August 27, 2009
July 31 – August 07, 2009
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July 31 – August 07, 2009
 Wow, I didn’t know seven days could
feel so long. I haven’t talked to anyone in a few weeks and it feels like
months. Don’t worry, we’re still alive. We made it a long long way and are
taking another day off in a town called Le Bugue. We weren’t able to get a free
place to stay this time so we got a cheap room at a small hotel. This is a great
little town and it has everything we need to rest, stock up on food, and wash
our clothes.
This week we functioned on a
different walking schedule that got us farther but still evened out the break
times. So that’s how we were able to get real far every day and not die. Brett
has strengthened so much this week. By the time we got to Le Bugue Brett was
keeping up with me and going the regular pace with no pain and no tiredness. I
broke him in Earth Expedition style. So hopefully these last three weeks will be
a breeze. And by the way, news update. We have decided to change the route in
order to conserve our resources since doing this kind of thing is rather
expensive. It wouldn’t be wise to go all the way to Portugal and then go back
the same way through Portugal, Spain, and France just to get to Italy. So I am
walking down farther into Spain and ending in Valencia and the next walker will
start in Rome, Italy and go north. This is a better route for the Earth
Expedition as a whole. Sorry all of you Portuguese fans that are following us,
but it’s just too far. We aren’t going through a lot of other countries in
Europe so it’s not just you. Don’t worry we still love you.
 Something I definitely love about
this country is that everywhere I go I see these amazing buildings in random
places that are hundreds and hundreds of years old. They all must have so much
history and mystery and there are just so many of them! Churches, towers,
houses, chateaus, castles, monasteries, etc. It’s incredible! Most of them are
older than our country’s government! Also, most of the people I’ve met out here
are very nice. I enjoy that people are continually helping us no matter where we
are or what we look like. We had to go up to people’s house about 4 or 5 times
to ask for water since we were nowhere near a town or water source and every
time but once they all gave us water. One elderly couple flat out said “no” to
giving us water. I couldn’t believe that some people have no compassion to even
give walkers some cheap water from the faucet. But we found water right after
that, so it’s okay. It did get my spirits down a little though. A lot of things
can get you down out here. Even the weather can put off some negativity. When
it’s ridiculously sunny and hot I start to regret ever even being out here and
hate every step. But we’re slowing getting there, it just takes time. One thing
that I don’t enjoy about this country, simply because I am walking and need food
and water constantly, is the inaccessibility of simple items. Stores usually
close from 12:00 to 3:00 every day for a big lunch break and then everything is
closed by at least 6:00 or 7:00 at night. So if you need food or water between
those times, you’re just out of luck. We encountered that MANY times within just
seven days. So that’s why we had to ask people for water so many times. One
instance where we needed water, we were walking in the middle of nowhere and
Brett ran out of water completely and I had just a few sips left. So he stopped
and saw a house and asked if we could walk to it and ask for water. But since it
was in the other direction I was hesitant because I didn’t want to waste time
and I was hoping that there would be a house on the highway just up the way. But
I said okay and started walking down the little road. Right when we started
walking two guys on an ATV came down the other way and stopped at the
intersection and waved at us. I gave a wave of help and they drove over to us.
Luckily, they spoke some English and we asked them for some water. They told us
to walk down to their house which was a little down the small road. So we got
there and the father of the boys, Allard, came up and greeted us. We got some
water, talked a little bit, and kept walking. But it was just divine how we got
the water right when we needed it and God had this perfect plan for it. If I
wouldn’t have hesitated, we wouldn’t have seen the guys on the ATV. Stories like
that happened this week multiple times. Right before we got to Le Bugue, a
mechanic said hello to us and I said that we were out of water so he instantly
led us around the side of his shop and let us fill up our water. So God has been
taking care of us and it has been a blessing to know that he WANTS to help us. I
am glad that God is on our side for this. Sometimes the devil tries to convince
me that what I am doing really isn’t going to do anything for the kingdom of God
until I realize that God has his hand in this expedition sooooo much. So he
wants us to get to the end. I know we’ll make it but only through his power. I
couldn’t do this without him.
 The days out here have blended
together and it’s hard to distinguish what happened one day from the next. There
is so much repetition and mobility that it feels like forever. Since we are
walking from 9:00 to 9:30 in the day and sleeping from 10:00 to 8:00 at night
and wasting no time whatsoever makes one day seem so long. One day when we were
walking around a city called Bellac, my emotions were going crazy and I was just
feeling so down. Earlier that day we saw a man drive by in a particular red car
with the bass booming. But then four hours later about 12 miles away, we saw him
again and this time we made eye contact and did a little “hello” with a nod.
Then an hour after that once we stopped for dinner, on the other side of the
road was that guy’s car! Two minutes later a little boy (his son) came out and
walked over and gave us a big bottle of water. This man and his son cheered me
up instantly because the love of God was in them and desired to help us. I was
moved. And then, the next day about 20 miles away, we saw him AGAIN! It was
amazing.
The tough thing about being out
here though is that all day long you walk by comfy houses and fast moving cars
and it makes you feel so helpless. There is no comfort in your life right now
and all you want to do is go faster, and you can’t. I wish I could feel warm and
relaxed in one of these nice houses or enjoy the convenience of an effortless
automobile. But if we lived like that then we wouldn’t be as strong of a voice.
I realized that most of the people we are fighting for in this expedition will
always live like that. They will never have a car and a lot of their homes are
not strong and cozy. Each day that I am out here builds my fierceness for
helping these people. I couldn’t imagine living all my life with so little and
there was nothing I could do about it. Blessed are the poor, because they rely
on God.
I went seven days without washing
any of my clothes. The bottom of my socks were black and I stunk so bad that
people did not want to be around me at all. It’s humbling. You should try it
sometime. The next break we have will be in Lannemezan, France. Pray for us!
Bless you!
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August 7, 2009
July 24 – July 30, 2009
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July 24 – July 30, 2009
 Well, Brett made it through the first week of torment. I had empathy for every limp and moan that he had, because I was there at one point. But it was a good first week. We got farther than I expected with the fact that there were new feet involved in the walk. We are taking a day off now in a town called Chatillon-sur-Indre. It is a pleasant little town with everything we need to get by on a day off. Every night this week we slept in the tent. It is almost becoming a game to try and find the coolest place to camp out. Some nights we camped in the middle of farm fields, some in public parks, one beside an abandoned windmill that looked haunted, and some just right next to the road. Well, maybe it’s not so glamorous yet but we’re getting there. One of these days I would like to try and camp out on top of a water tower. It’s a lot harder to talk to people and ask them if we can stay with them because, you know, we don’t speak FRENCH! I wish I did. I’ve been getting better though, slowly but surely.
Right now I think I’m pretty much past all the pain. Nothing is really getting in my way physically. But Brett on the other hand, well…he is getting there. He’s had blisters, sore muscles, swollen ankles, sleep deprivation, etc. It’s almost like he’s pregnant. Cross your fingers, I hope he’s not. But after this day off he’ll probably be a lot better. This next week will probably be an even longer distance.
 We caught a little bit of rain here and there but not too bad. What’s been the worst are the cloudless days with nothing separating us from the sun. I am half Cajun and half Caucasian. But luckily the temperature isn’t in the 100’s like it is back in
Texas . Usually it doesn’t get over the high 80’s but the humidity makes it feel like I’m on Mercury. A daily routine that we have been able to experience is river bathing. Every day we have come across a swimmable river and used it to bathe, wash our clothes, and just cool down. Thank God for that or we would have been suffering. The towns that we have passed through are very beautiful. I just wish we had more time to actually tour the town and visit the attractions. We only have enough time to walk straight through them and hope to see something along the way. Places like
Chartres ,
Blois , and Chateaudun have extremely beautiful churches and chateaus. You can see some of them in the pictures.
 So as we were walking into Chatillon, we were assuming that there were some places to stay for the night like a hostel or something because all the other towns had a surplus of them. So when we got here we stopped in a bar and asked the bartender, Nicole, with what little French I knew where a hostel was. She told me there wasn’t anything in town, no hostel, no hotel…nothing. She then called the priest of the town because the church has a house that people can stay in if they are traveling through and are in need. But that was no longer in use either. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that the town we decided to take a day off in had NO accommodation. So I called my uncle, who speaks French, and had him talk to Nicole to try and figure something out. She said she would call a doctor in town who could maybe help. Well she finally got a hold of him and he said he could take us to a branch of his hospital to stay in a vacant hospital room. And when he (Michel) came to pick us up we found out he was also the mayor of the town and he spoke some English! So at first we had no place to stay and were sore from six straight days of walking, and now we have the mayor taking care of us and giving us a place to stay for free! How amazing is God’s provision. If it wasn’t for my uncle, Nicole, or Michel then we wouldn’t have received this blessing. Thank you, Lord. Now we are just relaxing on our day off, going to the market to stock up on food, and blogging it up at the town hall. What an amazing encounter. This day off will be very beneficial to us. Tomorrow we will be ready to go for another week without stopping. Wish us luck!
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