The call to journey...

The Lord said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your family and your father's house, for the land I will show you.  I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.

'I will bless those who bless you:

I will curse those who slight you.

All the tribes of the earth

shall bless themselves by you.'

So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him.  Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.  Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran.  They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there. 

- Genesis 12:1-5

On Sunday evening 20 of us left Auckland, families and homes, and now have arrived in the eastern reaches of the land of Canaan, the eastern reaches of the Holy Land in the Kingdom of Jordan. Over the next two and a half weeks we will walk in the footsteps of holy men and women and most especially the Holy One who assumed or flesh and walked with us on our paths.

Our journey was in a relatively comfortable seat, with movies, food and bar service... the holy ones who walked these paths had long journeys with many trials through the wilderness that marks this land. 

Day one of our pilgrimage was a day to ponder on our journey, a journey to the Promised Land

The desert highway... imagine walking long journeys through here