Home Stretch!

Hi Everyone,
I'm officially only about $130 away from my goal! YAY! Thank you so much for those of you who have contributed. I have officially done the full 13 miles. By Gods grace my body is making it through. I do get a lot of stitches though. Usually the last three miles I do I'm just praying the whole time for them to stop, lol! And again by Gods grace they usually don't get so sever so I have to stop, so I don't complain too much. BUT I STILL NEED HELP! only 13 people need to give $10! Come on we can do this!
I cant stress how important this cause is. Sex slavery is in my opinion the worst evil in existence today. There was a gathering in Atlanta a few weekends ago, perhaps you heard about it, their focus this year was on human trafficking and raising money to end it. One of the speakers said something that really impressed me. He said "why do we call it human trafficking, that makes it sound so civilized, why don't we call it what it is: Children getting raped on a daily basis with no end in sight." Children, little baby girls and boys, some as young as 8, the average age being 13. Imagine when you were 13 and what you were doing. Then imagine what these little babies go through, they are taken from their homes and families scared, then forced to have sex with grown men. Some of them don't even have their period yet when they are first raped. Some get pregnant and are forcibly given abortions or miscarry because their so young. Imagine the physical trauma and pain their little undeveloped bodies are put through through with each rape, the ripping and tearing. Did you know most of the boys that are in the trade are used to service men? Imagine the physical trauma they go through. Then imagine the emotional trauma that is done. It makes the physical trauma look like a little scrape. Some of them are forcibly given drugs which they get addicted to, and live in wretched, unacceptable conditions. They need our help so badly. David and I have committed to fasting once a week and taking the money we would have spent on that and giving it even after our run, that's how desperate we are to help make this stop. I understand how overwhelming it is when people ask for money when you are barely making ends meet as it is but I try to imagine if it were my little brother, or any of the children I babysit, or even my own children (a little more conceptual as I have none but I imagine it), taken from home and having their innocence ripped away from them. Wouldn't I do ANYTHING to find a way to get them home? These are ALL peoples babies, a lot of times ABDUCTED! WE HAVE TO STAND UP AND DO SOMETHING. I know it may hurt, believe me I know, not only financially but physically when I run every day. But we are called to give when it hurts. And when I hurt (or am hungry on fasting day) I think of those little girls and boys who are hurting ten million times more and it makes my pain seem trivial. Do you think this is something you can commit to for only one month? That's 4 days of fasting total, for David and myself we calculated that to be about ten dollars a month total. Lets make this happen! For all the little children out there alone lets let them know they are not alone!

Training week 2!

So this week I got up to 5 miles, and I have $250! (YAY!) My week went (day by day starting with Monday) 3,3,Rest,4,3,5. The last day was by far my easiest day this week. I don't know why my early shorter days were so hard but I was really struggling. I would have to sit there and pray over and over in my mind that God would give me the strength to get through it.
I don't know if I told everyone the story behind my doing this run. I had been thinking about doing a half marathon for a little while and someone mentioned the Disney runs, so I looked into them and saw the Disney Princess run. It looked fun to me but I didn't have anyone to do it with and they didn't allow dogs to come so I decided not to do it. Then in church someone said their friend was doing a mini triathlon so I thought ooo, that might be fun plus its not just running and if I find a local one I bet I can bring the dog. So I looked up local triathlons and the first thing that popped yo was the Disney Princess run... not the Disney runs, the Disney Princess run specifically. I thought that was peculiar since I had just looked at it earlier and again thought about doing it but again I talked myself out of it by arguing that while training, my longest runs would be when I was in school so I wouldn't really have time to do it. Then the very next day my boss said he heard about the Disney Princess runs in Orlando and thought I might be interested in. Well here I finally started to get the message. Someone was putting this run in front of my face way more often than for it to be just a coincidence. So I prayed. I told God that I didn't know why he would want someone to run for him, that seemed a bit random, but that I really felt like he was trying to tell me to do it. So I asked him to give me one more push if it was what he wanted me to do and that I would do it even though I still didn't understand why the God of everything would want me to do something as simple as run. So I waited and sure enough a couple days later I heard about Team Freedom on my radio and I heard about Abolition International (IA) and I just started to cry. I wasn't sure why I was crying but I knew this was God telling me to run. I looked up how much money I had to raise to be a part of team freedom and I was definitely daunted but I knew God would provide it. As I started writing my letter of support I started looking up information on IA and the statistics associated with human trafficking and I started crying again. It broke my heart to hear about all those little babies existing day after day after day in a living hell and then I thought how much pain it must cause God, the one who loves children so deeply, to see this happening in our world to his favorite little ones. And then I knew why God wanted me to run for him.
So that's why I run. And when I have hard days I just pray He always gives me that extra push to finish. So that's my story and that's really why I'm doing this.
Thank you all for the prayers, my knees are pain free and my asthma has not once given me problems so praise the Lord for that. The only pain I have is in my ankle although it usually goes away pretty quickly. Next week I should be up to 7 miles so wish me luck!

Training week 1!

So what I've decided to do is post every week and  with updates about how training is going and how close I am to my fundraising goal. So far were at $0 but I know that number is only going to go up!
So week 1 of training has come to an end. It wasn't too hard this week, all I had to do was pretty much establish I could do 3 miles with out too much struggle. I've been mostly trying to get my time down. I'm at about an 8 minute mile right now which so I'm anticipating running for about 2 hours on the actual day. I'm hoping I can get my time down to 7 minutes but I'm not stressing about that too much.
I'm excited to finally have a running partner though. Bullet is great motivation. He stays right by my side on the way there but then once we turn around he takes off. Practically dragging me back home. Which is good, the run back is always the hardest part and I get tempted to slow down, but Bullet has none of that. I swear this dog is part husky. I'm thinking about entering him in the tractor pull at the state fair.
But other than that its going well. My knees are a little sore but nothing distracting. My ankle hurts a lot though. I'm pretty sure David broke when we first started dating and it healed wrong, lol. (Long story, but basically he pushed me into the corner of a shelf :) ) I'm keeping it iced and hoping that it just doesn't get worse.
Continued prayers are appreciated! Hope everyone's week has been fantastic!

XOXO

My first half marathon!

Hey Everyone!

As some of you may know I’m starting training for my first half marathon! This February I will be taking part in the Disney Princess half marathon in Orlando. I’m running as part of Team Freedom, a state wide team started by one of our radio stations here in Florida. They are running and raising money on behalf of Abolition International (http://abolitioninternational.org/) which is an organization fighting to end domestic and international human trafficking. Once I heard about Team Freedom in the car and I heard why they were running and who they were running for I knew I had to join in the fight.

The average age of girls sold into prostitution in the world is 12. The number of sex slaves now is higher than it has ever been in history, and no country is immune. About 1,000,000 individuals are trafficked across international borders yearly, 80% are women and children and 50% are minors. An estimated 200,000 American children alone have been forced into the commercial sex trade in the United States. Human trafficking is arguably one of the worst evils in existence which is why I am running for the freedom of those enslaved.

I am trying to raise $600 with a deadline of January 10^th. What I’m asking is for each person to donate $10. I have to send one check on that day to Abolition International so donations can be sent to me by that date, cash or check. If you send a check please write Abolition International in the memo line. You can send them to this address:

4634 SW 45^th Ln.

Gainesville, FL 32608           

(They are a 501(c) 3. All donations are tax deductable.)

If you can’t support financially I would greatly appreciate support in prayer, specifically that my knees will hold up and that my asthma (which oddly after almost 5 years of consistent running and no problems is giving me grief all of the sudden) will subside. I’ll post updates on my blog as I go so keep a look out on that.

I can’t go out and rescue each child who is suffering, as much as I wish I could, and I can’t give bags of money to make it stop either but I can run and with your help we can make a difference.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up for the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9

-       Princess Joanna Thomas

Horses Helping People...

So I realized its been a while since I updated people so I figured I'd go ahead and try and make a post, my first post, in fact, as a 22 year old (...wow I'm 22, I definitely don't feel old, but at the same time I have become acutely aware of how fast time goes by.)
So I went out to the equine therapy program today... finally! And it was wonderful. Not only to be around the animals which was so uplifting to my spirits but to see them interacting with the kids in the program and vice versa. The horses were so patient with the kids allowing the kids to kick them, poke them, throw balls at them, and they just stayed slow and steady. Then they would stand still while the kids 'washed them down,' which they certainly tried to do with as much gentleness as possible but some of these kids weren't as aware as perhaps they could be and the horses just waited with the patience and gentleness of a saint. It was quite inspiring, and comical in a way because their whole attitudes changed once the kids left. They became much more cheeky, trying to sneak in a bit of grass, nibbling on their harnesses, being a bit pushy for attention, and a little less patient; it was very cute but also very awe inspiring because you could tell they new when it was time to work and they new the needs of the individuals riding them. It was a wonderful time, apart from coming home with what looked like chicken pocks from all the bug bites!
Apart from that there's nothing really new going on. I would appreciate continued prayer for sleep and a better job situation. My insomnia is getting really bad, along with the nightmares I'm getting about 2 hours of sleep a night and its really starting to effect my judgement so prayer for that would be greatly appreciated. David, bless his heart, has been staying on my couch to help wake me when I'm caught in my dreams so unfortunately his sleep has been suffering also but god bless him for staying with me. Prayer for him would be appreciated also. His job situation is going much better than mine so thank you, Lord for that blessing.
Alright I think thats pretty much it. Sending love to NC. xxx

Temporarily hijacked...

Well, I am officially a car salesman. I sold my first car, a 2011 BMW 328i to be exact. Black on black. I am loving my new job. They have a ceremony for the new salesmen where once you sell your first car they cut your tie, so today my tie was officially cut. Needless to say I'm hopeful that there are many more to come but I'm very excited to get the first one out of the door. I'm also hopeful that this is the beginning of my career. It took a lot of searching and thought and push from Jo for me to find this new path but its certainly an exciting one filled with potential. And happiness for that matter. I actually enjoy going to work every day which is something I don't think I've ever been able to say. Plus when Jo and I are married and move to TN it'll be a job that I can continue there, so I guess what I'm saying is its flexible. Its just full of possibilities and like I already said I'm excited. So if anyone needs a car, I'm your guy. Wherever you are and whatever your price range I can hook you up.

Until next time,
David Weaver
BMW & VW of Gainesville
(919) 819-0414

The video...

So apparently the video didn't upload because its been removed from the Internet. You can still read about the court case that resulted from the video (which ultimately brought no injunctions against the facility). But it was from Carolina Biological. And it showed various clips which I'll tell you about but probably wont have the same effect. First you saw a chick grabbing a cat by its scruff and when it tried to crab the cage she said 'Go ahead, grab it so I can rip your f****** claws out' and proceed to allow the cat to grab onto the cage and yanked it off the wires. There was also a video of a monkey who was forced into a clear tube barely big enough for it and had to stay in there..... you can see it panicking I'm sure due to the claustrophobia and the fact that it doesn't understand why it cant get out. You also see them spraying dogs with very powerful hoses and the dogs cowering in the corner unable to escape. The woman spraying them yelling and cursing at them the whole time. Then you see them restraining a monkey and forcing a tube down its nose and evidently missing a couple times because you can hear them laughing about it and the under cover agent says 'your going to kill it' and they laugh and someone says 'yeah I'll stuff it down its f******* throat!.' You also see a bunch of animals in very small cages just walking in circles (With blood on the walls). A symptom of OCD which can result from prolonged entrapment with out stimulation and can lead to mental instability. (Which the monkeys at the Primate Sanctuary clearly exhibit). Its painful to watch. Truly painful.