NEW WEST, Alabama – There is a teenager from Enterprise who is walking across Alabama to help missionaries.
Grason Wallace, 17, is a fighter. After two terrible accidents when he was young, it wasn’t clear if he would ever walk again.
Wallace thinks the 218-mile trip is worth it.
Wallace said, “I really thought God was telling me to do it.” “I’m going to get as much money as I can.”
Wallace goes to the First Assembly of God in Enterprise.
He’s walking to raise money for Speed the Light, a group that helps missions all over the world.
She said, “I’m glad I can do it and give back to those who have given up so much.”
Wallace is going on the trip with missionary Brad Sasser and his student leader Tyler Sawyer.
Sawyer said, “I thought, ‘This is going to be hard.’ But if this is what God wants us to do, we’ll definitely do it.'”
They began their journey in Silas, which is in the very farthest areas of Alabama. Their path to Columbia will go along the Chattahoochee River in Houston County.
“Your heart could not be bigger as a youth pastor.” I’ll be honest: I thought it was a long way at first. But Sawyer said, “You know God is faithful, and I know he will give us the strength to do it.”
Wallace’s life journey did, however, begin with some difficulties.
“He fell off the porch when he was two.” His mother, DeAnn Wallace, said, “He broke both arms, his skull, his nose, and the dura tissue that keeps spinal fluid around your brain.”
Afterward, when he was three years old, DeAnn said he was badly hurt in a car crash.
“All together, he’s had 14 surgeries,” DeAnn said. “Somewhere along the way, they hit a nerve, and when he tried to walk, he couldn’t. He was dragging his left leg, so he had to learn how to walk all over again in order to go to therapy.”
He has come a long way.
Right now he’s walking more than 200 miles. He’s a very good runner, of course.
He had a hard time for a long time, but now he runs cross-country and makes it look easy. He wants to walk across the state next. I know he’s praising God, and I’m happy for him too, because that can only come from God.
They want to be a bright light at every step of the seven-day trip.
Sawyer said, “We’re trying to show that through God, anything is possible, no matter how hard or big the story may seem.”
“Being able to walk 218 miles is a gift from God to show people that he can do anything.” “I can be living proof that he can heal anyone,” Grason said.