Read Luke 19: 1-10 to start.

In the spring of 1985, Canadian paralympian Rick Hansen set out on a world tour in his wheelchair to raise money for spinal cord research. He travelled 40,000 kilometres, across 34 countries, taking 26 months to complete his trek. It was called the Man in Motion tour, and it was an absolute success, raising 26 million dollars, and certainly increasing awareness of those living with spinal injury and how they could do things that no one expected of them. While he didn’t get much attention at the start, by the time he some months along he was making international news and folks took notice.

He met a lot of people on that tour, and no doubt shook a lot of hands. One of those hands was mine, because when he rolled into Charlottetown in the fall of 1986, I heard that he was going to be at the parking lot for the Ellis Brothers’ Shopping Center, which was only a five minute walk from my house, so I went down there to see him. There were a couple of hundred other people with the same idea, so there was quite a crowd, but ten year old Marko was pushy and persistent, and I made my way to the front. I wanted to see him, and I did. I don’t remember if I said anything, but I remember that I shook his hand.