The Traveler’s Path

Douglas Brouwer caught the travel bug early. His parents took him and his sister on trips nearly every year. For Brouwer, though, travel was much more than just checking off the name of a location on some sort of bucket list. He realized that travel had the potential to broaden his experience and help him reflect on his life. He brought all these experiences to his new book, The Traveler’s Path.

Part memoir, part travel diary, and part reflection on faith and the impact of journey on our lives, The Traveler’s Path invites us to join pastor Brouwer on many of his journeys but also on thinking about many different types of journeys he has taken—moving to New Jersey (from his home in West Michigan) to attend seminary, taking mission trips with members of his congregations, leading tours of the Holy Land, experiencing pilgrimages such as walking the Camino de Santiago, pastoring in Switzerland and again in his ancestral home of the Netherlands, and eventually settling back home in Michigan.

Through it all, Brouwer’s clear writing and casual tone invites us to consider what he learned, and even what he failed to learn, about himself and about his relationship to others and to God. Rich in anecdotes and honest reflection, The Traveler’s Path is an enjoyable book that might encourage you to think a little more deeply the next time you head out the door. (Reformed Journal Books)