WALKS FOR 2010
This is the original mapped out shape I saw in April 2008 whilst celebrating a celtic easter date on the shores of where I live. Having walked the 'bell' outline in pink, I now feel to walk the rest of the lines on this map.Inside this 'bell' shape are blue lines looking a bit like a house or tent rising from the south coast and joining as a canopy over London. This is where the lines from Lincoln continue through Maidenhead and Romford to the South coast hitting Selsey (my home) and Bexhill. The 'canopy/house' shape is one that Jesus highlighted to me on the map and connected these lines to St Albans as the peak of the canopy...the roof bit!
So... firstly this will comprise 2 walks as 2 halves of the one shape;
Walk 1: Selsey to St Albans via Maidenhead: February 25th-28th 2010
Walk 2: St Albans to Bexhill via Romford: March 25th-28th 2010
The 'canopy' outline of blue represents the river of life.
The 'bell' outline of pink has come to represent all that is divided that should be one, two becoming one. A simple depiction of this is that red and white come together in pink; Red rose and white rose, the English logos of civil war...representing something divided against itself.
Returning to the map above there is a line through the centre of the pink bell and the blue canopy that is purple. This purple comes about by overlaying the blue and pink. This is the ultimate where two become one...that is heaven and earth.... The river and creation..... Where our divides are healed and become one with the source of life.
This axis of symmetry in purple through the centre of what has already been walked is from Brighton up to Lincoln via St Albans. There is something of the wildness of God's heart and a liberation of Who He is to come forth in Brighton. This is to be walked back up through the would be religious high places of St Albans and Lincoln and obviously cutting right through London.
This will comprise two more walks;
Walk 3 is Brighton to St Albans on May 13th - 16th 2010
Walk 4 is St Albans to Lincoln on June 21st to 25th 2010
June 25th is a date that has been highlighted in the last 2 years when connecting with Lincoln so this will be the third year of keeping this date with that place.
Lastly on the map is a gold braid around the southern half of London in the shape of a bowl. This represents a convex lens through which a light is shone from Lincoln and then displays across the SE. This will be the culmination of these walks as then all lines will be marked out on the land and in place for whatever God wants to do.
Walk 5 is Maidenhead to Romford via Cobham, July 30th to Aug 1st 2010
I am persuaded that all needs to be in place by September.
I am really excited about this next stage of walks. I was not sure what God would want next until He stood in front of me and drew with His finger on the map outlining the 'canopy' shape.
I take a team with me on these walks who love, long or want to spend some quality time with Jesus. This way of prayer is not forced labour. We ARE the walking request, yearning and sacrifice lived out thus far. Our hearts resonate through feet to draw all that has gone before into a new walk of intimacy with the King. Yes it can be hard work at times but we don't go looking for something to do but be with Him. Walking with Jesus draws the offence soon enough!
You do not have to be a prolific walker but all prolific stalkers of Jesus are welcome. We take each morning to let Jesus intoxicate us with His presence before hitting the road to somehow put one foot in front of the other. Thanks for reading all this, just seeking to follow the finger of God and remain in the overwhelming joy apprehended by Jesus that rocks our world....hurray for the rock of ages!
25th - 28th Feb 2010
Walking inside the outline of what has been the 'Bell' walk has a completely different feel to it. Hidden inside in a cast iron mould where the sound is a bit muffled has a different dynamic! The flow of this walk is the 'River of Life' which is why it is marked out in blue. Three of us set out last Thursday, joining me was Phil from Leeds, Sue from Chichester but Sarah from St Albans was taken out last minute by a violent stomach bug. Us ladies were struggling with a sprained ankle and tendonitus so with Sarah waylaid it was a wonder we got out the door! ....Phil is the saving grace! With such a whittled down team I was not sure how this walk was going to reach its destination but did not feel that the timing was wrong. If Lincoln is the head and the coast is the feet, St Albans is the gut and we were certainly manifesting what was in the land.
Everytime it seems like these walks come to 'fetch' us before we even set out and there is a journey to be taken beforehand which is not pleasant but very much part of readiness for the walk and our positioning. So in faith I put my foot across my front door step to arrive in St Albans in 4 days time. It began to rain and decided not to stop all day, we walked with continual streams running past us, negotiated flooded roads and got drenched. Walking for the 'River of Life' flow was all round us and the crazy joy that came with it was such fun. We were mad people who could hardly put one foot infront of t'other, soaked to the skin and at the same time hoping we were making difference....we could not help but burst out laughing at ourselves! All we know is we are seeking to align with heaven and this is Gods deal. For me this is what this walk is about, leaning right into Jesus because I cannot do it and He has already done it.
Day 2: Hindhead...a bottle neck, a place where 3 counties converge on a cemetery and a railway bridge. We hit this seen/unseen 'cork' and Phil ended up buffeted 4 miles off course and confused. This was hard for such a small team but Jesus always has a way and bigger fish to fry. So Phil hit Hindhead and that night his wife dreamt of a connection; a childhood trauma that had affected Phil's brain stem and the suffering of insomnia in his adult life. So we prayed for the 'hind' of Phil's head and a new way has been opened up for him....and so it will be in that bit of the land.
Maidenhead is where Annie and Julian Bullen live, Annie was the original connection as to why Maidenhead is on my map. As we walked through there last October the Bullens were in Mozambique for a years commitment to live among the Koti people and be a support where there are so few resources. This time round they are home and we were able to stay with them which was so good, big thanks!
I love it when I trip over another bit of God's jigsaw that is so multi-dimensional I get a headache just seeing few pieces! I have been aware that Maidenhead is on the doorstep of my family ancestral home that embodied control, empire and abuse of governance in the land. My link with Lincoln and Anglesey have the same family connection which God is using and unravelling in a very hidden way to restore order on a larger scale. In Anglesey, my friends lived on a road called by my family's name and Annie Bullen grew up on the road named after my family's home. As Annie and I reached the Bell pub in the centre of Maidenhead, church bells began to ring. As we headed out of the town past the ancestral home on our left, we past a masonic link to that home on our right and then headed towards a village with the same name as my eldest son. So we pulled away from ancestral bondage and the masonic holds and called for our sons and the next generation into full inheritance.
Dave and Sue Erasmoose joined us from Cobham as we walked towards St Albans and Sarah was able to join us on the last day. Three of us walked into St Albans, Sarah, Annie and myself, we encountered so many obstacles it was a bit like jumping hurdles at the end a long run. Walking in I could really feel the canopy on Lincoln north of us and as we went up Holywell hill where Alban's head is said have tumbled down we approached 'our spot'. On the street between Lambs Alley and a boarded up pub called the Bell we had stood with white roses and prayed last May. As we arrived I spied some scaffolding and having dared to hope it might be the case..... it was...the Bell pub was being restored for opening...love it! In such a downpour of God's presence I could have stayed there for hours but there was one more job to do. Between the clocktower and the Cathedral was a 'Eleanor's Cross' placed there by Edward I, this is one of 12 crosses erected between Lincoln and London as Edward carried his dead wife's body home. I met the first of these at Waltham Cross and have felt they are part of this journey somehow. These crosses are to be 'bagged' for Jesus because all is His however thwarted or deformed, all comes from Him and will return to Him. The pretender can only twist but cannot create, nothing belongs to the imposter so we spoke to the 'Isis healing center' next door and told it to move on out because we are calling for a place of intimacy with Jesus here in the crossover place between Lincoln and Brighton where Jesus is coming to earth.
Big thanks to the team, to Malc back at home, to lovely John and Ruth Cumming for hosting us in Chichester, to Sally Ann for helping me see the 'crosses', to the amazing prayer cover around the nation and to all who bump into a 'Hindhead' and find a new way through.
25th - 28th March 2010
Having reached St Albans 3 weeks before in February it was as if my head had remained there ever since. Passing through Hindhead and Maidenhead to get there seem to culminate in St Albans, a place that accosted the mind with an onslaught of torturous anxiety and doubt. We were up against the worship of the mind and it's rationalist rulership that treats all Godward heads like a football. This Masonary foothold sort to headbutt us while the walk waited in St Albans . I arrived there to pick up walking again with acute tooth pain and a head cold that would have kept any rational mind tucked up in bed! My team consisted of Sarah Holloway from Wheathampstead, a St Albans gatekeeper, and 3 from S Wales;Bridgend, Adrian & Jacquie Dykstra and Liz Scott-Dawkins. All three had strong histories with Zimbabwe, a land which embodies the issues of English empire. 'Shumba' is the Shona (Zim) word for Lion and has been a 'tongue' word that I have yelled on every walk over and over, unaware of the meaning until it was researched . Jesus' preference for referring to Himself in this way calls to the heart of 'control' and so it was a huge sign to have 3 Zimbabweans walking. Every morning we take time to engage with Jesus' light and easy yoke and be refilled with the joy of heaven. This is essential as our 'oneness' with Him is our prayer....the prayer of creation and the reality of heaven coming to earth through us; Two becoming one.
Our first port of call on the way to Romford was the 'Eleanor Cross' at Walthams Cross. This is no.2 of 12 to be 'bagged' for Jesus between Lincoln and London, and declared as place of Intimacy with Him. All crosses belong to Him and any set up in the name of war or religion are to be taken back.
Carrying on, we walked right up to Jane Almond's front door in Romford in time for dinner. Jane has faithfully stewarded the land in her locality through walking and calling into place the life words that belong to Essex. It is wonderful to be escorted by those who stand in the land. As we headed out of Romford and towards the Dartford tunnel I had a growing awareness that we would soon cross over into Kent where some of my hardest walking has been. As we prepared to cross the Thames estuary I was suddenly sensing a heavenly power surge and that angels were pouring in from other places. We were being met by those who have been waiting for a long time to cross over. I have only felt this twice, once walking into Birmingham and once crossing the river Dee towards the Welsh/English border. I could feel the buzz of angels flying in 'V' formation overhead and all I could see were massive solid steel lock gates opening before us, this was an unexpected border crossing through a tight place and locked gates were opening. The cold in my head and throat became tight and worsened as we crossed over but the exhilaration was beyond all that, something huge was shifting, a way through into Kent and to the nations. After that, all resistance fell back and made way for us, as did my illness clear from that point on. It was a joy to experience 'Kent the garden' and bless the land, a welcome mat, not a doormat with it's right to set conditions and boundaries.
Heading towards Sussex was a black cloud on the horizon taking us into a deluge which felt dark and ways through became complicated and water logged. Walking completely soaked for an hour and finding our way out of a dark valley was a struggle and familiar.... There are times when we walk through an invisible boundary in the middle of nowhere but it is like penetrating a jurisdiction of control, as if we crawl to get under the lid of it... to mess up it's fixed position and move it's points of reference. These invisible walls are always unnerving because it unseen and sends one's inner compass spinning!
I was relieved to reach the final leg to Bexhill on the coast. As we crossed the very field of the 1066 battleground, Adrian fell and twisted his right leg (a later X-ray revealed a fractured tibia). Leaving him at 'Pilgrim's Rest' we pushed on to arrive at St. Peter's church in Bexhill.
One week before this walk I happened upon the fact that Bexhill was land given to the Bishops of Selsey (where I live and where we have walked from) and it was considered their eastern most See. The original Selsey Bishop was St Wilfred who persuaded the Synod of Whitby in 664 to conform to the Romanization of British Christianity. It was the argument of the superiority of St Peter, over Columba, who holds the keys to the gates of heaven, that won that day. These keys are the same used on the Papal crest, one silver and one gold, crossed. Every roman road we walked has pubs called 'The Cross Keys' on it. These 'crossed keys' speak of the power of control over the gateway to heaven and they were held by 'St Peter'. We have a 'St Peters' in Selsey and the same is mirrored in Bexhill which I began to see as two places that hold these 'cross keys' in place across the land like an imprint of control. Papal keys that are really the people's keys! In Selsey I was given a key 2 years ago.... so while standing the porch of the locked 'St Peters' in Bexhill it struck me that I was here to collect the other key...simples! Two keys, one left, one right, uncrossed and lined up with the River of Life flowing up to St Albans and back down again that we have walked. All crosses are to be 'bagged' for Jesus because He took that horrific sign of empire's control and bought us Life through it.
My huge gratitude to the teams and all who supported these two walks, it was not easy but it is done and is very gooooood! It has been a hidden time of hard graft in preparation for walking all that has been called for, up through the centre of 'The Bell', from Brighton on the coast, thro London, thro St Albans to Lincoln. I am hoping this may feel like more of a celebration having got this far!
This month, I will walk on from Luton with Paul Wood to Northampton, nabbing 4 'Eleanor Crosses' on the way. We began at Stratford at the Olympic sites in east London and then picked up the River Lea at Edmonton to it's source at Luton last Autumn.
Luton to Northampton.....
Last year, I walked with my friends Paul Wood and Adam Clark from Stratford, east London through Leyton and Walthamstow to Tottenham. At Edmonton we continued north to follow the river Lea up to Luton. This April I joined them again to carry on from Luton to Northampton which crosses over Milton Keynes, a place that has been significant to the 'Bell' walk from Lincoln to Maidenhead. I noticed that there were 4 'Eleanor Crosses' on this trek and so we went by way to collect them and bag those points for Jesus in Dunstable, Stoney Stratford, Woburn and Hardingstone. This journey crossed over my previous walk past Milton Keynes which had been north to south, so now we approached the same place from east to west along the roman Watling street and cutting through the very area that God had marked out for us last year as a place of 'unlocking'. There seemed to be a theme of 'crossing over' with this walk on many levels.
As I studied the map I began to see a gateway on the Watling street in Milton Keynes, it was a spiritual gateway depicted as an archway, a place of crossing over, an 'East to West' gateway. With the eyes of my heart, I saw a procession of Indian elephants walking up the Watling street from the east, in full regalia and dressage, it was a beautiful sight as they paraded one after the other towards this east/west arch. As they reached the opening and went through they disappeared crossing over from the east into the west. I felt God say to open the gate and let them through! That night an Indian woman visited me in my sleep, she hit me with a pink bible, embraced me and prophesied over me in gujarati! For me this immediately linked with this 'east/west' gate and the pink bible said it all! It is a colour that speaks to me of that which has been divided coming back to together. Whether it is the red and white of roses in the english civil war or the red cross on the white background that has been used as a reason for war. Where the west has dominated with it's ethos of 'doing', balance must come from the east and it's ethos of 'being'. That which has been divided must back together as both are essential, and where control has divided it is to be squeezed out. I see this taking place on many levels.
It has been exciting to see that just a week later, life sized baby elephants have appeared all over London decorated in amazing ways to highlight a cause to protect Indian elephants. Infact, the day I returned home, a news item reported the finding on an elephant tusk on the Thanet/Kent shoreline poking out of the sand! A year ago we walked there ringing a bell bought in the east as a 'wake-up' call. These signs are encouraging when God lets us into His playroom to have fun while He lines us up with His tracing of heaven on earth!!
May 13th to 16th, 2010
A few weeks later we walked out of Brighton on the third year anniversary of my first 'walking' encounter in Turkey when I connected with my friend Steve Lowton's walk from Rome to Jerusalem. I have walked hundreds of miles since that collision with the 'east', buried martyr blood, thieves and an ancestral legacy.
At last, we were to walk along the axis of symmetry, the centre line of the 'Bell' and the 'canopy' shape that have been marked out. With the left side to the left of us and the right to the right us, our feet literally walking left, right and the nation in a political position of deciding whether two parties can work together, the timing seemed unbelievable. I could not have planned it better myself!
For me, this 'two becoming one' pivots on Creator/creation and mushrooms from that point where I see on every level a strategy of the 'Impostor' to divide and conquer, if you would like this explained more then see http://pinkypirate.blogspot.com/2010/03/control-uses-deception-and-lies-to.html
It seemed significant that the Brighton Pavilion constituency had just made history voting in a 'Green' party candidate. The Pavilion looks like an Indian palace and is crammed with Chinese influence so this was my first port of call for that which is east to come west.
We flowed out of Brighton with such ease which set the president for the whole walk, I have never known such ease on a walk. The way was opened up before us like ink spreading through blotting paper....I waited for the sky to fall on my head...but it didn't! We had difficult logistics but no unseen cudgels taking a swipe to confuse us. The two previous walks were particularly hard and we had walked it out into this amazing ease. Brighton is the place of the alternative, where people go to be themselves, a counter-flow of non-conformity and I believe God will breakout here in a way that has not been seen before. This is the flow that we walk with from the coast to the religious high places of St Albans and Lincoln, calling for room to be made for God to be God with all limitations and controls off.We passed through beautiful countryside before we came to Crawley, Gatwick, Epsom, Ewell and into London's westside. Richmond was the most unrestful place we walked through. Once in Chiswick we paused at the front door of my Armenian family home, the final destination as a result of genocide, a Diaspora from Istanbul and Adana in Turkey.
As in the East End last year, we wandered from area to area, a collection of villages with their own identities that have been hoarded to create a 'Greater London'. It makes me wonder at the level of insecurity and need to bolster itself at the heart of London. However our focus was St Albans and further still Lincoln to bring this 'unruly child' into order. Thankfully our passage was open and peaceful, even being on time for Wembleys FA cup kick off!
This was to be my fourth visit to St Albans. Until now my way in and connection with this place has been aligned with Alban's selfless love that lay its life down for its friend. A Jesus love and martyrdom that is a deep well which one can reach down to, to steady oneself from the pollution that rests on top of such truths as a cover-up job. The walk rested in St Albans earlier in the year at which it kicked and lashed out with its masonic 'head' as a refusal to receive our mandate. This time my hope was for a way in to begin to form a positive relationship...if possible...I have an incurable preference to be liked!
I am no friend of roman roads, we are at odds to each other however the final 7 miles up the Watling Street to St Albans put wings on my feet which is a 'first'. As I turned the corner to enter the town, the monument with it's namesake inscribed stood in front of me. Underneath the words 'St Albans' was the name of my home 'Ardmore' which is gaelic for 'Highest High'. It was the best welcome I could have hoped for! At the top of Holywell Hill we stood again between 'Lambs Alley' and 'The Bell' pub still being refurbished. This is our drinking hole! John the Baptist came to prep the way and so do we, once more we drilled down into this well like a corkscrew looking for wine and oil and there we left a work in progress until next time. My hope is for a opening on our return there, before we head for Lincoln.The walkers, Phil, Mags, Jacquie, Juliet, Linda, Sarah, Annie and Jason, you are all fab and bring so much to the journey.
21st TO 25th JUNE 2010
This walk had a constant theme of redemption, the 3 days preceding it I encountered 3 powerful redemptive situations pointing to the remarkable restoration of Jesus....'you make all things well, just look at our lives...'
For three years now I have kept on appointment with Lincoln on 25th June, this last walk being the third connection on this date.
Once we had taken a moment in the town's centre, we set out north from St Albans on 21st June with the sun blazing on our backs. For the 5th time we stood between Lamb Alley and the Bell pub at the top of the hill where Alban would have lost his head to the roman empire. The only way to counter the control of 'man's head' is to get out of our heads on Jesus, so we arrived having taken time to lose our heads afresh to Jesus. This 5th visit was to provoke a de-corking and unblocking of the well in that place. As the town prepared to celebrate Alban's feast day with a religious fervour that would have made the saint puke at the idolatry of himself, we went to lift the lid off the truth that has been capped in that place. May the real Alban stand up please...and be free to roam around that place declaring that it really is ALL about Jesus.
Stepping out from St Alban's we were a team of 4 for 4 days, making our way into middle England, through Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonhshire and into Lincolnshire. There were 4 'Eleanor crosses' to bag on the way which means 10 of these monuments are now clonking around in my 'Mary Poppins' bag. In each of their positions is the cross of Christ and His intimacy as a conductor/download of heaven to earth. The last crosses are in London which will be part of the final walk.
As I kept my focus on Lincoln it was like pulling through the middle ground with all that has been marked out land-wise by this entire walk. And now, drawing it all up into one place to be re-organised, re-sorted and re-ordered. There were just some last bits to cover and then the job is done. Huge estates like Burghley and Grimsthorpe were to be taken into this final sweep towards Lincoln. At the centre of Stamford we picked up an 'Eleanor Cross', a place that has a deep rooted medieval identity where 4 counties meet. It felt important to call for a 'Jesus centre' here and as we drew on His AD33 vintage in the town's square, some young people appeared, partying along the street.
Throughout this 'Bell walk' there has been a colour theme, particularly using the colour pink to represent that which has been divided becoming one i.e. creator/creation, being/doing or left/right etc. Red and white come together in pink, the red cross on the white background or the white and red roses of a royal house divided against itself. Walking through the centre of this Bell shape is about bringing the 'left and right' together as we literally walked with our feet through the middle calling for balance and the control that divides to be squeezed out on every level of life. The beautiful truth is I even descend from the house of York and Lancaster, both red and white rose, my blood is symbolically pink, haha!!
However, the bells began ringing and did not stop, Linda declared, 'in all the 25 years of living here, I have never heard these ring properly like this!' The time was 25 to 5 pm...on the 25th June...the bells rang out all sorts of different melodies for 50 minutes and the last bell sounded at 5.25pm, Jubilee resounded all around us.
We were astounded as we just sat on the cobbled street licking ice-creams enjoying 'God's voice'. As the bells continued I said to Linda about the monk taking the roses. There was one Bishop of Lincoln who related to high and low folk alike called St. Hugh, a French hermetical monk and Linda who has been a gatekeeper in Lincoln is moving to the centre of France as I write this report. 25 yrs she has faithfully held her post, this is her silver jubilee and she is on the next part of her journey. I left the roses at the ruin of the old bishops palace to confirm that yes, certainly both red and white rose were for the heart of this place, as a sign of redemption to Lincoln.
The bells had rang that Friday, 25th June at just the right moment as a 'one-off'. A volunteer who had served the cathedral for many years was 90 years old and the bells were rang to honour that person......... If two lots of 25 mins equals 50 mins then what is 45 in relation to 90? November this year I am 45 and this walking broke open for me 3 years ago as I stood in the Seyhan river in Turkey and symbolically smashed two stones together 45 times..... mind boggling!
My thanks to Sarah, Jacquie, Adrian, Phil, Gill, Mike and Linda for being part of this journey and all your support.
An amazing completion, with one more walk which will be the icing on the cake.
Weddings, Brides and Marriage....
Having reached Lincoln on June 25th to a throng of bells and delivering all that had been carried there, this walk around London felt like the 'the icing on the cake'.
Recently I was approached by an unbeliever, who on our first meeting asked me to tell her what God was saying about her future. As I held her hand, I began to see all manner of weddings taking place from the vantage point of standing on a wedding cake, in the place of the plastic bride and groom! When I described what I had seen, she burst into tears and confessed a long-lost dream of becoming a wedding planner!!
This wedding theme seemed to precede this walk, drawing also on marriage and love stories in our nation's history from a time when royal marriage was all about expansion and power and not at all of love.
The day after I arrived in Lincoln on June 26th, I went into the Cathedral on God's instruction. We had an important appointment that day....I knelt at the 'great alter' and said 'I do' to the King of kings...and Jesus filled that amazing venue for me...legitimised through marriage in the very place my namesake and ancestor was, 600 years ago by a king maker. To marry a King, is to become a Queen, a coronation and marriage in one. This is the inheritance of 'the bride' and her true status, royalty and rulership, lifted, legitimised and restored by Love itself.
This walking for me is all about intimacy, for me this is the prayer and this last walk was calling for marriage to Jesus, the 'oneness' and coming into the reality of true marriage with the One we come from and go to. A truth that shatters the way our union with the Almighty has been so minimised into our own thinking.
Preceding this final walk, Paul Wood (from Cobham) and I went into the city of London, to bag the 2 last Eleanor crosses and touch a few areas to pray. We began on the steps of St Paul's where a year ago we had left our coins to 'feed the birds'... even if it caused a 'run on the bank'! We went down Cheapside to bag the 11th Eleanor Cross, greeting 'John Smith' of the Pocahontas renown, stood beside Bow Bells.
We trawled our way through Ludgate Hill, Blackfriars, Fleet Street to Lincoln's Inn, a 'Inn' of Law going back to the 13th century. In the grounds we felt like mice in the bell tower, ordered off the grass, we wandered the car park and quietly made room for Lincoln to find its way in. In *Lincoln's Inn, we opened the door to Lincoln and bid it come in! Just the simple fact that I carry such a deep connection with Lincoln and being there was enough. It was like letting Lincoln out into that place where the law is such a foundation stone in our nation and from where change must come.
Walking Maidenhead to Romford...
This walk was the 12th and final walk of the 'Bell' shape and forms a semi-circle around the south of Greater London that I had marked with gold thread, it even looks like a gold bowl. From the start this has represented a convex lens to me, through which a light streams from Lincoln to this lens and then displays over the whole of the SE of England. So a team joined me for three days walking from Maidenhead to Cobham, to Bromley and finally to arrive in Romford and complete this walk of 'The Bell'.
Cobham is a place I have had marked as part of this 'Bell shape' since the start and now seemed to make sense as to why. The 'Bell' on the map is in mid 'swing' towards the east and the plumb line is from Lincoln through Cobham to the coast. For me Cobham has been a place where people have inspired me, for one, Martin Scott was based there and was the one voice I listened for in the malaise of a one time, pioneering movement. I have never ceased to admire the bravery of the church group 'Pioneer People' there, who were willing to lay their organisation down in order that something of new life would emerge. An incredible prophetic act and the only one of it's kind I know of. As a dear 'father' from that place said, "We have come out of the 'old' and some painful times of mourning and loss but now we are looking to come into the 'new' "
It seemed appropriate to base ourselves in this place and call for the plumb line of intimacy with Jesus, The Way ahead, His Way to be our way and from here on in an unknown way because we are relinquishing control. The youngest amongst us was moved to tears as a yearning for Jesus could not be contained, the very essence that will take us into a 'new' way, His Way of rest and fullness. A well has been really well dug here, wells are simple to open, you just drink and rest by them because that is what they are for. However, sometimes there is a need to take a position & crack some thing open when it is still being contested and I believe we had a fair crack in the face of the disapproval, reprimand and criticism that hangs over that place with an ugly stoop.
We walked on from there through Epsom and Banstead, skirting along Sutton and Croydon and Bromley towards Bexleyheath and the Thames.
In the centre of Romford there was a lovely old medieval pub called 'The Golden Lion' where we all finally arrived, my best cold larger to date bar the one during Ramadan in Syria! Next to this quaint establishment is the crossing of a two road precinct shaped like a cross inside the city ring road. In the cross centre is a stone laid with a circle marked and a cross inside it. As we stood and began to spill our hearts to God, the presence of the 'I Am' welled up around us. Such an intoxicating heavy beautiful presence where words become a whisper because His ear is so near. Some how I have fallen into His heart and all I can do is call for 'Daddy'. It is all yours Daddy... Daddy... Daddy...... a 'portal' was opening up and it was all about the centre of the cross, the crossing over, the intersection where I in Christ and Christ in me call out to 'Daddy...', the source, the true identity of humankind. An exchange took place between us that day, I cannot say what exactly but we met up with Jesus and it was good!
We celebrated this completion with a lush BBQ and it felt full and peaceful. Nothing had been left undone or half done as I truly have peace that I have done this with the One who has done it all anyway. I walk with a 'Completer' and a 'Finisher'....not my way but His Way be done on earth as it is in heaven.THANKS....
Big thanks to the walkers this time around, Val, Sarah, Debs, Dave, Jane, Lizzie, Kat and Dave. My complete thanks to everyone that has been part of this on the road and off, particularly to Sarah, Sue and Val who have supported me incredibly. Big thanks to Steve and Paul for your inspiration and friendship, to my dear friends in Wales and all who have hosted us along the way. To Lucy, Linda, Annie, Jane, Angela, Debs and Claire, all Key-women.
Jane, Gerry and Ray it was a fab BBQ, Dave and Sue you hosted us so wonderfully in Cobham, I am completely grateful for every encouragement and nod along the way and for anyone that has had the patience to read these ramblings....most people say they don't understand a word of it... so you are not the only one, LOL!!!
With completion, but unended,Lotta' glory on tha' feet,
Katherine X:D
P.S. Whilst getting hitched in Lincoln cathedral, I was instructed to embrace my complete name, so Kathy has become Katherine...if you were wondering!!
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