Week 0

My first race for 2020 will not be in until February.  I plan on doing Be My Muddy Valentine with my son which is a 5K obstacle course.  It will be our third time doing it.  Finding a race in January presented some challenges.  They were either the morning of New Years Day and I don't want to roll out of bed early for that.  Or they were on Sundays which is a difficult day for me to get away.

My current plan is to run my longest race in 2020 in Newport on May 30th.  That would be the Newport Marathon on the Oregon coast which is one of my favorite places on earth.  It makes sense to run a marathon there.  If I am following Hal Higdon's Marathon 3 program, next week would be Week 1.  This training program is 24 weeks instead of 18.  I followed it when I ran my fourth marathon in Minneapolis in 2015.  I tried following it for the last marathon earlier this year (January of 2019).  I went from very little running to training.  I suffered an ankle injury around Week 9.  I had to decrease my mileage and I basically created my own training plan.  I was able to run the marathon but I did not get the kind of training I had hoped for.  Now since I ran a 1/2 only a few weeks ago, my mileage is high.  I will tailor the program to what I specifically want to work on.

Monday = Track Run.  4 x 400 with 400 recovery.
Tuesday = Group Ride
Wednesday = Ran 5 miles on Christmas morning.
Thursday = Swam 1100 yards
Friday = Hiked Drift Creek Falls 3 miles
Saturday = Ran 3 miles on the beautiful beach in Lincoln City.  One of my favorite places to run.  Not as nice at high tide with less beach but still doable.

Sunday = Rest day.  But I did actually go for a short hike with family through the Agnes Creek trail.  The trail was not well marked so I am not sure how well we followed it. It was a nice little walk regardless.

Why I am running 10 races in 2020

My name is Amy. I have been in the ministry my whole life.  From pastor's kid to youth director to a seminary intern's wife to a pastor's wife. Now I am raising three pastor's kids of my own.

 Rob and I met in the coffee shop of our little college in the fall of 1998. We were married in the college chapel  in 2001 by my dad. We lived in Western Michigan after graduation.  I worked as a youth director and always had a second (and at one point third) job to put Rob through seminary. 

 Our oldest child was born at the beginning of his last year of seminary in the fall of 2005. In May of 2006 Rob graduated with his Masters of Divinity. We left the comforts of the Midwest where most of my family lived and moved across the country to Oregon. We hardly had a dollar to our name but we were ready for an adventure.  Thankfully we had a house and a job waiting for us in Oregon.  Rob began a position as senior pastor and thirteen a half years later we are still right where we started.

I stayed at home for a few years when the children were little.  Then I ran an in home day care for four years which still allowed me to be at home.  Then I took a leap of faith in the fall of 2017 and started a full time job as a preschool teacher assistant and worked towards an associates degree in early childhood education.  Now I am a preschool teacher and earned my degree only a few short weeks ago.

  Every lifestyle has its joys and challenges.  Being in the ministry is no exception.  When people are struggling with conflict or issues in their careers or personal life, they can come to church and receive spiritual nourishment from their pastor.  They are free to converse about the problems they are facing in their jobs.  It can be a challenge if you are the pastor or married to the pastor and there are problems in your ministry career.  Where do you receive spiritual nourishment and strength?  It takes a little more effort.

  I realize people do encourage us ministry folk to “real” because we are normal people like everyone else. Sometimes in certain situations, there is a cost. Sometimes it can negatively affect a pastor’s career when his wife is in distress and not handling it in positive ways.   You might hear about pastor’s wives complaining about feeling lonely or disconnected and this could be a reason why.

Ministry burn out is real.  The scary thing is your pastor and/or pastor’s wife might be experiencing it and you do not even know it.  Some of us learn to hide it and not all of us have people we can converse with about it.  Your pastor or pastor’s wife might be running on empty and you are not seeing any symptoms.  Because Sunday morning might not be when you would see them.

I cannot speak for every ministry couple.  I can only speak from I have learned in my own life. I am not advocating you give your pastor or his wife more gifts or encouragement notes especially if you are already doing so.  What I am saying is they might need more than what you are able to give them.  Counseling.  A sabbatical.  A marriage retreat.  

Although we were not in any type of crisis, we started our sabbatical the summer of 2017 by attending a marriage retreat in Prescott, Arizona with 1010 Ministries.  This was life changing and allowed us to sift through issues that had gone untouched for several years.  We received practical tools on how to navigate through difficult times in the ministry.  Most importantly we were able to strengthen our relationship with God and one another.  

In 2020, I am committing to running 10 races with the goal of creating mental health awareness especially to those in the ministry and supporting 1010 ministries.  Here is how you can be involved:  Share with your pastor or those you might know in the ministry who could benefit from a marriage retreat or counseling services through 1010 Ministries.  Make a $10 donation to 1010 Ministries.  You can make your donation in memory or in honor of someone in the ministry such as a pastor, youth pastor, missionary or pastor’s spouse. I will be posting  link in a few weeks. I know many people donate to multiple causes.  I am making it my mission to collect small $10 donations in hopes to pay for one pastor’s cost to attend a retreat with 1010.

I will update this blog with race reports of my 10 races (which I realize for you non-runners is not very exciting to read and that is OK!) and what I have learned along the way about mental health and the ministry.  I don’t have all the answers or any of them for that matter.  I have learned many things in my lifetime I am eager to share.