Days 15-18: 28th -31st July Benfleet to Barling Hall Farm, Barling

It would be so easy to jump straight into writing about what took place these last four days as we walked the 26 miles between Benfleet Station and Barling Hall Farm (and I will do it later, I promise) but first…in light of my last posting on memories, I want to go back a couple of weeks to a hot tense Friday evening in Southend when a song of praise erupted as a prophetic minstrel - Godfrey B - embedded a radical idea in our minds.

The radical idea was memory too – that of the wild goose as the Celtic church’s symbol of Holy Spirit. The call was a honking song that rose up and flew over the town and the land, calling all wild geese to rise and join the arrow as it sped across the Land of the East Saxons. The minstrel, a seasoned traveller in these islands, had brought his guitar to sing over us; creating something new in the spirit realm – calling the church back to the ancient apostolic path our little team are walking through our county. Some there had little thought other than it was a rousing song but it resonated deeply within many as the minstrel took us out over the edge of the land, wheeling and gliding on the warmth of God's thermals. With nothing beneath us, we soared in the heavenlies, picturing perhaps for the first time what it must have been like for the ancient Celts as they spoke the word of the Lord and witnessed the resurrection power released by Jesus. Yay, Abba! How many of us have this as our reality? We do call for this in Essex, Lord.

Four solid days is a long time to walk the land for rather unfit middle-aged women...but the Lord knows - I woke up on Sunday morning with a song in my heart for our first day:

I wanna see Jesus lifted high,

A banner that flies across this land

That all men might see the truth and know

He is the way to heaven!

Step by step we're moving forward

Little by little we're taking ground

Every prayer a powerful weapon

Strongholds come tumbling down and down and down...

It was a unique experience to sing this at a watchtower and strategic stronghold for the south east of England - one that had actually tumbled down! Bless Mick S for providing music - he's another prophetic minstrel who can create songs without words and let our spirits rise free and strong. He strummed on his guitar weaving in and out of our group like a wandering pilgrim, making a sweet sound for the Lord and the picnickers who watched us with curious smiles.

Again, the Salvation Army's Mount Zion hosted us for lunch at Table 1 (left) - bless them for providing such a haven in such excessive heat - 30 degrees! We had been joined by one or two Turn of the Tiders, part of prayer network along the South Essex coast. Tim, Gary and Roy stood in the heat with us to worship. Thanks guys! Ruth and Kathy had come (respectively) from Southend and Grays to walk to the boundary of Castle Point (Avril's territory).

Sweating our way to Leigh on Sea later, we were glad it was downhill all the way until we came across a single Mulberry tree, drooping and laden with sweet ripe fruit that Avril ate until her hands were red. I remembered the mulberry trees in 2 Samuel 5.24 and wondered if the Lord was saying the timing was now right to retry walking Vange Marshes...

Avril had to scamper a bit to catch up with us as we forged into Leigh Town and towards the Southend seafront, awash with holidaymakers and chips, ice creams and Police Community Support Officers until we reached the massive obelisk that marks the boundary between the Port of London Authority and the Thames Estuary - the Crowstone (right).

Its twin - the London Stone - sits in Kentish mud the other side of the estuary. Standing muddily at this huge boundary marker, we were blessed as we left Castle Point and blessed as we entered Southend. Our first day's walking ended there.

The second began where the first ended, as Linda and I paced the longest pleasure pier in the world - 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back - (left) while Gerry and Margaret rode the train.

The pier tea room proved strategic in more ways than one as we realised(!) that the Lord had co-ordinated everything. He had asked me to bring salt to the pier's end. He had told Linda to 'establish and decree' over the town. The day before, as I packed my rucksack, my eye had fallen on a list of scriptures by David V, one of which the Lord highlighted to me. It was 2 Kings 2.19-22 - again! As I poured salt out of a new cup into the estuary waters, we again declared this scripture, establishing and decreeing a healing of the waters of Southend.

After visiting several other sites in the district, we finished at the Kursaal (German for 'cure hall') establishing and decreeing 'a place of healing'. We asked God for a sign that Southend was shifting and the following day, an evening BBC News report featured a council representative standing on the pier declaring 'renewal' for the town and pier. Again, I say, Yay Abba! Now we look for things to happen.

More to follow...