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Canary Islands

1973, 1995, 1997

I have carried the cross in the Canary Islands three different times.

Carried the cross around La Palma in 1973 on my way to West Africa.

Somehow I have lost the photos of the walk with the cross in 1973.

It was a glorious crosswalk around the island of La Palma. My family was with me. Some of my children walked with me each day. It was a great blessing to be with my children Gina, Joel, Joy and Joshua.

We had huge crowds of people and great press coverage. I had been carrying the cross in Spain and the same news is shown here. I had local interpreters all the time and prayed with crowds of people each day to come to know and follow Jesus as Savior and Lord.

I had just carried the cross in Morocco and came over here on a ship with my Land Rover. I was trying to get to West Africa. I kept trying to get a place on a ship for anywhere in West Africa. One day I got permission to put the cross on the deck of a ship going to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

This was my launching point for my mission to carry the cross across Africa.

I carried the cross again in the Canary Islands in 1995 as we disembarked from our ship after visiting all the south Atlantic islands. We arrived at Puerto de La Cruz:

All the South Atlantic Islands
Falkland Islands, South Georgia Islands, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena, Ascension, Cape Verde and The Canary Islands: For just over a month my wife, Denise and I carried the cross in these six remote Atlantic Islands. It was one of the most glorious trips filled with awesome beauty in nature. There was the peace of being at sea and experiencing the wonder of God’s creation.

We flew into the Falkland Islands from Chile. Carried the cross in the Falklands and then boarded a ship to take us to the other islands of this trip. The name of the ship was “The Explorer.” It held about a hundred people. Most of the passengers were members of the Century Travelers Club.

The way it worked was for us to sail for a day or two or even a week to an island group. Then we would go ashore by Zodiac (small rubber boat). Zodiacs would go back and forth from the landing to the ship. Most of the time it was very difficult and dangerous to get on the Zodiac because it was bobbing up and down in the water. You had to go down the side of the ship on some shaky steps then leap onto the little boat. We would wait until last so we could have the cross handed down to us on the bouncing boat! Ha

The cross is six foot across and twelve foot long.

The crew was so nice to us and happy to have the cross on board. Most were Catholic from the Philippines. They asked me to do a special mass for them. We planned it and most of the crew came and heard me speak of Jesus and salvation and they prayed to receive Jesus. Then we had the Bread and Wine of Holy Communion! The people of the Century Travelers Club wanted to hear us so we spoke to that group one day. Two of the travelers gave their lives to Jesus.

On board the ship both Denise and I were seasick most of the time! On land we were great but get the ship rocking and we were ill. Only Jesus could get me to do something like this. This was not one of the big cruise ships but an old icebreaker used most of the time in Antarctica.This was our home for a month. We loved it, praise God. What a privilege to carry the cross in the remote Atlantic Islands.

We were in the Canary Islands once again in 1997 on our way to the nation of Western Sahara .

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,

Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1