Hello. It has been a long while since I have updated this blog. So much has happened and I am realizing it would have been much easier to do quick blogs a couple of times a week rather than allowing things to get backlogged. So many things have happened since the last update.
I am blogging to share my journey. I am not a tourist who just goes out and does what everyone else does like sightseeing, visiting museums or doing what all the travel guide books recommend doing. Rather, each time I go on these extended trips, usually lasting several weeks or months, there has always been a strong sense of destiny and purpose into something where I can 'see' over time that I may be part of a bigger story. God's Story? His Story? (his-tory). I love reading biographies of people. Their stories inspire me. After a few hours I am able to catch a glimpse of an overview of one person's life that lasts 50 or 60 years. One of my desires is that I will live a life that is worth reading about, that others will be encouraged from it and will desire to seek and discover God.
Most tourists generally are on a very limited time - perhaps one or two weeks - and then they need to return back home for work or their budget only allows them to be gone for so long. They may have a pretty planned and fixed itinerary and a travel return date. This is not my case. My journeys are pretty open ended and very flexible - as a seeker, a faith traveler and a follower of the God of the Bible, I have come to trust in Him for His guidance and to look for His activity.
I seem to have been given a role to network and encourage others who have a similar passion to get to discover, know and experience (the real) God through cross-cultural travel and adventure. My life is like a spiritual pilgrim, on a journey desiring to understand the purpose and life and if/how God is part of this and truly real. Throughout history there have been and continue to be spiritual pilgrims and spiritual seekers, ones who sense there has got to be something more in life than just the physical - working, eating, raising a family, paying bills, surviving, etc.
So here are a few examples from the past two months here in Europe of what this pilgrimage life of mine looks like. Honestly, it seems like I have been here a lot longer, life has been so 'full'.
Please first review my previous blog posts on this European Journey of 2010.
*LAKES DISTRICT UK -
**Meeting a young couple backpacking while we were on a day hike from our hostel - Just a quick casual greeting to them as fellow hikers. A couple of days later when we relocated to another hostel in the region, this couple happened to be staying there. We shared a meal together and connected, and then discovered they were heading over towards another part of the area, the same area we were booked to stay at in a couple of days. We arranged to meet each other again then and were able to build on our relationship with each other and share some of our God-experiences with them.
**At the same hostel, we connected with a group of 6 Germans and also shared a meal together. Late in the evening four of them and our group of four piled into their van and we drove up to some of the passes in the area and just had plain fun and enjoyed some of nature and the sunset. On the way driving back, a couple in our group were singing some songs. My friend C. said she knew one song in German, which happened to be a Christian chorus and sang it. One of the German girls said she knew the song as she happened to be part of a church youth group in
Germany. This opened things up for us to share more about our faith in God as Christians then and the next morning. We still had some Backpacker New Testaments with us (New Testaments from the Bible especially designed with some extra inserts in it to help backpacker travelers to learn about God) which C was able to pass on to two of the German girls
The morning we parted paths, we said our farewells. The Germans were to start driving north that day towards Scotland while we were moving on to the next hostel. As a group of four, we initially had two small cars between the four of us but one of them had broken down a few days before and was still sitting at the mechanics in another town. As a result, C and R packed the car and took all of our gear over to the next hostel we were booked in and G and I hiked 4 km from Grasmere to Ambleside, where we were to then connect with C and R.
Shortly after G and I arrived in Ambleside and were walking around, we heard someone call out to us from the road - it was the Germans in their van! They happened to be driving by us at that very moment! It had been several hours since we had said our goodbyes to them at Grasmere and we had no idea of what their plans were for that day except to start driving north but here they were south! Later when C and R came to pick G and I up from Ambleside, we discovered that after the Germans had left us, they also ran into C and R in another area!
**FRANCE - see July 16, 2010 Posting First - Signs of God's Spirit Leading
It has been two months since the July posting and in it I shared how G and I had discovered that we had a mutual contact whom I have initialled as A. When G and I first arrived in the UK we had no clear idea of when we were to leave the country and where to head to next. After the New Wine Christian conference (see Wonderful Week blog posting) we actually had to stop back in London and stay with my friends with whom we stayed with when we first arrived on July 21. As a result of that 2 day stopover, we were asked to consider if we would be available to 'nanny' for mom and the three children for a week on a holiday trip....over the coming days while we were in Lake District, G and I decided we would commit to the nanny offer and a couple of weeks later were in Normandy, France, staying in a country house in a tiny village in the countryside.
We were not that great in forward planning and were very limited in internet access - only able to connect briefly at MacDonald's restaurants which in France all seem to offer free wifi. As our time grew to an end and after exploring bus/train/hitchiking/rideshare options to travel, we wound up renting a car for a week which gave us time to explore some parts of France as we drove in across the country to the Germany border. We decided to visit our mutual friend A and things were arranged to do so. This was in early September.
A. arranged for us to stay with her fiance in his apartment and we were in the city for four days. As we reconnected with A. we heard how God was beginning to lead and guide her into some 'travel' ahead, and how she was beginning to sell off her possessions in preparation to go on an extended 'journey'. As she shared with us, we discovered that she had about 2 weeks ago, while google searching on the internet, had come across an article about some Christian hippies trying to help 'hippy' travelers on their journey in finding God. She mentioned the name of the group and asked us if we knew anything about them! Had We? YES! Both G and I know the key people involved with it - I have known them for a few years and I actually met with them personally in my hometown a couple of weeks before heading over to the UK as they are connected with a church I have been part of. G met them earlier this year while leading a group of travelers in India, as these people base themselves there for half of the year. I networked G to them at that time. So, all this was all very remarkable, connecting with A. at this time. It will be interesting to see what happens as A. steps forward in faith in God and begins her journey.
**WHAT IS NEXT? SCANDINAVIA!
There is so much more to share. I am currently in Central Europe, and have been here since leaving France, and about to move off again. I've been visiting contacts who have set up a Christian hostel and retreat guesthouse to help people on their spiritual journey toward and with God. I've been in touch with them for over five years, but finally have met them face to face. However, this story will have to be written up later.
For now, going back a couple of months again (Wonderful Week blog). Prior to leaving for the UK and doing a bit of research for the trip, I discovered that a Christian leaders conference for those living in northern Europe was being planned in Scandinavia with an international Christian organization that I have been part of off and on for 20 years. I felt that this might be a good time to connect and network with leaders from the organization with respect to 'faith travels'.
At the New Wine Conference I first discovered that my friend C was planning on being part of a small team from her church in the UK heading to the same Scandinavian country where the leaders conference is scheduled and on similar dates!! Also, as a result of being 'international' Christian leaders, G and I were invited the one day to attend a meeting at the conference for such leaders. Though there were only about a half dozen of us present, one of the ladies there happened to be the New Wine administrator within the same country and living in the city which is closest to where the conference is being held.
Fast forward about 7 weeks and a bit - while on the bus from France to where I am now in Central Europe - the lady seated beside me - had just been to that same country just recently - and I at that time was still seeking God if I should really head up to the conference in Scandinavia! It does happen that the nearest international airport to where I am has a direct flight to the city where I need to get to in Scandinavia and to make it from there to the conference.
So, things are booked and this is where I head to next. It has been 25 years since I have been in this Scandinavian country, where I began my first backpacker journey and worked for a summer in my profession. I wonder what God has planned as I head this way in Faith.
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