Alps, Hearing & Troubled Gear

Hello from the city in a lagoon, Venice. I haven't seen a single gondola yet! Ripped off. Today I'm walking from Venice to Padua & I'll have my rest day there. I'm really longing for that rest as well. It has been a physically demanding week. I left Dave in Austria with my old boots, which he's going to try & take back to Australia for me & I headed off towards the border. I crossed the Alps in 3days & was absolutly gob-smacked at how beautiful the mountains were. The Italian people have been very friendly & generous & I've had a few strangers buy me dinner or organise a place for me to stay or even haggle the local hotel down to a low price for me. I've had some history lessons along the way too. Crossing over from Austria to Italy I followed the original Roman road, which has been carved out of solid rock & winds up through the forested foothills. It was very quiet & making the trek & I began to imagine the perils of making this jounrey 2000 years ago. I got lost once but that's nothing new. I been lost twice on the mountains behind my parent's farm. One time was one of the funniest treks I've ever had! Thanks to the Lutheran Church in Villach for pointing me towards the old road in the first place! The valley I walked down through on the Italian side of the border has seen it's fair share of modern disasters. An 8.4 earthquake in 1978 that leveled everything & flood in 2004 that rose 40m above the rivers normal level & again wiped out countless villages. The clean-up job, in March 2008, is still in full swing. There were cranes, excovators, bull dozers & trucks at work everywhere. Despite the previous destruction, the beauty of the place still remained & so did the people's smiles, "It fall down, we build it up better!" I have never seen so many massive, jagged mountains & I don't think I've ever taken so many photos. It was snowing at the beginning of the week, then it rained & yesterday it was 21degC. It rained on Thursday all day long & I discovered that my water-proof backpack cover isn't water-proof, which is a shame, because it doesn't have many other redeemable features. It is a lovely shade of orange but I kind of bought it for the water-proofness factor. I also managed to bend one of my new walking poles navigating the notoriously difficult Italian roads. There has been very little consideration taken for pedestrians when building roads here & I have had to, for the majority of this week, walk in between the white line & crash barriers (approximately 50cm wide) or jump over the crash barrier & walk on the massive slope running down into the small canals that line all roads. This is the main reason why this week has been so difficult. A 40km day feels like 60. My feet twist & turn on the uneven 'balance beam' I've had to walk along. In order to stop myself falling off the edge or falling into on-coming traffic I've had to use my walking poles more than ever. It was while leaping across a small canal after running out of room on the road that I bent the pole. It's still useable though & kind of matches the rest of my equipment now. That day I also stepped on my camelbak water system mouth piece as I was picking my bag up & snapped it clean off. I still have the tube though so it's ok for now. My backpack shoulder straps have began the pull apart so my greatest tool of all, a role of sticky tape I bought in South America, is being used liberally. The new boots have had the ultimate 'breaking in' period with all the twisting & turning but that has caused problems for my feet. My 1st blister in 5months plus some minor tendornites caused me to finish walking a few hours early a couple of times. I even resorted to crawling yesterday, but that was because there was no room to walk on the side of a bridge so I had to crawl along under the road signs & wedged between the crash barrier & bridge edge. It was a little absurd :-) I've discovered that my hearing is a little more accurate than I had realised after 2 incidents in 1day. While I'm walking & praying, I walk facing the oncoming traffic so that I can see what's coming at me. However, I can't see the cars coming from behind that are overtaking. Hence, I walk looking forward but listening backwards. Serious. I can now tell if a car is passing from behind on the other side of the road or overtaking & about to pass within half a metre of me & I can tell roughly how fast they are going. The 2 moments in 1day involved a snake & a drunk man on a bike. I was walking through the grass on the side of the road, with heavy traffic beside me when a bird took off out of the grass. A metre of so from it a heard a another small, short sound & without even thinking about I thought, "Whoah! A snake!" I stopped & peered in & eventually spotted a 1m brown with black spots snake. It stayed for a moment & then shot off into the canal. As I walked on I was left wondering how I knew it was a snake & I really don't know but obivously a snake in grass makes a different sound to a bird or a lizard?? The 2nd moment was scary. An intoxicated man was struggling to walk his bike down a small town road in the early twilight. He was around 70m in front of me when he turned the bike & without looking, wheeled it out across the road towards the other side. I could hear a car coming from behind & without turning around, new that they were on a collision course. I shouted, "No!" but he staggered out as the car shot past my right hand side at about 80km/hr. The driver slammed on the brakes & the only sound that could be heard was the scream of 4 tyres on bitumen. I honestly thought I was about to watch a man die. It was a horrible 2seconds. As it was though, the squeeling tyres frightend the drunk man so much that he litterally jumped for the edge of the road right at the last milli-second as the car crunched his rear wheel. As the smoke settled the locals all came out to the end of their driveways to see what had happened. Everyone was ok but the bike was no more. It wasn't even wheelable. I was very thankful that no one had died & I'm becoming more & more thankful for the gift of hearing. I said the gift of hearing! Yeah it's 8 o'clock. I'd better get moving now, Padua is a 6hr walk from here & it's already 11am. I normally finish each blog with a piece of scripture but I just received an email from a fellow in England by the name of Tony Palmer & if it's ok with you Tony, I'd like to leave you with Tony's opening line. God bless & peace be with you, Sam.
Jesus prayed for it in John17, "That we may be ONE… SO THAT THE WORLD WOULD BELIEVE…!!!" Christian Unity is not an effort for “good Church politics”… it is our Lord’s dieing prayer! It really amazes me that our Lord prayed for unity of the Church BEFORE He had even given birth to it!!!

Metabilism, Boots & Batten

A very happy & holy Easter to you from Tauchendorf in southern Austria! I can see it snowing through the window right now so I'm happy to be at the computer, though it'll be short lived as I'll be back on the road again in a few hours time. The week began in hot sunshine, quickly turned to rain followed by long, overcast cool days & now it's snowing. I haven't seen anything other than mountains & valleys this week as the road I walked wound it's way up, down, arond & some times even under. It was actually tiring having to conistantly try & find a path to walk along. The roads here have no shoulder & are often guarded by barrier-rails. I've had no choice but to 'run the gauntlet' along these roads a few times but I've also walked along bike tracks, farm lanes, rivers & rail-tracks. On a number of occaisions I've been walking past ski-lifts taking skiiers up to the mountain top & I've longed to drop my bag & have a quick ski but with the broken church on my mind I've pushed on. Austria is the first country where I haven't learnt the language because so many people here speak english, so I just haven't had to push myself. Dave Batten, from Australia, did send me an email at the start of Austria with some helpful phrases, though "I ride a kangaroo to work everday" and "I am a little fat pig" haven't come in handy as yet. Thanks for your input though Dave. I've been able to eat very well here in Austria & consequently my metabolism has shot through the roof & I'm starting to put a little weight back on. Walking 30 to 50km a day & putting weight on is no mean feet! I regularly wake at 3am with my stomach rumbling & a small meal waiting for me beside my bed. I began the walk at 93kg, fell to as low as 81kg & I'm now edging towards 87kg. I had planned 2days of rest for Easter with a family my good friend Dave had become acquaninted with on a trip last year. I was looking foward to meeting them & resting at their house. As I walked into the town the thought crossed my mind that it was possible that Dave might have actually flown over for Easter - he'd do something like that & not tell me. And then 10mins later there he was standing in front of me with a stupid grin on his face, "Hello Samuel." It was a great Easter suprise & so my last 2days have been filled with a lot of catching up & a lot of laughing. We've been named cheeky 1 & cheeky 2 by the family here, which brings back memories of our time together on mission in 2002 when we were labelled as shifty 1 & shifty 2. Some things don't change. The Stromberger family have been excellent hosts here on their farm & Dave & I have been treated to a true Autrian experience. From painted easter eggs, to a Saturday night candle lit vigil mass, to a full orchestra & operatic choir Sunday morning mass, to a selection of Austrian foods, it has been a beautiful couple of days. The two daughters living back at home, Eva & Carol, have very strong ties with the Franciscan order & so there have been many hours of conversation about faith, areas of struggling unity & places of need for mission work. It really has been an uplifting Easter. Dave brought over with him a brand new pair of Scarpa boots for me. I'd been trying to find a new pair since Canada but size 16 (Euro-50) just weren't available anywhere in the world. Dave eventually had found a pair of 2006 boots that had been in storage somewhere in Autralia & so they are now ready to replace the boots that Damian & Tatiana Burger bought for me while travelling through Costa Rica. The boots themselves didn't arrive until I was in central Nicaragua & so they've taken me north from there, all the way to Canada, across the ice of Vladivostok Bay & down from Moscow to southern Austria. That's around 8,500km in one pair of boots. Phenomonal. Mind you, they don't look like they would have lasted much longer. I been wearing the new boots everwhere for the last two days to try & wear them in & I walked 12km of today's walk last night to give them a little more time to loosen up. I wore my last boots without being able to wear them in & ended with horrible blisters on the balls of my feet & tendonitis. I'm hoping to avoid that this time around. Speaking of blisters, I haven't had one now since the USA - see how the new boots treat me. The change in seasons has seen a change in activity amongst the locals. I've struck up a few conversations with people out in their garden or field, preparig the soil for planting. Apart from the light snow falling outside right now it is getting a lot greener. I'll have to wait a few more days though before I see the real change as I'm about to cross the Italian Alps & will end this week down around Venice & Padua. I received the sad news that my great-auntie Erica had passed away last week so it was sad to hear of her passing (we had a good relationship based on our mutual love of football & cricket!) but despite this I'm really pumped & ready to go. The short 12km walk yesterday on Easter Sunday evening was different to the times in prayer lately. It was a real Easter "He is risen" time & the resurection was menaing more to me than I think it ever has & so I'm a little excited now to be pushing on, praying on & extending the invitation to prayer. In new boots. God bless & peace be with you, Sam.
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him." Mark 16:6
ps: Thanks for the presents, Naomi & Bek! All the chocolate has been eaten :-)

Geese, Gas & Gear

Hello from Austria! I crossed out of Slovakia in the rain on Wednesday & arrived in a town near Vienna for a rest day with some good friends. The Shneller-Scharau family lived in Adelaide for the 2 years I was working there with YMT Australia & so we've been planning to meet well before I left for Brazil. I have ended up staying here for 3nigths already & will stay again tonight, not because I've stopped walking but because they've come & picked me up each evening as I finish walking. It almost feels like I have a 9 to 5 job now! Their youngest, Daniel, is having trouble pronouncing my name so I'm either called Yam or Anne at the moment. Still, it's better than young Julian Pannell back in Australia who couldn't pronounce my name for 5months & referred to me as Dum. Yam is fine. It's been so nice to have some familiarity around me. Yesterday was a miserable wet day with no where to walk along the side of the road (I walked for a while along a canal instead) but there has always been ample time to pray & to meet people & extend the invitation. Today was a perfect anti-yesterday with beautiful sunshine & open roads. Today was also the 1st time since October, 2007, that I was able to wear a t-shirt. My health is ok considering I walk a marathon a day. I had a quick check-up with a doctor the other day due to an inflamed & rash-covered foot. The doctor didn't quite know what to do simply because he had no idea how the body should react to walking the distances I do. We both agreed that it would be ok & sure enough the next day it was back to normal. I accidently omitted two funny stories from the previous two weeks but couldn't let the oppurtunity pass to not finally 'tell the tales'. The 1st was from the 'trumpeting' walk with Wojtek in Poland. We were walking down through a steep valley when a flying 'V' of geese flew over our heads. Wojtek & I began to talk about the geese migration when another group came into view. This lot though had no 'V' happening at all but were completly random. I yelled out in full voice to them, "Form a V, it's easier!" At that point the geese suddenly changed position & formed a sort of flying 'T'. Wojtek cupped his hands around his mouth & yelled out to them, "No! He said a V, not a T!" We both roared with laughter as once again they all changed poistion, but this time into a flying 'V'. We were happy to have helped them on their long trip home :-) The other story I forgot to tell wasn't overly funny at the time, more of a lesson in how not to do something stupid. The mistake I made was filling my 3L water bladder up with carbonated water instead of plain water. I'd walked a few kilomtres before I reached for my 1st sip & so enough time had passed for the pressure in the water bladder to rise sharply. I have a Camelbak water system & so all I have to do to drink is place the tube that hangs by my side in my mouth, bite down on the mouth piece & suck. Due to the gas inside the bladder, as soon as I bit down on the mouth piece the water cannoned out at such a force that it practically bruised my kidneys. I wasn't ready to swallow the water so some ended up in my lungs & the rest ended up all over my face as I hastily pulled the tube from my mouth. The ppressure was so great that the mouth piece couldn't close off after I'd released it so with water flying everwhere I had to turn it off at the valve. I was left standing on the side of the highway coughing & spluttering as water dripped down off my head. Carbonated water:1, Sam:0. The tap water here in Austria is drinakable so that solves the gas problem for now. It's a good thing it's God doing the work on this trip & not me. Big problems otherwise. With the rising temperatures I have decided to send home all my winter gear. It's a few kg worth so it's a welcome drop-off. Alexander & Birgit Scneller-Scharau also helped to restock me with new pants & a jacket. My water-proof pants & jacket had been destroyed crossing Russia & Belarus because of the slat they spread on the roads to melt the snow. The passing cars & trucks would spray me with salty water & the salt has destroyed the water-proofing membrane. So I have a new jacket & some cooler cotton treking pants to replace the water-proof ones. As I said at the start of this blog, there have been plety of oppurtunities to pray (that is, from the time I wake up until the time I fall asleep). I'm struggling a little though to not get distracted as I walk & pray & I'm constantly having to re-focus. I even got destracted today while apologising to the Lord for being distracted. None-the-less, the prayer for Christian unity continues; for the unity of the family, our unity through forgiveness, our unity in truth & our unity in love. I guess I'll be writing from southern Austria next week sometime over the Easter break (I'm 2days ahead of schedule so I'll take them as rest days for Easter). God bless & may you have a holy week. Sam.
"There is a time for everything & a season for every activity under heaven." Ecc 3:1

Prayer, Praise & a Hair Stylist

Greetings from Trnava in southern Slovakia. I didn't walk as far this past week as I had planned but that was becuase of a very full schedule meeting people. I received a very handy Slovakian language lesson from 4 youth workers in Kysucke at the start of the week & I've been practising since. The Slovakian people have been very patient with me & generous with their time. The youth workers at Kysucke rang ahead to the city of Zilina to some counter-parts who welcomed me & organised for me to attend an eccumenical meeting being held that afternoon. Luthern Pastor Rad drove me to the meeting where I was invited to attened their prayer evening the following night. I walked on that night & again the next day so at 4pm I had to find a bus & ride back to Zilina, 50km behind me. Pastor Rad was very hospitable & offered me a place to stay & cooked up some great food for me. The meeting was very blessed & had contirbutors from many denominations. It was a beautiful first step towards unity in truth & love. One or the women attending the evening, Tracy, then invited me to travel down to the capital city of Bratislava for a major "Unity Concert" in 2days time. I couldn't afford the time to just hang around so after a careful look at the map we agreed on a pick-up point some 130km from Zilina. That plan had a spanner thrown in the works though when a journalist wanted an interview the next morning as I was preparing to head back to where I'd finished walking. The interview took a few hours & so Pastor Rad was very kind in throwing me in his car & speeding me out to my starting point. I only made a portion of my allotted distance for that day, leaving me with a 44km day to my 1:15pm pick-up point. So I began the marathon at 4:30am & pushed through, praying all the way & arriving 5mins late at 1:20pm. I-was-stuffed. I felt like I was going to self-combust over the last 15km. Tracy & her daughter shouted me to a quick lunch & then we were off to Bratislava. The concert, a night of praise & worship, was very re-focussing & up-lifting. A journalist came & met with me just as the evening was getting underway but after that I was free to just 'be'. Vlad, one of the guys there, invited me up to speak for a few minutes but spent the majority of the night sitting beside me translating everything. I now know how to say, "Holy Lord" quite fluently. His future sister-in-law, Ivana, also chipped in to help with translating while Vlad was leading up the front. They have a 24hr house of prayer in Bratislava & the shifts are taken up by people from all over the city & spectrum of churches. Again, a brilliant first step towards the unity of Christians in truth & love. Ivana made a phone call that night & organised a place for me to stay back where I'd finished walking (it was her home town). Tracy & her daughter drove me back that night & I was welcomed by Lucas, who didn't speak english, but we communicated just fine. The next morning we prayed together & then he took me to the local Evangelical church for their service. I then walked to Trnava, where I am now, & made it just in time for the Catholic mass. I had been given a contact here but that fell through & so one of the young women at the church simply offered me a place to sleep at her paretns place. I couldn't believe that she would just open up her home to a complete stranger, but then again, I really shouldn't be suprised at anything. I got a haircut the other day, my first since Snyder, Texas back in mid September. I ended up at a salon where haircutting is an art rather than a job. I really should have just asked for it to be all shaved off. Instead, the hairdresser (or should I say, 'Stylist') played with my hair for a minute & then started hacking at it with a cut-throat blade. She didn't use scissors once. She swiped, she sliced, she scared me half to death. I thought I was going to loose an ear. I've noticed that the mullet is very fashionable in Slovakia & she was very keen to not touch the back of my head. It's almost as if it's a fashion-declared national park & thus for viewing only & not for the taking! It took a few minutes of debate but I eventually convinced her that a mullet was not on. She sliced & slashed a little at the back & stood back as if to say, "How's that?" She'd given me a mini-mulllet. I insisted that she had to take more off it & so reluctantly she did. By the time I walked out of the salon I had a roughed-up just-got-out-bed back & a nike swoosh sweeping across the front & it was all held together by some sort of bizzare hair product. If anyone has seen the movie Dumb & Dumber you'll proabably remember them walking out of a salon & ruining the stylists good work by running their hands through their hair & bringing it back to normal. I did the exact same thing, & then put my cap back on. The Nike swoosh across my forehead greets me each morning now when I wake up so I just convince myself that I'm the most fashionable missionary on the face of the planet (apart from Blair McWhinney) & walk on. I've really enjoyed meeting the Slovakian people & they have certainly made the long distances on the road feel a little easier. I particularly get a kick out of the road signs here. All the signs with the typical bubble head person on it have been out-fitted with a hat of sorts. The figure on the pedestrian crossing is wearing as top-hat & the workman on road-works sign is wearing a beret. It's brilliant :-) Also, I few very big thank you's to a few poeple who have assissted me lately in acquiring a few new items to replace my old or damaged equipment. To the covenant community in Lublin, Poland, to Wojtek & the covenant community in Bielsko Biala, Poland & to the Pollard's in Australia, thank you so much for the new, walking poles, head-lamp, beanie & boots. I'm still wearing the boots I had delivered to Nicaragua & they are well beyond wearable. I have to grab a few stones out of them each day as I have 'ventilation' on the sides. The new boots should arrive next week & to Dave Batten who organised them for me (it took 3months to find a pair of size 16 (50 Euro)) thank you very much. I'll cook a nice dinner for you in late July. So with my 8000km old boots hanging on by a thread, I'm heading into Bratislava over the next 2days & then across the border into Austria. God bless & peace be with you, Sam.
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." Matt 25:35

Friends, a Storm & Trumpets

Hello from Cadca in northern Slovakia! Poland ended with a lot of fun & a lot of rain. An enormous storm passed over Europe 2days ago causing major damage & loss of life with torrential rain & massive winds. I almost walked through it but was saved by some planning I had nothing to do with. I arrived in Krakow last Tuesday just in time to see the sun set over the beautiful & historic city centre. Krakow was a scheduled rest day & I am very grateful to the City on the Hill Covenant Community for organising a place for me to stay while there. I stayed with Marek, Rita & their 4 children for 2nights. A big thank you to Sarah for giving up her bedroom for me! The extent of their generosity became evident when, over dinner, Marek asked me where I was from & what I was doing in Poland. He had invited me to stay simply on the premise that he'd been told that a man passing through Krakow needed somewhere to sleep. That was enough for him. He hadn't asked who the man was or what he was doing, he simply let me in & then his 15yr old daughter moved into her older sister's room so I could have a room to myself. I spent most of my day-off tending to 76emails but I did pop out for an hour with Marek to visit the Basilica of the Sister's of Divine Mercy where Saint Faustina Kowalska's ministry continues today, bringing the divine mercy of our Lord to the world along with the words many are well familiar with now, "Jesus, I Trust in You". I walked from Krakow to a small town in the Polish hill-country & stayed with Marek's uncle & auntie before countinuing further on to Wadowice (the birth-place of Pope John Paul II) & Andrychow where I was picked up by Michal from Bielsko Biala. I wasn't scheduled to pass through Bielsko but because I passing so close the City on the Hill Community had invited me to stay with them & then they'd return me to Andrychow to continue walking. I thought it would be as scheduled & that I'd stay for the night & that would be it but they were under the impression that I would be staying a little while longer & so had organised a few things for the next day. I was frustrated to begin with but decided to stay for one day & I'm very glad I did. That night Michal invited me to speak at a youth meeting. I agreed though almost lost my bottom jaw when I walked into the jam-packed Church filled with hundred's of youth from all over southern Poland. Even Marek's son, Kristopher, was there playing drums. It was an amazing evening filled with songs, dramas, film, adoration & a beautiful altar call where hundreds walked forward as a sign of commitment to Christ. The next day I had breakfast with Michal & a few of his friends before heading out to Wojtek's home for lunch with his family. We were all around the same age & appeared to have a similar sense of humour so had a blast for the whole day. Michal & Wojtek have discovered a new pass-time in the Polish hills, trumpet playing. Neither of them can play but that hasn't stopped them buying two old-style trumpets, which they let loose with in as many obscure places as possible. They're even on youtube, playing a trumpet submerged in a lake. Spending time with them was one laugh after another. That day saw the storm pass over that area of Poland. I should have been walking over a mountian pass that day & if I had, I would have found myself in a 100km/hr blizzard & frigid conditions so I was very pleased that the community had organised a few things for me. In the afternoon we headed off to a young adults prayer group where I was invited to share once again. The next day Michal drove Wojtek & myself back out to Andrychow & Wojtek joined me for the 36km walk to Zywiec. Wojtek guided me along an alternate route that avoided the mountain pass & so instead, we wound our way along a fast flowing river & then a chain of lakes nestled between enormous forest covered hills. It continued raining all day long & I discovered that all the salt spray from the roads in Belarus & Russia (salt is spread on the roads to melt the snow) had ruined the water-proofing of my jacket & pants. I would have gained as much protection from a cotton t-shirt. Wojtek was also saturated, but his gear wasn't water-proof to begin with so his soaked-ness came with less disappointment :-) Wojtek carried a trumpet with him all day long & upon our arrival in Zywiec an hour after sunset, we stood in the town square & 'announced' our arrival. It looked as though we'd had around 3inches of rain that day judging by the amount of rainwater that dribbled out the end of the trumpet. Then I realised that mass was on in a nearby church so we blew no more. Sorry to anyone in Zywiec who had the gospel interupted that evening... The article from the journalists 2weeks ago was in circulation this week & for those final 2days in Poland it was easy to get the invitation to pray for unity across. Most people I met had read the article & so all I had to do was smile & ask if they would please remember to pray for unity. On my last day in Poland I was walking through a tiny village when two elderly women began yelling at me form the 2nd floor window of their appartment. "Hey! Hey!" They were gesturing for me to come on up & visit. They had apparently been standing at the window talking & watching the world pass by when they noticed 'The Australian' walking past. The fed me better than I've been fed in years. They were hilarious. Their neice came over & translated for us but she couldn't stop laughing half the time because of their constant antics. Age had not slowed them down! Eventually I was on my way again & in the late afternoon I crossed the deserted, un-staffed border into Slovakia. The scenery is incredible here. Absolutly amazing. I haven't seen a flat piece of land yet. I had to return to the border this morning to meet & talk with a television crew but I'm now back on the trail heading south towards Bratislava. I am once again unknown & once again having to learn a new language. How quickly it all changes. God bless & please pray on. Sam.
"Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Romans 12:13
("On the morning of the third day there was thunder & lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, & a very loud trumpet blast." Ex19:16)