By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

If you haven’t seen him already, keep your eyes out for Thomas Helling.

He’s the guy walking south on Route 1 carrying a large, handmade cross on his shoulder and he is on his way to Mexico.

“I’m walking across the country to remind people about Jesus. Even if an unbeliever sees this, they know what it means,” Helling said Monday as he neared the Arundel town line. “This is not a race, it’s a journey.”

It’s a journey Helling said he’s been thinking about for a while. Helling said he found himself in a halfway home seven years ago after 25 years of addiction to alcohol, drugs and sex. 

“It was seven years ago in that halfway house that I found the Lord,” Helling said. 

During the past seven years, Helling said he has worked with Pastor Larry Munguia of Tuscon, Ariz., to establish a faith-based, 12-step program and recovery church now known as The S.O.B.E.R. Project. He said the program is designed to help addicts overcome destructive habits and prosper in life.

While Helling was able to sober up, he said his addiction shifted from alcohol, drugs and sex to “things the world accepts, and it became a distraction to me.”

Leaving his remodeling business to his best employee and his Tucson home, dog and other personal belongings to another employee, Helling said he went to his brother’s home in Montana where he built the cross.He said his brother helped him with the design, including the padding for his shoulder and the wheel at the bottom of the cross.

He said he bought a good pair of boots and a backpack and headed to Bangor where he started walking June 8. Helling said he walked to Ellsworth and has been walking south on Route 1 ever since. Crossing Biddeford into Arundel Monday, Helling had walked about 150 miles and has roughly 3,000 more to go. 

Keeping a journal as he goes, Helling said he hopes to write a book one day that he plans to title “The Cross Walk.”

In the meantime, he said a friend is updating his MySpace page for him. 

In his backpack, which is strapped to the bottom leg of the cross, Helling said he has about five changes of clothes, a fleece sleeping bag, personal hygiene items, a map and his Bible. 

Of the 28 days he has been walking, he said he has only had to camp out two nights. 

“Since then, people have taken me into their homes or have given me enough to stay in a hotel and get a nice meal,” Helling said. “It’s nice to be able to sleep in a bed. With a 15- or 16-mile day, I’m pretty sore, but God rejuvenates me every day.”

With the heavy rain during June, Helling said he was held up about seven of the 28 days waiting for the weather to improve, but he said he doesn’t mind taking his time.

“Lots of people stop me, and I love it. That’s why I’m here,” Helling said. “However long it takes, one year or 10, it doesn’t matter. It’s the people I meet and talk to that’s a blessing.”

Staff writer Emma Bouthillette can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 237.