Bethany's Walk: Week 4: Entering Saskatchewan!

Wow, what a week! It was really great. But let me back track a bit to the weekend in Edmonton. I wrote the last post on Saturday. Let me tell you what happened on Sunday! I went to Mass with Alannah. The Church was really nice and the priest was a young man who was extremely supportive of our cause. Anyway, while in the back of the Church we met a lovely middle-aged couple. They asked if we were hungry (we were famished) so they drove us to McDonalds where they treated us to a light snack. We chatted with this couple about a lot of things. It turns out that they were converts to the Catholic Church. They were once part of a Christian denomination that was not giving them what they needed: the truth. So they searched and searched and eventually they found their place in the Catholic Church. In fact, it was at this particular Parish that they found their old Christian friends who had also converted. It was a really neat story - a lot of small world happenings too!

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So I was put on day shift for the week and boy have I missed the sun. We drove back to Drumheller and walked through the Badlands on Monday. It was quite an interesting walk. The mountain-like hills all around were really neat; they made us feel like we were in the desert or something. Alex and Steve made an adventure out of these hills as you can see...

Tuesday was quite an interesting day. In the evening, we went to a Church in the hopes of attending Mass. Turns out there was no Mass because the priest was away. BUT! Then the priest came out of nowhere (on a motorcycle) and started talking to us. He then offered to celebrate Mass just for the ten of us! It was amazing! He then let us use the Church kitchen to eat our dinner. Then the night crew left and the day crew stayed back to clean up. Four of the five of us were just sitting outside - some playing guitar, others just chatting. All of a sudden, a couple with a dog approached us.Their names were Delia and Charles and they lived just in the area. They were curious about what we were doing so we explained our mission. They were really amazed because Delia had just been discussing this with her husband as they were walking. In fact, she had been recovering from surgery and Charles thought they should only walk a certain distance, but she wanted to walk a little more and that is how they were able to meet up with us! I must say that meeting them made me feel so encouraged. They said things like “you have to show love and demonstrate to that pregnant teenager that you care” otherwise she will feel judged and more drawn to an abortion. Furthermore, Delia said that society will treat a pregnant girl the same way her family does. So if her family supports her - despite what she has done - then those outside the family will as well. And besides, we always tend to accept people after they have committed other sins of shame. So why do we judge a pregnant teenage girl who made a mistake? Speaking with Delia and Charles made me realize that I have to stop judging and start loving a whole lot more!

So back to our walking...the rest of the week went really well! We only got caught in the rain a couple times. I actually enjoy Saskatchewan rain. The sky is so huge and so open that it seems less dreary than Ontario rain, for example. Oh yes. And on Thursday we were attacked by mosquitoes. Literally. Attacked. As in Becky and Alex spend 6km running away from the bugs and were still eaten alive! Just wait until we get to Ontario, eh? Actually, cool side story: while Pat, Lindsay and I were walking (and swatting those darned mosquitoes) a pick-up truck drove by and a man hopped out and gave us some bug spray. It was awesome! He didn’t even ask what we were doing. He just said “I think you could use this.”

A few other people stopped to talk to us throughout the week, in fact. One time we were parked on the side of the road and this one man stopped beside us and began questioning us as if he were a cop or something. It was an odd exchange of words between us and him. He noticed that there were a couple of people walking down the road and asked what we were doing. He didn’t seem all that excited; however, that afternoon we were getting tons of HONKS from the cars driving in the same direction we were waling. They can’t even read our shirts from where they were. So who knows - maybe this man called up all his friends and told them to drive by them white-shirted kids!

Alright, I know Saskatchewan is known for being the flattest province in Canada. And after spending a few days in Alberta, I couldn’t imagine anything flatter. But I was wrong. Saskatchewan really is as flat as it gets. Alberta’s roads were fairly straight but they went up and down and up and down. Saskatchewan’s roads are fairly windy but extremely flat. No joke. You can see a truck coming for ten minutes. It’s crazy!

Well that’s about all I have to say for week 4. Enjoy!

Doing dishes...