my pilgrim friend.

suprisingly so, i have been approached by several male tourists recently in a completely foreign tongue. they walk up to me quite confidently as if they know me or something and this is all i hear: "jibber, jabber, jibber jabber, blah, blah, blah". i mean i was even a Linguistics major for a season, but i had no idea who these people were or what they were trying to communicate to me. i catch myself responding quite often to other tourists, "i'm sorry i don't speak that language." and well, i've figured out that they think i'm Israeli. seems random, i know, but the number one ethnicity here among tourists is Israeli. so bizarre, such a tiny little country and it's not even that close by... they're not at all what i would've expected people from Israel to be like, there's not a single Orhthodox Jew in the mix. there are so many of them and they seem so directionless. They come to Kathmandu to try to figure things out. they consume a lot of coffee, hummous, and other substances and often mistake me for one of them especially when i where this one shirt with wild colors and lots of flowers.

and well, talking about Israel reminds me of a friend of mine. to lessen the exploitative nature of this narrative, i'll call him - Jimmy. I met Jimmy shortly after i got to Kathmandu. Jimmy is from the Netherlands, loves Jesus and was just sensing that there had to be more than his 9-5 in Holland. so he quits his job and buys a plane ticket to India i think. he travels around India for a while, making friends and seeking God. then he comes through Kathmandu and makes friends with one of my friends here. he really connects with a lot of the kids here on the street. but Jimmy felt God calling him to go to China. he goes to China, buys a motorcycle and rides around for several weeks. back in Holland Jimmy had been engaged but it was called off and he ended up with both of their rings and he wrote a poem about burying the rings someday in the tallest mountain in the world. so Jimmy decides to hit up Mt. Everest. he buries the rings (i love poets) and is crying out to God and God places the word Jerusalem in his heart. so he comes down the mountain and embarks on a motorcycle journey from Everest to Jerusalem. he makes it to the Pakistan border, but for some reason they don't want to let tall skinny, peaceful Scandanavian boy through. Jimmy comes back to Kathmandu - where i meet up with him. Jimmy shares with us his passion to bring God's peace to people in Jerusalem. Jimmy hung out with our crowd here only for a couple weeks. it was short, but it was so sweet. he is passionate, he is fearless. his church in the Netherlands didn't really support his decision to abandon his old life and to follow God on this journey. so the night before Jimmy got on a plane for Jerusalem, our church gathered around Jimmy and prayed for him and sent him out as one of our own. we celebrated with him this vision that God had given him and then we said goodbye. whenever i think of Israel now, i'm going to think of Jimmy.

Buechner says, "religion points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage." my friend Jimmy has been on a pilgrimage. and really maybe we're all pilgrims - it just looks different in different contexts. i think of the last verse in the song at ian and camille's wedding and it makes me smile:

haste thee on from grace to glory
armed by faith and winged by prayer
heaven's eternal days before thee
God's own hand shall guide thee there
soon shall close our earthly mission
soon shall pass our pilgrim days
hope shall change to glad fruition
faith to sight and prayer to praise