Monthly Archives: October 2011

Anatomy of a 100-mile race

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Anatomy of a 100-mile race | World Vision blog
Fourteen hours before the start of yesterday’s Chicago Marathon, four friends set off to run a total of 100 miles (74 miles to the start of the Chicago Marathon) in a bid to secure sponsors for 400 children. World Vision writer James Addis followed their progress on his own little adventure through part of the night and during the marathon itself — sometimes by taxi, sometimes by bicycle, and sometimes by train… The assignment What a mission! Our four runners will run 74 miles mostly along the Chicago lakefront all through the night, before reaching the Chicago Marathon starting line in time for the beginning of the official race. The four runners are: Paul Jansen Van Rensburg, 37, a pastor...
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Train. Pray. Run. (6 questions with a 100-mile runner)

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Train. Pray. Run. | World Vision Blog
Superman can defy gravity. Captain America has superhuman speed and endurance. Spider-Man can scale walls. For practically every law of nature, there is a superhero who can break that natural law. Michael Chitwood is one of those guys. Where no single person in their human physical condition should be able to do what he is about to do, Chitwood and three others are going to do just that. They’re going to run 100 miles in 21 straight hours — 74 miles through the night starting this afternoon, October 8, and then they will join 1,000 Team World Vision teammates for the final 26.2 miles of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. When Michael first told me he was running 100 miles,...
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Should we pray for our public leaders as much as we pray for ourselves?

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Should we pray for our public leaders? | World Vision blog
Should we pray for our public leaders as much as we pray for ourselves? When praying for our elected officials, what should we be praying for? These are the questions I ask myself every year around this time in October as the first of the month marked the start of a new fiscal year for our federal government. That means some reflection on the past fiscal year, including major accomplishments and major deficits regarding federal policies. In my position at World Vision, these are especially important. October 1 is also the first day of a new fiscal year for World Vision offices. To appropriately honor the day, our staff members, volunteers, and World Vision supporters from all around the world...
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Where are they from? A World Teachers’ Day pop quiz

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World Teacher's Day | World Vision Blog
My grandmother was a teacher. My mom taught special education. My brother teaches middle school math. My sister is on the school board. Clearly, the importance of a good education was instilled in me from a young age. Still, the teacher gene is not dominant in my DNA. I think it might have something to do with my patience — or lack thereof. Although teaching is not in my vocation, I understand and value the work of teachers across the United States and around the world. These dedicated servants are molding the future generations, often in difficult circumstances. In my time working with World Vision, I have had the privilege of meeting and interacting with many teachers around the world....
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Mission above mammon: Charting a course for success

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As the president of World Vision U.S. and the former CEO of two for-profit corporations, I have spent all of my professional life trying to manage organizations to achieve success. Every organization, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, must have a successful financial model to succeed, but long-term success doesn’t come from just managing numbers. The most successful organizations are mission-driven. In Christian organizations, this truth may be even more compelling. At its core, this is the question of the means versus the ends. In a secular corporation, the goal is to create profits for the owners or shareholders; the means to that end might be selling automobiles, or books, or delivering a service like air travel or lodging. At the end...
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