Racing for Refugees

On Saturday, the Parker family ran a 7 kilometre obstacle race, set up to raise money for outreach to refugees in Uganda and raise awareness of their plight. You may remember Esther, Ben and I doing this annual race last year.

This year, Ben, Joel, Andrew and I ran as one team- the "Parker Panthers".

Esther was keen to be in a faster team, so she joined the team made up of other MAF friends- the "MAFIA" ( "M.A.F. International Africa"!! ).

Our MAF representatives, making up 2 teams: Team MAFIA and Team Parker Panthers.

We had signed up to run to raise money for Kampala's Centre of Refuge and Hope. Their staff T-shirt spells out what this centre stands for- a commendable goal to empower and enable refugees in Uganda to gain new skills, helping them to a more independent life. 

Their vision rests on Psalm 46, verse 1, emblazoned on the T-shirt around the world map:

"God is our refuge and strength,

    an ever-present help in trouble."

The centre reaches out to those affected by war and conflict and aims to provide a place of hope and a place for them to build a new start. Refugees can enrol as students in the classes and learn English or vocational skills such as baking, sewing, hairdressing, mechanical skills and agriculture. All to equip the refugees with employable and transferable skills.

What a great cause to run for.

Along the way, we the runners were presented with many obstacles and challenges- all with the intention of making us feel a tiny part of the frustration and powerlessness refugees may face when they flee to a foreign land.

Once again, like last year, we found oursleves beiing told to build a shelter for our family. Our building materials were woefully inadequate: some banana leaves, a scrap of tarpaulin, a few canes of bamboo. As soon as we clambered inside, a deluge of "rain" was thrown over us. Wet and indignant we clambered out, wringing water out of our clothes. However, we knew we could dry off as we ran the rest of the race in the Kampala sunshine and that we could later get showered and changed at home. And we knew our own homes have plenty of space abd can shelper us from the local tropical rain-storms, Refugess don't have this luxury. It highlighted the differences in our lives that we often take for granted and is a call for us to have more compassion- and take more action- to care about and for the vulnerable.

Later in the race, there was a "mud-slide" we needed to cross. A terrifying challnege for some. A wonderful opportunity for others... like my boys, who were thrilled wth the propsect of being actuvely encouraged by their parents to get muddy- a rare occurence!

   

Throughout the race, each team received information slips on the completion of various challenges. The facts are disturbing:

It took our team of 4 just over 3 hours to complete the course. Esther's team finsihed a good while ahead of us and came in 3rd place, which made us proud and Esther very happy! The children were rewarded with toffee apples at the finish line.... before we loaded them in to the back of our boot to go home. They were far too muddy to sit on the car seats!!