18. Aug 2025

Ypern - Kortrijk

Photo 1: I stayed the past night with the family Biesbrouck. They were great hosts and took me to the historical sites yesterday evening, so I would not need to take the time to do so on my walk through the area this morning.

Photo 2: Hans took this photo of me from his doorstep as I disappeared over the horizon. This will be the last photo ever of the ripped up yellow cover on my backpack...

Photo 3: A heart in the city of Wervik on the Leie River. It fascinated me that in one town along this river everyone spoke French, and in the next one everyone spoke Dutch.

Photo 4: Path along the Leie River. At one point the path was blocked off, over which I was not very happy. Shortly after I got to the road I needed to walk on as a detour, a young man hit the curb with is bike and fell off. His name was Hisham from Morocco. I asked him if he was all right and whether he needed help. We then started talking about Jesus and Islam. We both felt that God wanted us to talk. Without my detour and his bike incident, we would not have met.

Photo 5: Pastor Kurt and his connect group from Kingdom City Church in Kortrijk.

I slept at the church this night. Upon my arrival, Pastor Kurt took me to a sports store to get a new rain cover for my backpack. I also needed a new poncho, as I apparently had left my other one at a hostel in England. I did not need one up until now because of the dry weather, but rain was now in the forecast. A young girl named Zoé was the salesperson at the store who advised us. Her name comes from the The name comes from the Ancient Greek word zōē, which means life. Jesus used this word to explain that he came to give us abundant life. I shared with her a bit of my story and what her name means. That led to a God-talk...

In the evening I was able to share from my pilgrim experiences with the three young men in Pastor Kurt's life group. They are taking their first steps of faith on their pigrim journey with Jesus. A was a very blessed evening.