What You Need To Get Me For My Birthday

I know how you're feeling right now.  Terrible.  You forgot to get me a present for my birthday and its killing you.  You have this urge to make up for being such an awful friend.  But how?

You have two choices of what to get me.

 Specialized S-Works Venge DA
The Tour de France bike of phenom Mark Cavendish and Team HTC-Highroad. 11r carbon frame plus Pro Tour-proven Shimano Dura-Ace components. Ultralight Roval Rapide SL 45 wheelset with carbon/alloy hybrid rims for low aerodynamic drag with the reliability of an alloy brake track, Specialized S-Works FACT carbon crankset with OSBB, removable carbon spider, and ceramic bearings, plus legendary Shimano Dura-Ace 10-speed shifters ultralight, smooth performance.

Just $9,200 (plus tax, but who's counting?)

OR

Donate $10* to help me BRING BACK THE CHICKEN

My good friend Rob co-founded this awesome non-profit in Santiago, Dominican Republic. In a nutshell, this past year, Servants Heart Ministry's donations were down, so they had a tough decision- do they A) still serve chicken, rice, and beans for their meals, but stop feeding as many kids or B) feed as many kids, but cut out the chicken. Rob told me the story of the time he had to be the person at the end of the food line, and had the difficult job of telling a grandmother that they didn't have enough food for her grandchild- basically, that they had to turn her away and the child would have to go hungry.  So the decision was made- the kids would lose the chicken, but at least the same number of kids would have something until donations came back up.

So, I've set a goal of raising $2,675 (the cost of chicken for one month for the kids in the program), so all the kids can have chicken (and the much needed protein it provides) for December- sort of a Christmas present.  So, you get this for me as a birthday present, and it doubles as a Christmas present for the kids.  How awesome is that?!?!

*You can also donate either A) how old you think I look, or B) how old you think I act.
http://www.firstgiving.com/brianlord

Giant Trolls and The Week Before Your Mission Trip

Photo: Frighttime Prod.

Have you ever noticed that the week or two before your mission trip is generally terrible?  Everything that can go wrong does- you get sick, your kids get in more trouble than usual and somehow its the worst time ever to miss work.  Have you ever wondered why?

Trolls.  Big, giant, hairy trolls.


The play "Wynter's Kiss" by Scott Crain of Oracle Productions fame tells the Narnian-esque story of Sir Galen Wynter, an old knight, who, along with a few followers, goes on a quest to find the cure to save his daughter from a deadly plague called "The Red Kiss".   In the wilderness, they come to an old rope bridge that crosses a ravine.  Some of the men want to try crossing, but Sir Galen declares the bridge is too old, it'll probably take them out of their way, and its not worth the risk.  Suddenly, a giant, club wielding troll appears and bellows that if any of them try to cross the bridge, he'll be more than happy to kill them.

The men fall back. Once out of earshot, Sir Galen begins to devise a plan to defeat the giant troll and cross the bridge.

"What!?" one of his men exclaims.  "Five minutes ago you were talking us out of crossing the bridge, but now that there is a giant troll who wants to kill us, all you can think about is how to get across it?"

"Of course," Sir Galen explains.  "You don't send a giant troll to protect something worthless.  We have to get across."

Photo: Disney/Pixar's Up!

I think our lives can be a lot like this.  We're fine as long as we stay in our cozy little existence, but as soon as we make a break from our lives and attempt to cross that ravine to serve others in need (and in the process, change ourselves), the devil throws some giant trolls our way.  Going to the Dominican in a couple days and your kid gets strep throat? Troll!  Going to Haiti and your car breaks down to the tune of a few thousand dollars? Troll!  Going to Africa for a year and the people renting your house (and therefore covering your mortgage) decide to back out at the last minute?  Troll!   (if you've seen Pixar's 'Up', in my head I say "Troll!" like they say "Squirrel!")

Of course, knowing that trolls exist doesn't make them go away, but it does make them easier to fight.  And, like the old knight fighting to save his daughters life, you know that by defeating that troll and crossing that ravine, you might be saving lives as well.

Troll!

P.S. As I was typing this blog about the dangers of going on a mission trip, the phones and internet shut off, threatening to make me lose everything I'd just typed.  Troll!

My Ragnar Route

I'm running a 195-mile relay race from Chattanooga called the Ragnar Relay (www.ragnartn.com).  We're raising money to help feed kids in the Dominican Republic through a ministry called Servants Heart Ministry (www.servantsheartministry.com).  We'll each run three legs of varying lengths.  I'm in the middle speed-wise, so I get two 'hards' and one 'moderate', for a total of about 17 miles.  We'll have two vans of six runners each, so one van will follow their six runners, while the other van rests, then we play hopscotch.

Our team starts at 10AM Eastern, but since I'm runner 10 of 12, I don't get to start to that evening. Here is where I'll be running my first leg of the relay, around 6:30PM Eastern time on Friday, Nov 5.  I get the joy of running 6.5 miles up a mountain in Monteagle!

I'll get into a van, wait a couple hours as our Van 2 runners finish, then go to a rest area for another few hours.  Then we'll hop back in our van, and eventually I'll get my 'easy' run as I cruise through Shelbyville, TN, about 3:35AM Central. (we'll have crossed into a new time zone by that point).

Then back into the van, wait for our other two runners to finish, then head to Franklin for a few hours sleep. 

About 2:37PM, I'll get my third and final run through Belle Meade into Green Hills.  You wouldn't believe it, but they rate this one as being harder than the run up Monteagle.  Must be all the Belle Meade bling.

You can follow our progress at twitter.com/shministry, or on facebook.com/servantsheartministry.

If you'd like to donate (suggested is $25), go to www.firstgiving.com/brianlord.  Thanks for helping!

Brian