Walk Across Alabama

We are now sitting from the quiet setting of my home in Auburn/Opelika just listening to the gentle sound of the air condition run. What a wonderful feeling. First, it is hard to believe two weeks has gone by…it seems so long ago this started but in some ways just like yesterday. Second, it seems a bit sureal. As we drove the route home today…we laughed as we pointed out places like, “that’s where we got stung by the stinging nettle”, “that’s where we sat to have lunch and meet up with Emily”, and “there’s the one place I had to use the woodline because our trailer was dealing with a flat tire”…and much more. It seemed a bit crazy to think we had walked all those roads, climbed those hills, and smelled all that road kill.

We met incredible people on the way. Most people stopped thinking we had broken down and might need help-so we were able to share what we were doing. A vendor at a hotel, the only one we stayed in, was very interested gave us an extremely good rate and pledged to donate. ( We stayed in a hotel close to the end just to sit in a refreshing pool and sleep a little longer one morning) One person found out we were having lunch at her United Methodist Church and now wants to volunteer with us. I even saw our Command Sergeant Major-CSM Roy Aultman twice along the way…that was way cool. Then there were the youth from Selma and Dothan who plugged in with us during the middle weekend as we walked the Edmund Pettus Bridge and worked in Selma-not to mention my friends, Jason and Meredith, who drove over from Auburn to help us on the Saturday work day.

What did I learn? There were many times while walking that we would pray for the counties we passed through and think about what was happening in their community. There was George in Union Town who helped us scrape a historic post office to prep it for painting. He was so willing to work but talked about there being no jobs in his community. Later that day we saw him working on a roof…it’s really easy to comment on people sitting on their front porch but what else do you do when there are no jobs and you don’t run your AC? The cheese factory in that little town puts out such a horrific smell, it is difficult to be out there-it literally stinks…so what does that say to the people in that little community caught in the fringes?

I so much enjoyed two weeks of fun converation along the roads. Sometimes it was funny-like commenting on some cow or John Deere tractor, or it had significant depth as we discussed insights, our faith, growing up and so much more. I learned so much about my mom and just enjoyed that time. As people joined along the way like Sally and Glenn Granberry who launched with us in Tuskegee, Brad who walked for two days straight until Montgomery, Dave and Sherry who picked up in Selma, and then Emily who joined us near Union Town-I learned more and more and shared stories and thoughts. I am so grateful to our support team Don and Janet who pulled a camper trailer for two weeks. Janet sits in a wheelchair and must use oxygen and Don cheerfully takes care of her. So, it wasn’t a cup cake trip as they dealt with the stop and go travel, living in a camper for two weeks, and the intense heat that climbed into the 100’s daily. And yeah, it only rained two times-only one time were we walking-which meant it was really hot. We are also grateful to our other support driver, Carla, who got roped into this one week prior to the trip. She is one of our Livingston construction coordinators but since they did not have a work team in-I asked her to drive. But, she did so much more as she walked along, shared her vision for what God is calling her to, and took turns driving with my mom.

And then-I can’t forget the churches who fed us or allowed us to stay with them: Tuskegee UMC, Bradford’s Chapel UMC in Shorter, Megan Burritt from Frazer UMC, FUMC Montgomery, Benton UMC, United Methodist Children’s Home, Church Street UMC -Selma, West Highland UMC-Selma, Barrett Road UMC-Selma, Memorial UMC-Selma, Marion UMC, Demopolis UMC, and Livingston UMC. Such a special thanks to all of them.

As this closes up-I must also express my deep thanks to a planning team that spent several months putting this all together: Andi, Marcia, Becky, Dave, Heath, Craig, Beth Ann, and Danielle. What a wonderful bunch who put so much work into making this happen. So what is next? Well, I don’t think we will do this type of walk for awhile-but I will say that the young adult staff is putting together a 4 Day bike tour across Alabama next summer that is the same principle. Our working title is “Cycle of Service” and the tag is ”To End the Cycle of Poverty” You’ll be hearing details in the next few months. I’ll be posting up more pictures of the walk in the next few days-thanks again to everyone!!!!!

God Bless You All- I loved the Walk!!!!

lisa

Today the temps got up to 104…needless to say it was really hot. We began in the little town of Gallion and walked all the way through Demopolis. We are staying here the night. A huge shout out to both Marion UMC who let us stay at their church two nights and for Demopolis UMC who prepared us dinner tonight. Last Friday coming into Selma, my Command Sergeant Major Aultman found us and gave us some water…we then had another surprise when he hollered to us from a gas station in Demopolis. Small world.

Our pace was really good and we had 10 miles in by lunch. We stopped at a resteraunt that wasn’t open and had a picnic lunch there. It was nice to sit in a rocking chair and enjoy lunch. The most difficult part of the journey came when we crossed the bridge from Demopolis into Sumter County. We stopped today at 18 miles. I also got a nice surprise when part of the Livingston staff drove by us while we were on the bridge on their way to Wal Mart.

We were able to hand out many brochures today and some wanted to give donations. I am grateful at the people we were able to share with today and the things we learned.

Email has been difficutlt but hopefully we’ll share a bit tomorrow.

Blessings!

We passed through Selma yesterday and ended in Union Town. Today, we scraped at the historic post office as part of the beautification project in the community. Later this afternoon we will walk to Gallion Baptist Church. All are doing well-just dealing with heat rash, a few blisters, and the blazing sun. It is well worth it. Thank you for your prayers! See you soon!

Quick catch up-email has been tough! We entered into Selma on Friday afternoon after being joined by Dave Jacobs from Auburn and Sherry Cherry from Panama City, Florida. As we got closer to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we were joined by youth from Dothan UMC and Church Street UMC, Selma. So, close to 50 people crossed the bridge Friday afternoon. Kristina Scott, the Executive Director of the Alabama Poverty Project, came out to speak and share about poverty with the youth. Barry Simmons, a journalist from the United Methodist News Station in Nashville came and took extensive footage of the event. Watching him try to walk backwards while filming us was quite entertaining.

On Saturday, we met up with our staff from Livingston and began an extensive landscaping job for a woman who has been in a nursing home for over a year and has not had enough money to pay to have any keep up her three old antebellum home which has been in her family for years. It was described as a jungle. We were delayed by a serious thunderstorm but then continued on in a light rain. We cut down trees, pulled out vines, and uncovered the shell of what once was a beautiful yard. We only made a dent but it was well worth the effort. We had some fun swinging from old vines, karate chopping beat up trellis forms, and just having fun while working. Although dirty and soaked-it meant the world to us.

This morning we attended worship at Church Street UMC in Selma and listened to a sermon on the “The Trek to the Promised Land”. Most the hymns were about walking or standing…how appropriate for us. Our walk started again after lunch but then nearly was ended as a torrential downpour hit. We were able to wait it out and continue on finishing just in time to make it to dinner.

We are grateful to the UMC churches and United Methodist Children’s home for all of their support! Tomorrow, it is on to Union Town!

Thanks-check out more pics on Twitter and those being uploaded to the site!

Enjoying the walk!

lisa

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!

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 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!

Alabama Live Interview

First, I have to say “thank you” to WSFA and Kim Hendrix for allowing us another opportunity to share about the work of ARM and more specifically the walk. I was glad to have Carla Reddle join us. This will be Carla’s second summer of serving with us and she will also be a support driver. I’m not sure what is worse-walking 20 miles a day-or driving 20 miles.

So, I’m really excited! We will have people joining us in some of the communities as we stop through and we are having the United Methodist television crew coming to Selma to film. It will be very exciting but it is still really about those we will be serving. I love where Jesus describes his mission as to give sight to the blind, release the captives, and allow the oppressed to go free.  I pray that is our sense of mission. As we get closer, I will be writing a little bit more about our call to serve with the poor and those who struggle.

If you still want to walk but aren’t registered, we have extended the deadline to June 4th. If you are in Tuskegee or Auburn, we would love for you to join us for the launch event and possibly walk a mile or two. Our next big rally time is in Selma and we will have a workday on the 13th. We will meet at Church Street UMC in downtown Selma. A reception is planned in Livingston on June 19th as we finish our journey. So, please pray for us or find us somewhere on HW 80!

Finally-please pray for me…I’ve been a bit under the weather which makes training somewhat difficult.

Blessings!- see you on the walk

Between 11:00 and 12:00 today you can catch us on WSFA Channel 12 Alabama Live with Kim Hendrix. We will be talking about the walk. If you can’t view it today we will post the link on our site!