Colorado has been a really great time for
us both relationally and organizationally. We are staying with the Thomas
family in Arvada a suburb of Colorado. We met Joel Thomas in Haiti and became
friends immediately. He was one of the first people Barry went running with in
Haiti in the very early days of his preparation to run across Haiti. Its been such a pleasure to stay with
the Thomas’s and we are loving getting to know Julie and their children Isaiah,
Bella, Zion and Zach.
Last Monday Barry and Joel Ran the ‘Boulder
to Boulder’ just under 70,000 people took part. The boys finished the 10km in
43 minutes even though they started behind 35,000 people they ended up
finishing in the top 1100 runners. A huge effort considering how many people
they had to dodge and weave around.
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| Joel and Baz rocking the new Run For Life Haiti Tshirts |
We have had some strategic planning
meetings for the run, while it was really positive it did highlight just how
much work is left to do before Barry begins. We may end up staying in Colorado
longer then we planned to get it all done as it was pointed out to us that its
much easier to do from the US with good internet and phone etc. We will see how
things play out over the next two weeks.
This week we also launched the ‘Run for the
Run’ initiative, it’s the co run part of what Barry is doing that we have been
talking about for months.
All you have to do is pick an event, run,
walk, ride, tri anything you can think of, get sponsored and the money goes
towards the total we are raising for the Heartline Maternity Centre in Haiti.
We are so excited that others can get involved. Follow this link, register and
start getting sponsors.
As I right this, I am currently sitting on
a plane to New York City. After my last trip its not my favorite place on earth
but I am really excited at what will happen in the next 5 days. I will be
attending Book Fair America, and the Digital Book Fair. I will be hosting a
round table discussion on “Universal Access to Information” I am really looking
forward to meeting with lots of publishes that I have on my most wanted list
for the digital library we are creating. A few of you will probably be a little
confused by my last paragraph so I will take this opportunity to share briefly
about what I am working on.
We are building a digital library for the
developing world we have called it ‘Library For All’ and soon you will be able
to visit our website and find out all of the details. I will let you know when
its live. I can’t take any credit for the idea it was totally Gods idea and he
has imbedded it on my heart.
We witnessed first hand the knowledge
poverty that pervades Haiti and other developing countries. Most schools have
less than thirty books and these books are so precious they are not allowed to
leave the school. Imagine if the entire span of knowledge available to you was just
thirty books! How different would your life look? How different would your
future prospects look? Pretty scary thought to me when I would have trouble
even narrowing down my favorite books of all time to just thirty.
I have been working on this now since June
last year and I am really excited at the doors that are now opening. We have a
long way to go but we are well on the way. The expo holds a lot of potential
meeting opportunities and I am excited at what will happen.
This is our new logo designed by Anna NG so
grateful for all of the hard work she has done. If you want any design work
done I can thoroughly recommend her. Her website is http://www.annakern.com.au
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| Our new stamp logo that fits perfectly on my business card that looks like a library card.
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Some of you might be wondering ‘hang on,
you were working on a solar project’. I truly was up until a few months ago.
The library was my ‘side project’ I allowed myself nights and weekends to work
on it but God has made it very clear that now is the right time and it has
become my main focus. I am actively praying for someone to take over the solar
project in Haiti and make it happen. The technology is really exciting and has
so much potential. I know the right person or group will come along I will just
keep praying till they do.
If you would like to receive our prayer
email please click here.
Be part of Barry’s Run across Haiti and
participate here.
