On our trip we struck up a conversation with different folk. At one of the lighthouses in Portugal we passed the time of day with a young man, who later, came by our van, looking for, it seemed to us, some conversation. He is French and his name is Alec. He is wandering arround Europe and confessed to be "lost". He asked questions about Jesus and what it meant to be a pastor. Bill had described himself as a pastor and Jesus as "the Good Shepherd" His English was fairly good and Bill gave him a copy of Rev. Douglas MacMillan's book on Psalm 23. May the Lord bless it to him.
In Galicia, at one of our stops, a man parked next to us then passed at the back of our van carrying a case. A few minutes later we heard the sounds of the bag-pipes! You can see he and Bill got on like old friends. Indeed the people from Galicia, along with Asturias and Brittany in France are Celtic like we Scots and welcome any contact with people with the same roots as themselves.
We were very interested, some days later to visit a bag-pipe museum, and see exhibits of old instruments from many different parts of the world.
You can see Bill making himself at home among some of the locals in a very poor village in Portugal. The allocated parking place was in the centre of the village, and nearby were families of, we think, gypsies. We felt for this village where there seemed no gospel presence or influence.
In Galicia, at one of our stops, a man parked next to us then passed at the back of our van carrying a case. A few minutes later we heard the sounds of the bag-pipes! You can see he and Bill got on like old friends. Indeed the people from Galicia, along with Asturias and Brittany in France are Celtic like we Scots and welcome any contact with people with the same roots as themselves.
We were very interested, some days later to visit a bag-pipe museum, and see exhibits of old instruments from many different parts of the world.
Inland from the coast there are old villages built of beautiful local stone, clinging to steep slopes. In a gift shop we were told about a Scottish lady, who lived in the area. We tracked her down and she turned out to be, not Scottish, but Peruvian. Her husband is from Newcastle. They lived near Carlisle for some years. Her brother attended the Free Church of Scotland school in Lima and she remembered one of the teachers - a John MacPherson who hails from Isobel's home village! They have now moved to this beautiful area and are building their own house in a village that has been unoccupied for some years. The local people were very sceptical about the project, but have warmed to the idea now they see the loving care that he is taking to use the traditional building material and methods of the area. What he is doing has encouraged other people who have had family living here in the past to think about doing the same. The roads linking these small villages are incredibly narrow and twisty.
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