Photos from the South

Hey! Maria Spears here! I walked for two weeks with the Southerners!

One food for thought that was brought up in a friendly discussion with my fellow Crossroad walkers, was the correlation between the everyday exercise of mind and body and our faith.
Sometimes the challange of walking Crossroads is not just the physical taxation but the mental.
Waking up for your shift and knowing there are 30-40 miles to be walked can be dawnting. Often times the last mile is the hardest, the last hill the one that you think "I can't take one more step"-it is on there that it is the most important to press on, to turn that walk into a jog to then that jog into a sprint up the hill. Mentally realizing that this phsical exercise is one that is for both the mid and spirit as well as the body. It is on our death bed that we will be the most tired; the worn-out warriors tired of fighting. But if in our everyday physical struggles we see the cross at the top and sprint for it, how much easier will it be when the Lord calls us home to "spiritually sprint" home to His arms.
Let us all fight the good fight and run the race till we are home in our Father's House.

Sick but still Tickin'

Howdy, all! Alzbeta here from the Central Walk! This week has been crazy with the loss of our beloved RV to a shop for a little repairing and the first sickness. Tina and I have both contracted something that requires lots of nose-blowing (yay, toilet-paper!) Therefore, we've both had to take some walking time off - which would probably be more enjoyable if we didn't feel so yucky, but such is life. We'll soon be back on our feet and rockin' out with our amazing team again soon!

Today we are blessed to be staying with an amazing woman named Maria, who literally took us in on our good word. Because we are homeless right now, we meet such amazing people of the Church, willing to take in a group of smelly, hungry kids and give us their beds and food. She has truly lavished us with hospitality despite her busy life. Gerald, Missouri is certainly a place I never thought I'd remember with fondness (or possibly remember at all), but it's definitely going to be that way.

Soon our day walkers will return (the crew I'll hopefully be rejoining tomorrow to end out the week) and our night walkers will be headed out into the night. As we are again back on schedule, the walkers have been working extra hard to stay that way and we should be in St. Looeeey (Louis) by dark tomorrow.

Thank you to all of you who pray for us, by the way! It is truly an asset to our walk, something we literally could not do without. It is important that we continually remind ourselves of what we are walking for: the dignity of all human life! Such an important thing that is given so little by our society. So, please, keep praying for us, and especially for the reason we continue to put one foot in front of the other each day.

In all my excitement to post my first blog, I'm sure this is a relatively hard to follow train of thoughts, but thanks for checking in! Have a beautiful weekend and keep praying for the pro-life movement!

-Alzbeta and the Central Walk

Fields of blessings

Hello this is Erin from the Northern Walk.
So many things have happened up here that I'm not sure where to start, so maybe I'll start with the most important thing, our walk was blessed to be able to go to the best city in the country Ames, IA.
So how did we end up in this great place you might ask when our schedule clearly says we should have gone through Minnesota and Wisconsin? Well my friends that is Crossroads. Our small but mighty walk was behind, so our brilliant team leader seeing that we could both save time and walk through a wonderful state that crossroads has been neglecting, drove us down I-35 to Ames where we could pick up our walking at essentially the same longitude.
In Ames one of our blessings was the addition of two new guys (Eric and Chris) that Martha brought down, so between them and Elizabeth who we picked up in Minneapolis we now have 9 walkers. This is such a blessing as just 2 weeks ago we had 6 when Charles was at a wedding. These three not only add 3 fresh sets of legs to the walk, but experience, as all three of these lovely people have walked on one or more crossroads walks.
While in Ames we were able to attend a prayer group, stay in a house with showers, laundry and beds (always a plus) and be fed abundantly by amazing people who were thrilled to have us with them.
Speaking of food and beds let me relate to you the story of the monsignor and his parish that kept on giving. The day before we left Minnesota for Iowa we went to church in the Cathedral in New Ulm where we got to receive Jesus in a beautiful mass. The monsignor was surprised but obviously pleased to see that his parish had had a pro-life invasion that morning. He even had one of our walkers give a little talk after mass that morning about what we were doing, then he took us out to breakfast, then he had his parish make a nice donation to the cause, then he offered us the rectory to stay in overnight(we each got our own bedroom and bathroom-such luxury), then he bought us dinner, the next morning with the help of a parishioner he sent us off with a home cooked breakfast and cases of water.
So from there it was to Ames, which has thus far been the highlight of my trip, I never thought going to the city where I go to school and seeing people I see all the time would be the best time that I have had thus far but it was. I appreciated so much more those things and people that I normally take for granted and even though I'm getting a lot of crap from the other walkers up here from being obsessed with a "boring" state I know that there is no place like home. Besides corn fields are cool.
Well thats it from me. I know theres stuff I missed so I'll have to post again later. Peace and God Bless.

P.S. Tom if you're reading this we miss you a lot man and we hope things go well with the new job

To My Fellow Americans...

Ben here on the Canadian walk. We are in Thunder Bay, Ontario on beautiful Lake Superior. For all you ignorant Americans out there (Fear not, I used to be one myself), here are a few facts about the land to the north.

Country name: Canada
Population: 33,390,141 (fewer than California)
Patron Saint: St. Joseph the Worker
Chief of State: Queen Elizabeth II (picture on most currency), represented by Governor General Michaelle Jean
Head of Government: Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Current Exchange Rate Canadian Dollar to US Dollar: $.95/$1
Current Abortion Status: In 1971, when Pierre Trudeau was Minister of Justice, legislation was introduced into Parliament which was quite widespread in its scope. One aspect of this particular legislation was the legalization of abortions in Canada. After many court battles, the last of which was in 1986, today there are absolutely no restrictions on abortion and all pro-life laws have been declared unconstitutional. A Canadian woman can have an abortion at any time during her pregnancy for whatever reason and have the government pay for it. Also, pro-life activists must remain outside restrictive bubble-zones when praying at abortion clinics or face the possibility of being arrested. Only in China, Cuba, and a handful of other nations is there a similar status on abortion.
Number of surgical abortions yearly in Canada: 101,000+

There you have it, some interesting Canadian statistics. Despite the poor legislation here as compared to the Unites States, there is still hope. The majority of Canadians are pro-life, despite what the media here claims. Every week at parishes we meet many young and growing families. Although the support while we are walking has not been as good as in the United States, we have had a considerable amount of support in every area of the country we have walked through.

Anyway, Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans, and a Happy Canada Day to all Canadians. To the Southern, Central, and Northern Walks, you are in our prayers and we thank you so very much for praying for us. This may be the first and last post from us, so I encourage all to persevere. As our journey nears its end, let us be steadfast in offering our sacrifices to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

St. Joseph, patron of Canada, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States, pray for us!