A Message From Charlotte Run For Mercy 5K Chair - Nickie Haas!

Nickie Haas

My life has been wrecked. Passionately wrecked. Forever changed. Over three years ago I learned of Mercy Ministries and all God was doing to restore broken lives. This one thing I know - God's Word and His plan works. In every area of our lives, I have seen God display Himself as a restorer, a provider and a healer. When I began to hear the stories of God's mercy being demonstrated to these young lives, I knew immediately that God wanted me to serve Mercy in any way possible. I love knowing that God has a bigger story He is writing with the Mercy girls. He is really the only one who can take a life and make it better than the original. I am so honored and excited to serve Mercy in the Charlotte area. I know God has HUGE plans for this city to help the Mercy vision come to pass! Serving Mercy is a reminder to me that others are waiting on the other side of my obedience to serve and volunteer with Mercy. Lives are at stake. Restoration is ready to take place, and I'm so glad I get a front row seat to watch lives being made whole!

Up until last year, I had never directed or planned a 5K, so you can imagine my "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?" brain activity, when I was asked to take on the challenge. God again provided so many amazing people on my journey to help make the day such a success! I must say - it was one of the best times of my life - that's why I signed up to do it again! To watch as others in the community began to grab hold of the Mercy vision, learn about Mercy and partner to help us bring the Mercy vision to Charlotte was just incredible! I'm telling you - my life will never be the same! Last year Charlotte hosted the first Run For Mercy Charlotte 5K & Family Walk! What a first time event! September 17, 2010 was a day that many had hands in planning and helping make happen! The site was perfect, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and the crowds were astounded by what they heard from the Mercy graduate. With over 300 participants and 150 spectators to cheer on the runners - the team raised over $28,000.00 to go toward Mercy and also brought great awareness to the running community!

The team is gearing up and preparing now for the 2011 Run For Mercy Charlotte 5K & Family Walk! The team began meeting in January to secure a site, timing company and we already have our registration site actively building teams! This team has incredible servant leaders who are driven and they are out there sharing the Mercy story with everyone they come in contact with. We are excited to share that we outgrew our space! That is a great problem to have! This year join us at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, put on your running shoes and let's prepare the way to bring Mercy to this city. This year's event is going to be even better, and we can't wait to Run For Mercy with you in Charlotte! If you are interested in serving as a volunteer or helping to sponsor this year's event, please contact Nickie Haas at runformercycharlotte@gmail.com!

You can go online and register at www.runformercy.org/Char5K2011 Sign up today and begin building your teams! Get the word out and let's get ready to Run For Mercy together!

Believe The Promise, Share The Hope, Live The Joy!

Nickie Haas

Whitney Nall, Nickie Haas and Whitney Cantrell

Team Mercy Runs the Country Music Marathon!

Hello to our AMAZING Run for Mercy Team!

I hope that the past few days have found you recovering well from your half or full marathon. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and I was so glad to see some of your smiling faces at our team dinner on Friday and at the race on Saturday.

CONGRATULATIONS on your accomplishment of completing the race! I hope that you all enjoyed yourself out on the course. I’ve loved hearing from some of you about your experience, and I encourage you to let me know how the race went for you if you haven’t already. I’d love to hear about it.

THANK YOU for all the hard work you did as you trained and fundraised to run this race for Mercy. Together we’ve raised $31,823!!! I wanted to let you know that you can still receive donations on your personal fundraising pages. I will pull the final list next Monday morning and contact you individually if you reached an incentive tier to earn a prize.

The race was featured this week as a web story on our news blog. I encourage you to check it out HERE!

We have also launched registration for the Nashville Run for Mercy 5K on October 22. You can register for the 5K at http://www.runformercy.org/nashville5K2011. We would love to have you join us at this fun and family friendly event!

Finally, we will begin working on plans for next year’s Run for Mercy team for the Country Music Half and Full Marathons soon. I hope you’ll consider running the race in 2012 for Mercy.

Thank you all so much for being such an amazing team. It has been such a blessing in my life to lead you, get to know you and see you all complete a distance race in the name of raising money for Mercy Ministries.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you ever have any questions about running for Mercy or getting involved with us in other ways.

Thanks!