Blog 10. Ben Freeth's Ride for Hope - Epilogue

1st October 2025

What is it about riding this beautiful white horse called Warrior to the Cross on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia that made it so special? 

The cross has always held huge significance to so many.  It was a symbol of terrible torture and death and it has since become a wonderful symbol of salvation and redemption and life and freedom. 

The cross is a most profound and beautiful concept.

The knights of old wore the cross;  millions of people wear crosses around their necks today; the cross has been adopted on the flags of over 20 countries around the world including the country that ruled over the largest empire in human history; the Red Cross helps millions of people medically; the blue cross is a symbol of animal welfare; hundreds of thousands of crosses stand on mountains and hills and spires over cities all over the world; the Southern Cross sits above us at night in the stars. 

The first symbol to be put up in the southern hemisphere by a European was a cross.  The cross at Cape Cross has stood for 540 years.  The Portuguese Captain, Diogo Cão, who placed, it died somewhere not far away.

I have erected inscribed crosses on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania and Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, as well as other mountains. The cross is such a powerful symbol.

The rider of the white horse in the book of Revelation is the same one who went into Jerusalem on a donkey in the events that led Him to His terrible and torturous death on the cross as the “Passover lamb”.  His life was taken in order to give us life.  Sin and death were vanquished through the cross.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). 

In Revelation 19, He now rides a white horse of war.  It is a great symbol of power and strength and the warrior spirit.  Victory is close.  The demonic forces of evil in the world are to be vanquished in the ensuing great battle at Armageddon. The names of the rider (who is Jesus) are “faithful and true”; “Word of God”; “King of kings”; “Lord of Lords.”

He is a warrior king and judge and great high priest.  Each one of us has to understand the cross and the redeeming life force it breaths into us if we are to ride with Him and not get caught on the wrong side.  The Passover lamb was killed for that.  The cross is the only way.  So to finish the ride to the Atlantic Ocean at the cross was a most special achievement.

My last ride east to cross the SADC region - and Africa - by horse and mule is from Zimbabwe to the Indian Ocean.   It’s in its planning stages.  I hope to end at Sofala in Mozambique where the first European building was erected in the southern hemisphere - a chapel and fort.  It was the first Christian building in the entire southern hemisphere.  Sadly it has since been taken by the sea; but I intend to try to end there all the same.

Sofala Asia Portuguesa, vol. 1, 1666

Watch this space!  Justice will come as we each continue to do our own little part.