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Lights In The Darkness

Posted
April 19, 2013
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On The Trail
Spiritual Insights
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Candle In The Dark by Don McCulloughHey everybody. We’re still waiting for weather to warm up, but we’ve at least made it part of the way out west. We’re staying with Lindsie’s wonderful Uncle Charlie (who came and rescued us in Colorado when winter hit back in November) in Wyoming until the snow and below-freezing nights go away for good.

While we wait, I wanted to share something I read recently in a book called Dreaming With God by Bill Johnson. Dreaming With God was recommended to me by my brilliant friend and business partner Jared Soundy. The book itself is about unleashing the God-given creativity within us to impact our world in a positive way for Christ’s Kingdom. The book is FULL of fantastic points, insights, and thought-provoking ideas, and I wanted to share at least one of them here.

In the chapter “Invading Babylon,” Pastor Johnson talks about how, in the midst of the darkness that surrounds us here on Earth, it seems like the only solution is to give up, run away from it all, and wait for the Rapture (which, according to many people, has to be coming soon based on the state of the world right now).

But according to him, that’s not the path we should take. And I tend to agree. Here’s what he says about our role as Christians in society.

“…anywhere we do not invade becomes darker in our absence. We are the ‘light of the world’ (Matt. 5:14). The realms of society that we fail to invade are hopelessly lost to darkness. Invasion is the responsibility of light.”

Week by week, it seems this world is falling into a state of ruin. This week alone we’ve witnessed the Boston Marathon bombing and a shootout and manhunt on MIT’s campus, both of which have left people dead. And it’s SO easy to think, This snowball is already picking up too much downhill steam and growing too big—there’s no way to keep society from falling apart now.

But, as Pastor Johnson points out, it’s not just possible to prevent that decay—it’s our RESPONSIBILITY. He later writes, “In crisis, people will always turn to those who are stable. Integrity will be a beacon of light to those wandering through this land of disappointment and shame.”

With God behind us, we have all of the strength and stability we need to be a light for others. As Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7-8, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.”

This world needs beacons of light to invade that darkness. Matthew 5:14 tells us, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.”

WE are that light. So in the face of the darkness we confront on Earth, let’s shine as brightly as we can for the Lord. I don’t want to leave my future children and grandchildren to inherit a planet that has forever fallen into darkness. It’s our job to be warriors for Christ, not just semi-believers who have read His Word but don’t truly believe in the authority God has given us.

Let’s use that authority to start confronting the darkness in this world. The brighter we shine, the less power darkness has against us. Light will always overcome darkness under any circumstances. It’s our job to shine radiantly for Christ.

-Mike and Lindsie

Photo by Don McCullough

Hit The Road, Jack!

Posted
April 6, 2013
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On The Trail
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8 Comments

Hey friends!

We’ll keep this post short and sweet, but we wanted to announce that we’ll be resuming our cross-country walk and hitting the road again next weekend, April 13-14. Due to transportation availability and a few other factors, this is pretty short notice for everyone (including us), but we’re extremely eager to be getting back on the road soon.

We’re sad to be leaving Sioux Falls again, but we appreciate the friendships we were able to rekindle while we were here. We also appreciate everything people—particularly our parents—have done for us since we’ve been back. And most of all, we appreciate the prayers of support and words of encouragement that our friends and family have offered over the past several months.

We’ll have more regular updates coming soon now that we’re hitting the road again. Needless to say, we are excited. Thanks for sticking around after our four-month hiatus, and feel free to keep the prayers coming. They’re always welcome in our book.

-Mike and Linds (and Jaeda)

 

Just A Quick Update

Posted
February 26, 2013
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On The Trail
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3 Comments

Walkin' AlongJust wanted to check in and let you guys know what we’re up to.

First, an important bit of information: We ARE fully intending to hit the road again in a few short weeks. Although we’ve enjoyed our time with family and friends back home, we’re itching to get back on the road and pick up where we left off (literally…like in the exact same place we left off before in Colorado).

It’s weird because we’re also nervous about getting back out there and starting again. Those same concerns that made it hard to get out on the road the first time are nagging at us (mainly me, Mike), but we know that God was with us then and He’ll be with us again when we start walking in a few weeks.

We just hope you haven’t gotten tired of waiting for us to get back out on the road. Your prayers and encouragement are a HUGE part of what has made this journey so successful thus far, and we’re thankful to have such incredible friends and family supporting us in this adventure.

We’ll have another update soon. In the meantime, we’re going to continue preparing (both mentally and physically) for our return to the road. We’re already getting routes prepared and supplies pulled together, so the Lord is clearly re-lighting that fire in our hearts. We look forward to sharing more with you as more develops.

I wanted to leave you guys with a verse to consider, and I found one that couldn’t be more fitting for what’s happening in our lives. Hopefully it hits you the same way it hit us.

Ephesians 4:1 (New King James) – “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”

Or, as it says in The Message version of the Bible: “I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you travel.”

We may not be running out on that road, but we certainly plan to walk it, and we’re excited to have a chance to do it again in a few weeks! Thanks for sticking around during this rest time. We hope you’ll enjoy following along when we do resume the walk again.

-Mike and Linds (and Jaeda)

 

Jesus Is Awesome (Literally)

Posted
January 25, 2013
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Spiritual Insights
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Cristo Redentor by Eric LimThis past weekend while Lindsie and I were in church, I was reminded of something important.

Jesus is awesome.

Read that last sentence again, but read it a little more slowly.

Jesus is awe-some.

The definition of awesome, according to Merriam-Webster, is “expressive of awe,” or “inspiring awe.” Far too frequently, people (including myself) overuse the word awesome. They use it regularly in everyday conversation for things that they could be describing as, “neat,” or “good,” or “pretty cool.”

And as we sat in church and the pastor talked about the various things Jesus has done for us—simple things like, you know, performing miracles, dying for the sins of mankind, rising from the dead and ascending into Heaven—I realized that far too frequently, Jesus falls into the version of awesome that most people would equate to “neat” or “pretty cool.”

It’s easy to hear the words “Jesus died for your sins” and think, “Yeah, it’s awesome that He did that.” But the truth is we should be seeing what Jesus did for us as AWESOME. As in, awe-inspiring awesome. Because what He did makes things like sports accomplishments, musical performances, and blockbuster movies seem trivial by comparison.

But it seems we’re much more likely to update Facebook saying that the newest big-time basketball dunk on YouTube or the latest James Bond movie is AWESOME than it seems we ever would be likely to update Facebook saying, “Jesus is AWESOME!”

It’s not easy, but I’m challenging myself to remember that the next time I describe something relatively trivial as “awesome.” If I can get pumped about a captivating solo performance or an amazing buzzer-beating half-court shot, there’s no reason I shouldn’t get that excited (if not more) about Jesus.

Because the bottom line is that Jesus is awesome. And I mean AWESOME.

If you don’t believe me, take a glance through the New Testament. It won’t take long before you see for yourself just how awesome He really is.

-Mike

Photo by Eric Lim Photography. Thanks Eric!

Surround Yourself In Faith

Posted
January 11, 2013
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Spiritual Insights
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4 Comments

PeacefulnessSince we’ve been back in the “normal world” after pausing our walk for the winter, I’ve noticed something important happening in my life.

Being back in the normal world means the world wants me to live a “normal life.”

Time that used to be spent on our journey talking with God or talking with each other about God has suddenly turned to other things. I find myself filling more and more of time with things like work, sports and TV shows, books (yes, especially comic books), and video games. The sorts of things “normal” 26 year olds are interested in.

The problem isn’t necessarily those things I listed though. The problem is that, slowly but surely, they’re pushing my time with God (and my conversations about God) more and more out of the picture.

God wants to be the most important part of our lives. A verse many people have heard many times, Matthew 6:33, says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” That’s the NIV version. The New Living Translation says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

The key words in those verses? “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” and “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else…” But how often do we seek God’s kingdom (or even just His presence) first? In my own life, nowhere near as much as I should.

But I’m doing my best to change that, even in the simple, everyday things I do in my life. For example, I’m a huge music fan. I listen to TONS of music, and I listen to an incredibly wide variety. I go from Dave Matthews Band to rap music to Elton John to country, with plenty of other stops along the way.

But one type of music I’ve never fully fallen head over heels in love with is praise music. I don’t really have a reason why, but it just seemed like it wouldn’t click with me like I needed it to in order for me to sit and listen to Christian music for hours.

Then I realized something. There are a lot of talented musicians who make Christian music that isn’t just praise music. As a result, I bought tons of Christian rap music and asked Lindsie to share more of her Christian music that fits the same style as my preference of non-Christian music. Now I have entire playlists I can listen to for hours that feature spiritually uplifting and thought-provoking music—and it’s music I thoroughly enjoy.

It seems small, but you’d be surprised at how much it helps to surround yourself in faith. Whether it’s the music you listen to, the shows and movies you choose to watch, the books you read, or the friends you choose to spend time with, being surrounded by an uplifting, faith-encouraging environment can make an amazing difference in your spiritual life.

It won’t solve all of your problems, since it’s ultimately up to you to seek the Lord and spend time in his word. But it’s small steps like those that can strengthen your spirit rather than pulling you away from God.

I know it’s working for me, and I hope you’ll find a way to surround yourself in faith as well.

-Mike

P.S. – If there’s ever anything Lindsie and I can do to help lift you up in your own walk, please don’t hesitate to ask, either in the comments below or, if you’d prefer to keep it offline, feel free to email us at StormingJericho (at) gmail.com.

Photo by Lindsie Billeter. (She’s awesome.)

Checking In From Our Hiatus

Posted
December 19, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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Us, in the mountainsWell, after a few weeks of getting situated back in South Dakota and getting our lives in order, we’re back with an update! While things aren’t quite as exciting these days as they are when we’re out on the road, we’re incredibly thankful to be back with our families for the holidays (and the rest of winter as well).

The transition from walking down the road every day and camping on the side of the road at night to “normal life” has been an interesting one, to say the least. On the one hand, it’s wonderful having a real bed to sleep in every night. On the other hand, many of the challenges that were forcing us to rely so heavily on God have been made much easier to handle ourselves by living in the “regular” world. For starters, we can drive wherever we need to go these days. And we’re not exactly wondering if we’ll find a safe place to sleep at night or have enough food/water to make it through the day.

What this has taught us is that, while it’s easier to rely on ourselves instead of Christ, it’s up to us to continue making Christ the focus in our daily walk. For me (Mike), this has meant surrounding myself with Christians who will continue to push and challenge me in the right ways. One benefit of being in a city like Sioux Falls is that it’s much easier to get involved with Bible studies led by uplifting Christian friends than when it was just the Storming Jericho crew (i.e. – me, Lindsie and Jaeda) on the road. And having gone so long without being involved in a traditional Bible study, it has been fantastic to see how that daily challenge of studying the Word and developing a better understanding of God’s will have improved me spiritually.

I know Lindsie has also enjoyed the opportunity to escape from the world and find her personal quiet time with the Lord. She’s a little bit more of an introvert than me, which means she enjoys her alone time. Unfortunately, there’s not a ton of true “alone time” to be had when you’re with your husband 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And while I’m sure Lindsie loves me dearly, she also loves being able to spend time one-on-one with the Father, and we’re both thankful she has more of an opportunity to do that these days.

Now that we’re in the groove of things, we plan to update much more frequently than we have the past couple of weeks. For now, we just wanted to share a little bit of what’s going on in our worlds and let you guys know that we’re still fired up about this cross-country journey and we’re looking forward to continuing it as soon as winter is over.

On a final note, we’ll be speaking with the youth group from Lindsie’s church in Watertown, SD, tonight, so please pray that God gives us the right words to speak and the right thoughts to share with the youth. It’s such an honor to even be asked to share our journey with a group like that, and we want to be sure we make an impact for the Lord. As mentioned, your prayers are welcome.

Thanks again for the support, even during our hiatus, and we’ll be back with more soon.

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)

Thanksgiving Blessings

Posted
November 24, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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4 Comments

Hey everyone,

We know it’s a little late, but we wanted to send out a late Thanksgiving post anyway (because it’s really never too late to give thanks, right?).

We want to start by thanking all of you–our friends, blog readers, and Facebook followers who have supported us every step of the way on this adventure. We have been overwhelmed (in every sense of the word) by everyone who has left comments on our blog, posted encouraging words on Facebook, or sent us messages of love and encouragement directly. When we started this walk, we knew we’d be doing something crazy, but we had no idea it would inspire so much kindness and support from people (some of whom we’ve never even met) all over the country. Every day we get comments and words that encourage us to keep making progress, no matter what adversity we’re facing, and we hope and pray that encouragement will continue as we pick back up in March.

While we’re thanking friends, we should also take some time to thank all of the incredible Road Angels who have helped us out along the path. Whether it was providing a place to sleep, a place to shower, or just offering some company on the road, we can’t put into words how much we appreciate the help we’ve received along the way. We’re also thankful that we’ll meet more Road Angels when we pick back up again in March. All in all, it has been and will continue to be amazing as we meet more and more people along the way.

We also want to thank our families, for being supportive in more ways than we can count. Whether it’s our parents encouraging us in the ways only parents can, our aunts and uncles for going out of their way to support our adventure, or our siblings for keeping us close even when we were thousands of miles away. Even though it’s their job to love us as family, our families have done more for us than we could’ve ever imagined when we started out on this walk. We are so, so thankful for that support and unconditional love.

Finally (and most importantly), we want to thank our Father in Heaven for always, ALWAYS keeping us safe and provided for on the road. We knew this journey wouldn’t be easy, and the whole reason we started walking was to learn to rely on God. Well, we’ve definitely had to rely on God since we started and He has never once let us down in any way, shape, or form. We’ve seen and experienced miracles on this adventure we would’ve never imagined, and we’re only about 1/3 of the way through. We can’t wait to see what else God does for us when we start back up again (as well as what He’ll do for us during our short winter break). We have been blessed beyond measure and we are thankful for the love of Christ, the sacrifice He made for our sins, and the unconditional love He shows us every single day.

All in all, we’re thankful, whether it’s after Thanksgiving or not. Thanks to everyone reading, and we hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving as well. Feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you’re thankful for. We’d love to hear about it.

We’ll be back with more soon!

-Mike, Lindsie, and Jaeda

Photo by Sharon Mollerus. Thanks Sharon!

Making Some Tough Decisions

Posted
November 18, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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13 Comments

Hey friends and family,

After a few weeks of very careful and prayer-filled deliberation, Lindsie and I have made a decision.

Since the beginning, our plan was to walk across the country throughout most of the winter (minus a month-long break in December when we’d return to stay with family in South Dakota). We purchased/gathered extra winter gear as the weather got colder, and we knew we were planning to just grit it out and continue the journey, rain or shine (or snow).

Unfortunately, after getting snowed on last week and trying to walk the next few days as the temperature continued to drop, we realized something really, really important: we had lost the joy of this journey.

Even though we were physically capable of walking through the snowy, increasingly-cold Colorado mountains, we discovered that neither one of us seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were before. There’s something about waking up inside a snow and ice-covered tent and knowing you’ll be walking 15+ miles in 18 degree weather that just isn’t as fun/adventurous/exhilarating.

The point of this walk isn’t to just “get” across the country. It’s to do it in a way that strengthens our relationship with God, connects us with people along the road we can share our (and God’s) story with, and making memories that will last for the rest of our lives.

Beyond that, Linds and I have spent the past few weeks and months really focusing on learning how to discern God’s will. While we’re certainly not experts (and maybe never will be), this was a wonderful experience for us to strengthen and grow in that sense. Although we didn’t realize it initially, we both were beginning to feel like God was encouraging us to make a decision that we hadn’t once felt called to make on this entire journey until very recently.

As a result of all this, we’ve decided to temporarily (note: temporarily) postpone our journey until spring rolls around. We fully intend to pick back up exactly where we left off once the weather’s a little warmer and we can continue walking without the risk of losing our extremities to frostbite or waking up on the side of the road as cross-country popsicles.

We’ll spend the next few months in South Dakota (which, really, only adds about 2 extra months of resting in SD, since we were going back for all of December in the first place), and we look forward to reconnecting with our friends and family in SD once we’re back.

To be clear, we will continue posting on the blog throughout the next few months. Many of the posts will be more of the “spiritual insights” and cool/inspiring things we’ve come across rather than updates on our progress, but we hope you’ll continue following along with the blog and our updates anyway. We’ve really enjoyed connecting with so many people through the blog and Facebook and would hate to see that slip away while we waited to restart our journey.

Thanks to everyone who has been so helpful and encouraging as we’ve walked up to this point. One of the main reasons we’ve made it this far is because we’re so motivated by the conversations and comments we’ve shared with you all on and offline. We can’t wait to fire that back up in the spring and start Storming Jericho again when the time is right.

Our only request is that, during this break, you continue encouraging us as you have encouraged us so much already. We’ll still need your help over these next few months to keep us focused on our goal and, more importantly, focused on the Lord and what He wants for us as we go. That encouragement will help keep us fired up to hit the road again when March rolls around.

Thanks so much, everyone, and we hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving if we don’t get another post up before then!

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)

P.S. – 1) HUGE thanks to our friend Cheryl (from our stop in Ridgway http://stormingjericho.com/showing-true-grit-to-reach-ridgway-co/) and Kellie from Ridgway Community Church for rescuing us from a random stretch of Highway 50 and bringing us back to civilization so we could figure all of this out. 2) EXTRA HUGE thanks to Lindsie’s uncle, Charlie Page, for driving 8 hours down from Casper, Wyoming, to pick us up in Montrose, Colorado, and bring us back to Casper so we could drive home to South Dakota from Casper using his extra car. All kinds of generosity, to say the least.

P.P.S. – All of these gorgeous pictures were taken by my beautiful wife. She’s awesome.

Walkin’ In A Winter Wonderland

Posted
November 15, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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9 Comments

Well, we finally got snowed on. After pushing our luck for weeks and weeks as we continued across Colorado, the snow finally fell. While we’d definitely prefer to be warm and dry at all times, we knew winter had to happen eventually, so we’re making the best of it as we go.

Thankfully, we do have a set of incredibly warm sleeping bags and some decent 4-season camping equipment, so that should definitely help keep away the cold, at least while we’re sleeping. Plus, we’ll be getting picked up and brought home to South Dakota for the month of December, so even though it’ll be cold there, we’ll at least be indoors a majority of the time.

Anyway, onto our recent progress. After leaving Ridgway (which was a delight), we made our way toward Montrose, Colorado. We’d actually been in Montrose before, during our unexpected return trip to South Dakota a few weeks ago, but we got to see a different part of the city which ended up being pretty nice.

Anyway, right before we got to Montrose, our friend Lonni (who continues going out of her way to make our lives better) and her friend Thomas told us they’d reserved us a room for two nights at the Country Lodge, a really nice place that was perfectly situated along the road we’d need to take out of town.

The Country Lodge was wonderful, and the people who run it were incredibly kind and helpful. In fact, because we had some things we needed to figure out and do, we stayed an extra day and Jeff, one of the owners/managers, offered to let us stay for an extra night. Needless to say, we felt blessed.

After tearing ourselves away from the Country Lodge, we finally started walking down the road toward Gunnison, our next reasonably-sized town on the route. Gunnison, we’ve been told, is the coldest city in Colorado, so we’re hoping one of the churches in town invites us in for the night rather than making us camp.

Anyway, on the way out of Montrose, we did some tent camping again. It was getting chilly (and we felt pretty bummed after having such a nice place for several nights), but we survived safe and sound. The only problem was that the wind was horrendous, and Lindsie and I both woke up around 3 am and never fell back asleep because our tent was flapping and bending like a cartoon.

The next morning, neither one of us felt particularly great. We noticed that we were near a big, semi-empty building that looked like a rarely-used Department of Transportation building. We didn’t see any signs saying “Do Not Enter” or “Employees Only,” and it had a GIGANTIC garage door that was wide open.

So we decided to camp in there for the night. It was great because we were able to stay out of the wind and we were much, much warmer than we’d been the night before. Plus, as a bonus, there was a functioning electrical outlet, so we were able to charge all of our electronic stuff all night long.

The next morning, some Department of Transportation folks pulled in, but they weren’t too mad at us. They just told us we had to head out because they were going to be using the building all day, which worked out perfectly because we were already packing up.

We said goodbye to our helpful empty building/garage thing and continued on down Highway 50. As we walked, we got rained on a little bit, but not enough to stop walking. Eventually the sun came back out and we ended up reaching our goal for the evening, which was Cimarron, a not-really-town that had a convenience store, a gas station, and a campground. We camped out for the night at the campground, and I (Mike) woke up around 3 am to the sound of rain falling on our tent.

At least, I thought it was rain.

It was actually snow. So for the first time during our journey, as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, we got snowed on. It was a pretty bleary scene when I crawled out of our tent. Completely gray sky, snow still falling around us, and because it had started as rain, most of our stuff was covered in ice as well. This wasn’t a winter wonderland type of snow. It was much less pleasant than that.

As we contemplated our next steps, we came across a park ranger who was checking the campground. He told us it was supposed to get really cold the coming night, and then should warm up for at least a few days after that. We realized that being stuck outside again might not be our best bet, so we packed up (wet and icy though it was) and started walking down the road again. There was a campground and lodge about 4 miles down the road from us, and we were hoping to make it there before it got dark again.

Thankfully, the sun decided to come out right before we started walking, which melted some of the snow, and, more importantly, melted some of the day’s dreariness away. Suddenly it felt like there was hope in the world yet again. After just a little bit of time walking, we reached the campground and they had one available cabin left for us to rent (thank you, Jesus, for providing once again). Although the price tag was higher than we’d prefer, we decided that having a warm, comfortable room for the night was a little more important this time around.

After we woke up, we decided to try to start walking down the road again. Unfortunately, the weather was the coldest it had been so far (18 degrees with the sun out and shining brightly), but we set out bundled up and trying to stay as warm as possible. This effort led to us making a tough decision, which we’re going to post about in our next post.

Talk about a cliffhanger, right?

Anyway, thanks so much for the continued encouragement and support. We just feel so blessed that people keep commenting on the blog, leaving messages on Facebook, and just generally being supportive as we walk. We’ll have an update on what’s next in our future very soon.

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)

Showing True Grit to Reach Ridgway, CO

Posted
November 6, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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5 Comments

Well, as we’d hoped in the last post, we were able to get back to the Dry Creek Basin area of Colorado and pick back up on our journey. Thankfully, we were blessed right out of the gate. After spending an extra day and night at our friend Lonni’s house to catch up, re-pack, and re-group, it was time for us to mosey on down the road toward Norwood, CO.

Before we left, however, we got to meet with some hunters staying in Lonni’s cabins. The group was from Missouri, which was fun because Lindsie and I had been living in Springfield, Missouri, before starting on the journey. One of the younger guys, Cale, was incredibly friendly. We had a great conversation with him the night we got back into town, and he helped us out with a few other things as well as we prepared to leave. For all we know, the Lord might put Cale back into our path when we go across Missouri. As we’ve learned on this trip so far, nothing is impossible.

Anyway, the morning we decided to head out of Dry Creek Basin, Lonni was kind enough to drive our carts up ahead of us about 9 miles, which helped us avoid a huge (and beautiful) canyon that we would’ve had to go down and back up to get through (on a gravel road, no less). Instead, Lindsie, Jaeda and I were able to safely, casually, and comfortably walk through the canyon in order to reach our carts, which we’d left at a place in Redvale, CO.

From there, we grabbed our stuff and headed toward Norwood. It meant that our first day back was a 17.5-mile day, but we had a destination ahead of us, which always makes it easier. Our plan was to stay at Norwood Southern Baptist Church whenever we reached town, and with that goal in mind, we pushed on.

We ended up reaching Norwood that night, but before we got to the church, a woman named Sam Guthrie caught up to us and invited us to stay with her and her husband, Joe. They had seen us walking down the road that day and knew Emily, a mutual connection we’d made a few weeks before. Sam and Joe fed us a delicious dinner of chips and chili, let us take showers, and spent a fun night sharing really interesting conversation with us. All in all, we were thankful for their generosity and are appreciative that they wanted to help.

The next day, Sam drove us back into town (they lived a few miles outside of town back the way we’d come) and dropped us off at the church. The church pastor, Joe Bowman, was really friendly and offered to let us stay at the church that night. We gave our overwhelming thanks and enjoyed a walk-free day of foot rest as we performed a few much-needed tasks like sewing up tears and holes in our carts. The Bowmans also offered us showers, which, as a rule, we never turn down, so we were thankful for that as well.

The next day was Sunday, which was perfect because we really wanted to attend the church service that morning. Pastor Bowman gave a truly inspired (and inspiring) sermon, which we thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed. We had originally planned to start walking toward our next town after church, but the Bowmans invited us to have lunch with them, and the opportunity for more food and fellowship was too good to pass up. We decided to just stick around an extra night, which gave us time to have lunch with Joe, his wife Judi, and their kids Cameron and Casey. It also gave us a chance to spend the afternoon enjoying fellowship with them, going to look at elk (which Lindsie was very excited about), and getting a little bit of laundry done as a bonus.

The next morning, Cameron and Casey did us a favor by driving our carts down the very steep Norwood Hill, which had a sharp drop-off on the side we’d be walking down. Once again, we felt much safer walking without our carts, and we definitely appreciated their offer to drive our carts down for us.

We pushed hard that day, but still ended up needing to sleep outside for the first time since the weather had gotten colder in the area. Fortunately, my Aunt Penny and Uncle Lenny recently offered to get us warmer sleeping bags (Aunt Penny basically said she’d sleep better knowing we weren’t going to freeze to death), so we got some sleeping bags that are rated down to -20 degrees, and we stayed warm and toasty in them even though the weather was pretty chilly that night.

The next day we pushed again, and made it to just a few miles short of the Dallas Divide. The Dallas Divide is right around 9,000 feet high, which meant it would be COLD if we stayed up on top of it that night. As a result, we stopped about 8 miles short of the Dallas Divide so we could stay at least a little bit warmer at night. Then, after a truly cold night of sleep (it was 22 degrees in our tent when we woke up at 8 am, and the sun was out at that point…but our sleeping bags kept us safe and warm all night—have no fear Aunt Penny), we packed up and made our push toward Ridgway, CO.

On an interesting side note, Ridgway is the area where the original True Grit was filmed. And it’s beautiful.

Anyway, we had called Ridgway Community Church that morning to see if they knew of a place we could stay, and we were happy to discover that they were having their “HarvestFest” celebration that night at the church. Besides having a place for us to stay, we were going to be able to get free food, fellowship, and even enjoy a bonfire at the church. All we needed to do was get into town that night.

That meant an 18.75-mile day of walking for us. And thanks to the mountains, 19 miles is a little harder to pull off than it used to be. Like we said in the title of this post, we knew it would take some true grit to reach our destination that night.

Obviously we were motivated, and that motivation (and God’s strength) helped us push on, even when we were out of breath and exhausted. After a full day of walking, we dragged ourselves into Ridgway about 20 minutes before the event started, and we could smell the delicious food before we even walked in the door.

We ended up having a blast at the HarvestFest. Besides the free food, we met some great people, including the Darcy family, who offered to let us spend the night at their place in a nice, warm bed. Of course we said yes, and we enjoyed such a great night of sleep that when they asked if we wanted to stay an extra night, we told them we would love to stay an extra night.

This also gave us a chance to grab a quick lunch with Alex, a guy we’d met at HarvestFest the night before, as well as a few other high schoolers who meet for lunch once a week. Alex is a high school senior who is considering his own cross-country journey (most likely by car rather than by foot), and we really had a great time talking with him at HarvestFest about his plans and, more importantly, what God has planned for his future. The lunch we got to enjoy was rushed, but we did get to meet Pastor Hank, a pastor from Honduras who is doing some amazing work for the Lord down south, so we were happy we got to do that.

Later that night, we got to enjoy yet another unique experience on this journey. The Darcy kids, Trevor and Alexis, are into rock climbing, and there’s an “open gym” for rock wall climbing in Ridgway certain nights of the week. We were invited to go, and we readily took them up on the offer. As you can see from the photos, we went at it pretty hard for newcomers, but it was really fun (and incredibly challenging).

We woke up the next morning a little stiff, but generally ready to hit the road. After getting a ride into town from Cheryl, we picked up our carts at the church and were just about to leave. Then, a new friend—John Zacharias, who we’d met the night before—pulled up. He saw us leaving and loaded us up with extra food, water, and all around kindness. Needless to say, we were thankful.

All in all, Ridgway was a true blessing. Even though the weather has gotten colder, we felt as warm as ever (both literally and figuratively) thanks to the people we met in town.

We are excited to keep moving on down the road, and we’re praying that God keeps us safe, warm, and dry as we go. We would be pretty thankful if you didn’t mind praying for those things too. And if there’s anything we can pray for on your behalf, please don’t hesitate to let us know, either on Facebook or via email at StormingJericho (at) gmail.com.

Thanks everyone, and we’ll have another update coming soon!

-Mike and Lindsie

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