05. Aug 2025

Stockbridge - Eastleigh

Video: "Milestone 51 Days - Halfway Point"

Photo 1: "Dehairing the nose and ears"

I could not believe it. It actually rained a bit in the early morning. My tent was still damp when I got up. I got it dried and the plastic groundsheet was drying nicely while I ate my breakfast. I was just about to pack everything away when a cloudburst came... hard rain for ten minutes. I covered all my things with the groundsheet to keep it dry, then started all over again to get the groundsheet mostly dry before packing it. This set me back in my time schedule. I arrived in Stockbridge right when the barber shop opened. I had been thinking about getting a hair cut, and decided to go in, since there were no other customers there and I would not have to wait. The barber was a young man named Palo from Kurdistan - Region Iraq. His English was not the best, so when he asked me if I wanted to have my nose and ears cleanen, I said yes, thinking like always that the hair on my ears and by my nose would be cut away. Before I knew it, this warm brown stuff, wax, was put in my nose with ear cleares, and in and on my ears with strings. After a short moment the wax became hard. Pola pulled out the wax from my nose with the ear cleanen and rippen the wax off my ears with the strings. All nose and ear hairs were instantly gone. I never had that done before!

Photo 2: "Palo the barber"
As best as I could, I shared with Palo about Isa (Jesus) and encouraged him to get to know what Isa said in the Injil (Gospel). I told him that I was a Christian Imam (spiritual leader) and offered to pray for him which he accepted. I prayed God's blessings to be with him, his family and business, for healing in his home country, and that he would know the peace that Isa has come to give him, to connect his heart with God's. Palo then gave me a bottle of cold water which I drank right away... and did not charge me for cleaning the nose and ears!

Photo 3+4: Some real nice foot paths today, and a lot was in the shade.

Photo 5: "Old church and graveyard"

Mistakes happen. This one almost put me on the street for the night. I reserved a room at a cheap townhouse, but did so for the night before and not today. Fortunately the owner was willing to allow me to stay, even though it meant changing rooms for another guest. I met a very nice couple, Charlie and Carla, at the house. They had been camping and wanted to make a Sunday roast this evening to have a nice cooked meal. It was also the anniversary of the death of Carla's father. They said that my story inspired them and they wanted me to be their guest for dinner. I gladly accepted and said that I was celebrating the halfway milestone in my journey and that I only had canned vegetable soup with canned tuna the night before. I shared with them more from my life and pilgrim paths. Charlie said at first that he was an athiest. Both had had pain and loss in life. When I prayed for them, though, tears came to their eyes. I think they expierenced the presence of Jesus, maybe for the first time. It was a God-appointment.