Jonathan Bellamy spoke with David Cape to find out about his new venture - Walking The Great Commission - from Bethlehem (Judea), to Jerusalem, to Nazareth (Samaria), to the 'uttermost end of the earth', (a little island called Tristan De Cunha)

Dave Cape

David Cape has spent the last 25 years on a journey carrying a cross and footwashing bowl as he walked the roads of 28 countries. In March 2014 he will be embarking on a fresh and challenging adventure as he physically walks the Great Commission. Together with a small team he will literally be fulfilling the Great Commission according to the book of Acts; from Bethlehem (Judea), to Jerusalem, to Nazareth (Samaria), to the 'uttermost end of the earth', (a little island called Tristan De Cunha). Cross Rhythms will be linking up live with David to hear the stories of the people he encounters on this amazing venture and so Jonathan Bellamy thought he'd have a good chat with him to find out all about it.

Jon: Many people will know of your unique ministry over the last 25 years, carrying a cross and a bowl and washing people's feet in more than 28 nations. You've walked through wars, famines and riots and ministered to heads of state, Hollywood personalities, sports stars, prostitutes and lepers. Tell me, how did it all start?

David: It all started back in South Africa. I was pastoring a church just outside Johannesburg. It was during the very dark years of apartheid in South Africa and there were riots and the townships were burning. As a pastor I really felt that, although our church was doing all the good things like soup kitchens and reaching out, that we weren't actually meeting the real needs and we weren't relevant to the hurting that was going on. So over a period of 18 months, God began to challenge me very deeply about loving people unconditionally and showing his servant love. The Lord began to challenge me very deeply from John 13 where Jesus washed the disciples' feet. I walked into a burning, smouldering Soweto, where they were doing necklace murders at the time - someone would put a tyre around their neck and fill it with petrol and the victim would have to set themselves alight - so obviously a little pink guy like me going in there at that time was not the easiest thing - and I just went in and began to weep with the people, love them unconditionally and wash their feet on the streets. Out of that the Lord began to tell me the whole nation was hurting, so I went up to the Union Buildings in Pretoria and started heading south, toward Cape Town, which took me on a 3500-km journey through 67 towns and cities over a number of years and we literally saw God do the most amazing things as whole cities came to revival.

Jon: Wow. Looking back on those 25 years, can you share some of the more memorable moments? What are the things that stand out for you?

David: I think one of those happened not long after I had completed my initial journey through Southern Africa. My little family and I at the time, we had been out on the road for a number of years and we were going to have a break. We were busy moving back into the home when one night I was unpacking some boxes and I had this picture of Jesus standing, crying over Kuwait and as I saw this, I went down to the room and I said to my wife, "I've got this picture of Jesus crying over Kuwait". And she said, "Go to sleep, man" and neither of us slept and we wrestled with the Angel of the Lord for about two weeks and eventually I felt that I needed to go to the Middle East. You couldn't travel many places on a South African passport in those days, so eventually we, by faith, raised enough money to get an air fare and we figured the best way in would be to go through London. I took off from Johannesburg and landed in London the next morning and heard that the first Gulf War had broken out. The Lord said to me, "The circumstance may have changed, but I haven't changed my mind". I met some of the military officials at Earls Court who had been involved in the Falklands War and they arranged passage through to the Middle East for me. Some folk in London gave me some pocket money and brought me an air ticket to Turkey and I stayed there for the duration of the war and went into even what were some unreached people groups, which later on allowed other Christian agencies to go in as I'd gone along the northern border of Iraq at that time. So that would be one of the more memorable times for me in my years on the road.

Jon: Specifically you wash a lot of people's feet as you go. What do you think is the power in that? What difference does that make?

David: You know, Jon, one of the things I've always said to folk far more than the actual washing of feet - and I have probably washed more feet than anyone else on the planet - it's not about the foot washing: it's about the servant heart of Jesus that comes behind it. It's when you're helping the lady with her packets to the car, or you're helping a disabled person cross a street, or you're just showing some spontaneous act of kindness: that's like washing feet. But I think when you wash someone's feet it's interesting because it's like a sacrament, it's like breaking bread with someone, it's a very precious, tender moment before God - but I think more than that it's the servant heart of Jesus behind it, the prophetic statement of that that really matters.

Jon: Now from the end of March to the end of May this year you are embarking on a brand-new mission that you're calling Walking the Great Commission. Tell me how this vision came about. And for those who've not heard that phrase, what does the 'Great Commission' mean?

David: I have a little thing that I try to do every year and I have done for the last 25 years. I try and go away at the beginning of each year for up to 10 or 12 days - and I wait on God and hear what he has for me. Last year I was away and I was praying and it was the early hours of the morning, because my time clock goes out during those days. I started reading from Matthew 28, where Jesus said, 'Go into the world and make disciples of all men' and then again in Mark 16:15 where he said the same thing. He finally pulled that together in Acts 1:8, where he said, 'When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the Earth'. As I began to read this - and I'd read these scriptures many times - my heart became arrested by it afresh and I thought, "Lord we need again to make our lives significant in living this out physically". We all have a Jerusalem, that's where we live. We all have a Judea, which is our broader city, area that we live in, or town. We all have a Samaria, which is our nation. And then the uttermost parts are literally the far-flung places - and that may not just be geographically: that may just be a spiritual thing where we are, but it could be both. I became so challenged and everything that I've done over the last 25 years has been around my cross and bowl and I really felt the Lord saying, "I want you to physically walk this as a prophetic statement - I want you to involve a whole lot of churches and people and let them discover afresh what their own Great Commission is".

Jon: What you're doing then, is you're starting your walk in Judea, or the modern equivalent of that. Tell us where you're going to be going in that first phase and what you hope will take place.

David: Thank you, I'm glad you asked. We're obviously, just for geographical reasons, not starting in Jerusalem, so we're going to be starting about a three-day walk south of Bethlehem. We're going to walk in with my cross and bowl - I've got a small team that's going to be backing me up out on the road - and I'm going to walk with my cross and bowl through Judea into Bethlehem, which obviously for Cross Rhythms is a very significant place right at the moment - and a wonderful thing: all the good things that are happening in and through Cross Rhythms in the city. Obviously Bethlehem is a very significant place because that's where Jesus was born and Christendom was born in that sense at that very place. So it's a unique place in all of our lives because it's the beginning of our salvation. One of the lovely things is obviously we're going to be visiting the emerging studios there for Cross Rhythms and we want to pray over the studios and stand with the folk there as we go through. Then, very graciously, with the arrangements that you guys have made, we're going to be having an audience with the Mayor of Bethlehem at the beginning of April. So that'll be one of the highlights as we go through there. Then the third thing we are going to do, which is very important, is we're going to pick up a letter from the Church in Bethlehem, which we will carry to the uttermost part of the Earth.

Jon: You're then heading off to Jerusalem and Nazareth and doing a similar thing, aren't you? What are your hopes and thoughts travelling through there?

David: Well, firstly, one of the most important things is to show the servant love of Jesus as we go. Then as we journey we're going to have 100 churches from around the world partnering with us, who again will undertake to corporately and individually discover their own purpose of the Great Commission. In other words, find out: "How can I be meaningful at home? How can I be meaningful in my surrounds and even to the far-flung places of the Earth?" And then again in Jerusalem, we'll visit the churches there, we will pick up letters and carry them as the early disciples carried the letters in the New Testament. We'll then journey up through Samaria and finish up in Nazareth. Obviously Jerusalem is the hinge of Christendom, it's Mount Zion, and it's where God has orchestrated all the major events that would have taken place within the Christian faith. Obviously Nazareth is significant in that it's where Jesus grew in his formative years and prepared himself for the impact of what God would have him do on Earth. So those three cities are incredibly strategically important, so apart from the walk being prophetic in nature, there's a very real practical aspect to it as well.

Jon: They you're taking letters from the churches in that part of the world to Tristan da Cunha, the uttermost end of the Earth! How are you getting to Tristan da Cunha and how do you envisage that letter-exchange taking place?