IN THE same way as the apostles were sent out, Ben Bradshaw took
no food or drink with him when he set off on a 25-mile walk on a
day when the temperature was more than 30°C. He hopes to be made
deacon in Exeter Cathedral in September, and he
was walking the entire parish boundary of the Braunton Mission
Community, in Exeter diocese, where he will be assistant
curate.
Currently, he is working there as a lay minister with the
Priest-in-Charge of Braunton, the Revd Ann Thorne (above),
who will be his training incumbent after his three years of
training for ministry at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield.
(He hopes to be an Oblate of the Community of the
Resurrection).
His walk through fields and along Devon beaches was a
fund-raising one to raise money for St Brannock's, Braunton, which
needs more than £7000 to complete its urgent roof repairs; and -
the last I heard - he had already received more than £1000.
His faith in the kindness of strangers was justified when he met
a farmer who invited him home and "gave me a good meal and lots of
squash - I had seven glasses in a row." He was very tired by the
end of the nine-hour walk, and badly bitten by bugs.