Today I’m turning over the writing duties to Allison Martin.  We heard from her back in December of 2007 in a Guest Review of the St Jude Marathon. Allison started running in 2005 and slowly added on the miles, completing her third marathon in October 2008. She lives and runs in Indianapolis, works at a running store, and is going back to school to teach high school English.

In the past year, I began to learn about the need for Bible translation. While I own five Bibles, there are over 2,000 language groups around the world who don’t have the Bible in their own language. These groups represent approximately 196 million people. I’m also a runner, though not a fast one, and have completed three marathons now. (Each one a little faster thankfully!) When I learned about the great need for translation, I wanted to find a way to spread the gospel and do it by running 26.2 miles!

I learned about One Verse, an affiliate of Wycliffe Bible Translators, through a friend and reached out to them to see if there was an opportunity to start a running team to raise money for Bible translation. Amazingly, the people I spoke with caught the vision and have allowed me to work with them to start Team OneVerse!

One Verse works specifically with national speakers who begin or complete the translation process for their own people group. Guided by a team of translators around the world, the Bible is steadily being translated into every language. Team OneVerse takes the preparation, determination, and energy to run a marathon and infuses it with the ability to raise funds and awareness for this translation process.

How does it work? We’re starting with a focus on the Chicago Marathon, but any race is great. Runners around the country will train together on their own or in local groups. During their training, every person will set the goal to raise $1500, which is over 55 verses translated into a previously unreached language for $26 each (the average cost of translation as calculated by One Verse).

I want to invite you to join Team OneVerse and be part of the translation process through running. This is a chance for you to use the sport you love to build God’s kingdom and hopefully set a new PR in the process! If you’re not able to be part of the team physically, but feel a call to give and support the team as a necessary encourager, your prayers and involvement is needed. Please share with your friends about the team. Or maybe God has a place for you in the translation process. Please pray about where you can join Team OneVerse. You can learn more about the team at www.teamoneverse.org.

Happy Running!
~Allison

[tags] Team One Verse, Bible Translation, Chicago Marathon [/tags]