What’s in the COLOR of a ribbon?

One of the top female long distance runners in South Africa joined the S4J (Sudan4Jesus run) team on 14 February 2015. Riana van Niekerk was a 4 time gold medal winner of the Comrades marathon, and six time winner of the Om die Dam 50 km ultra-marathon.

Shortly after her last victory in 2015, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She passed on to greater glory on 13 February 2016. This is a story of how Riana is making an ever increasing  impact through her legacy and how her LIFE and LEGACY would be celebrated at the 2016 Om die Dam marathon taking place on 12 March 2016.

A friend of Riana wrote a tribute to her that we’ve published on the S4J blog. Here is the link to that tribute. To help the peoples of Sudan and South Sudan, support them through the S4J at this link.

Riana’s memorial service, attended by family, friends and many athletes, was a deeply moving service. Among other her husband Allie van Niekerk paid tribute to his wife that was both a fantastic athlete and his best friend. Allie’s faith and joy in Riana’s eternal destiny in Christ Jesus was unwavering. 

A number of other things happened after the memorial service where Riana’s friends and family celebrated her life and legacy over a cup of tea and a snack. The runner up of for the ladies athletes at the 2015 Comrades Marathon, Charné Bosman, joined the S4J team as an athlete. In a way, Charné took up the baton from Riana.

Another very special moment happened during a discussion with Caroline Wostmann, ladies’ winner of the 2015 Comrades Marathon. The question posed to Caroline was what could be done to celebrate the LIFE and LEGACY of Riana van Niekerk. Caroline suggested that we focus on a race that Riana won six time, the Om die Dam Marathon and do something around that.

We created an events page S4J at Om die Dam marathon through which we could communicate to athletes, supporters and athletes clubs. Here is the link to the S4J at Om die Dam marathon.

At the S4J facilitation team we work this way: there are no typical job descriptions. When there is a task at hand, we raise the banner and ask people to join in a task group. It’s almost all voluntary. A task group formed and was joined by Caroline and Charné. The question was posed what do we do with this challenge? No immediate responses came.

An idea then arose to encourage athletes running the 2015 Om die Dam marathon to wear a GREEN ribbon to celebrate the LIFE and LEGACY of Riana van Niekerk. An events page was created S4J at 2016 Om die Dam marathon. 

A picture was posted and athletes encouraged to wear the GREEN ribbon. Something remarkable happened to this picture and the challenge. It was shared 34 times on Facebook to many running clubs and well known athletes. The events page had also gone viral since. Facebook gives stats on how many people see a link to the page. By Wednesday last week 6,700 people had seen a link to the page. By Monday 29 February 2016, it went up to 10,000. By Wednesday 2 March 2016 up to 12,000. 3 March 14,000. 4 March 15,000. Something amazing is about to happen.

In the meantime, the organizing committee had a LONG discussion about the color of the ribbon. Although the potential is always that a power struggle might arise from issues like this, at the S4J we said that the key issue is not the color of the ribbon, but that people would focus on celebrating the LIFE and LEGACY of Riana van Niekerk. NJ of the S4J said, it doesn't matter if people wear 10 colors of ribbons. What is key is that the celebrate the LIFE and LEGACY of Riana van Niekerk. S4J team captain of the men's athletes, Anthony Bold took this suggestion and made a real captain's statement during this past weekend's Deloitte Marathon at which the S4J had TWO water points.

Here is a summary of that discussion by the organizing committee of the Om die Dam Marathon. The S4J FULLY supports this decision and now focusses on the best possible implementation thereof. A core value is that UNITY is NON-NEGOTIABLE. We have to work in unity and that achieving unity is absolutely possible.

By now there is a big GREEN LIGHT for a GREEN RIBBON, alongside with the others. The organizing committee will issue all elite runners with GREEN ribbons. The organisers have taken the responsibility to ensure that some GREEN and PURPLE ribbons would be available at the race.

The S4J working group on Om die Dam marathon has also undertaken to produce and have available at the race, 500 GREEN ribbons. This coming Monday evening a group a gathering to physically make the ribbons. Caroline Wostmann would be among them. Looking forward to working with you on this Caroline. You’re humble enough to not only sponsor the 500 ribbons, but to help make ribbons. What a worthy winner you are.

Now we’re looking forward to the 2016 Om die Dam marathon that takes place on Saturday 12 March. May it truly be a celebration of the life and the legacy of Riana van Niekerk. Our prayer is that God would be glorified through all of this. S4J.