Adelaide Advertiser, May 11, 1985, page 6

Looking for a spiritual answer

by Shirley Stott Despoja

I think I am not the only adult who has no religion but who still likes the Nullarbor children. I do not say this from a place far above them, for they are not weak or stupid. They are showing that they have answers for all the arguments people are throwing at them.

I do not have their faith, but I see that they are saying things that most young people today feel but cannot say. Surprisingly, it is the churches who are kicking them for their faith. It says something about our country.

With all our talk of owning things, we forget the spiritual needs of people. Young people, if they could say what they feel, would ask us to teach them about something more than buying and selling.

If there is a God, he must know how hard it is for young people to find faith in the churches today. Young people are able to feel love for the poor. They see the pain others feel and they look for a reason behind it all. The Nullarbor children are trying to say something to us, and we just laugh at them.

Worse than that, when reporters should be interviewing them, they are fighting them. We turn our backs on what they are saying and argue that it will cost us money if police must protect them from danger.

In the past the church believed that it was too spiritual to help the poor. But now it does something worse and hits out at a group of children for an act of faith.

How can young people say what we all feel, about the need for answers, the need for rules to teach us the difference between right and wrong, the need for something that lives on after material things are destroyed, if we are going to jump on them when they do open up?

We could start by listening to their questions, and by trying to understand what the Nullarbor children are trying to say, and by believing that young people are able to think about more important things than new clothes and the latest music.

If we do this, the cost of helping them (if it should happen that they need our help) will be small. We need to tell them that we are with them, that we adults want to find loving answers in our hearts and in our world too.

Part 5:    CEDUNA TO EUCLA

DAY SIXTEEN: Tuesday, May 21

(Walked 12 miles from Ceduna)

ROLS: We left the Lutheran Church at 8:30am with the leader encouraging us. What a surprise! Dane's shoes are falling apart, so Rob and Dane tried to find some shoes in town but were not able to.

CHRIS: I am the leader again from today. I'm feeling much better after the rest. Six letters were sent to this town for us. One of them is from Papua New Guinea. We sent letters to the biggest newspapers in Australia, trying to push some people who are against us to try walking in the opposite direction if they want to show that what we are doing can happen without God's help.

MAL: We left town with a wall of young people taking our picture. Must have been close to twenty cameras, and one of them was from the Ceduna newspaper. I don't know where they came from all in a group! Police came by when we were out on the road (I think to see if we are walking on the stones beside the road like they said we should.) Little by little I am feeling stronger. It's good to be able to walk and have enough strength left over to encourage others. Robin is often at pains to encourage others (like Rachel). It's good watching him.

ROB: A big group of young people were talking to Rachel when we were waiting to receive the letters people sent to us. They had been thinking that we weren't going to eat for two months! When we left, some children gave us soft drinks, fruit, and some cooked meat and vegetable pieces mixed together.

RACHEL: Two old women stopped and talked to us and then went off. After a few minutes they came back and gave us some food. I was very tired, so we only walked twelve miles today.

GARY: A bag of vegetables was hanging on a fence by the road today. We tried asking for fruit from the people at the fruit fly station (where cars must stop and leave any fruit they are carrying, so that they will not carry fruit flies across the Nullarbor), but the man said the fruit must be destroyed and he wouldn't give us any.

We looked through the letters as we were walking. Three were very encouraging. One person sent us $2.

The flies and mosquitos are getting worse.

In the middle of the day we stopped to eat the army food, and some wheat flakes with dried grapes, sugar, and water.

A car pulling a caravan stopped. The driver called us names and said we should get a job.

At 3:15pm, a big car stopped and four Pentecostal women gave us drinks and prayed with us. Then they gave us $100 (Rs2,500)! They said all 700 people from their church in Perth were praying for us! They are rich, but it was good to see that they were willing to help.

It is 4:15pm and we have walked only twelve miles today. Rachel says she can't walk any more and the pram is broken. I can see a house in the distance, so Chris and I will run there. (5pm) It was two miles each way. The wife of the owner was there. She said we could sleep in an empty building near the house. Chris and I ran back to the others who were waiting on the road.

ROLS: The people at the farm house gave us food and were friendly. They later came with some of their friends to talk with us in the building where we will be sleeping tonight.

CHRIS: We asked Dane to cut his hair and beard because people around here think anyone with long hair and a beard uses drugs and mates with women he is not married to, but he said that if we feel it is that important, then he would drop out or walk behind us a few miles, because he doesn't want to cut his hair. It was not that important to us, so we didn't push it.

DANE: I was asked to think about cutting my long hair. I said I wouldn't. I said it is part of a serious belief with me; and the others agreed for me to be different in this way.

DAY SEVENTEEN: Wednesday, May 22.

(Walked 32 miles to Penong)

RACHEL: We were up at 6 and ate at 7. The woman gave us some wheat flakes and tea after taking pictures of us. We were on the road at 7:30am.

GARY: I had a bad night. Water from my body was freezing on the space blanket then dropping on me from the blanket. I cannot believe how cold it was.

MAL: Surprisingly, I was able to sleep better than the others. Most nights I'm the worst sleeper. It was below freezing last night.

ROLS: I'm happy with how the walk is going. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few days. I'm not worried about the difficult part-the Nullarbor-and I feel strongly that we'll make it. I am confident, but I do not want to become proud.

RACHEL: I am feeling very well today. Not many flies today, but there are many mosquitos. We all have mosquito bites.

GARY: A man from Brisbane stopped and said he'd listened to reports about us in Brisbane. We rested for 45 minutes in the middle of the day to eat wheat flakes with water. Toward the end of the meal, a man and woman stopped on a motorcycle. They were Christians on their way to a Bible school in Perth. The woman is a nurse, and she gave us medicine for sores, an oil to make insects stay away, and mountains of food.

CHRIS: The man who owns the Ceduna newspaper and his wife stopped and gave us food. She said she would like for us to stop. She said God could use us in other ways. A man who stopped to give us some fruit last week stopped again and gave us salt biscuits. He talked about how people should live day by day and not be worried about tomorrow.

ROB: At the rest stop a farmer stopped to encourage us. He said we could stay at his house, but it was only two miles up the road and we wanted to walk on to Penong. His father's brother lives two miles on the other side of Nundroo, so he talked to him about us staying there when we have walked that far. Thank God! A few miles up the road, he turned up again with $20!

DANE: The farmer, Leon, said at first he didn't agree with us, but now he does, and he feels if one person finds faith in God by our walk it will pay for what we are doing. His father's brother's name is Allan.

MAL: We arrived at Penong at 8pm. When we were walking into town, we saw another of those special falling stars. This one gave off a very strong light in one place for more than five seconds before dropping down with a very big tail behind it.

CHRIS: Because we had money that we received from people today, we agreed to look into getting a room at the Penong hotel. Gary and Rob went, but were laughed out of there, so we went to the Penong church for free, because it was not locked.

ROB: A friendly reporter from the Ceduna newspaper was at the truck stop, and she was the the one who showed us to the church.

GARY: Kathy and Bob from the Adelaide News arrived, and over a cup of coffee we talked about anything under the sun, but mostly about Rachel and India. We used some rugs for blankets at the church and had a very good night's sleep.

DAY EIGHTEEN: Thursday, May 23.

(Rest Day in Penong)

ROB: We had a good sleep. The petrol station said we could all wash ourselves there without paying for it. (There is so little water in this part of Australia that people must buy the water they use even at petrol stations.)

GARY: We all look like punks now, because the salt water and soap did something strange to our hair.

ROLS: The Ceduna newspaper reporter (who lives here in Penong) has helped us by giving us the use of her clothes line to dry clothes on; and we were able to cook food in her house.

ROB: Other reporters turned up when we were eating in the middle of the day. Mal said we wanted to talk by ourselves, so they left for an hour or so. We talked about giving money to a group that is helping poor people in Africa, and about Jesus telling us not to tell anyone if we give money to the poor.

The group believed that if you give money to poor people, you should do it secretly. But this made a problem for them, because people wanted to know how God was feeding them on the walk, and they did not want to have any secrets from the newspapers.

GARY: We talked about buying blankets with the $100, but after thinking about it we think it would be better to walk through the night if we get too cold. We tried to buy shoes for Dane here in Penong, but could not find the right ones; so we'll give $80 to the poor in Africa. After paying for stamps and buying food for the day, we ended up with only 28 cents left.

CHRIS: Because all that we are doing is being watched by all of Australia, we agreed that we should tell the reporters what we're doing with the money. It's like Elijah receiving a match. If we throw the "match" (money) away, we should tell people we are doing it. We believe that it will be a strong way of showing that even out here with no way to feed ourselves, God is able to give us so much that we have enough to send money to help people who are really poor.

MAL: We want people to see how much God has helped us, and not for them to think that we are very spiritual by giving the money away. We tried hard to point this out to the reporters. We need to think and talk through important actions and beliefs like this first, so that we can say them clearly when we talk to the reporters. I find that when I write about what I am thinking in a letter, I often use the same words when talking to a reporter later, because my thinking has been made clear by writing the letter.

GARY: Reporters are back with news from Eucla that the police say they will put us in prison if we sleep by the road after crossing the border into Western Australia. They say we cannot make a fire at night to keep ourselves warm too� there is some rule against it. I don't think they will go through with it, but I can't see that it will be a big problem for God if they do.

CHRIS: Police from South Australia have been nice to us so far (apart from that one problem in Ceduna about walking on the stones beside the road). I think only the police in Western Australia are saying this.

ROB: We said we would do all that we could to make the fires safely, but if we are cold, I think it would be stupid and wrong for us not to make a fire. And if we are sleeping on someone's land, I think the farmer who owns the land should be the one to say so if they do not want us sleeping there.

GARY: So far not one of us is feeling bad about having started the walk. I know it's going to be hard work from here on, but I try not to think about it too much.

We have been hearing two different stories about the Aboriginals around there. Most of the farmers say that they'll rob us and do many bad things to us. But a few other people have said much the opposite. They say the Aboriginals will be watching for us and will do all they can to help us. At Ceduna, the Aboriginals were the people who were most friendly toward us, and farmers had been telling the same stories about them being bad there too.

ROB: The whole group has been working hard, and Chris has been working the hardest. I feel like I should be trying to do more. Some people have said that I should slow down, but I can't do it with all of the work that needs doing. I'll just have to leave more for the others to do, or pray for more strength. I need to do a few things well and not do many things badly. I've been thinking about how David has been trying to encourage one of us to take over as leader of the whole group, but I don't know how one of us could handle all of the work that leading takes.

ROLS: Doors to show people the teachings of Christ are opening. Slowly we're showing more of the truth through newspapers, radio, and television.

MAL: The News reporter wants to take a deep look at the reasons for our walk and at what each of us believes - a perfect time to point to the teachings of Christ and not boring truths like how many sores we have or how many miles we have walked. By the end of the walk, we all want the truth to be clearer, with us standing for really strong faith, not just being a "nice" group of church young people.

DAY NINETEEN: Friday, May 24.

(Walked 22.5 miles to Bookabie)

RACHEL: Rob pulled my tooth out. We had a good sleep, waking at 6am. We left the church at 7:30am.

GARY: We went to the petrol station to call Sydney and to use the toilets. I fixed up the pram. The woman in the station asked us in for hot soup and bread. When we were eating that, an old man gave us a cup of coffee each.

ROB: When we were about six miles out, a big truck stopped and dropped off a bag from a woman in Ceduna. In the bag were a blanket, some biscuits, and some lollies. When we were eating, at the twelve mile point, Rols and Dane played chess with pieces Rols had cut out of some card-board.

ROLS: The Adelaide News came out to see us again after we finished eating, and Kathy walked with us. We talked more about living by faith.

DANE: Tonight a man came by slowly in his truck, saw Mal's robe with the words "Only when you are ready to die for your faith are you ready to live for it" on it, and said that could be what we're going to do out here. He said that he lives near here. We were thinking that he was trying to get us to ask him if we could stop at his place, so we didn't.

GARY: When we arrived at Bookabie, Chris and Rob went into a house to use the telephone to call Sydney. (All the telephone calls to David and Cherry were free, because David and Cherry were paying for them at their end of the call.) The people in the house said we should stay at a house a mile down the road, with a man who had asked us to stop by in a call over their two-way radio.

DANE: The house down the road turned out to be that of the man who had said something about the words on Mal's robe. He turned out to be very generous! Rob helped him with marking his sheep for an hour or so. I very much agree with actions like this. ROLS: The family was generous. They gave us sheep meat to cook. Reporters were still around and they wanted pictures of us cooking the food. Kathy had wanted to sleep out with us, but not in a caravan, so she left.

ROB: Kathy was planning to sleep out with us "to see how cold it gets". In the house in Bookabie, we looked at her latest report. It started something like "Christian Walkers Face Death", and she was building it around something a farmer said about the freezing cold nights.

MAL: The News was sad that we were not going to spend a night freezing. Our freezing would make a good story. God's help with a place to sleep would not. What a mixed up world!

DAY TWENTY: Saturday, May 25.

(Walked 29 miles to Nundroo)

ROLS: Before waking at 6:30am, I was dreaming that a policeman and a shop owner were running after me. I had the feeling that my faith was making them angry. If I was strong in my beliefs, they would try to stop me; but when I acted like my faith was weak, they would cool down and not be angry.

DANE: A man walked with us for a time today. His family is Catholic and he had some friends who are Pentecostals. He wanted to know how important talking in spiritual "languages" is. We talked about what we believed, but after he left, we were thinking that we did not listen enough to him. GARY: We had a short talk with the police today. They said the nights will be very cold out here.

RACHEL: The group had problems with me today. I talked with Rob, Chris, and Mal. I get out of the spirit quickly. But now I feel better. I am doing well with the walking; it is my spirit that is the problem.

CHRIS: A car stopped and a man and woman gave us a jumper and fruit. Later on we saw them stop far down the road, then go on. When we arrived at the place where they stopped, a bag was hanging on a fence, with a blanket, two more jumpers, shoe strings, soap, and a letter in it.

MAL: Today was the first time we had serious problems between ourselves. We had a talk with Dane about the need to show loving anger at times, after we said some strong things to a "goat" who stopped to laugh at our faith. (Dane believed it was wrong to judge people even when we are right in what we are saying.) There was a meeting with Roland about listening to people more and not doing all of the talking. And there was a meeting with Rachel after she argued about teaching me her language because she said it was too much work. I think Chris and Rob are the strongest in their spirit.

ROB: Chris is having problems being a girl with so many boys. She is planning to write more letters to Cherry in Sydney so she will not have to hold in all her problems.

A truck driver pulled over in the middle of the day, and a woman from Adelaide (Sue) stepped out. She wanted to walk to Norseman with us! We stopped at the next mile marker to talk about it. In the few minutes up to that point we could tell something was wrong with her mind. We were strong in our feeling that she shouldn't come on the walk, but she was so mixed up in her thinking that we wanted to break it to her slowly. As the day went on she started acting more and more strangely. She is clearly out of touch with the real world.

About five miles from Nundroo, some Aboriginals stopped and talked a little. They had been looking for animals to eat, and were covered in dirt.

GARY: When we arrived in Nundroo, Sue went her separate way. Allan (see day seventeen) sent his wife, Joy, out to give us a lift to their house, but it was only two more miles, so we walked it. When we arrived, we had a big feed of meat, potatoes, pasta, and sweets. After that I had a wash and put medicine on a sore I received from rubbing between my legs. The others are playing table tennis, but I'm a little tired, so I'm in bed. Well, good night!

DAY TWENTY-ONE: Sunday, May 26.

(Walked 13 miles from Nundroo)

GARY: I was awake at 7:10am. It was the nicest sleep I've had on the trip.

CHRIS: Allan and Joy did much to encourage us and gave us blankets and a sleeping bag, food, jumpers, socks, and some almost new running shoes for Dane. Joy later came out by car and gave us $35 and apples. Thank God!

ROB: God is so good to us! I'm happy we didn't buy blankets with the money we received, because God had it worked out this way. Twenty-five miles from Yalata, Mal saw three full tins of beer, just in the bushes where he was going to the toilet. We are calling this place "God's Beer Hill". Chris has been teaching Rachel how to use lines to show how we use words when talking, and how to work with numbers that are less than a whole number.

RACHEL: A few Aboriginals stopped and gave us a bottle of cold drink today.

GARY: A church man stopped and gave us some food. He saw us on television in Canberra.

DANE: We had a meeting to talk about how Gary should talk to Rachel when he disagrees with her. He's to do this through Rob from now on, because he is often too sharp in how he talks to her.

CHRIS: When we stopped to eat in the middle of the day we talked more about anger, from a problem Dane had about us talking strongly to a person who was laughing at God. He had believed hate and anger were the same, but later he agreed that it is good at times to show anger when a person is clearly laughing at God. Nice friendly police from Penong came out to see how we are going.

RACHEL: We only walked 14 miles today. It was an easy day. We saw a farm house at 4:30pm. Rob, Chris and I went to ask if we could stay there, but there were no people in the house. We went into an empty building by the house to sleep.

DANE: I was thanking God for the shoes and the generous spirit of so many farmers, and I asked God for rain for them; but, remembering our job, I changed it to, as long as it does not hurt what we are trying to say by the walk.

CHRIS: We went to sleep at 7pm! We were really warm. It rained through the night, so it was good that we weren't sleeping outside.

MAL: Looking over the building and around the farm started me thinking about how much work the early farmers had to do. Did they do it all for money? Living out here away from all other people must have forced them to think about God. Did they thank God for his help at all? Losing faith in God and being lifted up with pride are as much part of farm life today as they are of the very big towns.

DAY TWENTY-TWO: Monday, May 27.

(Walked 15 miles to Yalata)

GARY: We were up at 7. We ate salt biscuits, sweet biscuits, tinned meat, peanuts, and powdered milk. A man on a motorcycle stopped and gave us some chocolate. He was worried that he wouldn't make it across on his beautiful big motorcycle! Then a family from America stopped. They gave us a bag of food: chocolate bars, bread, lettuce, cabbage, corn, and more. When we were resting, a family stopped. The father could see the problems in the world, but said we were foolish to try to change things.

DANE: I had a piece break off a tooth this morning. Will it bring pain in the coming days? I have no way to fix it if it does. (Dane had no more problems with the tooth after this.)

SROB: At 12, we arrived at the wild dog fence that goes for thousands of miles from Queensland to the ocean at the bottom of South Australia. Here some young men from Britain stopped and gave us beer and talked seriously about what we are doing.

RACHEL: A car pulling a caravan stopped and the people in it gave us some fruit and drinks. They said they don't believe in what we are doing, but they still like us.

DANE: As we came to the side road leading up to the Yalata petrol station, a young Aboriginal girl shouted out, and, hands in the air, ran to tell those inside that we were coming.

CHRIS: Rob and I talked to the woman who owns the petrol station. She was not at all friendly toward us, telling us that we must not sleep in any place but on a small piece of sand next to the petrol station. She said it was very important that we not sleep with the Aboriginals who live near here, and that we should not even go to see them. She tried to discourage us from walking on too.

ROB: About five minutes after we arrived at Yalata, two television stations turned up. They mostly interviewed Chris and Mal. Rachel and I answered a few questions.

Two blankets were by the road. One was very good, but they both were very dirty. More help from God! After we had started our fire, some Aboriginal children came to talk to us. The oldest one talked about what animals we will see on our way, and he showed us what wombat foot marks look like.

At about midnight, it started to rain, so we moved closer to the petrol station. (It was closed by this time). About fifteen minutes after we moved, when we were just going to sleep, some whites who had been drinking, came and tried to make things difficult for us. They raced the motor of their car and shouted angrily at us. One woman (who was the worst one) pushed and kicked at me, telling me that I must talk to her. She returned without the others later and tried to argue with me for half an hour. She said she was an "f---ing good Christian" and that she was trying to help us. She left, saying that we didn't know our Bibles and she was "going to call the pigs" (pigs is a bad word for police in Australia) to lock us up for not staying on the sand in the open. (Some help!)

DAY TWENTY-THREE: Tuesday, May 28.

(Walked 29 miles from Yalata)

RACHEL: We were up at 5:30am and ate at 6am. Chris called David in Sydney at 6:15. We were on the road at 6:30. I am feeling very happy today. I was teaching Malcolm how to talk in Kannada. A car stopped and gave us many tins of food.

CHRIS: At times I forget to thank God for helping us. I think it's like the people in the Bible being angry when God gave them bread from the sky to eat day after day when they were walking through the desert. I was feeling sad for myself today. Roland helped a little, but I'm still feeling left out. Dane was teaching me the words to the song "Proud Mary".

Rachel saw a nice sleeping bag with big burn marks on it in the bushes beside the road. Thank God! They say we do not know how cold it will be out on the Nullarbor, but God does and he's getting us ready for it!

DANE: There was much strong wind today.

ROB: The oil we have been carrying in our pockets has been good for our lips and dry faces as well as for sores from rubbing against shoes and clothes. A family who live near Port Augusta stopped. They gave us muesli bars and said they liked our answer to Brother Fleming in the Adelaide newspaper.

MAL: We had a beautiful meal today-not just the food, but the visitors too. We had only just started eating when I said, "It's too bad that we don't have any bread; we'll just have to pray for some." (I was half serious.) Less than a minute later a car pulled up and, without my asking, the people in it gave us, with other things, some bread. It was a beautiful start to a beautiful meal.

GARY: We now have three sleeping bags and seven blankets. Toward the end of our meal in the middle of the day, who should pull up but Ken (see Day Four), the friend of Brenton, all the way from Adelaide (where he now lives), just to ask us what we needed. He has now returned to Penong to buy some things and to find a letter from my father that we did not receive when we were there.

Many people on motorcycles have been going by on their way to a big meeting of motorcycle riders in Perth. Two stopped to talk.

ROB: Ken had to drive for eight hours from Adelaide to see us. He did it because when he was praying he thinks God said to come out here; but he doesn't know what he should do now that he is here - just help us in some way.

MAL: Ken showed us Kathy's story; it was printed in a Sunday newspaper. It was very good! Yesterday Chris was feeling bad because some of us were thinking she makes too many rules; then David was angry with her over the telephone this morning for not telling people off more when they do things wrongly. She was crying, so I talked to her.

DANE: About thirty miles before Nullarbor I was having a difficult time staying up with the others. Mal, Gary, and Rob said they would run three miles up the road and start a fire before dark. A car stopped and a man and woman had food for us. We sent them on to Mal, Gary, and Rob with it.

ROB: Gary, Mal, and I ran more than three miles in 22.5 minutes. The man and woman bringing food to us had stopped to talk to us before, on our way to Kyancutta (Day 7). The woman was very interesting because last time we talked about some of the sayings of Gandhi. But this time we just had friendly talk that was not very serious.

Just after dark, Ken returned to say he had not been able to take money out of the bank because it would not take his bank card, and now he has no money for food! He was laughing at it and at himself, because now God was feeding him through us! This walk has made me think about how I feel toward people in the churches. They can be right with God by showing love - just like a Hindu or a person who does not believe in God - even if they do not understand all of what Christ said. "Anyone who loves is born of God."

ROLS: Ken came back with a happy spirit, and we had a meal together. He still thinks like others in the church world, but because he went so far in trying to help us and obey God, it has lifted my faith that there are spiritual sheep in the different church groups who will drop their faith in governments and money when the mark of the devil starts.
(Roland was writing about a teaching that, in the future a world leader will force people to have a mark in their hand before they can buy or sell anything. The world leader will be the son of the devil; and all people who put their faith in money - not God - to feed them, will obey this leader. See Revelation 13:16-17 in the Bible.)

Before leaving for Penong a second time Ken said he would do anything that was needed. He is going to clean our clothes, and look for new wheels for the pram.

CHRIS: We're all very happy about how God is giving us all that we need. Finding the sleeping bag, and Ken's leading from God to come out here are special little miracles. We're all healthy, and our pains are all little ones. We are praying that God will keep it that way. We cleared a big place on the ground before starting the fire tonight, and each of us has a turn to watch the fire through the night.

ROB: We changed watches at two hour breaks. Mal and Rachel did not have a turn at watching because they both have problems sleeping.

Rain was falling across South Australia on this night, but the walkers were dry. The clouds above them did not drop the rain that was in them, but they did act as a blanket to hold back some of the cold weather as the young people were sleeping.

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: Wednesday, May 29.

(Walked 29 miles to Nullarbor)

GARY: I had the last turn on the fire this morning, and it was my job to wake the others at 6am. We had one big bowl of wheat flakes between us. We all liked making it from a whole box of flakes. As we were walking this morning, a police car stopped, but they did not say much.

ROB: Some people who only go to church on Saturdays stopped to shoot us down with difficult questions about what we believe. They didn't even get out of their car to talk. The first car that stopped after that gave us water. Then a bus stopped. People on it said the bus driver had listened to a report on the radio that the head policeman in Eucla was going to stop us when we arrive in Eucla if we don't have enough food and water to get to Norseman. I don't know how true that report is, because it comes through three different people.

CHRIS: People on the bus gave us $10. Then an older man and woman with a caravan stopped and gave us another blanket and food. We're now into the real Nullarbor Desert. There are a few trees, but not many. It's good that it's not hot, because there are not enough trees to hide under if we wanted to.

RACHEL: We played a Bible game when we were walking today. We saw the bones of a camel too. Chris is teaching me a new song.

The wind is strong today. There are many hills here. DANE: We walked more quickly on the second to last three miles, and this tired me out. After I said I was having problems, the others said I could say how quickly we should walk on the last leg.

ROB: A television station arrived and put a radio microphone on Chris, so they could hear Chris and Rachel singing "God Made Man, Man Made Money, and Money Made Man Crazy" (one of Ross' songs) as they were walking.

MAL: We had a very special happening tonight to show people how faith works. Just after the television people left us on the road saying they would wait for us at the Nullarbor petrol station and restaurant, the owners of the restaurant pulled up to talk to us on the road. They were returning after being away for six months and they said we could have a free meal and a free room at a house near the petrol station for tonight and tomorrow. The television people were waiting for us when we arrived, and they couldn't believe it when we walked in and were received as special visitors. I think secretly they wanted pictures of us asking for help, because they can't believe all these people are giving us so much without us even asking for it. The timing was a miracle to show them that God is helping us.

ROB: The owners would not talk to the television people. They later pulled me to the side and said the reason they were helping was because they wanted to help, and not because they wanted to look good on television. We later learned that the workers were against us, and if the owners had not arrived back when they did, we would have been pushed out in the cold.

ROLS: The television woman asked us some questions, and we said something about burning money and a few other things that were not really important to what we are trying to say through the walk. We need to learn how to be as smart as snakes with these people. She'll be giving a five-minute interview on camera tomorrow morning. We will see if she uses what we said tonight against us.

ROB: The others were not happy with the way I handled a talk with the television reporter. They said I was not clear with my answers, talked about things that we had agreed not to talk about, was not in control of the way the interview was going, and generally not on the ball spiritually. I am not taking it well. I'm seriously thinking about not taking part in interviews in the future. They make you feel good when you do a good job, but it makes you feel very low when things do not go well.

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Thursday, May 30.

(Rest day at Nullarbor)

GARY: I opened my eyes at 7:45am to see I was in a bed with clean blankets and pillows. I washed our clothes and the dirty blankets God gave us on the side of the road.

RACHEL: Malcolm went to the petrol station to get some food. On the way he saw a wombat. And last night he said he could hear wild dogs singing out on the desert. We all washed ourselves and washed our clothes. This is the best rest day we have had.

ROLS: The television people came for the interview this morning. The reporter went through what she was going to say first, and that was good. Then Malcolm did a very good job of answering some difficult questions.

ROB: It was a difficult interview with difficult questions, but it was handled well by Mal and Chris. We have been able to say so much through this walk, even with all the wrong things that we do and say. Rols and I went to the petrol station to get writing paper and stamps, but they didn't have any stamps.

CHRIS: We received a letter at the petrol station with a $20 cheque in it. We can't use it out here, but it was very nice of the man who sent it. A worker with the Aboriginals in Yalata came with a letter that had arrived there from a church woman telling us to obey the government. He gave us milk, and showed us how to help the sores on our feet get better. He said we could have come and stayed with them in warm beds when we were there if we wanted, but he didn't know we were there at the time and that the people at the petrol station were trying to keep us away from him. (See Day Twenty-two) He is a very nice man.

ROB: The Aboriginal worker asked what we needed, so we said stamps and he just happened to have four! Thank God!

ROLS: The restaurant owner had said we could have free food today, but when we asked for some the restaurant worker (who wasn't very friendly) said we could have only a little of the cheapest food.

DANE: When the worker said we were asking for too much, I could see by some of our red faces that we had been humbled. Just then, a man in the restaurant came over and said he would pay for more food for us. (I think God was playing a trick on us and then laughing when he showed that he had a second way to feed us!) Earlier, out where the cars were parked, this same man had been asked by Ken (remember Ken?) (See Day Twenty-three) where we were. He had said to Ken, "I know you!" It turns out that they had been friends ten years earlier, before Ken had become a Christian, and now God was throwing them together again over us.

GARY: Ken was out by the cars with a very big pram on two bicycle wheels. He made it yesterday with help from Allan, the farmer from Nundroo (See Day Twenty). It was perfect for our needs. It's difficult to believe it's real. We all talked together for 1.5 hours. Then they left. Ken and his friend both live in Adelaide now, and both work with poor people.

CHRIS: I called a reporter from Sydney who had asked us to call. She was close-minded toward us and argued over and over that our faith is in money and people and not in God. I was sad after the call, and went back to the house. A friendly worker came and talked to us. We're meeting many nice people on this walk. We talked with Dane about our beliefs on married people not marrying again if they break up, and he understands our thinking on it now.

GARY: I had a sore stomach tonight (from all the fruit we've been eating I think) and I was in the toilet for a long time before going to bed at 9pm.

DAY TWENTY-SIX: Friday, May 31.

(Walked 22 miles from Nullarbor)

Problems started to grow with Malcolm at this point. In the past David had said that Malcolm was too proud. Malcolm started writing a letter to David from Nullarbor, saying that he had been showing his ability to work well with others on the walk, and he believed that this showed David was wrong in saying that he was too proud. He said that because of this, he could no longer work with David and Cherry after the walk. He showed the letter to Christine and Robin, who asked him not to send it. He worked smoothly with the others after this, but did not write many reports to be used in writing this book.

ROB: This morning ten cars stopped in just three miles of walking. People in about eight of these gave us things. One person gave us a sleeping bag; another was carrying a box sent out from Ceduna, with a two or three man tent in it. People in most of the cars gave fruit.

DANE: A man dropped off another blanket for us today. It came from Nundroo.

CHRIS: Most of the food people wanted to give us we did not take, because we had too much. Many people are giving us fruit now because they'll have to throw it away at the fruit fly station down the road. We have so much fruit now that we will have to give some to people going in the other direction. We stopped to eat bread and fruit at 2pm.

ROLS: A bus stopped with many young people on it, and a few adults. A woman in her 40's showed that she had no faith, by arguing against God in front of the young people. If she could hear her own words coming back at her she would be surprised at how bad she sounded.

MAL: What she said was just foolishness. If I had been faster, I would have answered her arguments with more bite, for the good of those listening.

ROLS: Today I was pushing to have my way with Gary. So Gary asked others to help fix the problem between us. After fighting against what they were saying for a time, I agreed that I was wrong. Dane disagreed with them telling me that I was wrong, but later he came to understand that it is the best way to fix a problem.

GARY: It looks like rain tonight, so we will see if seven people can sleep in the one tent!

After walking twenty-two miles, we stopped to put the tent up and start a fire. We had soup, bread, and cooked apples for our meal tonight.

DANE: It's difficult to find timber for the fire out here, but we were able to find enough after some looking. We had a difficult time getting it to burn, but after some time we had a nice warm fire going. An open fire makes food taste better than it does in a house.

MAL: It was strange going to bed with the sound of wild dogs singing to the moon near us. ROB: Gary, Roland and Rachel are sleeping in the tent. Dane, Mal, Chris and I are each taking two-hour turns by the fire through the night.

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Saturday, June 1.

(Walked 23 miles toward Eucla)

CHRIS: It didn't rain after all, but Rob didn't sleep well last night because his sleep was broken up by his turn at watching the fire. We others had a good night's rest.

People were trying to do things too quickly on the whole this morning and we had some problems with people becoming a little angry. Our water was low, so we filled up the bottles from a water tank at a parking place. A friend of Joy and Allan (see day twenty) stopped and said we could stay with them tomorrow night. We stopped for a meal at I pm with only half a cabbage and a few oranges.

From the Nullarbor Road House to Eucla is 123 miles, with no houses, towns, or shops. It is the longest part of the walk without any people on it. This is where people had been saying they would die.

ROLS: God is testing us now. It is so easy to think that we will never be hungry.

DANE: "Happy are the hungry, for they will be filled." A few of us are feeling sick and taking short rides on the pram. A family from Europe stopped and had a long talk; the husband had some problems and he wanted to talk about them with us. He gave us a few eggs, apples, and oranges.

CHRIS: The ocean is less than a mile to our left and we can see a little of it from time to time. Gary and Robin went running after wombats and had a look into their holes. They weren't planning on killing them for food, but were wanting to see if they could catch one if we needed food badly. They were almost up to one, but it arrived at its hole a few feet before them. We saw three wombats, one wild dog, and hundreds of rabbits today.

RACHEL: When we were walking, the left wheel of the pram was not working well. Roland tried to fix it, but he couldn't. So we had to stop here by the road for the night.

We did not eat even one real meal today because we didn't have enough food.

CHRIS: We cooked the few eggs on the army fire squares (see day fourteen) and we ate the oranges and apples, but we all went to bed feeling hungry.

DANE: We went through the night without a fire because there is no timber on the ground to burn. We are in the real Nullarbor now!

MAL: Roland and I had a warm night sleeping in the open. There was some light rain, but the plastic space blankets were enough to keep us dry. The others squeezed into the tent. Cloud cover stopped the night from becoming too cold for any of us.

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: Sunday, June 2.

(Walked 20 miles toward Eucla)

GARY: We were up when the sun came up. We had no food, so that made things easier. We put all our things on our backs, and Roland pushed the pram on one wheel for about ten miles. ROB: A church man stopped and helped us fix the wheel of the pram. For a long time all of our trying was not fixing a thing, but then this man stopped to pray, and after that the crazy thing worked! Thank God!

We didn't have any food up to 10:30am. Then, between 10:30 and twelve, about six cars stopped, giving us bread, tins of food, and many apples. They encouraged us too, and that was something we needed as much as the food.

Later today, two old men from the West Australian newspaper stopped to take some pictures and ask a few questions.

CHRIS: All morning it rained lightly off and on. The plastic bags we have been carrying from the first day worked very well as rain coats. A small plane was flying over us at a low height this morning, so I think we will have more reporters here later today. I was reading Phillipians 2 today and I feel it's important that we all be happy doing what we're doing because so many people are hearing about us, and we're like a light to the world. We need to help others and not just ourselves too.

RACHEL: We had another meeting about Gary telling me off all the time. I was feeling sad before the meeting, but after the meeting I was feeling better. We have been having many meetings. I think God is teaching me more things through them.

DANE: Rain has been falling on and off all day today. Rainbows, rainbows, rainbows! We've been seeing some beautiful ones today.

Allan's friend returned about 5pm. He works for the government fixing the roads, and was afraid that he would have some problems if the government knows that he is helping us. He asked us not to say anything to the reporters about his help. His place is a few miles off the road, so he said he would drive us to his place and drop us back here in the morning.

ROLS: Allan's friend really came at the right time: The wind was blowing, we were tired, and it started to rain heavily. I was feeling weak because the last few meals were very small. Mal had a sore foot, so we had to walk more slowly today.

GARY: Our friend with no name wasn't a good cook. He made pasta paste with something like meat on it that tasted very bad; but we all had three bowls or more and thanked God from the bottom of our hearts! I ate much bread with sugar paste on it too.

MAL: More serious problems with my feet. The ankle and front of my right foot hurt when I walk. Tonight I see that the front of my right foot is bigger than the front of my left foot. This is not good at all.

DAY TWENTY-NINE: Monday, June 3.

(Walked 18 miles toward Eucla)

GARY: It's been four weeks of walking today. We are back on the road and I'm writing now as I'm being pushed in the pram. It's just because I'm feeling lazy; I have no good reason to be here.

ROLS: Our friend without a name was very generous. We had more pasta in the morning, and he gave us dry pasta, carrots, potatoes, and fruit to take with us for later today.

DANE: Some of us have been carried in the pram. Others do not want to do this if we are able to walk.

ROB: We walked three miles and two cars stopped. People in them wanted to take pictures and gave us $2, and some apples. At ten miles some Aboriginals stopped. I gave them some berries that I was eating from plants growing by the road. We have not asked for food so far on this walk, but today we asked if we could buy food from a few cars that stopped. They did not sell us anything, but I think our asking to buy encouraged them to give. Out here in the middle of the desert, you start to understand how money is nothing but paper and really cannot do a thing if people do not have faith in it.

CHRIS: A bus stopped and all the people came out to take pictures of us. One woman came up quietly later and gave us $18. We think it was from all the people on the bus.

When we were eating in the middle of the day, a church man and woman stopped and talked. Both disagreed with our beliefs about working for God and not for money (from Luke 16), but they gave us a bag of apples. Most of us are feeling really good. But Mal's foot is still sore. At one of the rest stops today I had a deep and serious talk with Rachel about some things that she disagreed with. I ended up agreeing with her.

ROLS: I understand that I should be happy with what God gives, but it was difficult feeling happy when it came to eating small measures of food today.

DANE: We stopped walking half an hour before the sun went down, and then started looking for timber in the small bushes growing here. At first timber was difficult to come by, but in time we were able to find some big pieces that we could use for our fire.

RACHEL: We see beautiful skies when the sun goes down here each day. They have many different colours. I didn't think before we started the walk that we would be eating as well as we have been.

It was about 7:30pm when we went to bed. After five minutes three different television stations came to wake us up. The different reporters were arguing about who was going to talk to us first. They asked Roland, Robin, and Malcolm a few questions in front of the cameras. ROLS: Malcolm answered the television reporters' questions very well, always bringing the talk back to God. If one isn't in the Spirit, it is easy to answer the boring questions with equally boring answers.

CHRIS: The reporters were asking about "problems" between ourselves that another report had talked about, so we said that they are problems that happen when any people are living together, and we are working on them. What they don't understand is that one of the most important reasons why we are able to fix our problems quickly is because we don't hide them.

DAY THIRTY: Tuesday, June 4.

(Walked 23 miles toward Eucla)

GARY: We were up at 6am. We are thirty-two miles from the border of Western Australia. Just before we were going to start walking this morning, one of the television stations turned up to shoot pictures of us. Then later in the day, a reporter and other workers from a second station turned up. Then the last group came out to take a few more pictures.

ROB: Some of us were not happy about the food today, but the only reason people have been hungry is because they were sick of apples and oranges. God gives what we need - not always what we want.

A bus stopped and we talked about some serious things with some of the people on it. They gave us lollies, fruit, and a mix of dry fruit and nuts.

ROLS: God has lifted some of the hard times, as he gave us a beautiful meal this morning. And just as we were to have a rest in the middle of the day without any food, God talked a car into stopping and giving us some more food, followed by a second car with seconds. I was thanking God the most (because I eat the most) after a long time without filling meals. The same thing happened as we were putting up the tent tonight; two young men stopped and gave us a good healthy meal.

GARY: The young men were the ones who had sent some food to us through a man who is riding around Australia on a horse (see day fourteen). They wanted to take pictures of us when they stopped earlier in the day, then they returned later with a bag of things they had put together for us. One of them said at his church they pray for us at all their meetings. That was encouraging.

CHRIS: A leader from the Church of Christ travelling on a motorcycle stopped and encouraged us this morning. A bag of oranges was sitting on the side of the road for us today.

ROLS: Today a Pentecostal church leader from Victoria stopped to give us coffee and biscuits. He prayed out loud when a truck driver stopped to give us biscuits. The truck driver wasn't into praying out loud, but the Pentecostal still tried to make him a part of his praying show. The truck driver must have been really turned off! I don't think the church leader understands Matthew 6:5-6. Rob and I smiled at the truck driver to show we do not agree with praying out loud as a way of showing we are better than other people, like the Pentecostal man was doing.

GARY: A young man and woman on their way to Eucla stopped today to take a picture of us. They returned later from the border petrol station with bread and food to go on it. We've all had our fill of food today, even Roland, who has a stomach without a bottom in it!

RACHEL: We went to a place where you can look out at the ocean. We stayed there for 15 minutes. The ocean was very beautiful. I was on the pram for a short time today. Malcolm was on for a long time. He was having a good laugh when he was riding.

DANE: The sun going down was very beautiful today-like gold, with pink cotton-like clouds. We were able to find timber quickly for the fire tonight and had a good sleep under a warm, cloud-filled sky.

DAY THIRTY-ONE: Wednesday, June 5.

(Walked 17.5 miles to Eucla)

RACHEL: Last night Chris and Roland were out by the fire, and the others of us in the tent. Malcolm said he was not able to sleep well with five people squeezed together in one little tent. We were up at 6am. A car stopped and asked if we had any food to eat. We said no. He said we could have a meal with him before we start walking.

GARY: The man was a Buddhist priest, and he asked us to come back to where he had a fire going. We had a good meal there and then he carried us in his car back to where we left off.

DANE: I think the important truths run through all the world's biggest religions: To love God (or Truth) with all that you have, and to love one another too.

CHRIS: We arrived at the border petrol station at 10:45am. We had a special fruit drink together as a way of thanking God for having helped us to walk this far. Some Muslim men from Pakistan came over to talk to us. They say they are not Christians, but they agreed very much with what we're trying to show by the walk. At the same time, some people who said they were Christians came over and argued with us, saying it is wrong for us to use the newspapers to tell people about the walk! They agreed that they were wrong in loving money, but then said that they do not have to change their actions because they are Christians. This is what made Gandhi not want to become a Christian.

GARY: The Muslims said what we are doing is the same as their beliefs. They were very nice. They are from a very serious branch of Islam. They gave us some special Muslim chicken, and eggs. We had some people come out with a Bible trying to show that we are wrong. It was just like the difference between the church leaders who were fighting against Jesus when he was on the earth and the people from a different religion who helped him.

DANE: A Buddhist gave us our first meal, Muslims gave us our second meal, and people with a Bible gave us arguments!

ROB: After talking to the Muslims and Christians we had a meeting with people who are riding bicycles across the country as part of an action to make people think about stopping wars.

GARY: From the border we still had eight miles to walk to Eucla. Then, less than a mile from Eucla, a man stopped and said we could have free rooms at the hotel where he works in Eucla.

CHRIS It was 3:45pm when we arrived in Eucla. We stopped at the police station to receive some letters that were waiting there for us, and to tell the head policeman that we had arrived. This is the policeman that a radio station had said was going to put us in prison if we could not show him that we had enough food to feed us between here and Norseman (See Day Twenty-four). But when we were standing there in front of him, face to face, he acted like he was afraid of us and he didn't know what to say.

GARY: The man from the hotel (Stan) gave us the keys to our rooms when we arrived at the petrol station. He was very friendly. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Volchk, live in Perth, but they just happened to be in Eucla this week. Mrs. Volchk said we could eat at their restaurant for free at 6:30pm. We all had a wash and then a car came down with a bag of food sent to us by someone at Mundrabilla.

CHRIS: The person who put the food in the bag did a very good job. It had muesli bars, dry fruit, salt biscuits and sweet biscuits, cooked meat, bread, tins of beans, cheese, powdered milk, two shirts, big plastic bags, socks, and under-clothes.

GARY: After washing up we went to the restaurant for our meal. Mrs. Volchk and Stan showed special interest in us, bringing food to us themselves and doing all that they could to make us feel important. One worker even called Rachel madam! We were all surprised at the special love we received. But listen to this: On Sunday someone had said I should think seriously before asking God for something, because he often gives it. Laughingly, I had said, "How about cheese-cake and pasta?" I remembered it again and said something about it just before coming into the restaurant. Mrs. Volchk then said we could eat anything we wanted, so I asked for some pasta! Then she asked, "What about sweets?" So I asked for cheese-cake! And we received them both. They gave us two bottles of wine, one white and one red. The red one was very good mixed with lemon soft drink. Mr. and Mrs. Volchk were very nice, and they asked us to return for another meal tomorrow night. What a meal!

ROB: After drinking two glasses of red wine, I was called out to do an interview with a reporter from Adelaide. The interview went well, but I do not think I will drink before an interview in the future! It's too difficult to think clearly.

DANE: A government man came 600 miles from Perth to "look in" on us, with special interest in Rachel. He talked for a short time with Roland and myself after we arrived, and said he would see us later. We did see him when we were eating and drinking our fill of expensive food and wine in the restaurant, but that's all. No interviews. No nothing. I think he could see that we were all in very good shape, and Rachel was not in any danger.

CHRIS: I did a telephone interview with a radio station in Perth at 8pm. When I was on the telephone the friendliest of the women riding in the bicycle group gave us $5 without her friends knowing. I pray that God does something nice for her for doing that!

ROB: We did not know if it was right to take the $5, because we had just finished a five-star meal and were going to sleep in the best rooms in Eucla, and the bicycle riders were sleeping out in tents. In some ways they needed it more than us.

Christine and I had a long talk with the hotel owners. It was about their life as prisoners of war and about the first white people to live in the middle of Australia.

ROLS: The owners are from Germany. They went through the war. They said the one important truth they learned was that you must fight to stay alive. Looking at how kind they are, it is difficult to believe that staying alive is really all they are interested in!

DAY THIRTY-TWO: Thursday, June 6.

(Rest day in Eucla)

RACHEL: We had a warm night's sleep in the hotel. Roland and Dane washed clothes this morning.

GARY: On our last rest day I used too much time washing clothes, fixing meals, and doing other jobs, so I'm having a full rest today. Malcolm ran down to the beach and back this morning and said it is nice. It's three miles away but I'm thinking about going.

DANE: All but Roland and I went to the beach at 1pm. Roland and I think an hour's walk each way is too much like work, so we played chess between taking a few short walks around here. I received a 45-minute call from my wife today. God is so good!

ROLS: Dane's wife works with people who argue against the walk. Some of her other friends are more understanding. I had a very easy day today. At one time I listened to the loud cry of a crow. It sounded so stupid that I asked why would God make a sound like that? I think he did it for a laugh.

GARY: Rob, Chris, Rachel, Mal and I went down to the beach. It was good to play on the sand hills. We pushed the pram down, hiding it in the bushes when we were playing. When we came back it had oranges in it!

CHRIS: We're now on the beach. We walked out on the jetty, tested the water (too cold to swim), and looked at shells and other things on the beach. It's nice out here listening to the waves and birds without any noise from cars or other people.

ROB: What is left of an old building that was out here in the past wasn't too interesting, but the sand hills are good. We are all going well spiritually. There are a few old problems that could come up again. But it's good to be over half-way through the walk.

RACHEL: We came back to the hotel at 6pm. We had another nice meal, then we had a Bible study. I am feeling happy after going to the beach.

CHRIS: When we were at the restaurant, a woman asked if we were the walkers. After learning that we were, she gave Rachel and me $1 (Rs25) each.

GARY: Now people are saying the country from here to Norseman is even worse than the Nullarbor.

CHRIS: We find that we have more than enough time to talk about things when we're walking, but we're always short of time for things like writing letters and stitching and washing clothes. I find that much of the time when I'm walking I feel half asleep. I think it's because it is difficult to think about all that is happening all of the time.