News from my solo 200 miles pilgrimage

A PILGRIMAGE TO HELP END SLAVERY

8-26 September 2023

 

Well – I’m nearly there! Nearly at the end of a 200 mile solo pilgrimage, from Coventry Cathedral to Bath Abbey, with just two more days to go. Here’s a little taste of some of the 19 days so far, with weather ranging from the oppressive heatwave of that first weekend of mid 30sC to storm Nigel and torrential rain!

 

 

TWENTY MILES due to a diversion; plus a bad fall. Day 4 was certainly ‘interesting!’


 

 

 

 



 

Day 16. A very pretty day! The White Horse Trail on Pewsey Downs, with Adam’s Grave Hill, and The White Horse all up above me to my right. I kept to the Kennet and Avon Canal, all the way to Devizes, where I treated myself to a drink in The Bridge Inn and made a new friend in a large chicken. To which my son wrote, Been gone a while, haven’t you Mum! 

But it’s been worth it - donations to sponsor my walk and help @ijm work to end trafficking and slavery are still flowing in!  Every little helps to release the captives. Justgiving page is open until the end of the month.

The work that Bath Abbey is doing in regard to the Monuments and Memorials that adorn the walls, and the issues being raised about slavery, have got me thinking! We can't personally do anything to change history and the fact that slavery and people trafficking occurred; but we CAN learn from history, and we CAN do something positive to try to end the slavery and human trafficking that is happening today. I decided to celebrate my 70th birthday with a Pilgrimage, and ask people to sponsor the miles by making a donation to IJM.

The International Justice Mission is a non-profit organisation that works to help end human trafficking - a horrifying 40 million people are waiting for rescue, restoration and justice. IJM is the largest international anti-slavery organization. It works in almost 20 communities around the world to fight for justice on behalf of those who are being oppressed. Because of IJM supporters, families have been freed from slavery, girls from brothels and children from cybersex trafficking. It was founded by Gary Haugen, who was a member of the church where I served in ministry in Virginia.  www.ijmuk.org/

I've two days more walking to reach Bath Abbey and the 200 hundred miles in September 2023, from Coventry Cathedral to Bath Abbey, where I hope a clergy member from the Bath Abbey team will meet me for a final prayer and blessing.  

The Church Times is interested in a story about my pilgrimage, and IJM_UK have already featured it on their social media accounts a couple of times.

I’m aiming to raise funds through sponsorship to help the mission of IJM - to help end slavery in our lifetime. I had hoped to raise £10 for every mile I walk; and the great news is that people have blown that out of the water and we are well over! Would you help me raise it even further with a small contribution to IJM? You can sponsor my miles with a donation to my IJM fundraising page on JUSTGIVING. Thank you. When I read that children, equivalent to the number of children in all of England and Wales, are currently in slavery all around the world, it made me even more determined to help IJM in their work to set the captives free. Every little helps. 

Thank you.   I’m aiming to be in Bath Abbey by 3.45pm on Tuesday September 26th; I’d love to have a huge total of donations for IJM by then!

Walking from Coventry to Bath via the Coventry Canal, the Oxford Canal, the Thames Path and the Kennet and Avon Canal.

The planned route. Some of the mileage turned out a little differently! I’ll do a final total at the end of Tuesday 26th when I reach Bath Abbey.