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[by Jo Kien] RunNat 2010
by ActsYWAs
Uploaded on: Wednesday, Jun 09, 2010
Date of Event: Wednesday, 09 Jun 2010
This year I decided to join RunNat2010 in conjunction with Global Day of Prayer. Slightly more than a week prior to RunNat 2010, I was asked to meet up with my group members for the run for a training session in the Bukit Jalil Park. During that training session, my group members and I were exposed to the difficulties of praying while jogging; which proved extremely difficult for anybody who does not jog regularly and excellent stamina. I experienced it and struggled on my very first prayer (while jogging). To make matters worse, I have only quite recently accepted Christ and so, am not naturally proficient at saying prayers. Doing all that while jogging not only exhausted my breath, but also my brain, because I needed to think before I could actually say a prayer. Recognizing the difficulties, we began thinking of other alternatives for RunNat 2010 itself, such as praying while walking and then breaking off into jogs in between prayers.
As the day drew closer, teams were reshuffled and I prayed that the Holy Spirit will be with us during the run itself so that we could complete the route efficiently, and so that I would not drag my team down by not being effective at prayers or running. On the day itself, we were blessed with good weather (it drizzled before we started, and after we finished our route). In my team were Amanda Tan, Adrian Sibuan, Andrew Hong and myself.
This was when the work of the Holy Spirit became evidently clear; Despite our previous week's arduous experience in training, all four of us somehow managed to keep our breathing level while praying for all the prayer items on the prayer card - while jogging. We were even moved to pray additional prayers when we've gone through all the prayer items, all the while maintaining a steady jogging pace; such is the magnificence of the Holy Spirit's annointing upon us. To add to that, Amanda who was in the training session with me the previous week was barely able to complete 1 km rose up to the occasion and completed the entire route of 5 km (actually, 7 km). As for me, the words of prayer flowed from my lips like a waterfall during the run, all glory to God.
Another amazing incident I realized only after RunNat was about our team mate Adrian, who recently gave a testimony in church about him successfully quitting smoking to better serve Christ, as he was deeply inspired during the 2009 Revolution Conference in Acts Church; no doubt the doing of the Holy Spirit. Adrian confessed to having bad stamina in his testimony, which is to be expected of a recent smoker. Bearing this in mind, Adrian ran and prayed with us during RunNat without dragging the team down and definitely kept up with the team; he only gave his amazing testimony after the event. When Adrian chose to honour God, God has already planned ahead to honour him back by annointing him to run tirelessly for this event, despite his own weaknesses.
Now that it's all over, it really seems to me that the entire event was set up this way from the beginning by the Holy Spirit; to allow one testimony blossom beautifully (our RunNat experience) from another (Adrian quitting smoking), and just comes to show how creative and wonderful the Holy Spirit can work His way in our lives. I mentioned 7 km above for our route distance because we actually took a wrong turn and ran an extra distance before tracking back, meaning we actually ran an extra distance but still managed to cope.
Going the extra distance, greatly boosted stamina and the ability to find the words and pray fluently while jogging; there really is no denying that God's hand was heavily upon us, for "when God is for us, who can be against us?" |