A Pilgrim’s Journey: Why Pilgrimage Matters

Wonder Voyage is celebrating 25 years of connecting people with wonder. We will fill the blog with stories of our staff and partners around the globe. We can’t wait to connect you with the stories that make up the heartbeat of our organization. This week, we look at Wonder Voyage in 2000. You can read more about this and other stories in Executive Director Shawn Small’s newest book, “Into the Wonder.”

What is Pilgrimage?

The year 2000 came to be the year that the word “pilgrimage” would define this organization. The bulk of the year was filled with challenge after challenge, and it could have easily been Wonder Voyage’s last. Although the voyages were successful for the churches, everyone on staff was emotionally and spiritually drained as they tried to create a new way to lead mission trips and pilgrimages. For all its difficulty, however, 2000 defined what Wonder Voyage would become as an organization.

Up until this moment, Executive Director Shawn Small had an idea of what pilgrimage was: a sacred journey prompted by God. He felt the journey was transformational to the soul and the spirit. Somewhere along the road, you would visit holy sites, learn from them, and return home with a new and healed heart. All of our pilgrimages today carry these elements, but a key ingredient was still missing.

Redefining Pilgrimage

For over 20 years, Keith Wheeler had been visiting other countries carrying a huge, rough-hewn wooden cross. He carried it on his shoulder from point A to point B. Many times, he doesn’t exactly know where point B is. He simply walks, obeying Christ’s call on his life, and very literally “taking up his cross” and following Jesus.

In 2000, Shawn was a member at one of Keith’s supporting churches, and Ken Janke urged Shawn to travel with Keith on one of his voyages. Though reluctant because of the busy summer he had come through, Shawn agreed to leave for Africa for seventeen days, joining Keith and attempting to learn about pilgrimage.

Carrying the Cross in Africa

With Shawn, Keith took the cross to the island countries of Africa, including Seychelles, Madagascar, and Reunion. Some of the places where Shawn and Keith walked were frequently unfriendly to Westerners. And worse, they were hostile to the cross. Their religions included Hinduism, Animism, ancestral worship, and Fundamentalist Muslims. From day to day, Shawn never knew where he was going next, where he would eat, or where he would sleep. He felt like a complete foreigner for the first time in all his travels. He ventured into places where he was not welcome. Following a guy carrying a cross made him feel even more strange and uncomfortable. However, on this journey to Africa, Shawn discovered what Peter meant when he addressed the early Christians as “aliens and strangers in the world” (1 Peter 2:11).

God was present in a tangible way in that place of complete discomfort. Shawn was forced to rely upon Christ for every single moment of every single day. Through the danger and hardship, Shawn heard from God in ways that strengthened his faith and helped him put the upcoming years in focus. Pilgrimage was no longer a theory to Shawn. It had become a reality.

Discovering a Pilgrim’s Faith

Shawn went from walking the path of a pilgrim to discovering a true pilgrim’s faith. On his voyage to Africa, Shawn learned the meaning of what it was to be a pilgrim. This complete reliance upon Christ has helped define what makes Wonder Voyage so unique. We plan our trips and make our arrangements and calculations, but at the heart of what we do is the knowledge that we are aliens here and we are in God’s hands. We journey as pilgrims- all the time- not just when we’re out traveling.