Finish Strong

So here we are with about 3 weeks left as we come closer to Washington, D.C. We spent this past weekend in Indianapolis. Now we are making our way through Ohio. This weekend was the first time I had a woman come up to me after Mass and tell me that she had had an abortion. She was now working with Rachel's Project so that she could help and minister to other women who have had abortions. I didn't really know what to say except that I would pray for her. Let us finish strong as we get closer to D.C. Let us walk stronger, pray harder, and witness even more to the dignity of each person. May God continue to sanctify each step that we take and use us to awaken the minds and hearts of all. God bless you and please continue to pray for us. Happy Feast day of St. James!
In Christ, Claire from the Central Walk

Encouragement from the Bishops

Above is a letter that the Most Rev. Michael D. Pfeifer, the Bishop of San Angelo, Texas sent us. He randomly ran into the southern walkers after Mass and was obviously very impressed! He took them out to eat afterwards and even mailed in a $150.00 personal donation.

It's good to hear encouragement like this, especially from the bishops!

Let us keep the bishops and priests in our prayers, that they will continue to stand up for the dignity and sanctity of all human life, from its very beginnings in the womb until natural death.

Only three weeks until DC....let's make them count!

Northern Walker In Florida

As Jamie mentioned in her post, I took off a few days. I'm currently at home in Florida doing everything that I should have done in the week between my last final and the start of Crossroads but didn't do because I helped drive the Crossroads vehicles out to Seattle.

Anyhow, I'm finding that a week is more than enough time to start missing the the Crossroads' RV, fellow walkers, the "nice" beds in the RV, and saving plastic spoons. I can't wait until Sunday when I'll be heading back to the Northern walk, and I've yet to spend a day not wearing a pro life shirt although I've gone a day or two without my Crossroads shirts.


Elizabeth


And a small note to fellow Northern Walkers: Offer it up!

Sobe

Hey everyone!
This is Jamie from the Northern Walk. I just got finished waLking a 5 mile shift through Cleveland and some other town. Everyone was so supportive. So many people yelled positive things out their car windows. I love it when that happens! And one person on the street who we talked to knew who Nick Cannon was. He is the singer of our Theme Song here on the Northern Walk: Can I Live. Anyway, I was walking with Calvin and we were able to get this drink called Sobe Tsunami. It was absolutely perfect! It was this orange cream drink that tasted exactly like a dreamcicle. I just HAD to tell you all about it! They're supposed to be really good for you too. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's definitely amazing tasting.
So here are some updates on the Northern Walk: Elizabeth went home for a few days and we miss her a lot. . . especially her "offer it up"s; we got a new one -- Chadwicke (this whole summer we had all been planning on calling him Chadwick as a joke and then when he got here we found out that that is actually his name!! *weirded out*); and CHRISTY IS BACK!!!!!! We missed her so much and are all happy to have her with us again! One more thing: Calvin shaved his head and his beard completely off and now looks like a different person. Luckily, we all still love him.

Well, I have to go because the library is closing. I hop their our knot two manny spalling erers.

Love,
Jamie
The coolest Northern WaLker

P.S. Cleveland Rocks!

Meet me in St. Louis

St. Louis....everything we dreamed it would be. From the Arch to the Cardinals baseball game to the delicious humidity that allows one to drink a glass of water without drinking a glass of water. And so we walk on with less than a month left continuing to pray for the unborn and for a culture of life to be brought about. We went to the beautiful Cathedral and then joined in on a rosary procession to the Planned Parenthood this past Saturday. There were over a 160 people who joined in on this peaceful and prayful procession. Praise Him! People often ask me if we ever get any negative feedback and well to be truthfully honest we do get a little, but most people are very supportive and even wish they could do the walk themselves. So to all those people... I ask that you get involved in the Pro-Life movement. If that means praying, volunteering at a Crisis Pregnancy center, or even wearing a pro-life t-shirt... whatever it is... go for it! Don't just wish you could do something to end abortion, but do something to end abortion. May God bless you and may Mother Mary wrap you in her mantle of purity and protection. To all of our fellow walkers... finish strong! We will see you soon in D.C. and we are praying for you.
"Whoop it up for the babies!" -Kim from Minnesota

In Christ, Claire from Picayune, Mississippi.

and then hilarity ensued...

Missouri turned out to be more hot and humid than all the rest of the states we've been in put together. It was thus with a thankful heart that we all arrived in St. Louis (city of Catholicism, Baseball, and Unique Foods including but not limited to "Gooey Butter Cake") wherein we could be in the air conditioning most of the time. Here we visited the Cathedral-Basillica of St. Louis, home of many magnificent mosaics. It's definitely my favorite kind of church architecture, the Byzantine-Romanesque revival which was popular in the first half of the Twentieth Century. Fearless Leader (Admiral and Comrade Party Leader) Dave Kelch and I also attended a Pontifical High Mass with Archbishop Burke which was among the more beautiful and spiritually uplifting liturgies I have ever attended: a long stately Mass in the Ancient and Venerable Tridentine rite, with all the servers and priests moving reverently and precisely like an elaborate dance.

In Missouri this November they are voting on a Constitutional amendment which would make cloning human persons (through Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer) for the sake of killing them and harvesting stem cells a right. I don't think any life issue has made me more angry and more glad that I'm doing Crossroads than this issue. To create thousands of lives for the sole sake of killing them and using their parts to treat diseases--and to tout it as saving lives and actually helping people--seems the sickest parody of charity I can think of. The whole country, beginning with Catholics, needs to rise up to stop this evil. Please pray for the state of Missouri, that they will not allow this violence to legally occur. God bless you all.

In Pace Christi,
Mark Spencer

Sweet Home Chicago

Hello everyone!
Well, although last weekend was probably the most stressful, it was also definitely one of my favorites. We finally got to my home town Chicago. I've been waiting for this weekend for most of the walk. I got to see my family and they got to see the RV and meet my fellow walkers. Everyone came over for lunch and swimming. It was a lot of fun, but Chris and a couple others were busy planning how to get all of us to all of the different masses for the weekend. I've never driven in the city before even though I live so close; and after this weekend, I wouldn't say it's my favorite thing to do . . . My family was so helpful and it was so nice of them to host all of us. We also spent Sunday night at my house. Thanks guys!
Leaving Chicago was sad because I had to leave my family, and now that Crossroads is half way over and I don't have Chicago to look forward to anymore, I'm starting to realize that it is coming to an end really quickly. I don't know what I'm going to do when Crossroads is over. I am going to miss everyone so much. I've made some wonderful friends, and its not going to be any fun when I have to pry myself away from them. I'm not excited about that. . . Not at all.
I find myself wondering how I'm going to get up in the morning without Chris's signature "Good Morning!" and what I'm going to do knowing I don't have to walk 20 miles. I will almost certainly continue to eat oatmeal out of a Styrofoam cup, and keep the plastic spoon I eat it with.
Anyway, we're at Dave Bathon's house - best day of my life! He made us eggs this morning and let me use his shower.

Talk to you later,
Jamie Racki
Northern Walk

Crossroads in the News!

This is pretty cool...all three walks were featured in The Christian Post today as well as on LifeNews.com (which is a great pro-life news site). The stories can be reached with the following links: http://www.lifenews.com/nat2409.html and http://www.christianpost.com/article/20060710/22828.htm

Happy 4th of July!

The walkers on all three Crossroads pro-life walks across America would like to wish all of our fellow countrymen, born and unborn, a happy and blessed 4th of July. We would like to especially remember the words our Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence ...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Let us hope that these rights will also be enjoyed by our unborn brothers and sisters in the womb. God bless America!