Wednesday 23 October 2013

The Encouraging Message Of The Cross Book

By Elena McDowell


The Cross book is an encouragement to all those committed to their own walk of faith. It will also be enjoyed by others regardless of their religious views as an inspirational story of an ordinary man achieving the extraordinary. Arthur Blessitt carries a life-sized wooden cross through 315 nations and island groups in seven continents. He embarks on this epic journey in response to a call he receives from God while ministering on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.

Blessitt took 38 years to complete his journey which began on Christmas day in 1969. He walked his final mile in Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania in June 2008. When people ask him how he managed to persevere, his answer is that he took the journey one step at a time. In fact this is the title of his first chapter. He says that the only way to accomplish any goal is to break it down into small steps and to take the first step.

He wandered deserts, climbed mountains and traversed jungles but this account is more than a travelogue. He chooses to assemble his experiences by theme rather than using chronological order. It is only his belief in his mission that enables him to overcome obstacles like death threats, beatings and attacks by wild animals.

Blessitt talks about hearing God from a young age. In responding to this call of God, he found that carrying this universal symbol of the love of God broke down any barriers of culture and language. He talked to many people individually and preached to huge crowds on occasion. His mission was never about exploits but about the people he met.

He experienced many important historical periods in the course of his travels. He aided refugees flooding into Jordan from Kuwait prior to the first Gulf War. He was amongst the first people to go to East Germany after the Berlin wall came down. He spent time in South Africa prior to the demise of apartheid.

Yasser Arafat was just one of the leaders he prayed with in his travels, walking through fighting armies to reach him in besieged West Beirut. He also went to the Vatican to meet the Pope. Although he had audiences with many presidents and kings, he was just as concerned about speaking to peasants and indigenous tribes he encountered along the way.

He never allowed challenging circumstances to divert him from his mission. In Ireland, IRA gunmen threatened to kill him if he continued to walk through Belfast. He was jailed a number of times, one of them under the fascist regime of Franco. When he was in Nicaragua he was dragged before a firing squad in the middle of the night. In Uzbekistan, the KGB arrested him and interrogated him for hours.

Photographs chronicle the steps of his epic journey and use of a handwritten font at times makes one feel that one is reading a personal journal. If you enjoy reading stories about the fearless pursuit of a mission, The Cross book will appeal to you. You will experience the journey with Blessitt as he faces all obstacles in his path with faith and manages to overcome them.




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