Day 5: #SharingStreak Amy Berry

Amy Berry's Grandfather Fred Cushing Jr. and her girls the last time they saw him alive. 

Amy Berry is a dear friend who works with me here in Asheville on the Young Life staff. We run hard in life together in Asheville since we have kids that are similar ages and we love to laugh at exactly the same things.

Amy's husband Phil is the director of Camp Ridgecrest for Boys where Asher has spent two weeks of the summer for the last three years AND HE LOVES IT LIKE WHOA. 

We love the Berry's and are so grateful for their friendship.

Late last year, Amy's grandfather and the patriarch of her family passed away and it affected her deeply. She is honoring him with a donation to Inheritance of Hope and with today's post. 

Who- My grandpa- Fred Cushing, Jr.

Why- He died in November at the age of 96 and was just an incredible man- great father, grandfather, great-grandfather, business man, World War 2 veteran, loving husband and super sharp to the end.  He was a lover of learning and reading and the outdoors.

Where I find peace through trying times- Jesus and my family have helped me through my hardest times; 

How- knowing that my Hope is in Jesus and his death on the Cross and life with me now

Quote- my favorite right now: “We spend most of our lives trying to make things happen for ourselves and for the people we love. But life is not reduced to what you give or know or achieve. Nor is it reduced to your mistakes, your failures, or your sin. Life isn’t even defined by whom you love. Rather, it is defined by the God who loves you. In other words, you are not the central character—not even of your own life’s story. This is not meant to demean you; it is meant to set you free.”  From Sacred Thirst by M. Craig Barnes

And this from the Bible- Job 26:14And these are but the outer fringe of his works;

how faint the whisper we hear of him!

Who then can understand the thunder of his power?

Pump up song- phew....that's hard.  Really any Whitney Houston song like "One Moment in Time" or Mumford & Sons "Roll Away Your Stone" or "Let's Go" by Trick Daddy (that's pretty varied I'd say)

*I love that those are her pump up songs. That sounds just like me! 

This is the final donation so far! I am running every day and I would love to run and pray for you and your family. I would love to post and share tomorrow about someone in your life! MAKE A DONATION TODAY! 

Click here to make a donation to Inheritance of Hope and join in the #SharingStreak!

If you are wondering what Inheritance of Hope is all about and what kind of impact it is making: Here is a blog post from a family that JUST came back from a retreat. Inheritance of Hope is all about leaving a legacy and changing lives. Creating hope and hope for the future. It is REAL! 

Day 4: #Sharingstreak Diane Hidey

(R) Diane (L) sister Janice

Diane Hidey was my mentor throughout college. In my junior and senior year, we would meet for breakfast weekly and read books together and talk about my life and how it was maybe falling apart and what direction it should take instead.

Diane has been SO GOOD to me over the years. In fact, 14 years ago--Diane was a bridesmaid in my wedding-even though she would have much rather read Scripture or something. She is just one of those people who puts on a dress and walks down the aisle of life with you just to let you know she stands by your side.

This is what she is doing with her sister Janice. Janice has stage 4 breast cancer. She is a teacher and an incredible woman of God who has influenced countless people for Christ. She is fighting for her life and she is loved deeply by Diane and her family.

Person you want to honor:  Janice Hidey

Why are you honoring her? She's the best sister, she's the primary care giver for my Mom and she's battling Stage 4 Breast cancer

Who has helped you the most to find strength through trying times? My strength first comes from God. He shelters me and hems me in behind and in front. So I turn to the Bible for words of comfort and my friends for a shoulder to cry on. I've also found that In hard times it helps to get the focus off of me and go do something that helps others. Volunteer, give your life away to others and the burdens we have get shared with many. 

Favorite quote: "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." 

--Jim Elliott

What is your pump up song? Born in the USA--Bruce Springsteen

Thanks Diane! 

I have only one more donor to go in the sharing streak right now!

I am looking for more. Do you have a story to tell? 
Click here to donate and I will be in touch to share your story! Keep the #sharingstreak alive!  

Day 3 #sharingstreak: Andrea Reynolds

Andrea with her mother (on the left)

A post from Facebook that Andrea shared late last year. I love this! 

Andrea Reynolds is a friend of ours from Columbia, SC. She went to high school with Matt and works with my sister-in-law Mary Lane. We love her!

Andrea's mother is very sick with cancer right now and has been in a battle for her life for the last year or so. It has been wonderful to watch Andrea's love for her mother come through our friendship through Facebook. She is an amazing daughter and loves her mother very much.

She said this in a message to me about Inheritance of Hope and the #sharingstreak, "I am happy to help such a worthy cause. My mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September and has moved in with us so we can show her love and hope as well as the love of Christ. 

Going with her to chemo and watching her battle is a very eye-opening experience to this brutal disease. 

It affects so many lives and families and anything that can help those families have hope is worth our time, effort and money. Your dedication is inspiring and you don't know how many lives you touch with your determination! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!"

We have raised $409 so far for families with terminal illness. $1100 left to go and 30 days left in the #sharingstreak! Will you GO STREAKING WITH US?

Click here to join in!

Day 2: #Sharing Streak Cal Rains

(L) Me and Caroline Rains at Saranac Lake in 2010 and (R) todays run

Todays donor, Cal Rains wasn't able to get his questions back to me in time for today's post but his daughter is one of my favorite all-time Young Life friends so I can share that I am so grateful for them and their support of me running for Inheritance of Hope and Young Life. 

Caroline was in a car accident in high school during a rain storm and her car ended up in a fence on the side of the road. The fence posts went through her windshield and cut her very badly. She persevered and she is beautiful inside and out! 

I was so privileged to walk through life with her during high school and I get to see her around town now as young adult and she is so much fun. Her brother Cole ran cross country in high school and at Clemson and I get to see him now as a student at UNCA. This family means the world to me and I am so grateful to them for their support! 

I only have two more donors left in the tank right now! I need more to keep going! Want to join in? Donate today! 

Leslie Sloan's Inheritance of Hope Page

Day 1: #SharingStreak Ri Lamb

(top L)Me wearing my fathers 1982 Marine Corps Marathon shirt, (top R) my father in a foxhole in Korea, (bottom L) my parents looking super dapper at a formal military gathering, (bottom R) my Father's Change of Command Ceremony when he was the Commander of the 25th Transportation Corps in Seoul, South Korea. PRETTY AWESOME HUH?

Person you want to honor:

My husband Don. Served in the Army for 36 years. We have lived in twenty-something places together in his military career. 

Why are you honoring them? 

He is my hero. I can always trust him. He has given his life for our country and I can't imagine life without him. He is always encouraging me. He is so faithful and trusting. 

Who has helped you the most to find strength through trying times? 

Besides my husband--My children, my mother, my grandmother. And Jesus. 

How?

Having a strong faith...whenever we moved--having a strong faith gave me the ability to see how somethings would never change no matter where we were. Being an Episcopal, I knew that my parents were saying the same prayers and reading the same Scriptures I was even if I was half-way across the world. 

When my sister-in-law died, it gave me great comfort to go to a church in California and to know the service to find the same prayers and Scriptures that we have at home. It was peaceful at a time of grief. 

Favorite quote:

"Love one another as I have loved you"

Something you want others to know/be inspired by/find hope in today:

I love your running! I am inspired by the way you have run for charity. Particularly for Inheritance of Hope. By how persistently you train. How you have encouraged your children and friends. It's infectious. 

Here's a fun quote "When you find yourself spending more time worrying about your body odor than you spend on God's call for your life, then it is time to reexamine your priorities." --Bishop Scott Benhase 

What is your pump up song? 

Sweet Caroline and Forever in Blue Jeans--Neil Diamond

Want to join in the Sharing Streak? 

Leslie Sloan Inheritance of Hope Page

Hope will Endure

My friend Rachel posted on Facebook a few months ago, "I know many of you are seeing the cryptic messages being posted so we might as well tell you the news. I have breast cancer."

She went on to share the course of treatment and how it would look and what she anticipated and how her friends and husband were there for her. She said they were beginning treatment immediately and it would last until late Fall.

She is my age with two children, a boy and girl and her husband is on Young Life staff. Not to project too much but it has looked like looking into a mirror. And this mirror reflects the reality that if this were to happen to us, we couldn't afford a whole lot of fun in our lives.

And our lives are built on the reality that Jesus came to bring life and give it to the FULL. Should a cancer diagnosis change that? For us or for our children? The answer is NO! But how?

Thankfully--there is an organization like Inheritance of Hope to help solve that question.

I have started fundraising again for the Fall. I am running the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th. And I am doing a running streak (AGAIN) from Memorial Day to the 4th of July.

But I have been humbled through this process of running and running for Inheritance of Hope and I don't want to let the running streak be about me. A part of the #rwrunningstreak with Runners World is that you are supposed to post a picture to Instagram daily with info about your run.

Last years Run Streak was completed on a run with my sister. 

I would like to use the opportunity to tell the stories of donors to Inheritance of Hope. Almost everyone I know has been impacted by cancer. Additionally, one of the reasons why I am running in the Marine Corps Marathon is that my father is retired Colonel from the Army. My heart is strong in the Armed Forces. If any donors would rather talk about how their family has been impacted by military services and/or loss, I would love that.

This platform is for YOU. To share and share how grief through cancer, fighting, serving and persevering has actually created HOPE. Because God doesn't want us to sit still in our grief, he helps us to endure until we have hope.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this, "There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time, it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connects to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God is no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve, even in pain, the authentic relationship. Further more, the more beautiful and full the rememberences, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as thorn, but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain." 

So starting Monday, I will share the stories of pain and triumph. Rememberances of love and treasures. It will be a Sharing Streak! As long as I have donations, I will share. $50 donation to Inheritance and your story will be told. And our stories have to be told. The loves of our lives need to be remembered and cherished. And hope will endure.

Donate to Inheritance of Hope

Craving Grace

The New York City Marathon is only 25 days away. 

Last year I was posting like a maniac about the marathon. It was all I could think about and all I was focused on. 

This year is different. 

I think it has to do with how the race went last year. I learned so many lessons from how I ran that race but the most important one was that I finished. Even though I felt like I was going to die. And I trained like an animal. 

So this year, I am still training. Very hard. Diligently. With focus. But with joy. With laughter. With friendship. Not solo. And it isn't as much about how I am hoping to finish but how I hope to run the race. It seems altogether different. 

I believe that is what Jesus wants us to know in life too. It isn't about the finish, but about the life we get to live now. I read this quote from Abraham Lincoln and it has meant so much to me in this time of training, 

"In the end, it is not the years in a life, but the life in the years." 

That rings so true to me for this marathon training but also for the families that we are raising money for with Inheritance of Hope. 

They don't have years to have life together. They have to live right now. 

It puts life in perspective. And we need to be graceful with each other and ourselves. To take care of what we have and who is around us. To not miss the moments by trying to reach some obscure finish line that isn't really there.

The last three months have been amazing. I have loved the training, discipline and deep friendship that has come from running for hours alongside my best friends. When you have little guys at home, there is almost nothing you won't do for two uninterrupted hours of chatting with your friends. So running it is! I mean-we have run y'all. Here are the numbers:

Since August 1st we have run 285 miles, in 50 hours, 34 minutes. And burned 29,694 calories.

This has been work, but it has been so much fun! 

And I've gotten to see the better side of me and to hear more clearly about how I've been made to give my life away so others can know how precious they are. 

I'm so grateful to have met my fundraising goal due to the generosity of others. But Jenn and Amy still have a ways to go. I'd love to encourage you to give money to their funds. 

Please remember, this isn't money going to us, it is going to families that are suffering with terminal illness. It is easy to give to these families. It is simply that we are fundraising on their behalf. 

Their race against illness is MUCH harder than this silly 26.2 marathon that we are running. We run because they can't. They are doing what they can to simply love their families while they can. 

Help us give them the trip that they can't during one of the their final years. Just look around. You know someone who was just diagnosed with cancer. Or who has been fighting for a long time. They can't possibly pay for a vacation. These families need a break. 

$25 or $50 will add up quickly. I promise! Even if you don't know Jen or Amy, go donate. It will be the biggest blessing to them AND YOU. 

Here is the link to Amy's page. 

Here is the link to Jen's page. 

We run in 25 days y'all! 

Life Is Not a Story About Me

Reflecting back to the finish of the NYC marathon last year, it is such a whirlwind of emotions. I was so grateful to be finished. To have crossed the finish line and be alive, to have so many friends and family thinking of me that day and to have Jesus alongside me. 

I truly felt His presence and knew that He wanted me to know how much He loved me and how much life's race was like a marathon.  Highs and lows. Long miles and quick miles. Happy or sad. Sick or feeling good. He would be with me. It was the most beautiful thing in the world. 

And I was really sad because I just wanted to run and be triumphant and kill the race. I wanted to do everything I had trained to do. It just didn't happen that way. I physically couldn't do it. I immediately started looking up races I could run to prove to myself how awesome I was at running. It was ridiculous. Matt encouraged me to slow down and take some time to let this race just rest within me. 

I've run since NYC. I've run a few 1/2 marathons and then I ran at the Inheritance of Hope 15k in Brevard at the end of April this year. It was absolutely beautiful. All the money from the race went to families (again) suffering from terminal illness and many of the families showed up. 

We started the race and I felt like my friend Amy Patwa was with me the whole race. She and I just got to talk about what it would be like to run in Heaven. And how it is now to run with Jesus here. And how hard but good it is to run life with eyes of faith and not by sight. And I just ran. And I ran through farm fields and by streams and I felt like I was floating. Turns out-I won! First female! 

It was amazing! I've never won a race before and that race and prayer time prompted a whole lot of other big moves in my life. 

I ended up leaving my job of 10 years later that month. And I've been trusting Jesus that He has big plans in my life and in others lives as we tell people about hope and the good things to come as you step out in faith. 

I know my life is not about me. My story is never going to be about me. Thank goodness. God has much bigger plans than that. I am really glad that He wants to use me in the lives of others though. 

And right now He has called me to run with Inheritance of Hope in the NYC Marathon this year and I'm so pumped to get to play a part in lives of families that are dealing with terminal illness. 

If you'd like to help, here is the link:

http://inheritanceofhope.org/sponsorpage.html?eventid=66&regid=2972&rowid=2972  

Final Marathon Pics

I finally downloaded the actual marathon pictures so I thought I would share them with you.

There is nothing like giving yourself a month to digest this huge thing you did. Look back at the pictures and realize how incredibly awesome it was.

Yes, I felt like crap for 8 miles. But that was nothing in comparison to the greatness of the overall marathon. I can't wait to do it again.

I finally understand why you would want to do this again and again. And also why you would never want run again. But I have learned so much just in reflection. How could you not want to try that again? Just to learn what you are made of and how God wants to whisper to you that you are His FAVORITE just cause you said yes to this big epic thing?

Let's go. Only 340 more days until I can get back there!

I'm going to do my best to narrate what I think my thoughts were at these points during the race:

Mile 7/8: FEELING AWESOME AND TOTALLY KNOW THE CAMERAS ARE THERE. I haven't seen one person I know, but I feel like the world is cheering me on. 

Somewhere on First Avenue. I just ran straight past Matt and the kids. Didn't get to say hi and it crushed me. This has to be around mile 17. Just a short 10 miles later and I feel like death has crept inside of my back and is starting to get ahold of me. I know I only have 10 MORE MILES TO GO. Wasn't a great time in my life. Head down and trying to work through it. 

I want that photographer to die. You can see my tummy starting to bloat. It's not a good sign. BUT--EMPIRE STATE BUILDING IN THE BACKGROUND. So that's pretty awesome. 

Just more miles. This race is endless. 

The start of mile 18/19. I walked up that bridge. Then-NO LIE, I saw the photographer and it was downhill, so I started running. 

We are coming down 5th Avenue. The barricades are up and it is the final three miles. It is close and SO FAR. I just ate an orange from someone on the street. In New York City. WHAT AM I THINKING? Which is what I then thought over and over in my head as I dry heaved in Central Park bushes just a mile later. Cool.

My sister and Matt were staked out on Mile 25 right next to the photographer. Like could touch his camera. This was the best I could muster. I felt the darkness closing in. I told Matt I was going to die. Shellie (my sister) shook a cow bell at me and Matt told me to die later. LOOK AT MY EYES. I'M DYING. Like Lance Armstrong at the end of the Tour de France on Alp d'Huez. This was ridiculous.

This was my final mile. I felt like I was alone in NYC. It was so cool to think about being escorted by the police. Check them out. FINAL MILE.

AWW YEAH. Profile Pic to beat all profile pics.

But there's another photographer and I'm 500 yards from the finish. So pumped. Imaging Jesus and all the saints welcoming me home. LOOK AT EVERYONE'S FACE! JOY! EXULTATION! 

FINISHER. I didn't die! I LOVE THIS! 

I puked behind that blue thing. And felt a whole lot better. As you can tell. 

I really do love running. LOOK AT MY FACE! I felt the embrace of so many people, Jesus and the joy of having accomplished this race. It was so incredible. 

 This was truly one of the most joyful things I've done in my life. I can't wait to do it again.
I'm trying to figure out my race schedule for the Spring, but you can be sure that I'm running more and more than ever.

It doesn't have to be running. But find your passion and let Jesus speak to you deeply through it. Let others see Him while you are loving what He made you to do it! GO. NOW! He will help you find the time, money and ability if He wants you to do it.

"There are many creative ways to cultivate interest in the Gospel by displaying Christ's love. Often the most natural expression flows from doing the things we love." --Becky Pippert (Out of the Salt Shaker and Into the World)

Recovery

I'd say I'm recovering pretty well.

I've gotten the sweetest little sercies in the mail from Inheritance of Hope supporters (Mike and Ike's, fun socks, a gift certificate to get a pedicure, an hour long massage!) and then today for work, we had to go mountain biking. Tough life right? 

Our newest client has recently built an incredible mountain biking trail right outside of downtown Brevard and they are in need of a signage system to let visitors know where they are in the trail plus what they are seeing and why it is important.

Today was the day to go ride the trail and see the project first hand.

We rode/hiked the first half of the trail. It is REALLY TOUGH. Like crazy hard. Uphill. We got so excited we actually riding our bikes that we missed our main turn (this is why they need signs) and we ended up riding/hiking our bikes an additional 2 miles.

After a disastrous downhill decent that resulted in a dead-end and a long mile long hike with bikes STRAIGHT BACK UPHILL, I declared this to be the worst thing I have ever done. Which is hard to declare since I almost died of dehydyration three days ago. But it really was.

That little dip in the middle? That's where we went straight down and then STRAIGHT BACK UP. UGH. 

We finally found our way and had the most exhilarating, amazingly beautiful and thrilling bike ride I've ever had. We descended over 1000 feet in elevation in a little over 2 miles so it got rowdy with hairpin turns, switchbacks, waterfalls, riding in the middle of fallen trees and did I mention that is absolutely beautiful here in WNC?

I am SO tired. But it was SO worth it.

Love this life!