Three Houston County churches run faith and fitness programs with a purpose

A Christ Chapel group will run Saturday to raise money for fresh-water wells across Africa.

A Trinity United Methodist Church group is sponsoring a 5K run May 7 to aid world anti-malaria efforts and the church’s own neighborhood after-school program.

A Southside Baptist Church team recently participated in a 5k/10k/half-marathon in Dalton.

All said, it’s about faith, fitness and running with a purpose.

“Our Saturday morning group encourages us spiritually and physically while we fellowship and learn fitness strategies and meet personal goals—sometimes hard goals,” said Amanda Delph.

Delph, a registered nurse and longtime fitness enthusiast, said she leads the Christ Chapel fitness group with Kelly Freis, a certified trainer at Edge Fitness at Landing Pointe in Bonaire.

Delph said her group meets for individual walking and running combined with group challenges and activities such as a Pilates class and stretching sessions. She said recipes and healthy eating tips are shared and participants weigh-in for prizes.

“We started it to help people get ready to run the Oasis Road Race to raise money for digging wells in Africa,” she said. “Some used the Couch-to-5k program and others just wanted to tone up. But some wanted to lose real weight. That came alongside a member of our church, Rob Kidney, and his daughter, Sarah Gilbert, being on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” this season. They spoke in a January service and Rob came to a couple of our Saturday groups. They were a great encouragement.”

Delph said the group has had fellowship meetings featuring healthy snacks made by members. They’ve shared weight-loss and training strategies, scheduled hikes together and participated in a Facebook group for support and encouragement.

After the Oasis run, they’ll take a break from Saturdays, she said, but the Facebook alliance and new friendships made through class will continue.

Trinity UMC’s group is led by running enthusiast Valerie Thomas. It meets Mondays for class and training, with voluntary runs Wednesdays and Saturdays. Thomas said it’s part of Trinity’s Create in Our City and Living Healthy in Our City programs.

She said her group uses the Run for God program.

“Running became a big part of my life,” Thomas said. “I went and took a Run for God class at Southside Baptist and was approached to do one here at my church, at Trinity. I’m not what you’d call a serious runner — I’ve never done a marathon — but I really enjoy running and running with others. There’s a great sense of community.”

Thomas said Trinity has had two 12-week Run for God classes and the current one ends with the Trinity 5k.

She said there’s an important spiritual side to the physical aspect of running.

“For me, running is worship,” she said. “It’s time with God, praying, letting him into that aspect of my life. Running requires endurance and there’s that place you reach where you wonder if you can keep going. But you can tap into God’s strength and motivation and get encouragement from others, too.”

Does Thomas see a parallel between running and life in general?

“We have that conversation a lot,” she said. “The answer is yes. Like in our running, we should give everything over to God—our entire life. We should rely on him and let him lead and help. There are many lessons from running that apply to life.”

Crystal Tucker has worked with the Run for God program locally for several years and led numerous classes at Southside Baptist. Tucker said she lost 65 pounds as a runner.

Southside classes regularly graduate 15 to 35 members who train for various distances, she said. The Dalton race was the graduation event for her latest class.

“Run for God was started by Mitchell Hollis, who’s from Dalton,” Tucker said. “Now it’s a national program and a lot of people use his curriculum. There are runs all across the U.S. Our grads did 10k and half-marathon runs, but you can participate in the class even if you don’t aim toward those distances.”

She said Run for God provides devotional classes with Bible studies and running strategies.

“It’s a good fit here,” she said. “You can go outside for a run almost any day and there’s a big running community in Warner Robins. It’s a good way to reach out to others — to Christians who want to be part of a group as well as non-Christians who want to join a group and learn more about Jesus. We definitely don’t pressure anyone in the program to run a certain distance or become a Christian, but there’s always a benefit to learning more and working with others. We’ve seen health changes and lives change. Some have even had high cholesterol and high blood pressure clear up.”

Delph agrees God is interested in all aspects of life, including health and helping others.

“You can’t compartmentalize your life and keep God in one area and out of another,” she said. “Each area affects our ability to live to the fullest and serve others following Christ’s example. There are a lot of people in churches that aren’t making the best nutritional choices but are damaging their bodies. God can help us. And while he does, we can have fun and help great projects that bless people. But it all starts with God.”

Organizers for the Trinity and the Oasis races say runners — and walkers — are encouraged to register early. Registrations is available the day of the event, though T-shirts aren’t guaranteed.

For registration and other information on the Oasis Road Race, which will be in Macon at Stone Edge Church on Zebulon Road, go to www.oasisrace.com. For the Trinity 5K, which will be in the Trinity neighborhood off South Houston Road, call the church at (478) 923-3797. Run for God’s upcoming class information is at www.runforgod.com or contact Southside at (478) 953-9388.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Three Houston County churches run faith and fitness programs with a purpose."