Scott Westcott speaks during Sunday's service at Westside Chapel in Cheney during his walk across the United States to raise money for an orphanage in Kenya.
He is not the first person to walk across America.
But he might be the first person to do so with a goat.
And he might be the first person to walk across America, with a goat, for the sake of another continent.
Steve Westcott is a 36-year-old man, raised in Spokane, who has dabbled in skate boarding, toured Russia with a band called "Buddy Ruckus" and attended a Bible college in Seattle. Then, five years ago, in what might seem to some a non sequitur leap, he decided to walk across America - to raise money for a mission in Kenya.
Westcott spoke Sunday, Jan. 11, for the worship service at Westside Chapel in Cheney. There, he spoke of his traveling buddy, and also of a new found sense of mission the project in Kenya has brought him.
His first companion of choice was his dog Louie, but the dog was suddenly injured a month before the journey commenced. Then someone suggested a goat and, well, the rest is history. Now Westcott makes his way across the fruited plain with a goat named LeeRoy.
The mission Westcott walks for is Uzima (Swahili for "life"), a unique Christian addiction rehab facility located outside of Nairobi. As their Web site explains, it is "a twofold ministry reaching not only addicted adults, but the neglected and orphaned children of the addicted as well."
While in drug rehab, clients are also taught skills for working and for starting their own business. When they complete their time at the facility, they're able to support themselves and contribute to society.
The facility helps addicts find their way to a fruitful life, but truth be told, the real heart grabber is Uzima's care for children - children of addicts, orphans and children on the street. And, as Westcott explains, that's what puts a sense of passion for this project in him.
The outreach is currently in crisis mode, having only until March 1 to come up with a new facility, due to a recently imposed "move" order from the local Kenyan government. Seems there's an expanded highway project that will encroach upon the children's facility, not to mention the fact that their building is just too small to house the growing number of kids looking for a safe home.
And therein lies what might be the real guts of this story. When Westcott first decided to take up this walk it was, in his words, "an attempt to run away" from the realities of life. He'd spent a substantial portion of life wandering, flitting from one endeavor to another. He'd looked for attention, sought affirmation.
Then, the encounters and experiences of the road tossed an epiphany his way: true life is finding a calling more timeless than one's own desires, a purpose bigger than one's emotional needs. Ironically, in seeking to help a "mission" in a faraway land, he found one for his own life.
If you would like to know more about Westcott's walk and the Uzima mission, go to his website at needle2square.com.
Terry Roberts is the pastor of Westside Chapel in Cheney.
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