The Cross

On May 17, 2008, Arthur Blessitt walked his 38,102nd mile in Zanzibar, off of the coast of Tanzania, completing a journey that began in 1969. Arthur started walking with a twelve-foot cross on December 25, 1969 and has successfully carried a large wooden cross into every nation and major island group of the world. This book reads like a travelogue as you journey with Arthur in country after country. You'll begin with Arthur's initial call from God to carry a cross from Hollywood, where he was known as the minister of Sunset Strip, across America to its capital, Washington, DC. You'll go with Arthur as he hacks his way through the Darien Jungle from Panama to Colombia. You'll join Arthur and his son, Joshua, as they take the cross to South Africa in 1986. You'll be moved by the stories of how God used them to bring people spiritual, physical and relational healing during the final tumultuous days of racial apartheid. You'll trek with Arthur and his wife, Denise, as they cross desert sands to take the cross to Saudi Arabia when the nation was closed to tourists and as they walk with the cross in the various regions of the former USSR just weeks after its collapse. As Arthur has traveled around the world, he has found the cross to be a universal symbol of God's love that can be understood in spite of language and cultural barriers. He writes, Perhaps I'm the only person in history who has been physically shaped by the weight of a cross. But the changes the cross has brought to my physical body are not important. What is important is how the cross has changed my life and the lives of so many others, from the inside out.