Making new frineds......

 

There is an old song recorded, I think in the 1960's, by a man called Jim Reeves, and if you remember him then you are as old as us. Anyway, one of the songs had the title: "A stranger's just a friend you do not know".

On Sunday, we certainly met new friends, who up until that point were only strangers. We had intended to visit the Congregational Church in a wee village called Weviliscombe. I parked the van at one end of the car park, left Shona in the van and wandered around, probably looking a bit "glaikit", to make sure I could park it without fear of being fined. When I was asked by a young lady, carrying a very big box of very yellow bananas, if I needed any help.

I explained that I was parking up with the intention of going to Church, oh she said, I attend a community church in the village hall, and you are more than welcome to join us. I found out later her name was Lois, but there was just something about her demeanour.

When I went back to the van I said to Shona, we're not going to the Congregational Church, we are going to the Community Church in the village hall. Once again, we believe this to be another example of the promise from Exodus: 23 verse 20:  "That He would send an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way". For we received such a warm welcome and blessing from strangers who are now friends that we hadn't known.

The Pastor, Andrew Kelly, invited us to share why we were in Weviliscombe, and I was privileged to give a summary of what the "Shona and Mike Take a Hike" was all about and how we believed that the Lord had laid this on our hearts. Without doubt we were blessed by Andrew's ministry from 1st Corinthians Chapter 16: verses 10 - 21, me thinks I may use Andrews points in a sermon when I get home..... After Church we made our way to our next Caravan Park at North Petherton.

Monday

0645 start today, taking public transport back to Weviliscombe, and then walking forward 20 miles to North Petherton. 

It was a reasonably easy walk, on a very warm and sunny day, so warm in fact that Shona decided to sport her very fetching headgear, to stop her being blinded by, I'll be polite here, 'perspiration". I'm sure you know the saying a bloke sweats, but a lady glows, Shona was certainly glowing that day. 

For info the headgear was purchased from Amazon, where else, before we left to begin our challenge.  

As the day wore on, we were both very aware of the blisters starting to nip a bit. Nevertheless, we arrived back at the van safely and ready for a nice cool shower. Aaahhh! reminds me of the wee hymn, "There shall be showers of blessing, sent from the Saviour above". if you don't know it do an internet search and enjoy.

Tuesday

Another lovely morning, with feet well plastered we set off from North Petherton at 0815, stopping at Bridgwater for breakfast, yum, yum, and to purchase a fresh supply of blister plasters, before walking to Burnham-on-Sea. It was a fairly flat walk today and only 15 miles thankfully our feet did a lot better.

Wednesday

Suited and booted today, as it was raining which continued till about lunchtime before drying up, due to weather we didn't take any photos and hobbled into Worle about 1345 with very sore feet.

Thursday

Another lovely day, we were also very encouraged as we were joined for the first part of our walk from Worle to Bristol, by Alan Thorpe. Alan works with the Railway Mission as a Chaplain it was a real joy to spend time walking with him. 

As we talked, I was reminded of a story in the bible about two of Jesus' followers who were walking to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem: As they walked along, they were talking about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them....... There is no doubt as we walked, we were very much aware the the Lord was also walking with us, if you're reading this Alan thank you for your encouragement, we are not sure if it was your company or not ,but our feet felt much better. Distance walked 22.5 miles.

Friday & Saturday

Another long day walking from Bristol to Chepstow, a distance of 21 miles plus 2 miles from Bristol Temple Meads to the Caravan site. Doing this however meant we had covered two days walk in one which gave us an extra rest day on Saturday, whooopeeeeee! Our feet have been glad of the rest.

"That's all folks" and if you know what cartoon that comes from you are really as old as us......

Thank you again for reading our blog, and once again please feel free to visit and share the "Shona and Mike Take a Hike" fundraising page at:

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/shonaandmike-giving-page-2298439   


You can also visit our page using the QR Code below:





Comments

  1. Anonymous25 May 2024 at 14:29

    Loved reading your blog. Susan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous25 May 2024 at 22:33

    Thanks Susan, we can’t believe that’s the end of week 4 only about 9 weeks to go. Michael.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous26 May 2024 at 01:28

    Wonderful lesson off how God walks with us all.Enjoy your day.Maureen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shona and Mike Take a Hike26 May 2024 at 07:57

    Thanks Maureen, really appreciate your comment. Michael & Shona

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous27 May 2024 at 13:52

    You’re making great progress, Shona and Mike, well done! Hope the blisters aren’t as bad this week! Happy walking! Fiona & Donald

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous27 May 2024 at 22:23

      Thanks, blisters have improved thankfully, it was a late start on Monday due to Bank Holiday buses. However, we managed the 17 miles from Chepstow Monmouth and will be walking to Ross on Wye today, Tuesday. Shona and Mike.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We're now end to enders.......

Image
  Week 13 When we announced the Shona and Mike Take a Hike challenge to our Church family at Miller Hall, there were three reasons we outlined.  The first was that we saw it as a work, and whilst we knew that works could not earn us favour with God, we believed that by our works we could show our faith. Secondly, we said that we were very much aware of the warning that reminds us that we could, or should, not boast about what we will do, for none of us know what tomorrow will bring. Thirdly, and most importantly, anything we were able to achieve we must, in accordance with the words we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31 that say: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God".      Today, Wednesday 24th July 2024 we reached John O'Groats, and for being able to walk 1131.5 miles we simply give God all the praise and glory, for the fulfilment of His promise, given to us on 28/4/24, the day we left Falkirk to travel to Lands E...
Read more

Who are Shona and Mike?

Image
Thank you for taking the time to read our blog, please be patient with us as this is the first time in our life we have ever tried to write a blog. Not to mention the technical issues of actually setting up our blog page. As you will see we are not young computer whiz kids. Recycled teenagers maybe but not overly PC competent.  Is there a reason we are writing the blog? Yes of course and the reason we write this is to promote our challenge of attempting to walk from  Lands End to John O'Groats,  a distance of 894 miles as the crow flies, but as we are not crows we will need to walk approximately 1200 - 1300 miles.  What about us, who are we? Well! We are a married couple and by the time we start this huge, or as a young friend of ours used to say “mahoosive” challenge, we will have been married for over 48 years (this clearly indicates we are not in the first flush of youth). However, like thousands of others, we have family and friends who have been affected by canc...
Read more

Thanks for the encouragement.....

Image
  Sunday 26th May It was great to have two days away from walking over the weekend, it gave us some time to relax and reflect on how much encouragement we had received from so many family, friends and strangers.  We have met so many people along our route, who have donated to the Shona and Mike Take a Hike challenge, money received in cash from those we have met, or donated through our giving page, all of which are greatly appreciated. Of course, we must not forget to say a huge thank you to everyone who has donated through our Cancer Research giving page. We really do appreciate your generous giving, kindness and messages of support, through all the usual social media outlets. We do read them when we have suitable connectivity.  Sadly, our phone signals have sometimes been nothing short of useless, we did think about lighting a bar-b-que and sending smoke signals..........Then the rain scuppered that idea, lol. Thankfully though, we are never, ever, out of touch with our...
Read more