“Hands Up! Okay, let’s see if we can touch our toes. That’s right, all the way down to our toes!”
The instructions resounded in the August morning air as a member of the Malton Seventh-day Adventist Church led their fellow church members in a round of stretches before beginning a 10 km trek through the Humber Arboretum Trail in Toronto.
Instead of sleeping in that Sunday morning, over 20 dedicated participants were up and ready to go. They were exercising to help people in poverty and those affected by disasters.
The Malton Fun Run, organized by Wayne Kennedy, Urma Tomby, and their colleagues in the Personal Ministries Department, has been an annual event since 2014. The driving force behind this event is a love for ADRA’s mission of serving humanity so all may live as God intended. The Malton church members decided that it was time for them to make an impact in the world.
After weeks of asking for support, participants came together on August 25, 2019, to run, walk, or cycle down the Humber Trail. They spoke with others in the community about the reason for their presence. Not keeping the message of ADRA to themselves, they bridged the gap between the church and the community and created friendships.
Brother Kennedy and Sister Tomby don’t want the Fun Run to remain just at Malton. They dream of the day when the event will spread and all Adventist churches, along with community agencies, come together to participate in an annual event to help relieve suffering. This dream may soon come true as the church and ADRA become more familiar in the community.
Sister Tomby recounts, “I remember giving a lady at another community event one of our pledge forms. She took the form and when we met again a few weeks later she had collected $250. She said that she loved what ADRA was doing. At this year’s Fun Run, she and two other friends participated. They enjoyed the day and will be coming each year.”
The Fun Run not only has good reviews from the community, it’s also appreciated by the church family.
When asked his thoughts on the event, an elder said, “My whole family had a great time participating in the ADRA Fun Run, including my one-year old daughter! It’s outstanding that something so simple for us can make such a great impact for others. We encourage anyone that wants to truly affect lives to participate in this event in the future. It was something so powerful, yet it was something so simple that a one year old could do it.”
Our sincere thanks to the Malton Seventh-Day Adventist Church for generously giving their time and resources not only to fundraise for ADRA but also to raise awareness in their community of the work that Adventists are doing in Canada and around the world.
