As some of you may recall, I wrote in an earlier Running on Faith about Esther, the heroic Queen, and her urgent, deeply personal prayer to God, which is at once a desperate cry for help and a request that God will give her what she needs as she prepares to intercede on behalf of her people, who are in danger.

She prays: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, blessed are you. God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob, blessed are you. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you. Help me…O Lord my God. Save us from the hand of our enemies, turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.”

It’s a powerful thing, when God, whom we often keep at a distance, or who sometimes feels so far removed from our daily lived experience, suddenly becomes “My God.” Our prayer gets very personal, in that moment when we feel alone, when we need God the most. Similarly, our prayer also gets personal when we feel compelled to intercede on behalf of another, who up until now may have seemed distant, or far removed from our lived experience.

On Tuesday morning, I was praying for three people whom I’ve never met. On that day, Ukrainian marathoner Mykola Nyzhnyk, returned home from Kenya, where he had been training at 7,800 feet above sea level in the Great Rift Valley. He was coming home to report for duty in the National Guard. For one day, he visited his wife, Olga. Olga, who is also a professional runner, having competed in the 2012 London Olympics in the 10,000 meters, is thirty-two weeks pregnant with their unborn daughter, whom they plan to name Myroslava, which means peace.

I now carry their names and story in my heart.