As a board member for A Rocha Canada, most of my contribution has been from a comfortable sitting position…sitting on the sidelines, as it were. But because of the tough economic times of this past year I felt like I wanted to do a bit more. I wanted to help raise a bit of money. I had no idea how I might raise funds for A Rocha, until one morning the Holy Spirit reminded me about my passion for running. Maybe I could do a run and get sponsors? But how could it be A Rocha specific? How long is the Little Campbell watershed, I wondered? Imagine my joy when I discovered it was half marathon distance – challenging but doable with enough training.

I timed the run for the A Rocha Christmas open house held at the Field Study Centre in Surrey, BC on December 12^th. As I jogged through the circle driveway at the Centre, it felt great giving the crowd lined up there high fives. But the last 4 km after that didn’t feel so great. I slowed to a walk at the King George Highway overpass.  It felt like if I hadn’t stopped running just then, my legs would have given out.  But then I saw my wife Deb parked just the other side of the overpass – she had been my faithful supporter through the whole run. I started running again and with a mostly downhill stretch to the ocean I found my stride. Philippians 1:6 says: “He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it.” It was true for my run, and may it be true too for the excellent work of A Rocha Canada as we work together to care for God’s creation.

By David Clements