October 23, 2012
A team of young Christian runners crossing Australia on a 3000km “baton relay” have stopped off in Kingaroy to interact with the local community.
Today a group of the volunteers, who had run in from Oakey, visited the Burnett War Museum at Kingaroy Airport to help manager Russell Cook tidy up the gardens around the Motor Pool and old Morgue buildings.
Another lot will be returning tomorrow to help finish off the work.
The runners are from an international Christian youth organisation called Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and they’re on a “Pass It On Tour” .
The runners pass an athletics baton from one runner to the next in a relay. To them, the baton represents the “wisdom of God”, being passed from one generation to another.
As well as helping various community groups, the runners have also erected a marquee in Memorial Park, Kingaroy, which will host a variety of activities over the next few days.
Spokeswoman Karine Selseng, a teacher at the YWAM Discipleship Training School at Byron Bay, accompanied her students on the mission to help the Burnett War Museum.
She said the runners have also visited a number of Kingaroy churches, including the Highway Church, Uniting Church, Christian Outreach Centre and Church of Christ.
Their visit to Kingaroy will culminate with a free traditional Polynesian Island stage show by “Island Breeze” in Memorial Park on Saturday night from 7:00pm.
The entertainment will follow a community barbecue which will start at 6:00pm. Both the barbecue and show are open to everyone in the community.
There are also other activities at the marquee from 7:00pm each evening from tonight until Friday; and a kids’ program running daily from 3:00pm-5:00pm.
After Kingaroy, the group will be heading to Wondai and Murgon.
A large marquee will be set up in the Murgon State School from October 28-November 4. They will again be working and interacting with schools, churches, community groups and the wider Murgon community.
When the Australian leg of the ‘”Pass It On” tour is completed in December 2013, the batons will travel to Europe, then on to Britain, across to Canada and the United States before returning to Brisbane to complete the run.
- Related article: Young Runners On A Mission
