ad astra per aspera

This weekend I will walk/run the 5K Oceans of Mercy race I've been training for since the first of the year. It hasn't been an easy thing. At one point I got up to 25 minutes of straight running, which I was pretty proud of. In the last few weeks my training has been totally sidetracked by my health. It's about all I can do to walk the 3 miles now.

Considering this race since January has been a very good thing for me. Every time I didn't even want to walk, or every time I was running thinking I couldn't take another step, I thought of her and why I knew I could keep going.

Kristiapplesauce is the reason I began any of this race stuff. She's my friend who sold everything she (and her husband, Daniel) owned and moved to South Africa to live and work beside the forgotten and the often unloved. Ocean's of Mercy is the organization who sent her to SA.

To say things have been difficult for Kristi is a gross understatement. To understand difficult, read one of her more intense posts here. Be sure you read the last half of that post, the details about how she cleaned and touched the sick, dying woman whose family wouldn't even do the same.

Kristi and Daniel will be serving pancakes at the race on Saturday. They are back in the US renewing their visas. (Hopefully she's too busy to read my blog before the race.) Last time Kristi was back I gave her a pendant with a map of South Africa on one side and a map of Kansas on the other so she could keep both close to hear heart no matter where she was geographically. Saturday I am going to give Kristi this solid silver medallion. Inscribed with the Kansas State Motto "Ad Astra per Aspera" (To the stars through difficulty), "Daniel 12:3" is written under the star. Here is the verse from The Message:

Men and women who have lived wisely and well will shine brilliantly, like the cloudless, star-strewn night skies. And those who put others on the right path to life will glow like stars forever.

This verse was written for Kristi. Though difficult, she is living well. She is wisely living her calling with her husband Daniel by her side. I wonder if she already knows this verse? I doubt she'll forget it now. It's her husband's name simply followed by the numbers 1, 2, 3.