Our "Walk Across America" team just crossed the Colorado border. Their phone transmission continues to be erratic. Flip's voice faded in and out as he described the magnificence of the surrounding cliffs, canyons, buttes and plateaus. He said this extremely remote and lonely, but gloriously beautiful place is where the real metal of a person is tested. He said being here is all a part of obedience to what God has given them. His voice had a lilt and he sounded terrifically upbeat, while saying this. Reaching Colorado had obviously given him a real morale boost.
He told me a little more about their time in Green River, Utah, mentioning that, before the turn of the 20th century, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid used to drive their (stolen) herds through Green River. Cassidy was the son of pioneer Mormons. He and his partners are noted for putting together the longest sequence of successful bank and train robberies in the history of the American West.
"Easter was special," Flip said. "There was a fella, whose name I can't tell you, who came on Good Friday to take us all to dinner. On his way to see us," Flip said, "someone gave him a gift. After the sunrise service where we watched this beautiful sunrise over the buttes, he presented it to us." Flip said, "He divided it between all of us. He didn't keep anything for himself. It was an act full of grace," he said. "When grace like that fills a heart, gratitude drives the ministry."
"Now who else," he asked, "gave a gift like that?" The experience was a gentle reminder, he said, of how much God loves us. As I rang off, the saints had almost reached Grand Junction, CO, and everyone was anticipating being in civilization again.
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