Lillian Alling
“And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.” [Hebrews 11:15]
In the spring of 1927 a young woman named Lillian Alling, who was living in New York City, became very homesick and decided to return to her family in Russia. After two unhappy years among the teeming people, this peasant girl knew life in the noisy city was not for her. Lillian was unable to save enough to afford passage across the Atlantic by boat, but all she could think about was going home. So, this young slip of a woman about 25 years old chose to walk the 12,000 miles to Russia!
Very timid, Lillian refused to accept rides from strangers, so supplied with hand-drawn maps, an iron rod for protection, and a few dollars she began her epic journey on foot. Averaging 30 to 40 miles a day, the frail girl passed through Chicago and on to Winnipeg. Keep in mind, back in 1927 there were no roads in the Northwest, and, except for the odd trading post or telegraph station, there was nothing but an unbroken stretch of the world’s toughest terrain and wilderness.
When asked where she was heading her firm reply was, “I am going to Russia. Please do not stop me.” When she reached Vancouver, her ragged condition and lack of provisions caused great concern among the locals. To prevent her from continuing on, she was arrested for vagrancy and thrown in jail.
When spring arrived, Lillian resumed her daunting quest. Across the Yukon and Alaska, telegraph station operators kept track of her progress. Lillian arrived in Nome in July 1929 wearing a different type of men’s shoe on each foot. Soon after leaving Nome, Lillian was last seen rowing a boat from Cape Prince of Wales across the 36 miles of the Bering Strait to Siberia. There is one report of a man who claimed he saw a woman on the Siberian coast in the fall of 1930, explaining to an astonished policeman she’d walked all the way from New York.
We marvel at Lillian Alling’s incredible determination to get to her home in Russia, yet so many are indifferent about reaching the home Jesus has prepared for them in heaven. The heroes of faith knew of a better country and exercised faith in making a journey to that place prepared by God. “But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:16). Are you willing to make the journey?
