Judy. Just before we left on our amazing new life, a friend asked if we thought that we were going on a mission trip. No. A mission trip was not our plan. Our plan was to see the world, try to understand other cultures, and appreciate God’s world.
God, of course, had other plans. So, as we return to our wanderings, with the uncertainty of what will happen with Covid-19, I want to review what God has done for us—so far.
We have been blessed to meet people of all faiths, and have been welcomed and blessed by them. We’ve worshipped in churches in Malaysia, South Africa, Chile, Mexico, France, Spain, and more. In South Africa one Sunday we visited a Dutch Reformed church where the service was conducted in Afrikaans. We didn’t understand a word of it, but it was clear the Holy Spirit was alive and well there. We’ve been to Bible study in both conservative and liberal churches and learned from each. Ted started a men’s Bible study on a ship as we returned home in 2018. Our Muslim friends have wrapped their arms around us, fed us, offered suggestions, and made sure we got to our plane on time with homemade cookies in hand. We even have a Malaysian “grandson”—Rina says with a smile that we are his “white grandparents”!
We’ve had the joy and privilege of painting rooms in girls’ homes in Chile, in helping with a church bazaar in the Canary Islands, of feeding the homeless and working poor in Texas, of welcoming singers from other countries to a choral festival in Montana, of teaching English to children in small villages in Mexico. We’ve cooked and waited tables for a young man starting a new restaurant in Mexico. We’ve spoken several times with English students in Mexico and Poland to help them practice. I’ve listened to women cry as they stumble through the next phases of their lives, and to men cry as their wives left them for a “more fun life”.
And God has given us more: strangers who quickly become friends and offer us their homes or food or suggestions, friends and relatives who meet us in various places around the world, hikes in unbelievably beautiful parts of the world, the opportunity to try new foods and ideas. We’ve seen flamenco in a tiny bar in Spain, tango in the streets of Buenos Aires, eaten cheeses in France and Poland that we can’t even get here, seen Ladysmith Black Mombasa in a music festival in the Canary Islands. And we’ve learned that life is much more complicated than we ever thought, and that neither we, nor our American way of life know the answer for everyone.
We’ve met up with friends and family in Hungary, Poland, Croatia, and Morocco, not to mention Canada and Great Britain. In Germany, our grandson listened to Syrian refugees sponsored by a dear friend and former student of mine, and to long-time friends who survived the transition from East Germany to a United Germany; two groups in search of freedom, and willing to pay the price. Quite a lesson.
We’ve found that we need little to live on and have no problem with change. We’ve yet to miss a flight, lose luggage, or get so lost we can’t find our way. Ted had his old cell phone stolen in Chile (he was going to buy another when we got home anyway), and I took a spill on a bicycle that fortunately, didn’t break bones, but unfortunately gave me an ugly bruise down my leg and a swollen knee that took weeks to heal.
We are careful, and we are unafraid. We trust God. When He stops opening doors, we’ll know it’s time. At a Bible study in France a woman asked me, “Do you REALLY think God wants you to travel around all the time like that?” I turned to the woman who brought me to that study—the friend of a missionary former student of mine (God just keeps opening doors)—we both laughed, and Apryl said, “Yeah, I think God does.” So do I.
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| Vancouver, 2017 with Inshuk - Inuit symbol for "You are in the right place" |
Ted. We have both received our two doses of the covid vaccination and have promptly made plans to renew our nomadic lifestyle. For starters, we will spend the month of April in Costa Rica. Why? It is one of the few countries that still permits Americans to visit. On our return, we will take a road trip from Georgia to Pennsylvania to visit friends and family, hike and to explore an area we do not know very well.
The second half of this year is pretty murky. We have booked a flight to London in August in the hope we’ll be allowed admittance but are making no specific plans as yet. Whatever life has in store for us, though, we trust that we will continue to meet wonderful folks who will push us and pull us along our journey.
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