Love Is...

Wrapping up tread on

Leah — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:43:49 +0000

So tomorrow is the last day of the Tread on trafficking fundraiser. I have been terrible about updating here, but faithful in getting out there and getting at least 3 hours of exercise a week. It has really been sinking in for me, during all of this exercise time, as well as our days spent so largely outdoors at this time of year, how much freedom I have. When exercising to raise money/awareness about sex trafficking, I couldn’t help but relish in the gift of having the health to exercise, the time to do so and the true privilege of safety for myself and my children. These are all things I am so grateful for. It is impossible to imagine the horror of a life in the sex trade, especially for children. I am thankful for the opportunity to spend these past weeks having God soften my heart and increase my awareness towards children (and the families of the children) who are involved. It is something that just won’t leave me alone and I am cannot help but pray that more and more awareness will continue to be raised and enough people will join together under the strength and love of God so that there will be no more children in the sex trade.

Tread on – week 2 and 3

Leah — Wed, 25 May 2011 05:25:50 +0000

We have had some great weather the past two weeks (mosquitoes aside) and have ben taking lots of time outside to walk and bike ride. I can’t help but feel so thankful that I am able to have this luxury of being with my children and doing this together.

Here is my update:

Monday: 45 minutes yoga

Tuesday: 30 minute bike ride

Thursday: 30 minutes walk

Friday: 30 minutes hike

Saturday: 30 minutes yoga and lots of yard work

Sunday: 15 minutes yoga and lots of painting – for a total of 3 hours

Monday: 45 minutes yoga

Tuesday: 30 minute bike ride

Wednesday: 30 minute walk

Friday: 30 minutes yoga

Saturday: 60 minute hike (and about 4 hours planting the garden – lots of sweaty digging!) for a total of 3 hours 15 minutes

Although I keep planning to go running, it hasn’t been working out so far but I have been loving my David Swanson yoga DVD – 15, 30 and 45 minute options so hard to make an excuse that I don’t have time – a really great option for busy times. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far

Continued update for Claire

Claire — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:48:10 +0000

Well this week (Week 4), I have hit a bit of a lull. I know it is only Tuesday – but I missed my 1 hour swim training and going to swim training always sets my week off on a good start. I was feeling discouraged this morning. I was going to write this blog post to remind myself why I’m doing this and that I want to do this! I opened up my blog and didn’t feel like writing.

Then I saw my shirt. My Tread on Trafficking shirt I ordered when I started this. It came in the mail on Friday. I was excited to see it this morning and even though it is a bit snug (hopefully the exercise should help with that!) I put it on right away. And I remembered that my freedom to be able to exercise or not exercise is a real gift. It is a freedom that the kids caught in slavery do not have. And I want to keep using my freedom to make a difference in their lives. Please join me in that, if you haven’t already. You can make a donation to Love146 here:

Donate Here

WEEK TWO

Monday May 9 – 1 hour swim training

Thursday May 12 – 30 min Ashtanga yoga

Friday May 13 – 30 min bike

Saturday May 14 – 1 hour walk

TOTAL WEEK TWO – 3 hours

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WEEK THREE

Monday May 16 – 45 min yoga; 1 hour swim training

Wednesday May 18 – 30 min yoga

Friday May 20 – 30 min bike

TOTAL WEEK THREE: 2 hrs 45min

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TOTAL SO FAR – 8 hours 25 minutes

Leah’s work for love

Leah — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:26 +0000

We had a beautiful week for our first week of the tread on trafficking fundraiser. It felt so hopeful to be out and about exercising to help others in the beautiful spring weather.

One of the main ways I am planning on fitting in my exercise time in is by walking/bike riding to get the mail with my kiddos. I live in the country so it is about 3/4 km to the mail box. If we bike ride we complete our whole subdivision loop which is just under 3 km. On Saturday we also participated in another fundraiser walk (2.5 km) and it made me think we should wrap up this tread on trafficking with a walk and picnic for whomever wants to come.

So this was my time for week one:

Monday May 2 – walk with kids 20 minutes

Tuesday May 2 – 30 minutes of yoga

Thursday May 5 – bike ride with kids 30 minutes

Friday May 6 – family bike ride 30 minutes

Saturday May 7 – family and friends walk – 45 minutes

So 2 hours and 35 minutes only because I am not counting the fact that I raked lawn/dug new vegetable beds/hauled dirt for at least 16 hours on Saturday and Sunday as it would go too much over my 3 hours per week – but hey if you want to count that go ahead

Claire’s work for Love

Claire — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:13:41 +0000

Thanks for checking in on the Love146 tread on trafficking project!

A couple of people have asked what exactly Love146 directs their resources toward. Great question! Here are two links that explain their two main focuses: prevention and aftercare

prevention

aftercare

I kicked off my exercise hours to raise money for Love146 with a lovely walk followed by freeze tag with my family. I told Josiah that by going on this walk, we were bringing attention to our family and friends about kids who are stuck in bad situations that need a lot of help. I told him that every time we go for a walk we’ll write it down on the computer and help raise money for those kids. As soon as we got home he said, ‘don’t forget to put this walk on the computer so our friends and family will know to give more money to help those kids.’

3 hours was quite an increase to me in the area of exercise because I had been doing a whopping 0 hours/ week before this. Sore arms, sore legs, happy heart!

Remember if you want to donate along the way you can visit our team page here

Or you can give at the end of June by donating a certain amount/hours we put into it.

My pledge hours for the 1st week of May:
Monday May 2 ; 30 min walk with family; 1 hour swim training

Tuesday May 3; 20 min yoga; 20 min bike

Friday May 6; 30 min bike

a grand total of 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Thank you for helping make a difference in the lives of young children around the world!

LOVE 146 TREAD ON TRAFFICKING

Claire — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:26:49 +0000

HI!

I assume you stopped by because you want to know how our campaign to raise money and awareness for LOVE 146 is going. This site will be where we keep you posted on how many hours we are logging each week in exercise so that you can keep track of how much you will be donating to LOVE 146.

For me, this is an area of need I have ignored for a long time because I’ve been too afraid to look into how to help. I feel sick thinking of all the kids trapped in sex slavery and so I avoid the topic. In the past year I’ve realized that ignoring it is not the response I want to have. I want to get behind great organizations that are fighting it and giving kids their lives back. www.love146.org is one of those great organizations.

I am pledging 3 hours of exercise/week for the next two months to raise money for love 146 to go along with their “Tread on Trafficking” campaign. For me some of that time will be on my own (swimming, running, yoga) and some of the time is going to be walking with my kids. While I won’t go into detail with my kids, they will know that they are raising money for kids who need a lot of extra help by walking with me.

I hope that this will inspire you to contribute to the cause in some way or another.

If you want to donate on behalf of our team, you can go here.

Peace & love,

Claire

With all your heart, soul and mind…

Tammy — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:40:17 +0000

What does it mean to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind’?

How do we LOVE God?

Verses, quotes, wonderings are welcome. I don’t have much to share. However, I am reminded about an analogy: our love for God and Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet. A beautiful love story (yes, also tragic). A love that is consuming and powerful. The ’til death do us part’ journey of two ‘star crossed lovers’.

When I contemplate God, my heart is full. I want to follow him, I want to trust him. When I forget God, I live for myself, become concerned with selfish desires and worry. Yes, this love is powerful. A love that moves me to love others, and live a great story. How about you?

I just can’t get away from it

Leah — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:47:10 +0000

Love. This crazy love thing that is God that is. And how little I understand about it. So while I have known these verses since I was a little girl, these are the verses that are on my mind these days…

(Matthew 22:34-36 for context)

³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

And these which I am trying to figure out just a little bit how one goes about doing this…

³⁷Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[b] ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[c] ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Love

Claire — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:16:16 +0000

I know it’s a little quick for a new verse to ponder, but I saw this one and couldn’t resist. I’ve been reading through Luke as I desire to learn what it means to follow Jesus. I will share two verses, but the second verse is what I will meditate on for the week. Please, if you have any thoughts as you look at this verse, won’t you share them here?

“35 Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. 36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.” Luke 6:35,36

Some of the things Jesus says are wild. Really wild. I mean can you imagine lending to friends without expecting to be repaid? He says, lend to your enemies without expecting to be repaid. What the??

If I want to be like Jesus, who shows us what God – our heavenly Father is like, this tells me that I must be kind and compassionate to the unthankful and the wicked. Wow. wow. wow. I am not always very good at being kind to the non-wicked. What a wild kind of kingdom Jesus is proclaiming.

Anyone want to join this wild love revolution with me?

Different…

Tammy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:02:43 +0000

The other day, in a quiet moment, wondering what does it mean to ‘follow me’, the word ‘different’ would not escape me. When I think of my own faith walk, following Jesus, has looked very different over the years. When I think of my brothers and sisters, and their walks, they all are different. I felt as if Jesus was reminding me that following Jesus will look different, for me at different stages of life, and for each person who carries their cross…and for each person spiritually seeking who God is.

Why would we all look so different if we are all following Jesus?

“If any of you want to walk My path, you’re going to have to deny yourself. You’ll have to take up your cross every day and follow Me. If you try to avoid danger and risk, then you’ll lose everything. If you let go of your life and risk all for My sake, then your life will be liberated, healed, made whole and full. Listen, what good does it do you if you gain everything-if the whole world is in your pocket-but then your own life slips through your fingers and is lost to you?” Luke 9:23-25, The Voice.

Because in following Jesus we are being who we were truly created to be. In denying ourselves, we find ourselves. We will stop going with the flow of the world, instead we will be awakened with a new calling, to follow Jesus, to find real life. To be part of the true kingdom, with Jesus as our king, restoring, healing, and bringing peace and grace to the nations.

I had a direct experience with this lately. I had ‘signed up’ for a 4 day weekend with some girl friends, without my kids. From the day I said yes I felt uneasy about it. I wanted to go, I felt I needed to go, but I didn’t want to apart from my babies for that long. We weren’t ready for it. In peaceful moments I’d decide not to go, to stay with my children, in distressed moments I wanted out and wanted to get away. So now I have chosen not to go on the weekend away. It was hard to deny myself, but in the midst of it, I am being true to my real heart. I am responding to my motherly instincts that sometimes get clouded over with desires to escape. I am embracing my cross at the moment, my mission, as mom.