Walk to Jerusalem!

Lenten Project, 2010

It’s only 6,680 miles from Madison, Ohio to Jerusalem, Israel and our goal is to “walk” Jerusalem by Easter! Can we do it? We’re working on it! 

We’re using the Walk to Jerusalem program that was initially launched in January 2002 by Parish Nurse Nancy Evans at St. John Health. It’s a church wide program to increase the health of body, mind and spirit. It actually is a 12-week program that is supposed to start in January but since the materials were ordered in February, we started a little bit late. We officially started the Walk on Sunday February 14, 2010 and have modified the materials to coincide with Lent. We’re sticking with the 12-week program even though it will end after Easter and even with the late start, we didn’t “opt out” by flying over the Atlantic Ocean – we’re getting our feet wet and going the distance. 

One of the great aspects of the activity is the fact that everyone in the congregation can participate. Our youngest “walkers” are two years old and one of our oldest “walkers” is 92 years old!  Actually walking is a very good way to tally miles for each week but 20 minutes of any physical activity (biking, basketball, Curves workouts, Wii Fit, gym classes, recess, swimming, and on and on!) counts towards total miles. And bonus miles are earned if at least two members of a family participate in an activity together.

We’re also encouraging members to “do what they can” as they start moving and becoming more physically active. If twenty minutes is too much at one time – break it up into ten minute segments, or even five minutes. “One step at a time”, but definitely take that first step to exercise the physical body by walking, exercise the spiritual body by praying, and exercise the mind by learning about countries and cultures. 

It’s been interesting just having a world map posted in the church narthex. Not only are we keeping track of the route that we’re taking to Jerusalem , but we’ve also been able to see where Haiti and Chile are as we pray for the people there after the earthquake devastation. We’re also keeping track of one of our congregation members as he serves in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Lake Erie.

Here are our results so far:

Week #1 (ending 2/21/10)

680 Miles- Putting us past New York City!

Week #2 (ending 2/28/10)

848 Miles- into the Atlantic!

Week #3 (ending 3/7/10)

985 Miles!  Really getting wet- but moving along swimmingly!

Week #4 (ending 3/14/10)

1011 Miles- putting us within reach of shore!

 Week #4 (ending 3/21/10) 

1134 Miles- We finally reached land and are into Morocco! 

Our total has now taken us 4658 miles- great work!  Walking and praying go hand in hand!

Who knows where we will wind up?

Our total miles so far are 2,277.4!