Welcome to the website of the home front committee of Sjaak and Mija Regoord. This Christian Evangelical married couple works amongst pilgrims in Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Pilgrims break away from their daily routine during their tour to Santiago de Compostela. While hiking, they have time to think about life. Sjaak and Mija join them and help them with (life)questions. They also perform activities in the guesthouses, support new pilgrims to get started and set-up international teams who participate in some of the activities mentioned before.
Spain
Sjaak and Mija work in Spain since 1993. They started working for a church in Valencia with a lot of (ex) drug addicts. In 1997 they moved to Madrid to work with children in crisis and from 2019 onwards they work amongst pilgrims in Santiago de Compostela.
Pilgrims
In 2019, almost 350.000 pilgrims came to Santiago de Compostela, half of them male and half of them female. The majority walked but there were also people who came by bike, by horse or even by boat and in a wheelchair!
42% of the pilgrims is Spanish, the biggest groups after that are Italians, Germans and Americans, but there’s also a lot of people from Asia, South America, Australia and even Africa. The biggest group (55%) is between 30 and 60 years old but also a lot of elderly and obviously youth, and even families with children, join the Camino.
About 90% of the pilgrims has religious reasons or a combination of religious/other reasons. Our experience is that about 15% of the pilgrims is practicing Catholic, the vast majority is “seeking”.
More than half of the group walks the French Camino but this decreases every year because it’s very crowded. The Portuguese Camino becomes more popular but this counts for more Caminos. A lot of pilgrims (27%) start in Sarria, about 120 km from Santiago. This means a minimum of 100 km walking before you receive the Compostela. A big group (10%) starts in Saint Jean Pied de Port, just over the French border. This means they walk almost 800 km in about one month!
Home front
The home front supports the family with their livelihood. Additional income is needed for the pilgrimswork in itself, for example for the overnight stays and meals. Being a pilgrimworker, you join the pilgrims on their way.
Donation
Gifts can be transferred to:
IBAN Bank account: NL 98 ABNA 0426 839 536
In the name of: St. WEC Nederland
Citing: fam. Regoord, Spanje
ANBI registration: St. WEC Nederland: no. 852153958
Home front
The home front consists family, friends, Evangelical church De Lichtstad in Eindhoven (the Netherlands), Evangelical church Oase in Neerpelt (Belgium) and Baptist church Arnhem Centrum (the Netherlands).
Home front committee
The home front committee consists of:
Contact
E-mail home front committee: tcregoord@dse.nl
Please have a look on these websites:
Hold on! (a pilgrim report in Dutch)
"I am the way..." Places along the Camino where you can explore these words of Jesus
W.E.C. Nederland
W.E.C. Spain
