Week 5: Sunshine and Stories!

O, glorious sun! I was on day crew again this week and boy was it sunny - not a cloud in that great big sky. Of course, we all have wonky-looking tans since the sun is always either in front of us, on our right, or behind us. Our left sides are still rather pasty.

In any case, this has been a week full of little adventures. We were in Saskatoon for the weekend. It’s a really nice-looking city. On Saturday, we prayed in front of the hospital for about an hour. We didn't get any responses, just fascinated looks (which is our goal). The Churches were again extremely supportive. I went to a small Redemptoris Church with Cesar and Nellie. It was really nice. Our team ended up going to this Church for Monday morning Mass, since it was the closest and earliest.

(Alright so here come the cool stories!)

Our team went to Monday morning Mass. The night shift people were exhausted as always - nodding their heads and trying to keep awake at Mass. Of course I was fine. So the priest began with his homily and as he was speaking, I noticed a young mother was struggling with her toddler. She then proceeded towards the washroom with her toddler and baby in arms. She then turned, held her baby out and said to me “Have a baby.” I didn’t even know who this woman was. It was great! Obviously she knew I could handle holding her child for a bit. And we all had our PRO LIFE shirts on, so clearly she knew what she was doing. That was Monday.

On Tuesday, we were invited to a Pro-Life BBQ in Moose Jaw. Two hours from where we were walking. Those of us on day crew knew that our day would be shorter so we really wanted to keep up a good pace in order to get in as much distance as we could. Of course, nothing ever goes as we plan here on Crossroads. So here we were parked on the side of the road ready to switch up the shift. Lindsay and Cesar had just gotten back and it was now time for Nellie, Ben and I to walk. Nellie and I were behind the van waiting for Ben as usual. Now here comes the exciting part. Nellie had just bent down to look at the license plate of our van when all of a sudden a truck zoomed past us and we had just enough time to see the back window shatter! The crazy thing is: we never found the object that hit the window. And I am certain that whatever it was it did not bounce off the windows because I was the glass go into the van and I didn’t see anything come out. We all had our theories. Cesar was convinced that someone threw a rock and it bounced off. Alex thought it was aliens. Typical.

So anyway, needless to say we stopped our walking at this time. We weren’t able to get a new window until the next day, so the Speedy Glass Repair people just covered it with plastic.

On Wednesday, we had to walk until midnight so we could let the night crew sleep some more. They hadn’t gotten much sleep since they were the ones who had to wait for the van to be fixed. So we walked into the night, with the beautiful pink sunset behind us followed by a raging fleet of mosquitoes. So here comes the exciting part: Nellie, Cesar and I got into the car to drive it 6km up for Lindsay and Ben. The car wouldn’t start. The battery died. Thank goodness for Nellie’s membership to CAA! In half an hour, we were given a boost and we continued with our night.

On Thursday, we went to a lady’s house for breakfast in Davidson. We had contacted the Church nearby to ask if there was a Mass we could go to. I guess she was the secretary of some sort. So she and her two friends cooked us a hardy breakfast. We then proceeded to go to a Mass celebrated just for the ten of us! They also gave us a great big poster to put on the back of our RV which reads “Take my hand not my life” and there is a picture of an adorable baby.

Later on in the day, I was sitting in the van parked at the gas station. Ben and Alannah were inside getting water. Just then, a man walked over to the van. I opened the door and he asked what we were doing. So I explained it to him. And he pulled out some money, handed it to me and said “have a safe walk.” Cool, eh? Later on in the day, Ben and I were walking and we happened upon a man stuck in his car with no gas. He rolled down his window and asked us what we were doing. He asked us if we were hungry (which we weren’t because we had just eaten some food), but he managed to convince us to take some of his wife’s famous banana bread. It was actually pretty good!

On Friday, Ben and I were walking and a man slowed down and asked us “Hey! Can I donate now?” We motioned to him that our van was just a little up the road. So he stopped behind the van and he chatted with the others for a bit and told them how he was very pro the sanctity of human life! 

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!

.....

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...

The "Badlands!"

See? Alberta is pretty flat too!

Steve and Becky...

First Saskatchewan sunset!

Day Crew!