Congratulations to the participants of the 2012 Walk to Jerusalem Challenge. Six of the 11 Kansas United Methodist districts made it to the “Holy Land,” with Salina District symbolically making the trip five times.
The challenge was to have each district walk 6,759 miles, the distance from Kansas to Jerusalem, from Jan. 15 to April 15. The thousands of steps logged were divided by 2,000—the approximate equivalent to one mile—to produce the mileage estimate.
The Salina District participants walked the equivalent of 34,936 miles or 5.1 trips to the Holy Land.
Five Rivers District followed with 26,325 miles or 3.8 trips to Jerusalem. Topeka District logged 21,622 miles or 3.1 trips, Hutchinson District had 19,572 miles or 2.8 trips, Wichita East District logged 12,411 miles or 1.8 trips and Flint Hills District participants had 7,526 miles.
Every district participated, although not all achieved the 6,759 miles to Jerusalem.
The church with the highest percentage of average-worship-attendance participation was Concordia First United Methodist Church with 101 participants for 82 percent participation. The Stull UMC-Lecompton UMC charge was close behind with 28 participants for 62 percent participation.
A new challenge, the Kanaska Walk Challenge, will begin June 1 and continue through Sept. 1.
United Methodists in Kansas are invited to participate as the Kansas conferences and the Nebraska Conference come under the direction of one bishop this fall. District superintendents, pastors and lay members are challenged to walk and pray over the 159,640 square miles that cover the states of Kansas and Nebraska.
Kanaska Prayer and Walk Challenge fliers have been electronically distributed to each church and are available to download from the conference website at www.kswestumc.org/HealthandWellness.
This challenge is different from the ones in the past, since the conferences are not competing against one another but joining together to meet this challenge.
For more information, contact Rev. Lisa Thompson at ldwthompson@gmail.com. Include “Kanaska” in the subject line.
