The Atlanta-based EQUIP World Relay members began their walk to Guatemala on Monday, and passed through LaGrange on Friday morning.
The 2,400-mile expedition left from Atlanta Monday morning, and reached LaGrange on Friday, traveling about 22 miles per day by foot.
EQUIP CEO and President John Hull said that the walk was created to draw attention to issues and struggles in Guatemala and other countries around the world, and to provide leadership training to their leaders.
“Our founder, John Maxwell challenged us 14 months ago to look at leadership training,” said Hull. “We wanted to not just train leaders, but challenge them to become leaders of influence.”
Hull said that organization is beyond profits and puts value on community service and influence of leaders, including government officials, to change their “self-serving” images to become more service oriented. He seeks more churches and organizations to get involved in the community and more people to volunteer.
With Maxwell being internationally recognized as a leadership expert and New York Times best selling author for his books on leadership, Guatemalan leaders asked EQUIP leaders to help them in leadership training to help their country become more developed.
“Half of the women in Guatemala are illiterate and have at most a sixth grade education.” explained Hull. “Forty seven percent of the children there suffer chronic malnutrition, which affects their ability to think and focus in school. That’s a leadership issue.”
According to Hull, leaders in Guatemala asked for help in training about 140,000 public school teachers and about 100,000 private school teachers. After arriving in Guatemala in approximately 110 more days, there will be a rally to discuss more needs and leadership issues in the nation.
In efforts to strengthen nation’s leaders, the relay also takes supporters on a physical, mental, spiritual and emotional journey that can develop skills that leadership is based. Such a challenges are hard work and sacrifice. Supporters come from all around the world to participate in EQUIP relays. In addition to the EQUIP members, five supporters came to be a part of the walk through LaGrange, from Florida, Egypt, Canada, Ohio and Tennessee.
A total of 50 supporters have participated in the walk from Atlanta to Opelika, Ala. It is estimated that 1,000 people will have participated in the walk when the relay reaches El Paso, Texas and a total of 1,000 supporters is expected to walk from Mexico to Guatemala.
A map of the relay can be found at http://equipworldrelay.org/attend. To sign up to walk, pray, give or for more information, visit http://equipworldrelay.org.
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