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Aliases:  Leen, Leenie Foley, Leenie Lopper, Folinski

 Hometown: Chicago

 After the Race: Visiting Chicago…

 Support: Thanks to a Christmas miracle… Colleen went from needing several thousand dollars to stay on the race to being completely support raised in only a few weeks.    Thank you everyone!

 Overview of a Racer:

            Colleen, in a word, is awesome.   Colleen has that quality where people feel welcomed and connected to her instantly.   She is really warm and just genuinely loves people.  She loves little fat babies and Grandmothers and literally everyone in between.  Colleen sees beauty in everyone.  On our team she has this radar for when someone is out of sorts and she is great at loving us through whatever it is.  

            To me, Colleen is a model of someone who wants to do things the right way.  A lot of times Colleen will describe herself as a worrier but what I see in that is this heart that just wants to walk out her faith as correctly as possible.   She loves God in all his many roles and she is really good at discerning which role He´s filling when.  She loves having God as a Dad and as a friend and relies on him in all things.   

            Colleen is gifted with evangelism and with mercy.  Now before you get all squirmy…  it is more than just the way we are all called to share our faith, and it is definitely not the kind of evangelism that we give a bad reputation… it is this beautiful pure gift that God has installed in Colleen.  He will put someone on her mind and she cannot stop thinking about them until she has shared the gospel with them.   She’s never pushy, just obedient to what God tells her to do.    The time we really got to see this gift on fire was in China.   It’s like the Chinese people who were starving for the gospel could see this presence on Colleen and would seek her out.   One time when we were at an English corner a girl came out of the crowd hitting Colleen on the arm saying “tell me what you know about Jesus!”   So in her sweet undemanding way she did and this girl became a Christian.  And that´s not even a once in eleven months kind of story!

            Daily Colleen shows me how to find Joy in all things.  When you meet Colleen I don´t think you can help but feel joyful.   She has a beautiful smile and an incredible laugh and she loves all the fun things in life (and can pull fun out of the unfun as well).  Meeting Colleen you would never suspect that some pretty sad things have happened in her life.  However, after hearing her whole story you walk away with a beautiful picture of redemption.  Being in her life even for this short time has been so amazing.  Another piece of the healing puzzle falls into place every day… but no matter where she’s at in the process she chooses into the joy that God promises.  
 
A few tidbits:
 
* Colleen is a hospitality guru…  together Colleen and I formed two very fun committees…  food people and the birthday committee.   To make sure you have the proper perspective on how our committees work….  the mantra for our food committee is “food is FUN.”
 
* Colleen has lots of interesting remedies for common problems (like for the hiccups someone needs to pull on your ears while you drink water).   She is often heard saying “wait, is this normal or something only my family does?”…  and usually it’s the latter.  This trait also applies to the fun language her family created when she was little, names for past dogs, and many other slightly quirky and endearing mannerisms.
 
*   She has one of the best and most contagious laughs in the world.   She is also known for having laughing explosions that can not be controlled even in public.
 
*   Colleen is the only person I know who genuinely loves doing dishes.   When people try to enforce the rule that you can’t cook AND do dishes she gets really sad and then puts up a fight until they let her do the dishes.   For her birthday we gave Colleen her very own personalized birthday sponge

A Few Recommendations:
Silent Judgements
“He has brought me to places and shown me people who are so different….and all of them love Him so much. From super “charismatic” Christians and churches to very shy and conservative Christians….to missionaries who have been saved and changed by the Lord through Christian television stations…
 “

 
He Upholds the Fatherless 
The more I prayed for him, the more I saw redemption in Benji’s life. God is taking care of him. God is restoring his life, and giving him love and security. God is taking a mess of a situation, and revealing His glory and power.
 
Additionally, Colleen coauthors all of our photo blogs from the year!
 
 
Oh Colleen, I don’t even know… thank you for being in my life.  Thank you for sticking with me.  My day, my year and my life would not be the same without you.   I think this is all I can type because it’s very hard to stay in denial about leaving you while doing this… so I”m coming to find you for a hug. 
  I love you , Pesto!