Following the Mississippi

In Lake Providence (population 5,000) in Louisiana we had a small but moving ceremony with Mayor Isaac Fields, Dr. Curtis Baham of the city offices, and Clara Moore from the Lake Providence High School.

The Mayor spoke with such depth and understanding of our message of world harmony beginning with the individual. He said that “The torch you bear is one of honor and integrity” as he encouraged us to go forth with conviction.

Dr. Baham told us a bit of the history of Lake Providence and how it got its name. Being an ‘oxbow lake’ of the Mississippi River, it was once part of the river but eventually became isolated from the main river flow. When it was part of the mighty Mississippi proper, pirates would raid some of the many trade ships that moved up and down the river. People began to say that it was only an act of Providence that could keep ships safe past this point.

The mayor also treated us to drinks and pastries at Jehovah Java—a nice little local café— which was just down the street. Owned and operated by Don and Linda Boyett, this fine café offers gourmet coffees, smoothies, teas, cakes and muffins. It is also used as a study hall for students, a meeting place for various groups, and has free wireless internet which we took advantage of this morning before our run to send you yesterday’s stories and photos.

Locals kept coming in as we spent over an hour there working and enjoying the food and coffee. We met everyone who entered and we made many new friends ranging from ages 1 year to 86 years young.

Gracie was the one year old who delighted everyone with her sweet smile. Lucy Honeycutt was the 86 year old who also delighted us with her sweetness and even ran a few steps with the torch as we were leaving.

We want to offer our gratitude to Don and Linda, Mayor Fields, Dr. Bahan, and all the locals like Don and Matt, Rachel and Gracie, Dale and Bonnie, Lucy and John and others who made our short stay in Lake Providence a truly delightful and memorable one.

They even offered us accommodations for next year which we gratefully accepted.

The other two running teams had to cover mileage on other parts of our 86 mile route today. The women’s team ran through Eudora, Arkansas and met with a few people there. The other men’s team ran through Greenville, Mississippi and were greeted by a local runner and two television stations, the local ABC and CBS affiliates. Due to the rain and chilly weather more people who were scheduled to come and join us could not make it. But this does not discourage us or lessen the importance of those who did stop to share with us the ideals of harmony and goodwill as a cornerstone to a better world.

We are also grateful to the Khambhati family, Hemant, Minakshi and Rakhee who discounted our rooms for the night at the Relax Inn of Greenville.

Rakhee, age 13, also delighted us with her trumpet playing and even performed our World Harmony Run theme song with us. She definitely has a promising future as a musician and performer.

Life along the Mississippi can be quite exciting as well as scenic. A sense of harmony is quite powerful and evident from such a body of flowing water as is the Mississippi River.

We look forward to seeing it many more times on our journey as well as meeting many more people who are influenced by its natural greatness.

The team

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