On Saturday August 7 all four of us did a short hike together to Easedale Tarn above town. I wanted some time alone and was eager to hike cross country and explore. Yet I did not quite get away people and found myself near another trail that continued to go further up. A solo British woman named J walked by and I called out something in jest to her and we connected. She asked me what I was doing here in the UK and I gave her the spiritual reason. She happened to be Buddhist in belief but was asking me some pretty deep questions. I wanted to spend more time with her but was committed to meet C and R at 3pm to join them on another hike and had no mobile phone connection right where I was to try and change plans. I shared later with my three friends c, r and g about my encounter with and my burden for her and how I would have loved to have spent more time with her.
I really had no choice but to leave J and was burdened to pray for her for the rest of the day and then the next morning (a Sunday). We drove 10 miles or so to Keswick for a church service then back to Grasmere where we were staying. We as a group of four really had no clear plans for the rest of the day. In the end R and C decided to stay in town and do their own thing. G and I decided to go on a walk without a map, looking for the first footpath sign off the road. Such sign posts are everywhere here. We of course found one, and soon met a couple who had a map and asked them where the trail went. Not that it mattered much. But it went up hill. As we got near the small pass, we could see that possibly we could go higher and loop back through the sheep pastures back to Grasmere rather than going back the sane way we came. We had no map, just sheep trails now and no sign posts, just a good sense of direction. We met another group of three as a trail became more defined, and got details of where the trail led - almost right to where we had started from.
As we descended and came near to Grasmere, I noticed a solo lady walking up the trail towards us. As we got nearer to each other, I realized it was J, the same lady from yesterday! How amazing! We were able to talk a bit more with her about each others beliefs. G, my friend has just recently finished reading a biography about a lady who had once been a Buddhist nun but then became a Christian.
We marvelled at the way God had allowed His burden to come on me for this lady yesterday after meeting her. The odds of meeting her the next day in a place that has dozens of foot path routes and the fact she was not even staying in the same town as ourselves and that she already had walked for many hours that day, and that we net again - cannot simply be mere coincidence.
I had met her yesterday on a hilly sheep pasture where sheep are scattered about as solo sheep or in very small groups. I was reminded about the parable of the lost sheep that Jesus shared from the book of Luke, chapter 15, verses 3-7 in the New testament of the Bible. The shepherd leaves his hundred sheep looking for the lost one and finds it and brings it back home and rejoices. J seemed 'lost' and though she talked as if Buddhism was her answer to life, I sensed a sadness over her. To have met her the second time under the situation and really praying for her and wanting to have spent more time with her the first time, but could not, them amazingly meeting her the next day wandering trails and hillsides of scattered sheep without a map and running into her again, was 'WOW'. The living God knows she is searching for the Truth. Jesus, as the Good Shepherd is looking for her. He knows she is lost but has His ways of making himself known to her. Please Pray that God will continue to put Christians in her path in amazing ways and that she will come to know and follow Jesus.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Forward to Lake district Adventures
LAKES DISTRICT. Not our will but your will, O God. There is so much to share from this time in the area. We arrived as a threesome on August 2 and then R arrived the next day with her car to make us a group of four.
A few days back, on the last day of the New Wine conference, from the closing session, the theme to us was: Do we have enough of the love of Jesus to tell others about Him? Some notes:
People are looking for lives that have been profoundly changed by Jesus. We need to love people into God's
Kingdom. Let us look for what God is doing in the lives of other people and look at the way Jesus related to and connected with people. From the story of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52, New Testament:
1. Jesus connected with people through interruptions that came his way. He was not on a fixed agenda for the day.
2. Jesus listened to people. Listening to others helps in their healing. It values them. People want to be heard.
3. Jesus was ready to stop and gave His time to others, to talk with them.
4. Jesus was ready to pray for and with the people he met and connected
with, to pray into their broken lives and ask for God's healing.
5. Jesus was ready to include people. People are looking for connection and relationship with others. Be ready to stop and greet people. Create a community that others want to be part of.
So, this was the foundation and desire that we had as plans were committed to spend time in the Lake district, staying in youth hostels and taking time to enjoy God's creation. Some stories to be posted soon as a result of this time. The days are passing by quickly and just in the past 2 hours another amazing connection has been started and the journey into this should be continuing tomorrow.
****
A few days back, on the last day of the New Wine conference, from the closing session, the theme to us was: Do we have enough of the love of Jesus to tell others about Him? Some notes:
People are looking for lives that have been profoundly changed by Jesus. We need to love people into God's
Kingdom. Let us look for what God is doing in the lives of other people and look at the way Jesus related to and connected with people. From the story of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52, New Testament:
1. Jesus connected with people through interruptions that came his way. He was not on a fixed agenda for the day.
2. Jesus listened to people. Listening to others helps in their healing. It values them. People want to be heard.
3. Jesus was ready to stop and gave His time to others, to talk with them.
4. Jesus was ready to pray for and with the people he met and connected
with, to pray into their broken lives and ask for God's healing.
5. Jesus was ready to include people. People are looking for connection and relationship with others. Be ready to stop and greet people. Create a community that others want to be part of.
So, this was the foundation and desire that we had as plans were committed to spend time in the Lake district, staying in youth hostels and taking time to enjoy God's creation. Some stories to be posted soon as a result of this time. The days are passing by quickly and just in the past 2 hours another amazing connection has been started and the journey into this should be continuing tomorrow.
****
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Amazing Week
What an Amazing week! God has gone ahead and prepared our time in ways that go beyond what we could have thought or imagined.
Our drive to the Venue of the New Wine Christian conference took us right by the site of 'Stone Henge' - and through some lovely, rolling countryside and villages. We arrived quite late in the day, and most people had already arrived and set up camp - over 11,000 people in tents, caravans and small motor homes!! Absolutely amazed at the organization needed to host so many people plus all the other logistics of running the conference - hundreds of volunteers needed.
Some of the highlights:
*Day 1 - Evening - main speaker sharing on the importance of practicing hospitality to others and spending time with people in homes versus in church buildings. Being warmly welcomed and introduced to my friend's friends of her church family. In awe of the blessings of how quickly and deeply we can connect with people we have never met before, all because we become part of God's family when we discover Jesus.
*Day 2 - Invited to attend international leaders meeting, and receiving prayer. Discovered a book in the 'Market Place' called God on the Road. Amazing - a story about a small group of Christians going on a road journey into parts of Europe 3-4 years ago - with intent and prayer to be able to share God's love and message with others - very similar to the plans we have for being here in Europe.
*Day 3 - Discovered a country lane off the conference site where I could walk and spend time alone with God. Attending seminars. Chatted with a man seated beside me (yesterday) and shared with him our reasons for being here. He gave me a contact of a couple who live and work at an outdoor Christian adventure centre in the Lake District (our next main destination after this conference). AMAZING THING - We 'happened' to sit beside each other at a main session (5000 people) later that day. AND then connected 2-3 more times in other seminars throughout the week! Plan is to make contact and try and visit this contact. Discovered another book called Legs of Lamb - about a young UK man who was led to do a prayer walk backpacking around the UK coast a few years ago - and the stories he shared really connected with the kinds of things I have experienced. Sensing this is a huge confirmation from God for the things that lie ahead for us. We will be walking and hiking and praying in the Lake District for over 1 week. What kind of stories will we be able to share in about 10 days time from now?
*Day 4 - quote from New Wine magazine (New Wine is the ministry running the conference). On Vision - "Someone once said that unless a vision is too big to be achievable by human means, it is not a vision from God". PROFOUND. The vision for backpackers and being a backpacker - a journey now of over 20 years in my own life - it is impossible to organize or achieve by my efforts or even the efforts of hundreds or people, but the vision has become reality, and many of us are now part of it in different parts of the world.
*Day 5 - met a young couple who have plans to do a major 6-9 month overseas backpacker trip soon - and connecting with them, seeing how we can help them in the weeks and months ahead. Came across a short article in a mission magazine that I picked up from the one of the mission booths - about a team being formed to reach out to a specific group of 'backpacker' travelers into different parts of the world.
Other things - just being encouraged in many different ways from hearing different teachings from the Bible, and from the seminars. So many other seminars I would have loved to attend. Overall - sensing this conference has confirmed the plans we already have, and being expectant and ready for the next leg of the journey. We are 'overfilled' and look forward in seeing how God will use us to share with others what He has given us, and what He has planned.
The next update may be in about 10 days from now as we are not sure how accessible the internet may be in the places we will be. It's time to step out in faith, and put into practice and live out our lives as God intends us to. We are trusting in God for exciting things.
Our drive to the Venue of the New Wine Christian conference took us right by the site of 'Stone Henge' - and through some lovely, rolling countryside and villages. We arrived quite late in the day, and most people had already arrived and set up camp - over 11,000 people in tents, caravans and small motor homes!! Absolutely amazed at the organization needed to host so many people plus all the other logistics of running the conference - hundreds of volunteers needed.
Some of the highlights:
*Day 1 - Evening - main speaker sharing on the importance of practicing hospitality to others and spending time with people in homes versus in church buildings. Being warmly welcomed and introduced to my friend's friends of her church family. In awe of the blessings of how quickly and deeply we can connect with people we have never met before, all because we become part of God's family when we discover Jesus.
*Day 2 - Invited to attend international leaders meeting, and receiving prayer. Discovered a book in the 'Market Place' called God on the Road. Amazing - a story about a small group of Christians going on a road journey into parts of Europe 3-4 years ago - with intent and prayer to be able to share God's love and message with others - very similar to the plans we have for being here in Europe.
*Day 3 - Discovered a country lane off the conference site where I could walk and spend time alone with God. Attending seminars. Chatted with a man seated beside me (yesterday) and shared with him our reasons for being here. He gave me a contact of a couple who live and work at an outdoor Christian adventure centre in the Lake District (our next main destination after this conference). AMAZING THING - We 'happened' to sit beside each other at a main session (5000 people) later that day. AND then connected 2-3 more times in other seminars throughout the week! Plan is to make contact and try and visit this contact. Discovered another book called Legs of Lamb - about a young UK man who was led to do a prayer walk backpacking around the UK coast a few years ago - and the stories he shared really connected with the kinds of things I have experienced. Sensing this is a huge confirmation from God for the things that lie ahead for us. We will be walking and hiking and praying in the Lake District for over 1 week. What kind of stories will we be able to share in about 10 days time from now?
*Day 4 - quote from New Wine magazine (New Wine is the ministry running the conference). On Vision - "Someone once said that unless a vision is too big to be achievable by human means, it is not a vision from God". PROFOUND. The vision for backpackers and being a backpacker - a journey now of over 20 years in my own life - it is impossible to organize or achieve by my efforts or even the efforts of hundreds or people, but the vision has become reality, and many of us are now part of it in different parts of the world.
*Day 5 - met a young couple who have plans to do a major 6-9 month overseas backpacker trip soon - and connecting with them, seeing how we can help them in the weeks and months ahead. Came across a short article in a mission magazine that I picked up from the one of the mission booths - about a team being formed to reach out to a specific group of 'backpacker' travelers into different parts of the world.
Other things - just being encouraged in many different ways from hearing different teachings from the Bible, and from the seminars. So many other seminars I would have loved to attend. Overall - sensing this conference has confirmed the plans we already have, and being expectant and ready for the next leg of the journey. We are 'overfilled' and look forward in seeing how God will use us to share with others what He has given us, and what He has planned.
The next update may be in about 10 days from now as we are not sure how accessible the internet may be in the places we will be. It's time to step out in faith, and put into practice and live out our lives as God intends us to. We are trusting in God for exciting things.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
By Faith UK
Arrived here in UK 3 days ago now and time has been busy. Have been staying with friends, recovering from jet lag, 'mannying' (helping serve the family with household work, time with the kids, etc). Visited central London for a day and connecting and visiting with couple of contacts related to ministry among the travelers.
While walking to the train station 2 days ago to catch the ride to city centre, we 'happened to'pass by a Christian bookshop - several books were displayed in the shop window - one of which was the song book used by New Wine conference. This is the same conference referred to in the last blog post with which we were heading to, the one we felt God leading us to attend and with which we have been registered for, for several weeks already!!! Again, is this God's leading that we are on track with His plan, His itinerary. Even friend of the friends we've been staying with, are attending the same conference this week!
So what is ahead? What will result as we attend this conference? How will with what happens here and with whom we will get to meet and know, determine or affect the travels that lie ahead and what happens? We are looking forward in faith to see what happens. So, for now...the journey continues. I sensed God 'speaking' through some things I read from the Bible a few days ago, when first arriving here in the UK from the first book of Samuel from the Old Testament. Will 'see' and discover if this is significant.
On another note - a I was taking the city train to the airport in Vancouver to catch my flight to the UK, 3 stops before the airport, a man walks on to the train, sits opposite me - and I knew him! I first met him perhaps 6 years ago while working in a wilderness park as a 'ranger'. Then 3 weeks ago, while driving out of that same region 700 km away by road), I stopped off at a new tourist information kiosk to drop off some brochures for the company I work seasonally with, and this man 'happened' to walk in at that time also! Next time I am around in the area where he lives, I will plan to visit him.
What does God have planned in these coming days? Until next time
While walking to the train station 2 days ago to catch the ride to city centre, we 'happened to'pass by a Christian bookshop - several books were displayed in the shop window - one of which was the song book used by New Wine conference. This is the same conference referred to in the last blog post with which we were heading to, the one we felt God leading us to attend and with which we have been registered for, for several weeks already!!! Again, is this God's leading that we are on track with His plan, His itinerary. Even friend of the friends we've been staying with, are attending the same conference this week!
So what is ahead? What will result as we attend this conference? How will with what happens here and with whom we will get to meet and know, determine or affect the travels that lie ahead and what happens? We are looking forward in faith to see what happens. So, for now...the journey continues. I sensed God 'speaking' through some things I read from the Bible a few days ago, when first arriving here in the UK from the first book of Samuel from the Old Testament. Will 'see' and discover if this is significant.
On another note - a I was taking the city train to the airport in Vancouver to catch my flight to the UK, 3 stops before the airport, a man walks on to the train, sits opposite me - and I knew him! I first met him perhaps 6 years ago while working in a wilderness park as a 'ranger'. Then 3 weeks ago, while driving out of that same region 700 km away by road), I stopped off at a new tourist information kiosk to drop off some brochures for the company I work seasonally with, and this man 'happened' to walk in at that time also! Next time I am around in the area where he lives, I will plan to visit him.
What does God have planned in these coming days? Until next time
Thursday, July 15, 2010
SIGNS OF GOD'S SPIRIT LEADING
Amazing things have begun to happen since the last update as travel planning continues and the departure date to head to Europe is now less than a week away. Plans have been committed for weeks already to travel with a friend in Europe; we met in September 2009 in New Zealand at the same missions training school we were at - he was a school leader, and I was one of the guest speakers and general staff for the base. We have only been in touch via emails and skype for the past few months as we are over 1000 km apart in distance here in North America. During this planning process, I've been in touch with a good friend in the UK, and as things were shared about coming, she mentioned there was a large Christian conference scheduled a couple days after our planned arrival there. She was already booked in and invited us to join her and her church group to attend. So, I booked us in (via internet) and received the confirmation papers over a week ago.
A few days later, I received an email from G., the one traveling to Europe with me - he had been working in a restaurant in the state of Colorado in the US, and happened to meet a man from the UK. As a result of conversing with him, G. discovered that he was a Christian and had been a speaker at the exact same conference a year ago! And this man's friend is scheduled to be speaking there at the conference we are now booked into!
France has also been a destination we have been planning for - and on my list to try to contact and visit, was a French university student I had met back in early December 2008 while I was volunteering at a Christian hostel in Amsterdam. I could not remember her name or email address, and doing a search in my address book yielded nothing. BUT I had purchased an Apple iPod Touch a few days ago, and did a sample 'Mail' transfer from my laptop to it. Only just 8 mailboxes out of dozens were transferred ...and an email of this student 'happened' to be in one of these! How it got there, I have no idea.
After accessing my email on the web account and searching for the emails between A. and myself, I was SURPRISED in discovering that in a couple of G's newsletters to me months ago, A's name and email address also popped up in the cc list of his contacts!!! Same name, same email address!! How did G. know of this same person? I emailed G. about this and his reply: Back in December 2008, he was in France doing his Christian training and had a short break and traveled from the school with 2 staff members to the French city where A lived. One of these staff members was a friend of A's and the group wound up staying at A's place! And this is how G. met A!
So...are these two events just 'random' coincidences, or are they part of some divine (God) connections and leadings? Are we beginning to experience something of God's guidance here?
What will happen at the conference in the UK? And what about A? I have not been in touch with A. for almost 1 1/2 years. Will we meet A. in Europe, and if so, where and when, and what will result of that? And there have been a couple of other similar things that have already occurred.
Our heart is that this journey would bear witness to the God of the Bible, the one who does promise to lead and guide people into His plans and purposes. He is our 'travel' guide. The adventure is in stepping out in faith with these 'sign posts', and in seeing what happens.For a great story on this kind of God's 'guidance' or sovereignty, you need to read the entire story of Ruth from the book of Ruth in the Old Testament of the Bible. Here one gets to see the big picture and outcome of events that just 'happen'. In Ruth Chapter 2 Verse 3 (Ruth 2:3): "So she [Ruth] went out and began to glean in the fields....AS IT TURNED OUT, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech." Search out the answers to these questions: Who was Boaz? What eventually happened between Boaz and Ruth? Ruth became the grandmother of King David who 'happened' to be part of the 'genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David' (Book of Matthew, ch.1 v.1 and v. 5-6). As a result of things 'just turning happening' - things were being prepared for events generations into the future.
So, will there be some kind of significant outcome as we head to Europe with these 'God-incidents' in mind? Time will tell, but we pray that there will be something amazing to share.
Another awesome example of this kind of guidance is with Peter in the book of Acts in the New Testament of the Bible between him and the centurion named Cornelius (Acts 10:1 - 11:18).
Read the story in context, look for the timing of things, the supernatural, and the outcome.
Over the past 2 weeks I have been encouraged through reading a book called Empowered Church leadership and it finishes off with a section entitled 'Hearing God's Direction for Your Ministry'. The author explains the importance of gaining a sense of what God is doing, where things just 'flow'. We need to find out what God is doing and join him in it. There is a difference between following through on our good ideas and plans versus coming into line with God's ideas.
We really don't have much of a clue what will happen as we begin this journey together, but we have a strong sense that God is orchestrating something. So with this in mind, we put our faith in this aspect of what God is like:
For my [God's] thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Book of Isaiah ch. 55 v. 8-9, Old Testament, Bible - New Revised Standard Version)
Join us as we travel the road 'unknown' and discover what God is doing and our role in it.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
THE JOURNEY JUST PAST AND JUST AHEAD
The days and weeks have flown by since I began to share here.
In mid-May doors opened up and the timing seemed right to head to Alaska. I already had contacts there with people who were interested in starting something up towards helping those in getting to discover or know God through their passions for travel and adventure. So, I made the bookings (and wonderfully Alaskan Airlines had a super savings seat sale happening!).
Three weeks were spent in Alaska, half of that time in the town of Homer, and encouraging things happened in meeting people who share the same vision for the travelers. Had I delayed this trip by a couple of weeks, I would have missed out in meeting a real loving/caring Dutch family whose vision to help travelers/backpackers come to know who God is was so similar to what I have!
One of the amazing and encouraging events that happened in Homer was the Sunday I attended a local church - it was about 10 miles (15km) out of town and I just went with the flow of things from where I was staying - and got a ride with folk to there. It was also the home church of the main contact I had in Homer. At the beginning of the church service, he introduced the two of us visitors by name to the church members. During the break half way between the service, a lady walks up to me and said she knew who I was!! Her name was S. and I actually met her years ago in my home town in church - and her parents have been long-term supporters of what I have been doing. I had totally forgotten about this contact - and even if I had remembered she was in Alaska, I had no idea where she lived there - so meeting her under the circumstances and my reasons for being in Alaska, leaves me wondering in awe of what God may have for the future there. [Photos: google: homer alaska photos]
I connected with both new and past contacts while in Alaska, in Seward, Anchorage, Talkeetna and Denali National Park area. Hitch-hiking was fairly easy, and some of the rides turned out be in specific answers to prayer - such as asking God to get picked up by people in an RV (recreational vehicle) and I did by a great Texan couple. They even served me lunch! Even after I left Alaska and spent a week in Washington State, visiting friends in a quite a rural area...several friends of theirs had direct connections back to places like Homer and Talkeetna...and I sense that God is beginning to be at work in Alaska. It shall be interesting to see what develops and happens there now over the next 12 months or so.
I returned home for a short break, then headed to work in a wildernness Provincial Park. This has been a summer job of mine for over the past 10 summers - managing the back country for canoeing, hiking, camping and fishing. Last year a good portion of one side of the wilderness valley had a forest fire. It still is an amazing blessing to be able to live and work in this very beautiful and wild location. I will try and share at another time how I was offered this job.
Plans are set to head off for an adventure with God into Europe starting after mid - July. The purpose of this trip is: 1. Sensing God is saying 'go' and to trust him that he will set the agenda, he will be the guide. A couple of locations already seemed to be confirmed, and as the weeks progress I hope to share with you what happens. 2. To continue to develop and network with people in helping backpackers discover and experience God while they travel. 3. To truly let this journey be a 'Faith Travel', to allow God to lead and to guide, and to share how my belief and faith in the God of the Bible as a backpacker really is an incredible adventure, testifying to His reality.
For now, my focus will be to get things in order to head out on this next journey. I've been asking God in prayer to bring the right next set of people to live in my home while I am away by around mid July. There seems to be no end of things to do get ready for yet another set of travels.
My prayer is that for those of you reading this, that you will be able to share this journey with me. I will try and make a weekly posting. Remind me if I do not. My desire is that this journey ahead will be an encouragement and a challenge to all who read it, to take 'risks of faith' in getting to know God and allow him to lead you into the adventure of your life.
The days and weeks have flown by since I began to share here.
In mid-May doors opened up and the timing seemed right to head to Alaska. I already had contacts there with people who were interested in starting something up towards helping those in getting to discover or know God through their passions for travel and adventure. So, I made the bookings (and wonderfully Alaskan Airlines had a super savings seat sale happening!).
Three weeks were spent in Alaska, half of that time in the town of Homer, and encouraging things happened in meeting people who share the same vision for the travelers. Had I delayed this trip by a couple of weeks, I would have missed out in meeting a real loving/caring Dutch family whose vision to help travelers/backpackers come to know who God is was so similar to what I have!
One of the amazing and encouraging events that happened in Homer was the Sunday I attended a local church - it was about 10 miles (15km) out of town and I just went with the flow of things from where I was staying - and got a ride with folk to there. It was also the home church of the main contact I had in Homer. At the beginning of the church service, he introduced the two of us visitors by name to the church members. During the break half way between the service, a lady walks up to me and said she knew who I was!! Her name was S. and I actually met her years ago in my home town in church - and her parents have been long-term supporters of what I have been doing. I had totally forgotten about this contact - and even if I had remembered she was in Alaska, I had no idea where she lived there - so meeting her under the circumstances and my reasons for being in Alaska, leaves me wondering in awe of what God may have for the future there. [Photos: google: homer alaska photos]
I connected with both new and past contacts while in Alaska, in Seward, Anchorage, Talkeetna and Denali National Park area. Hitch-hiking was fairly easy, and some of the rides turned out be in specific answers to prayer - such as asking God to get picked up by people in an RV (recreational vehicle) and I did by a great Texan couple. They even served me lunch! Even after I left Alaska and spent a week in Washington State, visiting friends in a quite a rural area...several friends of theirs had direct connections back to places like Homer and Talkeetna...and I sense that God is beginning to be at work in Alaska. It shall be interesting to see what develops and happens there now over the next 12 months or so.
I returned home for a short break, then headed to work in a wildernness Provincial Park. This has been a summer job of mine for over the past 10 summers - managing the back country for canoeing, hiking, camping and fishing. Last year a good portion of one side of the wilderness valley had a forest fire. It still is an amazing blessing to be able to live and work in this very beautiful and wild location. I will try and share at another time how I was offered this job.
Plans are set to head off for an adventure with God into Europe starting after mid - July. The purpose of this trip is: 1. Sensing God is saying 'go' and to trust him that he will set the agenda, he will be the guide. A couple of locations already seemed to be confirmed, and as the weeks progress I hope to share with you what happens. 2. To continue to develop and network with people in helping backpackers discover and experience God while they travel. 3. To truly let this journey be a 'Faith Travel', to allow God to lead and to guide, and to share how my belief and faith in the God of the Bible as a backpacker really is an incredible adventure, testifying to His reality.
For now, my focus will be to get things in order to head out on this next journey. I've been asking God in prayer to bring the right next set of people to live in my home while I am away by around mid July. There seems to be no end of things to do get ready for yet another set of travels.
My prayer is that for those of you reading this, that you will be able to share this journey with me. I will try and make a weekly posting. Remind me if I do not. My desire is that this journey ahead will be an encouragement and a challenge to all who read it, to take 'risks of faith' in getting to know God and allow him to lead you into the adventure of your life.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Backpacker Beginnings -
It's time to get on with blogging - to let you know what life looks like for a Faith Traveler.
The beginning happened many years ago, back in the mid 1980s, when I did my first backpack travel trip to Scandinavia and Europe right after graduating from university in Canada. I managed to obtain a student work exchange job in Sweden, in the field of my study, forest resources management. I spent over 4 months there, being part of several 3-4 person forest survey crews, collecting forest data in different parts of the country. I was able to travel Sweden, experience Swedish culture, and got paid for it! The money earned help finance 6 weeks of Travel in Europe later, and when I returned home to Canada, I even had money left over.
It was while backpacking and traveling in Europe that autumn, that I began to 'experience' God, to discover that perhaps God was real, and that some of the incidents and situations I found myself in, could not be explained rationally, that left me 'wondering'.
My faith in God, at this time, as I look back in life, might have been considered nominal. Though I had been raised with a church background, I cannot say I really say I had discovered what it meant to have a relationship with God, and how practical God might be.
One such incident occurred on the day after I visited Neuschwanstein
Castle, in Southern Germany. Traveling by train south, I was concerned about not arriving in time in the town of Oberammegau at the local youth hostel. The previous day, I had phoned the hostel to let them know I intended to stay the following night, but they informed me to arrived before 5pm, as it was low tourist season, and the doors would be locked at that time.
It was late autumn, and I realized that the timing of the train would bring me into town after dusk, and close to the 5pm hostel closing. I had never been to the town before and still had to walk and find the hostel in the dark. So, I was somewhat worried about arriving late and not being able to check in on time.
However, on the train ride, though there were only a few people in my train carriage, I met a Canadian girl and discovered that she was actually already staying at that very same hostel. She had headed out to visit the castle that day, but it was a public holiday, which she was unaware of, and discovered that the castle was closed. I shared my ‘worry'about not getting to the hostel in time with her, but to my encouragement, she said she had been given a key to access the hostel.
Upon arriving in Oberammegau, she led me to the hostel. It was almost 5 pm. There was no one at the front desk, and even though I tried ringing the bell to call for someone, no one responded. But since the girl had a key, she let me into the common area of the hostel and also was able to open the door into the dormitory, where I was able to choose a bed and sleep for the night!
No hostel staff ever appeared that evening to check me in - but at least I was IN, and did not have to worry about having to find another place to stay in town.
To me, it was amazing having met this girl on the train that day, a fellow Canadian, who ‘happened’ to be staying in the hostel I was heading to, who ‘happened’ to have the key to a ‘locked’ hostel. The only other people staying that night in the hostel was a young German family.
So, was I just lucky this particular day, or was there a God I was beginning to discover, a ‘God’ who knew of my situation, and somehow knew in advance what was going to happen. Did this ‘God’ have things planned in advance for me this particular day?
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