Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Paul are the pilgrims that spring to mind. All of these had their minds fixed on a heavenly city, confessing that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Other biblical figures went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground because they were desiring a better country, that is a heavenly one. These were men of whom the world was not worthy,therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

The substance of heavenly reality has made many in past ages forsake this world in favour of eternity. Below I will tell the story of some men and woman who we will find it easier to identify with than Moses straining with his staff at the head of Israel, or Paul clinging to a piece of flotsam in the Meditteranean. The fabric that binds them together is that all have had a heavenly vision of an eternal city which became more real to them than this present earthly existence.

Sadhu Sundar Singh

"Sadhu" is more of a title than a name, as any one who has travelled to India may have discovered. A sadhu is a Hindu holy man, one who is searching for God in the tradition of the Indian sub continent. This normally means the renunciation of possesions, a life of pilgrimage, and is usually demonstrated by the wearing of orange robes.

Sundar, which means "beautiful", was a young sikh living in the Punjab when his mother took him to visit a orange robed Holy man sitting under a tree close to their village. Singh, which means Lion in Hindi, is the surname of most Sikhs and alludes to their famed courage and militancy. Anyway, the orange robed holy man must have made such an impression on the young boy that when he decided to dedicate his life to Jesus Christ he expressed this by putting on the robes of a sadhu.

He then began to walk through the length and breadth of India with a small pocket New Testament, proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus and teaching his parables. No Christian church pointed out this path to him, he had no other influence except the plain message of the New Testament together with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For many years he lived this pilgrim life, crossing over into Tibet every year once the snows had melted to take the message of Christ to the Buddhist Lamas.

Lamaism, contrary to today's popular opinion, was neither tolerant nor compassionate, and Sundar experienced a series of violent attacks against his person, and a number of miraculous events on different occasions saved him from the cruelty of the Buddhists. These attacks did not deter him from returning every year to Tibet to preach the Gospel, and at the end of one summer he did not return as normal. In all likelihood he suffered death as a martyr at the hands of the monks.

Many mysterious miracles and signs accompanied the life of the Sadhu. It was reported that he conversed with wild animals, had visions of Christ, received help from angels, and met a ancient man in a Himalayan cave. This man, the Maharishi of Kailash, was an apostle who had come hundreds of years before from Alexandria to preach the gospel in India, and had with him the Gospels in the greek language.

You may read a more ample description of Sundar Singhs life at this biography

Gladys Aylward

I love the story of Gladys Aylward. Everything about her life is refreshing and simply points towards the Jesus of the gospels. She was a simple cleaning lady in London that heard a call to go to China to serve God. After being rejected by the mission societies as a person unfit for God's service, she nonetheless decided to be faithful to God and go on her own to join an old missionary lady in Tianjin who needed to retire. Every week she would take a few shillings of her meagre salary and deposit it with a travel agent towards the cheapest fare to China, the Trans Siberian Railway.

After some time she had saved enough, and was accompanied down to Victoria Station by her aging parents. She had a small suitcase with some packed sandwiches, and a teapot besides a few articles of clothing. The train slowly crossed the vastness of Russia and Asia and stopped in Manchuria where the Russians were at war with China. The train could go no further. Gladys Aylward slept on a table in the freezing station, and the next day, despite much opposition from the Russian station master, continued up the tracks on foot towards her destination. She walked strait through the opposing armies and continued on into the mountains of China, where she disappeared for the next twenty years.

Once having mastered the Chinese language, she went into the service of the Chinese government as a foot inspecter. Her success in this field won the admiration of the local mandarin who was converted to Christ through her Godly witness. As she travelled through the mountains trying to stop the custom of foot binding, she taught the gospels and saved children that were being abandoned. Eventually she had a home full of orphans and had to flee over the mountains with the children before the approaching Japanese army.

Please do yourelf a service and read a short biography by Elisabeth Elliot the famous missionary. This is a comment from the biography:

For two hours, she poured out the story of her going by train across Europe and Russia and Siberia and China, with a single suitcase and a frying pan strapped to the outside. She had no education, no money, no mission board, no friends in China, or so I remember the story.

We sat riveted. The hours seemed only a few minutes, and we were humbled to the very dust. One man commented later, "They needn't open the doors to let us out. We can crawl underneath."

Read the whole thing here: Gladys Alyward

Time fails me to tell of C.T. Studd, Bruce Olson, James Hudson Taylor, Francis of Assisi Jackie Pullinger and Amy Carmichael.