Muskathlon Middle East
September 2022
In September 2022, we traveled with a group of 30 athletes and 8 staff members to the Middle East. All of our athletes raised at least €10,000 euros to make a significant contribution to the lives of Christians suffering persecution.
For this trip, we partnered with Open Doors, an international organization supporting the persecuted church worldwide. During the occupation of IS about 10 years ago, many people had to flee their homes. They left everything behind and lost all of their possessions. With the money we raised, we were able to give them micro funds to relaunch their businesses. Many of them are farmers and they lost all of their animals during the IS occupation.
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During the week, we visited several churches and met a lot of people who were suffering. Every single person I spoke with had fled their house at least once. Can you imagine leaving everything behind because your life is in danger?
Our participants raised €10,000 euros and either ran 21, 42, or 63 km, or cycled 120 km. They did all of this in the extreme heat, with temperatures between 27 and 40 degrees, even though we were sporting at night.
Trips like these are hard to describe and leave a footprint on my heart. Even though the persecution is real, I’m grateful that we didn’t feel unsafe during our trip. All the protection was very well organised, and we didn’t have any problems while passing checkpoints.
