By Jane McKinney
My Story begins in 2004. My name is Jane McKinney and my husband Rick and I had been traveling in full-time evangelism for about 3 years. He came to me one day in early fall and said, “I believe God wants us to walk across America”. This didn’t shock me as it would most wives. He’s always been a dreamer but never anything this unconventional before. I had to be sure this was from God. We were in our 50’s, not athletic and, well, there were lots of reasons why this wouldn’t work.
After much prayer, soul searching, and researching, we decided that in 2006 we would walk across America. Rick had been preaching in revivals about how Christians need to reclaim America. He had read one day in Joshua 1 how God said to Joshua that every place he put the sole of his foot he could claim for God, so that’s what we were going to do.
We spent most of 2005 in preparation for the walk. We trained physically, gathered information about clothing, shoes, climate, routes, etc. We laid out the route: LA to Washington DC. We would leave Santa Monica Pier on January 1st and travel old Route 66 to Oklahoma City, then the I-40 corridor across the rest of OK, Arkansas and Tennessee. Then at Bristol, TN head north on St Rte 11, take 211 East at New Market, Virginia and into DC. We planned to arrive on July 4, 2006.
I don’t have space to tell you 6 months of stories, struggles, and triumphs. But I need to tell you that my faith in God was solidified more than ever before in that 6 months! In the 1500 miles we walked in 2005 in training I never got one blister. By the second week of the walk my feet were covered! I had blisters between my toes, the sides and bottoms of my feet and my heels. I was determined to finish, but just putting socks on was excruciating. But I would pray and take that first tentative step, then another and complete 20 miles. That was God, not Jane McKinney! When we walked across that bridge from Arlington, VA into Washington DC on July 4, 2006 I knew who my God was and what I could do with His strength.
For her birthday this year, Erin asked readers to send her their personal tales of why they believe in a supernatural world. A couple times a week, some of those submissions will appear here as a series. All stories appear with the author’s permission. We encourage you to comment on the stories and to continue sharing your own! Stories can be posted on Erin’s Facebook Fan Page or as comments on her Blog. Join the discussion!
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