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Coming from a middle class background, travel was always considered a luxury then, even if it meant going to a relative's place or a religious shrine.

The thing about tourism is that the reality of a place is quite different from the mythology of it.

Religion points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage.

Tourism is a very big economic benefit to the Sherpa people, and also, they have very strong ties to their own social attitudes and their own religion, so fortunately, they're not too influenced by many of our Western attitudes.

This evening I wish to suggest that we Christians should accompany people on their pilgrimages. Specifically we should travel with people as they search for the good, the true and the beautiful.

There's one profound difference between secular and religious pilgrimages. It's inconceivable that a Muslim would feel a sense of anticlimax when reaching Mecca. But for a secular pilgrim, the potential for disappointment is always there.

Typically, in the cities there can be resistance to the gospel or just to Americans, or anybody that's Western. When you get back into the villages, the people are very welcoming. Then when you get into Muslim areas, it definitely gets a little more difficult.

I have often called attention to the fact that walking through the streets in the Middle Ages was a different experience from nowadays. Right and left, there were house facades that were built out of what the soul felt and thought. Every key, every lock, carried the imprint of the person who had made it.

At the end of the Middle Ages, nobody would ever have expected the monasteries to vanish from the scene within a generation - yet they did. Change does happen.

Tourists as well as natives want to see cultural achievements - whether it's the Banaue Terraces, the old churches or museums.