A Family Affair

About a year ago, our family began supporting a little boy from Kenya through Compassion International. (His name is Muthiani and his birthday is May 18. My Matthew's birthday is also May 18 and we thought "Muthiani" looked vaguely similar to "Matthew," so we figured it must have been a match made in heaven.) In fact, in that same weekend about 300 children from Muthiani's village were sponsored by families from my church. Since then, we (that is, the church at which I am a member) have taken on a partnership with Compassion in serving this village.
Recently we became aware of a big need in Makueni. During the dry season - when there is NO rain - water is very scarce. And whatever water can be found is VERY expensive. A system could be constructed which would gather and safely store water during the rainy season, but it is expensive. So, someone came up with the idea to have a couple fundraisers at church to collect the needed money so our kids can have ample, safe, affordable drinking water.
Our family decided to participate in the 5K Walk/Run - Brian, Josh, and me as competitors, and Matthew as a volunteer. And can I tell you? It was so much fun to do together.
(Of course, Elizabeth was missed. *sad face*)
At first, Brian and I thought the boys might balk at the idea - because reaching a consensus on doing anything as a family is tough-going most days around here. But they didn't. There was camaraderie, a little smack-talk, and even some looking out for each other. I was delightfully surprised.

Here we are after the race. My goal was to run the whole thing, but with half a mile to go I had to walk a bit. Still, I finished third in my age group with a time of 28:03. I was happy with that. :)