#TheLongWalkUSA_BigRiver
#TheLongWalkUSA Starting Line 5 years Later (Cape Hatteras, NC)
If you familiarize yourself with the geography in Acts 16:6-10, you’ll see that Paul wandered about over a lot of miles in Asia Minor, waiting for direction from the LORD. He tried to go places but was “forbidden of the Holy Ghost” (16:6) and “the Spirit suffered them not” (16:7) He finally ended up in Troas where Luke joined up with him (note the change from “they” in verse 8 to “us” in verse 10) and where he got the notable Macedonian Call. His plans were changed multiple times, but it all redounded to the glory of God and an incredible work of the Great Commission.
My heart remains heavy that the Spirit suffered us not to go to Israel where I had hope to be walking and preaching with my homemade brazen serpent on a pole. By this moment, we may have even logged a few starting miles down at the Red Sea. Instead, we were “forbidden of the Holy Ghost” because of events beyond our control and far higher than our pay grade, great matters whereby Christians would do well not to exercise their minds so much. It leads into great haughtiness. Read Psalm 131.
In an effort to salvage the next month already set aside for walking and preaching in Israel, we have sought the LORD, determined to walk and preach somewhere, just as Paul set his face to go somewhere and ended up in Troas after the roadblocks to Asia and Bithynia. Last week, we had the great privilege of celebrating the 5-year anniversary of the start of #TheLongWalkUSA by walking a 67-mile spur from that starting line at Cape Hatteras north along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, across Roanoke Island, through the town of Manteo, and over that long and dangerous old Manns Harbor Bridge to the mainland. Along the way, we enjoyed 47 Gospel encounters and gave away a Bible to a young lady from Serbia. A mile or so from that long bridge to the mainland, we passed by a sign along US 64 in Manteo that read:
MURPHY 563 miles
There’s an old cliche here in North Carolina, “Murphy to Manteo.” You don’t truly travel North Carolina unless you have been from Murphy to Manteo. On #TheLongWalkUSA, we neither passed through Manteo nor the spot west of Murphy on US 64 where a companion sign reads:
MANTEO 563 miles
However, a short 8.5 mile spur from Shoal Creek Church on Candy Mountain Road in Cherokee County (a spot we walked past on 8/8/2021, an afternoon with 6 Gospel encounters on very backwoods back roads) will connect us to that companion sign and form an unbroken Cross-walking route from Murphy to Manteo QUITE LITERALLY.
Josiah, Charlotte, and I will head out this afternoon to complete that unbroken route … but only as a means to get the legs warmed up. All that walking last week was physical training for walking across Israel. We can’t let it go to waste nor the window of opportunity already set aside. Not long after I completed by first coast-to-coast bicycle ride for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ in 2004 (4,712 miles from Surf City, NC to Neah Bay, WA), the Lord began to press upon my spirit to pedal across America again, this time from the top to the bottom. A year or so later, I did—3,412 miles from Escourt Station, ME to Key West, FL.
That Isaiah 30:21 prick in my spirit has been eerily similar of late. I believe it’s time for another walk across America, this time from bottom to top, and what better north-south artery is there than the old Father of Waters, the Mississippi River.
In a couple of days, Lord willing, we’ll start walking from the end of the road, well below New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi, a depressing spot on the bayou with an old sign that reads “The Southernmost Point in Louisiana.” Our ultimate goal: the Mississippi Headwaters at Lake Itasca in north-central Minnesota and a finish line all the way at the end of the Minnesota Arrowhead at Grand Portage on Lake Superior.
As for Israel, the homemade brazen serpent, all the Hebrew Gospel tracts I had printed, and other sundry supplies for that journey have been put in a box and temporarily set aside, ready for use when the door opens again (hopefully, before the end of this year). Paul was forbidden to preach the Gospel in Asia in Acts 16. He went to Greece. Later, the door opened and he spent three whole years in Ephesus, the heart of the Roman province of Asia (Acts 19). The Lord’s way are always higher than our ways, and I trust Him.
Your prayers and support are much appreciated. The SAG is loaded with plenty of Bibles and Gospel tracts. This is a step of faith involving a missionary journey that once started, like #TheLongWalkUSA, must be finished. We head out with a lot of unanswered questions. For now, we’ll go connect Murphy to Manteo and then set our compasses south. Stay tuned.
Please pray for #TheLongWalkUSA_BigRiver
America is still in dire need of spiritual awakening in her streets and genuine Holy Ghost revival in her local churches.