Snow in Mexico, an apology & chicken

Hello from Mexico! How's your part of the world? Mine's new, as usual. We're officially in the highlands of Mexico after a monster 45km day that took us from a few hundred metres above sea level to over 2000m in one day. We began in the Cordoba/Orizaba Valley, which has to be on of the most beautiful places I've walked through so far. It was green, clean, mountainous, cool & the people were so friendly that it crossed my mind that it might be a nice place to retire... Ahead of us rose Mexico's highest mountain, Orizaba Peak, some 5000m high. Even here in hot Mexico it had a huge cover of snow on it. It was incredible. At first we had a reasonable climb up what we thought was our mountain for the day but after a good hour or so we emerged on a plateau with a briliant view of where we'd come from & a rather confronting view of another mountain on the other side of the plains that rose up another 1000m - and the freeway went straight up it (well, through a few tunnels & around a few hundred corners). The higher we pushed on the thinner the air became & the more difficult it was to breath. It almost caused me to shut up for two minutes, but I found enough oxygen to keep singing & praying :-) Seriously though, it was tough on the lungs climbing up but the spectacular views & racing clouds hitting the mountain below us & scooting up over us was amazing. Our day finished after sunset, walking across the plains at the foot of the 5000m high snow capped Volcano glistening in the moon light. Loved it. Nikki & I have stopped in many churches this past week & the invitation to pray for unity has been received very well. We even meet a few people who are saving their pennies to fly to Australia in 2008 for World Youth Day so we are hoping to find each other come next July! It could be a hard task finding them amongst 2 million people though. I read the comments each week (thanks Steph) & I'd like to quickly clear the air over the comment I made last week about my resolve for unity being stronger now than when I started & the Lord's heart being for unity. At first I didn't understand the rebuke over this comment & it has taken me some time to get my head around what Miguel wrote. I say that I don't completly understand the rebuke because my comment was simply intended as a reflection on my deepening of faith over the duration of this journey & the utter hopelessness I've felt at seeing so many underpriviledged people suffering, coupled with the infighting amongst churches. I was stating that now, having seen what I've seen & heard what I've heard, the scriptures regarding unity (from the Gospels & Paul's letters particularly) are coming alive for me. My resolve is stronger - I believe. After thinking long & hard about the rebuke & reading over what I'd written I presume that due my laziness at the keyboard it can very easily read as though I'm stating that the Lord's heart is for MY style of unity. This was not intended in any way, shape or form & I'm sorry for not not taking more care with what I was writing. I agree with you Miguel & I'm very sorry if what I wrote frustrated you. The whole aim of this walk is to simply come before the Lord humbly & continue to pray Christ's prayer (John 17) for total unity. I haven't been blessed with the wisdom to unite the faith world but I have been blessed with prayer, so this is my role out here on the road; to pray & bear witness. So, my humblest apologies for cutting corners. Hmmm, now comes the tricky part of linking this to my next point of conversation, which was to be about Nikki almost choking to death on her chicken piece after I recounted a funny incident from Honduras... nope, can't think of a link-in, better move on. In typical Walk4one style, Nikki & I came within a whisker of being here illegally (& being sent home) after encountering visa troubles, which, after a few days of trying, were finally sorted out an hour after expiring. So technically we were 'illegals' for one hour. That's my claim anyway. It was a relief to finally get it sorted out. It's a complicated tale that's not particularly interesting, just lots of wrong information, an immigration department mistake & no one to sign off on the paper work. So, with our new visa expiring two months after I intend to cross over the border it's on towards Mexico City over the next 3 days with another 1000m climb ahead (we think). Please continue to pray for unity & a very big thankyou to everyone who sent my mum a brithday greeting - she wasn't overly impressed with me, but loved the emails.
God bless! Sam.
"He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, & reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, & treads the high places of the earth — the LORD God Almighty is his name." Amos 4:13

Pig Massage & other odd days

On this, my day off in Tierra Blanca, I can't help but think that it was an odd week on the road, walking & praying for unity. Nikki & I covered a massive 396km in 11days to make it this rest day & although nothing like the 'big' incidents of the past few months cropped up, it was certainly a very tough physical & mental stretch. We twice walked over 50km in a day this past week & with the hot Mexican sun bearing down on us it made for some 'gritting of the teeth' days. In a rather bizzare moment, we were caught in a passing storm early one monring & took shelter in a half-collapsed palmleaf-roofed bus stop outside a farm. Within a short space of time were were suddenly joined by a massive pig also looking to shleter from the rain. It wasn't fussed with our presence but took an instant smell-liking to our bag of food & proceeded to try & eat it's way through our bags, boots & walking poles! It just wouldn't stop & it was too big to just push away. Eventually I stopped trying to push it away & instead sratched it behind the ear. Well, the great lump of pork that it was pretty much collapsed on the spot. It closed it's eyes & let me scratch away. I couldn't help myself so I moved on to its shoulder's & gave it the best massage it'll ever get! I'm pretty sure it actually fell asleep. The life of a Mexican pig... On many occasions this past week we have been warned of the dangers along the roads here. People have been very graphic in their discriptions of assaults & other unpleasantries but to date, other than the usual heckling from passers by, the people have been beautiful. I ripped my walking shirt so replaced it with the local Mexican football team shirt. I met some young guys on the side of the road in a forest village & commented to one of the guys (who was wearing the same football shirt) that I should've bought the one he was wearing as it had a collar. I'd only gone another hundred metres down the road when that young guy, a complete stranger, ran up to me and took his shirt off, handing it over to me. He simply said, "It's yours", and ran back up the winding road, shirtless. So, I have two Chivas footy shirts now because a young bloke literally gave me the shirt off his back. On another occasion Nikki & I were passing by an Evangelical Church in a small rural outpost when the guy living next door, seeing that we were checking the church out, waved to us to come over to him. He & his family were members of the church & upon hearing what we were doing, insisted on us staying for lunch. I was more than happy to park myself at the dinner table & we ate & chatted for an hour & a half. We finished by gathering on the front verandah & praying for each other & for unity. By the way, everyone is invited to his daughter's wedding in November if you're passing through :-) And finally, to top off the hospitality, in the middle of nowhere & having walked more than our due distance for the day, I asked a farmer who had just stepped out of a paddock ahead of me if there was anywhere to stay nearby. He nodded & said, "Yes, my home. Come!" And so we did, to a three room bush hut in a small isolated village called Ninos Heroes (it's not even on my map). I got the wood plank bed & Nikki got the hammock next to the parrot & rooster. It was a meek living but the farmer, his wife & their two daughters were great hosts & giving in every sense of the word. Just don't ask Nikki about the long drop. Just don't. I reckon if you lit a match near it you'd wipe out half of Mexico. It was great though to see that despite the fear many of the locals had for our safety, it was counter-acted by acts of kindness & generosity. From here it is a long haul up into 3000m high Mexico City over 10days. It is day 218 of 572 (I feel a little like Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves writing that...) but my resolve is stronger now than when I started that the Lord's heart is for unity. True unity. It's a long road ahead though. Please pray on & feel free to send my mum a birthday message at mary.clear@onecare.org.au!
God bless, Sam.
"You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day." Psalm 91:5

(ps: "...do not throw your pearls to pigs" Matt 7:6)

Direction, Wind & Exfoliation

Hello to you from somewhere in Mexico! I've spent the last few days walking along winding, forest-guarded roads that have not aided my sense of direction one little bit. I'm... somewhere in Mexico. It's very beautiful through this region (south east of Mexico City) with rolling hills, distant mountains & a fresh breeze all day long to ease the heat of the scorching sun. As it is, I'm not supposed to be in this area at all. According to my itinerary I should be about 200km south west of here but I discovered a series of roads on my map that gets me into Mexico City a day ahead of schedule so Nikki & I took the turn & to this day are enjoying the change up from arid 'leeward' countryside to the greener 'windward' side of the mountains. At the beginning of the week we walked & prayed our way through the windiest part of Mexico where the towns are aptly named 'The Wind' & 'The Windiest'. I counted over 100 wind turbines in between walking along the road & been blown off it. Nikki was very satisfied though to knock off her longest day on the road to date as we trekked 54km after not being able to secure accomodation at the 36km mark in our original destination for the day. The following day was thus rather short & to our great delight landed us very close to the Pacific Ocean. We made our way down to the deserted beach for a final look at the sea until southern Europe in 2008. The waves were pounding the beach & it didn't look particularly safe so we only ventured out to just above knee depth. I still managed to get plummeted by a huge wave, get washed up on the sand & then dragged back into the surf, on my belly, trying in vein to claw my way back onto my feet. I stood up just in time to get smashed back into the sand by a second wave. Effectively I discovered the Mexican all-in-one exfoliation for idiots. I'm still picking sand out of my shorts. Skin looks good though. The Mexican folks through this region have been lovely for the most part & we had our dinner & two rooms offered free of charge last night in a small village because the guy in charge is a Christian & in no way wanted to charge missionaries. Beautiful guy. We passed him at 7am this morning about 10km out of the town as he finished up his night shift working on the road works. Some folks work hard, very hard. A lot more prayer still to come & hopefully many more people to meet & pray with / invite to pray for unity along the way. I'll pass on the beaches though, thanks. More time to think as well as I walk. I've basically spent a lot of time this week pondering the 'actual' differences of various churches but basically it's been a 'presonal pray week' rather than a 'something I can write about in the blog' week. I liked it :-) God bless & please keep on praying. In Christ, Sam.
"Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love & peace will be with you." 2Cor 13:11

Monsters, Earthquakes & Humidity

"Don't become a monster in order to destroy a monster" - Bono, U2.
It doesn't feel like it's been a week between posts, it feels like it's been a month & a very long one at that. Nikki & I have found it very difficult to deal with the harsh taunting & at times verbal abuse of the locals here in mexico. There is a lot of hurt here over the treatment of Mexicans in the USA & so (thinking that we're from the USA) the locals have at times treated us in the exact way they despise their own country men being treated in the US. It's disappointing to see so many people become what they despise. I'm also a little tired of hearing people justify the treatment by sighting that those people meant no harm but just thought we were from the USA. This to me sounds more like, "Sorry you were treated badly, but your skin is the wrong colour to be treated fairly from the start." Nikki & I certainly have a lot to offer to the Lord for unity as we walk & have to simply allow ourselves to be more & more open to being stretched in humilty. We also sat through a 6.9 earthquake in Tonalà but to be honest, that was rather exciting! I've never felt an earthquake in my life so to hear the rumble & then be thrown from side to side a good foot either way was kind of like being a kid at an adventure park. Thank the Lord there was no major damage in the area - just a beaming Aussie wondering if there was stillmore to come... The last 9days have taken us up along the last of the steaming jungle off shoot from Central America. The humidity was unbearable at times & with temperatures soaring into the low 40's I regularly finished my days walking looking like I'd been for a swim fully clothed. it was disgusting. Nikki of course finished without raising a sweat... (she wishes!) In the past 11 days we have walked a total of 357km & it has been tougher than perhaps any week before it. Both of us had some extreme blisters, heat rash, aching joints &, well, problems with the food. Add on to that the humidty & regular unwelcoming of the locals & we are thankful to have a day off now to just 'be'. For all our complaints though, everything was put in to perspective when we found ourselves sleeping under the same church awning as 15 El Salvadorian refugees on the road to the United States, hoping to cross the border illegally & find a new life & future. Bleeding toes are ok I guess. Our huge highlight (other than the ice-cream man who was riding his bicycle-trolley down the highway) was meeting a young Texan family(Jason, Amanda & their two boys) living in Arriaga. They have sold up everything to move to Mexico & serve at the orphanage in Arriaga that basically takes the children who have seen everythying in their lives apart from love. Their job is taxing but simple - love them (and they do it well). Their lives & generosity were inspiring & made me want to be a missionary... again. Please keep praying for total unity of all people of faith & again, please feel free to sign the online petition of those praying for unity simply as an encouragement to those who are aleady praying. God bless you all 6 stay out of trouble! Sam.
"If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you & take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." Matt 5:39-41