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By Joseph Slacian jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com Danish author Hans Christian Anderson wrote: “To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, “To gain all while you give, “To roam the roads of lands remote, “To travel is to live.” Wabash resident Esta Wheatley and her daughter, Sheila Butcher, did just that. The mother-daughter duo recently finished a three-year venture to travel to all 92 counties in the State of Indiana. The venture ended shortly before Thanksgiving. The idea for the trip came to them while attending Franklin Graham’s “Tour of 50 States” rally in Indianapolis in 2016. More than 8,000 people gathered together to pray for the nation. “(Graham) told us that if God gave you an assignment, you need to take that assignment on,” Butcher said. “Mom was really sick with cancer in 2016. She needed a purpose; something to do. “We sat down in 2017 and we wrote down all the counties. We wanted to take the message we had learned from there to take it in, so we went looking for the crosses, we went looking for the flags, and for people living the American dream.” During the journey, the two would pray for governmental leadership, businesses, education, churches, the media, law enforcement and emergency personnel, manufacturing, laborers, farmers, families and communities. And along the way, the pair made new friends, found several people with ties to Wabash County
“We don’t know what the future holds But we’re going to complete what we told God we’re going to do. We went and finished it.” Sheila Butcher
Spreading the word, one county at a time and, most importantly, the two learned something about their fellow Hoosiers. “They still had passion about their work,” Mrs. Wheatley said. “We met so many interesting people.” The two didn’t really have travel plans, other than getting in the car to see where the roads off the beaten path would lead. “We didn’t have a real plan,” Mrs. Wheatley continued. “It just seemed like we would go from one point and they would tell us a story and something about their area. That would lead us to the next point. That was really exciting.” Butcher added, “We learned how to be. We weren’t on destinations. We’d go from this place to that place to meet this person.” On one of their first trips, the pair happened into a diner with a 1950s theme. Behind the counter was a pregnant lady with whom they struck up (continued on page 6)
January 1, 2020
Proudly Serving Wabash County Since 1977
Vol. 42, No. 40