Blood, sweat, tears.... And a spiritual battle.

So the first week of our northern Crossroads walk is over. We are into the second week, but what a journey it has been so far. As many of you know we started out from the Space Needle and as a group we walked about 2 miles and then day shift took over. I was on night shift so I did not walk until the night... Obviously lol. I will not bore you with the details. But here was the daily schedule. Mass in the morning. Day shift would walk all day. Meanwhile, we, the night shift, would do the shopping that needed to be done and hen John would drive us to the rv park wherein we would collapse from having no sleep. We then would get up around 6 ish and begin dinner. Along the way there were some bumps in the road and some very interesting stories. Here are some of my favorite stories of the week.
1. The dog-wolf hybrid. Grace and Peter were out on a shift. We were in the middle of the Cascade Mountains. John, Mario, and I were asleep in the support vehicle up at the transition point ( five ish miles ahead of the walkers walking). As they were walking a white dog/ wolf thing came out of the woods and began to go towards them. They tried calling us but since we were in the mountains we had no service. So they turned around and flagged down a car so they could be driven around the dog thing. Poor guys. We felt so bad even though it was not really our fault we did not have reception. Thank God they were ok.
2. I have officially bled for the babies. Wednesday night I walked the first shift and realized I was getting a blister. So I put a band aid on it and tried to ignore it. Well during my second shift it came off and when we reached the car after I took off my shoes I found that my sock was bloody and I had not one but four blisters that had begun to bleed. It was painful but nothing I could handle.
3. Peter and I heard a coyote on Thursday morning. But then later we saw the sun rise. We were surrounded by farmland so it was absolutely gorgeous. Especially when we saw the deer up on the hill.
4. John and I driving to the rv park called Jack' s resort. Literally in the middle of nowhere. Everyone else was asleep. I was helping him navigate from the front. We turn down this dirt road and the gps says we should be there. Well no rv park. We keep driving and John says it will just be around the corner. Still no rv park. John and I are cracking up and it seems so funny because we were so tired. Well we finally found the rv park after driving another 8 miles down the road. Quit the adventure.
5.We stayed in Spokane over the weekend with some Sisters. On friday night Alex and Dan Federico from the band Scythian (for all you Frannies reading this) and they played us our own private concert as we were visiting the sisters. It was so awesome!!!!!! They are going to be walking with us for the next 2 weeks. It has been really great getting to know them so far.
That is just a handful of the good stories. We met so many great people at the parishes we had mass at. They were so welcoming. It was really refreshing to meet people like that.

The other thing I pondered this past week is he fact this is not only a physical battle but is truly also a spiritual one.being on night shift is so challenging and is truly a struggle. I know I did anyways. I hurt my knee this past week so I could not complete my 15 miles each day. I had to cut down to 10 miles. But it was hard not to walk because I wanted to do much. Also after ten miles it put my group down a walker which is not really fair. But it was something I had to accept. It made it hard on the night shift though. People had to pull double shift and we really had to fight to get those 30 miles in every night. It was hard. You are tired, you are sore but you want to walk because you want the culture of life to prevail not the devil. He really makes it difficult. He tries to weasel his way in so we won't finish, but we fought through it. Even when Grace and I were crying on Thursday night because we were so tired and sore. We knew we Had to do it. The thing that really kept us going was this: struggling or suffering souls snuggle close to my merciful heart. Jesus said that to St. Faustina. It it's true. We need Christ to get us through these next three months. Otherwise we will fail. If it is one thing I have learned so far is to keep Mary and Jesus so close to your heart. If you do, the devil will never be able to penetrate it. I did find night shift to be very rewarding though. It is truly where the prayer and sacrifice come in because we are not always able to be witnesses at night as much as day shift is able.


Well that pretty sums up this past week. Week 2 is in full swing. Made it to Montana today!!! The pictures are from the Idaho/ Montana border. Really enjoying day shift. More later. Keep up those prayers! Please send me prayer requests if you have any!! Also please send me any questions!! Night you all!! Love and prayers!!!!
Jezu Ufam Tobie
Kirstin