The Trans Siberian & Mother Russia

From Moscow, Russia, a very big hello & welcome back! I'm only a stone-throw from the infamous Kremlin in downtown Moscow on a mild winter's night. I'm now roughly 9,200km from Vladivostok, where Justin & I began our trans-siberian trek 7days ago. We were already behind schedule because of the passport fiasco but we were set back even further when our train was cancelled & we were forced to catch a slower second train the following day that was scheduled to arrive in Moscow today (the 16th), which also happened to be the day Justin was scheduled to fly back home. All of a sudden our plans for making a few stops along the world's longest continuous railway in order to visit the local churches & take in a few snippets of Siberian life were dashed. It would instead be a non-stop, 7day train ride. Each carriage on the train has 9 cabins with two double bunks in each & each carriage is looked after for the entire trip by a worker called "The Provinitser". As we approached the train Justin commented that, especially because of the language barrier, we should get on the good side of the Provinitser to make the journey a little easier. As we walked along the platform to our carriage we saw a lady knock on her carriage's door & the provinitser opened up for her, so when we arrived at our carriage we did exactly the same thing. In hind sight Justin & I think that the lady a few carriages up was a perhaps worker for the trains because when our Provinitser came to the door she didn't open it, instead, she opened her mouth with the most severe Russian tyrade the human race has ever encountered (possibly). We didn't understand a single word she blasted out, but we got the point. She disappeared back inside & Justo & I simply stood outside the train in silence, staring at our reflection in the door, trying to make sense of our failed relationship with the Provinitser. Eventually the door did open up &, along with a few gathered patrons, we boarded our home for the next week. The Provinitser was about 5ft tall & she didn't crack a smile the whole afternoon. Late in the evening we'd made a stop at a small secluded town & as I made my way up to the carriage's hot water urn I noticed the Provinitser struggling at the door with a new passenger's over-sized travel case. It was a divine appointment as I was able to carry the luggage to the cabin & although the Provinitser didn't say thankyou she at least smiled at us about 3 hours later. The trip was long. And Russia in winter is pretty similar even over 9000km worth of track - icy, cold & white. Justin & I were joined in our cabin by Alexi & Angela, a father a daughter who were travelling back to their home town just outside Moscow. They didn't speak any english & we didn't speak russian so it made for some animated conversations using mime & pictionary. They were beautiful cabin mates & when the conversation became too difficult to maintain we'd simply resort to sharing food with one another. The Russian towns along the journey provided the only interludes of change as we passed through townships settled by Europeans or Mongolians or even Tatars. The architecture was dazzlingly simply. Does that make sense? Basically, it was really basic, but so interesting. Some towns looked like fairy tale versions of the north pole; small wooden houses camped side by side with pencil-columns of smoke rising from every chimney. The most intersting part of the whole trip had to be the time when the train screeched to a hault sending my water bottles & books flying off the cabins table onto my head as I rested on my bed. We were in the middle of Russian wilderness (east of Siberia) & word was spreading quickly that we may have just hit a man. We were all pearing out our windows & wouldn't you know it, there he was, lying in the snow outside our carriage. He was yelling something & moaning a lot but thankfully we soon realised that he hadn't been hit but instead, was heavily intoxicated. He had apparently tried to wave the train down from the middle of the tracks but managed to just staggered aside before being mowed down. He could see us looking out at him so he picked up a rock & hurled it at the window. The rock bounced off but he had thus earnt himself a meeting with one of the trains engineers who appeared on the scene carrying a hammer. I was a little concerned about what the hammer was going to be used for but after a quick conversation with the intoxicated gentleman, the only thing that was used was his boot. The engineer karate-kicked the drunk man in the chest & then gave him a quick royal boot up the backside & drove him away form the tracks. The last we saw of him he was stumbling his way back up into the forest towards a smouldering campfire. The engineer boarded the train & we started off down the track again. We said a quick prayer for him but there really wasn't much else for us to do. We really were like fish in a bowl, couped up in our carriage for whole week. There were no showers, just a cramped, smelly toilet with poor water flow from the tap. The only space away from our cabin was the space seperating the carriage from the linkage with the following carriage. Justin & I nicknamed it the 'meat-locker' as it generally stayed at the same temperature as the frozen wilderness outside. And for two days in a row, that was -39degC. I ventured out there a few times to do a few sets of push-ups but for the most part it was the smokers closet so between lung-freezing air & cancer-causing smoke I had to pick my time out there carefully. Justin & I also went very close to losing all our gear when we jumped off the train at Omsk, walked forward 8 carriages to the dining cart & re-boarded. We sat down for a meal & upon finishing up, made our way back through the now moving train. Back in our carriage, all mayham had broken loose when the train started up again because the other passengers (whom we'd all meet & begun to know well by this stage) had noticed us leaving the train but not getting back on. They had all been a little up-set that we'd been left behind but the end conclusion was that they'd turf our gear out at the next station. When we walked through the final 'meat-locker' into our carriage we were suprised to be met by a bizzare mixture of confused faces, arms in the air, smiles, laughter & a bit of a stern word from the Provinitser followed by a smile. We were very thankful for having arrived back from dinner before the next stop! That was our 2nd trip to the dining cart. On the 1st trip we'd met Nicholie, who sat down beside Justin, put his arm around him & declared that us Australians were beautiful. I think he was a smart man, but I think it freaked Justin out some what :-) Needless to say, we didn't venture back there for quite a few days, opting instead to eat from teh comfort of our cabin with Alexi & Angela. It was pretty rough trying to sleep in the cabins. The beds were small & the track was bumpy & loud. We also travelled through 7 time zones, which threw us out a bit as well. When I noticed that the sun was rising at 2pm I decided it was time to play with my watch. I thouroughly enjoyed my time with Justin as we prayed, ate, laughed & absorbed some russian culture together but all things must come to an end & Justo is currently on a flight back home to Perth in West Australia. Justin caught a cab from the Moscow train station (it was actually a bit sad saying goodbye to the other passengers form our cabin as well!) & I walked off down the busstling Moscow street into a settling snow shower. I made my way to the hostel I'm now in via Red Square, surrounded by the imposing Kremlin, the stunning St Basil's Cathedral &, in somewhat a sign of the times, an outdoor ice-rink opposite Lenin's tomb. I think the Russian figure skaters may have been training there. I was filming a bit & happened to focus in on one bloke who was gathering speed around the outside. He then launched into a triple-axle & nailed the landing. "Wow", I thought, "who are you?" His efforts gained some applause from the crowd some I'm just assuming he's famous. Does anyone out there follow figure skating? I'll send you the footage... From here I head south-west towards Belarus & Poland. Time is once again against me with the Russian visa requirements being very strict so I will need to get my skates on. All the best for the rest of the week & I'll try to write again on Sunday week. God bless, Sam.
"Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."" Mark 1:38
ps: It's the International Week of Prayer for Christian Unity!! As a great "something we can do" please check out www.onedate.org to help along the process for Chrisitan unity & as always pray, pray away!

A funny thing happened on the way to Vladivostok

At the start of this week I & the Quist family said goodbye to my younger brother, Chris, who flew back to a very warm Australia after enduring a very chilly Canada. Chris headed home with a suprise for his girlfriend, a beard, & I set about planning the final aspects of the Russian leg of the journey before heading off. When I arrived in Edmonton 2 weeks ago I had to send my passport off to Passports Plus (a visa issuing company) to have my Belarus Visa completed. Due to the up-coming holidays at that stage of the year as well as the short time that I was to stay in Edmonton, I had payed extra to have the passport processed in 24hrs & returned to me straight after Christmas. My passport though, didn't turn up as agreed & Passports Plus were closed for the Christmas break. I was scheduled to leave Edmonton on the 2nd of January, which was also the first day Passports Plus were to be open after the return date of December 31st came & went. I made contact with them early in the morning to discover that they had forgotten to place the passport on the 24hr turn-around list & so it was sitting in Washington DC & not likely to be returned for another week. The lady on the other end of the phone believed that I hadn't given them authorisation for the 24hr processing option but after I reminded her that our enitre conversation the week before was about me not wanting to send it back to them to have the Visa completed because of a lack of time & that she had said that she could rush it through for me on 24hr processing & have it back to me well before I left, she finally agreed to do all that she could to get me my passport. Unfortunatly we then discovered that the Belarus embassy was closed & so the absolute earliest I could receive my passport by would be the 4th, unless I wanted to pay $1100 & I could have it on the 3rd. Either way, I wasn't going to make my flight. I opted for the 4th of January, forgot about the missed flight & simply set about changing my itinerary. I couldn't change all of the 3 flights to Vladivostok & so had to purchase some from scratch, costing me another $870 on top of the original cost of the flights. Through the help of Epay Lara at Glades Travel in Sydney I managed to get a new flight departing on Saturday morning at 6am. I would arrive in Vladivostok after the Trans Siberian train had left & would have to wait for the Tuesday train, forcing me to make a direct path to Moscow on the train without any stops (6days worth). I was a little concerned on the Friday when my passport hadn't arrived by lunchtime & then even more so when I couldn't contact anyone at Passports Plus. It wasn't looking good & though it hadn't really bothered me too much in losing the first flight (& valuable funds), the thought of losing another flight & potentially any chance of having enough funds to finish this journey was beginning to wear on me. There were a lot of prayers being said & by 4pm I needed to get out & just go for a walk. The passport was nowhere to be seen & as I walked up along the snowy country road, every car that came into view made my hopes rise for a split second as I thought it just may be the delivery, but it never came. I just walked & prayed. I prayed for the passport to come, but mainly for God's will. If it didn't come, then it had better be a part of His plan in all this! At around 4:30pm I arrived back at the house & rang Fedex. Passports Plus hadn't given me a tracking number so I had no access to it but after explaining the circumstances & handing over all me personal details the lady on the other end gave me the tracking number & confirmed that it was in fact in Edmonton. She then though told me that it wouldn't be delivered until Monday because the address I'd given her wasn't a correct mailing address. That sent all of us into a spin as we tried to find out what the 'correct mailing address' was. Eventually we discovered that the rural address I'd given them was in fact the correct mailing address & that there was no other means by which to mail to the farm. I then contacted the local Fedex branch to ask where the parcel was so that I could pick it up myself & I was told that they'd call me back once they'd tracked it down. Half an hour later the phone rang & Fedex informed me that the package had accidently been sent to Fort Saskatchewen, a neighbouring town, & that it wouldn't be available until Monday. I asked calmly if I could please go & pick it up & she told me that that was fine, & I could meet the driver at the depot at 5:30pm. So, with my bag packed & my hair still not grey we all piled into the Quist's van & made the pilgrimage to the Fedex depot. The package wasn't there when we arrived, so we sat in the van & prayed. At 5:45 the driver turned up & thankfully, there was the package & inside was my passport (& a bill for over $500 from Passports Plus). I was so relieved to finally have the passport in my hands & right at the 11th hour; my bus to Calgary airport was leaving in one hour. We drove into the city, picked up my bus ticket & then sat in a cafe for half an hour with a very satisfying warm drink. Thank you so much to the Quist family, for all of your hospitality & support, your warmth & humour & in particular your generosity of faith. And thank you to Colin & Laura (across the farm road) for letting Chris & I stay in your basement! At 7pm I was on the bus & heading south for he 3hr trip to Calgary. I arrived at 10:30pm, bought some food, walked for one & a half hours to the airport, called a few people back home to let them know that I was finally on my way & then checked in at 4am. I didn't sleep that night & on the 4hr flight to San Fancisco I didn't sleep either. I had 2hrs in San Francisco before boarding my Korean Air flight to Seoul in South Korea. I was fascinated by the touch screen interactive system mounted on the back of every single seat on the plane & it had everything like movies, documentaries, music, games & even Blackjack if I really got bored. We took off at 1:20pm & I still hadn't slept. To my frustration, airline seats aren't built for people my height & I simply couldn't get to sleep. The back of the chairs finish at my shoulders & my knees were already hitting the seat in front of me so I wasn't able to slide down. I tried sliding my feet under the seat & sliding down my chair to get more comfortable but there just wasn't enough room. I stayed awake for all but 20min of the enitre flight. Other than not sleeping for 36hours, the flight was unforgetable. The flight path took us north-west up over Alaska, across the Bering Strait & down across Kamatchaka peninsula in Russia. The incredible array of mountain peaks & ice was breath-taking. We followed the sun the whole way with it getting away from us a little as we headed up over Alaska but as we dipped back down along the Russian coastline the sun slowly rose over the south-western horizon again & pretty much stayed there for the entire trip, setting as we landed in Seoul. The service onboard was fantastic & I was even more impressed at Seoul airport where I discovered that they place all transit passengers (I flew to Vladivostok the next morning) in the Hyatt Hotel & pay for all meals. Not bad at all. I've always wondered what the Hyatt looked like on the inside :-) I got one of the best nights sleeps I've had in a long time. This morning as I entered the airport I amazingly discovered that I'd been carrying a 3inch nail in my wallet since leaving Calgary Airport (long story) so once I'd inconspicuously tossed it in the bin I boared my flight & made the short hop across the Sea of Okotsk to Vladivostok. A good friend of mine, Justin Carrick, decided to join me for the Trans Siberian Railway so he has been caught up in all the passport mayham but is now thus aquainted with this diverse city. He has been sitting here for four days by himself, practising his Russian on the receptionist & taxi drivers & discovering snow for the first time in his life (he's from Perth). Both of us had very similar experiences coming into Vladivostok; firstly we saw the decommissioned aircraft sitting along the side of the runway, followed by an enourmous smoke stack (perhaps for burning decommissioned planes?) & then the Russian soldiers on the tarmac. And believe it or not, the movies are all correct!! Half of the soldiers, all in their bushy black head attire, were women with long blonde hair! And I'd always thought that Hollywood was so pathetic with its casting. Both Justin & I also discovered on our taxi rides into Vladivostok that keeping a safe distance while driving is not efficient & thus unheard of. I also saw 3 minor bigles on the trip from the airport to the hotel - Not so efficient now. This evening Justin & I walked down to the Bay of Vladivostok... & then walked out across it. I pointed the camera at Justo & asked him to explain what the main dangers were in walking across a frozen sea but before he could answer I tripped over a chunk of ice & strained to keep upright. So, it turns out that the first danger of walking across a frozen sea is trying to film someone & not watching were you're going. So, at long last, I can very happily say, "Hello from wintery Vladivostok!" Next week we hope to be in Moscow, but the journey continues here & now. Please pray for us & in particular, for the unity of all Christians, in truth & in love. Peace be with ya, Samuel & Justin (or in Russian, Самуэль и Джастин).
"When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul." Psalm 94:19

Old boots, Snow & Down-Hill Speeding

Merry Christmas folks! How was your day? I had a fun day experiencing a very different Canadian Christmas with the Quist, Lefsurd & Landers families on a mild, snow-covered day. Chris & I began by teaching a few willing participants the traditional Autralian past-time of playing back-yard cricket on Christmas day but the game came to a sudden holt when Paul Quist lost control of the bat (a plank of wood) and cracked his brother in law on the head, splitting the bat in two. Jeff's head was fine, but the bat was stuffed. Time to play by Canadian rules. We sang carols around the piano as grandma played & later played a fast paced game that pretty much involved a lot of shouting & not much else. Late in the evening the younger ones (me included) made our way down to a small hill with a large sled & spent a few hours sliding on our butts. We could fit 4 people on the sled at a time so we were able to pick up some decent momentum on the way down. We crashed regularly. I'd like to thank Jon & Will who broke my fall on the two occaisions I got air-born. They made for great landing pads while still slidding down hill. That evening I had my first oppurtunity to drive a car in over 12months. It was a 30min drive at night with snow on the road, the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car & all the drivers driving on the wrong side of the road. Somehow we all made it back home in one piece. A few days later I was back in the car as Jon, Chris & I took a 4hour drive out to Jasper National Park for 2 days of skiing. It was such an amazingly beautiful place with mountains soaring sharply around us & rivers rushing between sheets of ice down every valley. Coyotes, elk & big-horn sheep lined the road & the snow cover was just under 70cm. We skied at Marmot Basin & after a 2hr brush-up lesson, hit the mountain. On second thoughts, I should've had 4hrs of brush-up lessons. On my very first run I took off from the chair lift, missed my first turn as I hooked my inside ski in & corrected in a direct line down a rather steep slope that I would have preffered not to have attempted for at least another couple of hours. Chris reckons I topped around 50km/hr but I think it may have been a little quicker than that. With most people skiing in nice carving motions I whooshed straight down through everyone in a straight line for around 800m before finally gaining control again & managing to slow myself down with a sweeping carve. My heart was in my mouth as I finally pulled to a stop & looked back up at the mountain. Chris & Jon were still standing at the top, apparently with mouths wide open as they prepared my eulogy. With my little 'Sam moment' out of the way my guardian angels were able to relax a little over the rest of the two days as we all enjoyed the beautiful slopes. On the first night I somehow ended up with the very last run on the mountain. The slopes were completely empty as I hopped off the lift & it slowed to a stop. The view was incredible across the valley below & as the sun set behind me the only sound on the entire slope was that of my skis carving through the snow. It was a beautiful change from walking. It was priceless. Of course, when it was all over I still had to drive home again on the wrong side of the road. I was thankful to have an oppurtunity to get some physical exercise in as the resting has been irritating me a little. One night I was heading off to bed but instead rugged up & went for an 11pm jog out along the country road here. Then the next morning I roled out of bed into the push-up position & after a few minutes decided that I really needed to get out a little more. Skiing was a great antidote. I'm leaving for Vladivostok on Wednesday afternoon & it would appear that it will be without new boots. I'll be heading into Russia with my very worn Scarpas that I've been wearing since Nicaragua. The new pair didn't arrive & with no size 16 Scarpa boots in stock anywhere within a 40,000km radius I'm just going to have to push on with what I have. There is one pair of Scarpas in the world that I've been able to find & I happen to own them. Unfortunately they are sitting in Panama & not looking like moving for some time yet. I'm not too bothered by this & I'm kind of interested to see exactly how far these boots can carry me before they dismantle. I'm very ready to hit the road again & feeling rejuevenated & healthy after my time here with the Quists & all their friends & family. They are all exceptionally inspiring people! I'll miss driving around with Paul (Jon's dad) when his alarm flicks on at 4:01pm & he decalres, "Time to pray for Christian unity!" He'd then pull the car off to the side of the road & we'd pray. Now, as for next weeks blog entry, next Sunday I should be somewhere in central Siberia so there is a good chance that I may not be able to find interent access. I arrive in Moscow on the 15th of January so there should be an entry by then but it's most likely going to be hit & miss until that point. Let the black-out begin. God bless & I'll hopefully see you sometime again next week! Peace be with you, Sam.
"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." Ps 91:11-12 (or break your neck on a mountain while skiing...)

Rest & the 12 days of Christmas

On the 370th day since beginning in Brazil & after 9444km on foot I finally arrived in Edmonton, Canada. This is the end of the road for the America's & an opputunity for me to take a short break before flying across the Bering Strait into Eastern Russia. The final day of walking began in Leduc after spending the night at the home of Shaun & Sandra Woodard. That final day was a 35km stroll down along the Queen Elizabeth II Highway in mild conditions to St Joseph's Basilica in downtown Edmonton. A few hours into the day I was met by a Global television newscrew who took an hour or so to take some footage & conduct an interview before I was ableto continue on. That was my only break for the day as I'd organised with some friends to meet them at Calgary Lutheran Church, 5km out from Edmonton central, in order to walk the final section with them and I was running short on time. I turned up at the church an hour late but we were ready to get underway again right on 4:01pm so we firstly went into the church & knelt at the communion rail before the sanctuary with the minister & his assistant joining us. We prayed for the unity of all Christians, in truth & in love, & then commenced the final 5km of this section of the walk. We entered the city as the sun set behind us. My friends, the Quist family, my brother Chris & I walked up onto the Basilica steps at right on 5pm & only a few seconds after the snow began to fall. Amidst the busy city centre it felt very peaceful & still as the snow fell & my walking finished (for now). We ventured inside & spent some time in prayer before filing into their van & scooting off through the evening traffic to their little country home. By 7pm we were back on the road though with a speaking engagement at the Holy Family Church in St Albert followed by a late night "sit up & talk" with Jon Quist & Chris. The next day the Global tv interview was on the news throughout the day but I suffered the rather funny humilation of having the midday news co-host comment after the story had aired, "What did he say? I couldn't understand a single word he said. Was he speaking english?" Thankfully the woman co-hosting with him understood "Australian" & interpretted for him. Many people have commented on the midday news segment since, feeling sorry for his comment but to be honest I think it's quite funny. I understood every word I said! Speaking of strange accents, I met a fellow from the Canadian island of New Foundland the other day & I couldn't understand a single word HE said. I asked a question to which he replied, "Aghda end u ul se," which means, "Yes, they're in aisle six." It took me three goes to figure it out. Anyway, I'm now enjoying a Christmas break & heading out for a quick ski at Jasper National Park on boxing day before flying out to Vladivostok on the 2nd of January. Januray 18th - 25th is the International Week of Prayer for Christian Unity so please start spreading the message & inviting people to pray, particularly during that week. 4:01 for a solid week! I hope everyone has a very merry & blessed Christmas & if you have the time there is a whole new set of Walk4one videos on youtube (Amazon to Venezuela) that will also be on the website soon (You'll get to see a lot of travelling on the back of semi-trailers, boats, motorbikes, etc in the Amazon jungle section). As I mentioned in the last blog entry it feels like I've been on the road for a lot longer than one year. From 47degC in Brazil to -33deC in Canada, from muggings to beautiful hospitality, it's been a big year. Thank you to everyone who has supported along the journey & may we all keep praying & moving forward towards complete unity. Now, because it's both Christmas & the end of a massive year on the road praying for unity I thought I'd finish off with a new rendition of a Christmas carol that summarises the past 370days! The 12 Days of Christmas as it will most likely never appear again... (to save time I think I'll only put up the final verse). Feel free to sing along!
On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 12 different countries, 11hundred phtotos, 10 pairs of socks, 9000 kilometres, 80 degrees of temperature, 7 hissing snakes, 600 blisters, Salmonela & Typhoid Fever, 4 thugs with knives, 3 room invasions, 2 men with guns and a Puma in the long grass!
God bless & peace be with you, Sam.
"The virgin will be with child & will give birth to a son, & they will call him 'Immanuel' which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23

Cheap Motel, a Mallamute & Coyote Chorus

Hello! Sorry for the delay on this one! It's been difficult to keep to my schedule this week & I simply didn't have a chance to jump online for long enough. I'm now sitting up in a small town called Leduc, only 32km south of Edmonton. I have to be honest, the thought of being within 1day of a 2week rest is more than just exciting. I'm nearly jumping out of my skin anticipating a regular sleep pattern, regular meals, warmth & friends to chat with. This week gone has been a quiet one with my brother Chris exiting the walk back in Calgary after a 'failed' physiotherapy appointment. He was hurting badly & so checked in a for some physio but they discovered that he'd pushed his legs to the point of possibly having done nerve damage. The basic prognosis was "STOP WALKING!" So he did. He caught the bus to Edmonton & the Quist family (friends living in Edmonton) organised accomodation for him until my arrival. Thankyou! Before Chris departed though, we had the oppurtunity to attend a Ukranian Orthodox service (vespers) in the evening. The orthodox church was incredibly beautiful with the most inspiring art work & craftmanship throughout. Not long into evening prayers an elderly woman leaned over to us & asked if we could hold the candles for the priest. I leaned forward & replied that I wasn't Ukranian Orthodox & had no idea what to do. She simply smiled & told us that we'd be fine & in fact we may even enjoy it! I guess we didn't have a say in the matter. So up we went, one massive candle each, standing off to the side of the priest with two women holding candles on the other side. We had no idea what we were doing. And we were cooking! We hadn't at that stage taken our snow gear off & so fully clad it didn't take too long before we were sweating it out. With both hands firmly clasping the candle & standing right up the front there was no oppurtune moment to put it down & take off a few layers. It was the toughest candle hold either of us have ever had. We loved being there though & meeting everyone afterwards. It was such a beautiful place of prayer. The next day Chris's bus drove past me on the highway about 10km out of Calgary & I was once again by myself for the few hundred kilometres north. On the 2nd day out I stopped in a town called Carstairs & ducked into the town library to quickly send off some important emails. By the time I'd finished I'd been invited to have dinner with the Librarian, her assistant & her husbund. They picked me up from my motel later in the evening & we sat down to a fantastic meal. It was real, authentic hospitality that has typified this part of the world. Mind you, the next day I was steering away from the 'hospitality'! It's a little awkward, but the next day I walked into a small town after sunset & walked straight into a motel to grab a bed for the night. The woman at the front counter was a little over-welcoming in that she even shook my hand as she welcomed me. I thought it was a little odd but I really didn't question it. It was by far the cheapest place I'd stayed in for a long time. There was a bar & cafe attached to the motel so I shuffled into the cafe, ordered some dinner & sat in there all by myself eating dinner. The waitress offered to take my meal into the bar for me but I declined, sighting that the silence was nice. She then proceeded to flirt with me quite severly (can you flirt severly? For now you can, ok) & I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. Behind me were two pokie machines (lottery machines) that would beep every now & then. The waitress apologised for them & said, "Sorry about that. We don't want them in here but we can't have them in the bar because the government won't let us have both the machines & the strippers in the same room." I nearly choked on my meal. *long pause* I think I eventually replied with something inteligent like, "Oh, ok." I now knew why it was so dirt cheap to get a room!!! I ate, I left for my room, I locked the door well, laughed, said my prayers & went to bed. Other than dodgy accomodation I had a difficult week with issues requiring my attention back home in Australia (& Panama) that I just didn't have the time to deal with. I'm still working through the insurence claim for the mugging in Costa Rica, sorting out my income tax back home in Australia, trying to get my boots that arrived in Panama 4months after I left mailed to Edmonton, sorting out a problem with the Belarus visa I forked out $200 for last month & then trying to find the time to put a blog up. The walking & mission are time consuming enough but with the extra duties it was beginning to weigh on me. I was going to bed tired & waking up a few hours after I'd started walking again. In the end I handed it all over to Lord (as I should have done from the outset) & kept walking & doing what I could in between (phone calls at lunch time, emails at the end of the day). I've slept well the last 2nights & it's starting to sort itself out thankfully. I had a huge day on the road two days ago though that caught me by suprise. I thought I was undertaking a 35km day but it was in fact 50km. I'd organised to meet with a newspaper reporter during the middle of the day (thinking that I only had a small day) & the interview went for 2hours, which made it very difficult to even get close to the destination by sunset. The sunrises here at around 8:30am & has set by 4:15pm so they are very short, cold days. I was walking through the chilly night for the final 20km & the road twisted it's way through forests of snow covered pines & rolling snow covered farming land lit up by the half-moon. I'd been praying for a while before I decided to sing my way down along the road. I was (as is normal) belting out "Where the streets have no name" by U2 when a pack of Coyotes, deep within the forest of pines, began to chime in with a chorus of howls & yelps. I stopped singing for a moment to offer them some advice (they were badly out of tune, really) & continued singing with a smile from ear to ear. They continued howling as well. It was a great little moment. Speaking of k-9's, I had another dog follow me down the road yesterday. A few dogs have followed so far on the trip & most have ended up underneath a semi-trailer & I wasn't keen for this fellow, a mallamute, to have the same ending. I took him back to his house but I couldn't get him to stay & no manner of scolding, throwing of snow or idol threats could make him stay so in the end I simply kept myself in between him & the road. He almost ended up under a car a few times but he was at least responding to my voice & I was able to call him out of harms way just in time. In the end we made it around 10km together until I came across a highway store where the owners were kind enough to take care of him until I'd left. They let him into the store (it was a furniture & gifts store) & were very happy to take care of him for the time being. I let them know where he'd come from & then said my farewells. I was relieved to have left him behind at last & that he'd made the distance without getting toppled. The funniest moment this week happened at a level train crossing as a farmer waited for a train to pass by. The trains here sit on the horn for miles & they just keep tooting! I've heard a lot of locals complain about the 'unnecessary' noise they make but this farmer took matters into his own hands. Everytime the train tooted he tooted back & so began a ruckess of noise, back & forth between the two drivers. His american pick-up had quite a horn on it so he wasn't being outdown by much at all. It was a simple moment but it captured me! I thought it was brilliant, I wish I'd thought of it & done it... Now, on a serious note, there's a great little comment from Alistair in the comments section for this week that I'd like to invite everyone to check out if you have the time. It's in regards to uniting the dates for Easter. It's a simple step towards unity but perhaps one of the most precious for us to tend to, so please check it out! Thanks for that Alistair. Tomorrow I'll be skipping my way into Edmonton as I scrape the ice off my beard on the last day of the America's leg of this trip. It's been a long time coming! Oh, & this week just gone was also the 1yr anniversary since I started walking in Brazil. It feels like 5yrs ago. God bless & peace be with you! Sam.
"I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me." Ps 13:6

The A&W, Senior Citizens & Christmas Carols

We've made it to Calgary! And it's a lovely day, blue skies, no wind & a top of 0degC (that's good). Chris has struggled again this week with one injury piling on top of another so he's split his time up into a mixture of walking, riding in cars & sitting in coffee shops waiting for me to arrive. The week almost began on a sour note after a warm wind (called a Chinook) swept through Lethbridge the night before we left & melted the snow. No sooner had it began to melt the snow & it disappeared as the temperature droped again, now freezing the melted snow into solid slabs of ice. As Chris & I started off in the early morning freeze I slipped on a driveway & my feet shot forward sending me airborne. I crashed down backwards but thankfully landed flush on my backpack, which took the full brunt of my weight. I did sustain a sore neck from the whip-lash of my head coiling back over the back-pack but I was thankful to not be one of the 25people who were rushed to hospital that morning after similar falls (or so I read in the paper the next day). This past week was blessed with more speaking engagemnts than any preceeding it. I was invited to speak to a numebr of classes at the Catholic Central High in Lethbridge, then speak with both tv news crews in the small city as well as the local radio station. I also had an interview with the Lethbridge newspaper & incredibly the jornalist phoned ahead for me & organised for me to stay with his mother in the next town! I was very grateful. In the evening I headed off to the Youth Group that met at the High School (though they'd came from neighbouring towns & schools as well) & I had an oppurtunity to speak there. I was so impressed with how focussed this group was! They had a lot of fun & enjoyed each others company but at the same time they were so focussed on Christ & to put a finer point on it, couldn't stop talking about how good God is. They were alive to the max. the next day on the road I was blessed to have Stan & Kathy pull up alongside us with warm food & my socks & undies, which I'd left in their dryer. All day people were hitting their horns as they drove past & I thought it was starting to get to me, "Why are you tooting at us! We're not on the road!" At the end of the day we discovered that the local radio station was giving updates of our progress & inviting people to encourage us by tooting their horn. I would have prefered that they throw chocolate at me or something like that, but it was a great encouragement none-the-less (once I'd found out why they were doing it.) In our next town, while staying with the journalists mum, Jean, we were invited to speak at a Rotary Club meeting & with the Pumpkin Club at the A&W. Both Chris & I thought it was funny that I'd be speaking at a pumpkin club & assumed that the A&W stood for somthing like, "The Albertans Women's Club" or something to that effect, but we both started laughing when we pulled up to the A&W highway fast food restaraunt. In any case, it was warm & cosy with our hot breakfast in front of us as I recounted the call to pray for Christian unity. In the evening Chris & I where 'dobbed in' by Jean to be waiters at the Fort Macleod annual Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner. How could we say no to Jean? We actually worked reasonable hard that night but had some fun doing it. We didn't break anything though Chris managed to drop a knife down the industrial dishwasher's drainage outlet causing a few blank looks between the two of us. Thankfully we were able to get it out eventually & off we went again. The temperature on the daily walks has hovered between -20degC & -10degC most days though the last two have been milder & I have only needed to wear one pair of gloves. The cool temperatures have caused minor problems with our water freezing regularly & our food becoming the equivalent of flavoured cement blocks. A few weeks ago actually I was trying to eat an energy bar but couldn't break a piece off. So I clamped my teeth down on it & began to work it up & down with my right hand. After a minute or so it was only moving a few mm's but it eventually began to loosen up until, "Bang!" It snapped in half on an upward motion, sending my clenched fist flying into my eye socket. I actually staggered sideways for a few steps & then had to stop to clear my head. Oww, that hurt. A quick check up & down the road to make sure no one had seen me right hook myself & I continued on gingerly, now with two energy cement bars. In the town of High River we attended the local parish for Saturday night mass & as we were leaving were invited to stay for the youth group that was about to begin. The deal though was that before the speaking part of the youth group they would be visiting the Manor Nursing Home & then the local hospital to sign Christmas Carols! So off we went, carolling our way through the High River Senior Citizen caring facilities. We had fun, didn't get booed & arrived back at the church again without loosing anyone. After a chat with the youth group about praying for unity & the walk to-date Chris & I were invited to stay with two of the parishoners, who took great care of us. Chris drove to the next town of Okotoks & I walked in to meet him at around 1pm. From there we walked together through the streets stopping at St Peter's Anglican Church, The Uniting Church & then St James Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was brand new. It was double tiered, spacious, double data projectors with a huge sound desk. More to the point though, the people were lovely & I was invited to speak after the homily, then taken out to dinner before being dropped at another parishoners house (Frank, Louise & Kerry) to sleep for the night. Thank you for your hospitality! The next morning I met up with Fr Jack & a few more parishoners at the local coffee shop & we talked some more. Fr Jack has done some extensive work with a Lutheran Church in building a shared facility & his assitant priest was ordained an Anglican priest. The Uniting church also had an intersting background with three churches coming together to worship & study as one. On an international front, if you haven't heard, there is some extremely encouraging work taking place between the Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican & Lutheran churches at this very moment. Check it out if you have the time (or are interested at all). There are so many pieces to the puzzle of unification of Christians & so for those of us not directly involved in talks & theological discussion we still have a major role to play on two fronts; prayer & in putting love into action with all around us. I hope everyone's Christmas preparations are filling you with joy & not with debt & I'll see you again next week from somewhere near Edmonton! God bless & peace be with you, Sam.
"You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." James 2:22
ps: A huge congratulations to Dave Callaghan & Dan Strickland back home in Australia who have been 'ontilogically changed', which apparently means they have been ordained as Deacons. Congratulations fellas! I mean... Reverends.

Uncle Sam Vs I am Sam

Hello from Lethbridge, Canada! When I was all the way back in Venezuela earlier this year I began to right down a few notes here & there for possible film scripts that I'd perhaps like to develop over the coming years. I love writing & it's simply a way for me to sit back & relax. At first I only had the pieces of paper containing my travel documents to write on so I eventually bought a small notebook to keep my ideas together & off my official papers. I had no idea that 10months later I'd be paying a price for my 'doodling'. Before I leave for Russia I needed to secure a Visa, which can be very difficult. I was advised by an Australian diplomat in St Petersburg to view a certain website & secure the services of a professional Visa-acquiring company. I found a company who would secure both an invitation & visa from Russia for non-USA citizens & it simply required the filling out of a few forms, the payment of a fee & my passport to be sent to them for the Visa to be entered. The passport was supposed to be returned to Great Falls a few days before I arrived there but upon my arrival it was nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately it was the thanksgiving holiday & so no one was at work & I simply presumed that because of the holiday it had been held up in the post. After a discussion with the Grove & Donisthorpe families we decided that I'd keep walking & as soon as it arrived they'd run it up to me. I'd entered the country on the 30th of August with a 90 day Visa & so needed to be across the border by the 29th of November. As the deadline approached the Passport still hadn't arrived so we began to call the company to find out what had happened. Apparently it had been accidently thrown into the 'wrong pile' & the very appologetic company was fast to send it by express delivery to Vicky Donisthorpe's office. In the mean time I continued walking north towards the border & as is expected in these areas, the border patrol pulled over to check on me. The gentleman asked for identification & I offered him my drivers license & a photocopy of my passport page, explaining that the passport was being delivered to me the next morning. The officer looked at me blankly & informed me that I was in breach of immigration laws by not having my actual passport on me. Apparently these companies who take overseas visitor's passports do so against US law & the only way I could legally obtain a Visa for Russia would be to fly to San Francisco (the nearest Russian Embassy & sleep inside the Embassy foyer while they organised the Visa (in other words, there is no legal way to obtain a visa to Russia if you're not from the USA). The officer invited me to take a seat in the back of his patrol vehicle while we sorted it out & he began to ask me questions. He asked who was bringing the passport to me & if I had a phone number so he could call them. I reached into my bag to pull out my little notebook with Greg & Karen Grove's number in it & wouldn't you know it, it wasn't there. I was at a loss as to where it could be but it wasn't starting to look good in front of the officer. At that point he happened to turn over the photocopy of my passport, which I've been carrying since the beginning of the walk, and he turned to me asked, "What's all this?" I had no idea what he was talking about at first but my heart sank when I saw what was written on the back. The 2nd script idea I'd had while walkign Venezuela was for a political version of Ocean's Eleven where instead of hyjacking a casino, the people in question would hyjack the world leaders, blah, blah. And as it turns out I'd penned my first idea for this on the back of my passport photocopy, complete with a detailed timeline of when opperatives would be placed in government poitions, van's hired, etc. I tried to explain what it was & that I had an extened version of the script idea along with a stack of other ideas in my little notebook to which the officer looked me in the eye & said, "Which you can't find." I couldn't believe this was happening. He was a kind fellow, but I understood that the odds were stacking up against me at that point. I was locked in the back of the patrol car behind a cage screen as he radioed through to Homeland Security to find out who I was. They replied back in code & the officer turned to me & informed me that my visa was in fact expiring today! Without my passport I couldn't prove anything but I insisted that I entered the country on the 30th August & that it was written in pen, by the issuing officer, that the last day was the 29th November, today was the 28th. The officer didn't even look up, "That means you have to be out of the country on the 28th. A 90 day visa is only valid for 89days." So, with nowhere to go & no way of explaing myself we drove off down the highway to Border Patrol Headquarters. It took a few hours to sort through everything & it looked to be getting worse at one point when they believed that the compnay I'd sent my passport to was not a real company but an identiy theft scam. I sat in the interigation room chatting with my armed guard & laughing about how 'in-trouble' I was. He suggested that I perhaps brun my photocopy of the passport page. I agreed. The guard was a mild-mannered young bloke who was very chatty so it made the stay a litte more comforting. Thankfully, my little notebook WAS in my bag, but I'd accidently dropped it into the wrong pocket with some clothes & not realised that it was there. When I was leaving Great Falls, Vicki Donisthorpe had given me the front page of the Great Falls Tribune containing the story about the walk to assist with my crossing of the border. I didn't honestly think that I would need it or that it would help in any way, but as I sat in the interigation room with the armed guard I could see half a dozen officers going through everything in my folder. The door was slightly open betwen the two rooms & I caught sight of one officer pulling the newspaper front page out & opening it up. He read over it for a moment & then his face dropped. He looked up over the paper & announced to the others, "He's on the front page of the Tribune!" They all gathered around & read the story & the officer who'd brought me in said, "He didn't tell me he was on the front page of the Tribune!" I thought to myself, "I wasn't aware that the media was an offical document!?" As they dispersed back to their seats I heard an out-of-sight officer laugh that they'd need to find new jobs if they threw me in jail. They eventually tracked down the company that had my passport & found that it had already been sent & was enroute to me at that very moment. All in all it took about 3hours from start to finish but we'd pretty much all become friends by the end & one of the officers even took down the web address to check it all out in their own time. I was very appologetic & rather embarrased but by the end of the day they'd granted me an extension on my visa for no charge & the head of Homeland Security gave me a lift to where I was supposed to be staying for that night. I stayed the night with Brian & Vicky Barrows & it was a great way to end the day. They had a bible study that evening so I gladly sat down with them & opened up my little bible, which they all reckoned required a telescope to read. I had a very blessed evening with them none-the-less & was very refreshed through our time together. The next morning, Greg & Karen Grove arrived with my passport & little brother Chris who'd taken a day off the previous day. Karen & Greg kindly offered to drive me across the border & have lunch with Chris & I in Milk River. After 89days, made up of 15 rest days & 74 days on the road, I'd crossed a total of 3174km across the United States to fall short of the border by a mere 25km. So in total I clocked 3174km on foot & 25km in the back of a Patrol Car. Not a bad percentage breakdown really... I gladly accepted the lift across the border & set about planning the next stage of the walk. Regardless of how I travel whether as a free man or suspected criminal, there's always an oppurtunity to pray! A big thank you to the many people who have played such a significant role in this week passed, especially Wally & Marlene, Brian & Vicky, Brendan & Wendy, Carla, Charles & Natasha, Penny & Don, Don's dog Amigo (smartest Border Collie this side of the border), Stan & Kathy & all those who stopped on the side of the road with a bite to eat or a hot drink. It has been very cold this week with temperatures between -8degC & -33degC, but that's a whole other story :-) God bless & please keep praying for unity! Sam.
"Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident." Ps27:3