In the fall of 2006 our church and children’s Christian School hosted an outdoor concert for Steven Curtis Chapman. His music has been a passion for Tony and I for many years, and we were blessed to be with Steven and his road manager, David Trask, after the concert. I watched Tony and David enjoy talking to each other and he invited us to the upcoming ministry event for Show Hope, Steven and Mary Beth’s foundation that raises money and awareness for Christian adoption and orphan needs.
We went to Nashville in November, 2006 for the Show Hope Annual Ministry Event and took a backseat to view what God was doing there. It was there that we became aware of the countless needs of the world’s 130,000,000 orphans and how God had blessed families through adoption. Tony began to consider running for a purpose to help Show Hope and Orphan causes and founded the organization of Running Hope.
In June 2007, our family traveled to Beijing and Luoyang China. We served at the orphanages and got to know others who enjoyed serving the children and are devoting their lives to helping them, like Robin Hill and Dr. Joyce Hill at Hope Foster Care. One of the special little children there was a little girl named Sara. She was a delight to our family and God touch our hearts and began to challenge us to consider adoption. We began the adoption process in August of 2007 and started to prepare for a little girl to become apart of our family.
In 2008, Running Hope began to participate in Expos around the country and join with others in the running community to invite them to an opportunity to run for the life- changing cause of helping Orphans around the world. Many runners, partners and sponsors have already joined Running Hope to making a difference and so can you. We invite you to join us —it’s the difference you can make to help and realize, “the blessing is not what we do for Orphans, but what they do for us”
Tony and Marilyn Amburgy
