Miles Walked: 12.9 / 82 Degrees F.

Area: Whitewater to Cathedral City, CA

God Knocking On My Door Again

4:00 am…I awake to preachers on my radio…Dr. David Jeremiah…Jack Graham…Adrian Rodgers…their messages are talking to me again…finally get up…shower…more oatmeal…load up…write a few emails…head for my walk point. It began as a beautiful day with blue sky and tee shirt temps. Something felt different about today as I started my descent from Whitewater Pass past the wind farms onto the valley floor. Today is the first day since my walk began that I have strong tail wind blowing me down the hill making me hold myself back. Thought…wind out of west stands for deliverance…it seems God is carrying me out of and beyond all the inner city environments I passed through into open country. Let me go back in my story a bit…

Wind At My Back

After getting things off to a good start, I arrived to my end point for today, where I dropped my vehicle and called a cab to take me back to where I left on the day before. Just after making the call to arrange the cab…I received a prompt response for the cabby only to be pleasantly addressed by an up-beat lady on the phone’s other end. A few moments later, she rolled in to pick me up. It quickly became obvious that she was not your ordinary cab driver…her story began to unfold.  As we headed toward my destination…we continued into discussion of life, my walk, and religion to which she was very open about her faith. It was awesome to hear about her responses to life’s adjustments and meet a sister in Christ. She was truly a blessing! Finally, we arrived to my drop point…I grabbed my gear…and set out for my day’s journey. Again, the wind was at my back for the first time since my walk began…

Meeting On A Dessert Road

Finding a walk route was a challenge as I descended from the pass. Finally, I jumped on the edge of the interstate, crossed the Whitewater River, and soon came to a reasonable wind farm service road paralleling the freeway. I received a call or two and walked on… Sometime later with several miles of empty road behind me and several more ahead of me…I noticed a man walking toward me in the distance. As we grew closer and began to walk by each other…I said, “hello” to which he asked, “are you out for exercise?” I said, “no, I’m walking across America for Jesus.” He did a double-take and said, “I’m a pastor.” I said, “isn’t that just like God to have two people who have never met and who share the same passion meet on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere?” He laughed and we began to open up, shared our hearts, exchanged phone numbers, and prayed together. After leaving this new friend, I kept walking eastward coming to a construction area. As I glanced to my right, I caught a glimpse of the smiling lady cab driver who had hauled me to my drop point earlier this morning. I told her about meeting the pastor and she said, “that’s great since we just talked about things like that happening along your way during the cab ride.” As I neared Jack-In-The-box and the on-ramp intersection by the freeway….I continued on the frontage road until it ended and then jumped back on the freeway for a spell.

Sharing Her Story

About then, my phone dinged and I received a heart-wrenching email from a dear lady sharing the difficulties that had descended upon her and her husband’ s life over the past 1 to 2 years. Her contact came as a result of a newspaper article about my journey which had run in a few area newspapers. My heart went out to her as she entrusted me with her tale. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS DEAR WOMAN! Continuing on…I ran into a hazmat SPILL situation on the freeway at which time I encountered a very kind CHP officer who gave me directions and clarified my freeway access. I continued walking. Meanwhile, I received several phone reports of progress made on other issues that had been being prayed for. Finally, I reached my destination walking for the day. After off-loading my gear…I called my new pastor friend, went back to see him, and prayed with him.   I’ll never forget him wondering if I am an angel… I chuckled… I thought God, “if I‘m an angel…the world is in serious trouble.” Today’s events were much more penetrating than I have captured with words. I can simply say that many of those things occurring today were direct answers to prayer…expressions of God’s grace…divine appointments…unforgettable…and…I think I’m the one who met the angels… Me…an angel…still chuckling within over that one… More later as I journey on one step-at-a-time in Jesus’ name.

Greg