Chicago Triathlon Weekend: August 2023

Posted by Dan and Carole McClelland |1 comments

Olive's Junior Kids (7-10 year) Chicago Triathlon

Olive swam 100 meter, biked 2.2 miles and ran .62 miles!  

We all woke up at 430 am to get to Foster Beach on time to set up. 

Daddy helped Olive get set up in Transition very early in the morning. 

SWIM-BIKE-RUN

 

Cheering Section!

 

Dan's parents from PA, my sister Tiffany and her family! 

Even though my parents were not able to make it downtown, they were cheering us on in their homes and on the sidelines with their faces on sticks! 

Caleb, one of our good friends and staff from Jamaica, came from Minnesota to see us too! 

Chicago's 40th Triathlon 2023

Carole, Dan and Tiffany (Carole's Sister) 

Before and After pictures

Each of us completed the International Distance Triathlon which normally is a

.95 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike and a 6.2 mile run! 

Unfortunately, due to dangerous waves, the swim part of the event was cancelled so we had a .95 mile run to start instead.  We all got to start together! 

Dan's Race

Carole's Race 

Finishing

 

My brother, Joe, and his family came out to cheer us on too! 

Carole's parents took us all out to Outback Steakhouse afterwards! 

Just a few pictures of the Expo Beforehand 

We all took the Blue Line downtown to the expo and registered for the event.

Our names were on a big sign with all the other participates! 

Thank you so much for supporting, cheering and encouraging us for this fun family event! 

10 Year Celebration Picture Blog

Posted by Dan and Carole McClelland |0 comments

 10 Year Celebration of YWAM Deaf World: 2013-2023

10 schools, 10 years, 1 FAMILY 

Group Pictures together!  These pictures were taken by Tyler Olson, one of our staff. We are so thankful. 

Welcome Night

We started with a celebration of 17 Nations Impacted in 10 years.  Each student and staff got to represent either a country that a student was born in or an outreach location!   Each of the flags were really celebrated.  These pictures give you a taste of the spirit!

Jamaica

Belize

Philippians

UK

Bulgaria

Liberia

USA

Then we celebrated Jamaica, the host nation, with Jamaican songs by Marion Jacobs, a spiritual mentor/mother for us in Jamaica.  As well as Jamaican dance from Peta-gay and Clifton, two our our Deaf staff!  It was a great time experiencing the culture of Jamaica and a call to GO to the nations at the end!

Throughout the weekend, Dan and I shared lessons we have learned about God and testimonies from our time serving in other countries with the DTSs.  We also had the honor of 3 of our Spiritual Mentors (2 Fathers and 1 Mother) share one word that summarizes what they have seen in YWAM Deaf World.  Jack Kody went first and gave the word of CALLING, Jason Hershey went second and signed AMEN, and Marion Jacobs finished strong with INTENTIONAL.  So putting them together, God spoke, we each and as a group have a STRONG CALLING to missions and our responses have been YES and AMEN, and we have been INTENTIONAL to pursue God and grow ourselves and disciple others into relationship with God and sharing Him with others! 

Jack and Jason flew to Jamaica for the first time for both of them.  It was such an honor and we are so thankful them for pouring into us!

Every session, we had small groups to discuss what our Spiritual Mentors/Fathers were sharing.  This was also a time of fellowship among the larger group of students from a variety of DTSs throughout the years.

We also have times of Deaf worship throughout the celebration led by Anna Olson and our current Deaf staff!  Where we turned our eyes to Jesus and praised Him with worship songs that our DTSs created! It was really fun to gather together to worship God!

Enjoy some pictures of the faces!

Dan also created a shirt with 90 different sign languages from around the world placed in the YWAM logo!  We plan to order more in the future to sell and fund raise for Deaf World! 

Enjoy a few of the faces that were here from my, Carole's camera!