Chapter 4: Home for the homeless

Entering in Taizé during autumn was both very familiar and very alienating to our experiences in summer. We’ve been to Taizé three times in the last four years, so after a week of wandering and uncertainty, this place really felt like a save haven and a welcome home. We were welcomed by an old friend of Gideon whom he met four years ago in Taizé, and who is now living in the community as a permanent for one year. This surprise meeting was amazing and it was good to update on each others lives for the past years. He told us however that is was not possible for the two of us to share a dorm, or to put up a tent, so for the first time in our married life we had to sleep in separated rooms again. 

The fun of winter-Taizé is that there are only about 50 visitors (as opposed to the 3000 – 5000 visitors in summer), so it is fairly easy so get to speak with every one, and to get to know almost everyone. There was a common room were we had diner together at real tables, and there was hot tea throughout the day. The prayers were much more intimate and the Bible studies were in general more in depth than in summer.

Among the many wonderful people we met those few days was one family from the US, a couple with two kids. They had lived in a community in France for the last year, and they were now, just as we are, traveling through France for the next month or so. There were so many things in which we could relate to each other. They were a real inspiration for us.

After Taizé we continued our journey south, this time towards Lyon. One of France largest cities, which is famous for its good food, or so we learned in Taizé. We got a lot of good suggestions of where to go and where to eat, so we decided to have a real soirée. After a diner in one of the traditional restaurants we went to the cinema to see Fantastic Beasts – the Crimes of Grindelwald. Part of the movie takes place in France, which made it even better to watch it in a French cinema.

Ever since we visited Lyon, our eyes are turned toward the beggars. We saw someone begging in front of the church as well as at other places in the city and it was difficult to walk past them. As long as we know we’ve walked past people who were begging, trying not to look. But this is much more difficult when we try to listen to God. ‘I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,’ Jesus said. So can we look towards God and walk past Jesus?
Back in the Netherlands we already struggled with the question: If we don’t want to ignore these people, then what do we do? In Lyon we talked about this and one thing is sure, we don’t want to ignore and look away anymore, we want to see them as persons. But does giving money really change something? Earlier in the Netherlands, we decided that when we gave money, we would also ask if we can pray for them, because we believe that God can bless them much more than the money can. This resulted in some wonderful encounters. It was good to think back to that.
One reason to pass by people is because we don’t know whether they are honest or not, whether they really need what they ask for or they just want to profit from other peoples good will. But then again, it’s not a reason to ignore people. If we talk to them and ask with what it is we can help them with, rather than just give money directly, people that are not honest are probably less interested in talking to you than people that are in need, they might tell you their story.
Later that night, when we walked back to the car, Gideon mentioned that if we see some people that have to sleep outside because they don’t have a home, we might as well join them, for we don’t have one either. Irma liked that idea and she definitely wanted to get to know these people as persons and to try to relate to them. But the difficulty that rises up is, what then? What do you say after the first 5 minutes. In the end we didn’t see any more people on the street, so we found a nice place outside Lyon to park our car and sleep for that night.

The next day we went to Avignon, which was a beautiful city in which a former palace of the pope is situated. There we saw a woman begging and Irma went up to her. ‘I don’t have any money, but how can I help you?’ She told that she needed some food for her family and her children. Across the street there was a supermarket, so Irma proposed to buy some bread for her. The lady aslo mentioned some other things that she needed and while Gideon stayed outside with her stuff, she and Irma went into the small supermarket. It felt so good to walk around the shop with her and to see her smile when she was thinking of the things that she could buy for her family. But at the same time it was very difficult to decide what to buy, what was really necessary and what wasn’t. In the end Irma spend much more than she intended to, which felt difficult, but the thankful smile and hug the lady gave, were really rewarding. Still we’re struggling with this and because Irma already spent so much we had to walk past others. So next time we’d rather buy something ourselves and give it afterwards. 

Dear readers, if anyone of you can relate to this or if you have other experiences with giving to poor people, we really want to hear your stories and advise.

Chapter 3: Wandering through France

Was there ever a day when you woke up and you didn’t know where your bed would be the next night?

Our journey abroad started with our three day honeymoon in the Ardennen, southern part of Belgium. We stayed in a cozy little B&B called L’Ardoise, where we were welcomed by Mieke and Paul. It was a relaxing time of enjoying good meals, long walks in the beautiful forests and small medieval villages, and the kindness of our wonderful hosts. One day we went to Durbuy, 'the smallest city of  the world'. After visiting this town we returned to the car and saw a red van with a sticker saying #Europeisourbackyard. ‘Oh, it looks like it is from other travelers, what would it be great to meet them. Let’s walk around the city one more time to see if we can encounter them.’ And after a round through the city, there they were at the parking lot. It turned out that they were a Dutch couple that also started some weeks ago and it was really nice to speak to each other. When we said that we were planning to meet and help missionaries, they told us about two other Dutch couples that they were following, who name themselves travel many roads. At the moment these two couples are back in the Netherlands and organize a theater production they made about their journey - Songbirds of passage -

The other day, when we were discussing what to visit next, our host, Mieke, came to as and asked: ‘If I may, you look like people that would be very interested in visiting the Hare Krishna community in Radhadesh.’ They are a Hindu community that bought and renovated one of the castles in Belgium, and are now one of the biggest Hindu centers in the western part of Europe. We had a tour around the castle and were amazed by the totally different culture they live in.

Then our stay in L’Ardoise ended, and we said goodbye to Paul and Mieke. Before we left Mieke asked if we could use some clothes, she wanted to give them to us, otherwise she would throw them away. We don’t need them ourselves, but accepted to give them to people who could use them. Despite some of our efforts, we hadn’t found a place to go yet. So where shall we go next? Irma just discovered that towns that are highly interesting to visit are marked on the map. When we were about to leave we looked on the map which city in southern direction seemed interesting, which was Reims. ‘Funny, last night I already thought about Reims’ Gideon said. Reims is known for its large cathedral, which we off course visited. In the afternoon we hoped to find some voluntary work at the salvation army. They were very friendly people that listened with patience while we tried to explain in French what we wanted to do.  Unfortunately they had no work for us, but they accepted the clothes we got from Mieke.

The afternoon passed and the night came. We tried to find a place to sleep in one of the small village around Reims, but without success. Thus we went to the forest, where we searched a place to set up camp. It was already dark when we cooked our simple meal and got ready to sleep under the night sky. The next morning we went further south to the city of Vézelay. Mieke advised us to check out some pilgrim hostels if we wanted a cheap stay and when we checked for cities on the pilgrim routes, we saw the name of Vézelay, which is a starting point of the pilgrimage to both Santiago de Compostella and Assisi. While Irma was driving on through the French fields, Gideon saw an interesting abbey on the map where we wanted to stop, the abbey of Pontigny. It was a large and beautiful abbey and it looked like there was a living christian community. We saw a poster of ‘Mission de France’, an organisation that tries to revive the enthusiasm for living out the Gospel within the Catholic church; which is also active in Pontigny. When we went there we were welcomed to drink some coffee with the people there, and they told us more about their work. They could not help us with voluntary work or a place to sleep, but said to us that if we went to Vézelay, they could give us the contact of the brothers and sisters of Jerusalem, a congregation that is active in Vézelay. And so we followed the breadcrumbs to Vézelay.

At some point the gloomy, rainy day without feeling really useful got the best of us. But that moment we stopped the car to switch drivers, the orange of the setting sun was shining toward us and we saw three rainbows. It was a wonderful moment that really encouraged us. It was already late when we got to Vézelay and we couldn’t find a cheap place to stay. Since we didn’t want to spend too much money already and didn’t feel like setting up a tent again after a rainy day. So we decided to sleep in the car. Not comfortable, but easy and the night sky with sight of the Vézelay abbey was beautiful; we even saw the milky way.

The next day was Sunday and it was time to go to church in the large basilica of Vézelay. After the Eucharist we met with two Dutch-speaking sisters, one from Belgium and one from the Netherlands, and they told us about the Monastic of Jerusalem. ‘Are you pilgrims?’ the sisters asked? ‘Well, kind off. We don’t walk to a certain place, but we are on pilgrimage through Europe’. We could stay in the pilgrim hostel of the sisters and when we asked if it was possible to help them with anything, we could help them with cleaning the glass windows of the chapel. The last day, we prayed a final time with the brothers and sisters. After that we said goodbye to them. Sister Ruth told us the story of how God called her to become a sister, we prayed together in the crypt of Saint Marie-Madelaine and she also showed us the garden behind the abbey. It was a very special moment and made our stay in Vézelay even more fulfilling.

Our next plan was to go to an ecovillage. Since we are both interested in growing our own food, and waste reduction, Gideon came with the idea to look if there were any ecovillages on our way. We found the community AVEC (Aventure Village Eco Construction) and tried to call to ask if it was okay to visit and if we could help in some way, but we couldn’t reach them. We decided to go anyway, but when we were in the village, we couldn’t find it. After asking around, and not getting any direction, we called one last time and luckily this time a woman answered. We were welcomed by Ange and she showed us around their large land with which they have big dreams. We hope they will be able to accomplish them. For the next days we were welcomed in their family, worked a bit in the garden, played with their cute daughter Eglantine, and enjoyed delicious meals with fresh vegetables from the garden and even edible wild mushrooms. They also had a lot of musical instruments and Gideon enjoyed playing piano again. One afternoon we also visited another ecovillage together, called Eotopia, where we had a tour, played music and had diner together. It was nice and inspiring to be with people that dare to start and live out great ideals for a better world and for community life. It also triggered us again to think about our dreams of a community life (and Irma’s dream for a garden).

After this week of wandering around, we came home in Taize. More about that next time.

Chapter 2: En Route

The first stage of our journey is complete. Gideon has passed his driving exam, so we drove cross the border into Belgium, and now we are finally en route.

Two weeks ago we left our home in Wageningen and went to Irma's parents. Irma's mom helps to organize a day for elderly people in the village to meet each other and and eat together. Now we were there as well to contribute a hand. For the elderly it was fun to see some young people helping. For us, even though we were still in the Netherlands, it felt like our journey had started.

Then we invited Gideon's family for a farewell diner. It was so good to see them before we left, and we were very glad to gave them a delicious meal, and had a good time together.

In the next week we were asked to help bar tending at a wedding of a friend of ours. At our own wedding we were very glad with all the people that helped us, so we were eager to return the favour. It was nice to see all the guests at a party coming to the bar, and have interesting conversations. We got to know many more people than we would have otherwise.


The rest of the week we stayed with Gideon's parents, and repainted their living room. It was fun to do and very rewarding. It was a week full of shared happiness, we really pampered each other. We made them happy with a shining white living room and cooked for them, while they let us stay in their cute camper van, enjoy a luxurious bath and best of all, go to the cinema together.

Then it was time to hit the road again, and really leave the country. All our stuff packed in our small car, but always room for one hitchhiker. And as we passed by Nijmegen and made our first stop, there he was, our first hiker, Ram. He wanted to go couch surfing in Luxembourg, so we could drive together for two hours, and had all kinds of interesting conversations. Helping each other and sharing stories, that's what makes traveling so interesting.

p.s.: For all Dutch readers, we were on national television. This spring we were interviewed by a pastor at a fantasy festival. You can find the episode here. https://www.kro-ncrv.nl/roderickzoekt/seizoenen/seizoen-2018/boodschap-van-sprookjes (20'50'')