Walkers in Newnan today on 2,400-mile trek to Guatemala
By JOHN A. WINTERSjohn@newnan.com
Officials with an international nonprofit leadership group will be walking through Newnan today and Thursday as part of a 2,400-mile trek to Guatemala.
EQUIP Leadership, founded by renown author John C. Maxwell, focuses on developing effective Christian leaders throughout the world. Maxwell, a New York Times bestseller, has sold more than 21 million books.
Organizers began the walk on Monday, starting in Atlanta and will leave Union City today and arrive in Newnan and spend the night here. The group will be walking along U.S. Highway 29. They will leave Newnan Thursday morning and walk to Hogansville.
"Be it walking, running or cycling, covering 2,400 miles in a 120-day window is not ordinary," said John Hull, EQUIP president and CEO, who is also making the walk. "The EQUIP World Relay is a journey that represents what leadership is all about — a journey full of extraordinary challenges, hard work, sacrifice and daily-mile markers that ultimately reach a goal that is bigger than oneself — a goal that could never be accomplished alone."
Over the past 15 years, EQUIP Leadership has trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide using biblical teaching and material developed by Maxwell. The relay hoopes to ray up 5 million prayer partners and $1 million for leadership training in Guatemala.
"There are 370,000 orphans and half of the children living their suffer from chronic malnutrition," Hull said. "As a source country for illegal drugs and sex trafficking and with more than 140,000 young people entering the job market each year but only 20,000 jobs being created, there is a great need for transformation in Guatemala. We are excited to partner with leaders there who are willing to work toward transformation."
"Everything rises and falls on leadership," Maxwell said. "We become transformational when our 'why' becomes bigger than ourselves."
The organization has created a website where individuals can sign up to walk part of the journey, to donate or to learn more about the relay. There are also maps that highlight each day's leg.
For more information, visit: http://equipworldrelay.org .
