Many people travel because it is customary to their religion. Whether it’s to visit a notable site or to spread the word, faith inspires people to travel. To most religions the pilgrimage is symbolic of connecting with their faith and finding an identity within their religion. Many pilgrimages involve traveling to a monument important to the history of the religion. Each religion has many places that they can choose to pilgrimage to, but some are more popular than others.
The pilgrimage to Mecca for Muslims is Islam’s most important pilgrimage. Catholics tend to make their pilgrimage to Vatican City. Christianity and Judaism pilgrimages are often made to Jerusalem. For many, a pilgrimage is the first time a person will travel to another country. Some things to remember while on your pilgrimage:
Connect with the Locals: Don’t just visit the site, talk with the people there. A lot of times they will be experiencing many of the same things you are experiencing, or you could get a totally new perspective on things.
Plan Your Time: Realize that if you are going on a religious pilgrimage and are doing so on your own accord you will most definitely have a lot of free time. Study the area before your trip so you will have a greater idea of places you would like to go. Often places of pilgrimage are surrounded by many other notable places of travel, so do your due diligence and see if anything else is around that you would like to visit.
Mission Trips
Often, churches will put together trips that members of the church can participate in. Usually the trips are youth orientated and serve a dual purpose by building social and relational skills. Many mission trips involve traveling to poorer countries and providing aid to the residents. This can come in the form of building a house or a school, or providing basic medical care. Essential to all mission trips is to try and spread the word of one’s faith. Some things to keep in mind while on your mission trip:
Pack according to the time you will be away - Do some research on the place you will be going and have an understanding of what kind of laundry situation you will be living in.
Keep an eye out – If you are traveling to poor countries and you are obviously from a First World country some locals may try and extract money from you in some way or another. Don’t assume everyone is out to get you however, respect the people who live there and don’t be afraid to engage in conversation with them.
Travel is an opportunity to learn, whether geography, languages, history or other subjects.
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page", St. Augustine said. Here at www.travel-university.org we believe that every page must be read and explored. Travel is an avenue of learning that no text or classroom can teach. The world is a living classroom and you the student. We invite you to the www.travel-university.org library where you can read general interest and detail oriented articles.
