Sleeping rough and the wrong kind of snow.
Jerusalem - The Old City
We are aware of the great lengths many go to, to fundraise for Mary’s Meals. But surely few have gone so far as Jamie Bruce who has just completed a walk from Bristol to Jerusalem!
Walking from Bristol to Walsingham last year – 180 miles – Jamie arrived at his destination in time to meet the visiting Archbishop of Jerusalem. Amongst other things the Patriarch discussed pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and suddenly inspiration struck. Jamie would walk to Jerusalem.
A few days later he was discussing his plans with a friend he hoped would join him on the trip. The friend declined but what he did was give Jamie’s trip a new purpose, he suggested that if sponsored he could make a lot of money for a charity. The thought of Mary’s Meals instantly came to Jamie – who is a cousin of the MacFarlane-Barrow family and aware of the charity through family ties.
The plans for the trip took shape and, on the 1st of January 2010, he set off. Walking through one of the coldest winters in decades Jamie said he discovered what is meant by the “wrong kind of snow.” Wet snow that turns to slush when it hits the ground, that soaks through your boots and your clothes and freezes. But out of the snow he discovered something else, generosity and hospitality; in the freezing winter strangers opened their homes to him and took him in as he wondered his way across Europe.
Trusting in providence and sleeping rough most nights often in freezing conditions Jamie made his way to Jerusalem. He set off on the Solemnity of the Mother of God and arrived in Jerusalem six months later on the 24th of June – the birthday of St John the Baptist. He says the pervading lesson of the trip was this “if we do our best God will do the rest.” Time and again he says on the brink of despair he would find new wells of hospitality or new reserves of strength to continue with his journey.
Back in the UK he arrived back to find he raised around £2000. And all those miles don’t seem to have dampened his enthusiasm, when I asked if he would ever do something like this again he couldn’t have been more positive, “I’ve been toying with the idea of Russia to Mexico overland” he said, “or maybe if that’s too crazy the Camino in Spain.”
Congratulations enjoy your well-earned rest Jamie and a huge thank you from all here at Mary’s Meals.
