World Traveler for Jesus Visits Mississippi College
It's a homecoming of sorts for the Colorado-based Blessitt, who attended MC for three years. His last year as a student at Baptist-affiliated MC campus was in 1963.
"I walk for Jesus!," Blessitt says. "At 5 a.m. one morning, Jesus spoke to me, 'Arthur, take the cross off the wall of your building, carry the cross on foot...identify the message on the highways, and roadsides where the people are,'" Blessitt says on his Web site. "I go with the cross, Jesus and love to people not just as a walker or traveler or adventurer, but as a pilgrim."
A movie about his ministry that's taken him to all seven Continents, including Antarctica, was recently distributed to theaters and churches. His journey for Jesus has spanned more than 38,000 miles. The Guinness Book of World Records 1996-2008 lists this as "The World's Longest Walk."
He's carried the cross to such places as Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, India, Cuba, Israel, and on the streets of New York and Hollywood. Evangelist Billy Graham once walked with him, and Pope John Paul II welcomed him to Rome. He began carrying the cross on short walks along Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in the Spring of 1968. He began carrying the cross across America on Christmas Day 1969.
During his visit to the nation's second oldest Baptist college, Blessitt will speak to MC students at chapel services at First Baptist Church in Clinton on Tuesday Oct. 20 starting at 10:50 a.m. He will return for chapel at the same time at First Baptist Church in Clinton on Oct. 23. He also will speak at Country Woods Baptist Church in Byram at 6 p.m. Wednesday Oct. 21.
Thousands of radio listeners will want to mark their calendars. Blessitt is booked for a 7:20 a.m. interview on STAR 93.5, the MC campus radio station on Wednesday Oct. 21.
His visit to MC is the first in many years for Blessitt. The MC Office of Christian Development led by vice president Eric Pratt is sponsoring his trip to the Clinton campus. For more information, contact Pratt at 601.925.3235.
Sign-up For Our Newsletter
Get the latest news about Mississippi College delivered right to your inbox by subscribing to the Along College Street e-newsletter.
