All about Mandy

I started running in high school and ran Track for 4 years at Des Moines Christian High School. I didn't really love the sport but did it because "everyone can run"! I didn't ever work at it or put my heart into running until after I got married.

My husband Tim Ives is an avid runner and it is one of his passions. I believe that is what spurred on my love of running. I started running the usual 5k and realized I was getting faster and faster. When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I decided my goal would be to complete my first marathon after he was born.

I ran throughout my pregnancy and started training for the marathon 4 weeks after Isaiah was born. I finished the Rhode Island Marathon in 3:52 and had a wonderful experience. Not to mention I was extremely sore. I decided I wanted to run a marathon between each child I had and fell in love with long distance running. I had my second child Lydia in February of 2008 and ran my second marathon, Des Moines marathon in October my goal for that race was to run in under 3:30. My time was 3:29, so I was really pleased.

I have wanted to support the Pines and would love to go there for a visit and to help them, but with my family and the time commitment it requires, have not been able to do so. This is where this crazy run comes in to play. I felt like I was being pulled to join this relay team and that could be a way I could serve the Pines with a talent God had given me. I am really excited about what God is going to do through this and can't wait to see the results!

Some background on the Pines

This is a little bit more about where the Pines is located and the culture and history

The Pines Christian Care Centre for Children

The Pines is located in the city of Welkom, South Africa. Welkom is in the Free State, which is the central part of the country. The landscape around the Free State is very similar to the Panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas - typically very flat, grassy, and arid. The population is small and spread out.

Welkom itself was founded in the early 1950's due to the discovery of gold. Before that time it was just farmland. When the town was founded over 3 million trees were planted. Welkom is famous for it's traffic circles. In fact, before we moved to South Africa we met a few different South Africans that had moved to the US. When we would tell them we were moving to their country without fail they would respond with a list of how beautiful it is and all the places we need to visit. We would inform them we were moving to Welkom and without fail the response was "Oh...I've heard the traffic is really nice there." And they are right on both counts - South Africa has many beautiful places and Welkom has nice traffic. Amber at first was terrified to drive in the roundabouts; remember, in South Africa the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, you drive on the opposite side of the road, and everything is a manual transmission. She is getting quite adept but there is still a little trepidation. We are used to driving in Iowa where everything is nice and square, north and south. Here the roads wind and curve all over the place so it takes awhile to get familiar with the layout of the city. Northeast of Welkom proper is Thabong. During Apartheid the races had to live in separate areas and Thabong became the black township of Welkom.

The Pines is located almost straight south of the city center. We are on the edge of town but on the opposite side of the township. We do have people living nearby in old mine hostels and in informal settlements but the majority of the population is about 10km away. This has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand it would be much more convinient to be closer, and it would enable different aspects to the ministry, but on the other hand security would be a much greater concern. In addition, we would have even more people than we do now stopping to ask for help, handouts, or employment. All around are old mine buildings and closed mine shafts. These serve as a constant reminder of the struggles of the people here. At their peak, the mine companies employed about 200,000; now the number is down to 30,000. The unemployment rate in Thabong is about 80%. The HIV infection rate is estimated by local doctors to be 50%. The spread of HIV can be traced back to the employment policies and living conditions of the miners. No one is originally from Welkom - it is a melting pot of South African culture as people came from all over the country and even the continent seeking employment. Most of them would leave wives and families back home. The miners would be housed in tiny hostel rooms, with up to a dozen men per room. Prostitution was rampant which in turn became the vehicle for the spread of HIV and other diseases. These miners would then return to their families and it quickly turned into a pandemic infecting the continent and the world.

The Pines currently has 24 children, all housed within the main, "L"-shaped building. Eventually we hope to add an additional 4 flats in the second building and 1 more flat in the main building, allowing us to have 54 children. The goal is to have 5 flats of 6 girls each housed in the main building, and 4 flats of 6 boys each housed in the second building. To this point we have had about 5 teams come each year to help with projects. Many of these teams do fundraising before they come, allowing us to obtain the funds we need to complete those projects. Without these teams the work accomplished so far at The Pines would be impossible. I want to thank everyone who has made the effort to join a team and commit their time and resources to this work. We also want to encourage more people and churches to consider forming a team to serve here. It has a tremendous impact on the kids and ministry here, and to a person every team member says that they have left different than when they came. If you're interested in joining or forming a team contact me at louisotool@gmail.com.

Andrew's Info

Ok, ok... it's time to finally get something on this site. I have been sitting in the wings watching Brad take charge of this thing for a while. All I can say is it has been amazing to see it start to take shape from an idea to something we are actually going to do! I am really blessed to have been involved in this from the beginning!

So I'm sure an autobiography is in order. I promise I won't be too boring. :-)

Just like Brad, I was also a chubby kid growing up. I was definitely a bi-product of the "Nintendo" generation to which most sociologists show great distain. I ate, sat, ate and sat some more on my quest to not doing anything outside.

It wasn't always like this. I was a skinny little kid at one point. I played soccer, baseball and other typical kid sports and also like Brad was a TERRIBLE athlete. Not to say I didn't like those sports, but unfortunately I just lacked the required hand-eye coordination and motor skills to score points in anything. Somewhere after 7th grade basketball I decided trying to compete with the ultra-athletic kids in my class was completely futile and I then quit all sports.

At one point I had gotten up to 245 pounds on a 5'6" frame with no end in sight. Fortunately, God occasionally hands us situations that force us to change and I woke up one morning my junior year of high school with the worst stomach ache of my life. This ultimately turned into emergency appendectomy surgery and a subsequent loss of ten pounds. My physical condition forced me to not eat for several weeks and I couldn't believe how much better I felt just a few pounds lighter. I was working at McDonalds part-time at the time (an AWESOME job for a fat kid!) and decided to radically change my diet.

Fortunately for me, at the time they had delicious salads (this was before their experimental phase with McSalad shakers and now whatever weird concoctions they put on the entrees like oranges and pecans...) so I decided to eat nothing but vegetables and fruits. Ten pounds became twenty which eventually turned into ninety. I know, I know... it sounds like a lot but I can definitely say puberty had a lot to do with it.

With my new energy, body and attitude I decided to get back into sports. Unfortunately, stinking at coordination-heavy sports doesn't change whether or not you are skinny or fat so I decided track and cross country were the way to go from there. I remember joining the track team my junior year and not being able to run four laps around the track. I think I was down to 175 at that point and was ready to start pushing myself but had been out of exercise for so long that it just wasn't possible to run for more than a minute or two at a time.

Little by little I got better and by senior year was doing fairly well at distance running. I don't think anyone would ever call me a speed demon, but I did beat some people and felt way better about myself. High school ended with good spirits all around.

Then came college and alcohol. I did what I needed to do to get by and graduate but I also spent way too much time at the bars and not doing my homework. I still ran at this point but it was usually a sporadic 20 minutes here and there. I always knew growing up that I wanted to run a marathon but could never motivate myself enough to make it happen. I HATED running hungover but didn't do anything about it until later.

Graduating from college and getting dropped into the real world was enough for me to make the decision to stop drinking and start running. I knew I couldn't drink like other people and I just had so many other things I wanted to get done in my life. I started slowly, running small distances here and there and little by little my mileage improved. Working at a call center and loathing my career motivated my hobby as it became all I thought about while call after call came pouring in.

On impulse, I signed up for the Dam to Dam race and Des Moines Marathon in 2006. I trained for both and by the time May rolled around I was in the best shape of my life. I was able to use that runners "high" to propel me into the race finishing with a time under five hours and happy to make the accomplishment. Everyone who says a marathon is a life-changing experience is absolutely on the money when they make the claim.

Graduate school and work quickly took over the next two years after that and I started to fall away from running. Fortunately I didn't quit completely but frequency became an issue. Graduating with my MBA in 2008 was a great accomplishment, but all I could think of at that point was getting the miles going again. Little by little I have been doing more and more since and I am now almost back to my old long run schedule.

I travel for a living, so getting in more than three or so runs a week is nearly impossible. I try to do the best with the hand I have been dealt and remember that there are people out there facing more difficult situations every day. More than anything, I try to remember to appreciate the times God has given me to stretch and run a good distance on a nice warm day.

I can't wait to start earning money for the orphanage. I also can't wait to enjoy the social part of the run. I know many of the team's families are going to be going with us so it should be a big FUN God party every day we are out. God is definitely working throughout this whole project, so I'm going to do whatever I can to glorify him in the coming months!