In the early hours of Sunday morning with my forehead pressed against the window of the Vietnam Airlines flight, the southern hemisphere stars faded from view as a rainbow of colours beckoned in the first sunrise over Australian soil I'd seen since December of2006. It was a beautiful sight from 20,000ft above the red centre of Australia & the only thing I could think of was how far away Brazil now was... and how close my friends & family were. The flight touched down at Sydney airport an hour behind schedule but thankfully the 50-odd friends who were waiting to welcome me home had stuck around. It was a tad embarrassing when a couple of the guys pulled out guitars & began singing U2's "With or Without You" in full-voice, but I was so happy to see everyone after all this time & to simply be with them again that there singing simply provided atmosphere. It took nearly an hour to say hello to everyone & remove ourselves from the building. As I stepped out of the airport terminal the first car to drive past me startled me as it headed past on the 'wrong side of the road' with the driver on the 'wrong side of the car'. I was home, but it was feeling a little odd & dare I say 'foreign'. I climbed into the Pannell family van & we drove off to our first port-of-call, Sunday mass. Martin (the dad) has an ability to ask 100 questions a minute & he was on fire. For the first time in my life though I was able to keep up with him. He had so many questions & I had so many stories to tell! We soon found a midday mass at a small church in the centre of Sydney & found the last two remaining seats, right up the front. Steve Toohey, The national director of Youth Mission Team Australia (my old stomping ground) also arrived with his family & so we all took our place in readiness for the service. Now, to set the scence, throughout almost the entirity of the walk from Brazil to Spain, two retired couples, John & Margaret Pollard and Charles & Beth Fivaz, had emailed me weekly with words of inspiration & encouragement. I'd never met them, they'd simply heard of the walk & decided to become active participants. Charles & Beth lived in Melbourne and John & Margaret lived south of Sydney where, as far as I understood, they attended the local Anglican Church. Along the seat I'd sat down in were a heap of kids, then myself, Steve Toohey & an elderly couple on the end. The Pannell & Toohey families (7 children between them) were very 'active' in waiting for the start of mass & providing a few laughs along the way. All of a sudden the elderly man leant across towards us & enquired, "Steve?". Steve stopped what he was doing & stared at the man for a split second before recognising him, "Uncle John!" Steve laughed, "What are you doing here?" Uncle John & his wife, Margaret, happened to be in Sydney & had been looking for a mass to attend. They'd stumbled across this small church in time for the midday service & decided to attend. I was staring at them thinking to myself, "Surely not. It couldn't be them." John then realised I was staring at him & for a short period stared back until he enquired of me, "Sam?" It was him! We greated each other with a lot more timidity than perhaps we would have liked to but considering our position at the front of a packed church some sort of discretion called for. Talk about God's perfect timing. We'd been on this journey together for so long without ever meeting face to face & then finally, without any planning, we finally met while attending my first mass on home soil. John, Margaret & I had watery eyes as the mass began & it was with much thanks to God that we entered into it. Following the mass I was whisked off to an appartment in the centre of Sydney, which had been hired for me for the duration of World Youth Day as a welcome home gift from a group of '4:01' friends from both Australia & overseas. It was rather... nice. It was very up-market & close to the World Youth Day venues. I was incredibly grateful. I only had an hour there before needing to scramble off to the first media engagement for World Youth Day with a television crew. The following day I was off to ABC Radio for a 30min interview about christian unity & the walk but most of my time was spent preparing speaking material for the four main 'gigs' for the week. The first speaking engagement was on Tuesday morning in Sydney's Hyde Park with the Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community (with whom I'm a covenant member) at the World Youth Day Cross & Icon tent. That time was predominantly spent finding friends & family (my brother Chris was there) & trying to name my friend's children who looked absolutly nothing like how I remembered them. Mind you, they didn't recognise me either. I'd brought a tub of chocolate ice-cream with me to the tent & found Rev Dave Callaghan to sit down with & share the spoils. Rev Dave was, in effect, my email spiritual advisor & all-round logistics guy throguhout the entire trip. Two spoons & a tub of Ice-cream was a satisfying way to wrap up this 'little' pilgrimage. The following day I made my way down onto Australia's iconic Bondi Beach for the Franciscan run "Come to the Water" Unity concert. The forecast for the week had been for showers but not a drop of rain fell. It was blue skies & warm sunshine pretty much all week long & Bondi Beach looked fantastic on the Wednesday afternoon. Around 15,000 people rocked up & I was wide-eyed as I sat backstage with Fr Stan Fortuna, a famous rapping Franciscan from the Bronx, and the incredible Matt Maher & his band. The whole night centred around our common unity in Christ & it was an up-lifting event. Ben Galea, the event co-cordinator, had even organised for a few thousand '4:01' wrist bands to be prduced for the evening & so with half the crowd wearing the wrist bands I was able tell a few stories & continue the invitation to pray for unity. Thursday night saw me walking out across Sydney Harbour Bridge to the north shore for a speaking engagment with the Jesuit run Magis Event. Their evening was centred around prayer intentions & so I was asked to speak about my various intentions throughout the walk. Although I walked & prayed for christian unity, I also prayed for those I met, for the individuals & the communities, those who welcomed me & those who mugged me. Everyday my prayers seemed to change in some way so there was plenty to talk about. My brother & most of the pilgrims from my home state of Tasmania had also travelled across the bridge for the event & we celebrated at the end of the night as one of the students from St Patrick's College (my old school) launched into the College hymn, "Oh Patrick Hail!". Very quickly the strong contingency of St Patrick's students, past & present, were joining together in full voice. I'm glad we stopped at the end of the first verse though because I'm still a little hazey on that 2nd one. It was as the chorus was dying down & the crowd was braking into social chatter that I noticed a young couple staring at me & smiling. I thought they were just randoms so I smiled back & continued meeting with the Tasmanian pilgrims, but then it hit me like a tonne of bricks as to who I had just smiled back at. I swung back around with my jaw nearly touching the ground. It was Damian & Tatiana Burger! A little over 12months earlier I met Damian & Tatiana in Costa Rica & they had taken the literal steps to be the first people to walk a day with me. It was on that day that we were set upon by 4 men with knives & stripped clean of all we had. Now that's a bonding moment! We'd kept in touch since but seeing them face-to-face again was priceless. As I crossed Europe Damian had emailed me a few times asking me to pray for them, that they would be able to begin a family, so it was even more of a "celebration on the spot" as Tatiana patted her tummy proudly & introduced me to child number 1. A little baby Burger... that'd be McJunior wouldn't it?? :-) It was fantastic to see them again. Coming home & meeting so many old friends from prior to walking & so many new friends I met along the way was such a blessing. I also ran into people I'd met in the USA, Canada, Poland & Austria! That evening I walked back across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with my brother, Chris, his girlfriend, Mercedes & my old cricket coach, Luke. The city looked amazing at night, particularly with thousands of pilgrims filling the streets. Friday was the biggest day of my WYD schedule as the MC for Receive the Power Live. The stations of the cross wound its way through Sydney, concluding at the main weekday venue of Barangaroo. One hour later we were on in front of around 70,000 people with a momentus baptism in the holy spirit evening that was simply awesome. Hillsong, Matt Maher, Bishop Joe Grech & most notably, the blessed sacrament. It was an incredible night for unity. It was a joint event of the Catholic Charasmatic Communities & Hillsong (an internationally renowned Pentecostal Church) combined with the prayer support of many christians from nearly every corner of the christian church in Sydney. Speaking in front of 70,000 people sure was a long way from Brazil, but I was more than happy to be there. A huge congratualtions to the event manager, my good friend Kristen Toohey, who also helped to get the Walk4one rolling. Thanks Kris (and Pete gilmore!). On Saturday afternoon I said goodbye to my flash appartment & trekked out to Randwick Racecourse with around 400,000 other pilgrims to find my little spot in the crowd for the Final Mass sleep-out. Just before the evening vigil began I met up with an old friend & we sat & chatted for hours about our seperate paths over the last 2years to get to this point. I doubt I've ever been more relaxed & content in all my life as I was that night, and that's no exageration. I didn't sleep particularly well though. It was cold & the Polish pilgrims, somewhere up the back, sang all night long! The final mass the following morning was beautiful despite being viewed through tired, weary eyes. With a final flury of good-byes over half a million people who had gathered for the mass set off through the streets of Sydney for their home cities & countries. I needed to travel over 1000km to get back to Tasmania so I teamed up with friends Paul & Mark and after a short train ride, we picked up Paul's car & headed south through the night. We took it in shifts & eventually arrived in Melbourne at close to 4am. I think. From there, Mark & I said goodbye to Paul & caught the plane across Bass Strait & finally, after so much time, touched down at home. It was fantastic to see my family again & comforting to look out across the farm once more. I had initially indicated to friends & family that I would be home in Tasmania for 6months but as I touched down in Australia the call to mission work was already pulling at me. No sooner had I landed & I'd accepted a position back with Youth Mission Team Australia working as a team manager 3500km away in the west Australian city of Perth. I spent 2 weeks at home on the farm where I built some soccer goals, helped my dad build a 2km fence & generally enjoyed being home again before packing my backpack. On the final Sunday before flying out to Perth I travelled in to the city of Launceston to go to mass with my mum at the Church of the Apostles. My feet are still pretty bad from the walk so it was with a slight limp that I entered in among familiar faces & sat down. The inside of the church hadn't changed while I'd been away & yet, somehow, it looked very different. Perhaps the change was my own? As Fr Richard began reading the Gospel I was filled, more than ever, with a great sense of this particular missionary journey being drawn to an end. Within the Catholic Church there is a three year cycle of readings so that, every three years, pretty much all of the bible is covered. As I sat listening to Fr Richard read I began to smile as I recalled the last time I'd heard this particular piece of scripture; it was in Mebourne in 2005 at St Benedict's Catholic Church. Fr Tony, an MGL, was reading & I was sitting in the pews, having not paid attention for the first part of the mass because I was distracted. My mind was racing. Only an hour before hand I'd read about the division of the church, the body of Chirst, and been so moved by it that it would in time draw me deeper into prayer & into a journey that was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. My ears pricked up during the reading of the Gospel & it was as though Fr Tony was speaking straight to me. And so it was, three years later to the day, as I sat alongside my mum in my home parish that my ears pricked up once again.
Matthew 13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."
Three years ago I had no idea of exactly what I was 'buying' into, but it is with incredible joy & complete thanks that the doors were opened to 'sell everything' and simply walk with God. It's also with a tad sense of sadness that I log off now for the very last time, though, I have to say, I am very relieved to finally have my life out of the microscope & to be able to throw myself straight back into the missionary field - my home. A book is in the pipeworks, so please keep an eye out for it around Easter 2009. Whether there is a book or not thoguh, more importantly, please continue to pray for the unity of christians, particularly at 4:01 each day. May the Lord bless you and walk with you through life & may we all be united as one, in truth and in love. Amen, amen.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Good, The Bad & The Bizarre!
Hello from Ho Chi Minh Airport, Vietnam! I'm nearly home... No photos this week & no recount of the week, instead, just as a filler until World Youth Day, here is a quick-list look at the last 18months. Here is, the good, the bad and the bizarre.
Top 12 Highs
1. Being offered hammock hanging space in a tin shed in Panama by a young man who lived there with his wife & child. The shed was no more than 2mx3m with no running water, electricity, toilet or address. Dinner was a bread role with a slice of sausage on it. Breakfast was another bread role with a cup of lemon grass tree, which he cut fresh from the nearby field. He had nothing but gave all that he could. His daughter's toy Dino doll has accompanied me the entire trip since.
2. USA/Canada hospitality including 15days in a row across Montana & Canada where I was invited by strangers to stay in their home. Loved it!
3. Walking 148km over 3days between civilisation across the Shirley Basin in Wyoming, USA. I nearly froze, but God provided the perfect practical support in incredible ways (including peanut butter filled chocolates)!
4. Walking across the spectacularly beautiful Grand Savannah in Venezuela's south east corner.
5. The surprise visits on the road from my good friend Dave in Austria and then my parents in Spain.
6. Walking at night through an Oklahoma (USA) electrical storm that was simply mesmerizing.
7. The people I met along the Camino de Santiago in Spain; Their stories, their personalities, their company.
8. Spending a blessed & fun-filled Christmas with my brother Chris and the family Quist in Edmonton, Canada.
9. Being welcomed into the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Christian Unity :-)
10. All of the Mountain crossings! The Andes Mtns, Mexico's Cordillera Neovolcanica, The USA Rockies, The Austrian/Italian Alps & the Pyrenees.
11. The amazing hospitality in Riachao do Bacamarte, Patos & Pombal in north east Brazil just as I was starting out. Many smiles.
12. Being joined on the road by Nikki, Chris, The Quists, Justin & Wojtek (& Michal's trumpet!)
Top 12 Lows
1. Walking 66km in one day across Venezuela, running out of food & water & then coming face to face with a Puma in long grass on a quiet country road. After a tense stand-off & a slow approach by the Puma we finally parted company & I was left to sleep 3km back up the road in a clearing, severely dehydrated & a tad shaken!
2. Again in Venezuela, having a shot gun pushed against my head while eating lunch on the side of the road.
3. Being mugged at knife point & stripped clean by 4 men while walking with a small youth group in Costa Rica.
4. Being attacked by 2 drunken men in the snow on the side of a Russian highway & having to fight my way free.
5. Being hospitalised in Guatemala due to Salmonella poisoning & a subsequent Typhoid fever caused by eating some under-cooked rooster.
6. Big-toe-bleeder. Three times, for around 6-8weeks each time, having the side of my left big toe split open.
7. Developing an irregular heartbeat as a result of physical stress, rapid weight loss & fatigue.
8. Both knees seizing & both achilles tendons being strained all at the same time while in Russia.
9. Being taken to the Chief of Police in Brest, Belarus, for having crossed Belarus with an invalid Visa.
10. Waking up in a dark room in both Brazil & Honduras with a man trying to get into bed with me.
11. Being assaulted on the side of a Columbian road by a drunken man before a soldier, armed with an automatic rifle, broke up the scuffle & arrested him.
12. Dodging flying rocks, full beer cans, water balloons & verbal abuse throughout Venezuela.
Top 12 Bizarre Moments
1. Not able to find accommodation in a remote part of Texas & with dangerous animals lurking, I locked myself in a National Park disabled toilet cubicle & slept soundly. And if it started to get cold, all I had to do was reach up and hit the hand dryer... hmmm, toasty warm.
2. Being invited to speak about unity & the need for prayer at a funeral in Brazil, while the mourning family wept in the front row. Talk about a pressure moment!
3. Having the trans-Siberian railway stopped by a drunk man in the middle of Siberian wilderness because he wanted a lift. The engineer (with a hammer in hand just in case) took to him with a huge kick to the chest, flooring him in the snow. I guess that was a no.
4. Being heckled by two young men in Nicaragua as they passed by in a horse drawn cart. Heckling isn't ever nice, but there was something bizarre about being heckled from rickety old cart.
5. In a church in Colorado, USA, I was introduced to the congregation, "And we'd like to extend a very special welcome today to a travelling missionary who is with us, all the way from Tanzania, Austria!" Everyone applauded. I smiled with great difficulty.
6. Nearly crying with laughter as Nikki Harris' boots bellowed out shampoo foam during a thunder storm after she'd washed her socks the night before using... shampoo. Hmmm, do I smell 'Citrus Fresh'?
7. While walking in the rain, having a Texas gentleman stop his truck & run half way across the road & toss a heavy duty rain coat at me, "Just so you don't get sick son!" A little confused, I caught the coat as he ducked back into the driver's seat & headed off down the road, "but... I already have a raincoat."
8. Standing on the side of the Amazon River boat I caught, I was fascinated by the floating Caltex service station up ahead that all the boats were pulling into. The captain must have been fascinated by it as well because he ran straight into it & buckled the tin sheeting on its roof.
9. Being taken into the border security interrogation room at both ends of the USA. Nothing beats the moment when the first questioning officer re-entered the room fitting a pair of surgical gloves on. With a snap of the gloves I looked up with open eyes, "Oh no." The officer looked at me, "No, no! I just need to go through your bag..."
10. Eating congealed cow's blood mixed with sugar and sheep guts on a bed of rice while in Brazil. Anyone for McDonalds?
11. Watching a lady in Venezuela try to pull a large open umbrella through a small doorway & jamming it. She turned around, rotated the umbrella & pulled again, of course jamming it once more. My eyes widened, "Did she just rotate a round object to fit it through a rectangular doorway?" A third time she rotated the umbrella & this time pulled harder. Nothing. Finally, a hand emerged from the other side & twisted the umbrella onto an angle so it could fit through the opening. I was left alone in the street with my mouth ajar. "Did I really just see that?"
12. While walking in Poland, a young man, Wojtek, joined me for the day. In the late afternoon a gaggle of geese flew over us with no formation. I yelled out, "Form a V, it's easier!" In that very moment the geese quickly arranged themselves into a flying 'T'. Wojtek laughed and yelled out to them, "No! He said a V, not a T!" We couldn't believe our eyes as the 'T' slid into a flying 'V'. Glad we could help...
God is good, God is great. For all of the above, the bad included as well as all the things that have gone without mention, I am grateful to God for his provision and love. I complained a lot, I frowned a lot, I stuffed up a lot, but I have been blessed out of my socks. Thank you to everyone who has supported this mission in any way, shape or form. I hope to see you for the penultimate blog from Sydney next week. God bless & peace be with you.
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails." Pr 19:21
Top 12 Highs
1. Being offered hammock hanging space in a tin shed in Panama by a young man who lived there with his wife & child. The shed was no more than 2mx3m with no running water, electricity, toilet or address. Dinner was a bread role with a slice of sausage on it. Breakfast was another bread role with a cup of lemon grass tree, which he cut fresh from the nearby field. He had nothing but gave all that he could. His daughter's toy Dino doll has accompanied me the entire trip since.
2. USA/Canada hospitality including 15days in a row across Montana & Canada where I was invited by strangers to stay in their home. Loved it!
3. Walking 148km over 3days between civilisation across the Shirley Basin in Wyoming, USA. I nearly froze, but God provided the perfect practical support in incredible ways (including peanut butter filled chocolates)!
4. Walking across the spectacularly beautiful Grand Savannah in Venezuela's south east corner.
5. The surprise visits on the road from my good friend Dave in Austria and then my parents in Spain.
6. Walking at night through an Oklahoma (USA) electrical storm that was simply mesmerizing.
7. The people I met along the Camino de Santiago in Spain; Their stories, their personalities, their company.
8. Spending a blessed & fun-filled Christmas with my brother Chris and the family Quist in Edmonton, Canada.
9. Being welcomed into the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Christian Unity :-)
10. All of the Mountain crossings! The Andes Mtns, Mexico's Cordillera Neovolcanica, The USA Rockies, The Austrian/Italian Alps & the Pyrenees.
11. The amazing hospitality in Riachao do Bacamarte, Patos & Pombal in north east Brazil just as I was starting out. Many smiles.
12. Being joined on the road by Nikki, Chris, The Quists, Justin & Wojtek (& Michal's trumpet!)
Top 12 Lows
1. Walking 66km in one day across Venezuela, running out of food & water & then coming face to face with a Puma in long grass on a quiet country road. After a tense stand-off & a slow approach by the Puma we finally parted company & I was left to sleep 3km back up the road in a clearing, severely dehydrated & a tad shaken!
2. Again in Venezuela, having a shot gun pushed against my head while eating lunch on the side of the road.
3. Being mugged at knife point & stripped clean by 4 men while walking with a small youth group in Costa Rica.
4. Being attacked by 2 drunken men in the snow on the side of a Russian highway & having to fight my way free.
5. Being hospitalised in Guatemala due to Salmonella poisoning & a subsequent Typhoid fever caused by eating some under-cooked rooster.
6. Big-toe-bleeder. Three times, for around 6-8weeks each time, having the side of my left big toe split open.
7. Developing an irregular heartbeat as a result of physical stress, rapid weight loss & fatigue.
8. Both knees seizing & both achilles tendons being strained all at the same time while in Russia.
9. Being taken to the Chief of Police in Brest, Belarus, for having crossed Belarus with an invalid Visa.
10. Waking up in a dark room in both Brazil & Honduras with a man trying to get into bed with me.
11. Being assaulted on the side of a Columbian road by a drunken man before a soldier, armed with an automatic rifle, broke up the scuffle & arrested him.
12. Dodging flying rocks, full beer cans, water balloons & verbal abuse throughout Venezuela.
Top 12 Bizarre Moments
1. Not able to find accommodation in a remote part of Texas & with dangerous animals lurking, I locked myself in a National Park disabled toilet cubicle & slept soundly. And if it started to get cold, all I had to do was reach up and hit the hand dryer... hmmm, toasty warm.
2. Being invited to speak about unity & the need for prayer at a funeral in Brazil, while the mourning family wept in the front row. Talk about a pressure moment!
3. Having the trans-Siberian railway stopped by a drunk man in the middle of Siberian wilderness because he wanted a lift. The engineer (with a hammer in hand just in case) took to him with a huge kick to the chest, flooring him in the snow. I guess that was a no.
4. Being heckled by two young men in Nicaragua as they passed by in a horse drawn cart. Heckling isn't ever nice, but there was something bizarre about being heckled from rickety old cart.
5. In a church in Colorado, USA, I was introduced to the congregation, "And we'd like to extend a very special welcome today to a travelling missionary who is with us, all the way from Tanzania, Austria!" Everyone applauded. I smiled with great difficulty.
6. Nearly crying with laughter as Nikki Harris' boots bellowed out shampoo foam during a thunder storm after she'd washed her socks the night before using... shampoo. Hmmm, do I smell 'Citrus Fresh'?
7. While walking in the rain, having a Texas gentleman stop his truck & run half way across the road & toss a heavy duty rain coat at me, "Just so you don't get sick son!" A little confused, I caught the coat as he ducked back into the driver's seat & headed off down the road, "but... I already have a raincoat."
8. Standing on the side of the Amazon River boat I caught, I was fascinated by the floating Caltex service station up ahead that all the boats were pulling into. The captain must have been fascinated by it as well because he ran straight into it & buckled the tin sheeting on its roof.
9. Being taken into the border security interrogation room at both ends of the USA. Nothing beats the moment when the first questioning officer re-entered the room fitting a pair of surgical gloves on. With a snap of the gloves I looked up with open eyes, "Oh no." The officer looked at me, "No, no! I just need to go through your bag..."
10. Eating congealed cow's blood mixed with sugar and sheep guts on a bed of rice while in Brazil. Anyone for McDonalds?
11. Watching a lady in Venezuela try to pull a large open umbrella through a small doorway & jamming it. She turned around, rotated the umbrella & pulled again, of course jamming it once more. My eyes widened, "Did she just rotate a round object to fit it through a rectangular doorway?" A third time she rotated the umbrella & this time pulled harder. Nothing. Finally, a hand emerged from the other side & twisted the umbrella onto an angle so it could fit through the opening. I was left alone in the street with my mouth ajar. "Did I really just see that?"
12. While walking in Poland, a young man, Wojtek, joined me for the day. In the late afternoon a gaggle of geese flew over us with no formation. I yelled out, "Form a V, it's easier!" In that very moment the geese quickly arranged themselves into a flying 'T'. Wojtek laughed and yelled out to them, "No! He said a V, not a T!" We couldn't believe our eyes as the 'T' slid into a flying 'V'. Glad we could help...
God is good, God is great. For all of the above, the bad included as well as all the things that have gone without mention, I am grateful to God for his provision and love. I complained a lot, I frowned a lot, I stuffed up a lot, but I have been blessed out of my socks. Thank you to everyone who has supported this mission in any way, shape or form. I hope to see you for the penultimate blog from Sydney next week. God bless & peace be with you.
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails." Pr 19:21
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The End of the Road
After 568days, 9350km on trains, 9824km in aircraft & 15,259km on foot, the journey from Cape Branco, Brazil, to Cape Finisterre in Spain is over. It is done. Standing on a cliff ledge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on Cape Finisterre yesterday evening I was trying to make sense of what has taken place in these last 18months but the only thing I could fathom in the moment was that the sunset was beautifully simple. A week earlier, Finisterre was still just a hopeful possibility. My gear was failing very quickly & the race was on to finish walking before it all finished working. Four out of five zips on my backpack had broken, two rips had opened up requiring a mixture of running & blanket stitches with fine fishing line, the backpack shoulder straps where dangerously close to pulling apart completely, I'd worn 3 holes in my only shirt & the walking poles had worn all the way to the plastic protective guard. Basically, everything was being handled with great care. Even my plastic spoon broke in half. Good thing I was carrying a spare. It was a 3day walk from Samos to Santiago de Compostela & it was very satisfying to make the final 30km alongside Oisin (the Irishman) after we once again walked into each other at a small village cafe. We had a spring in our step, however, both being ahead of schedule, we also had the comfort of being able to enjoy his final day & not push ourselves too hard. For Oisin, Santiago was the end of the journey. As we entered the centre of the historic city along its narrow cobble stone streets, we met my dad standing outside the Cathedral, waiting for me as we had planned a week earlier. This was now Oisin's time to reflect on his journey & so we thanked one another for the time we had spent together in conversation, prayer & silence while walking the Camino & said farewell. While Oisin's journey was at an end, I still had 90km to complete with mum & dad hoping to join me all the way to the Atlantic. We set off the following morning, enjoying cool overcast conditions for most of the day. That night mum & dad booked me into a hotel with them & we ventured down to the supermarket to buy our dinner for the night. Dad suggested we buy a couple of pizzas & cook them in the oven in our room. We'd all seen the hot plates & sink so agreed that it was a great idea. None of us though, had noticed that there was no oven. And so it was that on the 2nd last night, dad & I tried with great difficulty to cook those stupid frozen pizzas on the hot plates. And why wasn't mum helping? Well, she was too busy laughing at us, to the point of tears. We got there eventually, after having to flip the pizzas upside down to cook the tops as well. It didn't look like pizza in the end but if you closed your eyes & concentrated hard, it still tasted like it. Just don't ask about the no-oil, no-salt, no-sauce chips we cooked as well. This is why I eat canned tuna with vegtables. The following day of walking began as the previous had ended, cool & overcast. Half an hour later though, a cold shower swept in sending us diving for our wet weather gear. That shower finally stopped 10hours later after we'd walked 34km through pounding, howling wind that sent the rain at us sideways. A huge low pressure system had swept down off the North Atlantic & blanketed north-western Spain. None of us were prepared for the drop in temperature & we all began to lose feeling in our fingers as we traversed some of the more open & exposed sections of the track. The entire area is overflowing with Tasmanian Blue-gums & a noxious weed called gorse, both of which thrive in our area of Tasmania. The vegetation, coupled with the southern ocean-like weather led dad to observe that he could have stayed at home for this! Within a few hours our boots were saturated, our feet were squelching on every step & the water was whisking off noses, chins, fingers & backpacks. It was wet & it was windy. We were so wet, cold & uncomfortable that we opted to not stop for lunch but to just keep our heads down & soldier on. Late in the afternoon we eventually made it to a small town with a hotel. After some long showers & a lot of make-shift clotheslines being built we ventured down to the bar for dinner. Dad was shivering badly when we entered the hotel but was now more relaxed & warming up. As he ate his soup he commented that it was warming him up nicely but a few minutes later he was begining to find it uncomfortably hot & had to stop eating & lethargicly remove his jumper. He began to look flustered as his body continued to heat up & he had to excuse himself to the open doorway where he sat in the cool breeze trying to cool down. Mum wasn't saying a word but was watching with very wide eyes. Was he about to pass-out, vomit or have a heart attack? It was a tense few minutes as his temperature continued to rise but thank God, he regained his colour & after some deep breathes was keen to rejoin the meal at the table. I told mum that the same thing had happened to me in Mexico, but that wasn't much comfort at all. So, dad nearly self-combusted, other than that, nice meal... The final day began in sunshine & mum & dad were both keen to push on & were feeling pretty good. My camera however, was going the way of my backpack & threw a hissy-fit at having been exposed to moisture the day before. The dvd drive wouldn't fire, the lcd screen lost a colour & the camera was reporting a disc error. For a small time there it was looking like no photos or video footage of the final day would be taken. I am very thankful that all of a sudden the camera kicked into gear &, minus a legible lcd screen, was ready to go for one final day. As I walked & prayed through the final 35km my mind kept drifting back through the various events that have stuck in my mind from this journey & it was beginning to sink in that this was it. This was the end. I haven't ever re-read a single blog entry so some events had faded from memory a tad as I spend most of my time on the now, but as I walked & pondered certain situations from the last 18months I kept remembering more & more. Some made me smile, even laugh, & others caused me to breathe deeply & shake my head in disbelief or amazement (basically that I was still alive). Mum & dad set their own pace so I had plenty of time by myself as I waited at hill tops for them. Mind you, mum would have made it a lot quicker if she didn't stop & pick flowers. "Mum, please... Cape Finesterre?" Mum & dad made it through the day a lot 'easier' than the previous day with the added aid of 2 Tasmanian Blue-gum walking sticks each to help them along the way. With the weather on our side, we made more frequent stops & ate well. By the time we made it to Fisterra, the town at the beginning of Cape Finisterre, mum & dad were keen to call it a day, leaving me with the final 3km climb up along the cape to the 'end of the earth'. I continued praying right up onto the cape's steep, rocky end & with a view of the expansive Atlantic Ocean from 100m above, I climbed down along the face to a quiet ledge about halfway down. There were numerous tourists at the top & I was keen to find some quiet space to simply sit & be. There was still a few hours before sunset so I just sat & waited... with a big bowl of cereal & cold milk I'd carried up in my backpack. At first, 'the end' seemed a little hollow & it was difficult to come to terms with what 'the end' actually meant. As more & more time passed by I began to appreciate more & more the journey that has brought me to this point & in particular, the Lord's provision & love that has sustained me. All the way back in Brazil I had placed a set of rosary beads on the fence at Cape Branco, with the intention of doing the same here in Spain. The rosary is taught very heavily against by many chritians & so for me it stands as a strong symbol of both the prayer that unites us & the division that seperates us. There was nothing obvious to hang the rosary from though, so I opted to grabed one of my walking poles & jam it down in between two large stones over-looking the ocean. I tied the rosary beads onto the end of it & left it to hang in the sea breeze. I prayed, for the final time on this particular journey, "Holy Father, please unite all christians in truth & in love, for the glory of your name & for the salvation of souls. Please bless Pope Benedict XVI, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Patriarches of the eastern churches, those serving on the World Council of Churches & all the worlds chirsitan leaders with Faith, Hope, Love & Wisdom, so that they may better lead us to you & into unity with one another. Amen" Afterwards, I stood in silence before entering into my own one-on-one personal prayer time, simply thanking God for all that has happened & re-committing myself for whatever may lay ahead. It was actually during this time that I finally felt as though the walk had come to a close. This journey had finally come to an end. I sat on my rock again & was excited to see a few pilgrims I'd met earlier in the week making their way down the cape edge. Vin from Brazil, was quick to whip his clothes out of his backpack, bundle them up & throw a match on them. They went up very quickly. The other pilgrims followed suit & I wasn't far behind. I clambered over the rocks to them & after some cheerful greetings, I ripped my battered shirt off & tossed it on the fire as well. It burnt very quickly. I'm glad I didn't throw my jacket on the fire as well, it was mighty cold out there. Vin came down to my little spot (the view was brilliant from there) & he sat silently for 30mins or so before beginning his way back up to the other guys. Just as he turned his back I saw a dolphin break the water out off the cape. I called out to Vin, "Dolphin!" & he quickly turned on his heals & made his way back down. As he did I couldn't help but think that the glimpse I had caught of it was too far out from the cape & that perhaps it was a lot bigger than I first thought. With both of us watching intently, the 'dolphin' broke the water once more, only this time, we could see that it was in no way a dolphin. It was a Humpback Whale. One massive Humback Whale. It didn't resurface again but it was an awesome sight none-the-less. The sun finally set at 10:20pm & with a hand full of pilgrims watching on from their own little spaces on the end of the cape a cheer went up & a lot of thumbs in the air to one another accompanied with satisfied smiles. One by one, we climbed back up, said goodbye & headed into the twilight on our seperate paths. The walk4one had come to a close.
I intend to write 3 more blog entries before calling it a day here on the internet. One entry from Paris next week (a quick-list look at the ins & outs of the last 18 months), an entry from World Youth Day in Sydney & then one quick sign-off from home in Tasmania & that's it.
I am particularly thankful to every person who has encourged me along this journey, who has prayed for me & with me, who has got me back on my feet after muggings & bashings, who has pointed me in the right direction when I was lost or fed me when I was hungry. Although I posted a blog each week there has obviously been a lot that went unsaid. I've had to learn to be thankful for what I didn't want to happen & in particular to forgive those who stuck guns or knives in my face or tried to take from me whatever it was I had. No matter how often I forgive those guys in Russia for trying to beat the living daylights out of me (for example), I still feel the need quite regularly to once again let go of my anger towards them & desire to become a Kung-Fu master & return to their bar & toagain forgive them & refocus back on God. I'm relieved to be able to let my body rest now as well. The reporting of the physical tole was sometimes masked due to my concern over being told to stop (stuborn, yes). Through Russia & Belarus particularly, I was suffering from an irregular heartbeat where my heart was trying to pump blood without having drawn any in. This in itself is normal & not too much to worry about so long as it doesn't occure more than a few times a day. I had a few sleepless nights though as it 'mis-fired' nearly every 30seconds for hours on end. It wasn't particularly pleasant. In fact, it was down right scarey. The three major factors for that condition are rapid weight lose, stress & physical fatigue; I satisfied all three criteria. My greatest battle though has probably been against myself. God is patient, very patient. The other issue that raised its head early on in this walk is that I am Catholic. It didn't take too long for me to realise that the invitation to pray for christian unity was easily lost amidst theolgical arguement or a desire to 'convert' me or vice versa so I began to simply introduce myself to people according to what I was doing. A few times, after explaining the mission & extending the invitation the people I was talking to agreed emphatically with the call to pray for unity & then proceeded to heatedly pull apart the un-godly Catholics, unaware that I was 'one of them'. Time & time again I had to simply bite my tongue & refocus the conversation on prayer & re-evangelisation. One particular time I wanted to go to mass on a Sunday but was staying with an evangelical family, to whom there was no difference between their church & mine. I understood & was deeply moved by their acceptance, but I'm Catholic because I believe that the eucharist is indeed the body & blood, soul & divinity of Jesus Christ, not because the Catholic Church was simply the nearest available house of God. I loved being with them during their church service but I felt unfulfilled without the eucharist & so I slipped away aftwards & ran through the town to find mass. I always felt as though I was treding a fine line & it was difficult at times to not offend. I haven't been walking praying for the unity of those christians who have the same beliefs as me or act upon their faith in the same manner, but I often suspected that I was accepted on that basis. Even within the Catholic Church. And yes, I realsed that I viewed other christians with tinted glasses according to their church background rather than on who they were. It simply drove home how seperated christians are. At times people heard my invitation & instinctively asked what church I was from. My answer then gave way to either instant acceptance or intant dismissal. It was always a challenge that drove me into a lot of thought & prayer but rarley made the blog for you to read. A radio interviewer wrapped up his program & interview with me by saying, "Yes, well in the end, I guess all that matters is that we are brothers & sisters in the Lord." I thought about it for a long time afterwards as I encountered more & more "What church are you from?" and I began to disagree with the interviewers closing remark. I began to conclude that "No, it's not a matter of "In the end we are all just brothers & sisters in the Lord & that's all that matters", but instead that "To begin with, we are all brothers & sisters in the Lord." It's a starting point, not a finishing point. It's a point to move forward from. I guess the one big crunch point that I've learnt along this journey is that unity is not a place we reach, but an action we are involved in & live out. I guess personally the big change has been that my passion for unity centred around theology (the truth) as I began in Brazil, but it's unity in love that has captured me throughout this walk. Unity in truth still holds its place as a present day emergency, but it was Christ's love that was most evidently missing in the world. Of all the poverties encountered, it was the poverty of love that shocked me the most & has challengd me personally. Please continue to pray for unity, please continue to pray for me & please continue to pray for one another. Thank you & God bless, Sam.
"I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:23
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1Cor 13:13
I intend to write 3 more blog entries before calling it a day here on the internet. One entry from Paris next week (a quick-list look at the ins & outs of the last 18 months), an entry from World Youth Day in Sydney & then one quick sign-off from home in Tasmania & that's it.
I am particularly thankful to every person who has encourged me along this journey, who has prayed for me & with me, who has got me back on my feet after muggings & bashings, who has pointed me in the right direction when I was lost or fed me when I was hungry. Although I posted a blog each week there has obviously been a lot that went unsaid. I've had to learn to be thankful for what I didn't want to happen & in particular to forgive those who stuck guns or knives in my face or tried to take from me whatever it was I had. No matter how often I forgive those guys in Russia for trying to beat the living daylights out of me (for example), I still feel the need quite regularly to once again let go of my anger towards them & desire to become a Kung-Fu master & return to their bar & toagain forgive them & refocus back on God. I'm relieved to be able to let my body rest now as well. The reporting of the physical tole was sometimes masked due to my concern over being told to stop (stuborn, yes). Through Russia & Belarus particularly, I was suffering from an irregular heartbeat where my heart was trying to pump blood without having drawn any in. This in itself is normal & not too much to worry about so long as it doesn't occure more than a few times a day. I had a few sleepless nights though as it 'mis-fired' nearly every 30seconds for hours on end. It wasn't particularly pleasant. In fact, it was down right scarey. The three major factors for that condition are rapid weight lose, stress & physical fatigue; I satisfied all three criteria. My greatest battle though has probably been against myself. God is patient, very patient. The other issue that raised its head early on in this walk is that I am Catholic. It didn't take too long for me to realise that the invitation to pray for christian unity was easily lost amidst theolgical arguement or a desire to 'convert' me or vice versa so I began to simply introduce myself to people according to what I was doing. A few times, after explaining the mission & extending the invitation the people I was talking to agreed emphatically with the call to pray for unity & then proceeded to heatedly pull apart the un-godly Catholics, unaware that I was 'one of them'. Time & time again I had to simply bite my tongue & refocus the conversation on prayer & re-evangelisation. One particular time I wanted to go to mass on a Sunday but was staying with an evangelical family, to whom there was no difference between their church & mine. I understood & was deeply moved by their acceptance, but I'm Catholic because I believe that the eucharist is indeed the body & blood, soul & divinity of Jesus Christ, not because the Catholic Church was simply the nearest available house of God. I loved being with them during their church service but I felt unfulfilled without the eucharist & so I slipped away aftwards & ran through the town to find mass. I always felt as though I was treding a fine line & it was difficult at times to not offend. I haven't been walking praying for the unity of those christians who have the same beliefs as me or act upon their faith in the same manner, but I often suspected that I was accepted on that basis. Even within the Catholic Church. And yes, I realsed that I viewed other christians with tinted glasses according to their church background rather than on who they were. It simply drove home how seperated christians are. At times people heard my invitation & instinctively asked what church I was from. My answer then gave way to either instant acceptance or intant dismissal. It was always a challenge that drove me into a lot of thought & prayer but rarley made the blog for you to read. A radio interviewer wrapped up his program & interview with me by saying, "Yes, well in the end, I guess all that matters is that we are brothers & sisters in the Lord." I thought about it for a long time afterwards as I encountered more & more "What church are you from?" and I began to disagree with the interviewers closing remark. I began to conclude that "No, it's not a matter of "In the end we are all just brothers & sisters in the Lord & that's all that matters", but instead that "To begin with, we are all brothers & sisters in the Lord." It's a starting point, not a finishing point. It's a point to move forward from. I guess the one big crunch point that I've learnt along this journey is that unity is not a place we reach, but an action we are involved in & live out. I guess personally the big change has been that my passion for unity centred around theology (the truth) as I began in Brazil, but it's unity in love that has captured me throughout this walk. Unity in truth still holds its place as a present day emergency, but it was Christ's love that was most evidently missing in the world. Of all the poverties encountered, it was the poverty of love that shocked me the most & has challengd me personally. Please continue to pray for unity, please continue to pray for me & please continue to pray for one another. Thank you & God bless, Sam.
"I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:23
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1Cor 13:13
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