06. Aug 2025

Eastleigh - Havant

Photo 1: "No Bull..."

This is not exactly the sign you want to see just before you go over a fence to cross a field. Yes, this was the public walking path... but there was no bull. He was in the next field after that, and fortunately eating grass peacefully with his cows and calfs.

Photo 2: I am not sure what this was, but I walked by it, perhaps the ruins of an old church. Many such strutures dot the countryside.

Photo 3: A typical by-way between two fields. It is thought that these walkways developed for peasants to make their ways to the fields. In Luke 14:23 Jesus speaks in a parable about servants being sent to the highways and hedges to find people to come to the wedding feast. The highways are the highlands and the hedges the by-ways. I have found many people on such paths to invite to the Father’s House, people who do not walk near the church, but wanting to know the way to the Father’s House.

Photo 4: "Lunch Break"

I try to get about half of a day's hike done before I take a lunch break. (Sometimes I have lunch later than I would like.) It is a moment to take the the backpack and shoes off. Usually after eating and drinking, my carrying load will be at least 1 kilo less.

Photo 5: "Hot and dry days in England"

On such days it is always nice to find shade on the path. I am now walking through an area of England that was once called Wessex. In the early 700's a Benedictine monk by the name of Winfrid left permantly the shores of Wessex to travel to the continent of Europe and bring the message of hope, life and saving grace through Jesus Christ to the pagan Germanic tribes. In bold faith, Winfrid felled the Donar's Oak at Geismar to demonstrate the powerlessness of pagan gods, and used its wood to build a chapel. Winfrid met his martyrdom on June 5, 754 AD, in Dokkum (modern-day Netherlands) and was eventually entombed at his favored Abbey of Fulda. Some years before that, Pope Gregory II had changed his name to Boniface, the Apostel to the Germans. Now I walk and pray, an English speaker from Germany, where Boniface had once lived, walked and prayed. May that passion for people to find the God connection and that bold faith that Boniface lived in, be ignited in the churches and hearts of the followers of Jesus in England once again. This is my prayer as I walk through the coastal region of southern England.