Hi Friends! We’re making significant progress and are almost complete w/ initial phase. We came in faith with 5 loaves and 2 fish…please pray that God continues to meet our project’s needs! www.hugsfortug.org

“We must fight”

I was walking with one of the older boys and he was telling me about how they must ‘fight’ here to do well in school. They must fight for books (not literally) – but must fight to get books to read/study, etc. Wow. Such a different perspective.

I want to be a father…

As I was speaking with one of the other children, he was telling me about the recent death of his father. His mother had passed away in 1999. It is his desire to be a ‘father’ to the children….to other orphaned children. He would like to attend seminary and not necessarily be a pastor, but simply one that cares for many children. It’s great to see how God has his beautiful little heart at only 15 years old…

Water, Electricity and the greater need for Jesus…..

3 of our workers that are staying at the site witnessed the death of a local village woman (3 houses away) the other night. She had a kerosene lantern that must have fallen over and caught her home on fire. Many people tried to save her, but the flames were so great they were unable to. They watched her burn from the waste down. Please pray that she knew Jesus and that He would bless us with the funds to dig a deep bore hole (to help provide water for not only the orphanage, but the entire village) and for the funds to integrate solar into the entire project.

Breaking Ground for the new Children’s Home

Praise God! The district planner gave us permission to begin to purchase materials, dig wells for rainwater harvesting, build perimeter fencing/entrance gate for security, measure & dig perimeter of our foundation, build large “store” (covered brick making place, and storage for materials), and begin brick production. All are complete and we’re now ready to implement all of our materials! Please pray all goes smoothly! We are almost done with this phase and have received all necessary signatures for permitting!

A different type of service

We’re still in prayer about this, but we’d like to continue to create a ‘Mzungu(foreigner)-Kiswahili’ service that has both English and Swahili worship, preaching, and format. It can be hard getting 48 orphans to church on Sunday, so it seems easiest when we hold our own service in a classroom near Mama’s house. I really miss some of our great worship from back home (I was blessed to experience some in Nairobi, Kenya this last Easter weekend as I traveled up north due to VISA circumstances), and would love to have a service that could minister to our foreign visitors/volunteers and children. Right now, there is great worship here – but it’s all in Kiswahili. We’ve identified a good worship leader, pastors, translators, etc! Pray that God will establish the organizational structure and hearts to successfully implement!

“Work on the farm” Saturdays

We’ve included a few pics of our first ‘work on the family farm’ Saturday with the children! Similar to Habitat for Humanity, the families that benefit from the new home contribute the time that they can as well – obviously age & capabilities dependent. Our children are soo excited and ask us about ‘Saturdays in Uru (The village where the land is located)…..they love working alongside us in building their new home – as long as it doesn’t interfere with school, chores, and other commitments! We’ve only had a few, but hope to have many more in the future. We load up our big truck and take as many of the orphans up to the land as possible to work alongside of us and the workers! Right now, based upon age/capability, the older children have helped make bricks (kind ofJ), clear the land, take banana leaves, dig, pump water….and also just play! It’s a fun time as they also lay under the banana trees and enjoy mango’s in the afternoon! We’ve included a few pics of their smiling faces! It truly helps reduce labor costs, allows the children to be invested in their new home (w/ a sense of pride that they were a part of building it), and teaches empowerment. Right now, 95% of the labor force is local – primarily from the surrounding village/community.

Selling the family Cow

My heart hurt the other day for one of our Fundi’s (expert builders). His parents recently sold their family cow and, even as a younger man (30’s), he has been supporting his family and now his brother and children with their school fees. It’s so interesting how many older brothers and sisters work here simply to support all the needs of their siblings. Back home, parents seem to always pay for their children’s education. Here, older brothers and sisters drop out of University so their younger ones can finish primary and secondary (High School).

Summer Plans?

By God’s grace, we’ve had interest in coming to help us out this year. It seems that the U.S. summer would be the best time (as the rainy season ends in mid May). Lord willing, at our current pace, we should be able to have the first building complete in by mid summer (just in time for additional volunteer members to come join us for the summer!) Hopefully we’ll be able to stay in the first building while we work on constructing the 2nd and final building! There are also nice hotels not too far away if anyone wants to stay at those as well. We might have some medical volunteers coming to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro at the end of June and then staying to help out a bit! Please let us know if anyone doesn’t have any other plans for the summer and wants to come help build a sustainable orphanage! After flights, costs in country are minimal, especially if you’re working on the land with us! Praise Jesus for mission members that are coming this summer!

We’re definitely working through initial issues, but it always adds to the spice of Africa!

Prayer Requests:

1. Labor force. God has blessed us with a very, very good team of Fundi’s (experts) and labourers. All trustworthy and hard working.

2. Communication gaps. Gotta love 3 languages, English, Kiswahili, and Chugga (the local tribal language).

3. Rainy season slowly beginning to start (makes it tough to get trucks to site (ours gets stuck often) w/ construction materials, etc)

4. No water on the land (we used a manual foot pump machine (looks like a mini-stairstepper) to manually pump water from a local river (and then keep the 3000 L SIM tank in our truck and pump it back into buckets and another SIM that we’ve placed on the land for construction water – but we have had to port drinking water in until the local mama’s have provided for the workers).

5. Financial Concerns

a. We’re purchasing materials, prioritizing what we need the most at this stage (ie, cement, bricks, stones) so we can beat the initial rainy season, but we are in need of more financial support in order to complete the build.

Prayer Requests:

1. ALL Praises!

a. Complete Healing for our bodies!

b. Breaking ground!

c. God blesses us financially. He keeps laying on our hearts 5 loaves and 2 fish!….as we’re purchasing many materials and trusting God deposits at the right time!

d. I got my local driver’s license in hand recently! Watch out Tanzania!

e. Permit – We received our final permits earlier this week!

f. We love the African people!

g. Please Pray we can sell our FUSO truck and get a good, reliable pickup to buy basic materials (cement, lumber, etc.) and use remaining funds towards the project. We’ve had several low offers and are praying for a good solid offer. This is really one of our biggest needs!

h. Pray that it only rains when we’re not working on the land….Praise Jesus!

God’s blessings!

Praise God! The district planner gave us permission to dig wells, measure & dig perimeter of our foundation, build large “store” (covered brick making place, and storage for materials), and most importantly, begin brick production (ISSB brick making is endorsed by the U.N., currently being utilized in the large Somalian refugee camps (interlocking stabilizing soil block of 85% soil, 10% sand, and only 5% cement – and doesn’t require any fire/kilning – so super good for the environment and using soil straight from the land!). Please pray all goes smoothly! We are allowed to do this much while we wait for final drawings to come through! We just can’t lay the cement of the Foundation or build vertical until final stamps. Pray we get permits next week!

We’re definitely working through initial issues, but it always adds to the spice of Africa!

1. Labor force (as African’s just enjoy showing up, start working with you and then expect to be paid J)…and when they’re so poor, it’s hard to not try to throw them on the project/tasks as there is plenty of work that needs to be done – but then we have 2 labor forces going w/ compensation from different sources (our team/contractor’s team)

2. Communication gaps (contractor understanding one way vs. more forward thinking methodologies with other ways (yet still consistent w/ local culture and help reduces future headaches/costs/etc…..ie, building a VIP Latrine (Ventillation Improved Pit – completely takes smell out of an improved outhouse w/ separate piping, allowing for natural lighting w/ North facing door – it’s out backup in case the land doesn’t have water in the future to run toilets),

3. Rainy season slowly beginning to start (makes it tough to get trucks to site (ours almost got stuck today) w/ construction materials, etc)

a. And contractors want to purchase all of our sand, gravel, and stones (31 dump trucks worth!) – which we don’t have the money for today! Once the rain comes, trucks won’t be able to deliver to the land. We’re thinking about splitting the loads (so just bringing in the first building’s needs (16 trucks) …..and we’re still working out where we can put it all (as our bricks take up a big portion of the site (currently, the future entrance/parking area).

4. No water on the land (we used a ‘super money maker’ machine (foot pump that looks like a mini-stairstepper) to pump water from a local river (and then keep the 3000 L SIM tank in our truck and pump it back into buckets on the land for construction water – but we have to port drinking water in).

5. Financial Concerns

a. We’re purchasing our materials, prioritizing what we need the most (ie, cement – so brick production can continue until complete), yet currently do not have enough to finish the project.

Prayer Requests:

1. ALL Praises!

a. Healing for our feet, throat, Georgey’s malaria

b. Breaking ground

c. Machete’s take down banana trees quickly! (Sad too…but we’ll plant more plants around the buildings!)

d. God blesses us financially. He keeps laying on our hearts 5 loaves and 2 fish!….as we’re starting to purchase everything and trusting God deposits at the right time!

e. I got my local driver’s license completed and should have in hand in 7 days (It only takes the first trip to TRA (Tax Revenue Authority) Driver’s license division to get your photo, fill out the app (and if the Internet doesn’t work, then you have to come back another day – which happened 2x to me J – and as you wait in line, several locals are nicely huddled around the few desks waiting to be served – as they don’t have a numbering system), then you go to the police station (which is driving distance) to get first signatures, then back to TRA with the initial police signatures, then back to the police station (so they can sign more documents and put your ‘driving’ class in the computer), and then back to TRA for them to check if police endorsed class in their computer system, and then to the bank (to pay the government fee – mitigates any additional ‘special’ costs for expediting), and then back to TRA in 7 or so days to get license!

f. Permit – Lord willing, pray we get our permit next week!

g. We love Africa!

God’s blessings,

Hugs for TU.G. 2012 Mission Team

One of the prayers from a friend in Cape Town, Shaianne, was that we would ‘see & meet Heidi Baker somehow.’ From Cape Town, Nick and I took a quick, inexpensive flight back to Johannesburg and then a 10+ hour bus ride to Maputo, Mozambique. We have only known how to make it to the next city . Maputo only took us into Mozambique (right above Swaziland), but was just a lateral movement to the east coast. Seems kind of confusing. God often works in counter-intuitive ways. As Cape was our foundation, Mozambique was a catalyst for growth.

We arrived at IRIS ministries in Northern Mozambique on December 23rd, just in time to celebrate Christmas evening w/ Heidi and her 200 – 300 children. It was truly quite an experience. Picture a few hundred children, ALL with candles, running around trying to put out everyone else’s candles by blowing on them, water guns, water guns w/ out water (just pumped air), fingers, etc.! It is truly a canvas of beautiful, joyful, holy chaos. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard as hot wax fell on my hands, arms, and head! The children are so beautiful and free to love.

The Christian church model in Africa and with IRIS ministries in particular seems to look like a church, orphanage, school, medical/health clinic, and community outreach center. The ministries of the church include the infamous ‘bush-bush’ outreach (teams going into the bush for multiple days, sharing Jesus’ love by living, providing for and developing relationship w/ the locals – and then sharing about His life saving message.

Angels on the Outskirts. Would you expect to hear a choir of angels inside of an African prison? As our good friend Dennis (Australia) says, he sees a special place in God’s choir in heaven for the prisoners in Northern Mozambique. A small team of us joined the orphanages prison outreach, led by former prisoners.

In the two hours we were there, God blessed us with great worship, 6 – 7 conversions for Him, and others asking for healing. At first, to be entirely honest, I was just a little skeptical about how many new men came forward to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and savior. I briefly thought to myself, “Have these men come up before and are just going through the motions again?” Before I said anything I would regret, our dear friend, Karen, who has an amazing prophetic gifting, saw “Jesus with a large sickle, reaping the harvest….and Jesus opening the book of life and putting each man’s name in it that day.” Jesus reminded her that it was Him that was doing everything, we just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

A similar scenario happened again the next week.

When we look at our past Christmases, I think the only time we ever missed Christmas with the fam was when we were with the Marines. At first, coming from Utah winters, it seemed like Christmas wouldn’t really be felt. However, the Holy Spirit gave us the best Christmas present ever – and not one gift was opened, we were in 100+ degree weather with humidity, using toilets that couldn’t flush the toilet paper down the toilet, sleeping under mosquito nets, and eating rice and beans multiple times per day (often with our hands).

We were in the ‘prayer hut’ with our international team of Australians, Norwegians, Americans, and Germans. It was our second night of prayer together (as we had just arrived there), and the team offered to lay hands on Cousin Nick and pray for him. “A lightning bolt came down and hit Nick…and then a ‘dove’ descended upon him.” It was beautiful. The prayer started slow and gentle, and then moved into such an amazing time of worship. Nick received several prophecies from friends such as “God is handing you a gift basket to give to the Nations” and “When you want to talk to God, grab a guitar and play to Him as if it were your cell phone.” God subsequently blessed Nick with the gift of prophetic visions.

Whenever he prayed for others, he was able to share beautiful visions with them. Prior to this trip, neither he nor I would receive visions that openly. A friend, Karen, saw that God was ‘taking a band-aid off of my prophetic gifting’ and was healing it. What a Christmas. We were also blessed to have ‘gold dust’ appear often on arms & body parts.

Our new years eve was spectacularly laid back as well. We were blessed to have a YWAM (Youth with a Mission) team that had just arrived to celebrate with us. A friend, Rich (Australia) and I went into the village to pray for a friend that thought he had malaria. When we first began to pray for healing for our friend, he was covered in sweat. At the end of our prayer, his sweat was gone and he still seemed a little tired, but he ended up going out that night to celebrate the new years! Afterwards, we worshiped w/ the YWAM team, and then a handful of us went to the beachfront w/ some of the children and watched multiple firework shows from different points on the beach!

We really appreciate everyone’s continued prayers and support. We have a few prayer requests, but one in particular…Siracha Sauce!! It would be sooo good to put on our rice & beans….and perhaps 80% of the rest of our meals.

Prayer Requests:

1. Village Committee Meeting this week (where the land is located)

2. Building materials & costs to remain low

3. Local Labor force costs to be honest, trustworthy, and hard working

4. Borehole / Water Well to be inexpensive and implemented quickly for water on the land (right now, the other water source is currently out of water L).

5. Building construction & funding

6. Safety for the construction team / volunteers on the land – to be supported by the village/community and for Angels to continue to bless the land!

7. Empowerment for the local villagers and wisdom for us in teaching entrepreneurship / local employed villagers using micro-financing mindset with their wages (ie, buying male & female pigs / farming)

8. That we can begin phase one next week! All the doors seem to be open and the design/plans complete w/ bio-gas, solar, well-placement, temporary storage/sanitation, etc.

As Nick and I were on a short flight from Northern Mozambique to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the flight had plastic silverware and air conditioning. We relished both. When we were at the orphanage in Mozambique, silverware was generally not provided with the rice and beans – as it is local custom to ‘scoop’ w/ one’s hands. We would try and remember to take a spoon or fork w/ us, but often times forgot. When in Rome. As we sat on the short flight, we actually both saved the plasticware…really thinking it would come to good use later on. It’s funny what we savor when we don’t have something…this is the first time for silverware for me.

As it is always our hope to carefully listen to the Lord, preserve capital for the development, and learn best practices from other successful NGO’s (Non-governmental Organization) overseas, our trip to Tanzania only took 27 days and consisted of initially 36+ hours of plane travel, 18 hours of bus travel, 1 hour of plane travel, 10 hours of bus travel, 36 hours of car travel (with Duy driving on African roads for 2000 kilometers (we do not have potholes in America compared to Africa…and dirt roads in Africa are truly dirt) with little to no sleep for nearly 3 days straight), 4 hours of bus travel (with a small stomach bug and no bathroom on the bus – and a stop at a small village with a room in a building that didn’t have running water), 1 hour flight…and our final bus travel of 9 hours to be completed this week to our target orphanage.

We have been able to go through 3 sets of customs, visa requirements, & African borders. We have been stopped by policia in Mozambique – 2 legitimate police check-points on our drive and a near fine for having too much ‘luggage’ in our car (which would have been an illegitimate fine had our Mozambique national not have an uncle who just happened to be the general commander of all the police in Mozambique) and another very corrupt police officer that stopped us as we walked down the street for a random passport check (full story later on) and took one of our friends to the police station. We have only gotten stopped once in Tanzania by the police (so far) for taking pictures of a beautiful government building.

What is truly beautiful is how the good Lord landed us in Johannesburg safely and then fully direct the entire trip. We generally only know the next leg of our journey. We land in one city (because that is all that is available to get booked) and pray (lots!) that God would direct how long we stay there and how and where we go to next – ideally (but not always) all in the general direction of our development site.

We now have quite a little process – after we set our feet on the ground, one of us explores bus tickets, the other plane tickets (if flights even go into these small cities), change currency, buy a local SIM card, research lodging (all of this w/out the Internet btw)…while asking/talking to friendlies about their opinions on all of these areas. Often times, cost and travel availability (ie, is a bus or cheap flight going to that next destination point) provide a clear picture of God’s will for that portion of our trip.

On the other hand, we have made lifetime friendships from all over the world (Lord willing), been blessed with a greater abundance of spiritual giftings (God has blessed us both with the gift of prophetic visions (A gift I’ve been desiring for so long now J) and, as our Norwegian friend prophesied, showing us ‘new dimensions’ of who He is and His unending love), enjoyed many great & authentic meals, learning, in our opinion, one of the most beautiful African languages (Swahili – the language of “The Lion King”), finally learning the guitar! (8 chords down and 2 – 3 songs played really slow!), and, most importantly, been blessed to share Christ’s love serving the children and people of S. Africa, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

We recently left Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We were in Dar for one week and feel that our purpose there was nearly accomplished and prayerfully waited for God’s green light to move onto Moshi. While we have been here, we have had several meetings each day, consisting of organizations such as the U.S. Embassy, several government ministries (Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, etc as it is our desire to understand the requirements of what we would like to see for the long-term vision of the orphanage), Tanzanian corporations, builders/contractors….and of course, some good R&R time with ‘decade’ friends.

“A Vision the Lord shared with me: We were on a dusty road in a little town w/ our backpacks on. A large semi or bus drove up, picked us up, and then we were off into the countryside. In the far distance was Mt. Kilimanjaro. As the bus drove across the countryside, a fleet of airplanes (boeing/passenger type), flew in a v-type formation closely behind us.”

“Vision: We were on winged unicorns looking over the landscape from a tall building. Mt. K was in the far distance. The unicorns jumped from the ledge of the building, landed on the ground, and then took off and began to soar across the countryside.”

From Bizness to the Cape

The first portion of our journey was truly a blessing and a ‘rest’ before a rigorous, yet blessed adventure. Our initial flight over was just an initial taste of how our trip would look – without certainty and no set agenda. Always being cost conscious to reserve as many funds for the new Children’s home, we were blessed to receive 2 buddy passes from the Dunsing family from Good Shepherd. We were fortunate to make both our flight from SLC to Atlanta and, by God’s grace, were bumped to business class from Atlanta to Johannesburg. After landing in Jo-burg, we anticipated taking Greyhound type buses through Victoria falls, onto Lusaka (Zambia & Pastor Elijah’s Oasis Village), and then land in Tanzania. We arrived in the evening in Jo-burg and was told to not go to the bus station late at night, so we checked into a hotel.

After a few long conversations and addt’l research with travel companies, there were no buses directly to Victoria Falls in the upcoming week. As we were spending time w/ Jesus that night, we felt the Lord give direction to ‘go to the coast’ & ‘relieve our burden’. We left our large luggage at the guest house and headed to the bus station the next day. Again, all doors were closed to Victoria Falls and after a long 18 hours (also blessed as the bus drivers were Christian and ‘worshipped’ with our guitar in the front cabin), we arrived in the marvelous city of Cape Town (during their summer) for a personally expensed portion of our trip.

We immediately walked to the beach and stumbled upon a sand volleyball tournament. We played volleyball the rest of the afternoon, enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the beach, and were blessed to make our first friends in Cape. On Sunday, I went to a wonderful church service at “Point Community” where the Lord provided some divine relationships. I actually was walking to a different church that morning, but as I was walking by Point, I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to go into this little church called Point. A couple of unique relationships – one was with a friend that started the African Brand of clothing, Magents. Another was with the owner of a local Christian modeling agency, Grace Models. From mtg w/ the agency, I learned a little about Visa’s, working in S. Africa, paying taxes, etc.

After the service, we were blessed to see the end of the Volvo World Boat show. I think 7 – 9 countries are represented in this vigorous race. The day was beautiful as we walked around the waterfront, had lunch, and got to experience a little bit about this stage of the race. As we were walking home around 5 p.m., we heard some music coming from a building that we found out to be “New Life Church” (the original church I was going to go to) in Seapoint. We walked into the church and happened to stumble upon their Christmas service.

We were warmly welcomed and invited to a little wine party afterwards! The rest of the week seemed to be filled with more divine appointments and new, wonderful friendships. We took an afternoon surfing, hiking one of the natural ‘7 wonders of the world’, Table Top Mountain & Lion’s head, drove along the coast, grilled with friends, etc. We were also blessed to attend Hillsong United’s Christmas service at their local church, as well as another Christmas concert that had the S. African Symphonic Orchestra, Victoria Sampson (author/singer of Africa Dreams), and several more great performances. This week helped establish our foundation for the rest of our trip, as our travel plans up to Tanzania were initially established through prayer and friends from Cape.

It would seem that in western culture, leftovers aren’t cool, enjoyed, and definitely not cherished as much as in other cultures. It’s funny how our perception of perfectly fine food doesn’t seem ‘as good’ or ‘healthy’ if we take it home, in a clean box, and put it in our cold refrigerator.

My heart broke the other day as we were blessed to watch the feeding of about 3,700 people in the local community on Christmas. One of the security guards at Iris Ministries in Northern Mozambique (Heidi Baker’s first orphanage development) had to pull a small bowl of chicken out of a little girl’s shirt because we could not allow her to take home leftovers of chicken (rice and beans are ok to take, just no meat – particularly on the large village feeding days).

Why can’t a child that is hungry not be able to take food to her home, share with her family or possibly save some for another time? Why does she have to be protected from other village Children rioting and possibly beating her up on her way home? As I watched the scenario unfold, my heart was tenderized. I was directed to pick up the little girl and bring her back into the compound away from all the village children at the gate. We gave her the option of eating the food right then, but she just cried and cried. Why can’t the world’s wealthy appreciate leftovers? Why do we throw away so much food?

“When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together,and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.” John 6:12 & 13

I’ve always wondered how Jesus and his 12 disciples fed 4,000. Did they have lines? How long did it take? If we were to feed 4,000 today, how long would we have to cook? How long would it take to feed 4,000 and make sure no one would double up? Would that feeding time feed the entire village, or just the women and children? What would you feed them on Christmas day? How many Christmases would we sacrifice in order to help prolong 4,000 children’s lives?

In our experience, the orphanage cooked the entire night before to be prepared for the village feeding. They had several controlled lines administered by volunteers (to ensure safety and protection for the orphanage children as well). The process took about 5 – 6 hours. They put everyone’s thumb in a blue iodine dye to mark that they had already been through the line.

We were blessed to give them rice, chicken, cabbage, and a soda pop! What is even more amazing – IRIS has a daily feeding program, M – F, that feeds 400 – 600 children from the nearby village (just rice and beans). The program is actually ENTIRELY handled by the 15 – 17 year orphan boys! From prayer, a friend, Rose (USA), showed us that the reason we saw this orphanage setup is that, Lord willing, we would be implementing some of what they are doing at our new development as well! It is our sincere prayer that our children, our orphans at Tuleeni, will move from being supported to feeding & empowering their little village in the future.

Summer 2011 Mission Video from Hugs for Tugs on Vimeo.

KSL News Radio Interview

Black Tie Event & Missionary Farewell

Friday, December 2nd

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (8600 s. 700 e)

7 – 10 p.m.

· Special Performances of Prayer of the Children & Carmen Habanera (Singer from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), and more!

· Food graciously provided by the Olive Garden

· No cover. Free-will offering accepted to raise support for full time missionary efforts in Sub-Sahara, Africa

(T.UG.S. – Tanzania, Uganda & Sub-Sahara)

Come see a 3-D walk-through of the orphanage development and say good-bye to Nick Brunsvold & Duy Beck. They will be gone for approximately 8 months – 1 year!

By Jenny Wilden

After you’re done reading, watch the video below!

It’s just past 3:00 a.m. I’m running alone on a dark, deserted highway, lit only by moonlight and the steady beam of my headlamp. I’m two miles in to the last of my three race legs—a 3.1-miler ending with a steep uphill. Since yesterday morning, I’ve run about 10 miles and slept only two hours. Yet I feel alert as my feet strike the pavement in a steady rhythm. A blaring horn shatters the quiet night as my team van cruises by and pulls over ahead of me on the road. They refill my water bottle and cheer me on to the finish. I feel reenergized as I trek toward the runner exchange.

I trod up the hill and am just a quarter short of the end when, suddenly; a woman comes from behind and passes me! Stunned, I pick up my speed, passing her, but right before the finish she inches past, crossing the run exchange less than half a second before me. The woman cheers, and I resign myself to the fact that I’ve been killed…again. For those unfamiliar with relay-lingo, getting killed is when someone from another relay team passes you on a leg. Our team’s goal: kill as many people as possible. We memorialized said kills on the back of our van in poster marker. A little morbid to outsiders, this kill list is a great motivator to run quickly, and our total surpassed 50 when we completed our first Red Rock Relay.

Relay running is not a new concept, but this race style is rapidly gaining popularity with the continual creation of more relays. The Red Rock Relay, now in its third year, is still a newbie, and has the benefit of being smaller than many others on a varied, beautiful course. Taking place in the cooler month of September, this race challenges teams of 12 (or six if you’re hardcore) to run three (or six) legs of varying distances that add up to 185.3 miles. Teams are split into two vehicles and each alternate between running and resting from Friday morning until Saturday evening.

Called the “Snow to Sun Journey”, this race begins on a chilly chairlift ride to the top of Brian Head Resort where one team member runs a trail to the bottom, and the race’s final leg is trekking uphill to the finish in Zion National Park.Team vehicles are named either the Snow or Sun van, and both are assigned specific sets of legs. As a member of the Snow Van, my five running buddies and I had the pleasure of running first in the morning, early in the evening and insanely early the next morning (hence my 3:00 a.m. leg).

Legs range in length and intensity with a quick, nearly flat two-miler being the Snow van’s easiest and a grueling 8.4-mile uphill climb one of our most difficult. But don’t let short lengths fool you into thinking a run will be easy! One of the shortest, roughest legs, “The Diablo” had Satan-costumed sentries on course as a testament to the devilish nature of the leg’s climb…almost 1,500 feet up in less than three miles.

The Sun van faced similarly difficult and easy legs, and we took turns on the course for blocks of running time, which were broken up by short rests. While one van’s people ran, which lasts about 4–6 hours, the others showered, slept and refueled at van exchanges. These exchanges are rec centers or quiet grassy areas where racers spread their sleeping bags everywhere like a giant slumber party.

Each team member faced challenging legs, my worst was an immediate uphill climb on the first run with no flat to warm-up on beforehand. At one point, I was fairly certain my heart would burst, despite my slow speed. The Snow van’s encouragement propelled me to the finish, and I completed each subsequent leg stronger than my last.

My snow van teammates, on the other hand, are running All Stars: a high school cross country athlete, marathoners and speed demons who excelled, even in sufferable conditions like blindingly dusty trails or running with a broken toe.

So why do people do this? It sounds like a suffer-fest. Truth be told, it is, which is oddly enough what makes it fun. Running three different legs ranging from two to nine miles each in a day is enough to make anyone feel accomplished, tough and even cool. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was partly motivated by the finisher medal awaiting me, and the glory of Facebook photos of our team wearing them.
Plus, having a supportive team encourage you as you run is more rewarding than flying solo. Our team bonded when the race got hard, even painful, finishing legs for injured teammates and learning that great friendships come from great adversity.

Teams further unite themselves with names, themed costumes and van decorations. Some are eccentric, like wearing an entire chicken suit…feathers and all. Our team (The Crew) chose to support Hugs for T.U.G, a non-profit organization dedicated to building orphanages in Uganda and Tanzania. Moving Comfort and Brooks Sports generously sponsored our race attire.

Matching shorts aside, as first-time relayers, we did a few things wrong on this race. Learn from our mistakes:
• Don’t lose your teammate, even on a dusty or poorly lit trail. Better to stay obnoxiously close than miss them altogether.

• Don’t lose the same teammate again. Enough said.

• Don’t assume your cell phone will work. It won’t. Invest in two-way radios.

• Don’t plan for perfect weather. Chilling cold, freezing rain, furious hail and hot sun showed up for us. Prepare for the worst.

• Don’t bother with muffins. Unless you like them flat and crumbled. Choose apples and protein bars instead.

• Don’t bring a fifteen-passenger van…if only one person can drive it.

We also did plenty of things right. You should do them too.
• Team, team, team. Similar goals and a positive attitude make all the difference.

• Wear matching outfits and decorate your van. It’s fun, and prizes are up for grabs!

• Sleep when you can, where you can. No, you won’t get eight hours of shuteye. But a bit improves performance when your final leg rolls around.

• Pack Advil, a foam roller and a travel neck pillow. You’ll still be moving when everyone else can’t.

• Drink Zipfizz. This natural B-12 energy powder is a life elixir. Plus, the tiny tubes travel easily in a packed van.

• Bring a fifteen-passenger van. With capable drivers, you can’t beat the space. Not touching a sweaty teammate…priceless.

After completing our final legs on Saturday morning, we were exhausted to the point of delirium. All of us wanted nothing more than a shower, sleep…and possibly a few fast food breakfast burritos. Our bodies ached: sitting arduous, standing worse and a lucky few were still coughing up dirt from the trail runs the night before.
At that point, I thought, maybe relays aren’t for me. Give me a 5K any day. But after recuperating, my outlook shifted. Relay running adds a new social dimension to pounding the pavement…a change I, and many other runners, crave.
When our Sun and Snow vans crossed the finish together at about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday after a 29-hour journey, we forgot the cramping, pain, heart-pounding uphills and wild weather.

Instead, we remembered our team’s 36 strong runs and laughing together from all the learned do’s and don’ts of relay racing. And with all our new stories, we headed home, agreeing one thing: we’ll be back next year.
Ready to join the party? Get info on next year’s relays at www.redrockrelay.com.

Our Red Rock Gear Essentials
The most important part of a successful Red Rock Relay is having a great team. The second most important part is having the right gear to run in. Pick up these favorites for races, relays and night runs. You won’t be disappointed.

Moving Comfort Women’s Momentum Shorts
Comfortable, flattering and completely chafe-free, these shorts go the distance in relays and long runs. Side mesh stash pockets hold gels, and the wicking brief liner keeps you cool. Reflective details improve visibility on your middle-of-the-night legs. $36 www.movingcomfort.com

Moving Comfort Women’s Form Long Sleeve Shirt
Imagine a luxuriously soft, seamless athletic shirt that’s flattering AND pretty. Look no further. Treated with silver anti-microbial technology, this beauty keeps you stink-free, even after tough runs. Your teammates will thank you. $62 www.movingcomfort.com

Brooks Men’s Sherpa Shorts III
Popular with distance runners, these stretch-woven shell, relaxed fit shorts move with you as you sprint to exchange runners. The 4.5” inseam makes them ideal for speed. Rear holster pockets store energy gels or chews to fuel you and an internal key/ID pocket keeps important items close. $36 www.brooksrunning.com

Brooks Nightlife Infiniti Half Zip
Stand out to cars during night or early morning runs in this neon, retroreflective shirt. Great as a mid-layer or alone, this well-designed top keeps you warm in chilly temps without overheating you. $75 www.brooksrunning.com

Headsweats Dry Visibility Hat
Be seen from 300 feet further away at night in this bright hat with reflective stripes. The water-resistant Eventure fabric keeps your head dry in the rain, and a Coolmax sweatband prevents sweat from dripping. $24 www.headsweats.com

Karhu Flow Shoes
Built for competitive runners with a need for speed, the Flows are light and breathable with a supportive fit and durable outsole. Engineered to propel you forward while reducing bouncing and overpronation. Plus, I’m pretty sure the bright colors make you run faster. $110 karhu.com

GU Energy Chomps
These bite-sized snacks saved my team from cramping on our legs. Loaded with amino acids for focus, antioxidants to combat tissue breakdown, electrolytes for hydration and carbs for energy, these chomps have everything you need to fuel up…without overdoing it. Our favorite flavor is Blueberry Pomegranate. Available with or without caffeine. $2 per packet guenergy.com
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Saturday, October 8th

The Fellowship (9800 s. 615 e., Sandy, UT)

Concert begins at 7 p.m.

$12 Individual Ticket

$10 groups 6 or more

$15 at the door)

Purchase Tickets Online: www.itickets.com

For more info, call: 801-255-8181