SW-1
RECONCILIATION WALK
Auxonne, France to Bari, Italy
Sept -Dec 1996
Second day of walking through Switzerland to Lausanne.
Frederick and Suzanne, and Deborah came last night for supper. Nadia came
back from her Canadian trip and will be with us now.
Today, Richard and I visited the
synagogue in Lausanne and the Islamic Center.
The rabbi
was enthusiastic about our message, and astonished that we would walk that
far with it. At the Islamic Center, we talked with the imam, who was
resistant to our message, time and again wanted to mix politics with
religion, told us the current atrocities were more important than the
Crusades, and why we weren’t asking for forgiveness for them.
The lake is beautiful.
Vevey is picturesque.
Patty along the way. And Charlie Chaplin and the fork in the lake.
Glen and Henning went to the
Islamic Center in Vevey, but it was just an apartment and the imam wasn’t
in. Shared with the workers there.
Earlier, in August, we took that boat on the card from
Lausanne to Vevey. Patty and I several times enjoyed walking the path in
Vevey along the lake, with kiosks selling everything you’d ever want or
need.
Beautiful views of the lake and the French mountains opposite. Handed out may tracts in Vevey and Montreux. Went past Chateau Chillon where Patty and I came and visited with Fiona earlier.
10/4 Aigle to Martigny.
First card above is for Montreux then there are
three for Saint-Maurice. We stopped when walking through Saint-Maurice and
spent some time at the church pictured.
We were prayed over by the cure, and at 11:30 had lunch. After lunch
the cure shows us the treasures and archeological digs. St Maurice was a
Christian commander of a Roman legion in the early 4th century
who would not obey orders to kill other Christians. He and his legion (5000
men!) were killed by the Romans. The church/abbey commemorates this event
and contains precious gifts from Constantine and others. The 5000 men were
supposedly buried here. Sometime later, after running after a man on a
bicycle to offer him a tract, I pulled a muscle in my left leg and could not
walk with the group for the rest of the day. The man on the bicycle, by the
way, was not too favorable towards Jews and Catholics. By comparison, the
Roman Catholic cure was very sympathetic, said
that although er believe in Jesus Christ, others who have not heard,
or who have not decoded, re judged by the Holy Spirit.
That night, we
slept in Martigny in an empty storefront restaurant that will soon be a
church (c/o Pierre Alain Vauclair)
10/5 Martigny to Orsierres and Liddes
We left Martigny early this am, and it rained all day. I couldn't walk because of my knee. Pierre, the pastor of the new church in Martigny, walked up about 15 km with us earlier in the day. We stopped at a town up the mountain where three valleys meet, and prayed for revival. Apparently, only a handful or two, less than 10, evangelical Christians lived in the three valleys.
Orsierres was about 20 km uphill from Martigny, but many, including Patty, decided to walk an additional 5-6 km. When we got to the vans to go to Clos St Bernard (St Bernard Hospice) where we were going to spend the night, it started snowing, first a little, then more. It's now about 6:30 pm, -5 Degrees C outside and snowing hard with about 2 inches on the ground.