Don Vermilyea is pounding the pavement in the name of the Lord.

It’s been 19 months since the 53-year-old retired organic farmer set out from Tucson, Ariz., on a cross-country walk. After following a meandering route that has taken him west to California, up the Pacific Coast and back across the Rocky Mountains and into Kansas, last week Vermilyea walked into Douglas County.

“It’s like a never-ending thing,” Vermilyea said Saturday, after he’d made it to Washington Creek Church of the Brethren southwest of Lawrence at 883 E. 800 Road.

Vermilyea’s walk is taking him to every Church of the Brethren in the country willing to have him — and most of the 800-some churches are. He is stopping to preach to those congregations, mixing the Gospels with stories of his reasons for embarking on such a trek and describing his experiences.

Vermilyea has a long list of reasons for his walk, not the least of which is raising money for the “Walk Across America” fund. The money is being split between the Global Food Crisis and Emergency Disaster funds, according to Vermilyea and national Church of the Brethren officials.

Vermilyea said he also wanted people to realize that as times change, it’s not always for the best.

“I want my Christian brothers and sisters to wake up and think about how different it was 50 or so years ago,” he said. “People have less and less time for relationships and families. I want people to wake up and read the words of Jesus.”

Vermilyea said he also walks to promote peace, the environment and justice.

Don Vermilyea, in town Sunday, handles some of the souvenirs he's picked up along his cross-country journey.

It hasn’t been easy. Most people think Vermilyea is a homeless person and treat him with little respect or dignity, he said.

“There’s almost no fun in all this,” he said. “I’ve been yelled at and screamed at. Police have harassed me. It’s like the ‘kick the dog syndrome’ only now it’s like kick the prostitute or kick the bum.”

Publicity from the news media has helped his plight with strangers, but in general Good Samaritans are few, Vermilyea said.

Vermilyea carries a backpack that weighs 60 to 80 pounds and contains clothes, a tent and a few supplies. He’s on his fifth pair of walking shoes.

“I sleep anywhere I can — under bridges, culverts, trees,” Vermilyea said.

Vermilyea eats whatever he can find or buy with about $80 a month he gets from Brethren Volunteer Services.

Vermilyea gets some relief when he gets to the churches he is visiting and will stay inside. Church members give him food. He spent most of the worst part of winter staying with people in Idaho.

Sunday afternoon Vermilyea spoke at the Washington Creek Church. Sunday night he addressed the congregation at Lone Star Church of the Brethren, 883 E. 800 Road. He also has visited other area Brethren churches.

His talks inspired those who heard him at Washington Creek, said Linda Hulce, a church board member.

“It was very thoughtful,” Hulce said. “He gave us his insight as to why he was walking. In the end he said he was walking to embrace what Jesus told us all to do — love one another.”

Vermilyea’s travels continue to the Ottawa Church of the Brethren, where he will be Wednesday. The next stops are in Garnett and Burlington. It will be at least three more years before the walk ends in his home state of West Virginia.

Vermilyea’s route and experiences as well as additional information can be found online at www.brethren.org, and then clicking on Walk Across America at the bottom of the page.

— Staff writer Mike Belt can be reached at 832-7165.