I had the great privelage of producing and directing three ads that ran on the Long Island 24 hour news channel “News 12.” It was great fun to hear so many great stories of restoration (that was our theme). I hope you like them…the first features my lovely wife Olivia 
.
Tag Archive: olivia-ward
This was my favorite spectator sign from the 2011 NYC Marathon. There were so many great ones it was hard to pick, but this was the one. So much encouragement from so many strangers. It was incredible. It made me love NYC and it made me love the journey I’ve been on all the more.
All that said, there were some bumps along the way Sunday. It started out so well. I held back and kept my goal pace of around 10:00/mile. My knee held up great and did not hurt. I did have some pain in my other knee around mile 12. I walked a little at a couple of water stations and I was confident I could make it through to the end.
Then, after the Queensboro Bridge, heading onto First Avenue in Manhattan, all my muscles got tight and started cramping. So weird as this never happened on my long training runs. All I can figure is that I was dehydrated and did not have enough salt. I also don’t think I ate enough throughout the week leading up.
It’s been such a struggle with the eating throughout training. On one hand, who wouldn’t want to eat more! On the other hand, after losing over 100 lbs, there is part of me that doesn’t want to lose control and gain it back. This is something I’m working through and I know it contributed.
Miles 16-19 I ran two blocks then walked one. I was starting to really hurt. Around 19 someone came up beside me and began to talk (he was having stomach issues). This was a blessing as it gave me an excuse to walk further. As I got into the Bronx I kept walking as everytime I tried to run my muscles would not cooperate. I really didn’t know how I would finish. Lots goes through you mind in these kinds of moments!
Leaving the Bronx God really sent me some help. A fellow Team World Vision Runner from Australia, Kevin, came up beside me and we started talking. His knee had given out earlier and he was trying to make it through like me. He and I walked and talked through Harlem for another few miles. It seemed more like a parade for a little while . So many encouraging people in the crowd.
As we got into the Park around mile 24 we decided to try and run and then walk when we had to. We were quite a sight I’m sure as our form was full of pain. As we neared mile 25 we just decided to go for it all the way. Kevin and I kept going through all those pains and I was sure they were moving the finish further away as we ran (another favorite sign: “There is a Finish Line”). The last .2 was TOUGH. I kept repeating the Scripture verse on my GoSport ID: “For the joy set before HIM endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). God so clearly reminded me how powerful and important finishing is. No matter the trial, no matter how many setbacks, no matter the circumstances, FINISH.
My final time was 6:05. If you’ve read here I was originally hoping for a much better time. But I’m not ashamed. I finished. As a matter of fact, as I was praying later in the night I felt God say that if it would have been easier, if everything would have gone according to plan, I wouldn’t have learned that lesson. I wouldn’t have understood the depth and power of FINISH.
I’m so honored to have been a part of this race and this process. I can’t wait to do another marathon so I can do better — I learned so much about me. I’m so blessed to have been a part of Team World Vision and the joy of seeing 26 children’s lives forever tangibly changed.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement every step along the way. I hope I have the chance to cheer you on…SOON!
As many of you know I’m running the NYC Marathon on November 6 of this year! I’ve lost 113 lbs in the past year and a big part of achieving that has been running. I ran my very first half marathon in April. I’m well into training now and I am so excited!!
I am running for Team World Vision. World Vision is one of the largest and strongest humanitarian organizations in the world. They believe in helping children in the name of Jesus. You can find out more about what they do here:
One of the primary ways they provide aid to the developing world is through child sponsorships. For around $1 per day you provide….
Clean water
Nutritious food
Health care
Educational opportunities
Spiritual nurture
As a child sponsor, you are connected with one special child who will know your name, write to you and feel your tender love and prayers.
Olivia and I have just sponsored our first child through World Vision. Her name is Lorine, she’s from Kenya, and we are so excited to pray for her and get to know her better. We are helping to change her life!
My goal is to get a child sponsored for each mile I run in the Marathon (that’s 26!). Would you consider sponsoring one of these children? It’s $35 per month. You can use the link below. Be sure to include my name on the form and then email me so I know to include you in my total! (benwardmusic {at} gmail.com).
www.teamworldvision.org/NYCsponsor
Thank you and I look forward to changing lives with you!!!!
Hebrews 12
The Race of Faith
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I think we have to have a reward in front of us. Something that makes the battle, the suffering, the pain, the annoying inconvenience worth it. Something that makes us go, “Yes-for THAT!”
When I was missing Olivia like crazy while she was on the Ranch, I could keep looking forward to the amazing day when she came home and we could celebrate the beginning of a new life. When I was in the middle of yet another run on the treadmill because it was so cold and snowy, I could imagine being healthy, fit and not fat anymore. When I’m training for this year’s NYC Marathon (my first:) and I can’t imagine waking up early to run some crazy distance I just think about being able to finish; I think about the kids in Africa that I’m raising money for….the JOY set before me.
Look at the verse–even Jesus, the very Son of God, needed a joy to look forward to so He could endure…
Don’t you? Don’t I?
What’s the JOY that is set before you? Maybe you need to find it so you can get going…
Proverbs 21:31 (New International Version)
The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
but victory rests with the LORD.
Love being here with O in LA as she gets ready for the Biggest Loser Finale. I’ve been the “gym bag carrier” (in the winter I was the “coat carrier”:). I love it…first off, to be with her after these months of filming and being apart. But also because I’m so in awe of how she is training and how focused she is on the goal, the prize. I love this scripture and it’s what I’ve felt as I worked out beside her and seen the passion in her eyes. She is doing everything she can to prepare for the day of battle (the final weigh in) and the victory rests with God. That’s His realm. Like Paul says in Ephesians, “When you’ve done all, stand.”
On Tuesday, she will have done all. And she can stand.
Victory rests with the Lord.
So many amazing things happening in our lives right now. One of our friends gave us a scripture toward the beginning of Olivia’s Biggest Loser journey:
“Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.” -Habakkuk 1:5
That’s exactly the description I would use for this incredible experience. You never know what God is going to do next…
I continue to be utterly amazed!!!
Question: Who do you predict will win season eleven of The Biggest Loser?
Arthur Wornum: Courtney, since day one we have had a connection, she is like my little sister. My sentimental favorite is Courtney but my brain tells me if I had to put money on it, Olivia will win this season of The Biggest Loser. Olivia is one of the toughest competitors, I can’t tell you how strong that woman is.
You can tell me, Arthur…I know!!
Here’s a new video from Christmas Eve. I was so happy to have Olivia singing with me! I wrote this song back in 2007…enjoy.
Just a few hours left of 2009 here in New York City. We’re going to celebrate with friends in Queens. I was thinking today as I drove back from the church in Syosset how many things changed and happened this past year.
When the year began we had only moved to the city a couple months earlier. Neither Olivia nor I had a job yet and our savings were pretty much gone. I had interviewed at on church, but it didn’t work out — all we could say was, “Lord, do what You will.”
Olivia got a job at a doctor’s office almost right away. I interviewed with another church (that one wasn’t it either!) and got ready to do some temp office work. In the meantime I walked pretty much all the neighborhoods in New York just praying and trying to hear what He was saying for us. (This was one of the most wonderful seasons yet in my walk with the Lord:) I finally got a temp job at an office and then another at the NFL.
Olivia found a new opera coach that turned out to be a great help to her as she gets ready to go to the next level in her career.
I went back and forth as to what the Lord wanted from me…did He want me leading worship in a church?…did He want me to go back into songwriting?…did He want me to pursue business at the NFL and lead worship part-time?
Towards the end of 2009 the Lord revealed what He had here for me. I was called as the worship pastor of Shelter Rock Church on Long Island. I started a couple weeks ago and He’s already doing wonderful things.
So, here comes 2010. I’m beginning to see that I need to stop making all these elaborate plans and just follow Jesus. The Spirit will order my steps. He will lead me on a an adventure that I could never come up with on my own.
Lord, I give You 2010. It is Yours, I am Yours. I rejoice in Your presence and Your ways.
(Check out the archives for more details on all our happenings!)
Olivia and I have been reading through Daniel the last couple of weeks and have been moved by his life and what God did through him and for him. One thing that struck me was when the angels of the Lord came to him, they called him “greatly beloved” or “highly esteemed (NIV).”
To have Gabriel or Michael say this about you, to you, is mind and spirit blowing.
To hear that this is common knowledge in the heavenlies is beyond anything I could even write.
Daniel 9:23
“At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision…”
Daniel 10:11
And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling.
Daniel 10:19
And he said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!” So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
This word “beloved” has begun to really impact me. I was listening to a teaching yesterday and the speaker called the listeners “beloved” several times. How amazing it is that the Church is Jesus’ beloved (Ephesians 5:25). His desire and whole heart of love is for the Church. For the Church of which I am a part.
I am His beloved.
Song of Solomon 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his.
You and I are the beloved of God…this is so undeserved, so extravagant, that all we can do is turn to Him and praise Him, fall on our faces and worship Him.
Play, sing, worship like someone who is the beloved of the Creator of the Universe!!
