Storm-Trooper Walks across Australia

His once sparkling white armor is dusty, weather-beaten and cracking; he has welts behind his knees and elbows and the skin on his stomach and back is rubbed raw. But the storm-trooper keeps trudging, pushing his rickety three-wheeled trolley along the edge of the Eyre Hwy, every step taking him closer to his goal of walking 5000km from Perth to Sydney. This trooper is one of the good guys using his trek to fundraise for the Starlight Children’s Foundation, so far raising more than $45,000.

Inside the costume is Jacob French, 21, from Bussleton, WA, a sales rep at Harvey Norman and member of the 501st Legion enthusiasts who dress as Star Wars characters for good causes.

Trekking about 45km each day, Jacob raises an armored hand to salute every vehicle which honks; amused truck drivers and curious tourists pull over for photos and then make a donation. He is stopped so often that his trip has blown out by almost three months.

“Based on my original time frame I should be finishing up any day now, instead I’ve still got months to go and another 3000km but it’s been worth it because the support keeps me going and I wanted to get the message out there,” Jacob said.

Jacob has battled heavy thunderstorms, when his shoes and socks stayed wet for weeks, and sweltered under extreme 39 degree days where his armor is too hot to touch.

Under his suit he wears black “ladies tights” and a long-sleeved rash vest, which aren’t enough to stop the “armor kisses” where the skin is pinched behind his knees and elbows. On a shoe-string budget, he camps in rest areas off the highway, rolling out his swag and setting up his little cooker to make noodles, porridge or coffee.

He admits there have been times, out alone by the side of the road when stops to pull out his deckchair and munch on crackers where he wonders why on earth he’s doing this.

Particularly on his 21st birthday on November 12, when he was near the Nullarbor, suffering march fly bites before a thunderstorm hit, and no phone reception to speak to his girlfriend, his parents or his five brothers and sisters.

“Coming across the Nullarbor, there was a week where I barely saw anyone and I’m trekking along in storm-trooper costume across the edge of the desert in 35 degree heat going ‘I must be crazy to do this’,” he said. “Because there was no one else around to tell you otherwise, you start to believe it.”

But he says the people he’s met and the amazing experiences, including playing at the Nullarbor Links golf course, being pulled over by police who pretended to arrest him and climbing the 50m tall Diamond Tree, near Manjimup, have made the trip the time of his life.

Lord Said No

I asked Lord to take away my bad habit.

Lord said, No.
It is not for Me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked Lord to make my handicapped child whole.

Lord said, No.
His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary.

I asked Lord to grant me patience.

Lord said, No.
Patience is a byproduct of tribulations; it isn’t granted, it is learned.

I asked Lord to give me happiness.

Lord said, No.
I give you blessings; happiness is up to you.

I asked Lord to spare me pain.

Lord said, No.
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares, and brings you closer to Me.

I asked Lord to make my spirit grow.

Lord said, No.
You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked Lord for all things that I might enjoy life.

Lord said, No.
I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.

…

I asked Lord to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me.

Lord said …
Ah, finally you have the idea.

To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world. Good friends are like stars, you don’t always see them, but you know they are always there. This day is yours, don’t throw it away.

Together We Can Make It

 

Bob lost his legs in a land mine explosion in Vietnam. He returned home a war hero. Twenty years later, he was working in his garage on a hot summer day when he heard a woman’s screams coming from a nearby house. He rolled his wheelchair toward the house, but the dense shrubbery wouldn’t allow him access to the back door. So the veteran got out of his chair and crawled through the dirt and bushes.

When Bob arrived at the house, he traced the screams to the pool, where a three-year-old girl was lying at the bottom. She had been born without arms and had fallen in the water and couldn’t swim. Her mother stood over her baby screaming frantically. Bob dove to the bottom of the pool and brought the little girl up to the deck. Her face was blue, she had no pulse and she was not breathing.

Bob immediately went to work performing CPR to revive her while her mother telephoned the fire department. She was told the paramedics were already out on a call. Helplessly, she sobbed and hugged Bob’s shoulder.

As Bob continued with his CPR, he calmly reassured the mother. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I was her arms to get out of the pool. It’ll be okay. I’m now her lungs. Together we can make it.”

Seconds later, the little girl coughed, regained consciousness and began to cry. As they hugged and rejoiced together, the mother asked Bob how he knew it would be okay.

“When my legs were blown off in the war, I was all alone in a field,” he told her. “No one was there to help except a little Vietnamese girl. As she struggled to drag me into her village, she whispered in broken English, ‘It okay. You can live. I be your legs. Together we make it.’ ”

“This was my chance,” he told the mother, “to return the favor.”