner cities and third world countries. I knew I couldn’t do everything; I just couldn’t come up with a very big list of what those things were that I couldn’t do.
Until I met Danny. He was an Indian pastor trained by Hopegivers’ Bible Institute. A bright, intelligent man who was also my age, his government had given him academic scholarships up through a Masters Degree in Commerce. Upon completing his degree he submitted to God’s call to bring the gospel to his home village. Danny was a single man who cared for his two elderly parents, a sister, and two orphans while planting and pastoring three churches despite not even owning a bicycle. Danny invited me to preach in his village, which I was honored to do. He put me up in a hotel that was an hour from his village. Initially I was a bit perturbed; I wanted to identify with him. When I reached his home I melted. The six of them happily lived in a thatched roof stone house half the size of my garage. I didn’t melt from pity, but from humility at my arrogance at thinking I could even do for one night what he does every day.
Danny is exceptional, but in my experience with Hopegivers he’s quite normal. There’s Veer, raised as an orphan by Hopegivers since childhood, fluent in five languages, who chooses a hostile city of over one million to plant a church, grows a Christian school to several hundred students, and takes in over a dozen orphans to raise with his wife alongside their own children. There’s Asing, a beautiful fifteen year old who watched the murder of her parents tribal warfare, who took the pain and turned it into love, becoming the surrogate mommy for 30 other orphan girls. There’s Samuel, the son of the founder of Hopegivers who spent three months in jail and survived multiple assassination attempts from the radical Hindu’s who hate how Hopegivers is wrecking their caste system.
My children are big fans of superheroes. They look with awe at Ironman, Batman, and as my two year old calls him, “big old’ Hulk”. I’m a big fan of superheroes too. My superheroes are Hopegivers.
So there’s this race that’s coming up in December called the “Tough Mudder”. It’s between 10-11 miles and includes 25 military grade obstacles with names like “arctic enema”, “electroshock therapy”, and “firewalker”. Looking at the pictures, the obstacles are well named. I’ve been known to be a glutton for punishment, so when my friend learned about the race, he called me up and asked if I’d like to run it with him. We decided if we’re going to do something this foolish, the least we could do was get as many people to join us as possible, and attach some type of value to shame us into following through. The only thing I can think of to motivate me to swim through 50,000 gallons of ice water, run through 25,000 volts of electricity, and slosh through one mile of waste deep mud is the orphans and pastors of Hopegivers. I’ve got a team of friends who agree.
We’re running through this mud and filth to support those that walk and ride through rivers, climb mountains, live in slums, and embrace persecution to go preach the Gospel, to reach and rescue those in need of it most. We will press on through a “tough and muddy” race to raise support for those who press on in the mission to preach Christ where He is yet to be named.
The slogan for the Tough Mudder is “probably the toughest event on the planet”. Maybe some people there will actually think that. But eight would-be warriors will laugh, grimace, and groan their way through the day knowing that we’re just representatives of those who live every day on a level of dependence that we can’t fathom.
If you don’t know about Hopegivers, I think you should. And if you don’t live in a Story big enough to embrace fire, ice, mud, and pain, I think you should.
The story is Jesus’ story. And Hopegivers is a great part of Jesus’ story. Be a Hopegiver! Follow Team Quiverfull. Join our team and help spread the word!
A second generation orphan, who is now serving as a pastor
photo courtesy of Jay Holland
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