Pilgrim Spirit Tours Offer Travel with a Twist

By Bill Peterson

After a tour of China, Barbara Zielinski returned to Grand Rapids fired up with the idea of coordinating a group pilgrimage with a difference. "My one regret during our earlier trip was that we remained ‘tourists,’ observing those around us rather than becoming participants in their cultural dance," she says. Thus Pilgrim Spirit Tours was born.

As Minister and Experi-Mentor of Extended Grace Faith Community in Grand Haven, Michigan, Zielinski knows about taking the road less traveled. While familiar with the appeal of extremes like luxury vacations and hand-in-hand mission work with people of a different culture, she has opted for a middle way.

"The middle road of experiential travel is something less selfless than a mission trip and less self serving then a luxury vacation," she explains. "Here we have the opportunity to visit extraordinary places and meet with and learn from local residents at each destination." In the process travelers come to participate in the culture they’re exploring, rather than assuming the role of onlookers or do-gooders.

Tour guides of Pilgrim Spirit Tour’s October 2007 trip have incorporated enough time for people to be fully present in their surroundings on each of their stops. The pace allows participants to contemplate the meaning of unfolding discoveries. The experience comes with "more than meets the senses," observes Zielinski. Such an approach–what she terms integral travel–takes travelers deeper into the spirituality of the lands in which they move.

An integral trip is not just "for the taking" suggests Zielinski. "It’s also possible that service among those we encounter may naturally emerge as we begin to connect with and care about others on and along our journey."

She describes China as a beautiful place, calm and majestic, musical and ancient, vibrant and mysterious, shrouded in mists and striking in color. "It’s a country that dances," she says, "and somehow each person knows the steps, so that everything is fluid and flowing." In China she discovered a giant dance floor in which everyone moves and no one steps on any one else’s feet or pushes anyone else to the periphery. She delights in the fact that "China offers us a picture of a community of people who care enough about each other and their common ancestry to actually learn the steps." Here are a people with a lesson to teach us all.

The pilgrimage is limited to 20 people. A $300.00 deposit is required by April 17. Details and complete itinerary can be found at PilgrimSpiritTours.com. Barbara Zielinski can be reached at 616-502-2078.

Source: Originally published in Natural Awakenings West Michigan March 2007 Healthy Escapes issue.