It is amazing the amount of connections Selma has to other places and other people all around the world. I have met many people who have fun and interesting stories about how the world is pretty small because it just seems that everything circles back around to this town. I smile about the day when I will be traveling and I will run into someone connected to Selma. In fact, that is a common phrase … “Just another one of those Selma connections,” I hear people say.

One Selma connection I love is the connection with the country of Kenya. When my sister went to Kenya this summer I got a call late one night from her all excited when she left a tribe out in the middle of nowhere. She, out of breath, excitedly told me about how a group from Selma had been there just a week prior to her arrival.

What a small world, I thought, and what a typical Selma connection. People may call it a small city, but it has many outgoing, traveling people and this city has muscle. Last week a couple in Selma hosted a couple from Oregon who wanted to randomly come and visit. And I hear a group of Polish people were here for Market Day? That is just another typical Selma weekend.

The links between Kenya and Selma, however, continue to impress me. It seems fitting that God would use more than one group of individuals here to bless people over there. Selma is sometimes seen as an underdog in Alabama, like Kenya is to the world. On Saturday, I was happy to participate in the Run For Kenya 5K with Integrity Worldwide. As Alan Hicks Jr. told us runners about some of the programs they have in place there and what miracles have happened in their presence in Kenya, it is easy to see God has something huge in store for Kenya just like he is preparing Selma.

They have scholarships in place to help better educational opportunities for children who would otherwise have to go into the workforce or get married if they are girls. I, along with 17 of my co-workers, was happy to give to that scholarship fund for Kenyans by running in the race.

Many runners use the verse Isaiah 40:31 as inspiration because it says all who hope in the Lord will renew their strength and will “Soar high on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

I feel that running for Kenya with this verse on my mind and heart was a perfect fit. This verse represents the people of Kenya, the people of Selma, all putting their faith in God for strength. We are waiting patiently for better days ahead when more love is shown in the community. But until that day we will be strong in our hope — just a little something Selma has in common with the world. A little “Selma connection.”