CAMINO PORTUGUESE

My friends

A new journey will begin soon. As a matter of fact, Ansie and myself will depart Monday 20 June for Portugal. We will then on 21 June take a train to Coimbra to start our Camino to Santiago. We plan to walk 380 km in 17 days. We did no training, except to run form Pietermaritzburg to Durban, that was two weeks ago. Our gear is hopefully sorted out and the boots that we walked with in 2013 are still fine.

Why are we doing it again?

I suppose there are a number of answers:

Celebrate life!

See a new country and meet new people.

Pilgrimage.

A Pilgrimage is a spiritual journey into yourself, into God. We hope to encounter God in a wonderful new way. If He dwells in us, why then go on a pilgrimage? It is in the crossing of boundaries, our own but also physical boundaries that God is experienced in new ways. So, we hope to return with new passion and new vigour. There is so much more to discover and experience.

Ansie will return before me. I will volunteer as a hospitaleros at Albergue de Peregrinos de Alpriate More about that later, but if you are planning on walking the Portuguese route, come and stay over from 14 – 28 July. I would like to offer you a South African welcome and hospitality.

"Ultreia, Suseia, Deus adjuva nos" Onwards, upwards, God with us!

Johan and Ansie

We do not pull Christ toward us from heaven by prayer. Rather, we discover Him within ourselves. (Matthew The Poor – Monastery of St Macarius, Egypt)