Some people have wondered whether it is easier for us, David and Shekinah, to live the faith life as pilgrims, since we have the gift of music. We do not sing for money. When we sit in a street or plaza and sing and talk with the people we do not put out a guitar case or anything else to encourage contributions. Our music is for free. Sometimes people will come up to us and give us some money anyway, which we do accept and thank them for, and we use it for whatever we might need at the time. Other times nobody feels led to do this, and we receive things we need such as food or a place of shelter some other way.
The first 7 years of our pilgrimage we never sang publicly and God kept us without using the gift of music in connection with the supply of our needs at all.
So to those of you who long to live a life of freedom walking with God outside of the system of man, please know that you really do not need any outstanding talent to do this. All you need is the courage to put your trust in God to keep you as you pour out to those you meet and share the love and truth that is in you in the way God shows you to do it.
We see Jesus as our role model of a
dropout pilgrim. He showed two different
ways of how we could have our needs met.
He said: Only concern yourself with seeking to bring about the reign of love and justice (in your own life as well as in the world), then your daily physical needs will just come to you.
And he also said that to receive our needs we could simply ask people.
Often people we talk to are inspired to see our need and they offer us something to eat or a place to sleep without our asking.
Sometimes people have offered a specific item or service which we needed at the time, which was not as obvious or visible a need, also without our asking.
Of course it is very inspiring when people help without having been asked, but we also do ask at times.
Every time we need something, we seek God for his specific guidance.
Asking people is humbling because of course people's reactions to our requests vary. Yet many times our asking for help led to a very precious exchange with people, which might not have happened otherwise.
Occasionally, when God led us to do so, we have also asked for financial contributions for a particular need such as a bus ride, air-tickets, or visa costs.
We are very thankful for the kindness of all the people who have helped us with our various needs in our pilgrimage.
At times when it seemed that our needs were not supplied as we would have expected or wished and we suffered some kind of lack or hardship, there has always been something valuable for us to learn from the situation or there was a higher purpose, such as a particular encounter with a person.
Street interview, Cologne, Germany, 2015, with English subtitles