Recent Posts by Lindsey Talerico-Hedren

Train. Pray. Run. (6 questions with a 100-mile runner)

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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Ask an aid worker about the Horn of Africa

Update: read the follow-up post: An aid worker’s answers about the Horn of Africa Want to know more about managing household finance? Talk to Suze Ormann. Health advice? Watch Dr. Oz. General wisdom? Google, of course. But what about those disasters all over the news? It looks like a lot is going on…. or not? Who should you ask to find out about the issues in a big disaster response, like the current drought and famine in the Horn of Africa? You ask an aid worker. Why? Because they’re out in the disaster zone talking to survivors and assessing needs, determining the scale and involvement of response, identifying funding sources for assistance plans, writing proposals communicating with donors about needs...
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Bolivia in 100 words

Before you read this, let me just say that 100 words does not do this post justice. Just 100 words will barely begin to describe the beauty of Bolivia and the warmth of its people. Just 100 words isn’t enough. But please, please take these 100 words to heart. Understand they represent a fraction of a deeper story we’re desperate to tell — a story about survival and faith, sacrifice and family, difference and commonality. I hope these 100 words paint for you a picture as vivid as the memories in our minds, and as resilient as the love in our hearts. This list was created out of the words from and expressions of the families and individuals we met,...
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[Bolivia bloggers] A dozen unforgettable moments

I saw this tweet from Rachel Held Evans yesterday morning: “Been back from Bolivia for a week now, and I’m just now unpacking. Anyone else out there an unpacker-slacker?” I’m the worst kind of unpacker… I let the task of unpacking intimidate me in a really silly way. I also think there’s something sort of nostalgic about an unpacked suitcase — it brings back memories of where you’ve just returned from. In this case, it brings back bittersweet memories of the seven days I spent in Bolivia with some of the most insightful and endearing people I’ll ever know — Elizabeth, Andrea, Joy, Nish, Matthew, Carla, Rachel, Amy, Michael, Jana and Deb — and all of the moments we experienced...
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International Youth Day: 6 youth changing our world

Change our world — that’s this year’s International Youth Day theme. It seems more than appropriate in a year of ongoing economic struggle, debt ceilings, radiation leaks and famines. And there are issues of injustice that fail to make headlines but distress so many people — child abuse, abduction and trafficking, school drop-outs because of forced labor or need for income, neglect of children and youth, and an apparent lack of youth voice. But there are youth out there advocating against such injustices, making real differences in their communities, and changing our world for good. This post is a reminder, on International Youth Day, that youth are to believed in because through them, great things are possible. Don’t let anyone...
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