Merry Christmas from Full Proof Gospel Ministries and our long walk across the United States in the spirit of watchmen upon a wall (Ezekiel 3:17). Most folks don’t mind talk of a little baby Jesus in a manger as displayed in the plethora of nativity scenes I passed by on this last leg. But, when you preach Him as the Apostle John saw Him in Revelation 1, in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, they can get testy or even stark raving mad. Let them rage. The King is coming. He is “called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war” (Revelation 19:11). As it asks on the front of that cross we have carried for many, many miles: ARE YOU READY?

It could be now said that we have walked all the way across United States . . . if we had started in Neptune Beach, Florida and had walked the shortest highway route to Ocean Beach in San Diego, California—about 2,350 miles. But, we didn’t go that way. Had we walked Interstate 40 from its beginning in Wilmington, North Carolina, we would only be 50 miles shy of it terminus in Barstow, California. But, we didn’t go that way either. It’s illegal and very dangerous to walk interstate highways, and no one is going to slam on the brakes at 80mph to pull off onto a dangerous shoulder and talk to a guy who is walking with a cross. No, we have stayed on the rural byways and hedges; and by God’s abundant grace, we closed out 2021 by surpassing 2,500 miles on foot! Our goal was to reach the Mississippi River before 2022. We didn’t, and I guess a guy could blame the monster tornadoes that crossed our path, the big chunk of restricted access land belonging to Fort Campbell Army Base that we had to walk WAAAAAYYYYYY around, or limited crossings of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers that made life difficult (as it did for Union and Confederate armies back in 1862) and blocked a beeline to the Mississippi. A guy could blame such things, I suppose, or he could just praise God for His Divine Hand of Providence and for the an eternal biblical truth: “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

Our most recent leg of #TheLongWalkUSA was our longest, 284 miles. And the last day of that leg proved our longest, a new single-day record: 42 miles. We pushed it on December 15 so we could reach 2,500 miles, and it was a day that mostly followed the lonely North-South Trail in Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The place was dead and boasted some tornado damage, so we thought it might be our first day without a Gospel encounter. We prayed otherwise, but by late afternoon, nada. By the time we packed it up at 10:30pm, however, God had given us 10—a local lady with her dogs on a remote part of the trail, utility linemen repairing damaged power lines in the path of a tornado that had crossed the recreation area, a bow hunter from New Hampshire, and folks out enjoying the Christmas lights display in the small town of Grand Rivers. It was a good day, and the little church parking lot off Hopewell Road in Lyon County seemed an appropriate place to pack things up for 2021. It is from there that we will resume sometime after the New Year. Our knees feel a bit like jello, and finite bodies need a little time to heal. Praise the LORD for a Christmas Break and precious time with family, friends, and the loved ones of our local church fellowship. And many thanks to ALL who have prayed for us. Your prayers were particularly answered just after midnight on December 11th. A tornado passed by and did significant damage to a small town about 6 miles northwest of where we were sleeping. The tiny little town of Trenton, where a walking preacher and his team had retired in a quaint AirBnb above a coffee shop after a long day’s walk, escaped untouched and unharmed. There were a few moments when we took shelter and thought things would turn out otherwise, but the LORD was merciful.

So, we didn’t get blown away, and here is where things officially stand:

• 2,503.08 total miles WALKED

• 1,457 total witnessing ENCOUNTERS along the byways

• 74 Bibles freely GIVEN

A few days before we drove home for the holidays, a lady with a European accent told Eric and me that Jesus doesn’t hear prayers and that what we were doing was a waste of time. A few days before that, two good ole’ MAGA boys saw me walking by and sneered: “What the @$#% is this all about?” When I walked over to them and explained that I was sounding an alarm because our nation is in trouble with the LORD, they scoffed, claiming that walking across America wouldn’t change a thing. “Get off this property,” one of them adjured. I have never claimed that walking across the United States would “change anything.” I am simply trying to be obedient to the Lord in a SMALL THING. Maybe it is a giant waste of time in the eyes of the world and in the view of a lot of professing Christians, but don’t be so quick to judge and despise SMALL THINGS carried on by ORDINARY PEOPLE. The genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ are a lesson in that, as is the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple following the Babylonian Captivity, and the birth narratives of the Messiah, the Christmas Story folks talk about this time of year. Small acts of faith amongst common people in small corners keep the darkness at bay and have profoundly affected the history of the entire world.

As for the lady who boasted that Jesus doesn’t hear prayers, I waxed bold in that moment and pointed my finger right at her: “Woman, if Jesus Christ didn’t hear the prayers of his people, then there probably wouldn’t be a little town standing today. You see, these two walking preachers happened to be sleeping there the other night, and people were praying to Jesus for these preachers, and that big monster tornado jogged left and took out another town instead. Don’t you tell me Jesus cannot and does not hear the prayers of His people.” As for those MAGA rednecks with filthy mouths, I replied “Ok sir,” and walked off their property and back into the public street. I then turned to them, pointing my finger, and declared along these lines: “Now that I am off your property, let me tell you boys something. First of all, you wicked devils need to repent and wash those filthy mouths out with soap, the real foamy stuff. Secondly, if I didn’t believe the Word of God was true and that judgment was coming to this wicked country of ours, I wouldn’t have walked over two thousand miles. Maybe all that walking won’t change a thing, but it can at least be said that you have been warned. Folks like you are this country’s problem, not its solution.” They kept cussing and throwing about threats, but I picked up my cross, continued on down the road, and kept rallying “Repent” until they were out of earshot. A mile or so later, at a dot on the map called Cub Run, I walked into the Family Dollar to get a drink and told the woman behind the counter that I would never forget the community of Cub Run, “for it was here that a preacher got cussed out when he walked down the street with his cross.” I then explained what had transpired and declared the Gospel as a customer stood by and the store manager came out to listen. Across the aisles, the manager exclaimed, “Preacher, you are welcome here in Cub Run anytime.” They all took Gospel tracts and thanked me for walking through their town. So, I guess those old boys were wrong about me wasting my time. These were just 3 of 120 Gospel encounters along this latest leg.

There were also the folks at the Hudgins General Store, including a teenage girl named Dixie who listened intently to the Gospel and took a copy of Mark Cahill’s One Heartbeat Away. Nathan talked to me for the longest time in his front yard. The response of a tough-looking dude with a pit bull was the diametric opposite of what I expected. He listened and took a Gospel tract. We preached to and Gospel-tracted the ladies working inside the Stockholm Market; parents lined up in their cars outside an elementary school; folks eating lunch at a solitary diner in Pig, Kentucky; and to a stream of folks coming and going at a Speedway gas station in Smiths Corners. We witnessed to a police officer, a Tennessee County mayor, some Mennonite folks, and even a few Amish. There was also a Mexican family, two recently converted believers who gave us bottled water, Eddie the Rebel, a tornado clean-up crew, a Cuban waitress, a “Universal Life Ordained Minister” with a hodgepodge of religious symbols on his “business card,” parents on their way home from visiting their son in the hospital following a terrible car crash, a young couple who gratefully received a Bible, an elderly black man who stopped to say: “Thank you for spreading the Word,” and a lady whose friend had lost her home in the tornadoes. Maybe these are SMALL THINGS. But, “who hath despised the day of small things” (Zechariah 4:10)?

Along this leg, I also had a gun pulled on me. We got kicked out of a coffee shop. We had to move fast on foot to catch a ferry over the Green River before it closed for the night. An Amish lady ran outside in the cold to give us some fresh-baked Christmas cookies. I stood in the pouring rain and preached from the street to an old farmer on his porch. We traversed Mammoth Cave National Park. We crossed Civil War battlefields. We walked past tornado damage. We dodged Amish buggies. We walked in and out of Kentucky and Tennessee. And, we passed by many a graveyard. I even preached to some of the folks lying in those cemeteries: “All you folks lying here, you are going to get up one day. Some of you out there, all of you I hope, will wake up to the sound of a trumpet and be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye. Others of you will be raised to shame and everlasting contempt, the fearful judgment of death and hell before a Great White Throne.” I didn’t get any “Amens” from that preaching, but I do believe a few devils hanging out in one of those boneyards followed me for a bit down a very dark gravel road in the middle of the woods. I kept them at bay by bellowing aloud that old hymn by Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Hey, I know an instant cure for unbiblical and false Post-Millennial theology. Let the post-millennial preacher walk down Joppa Ridge Road in the dead of night. He will no longer believe or preach that Satan is locked away in the bottomless pit and that we are presently living in the Millennium. Oh no, he won’t preach that anymore. So, these are SMALL THINGS. But, “who hath despised the day of small things” (Zechariah 4:10)?

Speaking of SMALL THINGS and the rhetorical question asked in Zechariah 4:10, consider that these dark days in America mirror the dark and evil days of the Judges in ancient Israel: "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). It’s for that reason that we walk and preach. In the days of the Judges, there was some really wicked stuff that came out of Bethlehem in the land of Judah (Judges 17-21). But even in all this apostasy, the LORD was still working in the small things of the world "and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are" (I Corinthians 1:28). Seemingly insignificant acts of righteousness and faithfulness from the hearts and hands of seemingly insignificant people in a nation that seemed utterly lost and unfixable, these little things mightily directed the course of future events for the nation's GOOD. And, while vile wicked things came out of Bethlehem-Judah, so did that which was good and honorable in the sight of the Lord; and that tiny bit of good before the Lord ultimately overtook the swath of evil and apostasy in terms of the nation's survival and the city's place in human history. Had it not been for someone shining a little light in the darkness, the city of Bethlehem would not be known as it is these days to virtually the entire world.

"So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of DAVID" (Ruth 4:13-17) . . . "But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, THOU SON OF DAVID, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.  And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:20-21).

Stop despairing Christian! Stop living in fear, and cease fretting thyself that all is lost and that the LORD is not at work in dark days. Stop believing the lie that God cannot or will not use the simple faith of one man or one woman or a small body of believers as the falling of small stones that eventually effect a tremendous avalanche. Yes, swaths of evil fan out from this country, and Washington is hopelessly corrupted, but perhaps some unknown acts of seemingly insignificant righteousness, acts that honor the God of the Bible, are already at work to mightily affect the course of future events and cause our nation to be remembered for good and not for evil. Be content to shine as a city upon a hill, as a light in the darkness, nothing more and nothing less. Never underestimate the power of small acts of righteousness by the hands of a righteous Remnant to hold great darkness at bay. And, as Naomi told Ruth, "Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall" (Ruth 3:18). We keep reminding ourselves of this as we walk, putting one foot in front of another, and summoning strength to speak the Gospel to each person who crosses our path.

Did you know that many strange and seemingly impossible things also took place in the ancestries of both Joseph (Matthew 1) and Mary (Luke 3)? Much of it was in quiet corners, NOT by might and NOT by power, but by the Spirit of the Living God. And such things also literally changed the course of human history, small trickles that precipitated an eventual flood. Therefore, I’ll ask again: "Who hath despised therefore the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10).

I preached a message about this some years ago, part 2 of a 5-part series on the Advent of Messiah. I spoke of SMALL THINGS often overlooked in the genealogies of Jesus Christ and how these small things played an important in the First Advent of our Lord. You can listen to that message online HERE, or download it on HERE on Apple Podcasts. I trust it will bless someone out there this Christmas.

As I speak of not despising the days of small things nor underestimating the power of a point of light in grave darkness, I am reminded of perhaps the most special part of this last walking leg. America is in desperate need of revival in her churches and spiritual awakening in her streets. We pray for this daily as we walk and labor that we might be a simple revival spark that lights a mighty brush fire. Therefore, it is special joy when our feet walk holy ground that was once ground zero for Great Awakening Revival in America’s history. Less than 24 hours before the tornadoes came, we walked into Logan County and upon the site of the old Red River Meeting House. At that spot in 1800 was the first revival camp meeting in the history of the Christian Church, and there, the Second Great Awakening on the American frontier was born. Eric, Bethany, and I paused to pray for our nation in the replica of the old meeting house that stands there today, and then, as they resumed walking, I walked the grounds and filmed some commentary, a history lesson of sorts posted below:

Historically, my friends, America was never made great again by politicians, elections, or people of great influence. It has always been by simple acts of faith by simple people, be it an impromptu haystack prayer meeting of a few believers in the middle of a Massachusetts thunderstorm in 1806 (the small stones that effected an avalanche of American foreign missions that spread the Gospel all over the world) or by the gathering of a few folks in 1800 in a log meeting house in Logan County, Kentucky (known as “Rogues Harbor,” because the majority of the people living there were "murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters.” They had fled to this area to avoid capture and punishment by the judicial system in the eastern states) to pray for spiritual awakening and revival. I mentioned those old potty-mouthed codgers in Cub Run, Kentucky who told me I was wasting my time walking across America to sound an alarm. I'm sure there were those who told the folks at Red River the same thing as they covenanted one with another to pray for revival day in and day out and did so faithfully for long time before that first-ever camp meeting. Do not despise the days of SMALL THINGS, my Christian brethren!

I made a surprise discovery on that holy ground where also can be found an old cemetery. Some of my Scotch-Irish Boyd ancestors are buried there, including a Jesse Boyd (1792—1820) and a John Boyd (1780-1848) who was later an elder at that the Red River Church where the Second Great Awakening was born. My grandfather was a preacher named Jesse Boyd. My great grandfather was a preacher named Jesse Boyd. My great, great grandfather was a John Boyd, and his father was a Jesse Boyd. That Jesse Boyd’s father came from Northern Ireland around the same time that a lot of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians immigrated to Logan County, Kentucky and other parts of the South. He got married in 1815 near Logan County, Kentucky. There is definitely a family connection, and I was mightily humbled and honored that day, a day of SMALL THINGS.

I would like to take a moment here at the end of 2021 to thank all those folks who came out and WALKED with us, or drove the SAG (I.e. support and gear) vehicle, at some point along this first 2,500 miles. This latest leg, we were immensely blessed to have Brother John McGlone come alongside for a couple of days. He has no fear and will share the Gospel with anyone, anywhere. He and his wife Nida were also very gracious to house us for several nights. I also want to thank Carter Phillips from Missouri who was one of our Team Yeshua volunteers in Peru back in 2019. He has taken off work five times this year to join us for five legs, including this last one. He has walked 300 miles with my daughter Bethany and has shared the Gospel with many. We love having Carter come walk with us. When he is around, we always seem to break our single-day walking records.

Let me furthermore publicly thank Pastor Brandon Gwaltney, one of FPGM’s Trustees, who has logged some miles with us on a few occasions despite a terminal lung condition. Praise God for the Kelley and Dobler Families who walked with us in Eastern North Carolina, not long after we got started. Thank you to my brother Matthew and my dad, Paul. Matthew has walked with us in the rain. And I walked out of North Carolina for the last time with my dad by my side. Thank you to the Metzger Kids and Rhett Mullen who walked alongside us in Stanly County, NC. Praise God for Grant Trivette and Matt MacMurtrie who joined us as we came through Hickory. Thank you to Eric Gilbert and the Middleton Family from our local church who came out on more than one occasion. Autumn Middleton, in particular, has logged some rough miles in rugged terrain. Praise God for TJ Lindsey, a faithful missionary in Peru, who walked several days with us in some pretty wet weather. Thank you to my two nieces and nephew who walked with us as we made a big figure-8 loop around Catawba County. Thank you to Brothers Ronnie Graham and Bob Hill, also FPGM trustees, who have come out to labor with us. Ronnie is a great SAG driver. And thank you to Brother Ken Lightsey who flew over from California to help us complete a 137-mile leg in Kentucky. He was there when we preached on the campus of Morehead State University and got a Hebrew New Testament into the hands of a lost sheep from the House of Israel. If it hadn’t been for Ken’s urging, we wouldn’t have taken the time to go on that campus. Lastly, I want to thank God for our families who have stood by us in this endeavor since its beginning back on March 1st. Eric’s wife, Mindy, has logged around 30 miles. My precious wife, Jamie, has walked 54 miles. Charlotte has walked 58, and Josiah is sitting pretty at 71. Lord willing, these numbers will increase greatly in 2022. Any brother and sister in Christ is welcome to join us at any time along this journey. We greatly value the fellowship and partnership. Such SMALL THINGS are actually BIG THINGS.

I also want to publicly thank those who have bought us shoes. My grandmother bought my first pair. Brother Mike Stockwell, a faithful preacher of the Gospel himself, bought my third pair. And Christa Medeiros, a sister from California, bought two pairs of shoes for Bethany. These have been incredible blessings. Small things, perhaps, in the eyes of some, but BIG THINGS to us.

Before I sign off, here are a few aerial shots I got from the drone on this latest leg. At one point, I had to fly it over the mighty Cumberland River to see if we could resume walking from that spot on the other side. This drone has been a real blessing in terms of route-finding.

Pray for us as we rest up these next few weeks and prepare for a long 2022 of many miles and many Gospel encounters. Pray for God to bring revival to America’s churches and spiritual awakening to her streets. And pray that God will use SMALL THINGS to hold the darkness at bay. For . . .

“God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (I Corinthians 1:27-29).”

If this long walk across America and these testimonies are, or have been a blessing to you, please consider financially sowing into this difficult endeavor here at the end of 2021. We definitely have financial needs, and our support for this year is down from 2020 and considerably down from what it was in 2019. Anything you can share is a blessing that will be used faithfully and with account. All contributions are tax-deductible, and donating online via PayPal is very easy. Thank you in Jesus’ name. Learn more . . .

Merry Christmas to you all in Jesus’ Name!

It’s 2,503 miles / 1,457 encounters and counting in the spirit of watchmen upon a wall (Ezekiel 3:17),

Jesse Boyd