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.

It's World Day Against Trafficking ......

We shouldn’t need a World Day Against Trafficking in Persons in 2023.  

Yet right now, children, women and men are being trafficked across international borders. Children like 12-year-old Ny* and 16-year-old Lalin*, who were trafficked from Cambodia into domestic servitude in Malaysia.

Do you remember your first trip abroad? The excitement of experiencing a different country and culture?  

Ny and Lalin will never forget the first time they travelled to a different country.Unable to afford an education, the young friends were tricked and trafficked abroad into domestic servitude: 

“My employer’s children hit me, pulled my hair and spat in my food. I felt hurt and worthless,” Lalin told us. 

Imagine being trapped in a foreign country. Abused. Forced to work long hours with little food. Ny was also sexually assaulted: “I was very scared... I thought of ending my life.”

Trafficking knows no borders and can happen to anyone. Last year, Sir Mo Farah shared that he was trafficked as a child from East Africa into domestic servitude here in the UK. 

Trafficking is an international crime that demands an international response. This World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, will you do something powerful?

Will you help me help IJM in their work to help end human trafficking?

There are still 40 million people who are waiting for rescue, restoration and justice. And that depends on IJM supporters—people like you & me.

So I‘m walking about 200 hundred miles in September 2023, from Coventry Cathedral to Bath Abbey, aiming to raise funds through sponsorship to help the mission of IJM – to help end slavery in our lifetime.

I'd love to raise £10 for every mile I walk.

Would you help me do this with a small contribution towards my goal?

Sponsor my walk for IJM here Thank you.

My route is a (fairly flat!) canal and river walk, starting from Coventry Cathedral, along the Coventry Canal to Hawkesbury Junction, then south on the Oxford Canal via Rugby and Banbury to Oxford Cathedral; the Thames Path will take me from Oxford through Abingdon and Pangbourne, on to Reading, where I turn west along the Kennet and Avon Canal past Hungerford, Newbury and Pewsey to Bath Abbey.  Some 200 miles.

WAYS YOU CAN HELP:

-        Pray. Pray, pray, pray for the work of IJM.  Pray for the walk, for safety, for strength and for determination to finish and walk every single step from Coventry Cathedral to Bath Abbey.

-        Provide a bed or a meal along the way. Do you live near the route? Could you pick me up from the path, drive me to your home and give me DBnB for a night? (and take me back the next morning!)

-        Promenade. Join me for a day to walk.  Ask others to sponsor you too for IJM for the miles you walk.

-        Pledge Sponsor the miles I do by making a donation to my IJM fundraising page on JUSTGIVING:  www.justgiving.com/page/coventry-bath-pilgrimage  


Here’s the (almost) final itinerary:

Would you help me do this with a small contribution towards my goal?

And then together we can support IJM and their valuable work around the globe to help those who need it most and end slavery, trafficking and violence.

Thank you in advance for whatever you're able to donate. I'll be posting on my website at the end of each day's walk, so you can follow my progress there!

And do come and join me for a day of walking along the way if you'd like to - and maybe have your friends sponsor you too to add to the amount we can raise for IJM.

Sponsor my walk for IJM here Thank you.