Porto Alegre Marathon/Celebration

You may remember that my teammate, Matt, and I have run a few marathons since we've moved to Porto Alegre. We ran in the Porto Alegre marathon together last year. It was the third marathon for both of us to complete. This year neither one of us felt really convicted to train for another marathon. We both felt like taking a rest year from marathons and get ready for shorter races.

Before I get too far into the marathon subject I realize I've never really explained our ministry to a place called the Chácara. It's a very humble farm on the outside of town where young men go to recover from alcohol and drug addiction. One of our church family members, Paulo Renato, is a recovering alcoholic and has battled and defeated his addictions at this place. He is the most humble, gentle, heart for service man you will ever meet. The love of Christ just oozes out of this man. This recovery center uses no drugs. Their weapon to fight against these addictions is Jesus and He is giving the victory.

Matt met Paulo Renato years ago when he was visiting Porto Alegre when he came with a group of Americans to teach English through the Bible. When our team moved here and began to have worship times, Paulo was an immediate fixture. He has worked for our church family as a prayer warrior, street evangelist and janitor for a few years now. It is through Paulo that we even found out about the recovery center.

Through the years our church family has helped this recovery center in different ways but it has always been in a spotty way. Some food here and there, financial help when needed to help build a dormitory, etc. but no weekly, personal committment until this past year. Matt began to feel led to go out to the recovery center each Wednesday to just be there and do what was needed. Two other women also go as well and help cook and have become mother figures to the young men. Paulo Renato also goes. Our other teammate, Sascha, and Paulo Renato led a 9 week study about sexual purity with the guys out there. It finished in March.

This is a place where you think you go out there to encourage these men and you come back much more encouraged because of your time with them. Matt does a great job of sharing about the Chácara on a blog he's made just for what is going on there.

A few months back Matt felt led to end his day at the chacara with a run. He encouraged any who wanted to join him to do so. It started off with just a couple of guys but then it grew. Soon he began thinking of forming a team to run in the relay part of the Porto Alegre marathon. You can make up teams of 2, 4 or 8 people to complete the 42 km. It's a little over 5.2 km per person. Matt formed a team of 6 guys from the recovery center and himself, and he asked if I would help him round out the team of 8.

What an incredible blessing it was for me and my family to witness what happened on Sunday. We picked up the guys at the recovery center at 6:15 in the morning. Four people piled in Matt's car and five got into our car. It was at least a 30 minute drive to get to the marathon and these guys sang the entire way.

Matt had made up running shirts for this race. On the front it had the name of the recovery center and on the back it said "It's possible."

That phrase was something I heard over and over from the guys during the race. Matt kept telling them, as they arrived, that they were running faster than they ever had before. Their response? "With Jesus it's possible!"

This is Wilson. He was the first guy out on the team and he set the pace as he ran faster than anyone else.

Matt said that the overall time of the team was about 20 minutes less than what he expected because everyone ran faster. God was glorified during the race.

I personally have never run with such ease before. Something about running with these guys had my mind focused on Jesus for almost the entire race (something that just doesn't happen with me as I tend to focus on who I'm going to try to pass next) and I barely got winded. I am also blessed to have a wife who, after almost 20 years of marriage, knows me very well. As I was about 300 meters from the finish I passed her and she "lovingly" asked "is that gray hair on your head?" Yes I have some gray hair and even though I knew she was pulling my chain to make me run faster......it worked. Isn't she great?

I really like this picture. This is Matt finishing the last leg of the race and the guys are on both sides of the road taking pictures, clapping and encouraging him as he finished. We ran into our brother, Sergio, who ran with another team.Each guy got an official race tee-shirt and a medal to go along with their feeling of accomplishing something that they had never done before. Matt and I spoke last week of a "runner's high" and how there is scientific proof that this occurs. We praised God that these guys experienced a high like this without the use of drugs or alcohol. This is a picture taken after the race where Matt was lifting the guys up and reminding them that through Jesus anything is possible. God was honored on Sunday.

After the race we all went to the church family celebration together. These guys blessed us with a song to end our time together. It was one of the songs they played and sang in the car on the way to the marathon and Benay asked if they would lead our church family in this song later in the day. They loved the idea and it was an incredible time of praising God together. There is an excitment in worshipping God when we are with these brothers. Christian, one of the guys from the chácara shared about the race and how it applied to the Christian walk as Paul explained in the Bible. Now you can see how the videos we showed at the celebration applied to the marathon as well as the race of our Christian faith.

Here is a picture of the guys at the Celebration while Matt shared their victorious day with the church family. Notice how some are proudly showing their medals.

Monday night after Sunday's race I got a call from Matt. He asked if I had seen the results of the race. I told him I had not and he waited for me to get online to check it out. I couldn't believe what I saw. The team finished in 4th place out of 13 teams!! It was obvious to Matt and myself that the top three teams were part of serious running clubs. Because of this finish, these guys will also now get trophies. How cool is that? Six months ago these guys couldn't run hardly any distance at all and now they are finishing 4th in a marathon relay. With Jesus, it's possible!

Please pray and keep praying for these men as they continue to learn to rely on God and not drugs and alcohol to guide their lives.