What a result!!!!
Recently we posted on this website that Lynda’s brother, Stephen Hulcoop, was running his 20th London Marathon, this year in aid of Paraclete’s work in Zimbabwe. Praise God for the results of his magnificent efforts.
Stephen completed the 26 miles 365 yards in 4 hours 51 minutes and 35 seconds coming in 23,578th out of approximately 36,000 runners. During the course of the race, he wad interviewed twice by BBC reporters, once being able to highlight the plight of Zimbabwe and the work of PCNI, and also found time to entertain the crowds by standing on his head and skipping! One reporter asked why he did such antics and Stephen replied, “It helps to entertain the onlookers and gives me a bit of a rest from the running!!!” Many of us saw one of his interviews on TV live and caught glimpses of him in the evening highlights which was very exciting!!!
Prior to the race, Lynda decided it would be good to get a Special PCNI Operation Zimbabwe T-shirt made which would stand out in the crowd and highlight our charity. This took a long time to arrive in the post but fortunately came one day before the marathon took place. The T-shirt was well worth the effort since it raised several important and useful conversations with onlookers, participants and even passengers on the London underground on the way home!!!
The outcome of all this is that Stephen has managed to raise approximately £2000 in sponsorship money for Operation Zimbabwe. We sent news of this to Jonah who was delighted, saying that this had come just at a time when spirits were getting low that the situation in Zimbabwe would ever improve. However this reminded him forcefully that he has brothers and sisters in other parts of the world standing with the Zimbabwean people and encouraging them to press on, keep going and wait for a new day to dawn - all a very appropriate response to someone running a marathon pressing on physically through hardship, pain and exhaustion to reach a goal. (1 Corinthians 9 vv 24-27, Philippians 3 vv 12-14)
Our very grateful thanks and congratulations go to Stephen for his discipline, commitment, energy and effort in running the marathon for the people of Zimbabwe, and for his hard work in speaking about our projects and inspiring people to donate the £2000. Thanks to each one who contributed – rest assured that all your money will reach our workers in Zimbabwe and will be used fully and specifically for our projects. May God bless you all for your generosity. Revd Lynda Hulcoop
P.S. please take time to view some action photos – some during and some taken after the event - but giving us a flavour of the day and giving visual images of the things just mentioned.
