Walk Across Alabama

I just talked to Lisa on the phone and she had 4 miles left to end the day and she was looking forward to being done.  It was a hot one out there on the road today.

I would like to say thank you to all of those that are walking.  All of  you are doing a wonderful job.  Bring It!

Heath

Worship, Depart: 1:30 PM Selma, City Hall
Arrive: Mid point (mile marker 72) Selma- Sleep point UM Children’s Home

8:00 AM Work day in Selma. Meet at Church Street UMC at 7:30 AM.  Sleep point UM Children’s Home Selma

Today was good but a challenge. The morning started with an incredible breakfast provided by the men of Bradford’s Chapel UMC-bacon, eggs, grits, biscuits, OJ, and coffee to start off our morning. These guys were wonderful! Our launch point was City Hall of Shorter…destination Frazer UMC in Montgomery approximately 13 miles. Today would be “light” compared to the previous days 20 miles.

We started at a good trot and made great time for about the first two hours and seemed to be ahead of schedule. But then, the sun, a bit of fatigue, and sore feet kicked in. By lunch we realized it was going to take a bit longer. We crossed several bridges, listened to the birds, and compared houses. Some were really nice…really big. Others had missing shingles, broken windows, and needed lots of TLC. It made us realize what families sometimes go through.

Heath Spurlock, our webmaster, saw us on  HWY 80 from the Interstate, honked several times and then waited for us at our next rest stop. He has been so instrumental in making this web site run, teaching me about Twitter and so much more. We are are grateful to have him so it was good to see him along the route.

After lunch, we trudged along…and trudged…and trudged. We finally made it to Frazer around 4:30..navigating traffic on the Atlanta HWY was a chore and slowed us down-but I think the heat was a main factor. It was wonderful having Brad along but his destination ended with our finish in Montgomery. His wife, Michelle, helped out with our snack bar which by the way has profited about $1300 so far. Way to go!!!! Tomorrow we get to speak at Annual Conference for a few minutes at 9:00 AM and then launch.

A big thank you to Mrs. Megan Burritt and family for hosting us tonight. The Burritt’s are members of Frazer and also the grandparents of Lee Jones, an old friend from Auburn Wesley Foundation. We are all family here. I look forward to a great day tomorrow! Very proud of my mom. She hung in for the entire 13 miles today! Way to go!

Thanks to you all and we’ll see you along HWY 80!

Depart: 7:30 AM Whitehall, AL.- mile marker 102 (Shell Station)

Arrive: 5:00 PM Selma AL.- City Hall (Broad Street/HW 14) Sleep point is United Methodist Children’s Home in Selma

Just real quick as I’m exhausted! What a day! The launch in Tuskegee  this morning was very fun. We had an incredible breakfast from Dave and then a time of devotion. A wonderful small group came out for the send off and we had seven walkers start off our journey. We even had a unicylclist!

A part of the group peeled off so four of us walked the rest of the day. I am so grateful to our support crew of Don and his wife Janet, and our staff person Carla. They are a wonderful blessing and so needed! We stopped to rest about every hour, refilling water bottles, eating a snack and resting our feet. Lunch was picnic style under a small China Berry tree.

We finished in great time-basically seven hours to walk 20 miles. Our feet are sore and I have a bit of heat rash on my legs-plus the calf high grass sometimes doesn’t help much. But, I think of why we do this. Poverty is hard. Families struggle and half to deal with conditions that are never ideal. As my feet scream at me to stop-it helps me understand for just a moment the “pain” many families may face.

I look forward to another day as we stop at Frazer Memorial tomorrow during Annual Conference. We only do 13 miles so not as hard a day. Thank you for the prayers and the twitters and the text messages. We’ll keep posting them.

Blessings!

The first belssing to happen on the walk.  A comfortable place to sit and have a water break.

The walk begins in four days…I am so grateful for those who are walking along the way, serving as our support crew, and for the churches hosting us each night. I believe this will do so much to help us raise awareness and help people connect.

So, the loaded question….why is there poverty? Where does it come from? Why is it so hard to end? According to the research of Dr. Ruby Payne who has a PhD in Education and has done extensive work in poverty there are four main areas of research as it relates to poverty. Those four are individual behaviors, absence of social capital, human exploitation, and political/economic structure. She offers these as causes, discusses the assumptions, and some of the strategies to help.

The first category, individual behaviors, is where most people would spend their time diagnosing the root causes of poverty. It is where you will find many agencies offering direct services. The behaviors of the individual are items like dependence upon welfare, bad behavior of individuals, individual morality, single parenthood, bad mothers, mother centered, values held by the poor, lack of work ethic, commitment to achievement, breakup of families, addiction, mental illness, and domestic violence. Assumptions then are generated. For instance by studying the poor, we will learn what changes individuals should make in order to climb out of poverty, the poor are somehow lacking, either by their bad choices or by circumstances. They should become “like us”. And poverty is a sustainable condition. What tends to be said among those discussing this are, “Don’t blame the system; change the individual” and “don’t upset the system”. Therefore strategies to end poverty that concentrate upon individual behaviors include holding the individual accountable and using sanctions when necessary, target individuals, work first, self sufficiency, enhance language experience, literacy, treatment interventions, work ethic, mentors, asset development, abstinence education, marriage promotion, and caseload reductions.

Many would hold that poverty then is more related to factors that happen to individuals and therefore if you can somehow “fix” the individual either through education, helping get a sustainable job, getting them out of substance abuse, etc. then you will help them get out of poverty.

This again is one dimension of understanding poverty and answering the question why. Yet, there three other areas we will view that will help round this out.

What we know is that Christ had a heart for the poor. Several of his parables centered on reaching out to others who were left on the margins. His famous sermon on the mount as recorded in Luke starts out, “Blessed are the poor, for they will inherit the Kingdom of heaven”. The proverbs and psalms are filled with warnings to not take advantage of the poor. (Another category of poverty). Therefore as we walk-what can we do? We can repair homes because lack of resources are real, we can help children with their education-literacy… these are in this first category of helping with individual needs and allows us an opportunity to be in direct relationship with families. Then we begin to understand.

See you on the walk! (all information is from “Bridges out of Poverty”-Ruby Payne)

I bought two pair of shoes as my other ones were worn out…I started breaking those in the other day.  I’ve been spoiled in my training as I’ve been in an air conditioned gym or walking in the early morning. It’s so different with the sun on your back and little to no shade. But, maybe this is good. Maybe this is a reminder that no situation is ideal-no matter how hard we try to control it. The reality that so many Alabamians face is hard…there is a lot of worry, a lot of sweat, and a lot of just plain survival. When walking, I’m just thinking about the next drink of water-the next break. People living in poverty deal with a survival mentality. For a moment I understand.

The next few posts are going to unfold a little bit more about why there is poverty…what is the cause and where does it come from…you might be surprised at some of the research that shows its source. May even be offended that in some ways we in the middle and wealth classes unknowingly perpetuate it. You are welcome to comment on these if you like but hope this will be insightful to you.  I’ll start with Phase I-individual behaviors tomorrow.

Just a few more little details and we are ready to go!

Thanks and see you on the walk!