100-Mile Mission for Missions was born in April of 2010. Our teen Sunday school class at New Testament Baptist Church was studying what the Bible says about how we should treat the poor. Whose responsibility are they? Is it up to us to help them, or should we leave it to the government? Through our study of Scripture, we discovered that we must care for others and show them the love of God. Many people live in countries where their government cannot, or will not care for them and meet their needs. In Canada, we are blessed with an overabundance of supply. However, we gripe and complain about our lack of luxuries.
As our youth leader, Peter Burrill, prepared the lesson each week, God began to make this truth very real to him. He began to realize that though we talk about helping the poor, we often don’t take action. So he decided to do just that.
At our 2010 Missions Conference, Dr. John Halsey preached a message about “doing what you can with what you have.” The text that he used was Mark 14, the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet. In Mark 14:8, Jesus said, “she hath done what she could.” Mary did what she could, despite the cost and the criticism.
Peter began to wonder what he could do to both help the needy, and use the tools that he had. Being an avid runner, he came up with the idea of participating a charity run for missions. When the opportunity was presented to run a 100-mile ultra marathon in Ancaster, Ontario, the pieces began to fall into place. After presenting the idea to New Testament Baptist Church, several other people caught his vision, and the 100-Mile Mission for Missions was born.
