Samaritan member again leads students through marathon

Samaritan Ministries member Shalom Sanchez, a missionary in Los Angeles and a coach/mentor in the Students Run LA program, has again run the ASICS LA Marathon with a group of high school students, pictured above, from South L.A. Students Run LA trains at-risk and other students to run in and complete the 26.2-mile race, but the training also helps them to learn self-discipline.

They all finished and a few even had some personal records but it was a really hard one. It was 85 degrees a lot of the run and there was very little shade. They also ran out of Gatorade which made it hard for a lot of the runners with that kind of heat especially. I was a little slower then last year; my time was 4:44. The day before I caught a chest cold and with the heat it was hard for me to run like I would have liked but it was still good and I am very proud of all of my students that finished. We have been able to share the Gospel with all of them. A few made decisions to follow the Lord and other seeds were planted. I have really seen the Lord working in our students’ lives and they are asking a lot of questions. It was a great year.
We do a mentoring time once a month. At the last session we talked about fear and anxiety and shared Deuteronomy 31:6. We shared how the Lord does not want us to be afraid because he is with us but then shared how there is something that separates us from God and that is our sin. We then shared the Gospel with them. Throughout the year we share our testimonies with them but this was the first time we were able to share the Gospel so straightforward in a group setting. I work with just one school but in total there are 3,000 students that run with SRLA. It is not a Christian organization but all of the mentors that work with me are so we share about Christ as part of the mentoring.

You can support Students Run LA on their Donate page. Find out more about Shalom’s congregation, South LA Christian Life.