A Custom Jersey - Dig It! Get It?

The jerseys are almost here.

I've "borrowed" the Love design from last year's jersey and have made it my own by adding my "Digging Deep" design on the back. Although I think it's clever, it really shows that I have no future in marketing. What I lack in quality, however, I made up in quantity, as I've ordered 75 jerseys to help with my fundraising.


Besides being practical for a jersey (it's made from 100% polyester), it's a one-of-a-kind custom and you can get 'em for yourself.

For every $100 in donation that you give, I will get you one jersey.

If you make a $200 donation, you are entitled to two jerseys.

If you make a $50 donation, you get my very sincere thanks and peace of mind knowing that you helped provide water and save lives in Africa. If you make another, second donation, for $50 you get a jersey.

This, of course, is while supplies last. I would love to have to make a second order for jerseys. That would be a wonderful problem to have.

So, make a donation and tell me your size. I have everything from adult small to 4XL.

[[[ Click here to donate ]]]

And, wear your jersey and show your support to one of the races.

SL

Time To Dig Deep - Race 1 Coming Up

In about a week, I run the first of three half-marathons this year to raise money for clean water in Africa.

As you may know, last year I ran my first 13.1 to complete a capital water project in our adopted town of Katito, Kenya. We needed to raise a final $60,000.00 to complete a water and sanitation project through World Vision. Through the generosity of many of you, I raised over $3000.00 and as a team, we raised over $100K and the project has since been completed. My time was three hours, twenty minutes, and forty two minutes.

Because of my participation with World Vision and this fundraising, I have been invited to attend the celebration of the completion of the water project, in Katito, in May. I am so honored and humbled to have been selected to participate and I cannot wait to see the good work that is being done with the funds that I helped raise. I will also have the opportunity to meet the children that we sponsor through World Vision. It is an amazing opportunity and I can't wait to go.

My expectation is that I will also see the incredible needs that remain there. I hope to bring that back so that I can share, with first-hand knowledge, the overwhelming hardship and need that remains. I hope this personal experience will give me the credibility to ask you for money as part of ongoing fundraising. If my expressing the need does not move you to give, perhaps my personal account will. If you've given in the past, perhaps my story will motivate you to give again and more generously.

Even before I knew I was going to Kenya, I decided that this year I would run three races in an attempt to raise $13,700.00 for clean water in Africa. This audacious amount was selected because it is the cost of a deep water well and hand pump that can provide clean safe water for hundreds for years. That's the enduring impact that I would like to make in this world. I would be honored if you helped me make that impact.

[[[ Click here to make a donation ]]]

All I can do is train and run. Without your donation, it is meaningless. Would you please consider and generous donation to my page that will help those who don't have the basic life giving substance of water? Would you donate to my page to help reduce death and disease caused by water borne illness? Would you help improve the quality of life to children and families by providing water?

In two months, I will be able to share the impact of your donation - through first hand experience. But that shouldn't be a reason to help now.

In a week, I'll be sweating, running, and enduring a grueling 13.1 miles in New York. I hope to be met by family and friends at the finish line. It will be a wonderful experience, made so much more meaningful by your generous support.

Remember, I have World Vision orange shoe laces which will be given to someone who donates $15, or more, before race day on March 24. These are new laces sent to my by World Vision as a Thank You for raising more than $500.

SL

It's A Celebration!!!

I hung up the phone, wiped away a tear and looked up at Angie.

She said, “I knew you’d be going. I just knew it in my heart, that you’d be going to Africa”.

I cried hard into her shoulder.

I’m not sure why this experience has been so emotional for me. I have many guesses, but I am not really sure what God has put in my heart toward this experience. What I do know is that when I started, my motivation was much more selfish. I chose to participate in the Dallas 13.1 half-marathon with Team Springcreek not to help change the world but to change myself. I decided to run with the team because I thought it would provide me the motivation to exercise and lose weight. I know this about myself; I am a man who needs a goal. My goal was that I had four months to train to complete 13.1 miles in less than three and a half hours. With this goal in mind, I would get up and go to the gym. With this goal in mind I was a little stricter on my diet.

A funny thing happened during my training and my fundraising – I started thinking about our friends in Katito, Kenya where the money we were raising was going to complete a multi year, $450,000.00 water project. I started thinking about their lives. I started thinking more and more about the four children we sponsor through World Vision. From afar, the more I trained and raised, the more I came to love them and want better for them. The more I sweat, the more I thought about my role and how I could help them. The more generosity I saw in the people that donated on my page, the more I thought how blessed we all are and how it is our responsibility to share that blessing.

The more I worked, the more I loved and the less it became about me. It was about those who needed that of which we have so much. It was about God and His love for all of us.

All of these things raced through my mind as I crossed the finish line on that beautiful day in October. I cried then, too.

After I gathered myself a bit, I asked Angie what she meant that she knew I was going to go to Africa. Apparently, she has seen the change in me, too. She explained that she’s seen the change in my heart and my desire to do more. She knows that I am going to try and run three 13.1’s this year with a goal of raising $13,700 for a deep-water well in Africa. She knows that my thoughts have been dominated by our friends in Africa and how I’ve come to believe it is our responsibility to help those who don’t have as much:

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48b)

So, when I got the call that I was being invited to celebrate the completion of the water project in person, in Kenya, I was moved to tears. In fact, whenever I think about the fact that I will be there to CELEBRATE the project, I am moved to tears. I am being included in this trip, in part, because I raised the most money on Team Springcreek. Therefore, it’s because of YOUR generosity that I am going on this wonderful trip. That makes sense to me, because it was your generosity that changed my heart. I shared with many of you that as I received your generous donations I was moved in the love that I saw.

It is this generosity that I am counting on again, as there is so much more to do. Although we will be celebrating the completion of the water project in Katito, there is so much more needed elsewhere. This is why I am running again this year, and why I am asking you to help, yet again. This is why I am asking you to dig deep in your pockets, so World Vision can dig deep to provide clean safe water with a well. [[[ Click here to visit my fundraising page and donate ]]]

As always, I will chronicle my fundraising and training, as well as, our amazing trip to Katito. Please pray for me, pray for us, and pray for those in Africa and elsewhere who suffer because they do not have clean water.

God bless you, and thank you for your support.

Scott

Orange Laces

Angie and Justin supported my fundraising by making very generous donations this week. Because of their donations, I will receive my first incentive - orange shoe laces.

Last year, when I reached $500, I also received a pair of the orange shoe laces. I put them on my running shoes, even though they are VERY orange. I was proud of the accomplishment of raising $500, but I wanted to see them when I ran as a reminder of why I was running, and for whom I was running.

You see, the laces came with a post card. It shows a young boy smiling as his hands catch water coming from a spigot. The picture always stayed with me...I could never really get the obvious joy in his face out of my mind. I thought about my kids and couldn't imagine them ever getting excited about a glass of clean cold water. Even living in Texas, a glass of cold water in August doesn't elicit the pure joy that is obvious on his face.

It's that joy that makes me get off my butt and go train. It is that joy that motivates me to fund raise and beg you for money.

I want you to feel a little of that joy - so, I am offering my shoe laces to a randomly selected gift giver. I will pick one person (randomly) from all of the people who donate $15, or more, to my fundraising up until the first race (March 24). All you have to do is donate, and I will pick an name out of a hat an send you the laces, and the postcard. That way, you can put them on YOUR running shoes and always remember that you brought joy to someone through your donation for clean water.

[[[ Click here go to my fundraising page and donate ]]]

Thanks, and good luck.

SL

It's Time to Dig Deep

With about 60 days to the New York 13.1 half marathon, it is time to officially kick of my 2012 fundraising for World Vision and clean water.

As I did last year, I will post my progress, fundraising status, information, and race results on my blog, on Facebook and on Twitter.

I hope you will visit my fundraising page to read more about this year's plan and goal. In order to $13,700.00, I plan on doing several fundraising events in addition to begging you to make a donation on my page. I will post more information as these events become more fleshed out. Fundraising will continue through the Dallas 13.1 in October.

Lastly, I am looking for corporate "sponsorship". If you have a small (or large) business and would like to make a tax-deductible donation on behalf of your business, please contact me. We can discuss options for putting your logo and website on my jersey, on this blog, FB, etc.

[[[ Click Here to Visit My Fundraising Page ]]]

I would respectfully request that you consider how you might support this fundraising effort.

As always, I thank you for your support.

SL

But Now We Have To Eat It

What a fun day. Cassie and I definitely started the year right.

We decided to lay a smack down on some squirrels today, going back to our hunting land before we have to return to our lives of school and work.

We didn't actually hit any last time we hunted, so the plan was to go a bit early, site the scope in a little better, eat lunch and then hit the blind. I would bring my big rifle, as well, since it was the last day of deer season and we had seen some hog sign near the feeder.

After we arrived at the hunting area, we set up a target and sighted in the scope. After about 15 shots, we were hitting bulls-eyes, so we knew the gun was good to go.

We ate and headed towards the blind.

It didn't take a long for squirrels to show. I shot and shot and shot and never connected. The first chance and miss particularly upset me as it was a simple shot and I shot just high. After a couple of hours Cassie started getting pretty bored and she asked me if she could shoot. I told her of course, that the only reason I was shooting is because she told me to.

Not long after I gave her my permission, she spied a squirrel out of the left window. I couldn't see it the way I was sitting. Frankly, I didn't believe her that a squirrel was there because I never heard it. I just thought she was bored and wanted to shoot. She lifted the gun and while I held it to give her support, she told me she couldn't see it's head because it was behind the tree. I told her to shoot as high on the body that she could see. She tried to switch off the safety and could not...it was too hard for her to push in. I pushed it for her. She eyed to scope and fired.

At first, I was still operating under the belief that there wasn't even a squirrel there. After all the missing I had done, I thought for sure that she hadn't really scored one.

The look on her face that followed was priceless. Her aim had scored true. One look at her face, and I knew that she wasn't kidding or trying to pull one over on her dad. She was shaking and incredibly excited. I look over and there was a grey squirrel on the ground.

We recovered the squirrel and at first she didn't even want to hold it, but ultimately, she warmed up to the idea. We took photos and continued to hunt for a little while longer. She missed on the next one, as the "squirrel fever" over took her and her heavy breathing made it hard for her to aim.

We left the blind and I told her that the hard part was coming as we had to field dress the squirrel. I had never done one before, but had watched several YouTube videos to see how it was done. I made Cassie help by by holding the legs. She was interested, and not a little grossed out, at how everything worked. She helped real well and got the squirrel cleaned without too much bother.

Cassie was still so excited, so we stopped by Angie's aunt and uncle's house to share our story. They told us of some squirrel recipes, including "squirrel dumplings" that they both enjoy very much. In fact, everyone that I have heard from think that squirrel tastes very good. I'm sceptical, but believe that if we are to hunt, we need to eat our kill, or at least find someone that will. To do otherwise is, in my opinion, wasteful. Cassie agrees and we'll try a pulled pork style recipe that we found that calls for you to slow cook the squirrel until the meat falls of the bone.

We'll likely need a couple more squirrels to have enough to actually make a meal, but now that Cassie has bagged hers, she told me I am free to hunt them without her.

Now, I just need to actually hit one.

SL

My New Hunting Buddy

Today's hunt just wasn't the same.

I sat in the blind and watched the squirrels scamper around. I listened to the ducks whoosh in behind me, land in the water, and proceed to do what ducks do. I waited in vain for deer or hogs to appear. Normally, I would have been loving the experience - I like to be outdoors and the actual hunt is secondary to that experience. However, this time was different. I was thinking about my new hunting buddy and I missed her not being there with me.

You see, Cassie hunted with me on Thursday and it was the best hunt of my life - even if we missed everything at which we shot.

Cassie hasn't hunted with me prior to Thursday and when I asked her if she was interested in going, I was pleasantly surprised that she said yes. Because it was her first hunt, I wanted everything to go smoothly - as often hunting can be hard work, in difficult conditions and I didn't want anything like that to turn her off.

First, I scheduled Thursday afternoon as our day. The forecast called for sunny and warm temps in the high 60's. Since she isn't really outfitted for being in the woods, this was of paramount concern. Secondly, I wanted her to have fun, so I tried to take a lot of the work out of the hunt - even if it meant it diminished the probability of us actually bagging any game. I also had to reset my expectations; that this hunt was about us having fun together and experiencing the outdoors, not about the harvest.

We started our day in the late morning. She indicated that she might like a rifle of her own for her birthday, so we took a drive to Gander Mountain in Sherman. They have a good selection of guns and we had already been to B&S Guns, Cabelas, and Bass Pro looking for a pink .22 LR. No one had one, so Gander Mtn. was our next attempt. They didn't have any in stock, but we definitely found what we were looking for, a Remington Model 527 .22LR in Pink Camo. She indicated that this was the gun she wanted, so we talked to the sales person about when their distributor would have them in stock. We'll have to wait a couple of weeks until we can order it, but they did have the same gun in black, so I bought it for me. I figured she could use it until she gets her own and I could use it whenever I needed a small caliber gun.

We then drove to the hunting area. The first order of business was to sight in the scope on the new gun. We spent about an hour adjusting the scope until we had good groups close to bulls eye. I knew we weren't 100% sighted in, but the sun was starting its decline, so we grabbed our gear and headed for the blind; me with both the .22 and my .270 Win and her with her pellet gun. We sat and I could tell that she was terribly excited. We spoke in whispered tones about the set up. I informed her that I'd seen a lot of squirrels at the hunt area and expected to see them this afternoon, as well. However, there were none to be seen. In fact, the woods were surprisingly quiet. I explained that we likely spooked everything away with our practice shooting and that if we were quiet and still, they would probably come back. So, we waited in relative quiet.

We ended up seeing a several squirrels. We took shots at them, but missed on each one. On most occasions, we squeezed of more than one shot, but were unable to connect. Clearly, the scope still needs a little bit more adjustment. I could tell she started getting a little bored, and I suggested we wait for the feeder to go off, then wait a little after that, and if we weren't seeing anything we could go.

As the feeder went off at 5:00pm, we heard something behind us. I thought it might be a deer off in the distance, but Cassie thought it right behind the blind. She told me her heart started racing. She was right as to location, but it wasn't a deer, it was a crazy grey squirrel. Eventually, it started climbing a tree to our left and I shot at it twice, but missed both times.

We decided to call it a day, but she kept talking about how she felt when she thought a deer was right outside our blind. I know exactly how she felt, but I also know that it pales in comparison to how I felt having her by my side.

It will be the same way I feel when we go back tomorrow, my knew hunting partner by my side.

SL