i’m off to the park early this morning for walktheirwalk, a walkathon to benefit children in zambia via building schools and clean water wells. it was birthed by a few friends of mine who used to be middle school ministry volunteers at my church, and were part of the one life revolution stuff we did with our kids over the last few years (where we raised about $60,000).

princess kasune zulu flew in for the weekend, to speak at the event. and she’s speaking at all the services at our church this weekend also. an amazing speaker, princess captured the imagination of these friends of mine when they heard her speak at the national youth workers convention back in 2004. i got to have dinner with her last night, and it was so fun to see her again. tic long and i first met her in lusaka, zambia, in 2003, i think. amazing woman, passionate and gifted communicator. there’s a great article about her, in christianity today, here.

as i write this, walktheirwalk has raised $17,000. our goal is to raise $40,000, to complete a school in the small village of twachiyanda, which i got to visit with a dozen youth workers a couple years ago. we know of about 250 people who are walking the 12 miles of the walkathon tomorrow (12 miles is the average distance a child in zambia walks for school). and the world vision staff of the area covering twatchiyanda are walking 12 miles in solidarity with us tomorrow. i’m hoping we see another 50 or 100 people show up, and that the rest of the money comes in. you can give to walktheirwalk here.

oh, and, about 7 ys staff are walking, and another 5 or so are volunteering.