Honey Badger 100-Mile
By: Mark Henderson; 1st Servant, Runners' Church
We did it again: Held a Runners' Church service before the Honey Badger 100-Mile road run through Kingman County, KS in July.
This race has traditionally not been one of the "big attendance" races; but, this year, the race was sold to another race management company; and, for whatever reason, the number of runners starting was really low. This resulted in an RCW (Runners' Church worst) for an RC service: Exactly ZERO runners came. This crushes my spirit, and makes me wonder if I was a good steward of RC resources (i.e., time & money) to drive up from Texas, camp, put up the canopy, prepare a message, pay the entry and supplies, etc. It's a LOT of time and money and effort to make all that happen, and when NO ONE shows, it's just heart-wrenching to me personally.
Once again, first, and foremost, my race would have been possible had it not been for the totally selfless giving of time, sacrifice, and support from my crew: My nephew, TJ Lipinski. With a year of crew experience (2022)--not to mention a year of maturity--I don't think I could have drawn to a better crew chief that TJ, and his faithful dog, Ike.
My sister, Michelin Lipinski (TJ's mom) sent me the above pic of me with TJ when he was ~4 years old with the following caption: "Who could have ever thought that this little kid could grow up to be your Crew Chief and Lifeline for ovre 24 hours?!?" Just look at the Before/After pics. Amazing isn't it?
"...And the One who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."~Revelation 7:15b-17
