U.S. Run Complete! A Day in New York

These last two days have been so exciting. These were days and experiences where I felt the power of teamwork expand the work and make it so much more than any one person could do.

Friday night I tried to go to Linden, NJ so I could run from there to New York, however there were extenuating circumstances that stood in the way - the only road with a suitable shoulder was a turnpike and the state troopers didn’t take kindly to my presence there on the shoulder as a runner.  I knew people couldn’t hitch-hike on turnpikes, but I never heard about a law against walking. I guess the cops had…or they enforced a law which would someday be in effect….

I was counseled to consider my US portion of the run finished and just go to the Stop Child Trafficking Rally in NY as the capping point. It was soooo tempting. There was no clear way to run from point A to point B. We had tried to get police help as an escort (that way it would be safer and maybe I could overcome my new found anxiety of flashing police lights) but the logistics of such an endeavor were too much to overcome for each jurisdiction upon the route. In all this we had lost a precious day, I was 30 miles behind from finishing on Saturday and time was running out.

There was only one thing to do - besides cry - we prayed.

I simply could not let it be over. Many of you had put your faith in us and helped us financially for this hour and defeat was not an option. The sweet answer came to our sincere prayer and we decided to move forward.

We decided to work as a team to finish this off in a more spectacular way than I had even imagined.

On Saturday morning we drove to Central Park in New York City (scary!) and met with a friend of mine from NY, and together with my kids, the drivers, and the rest of our team we marched through the park. When I say walk, it wasn’t just a leisurely stroll through central park - I was dressed in my chains and they all wore their chain necklaces and we trekked through the park in 97 degree weather and handed out fliers to help get people informed and engaged in this cause of ending modern slavery.

People took them so much more readily from my kids than they ever did from me with my shackles on!

We then went to times square to see what was going on with Amber Ready as they unveiled their awesome program to help protect kids from the sick people who abduct over 1 million kids every year and streamline the work of mobilizing the police force in recovering those precious innocents. It really is a great program

By the end of the day, we had handed out more than 300 fliers and cards. This route took our team 7 miles (even my 5 year old contributed by sitting on my shoulders for most of the trip!) in this way they added their sacrificed effort to my miles and we ended up with more than 40 miles combined for the day.

My heart is full of thanks to all those who walked with me - and all those of you who contributed your time and talents and were walking "in spirit" through central park with us.

Next blog I’ll outline some of what has taken place around this run so you can feel the powerful change this team effort has Made.

Good Night!