The Travel Bug

I remember traveling with my family as long as I can remember anything.  I always loved everything about traveling (except 20 hours in a car watching Dumb and Dumber repeatedly to the point that everyone in my family still knows all of the words.).  I love everything about traveling.  My favorite vacation from childhood was a 2 week long road trip in the red minivan.  The five of us began in our Memphis suburb and visited Niagra Falls, and all five Great Lakes.  We did a lot of camping and hiking in between Memphis and Canada and on the trip back home.  We took numerous trips before and after, but I truly believe that trip 21 years ago permanently sealed my love, even my deep desire for the adventure that comes with travel.

There is a great adventure in traveling to new places.  The most traveled places are either places of culture, places full of history, or places in nature.  Those of culture and history make me love more the people of God that he did not make us all the same and that he made so many diverse cultures.  Those of nature make me feel more at one with the creation as well as the Creator. 

Recently, I have been receiving THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER, and have been feeling the itch deep within me to travel the world.  In this world, I have been as far west as Hawaii, as far east as Greece, as far south as Costa Rica.  I have lived in 4 countries, and visited 15, 7 states and traveled to about 35 of them.  I have been by boat, car, plane, train, and bus. 

For me it doesn't matter what the adventure brings me in the different corners of the earth, but the adventure of travel, near and far, invigorate and excite me.

Sometimes, now I reflect on how little I am able to travel.  That may sound wierd, considering I live in a foriegn county filled with new experiences daily.  However, day to day life in a foriegn country does not equal trekking with only a backpack, a camera, and water bottle into the unknown of the world.

Living in a foriegn country as well as traveling the world over both require that one maintains themselves as a life-long learner.  A person will always be rejected if they go into a new place acting as if they know everything about everything.  There are many other things I could learn from my travels that I could apply to my life as a missionary, but I don't have the time to write all of those things.

I'm sure that my desire to visit as many places in this world before I die will never be quenched.  I hope that my girls Haley and Emma will love to travel and can one day see much of the world to know of the vast creation of our God.

(What I wish my passport looked like)