Arthur Blessitt, the American evangelist who set a Guinness World Record for longest ongoing pilgrimage, has died aged 84.
Blessitt, who made his final journey on January 14, took Jesus’ command to ‘take up his cross and follow me’ seriously – taking his 45lb wooden cross all over the world with the message of the gospel.
Over a period of more than 50 years, Blessitt travelled 43,340 miles across 324 countries, island groups and territories.
‘I’ve really been looking forward to this walk in Glory,’ Blessitt wrote in a statement on his website before his death. ‘These feet that walked so far on roads of dirt and tar will now be walking on the streets of gold.’
Blessitt, who was born in Greenville, Mississippi in 1940, came to faith after attending a Baptist revival at the age of seven, he wrote in his memoir. His evangelism started right afterwards, as Blessitt shared the gospel with his sister and began sharing Jesus in the bars his father frequented.
At 15, Blessitt felt called to ministry and later attended Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary before getting ordained in a Baptist Church. However, evangelism remained Blessitt’s greatest passion, and after one semester in seminary he quit to focus on spreading the gospel.
Taking the good news from bars to brothels along the western United States, Blessitt landed in Los Angeles in the 1960s, where he opened ‘His Place’, a free coffee house in West Hollywood.
In stark contrast to the culture in LA at the time, Blessitt took the message of Jesus to nightclubs, strip bars and music festivals, giving out food and helping drug addicts along the way.
Despite his active ministry in LA, in 1969, Blessitt felt that God was calling him to take the cross he’d hung on the wall of his coffee house and carry it around the world.
So, at 29 years old, Blessitt began his lifelong pilgrimage.
During that journey, he travelled through 52 war zones and was even arrested on 24 occasions.
‘The greatest thing you could do would be to go out and lead one more soul to be saved,’ Blessitt encouraged supporters in his final statement. ‘Share Jesus with someone today and lead a lost soul to be saved.’
Blessitt is survived by his wife and seven children.
