X

Kyrgyzstan

1992

When we got to the border the police said we couldn’t cross and were told to go back. They made a big X with their arms like road closed. We pointed to the city lights ahead and motioned like we wanted to sleep and said “hotel”. By sign language they seemed to say go sleep but come back tomorrow. My Lord is saying,
“Go on!”

Lake Toktogul: Carried the 12-foot cross in these high mountain valleys. The walk is fabulous. Snow-capped mountains and a lush green valley surround us. The people are of the Mongolian and Chinese type. People live in tents or small hut and were afraid of us except when we approached them very slowly. When we spent
the night parked near some houses the people came bringing us food. When we ate it they would return with more. I almost burst from drinking so much yogurt and sour milk. There are cowboys in beautiful dress. Often the cattle or sheep herds totally block the highway. I stopped walking today and we drove high over an 11,765-foot mountain pass. It was a difficult road with huge rock and rock slides. The snow along the roadside was very deep. We had our first flat, tore a big hole in the tire climbing rocks in the road.

Thank you Jesus, we made it to the border with Kazakhstan.
During much of 1992 my wife, Denise and I carried the cross through Russia and all of the former USSR. The USSR was just breaking up after the fall of communism. We only had a tourist visa for two weeks in Russia and no permit for the Land Rover and no visa for any of the other countries! Jesus got us through all the borders and checkpoints with no visa or permit. We made it through over 250-armed roadblocks. God led us to places to fill up with gas, as only a few gas stations were open the entire trip. We went from extreme cold and snow to the desert heat all in one historic and glorious trip. The impossible had happened. The cross was carried in all the USSR. All glory to God. Many were saved as the cross was carried in all of these nations.

Denise drove the 4×4 Land Rover. She would drive up the road a few miles and wait for me to arrive carrying the 12-foot cross. I would have something to drink and eat and then walk on. In most of these nations we would drive part of the way and then carry the cross a few days or a week or so. We had Bibles and gospel material in Russian and local languages. The Land Rover was also towing a small trailer with food and the gospel materials. We carried many cans of gas on the Land Rover and inside was a stove. We slept in a pop-up tent on top the Land Rover. When we left England we drove and went by ship to Finland. We crossed over to Estonia and made a complete loop around the USSR and then drove back via Poland and back to England. We drove almost 11,000 miles and I walked many hundreds of miles in the USSR.

In order we carried the cross in the following countries:

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Trans-Dnestr, Moldova,
Crimea, Abkhazia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Siberia and Russia.

Jesus did it. All glory to God.

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,

Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1