I remember the summer after my freshman year of college when I informed my parents that I would like to attend the National Student Conference in Evansville, Indiana with my campus ministry group. I had just gotten back from a spring break mission project to New Orleans helping with Hurricane Katrina relief, and now I was planning on going to Indiana for a week. Not to mention I was already going to school 'out of state' in Missouri. For this Iowa farm girl, that was a lot of traveling for one year. I recall my dad referring to me as a 'world traveler'. Little did we know at the time, just how much traveling I really would end up doing.
Just in the month of August I've been out of the country and back, boarded six different planes, and spent between 20 and 30 hours traveling by car. Instead of rolling my eyes at the idea of parents worried about their grown daughter, I was the mother worried about the health of her unborn child with hours of planes and cars, unsteady eating patterns, and an irregular schedule.
All the chaos and exhaustion was well worth the joy we had at seeing the people we got to see during this time. (especially after my doctor said all was good at my post travel check-up).
PANAMA:
My first international trip certainly was a blast. After the initial plane difficulties we had getting over there that is. Plane difficulties included: a long time sitting at the gate and tarmac, switching planes, lost baggage and only three hours of sleep for our first day.
After arriving we enjoyed five days of serving our missionaries by providing child care while they were in conferences with the other Americas missionaries. We were told over and over again how much the service was appreciated. We also had time to enjoy meals with several of our missionaries we've met during their training or hadn't gotten a chance to meet yet at all. Our excursion day saw the two of us along with 20 or so other missionaries swimming in waterfalls in the Panamanian rain forest. By the way, did you know the Panama Canal was full of FRESH water, and Panama can support that much fresh water use because their rainy season is 9 months out of the year? We had pretty knowledgeable tour guides. All in all it was a great trip!
Missouri/Iowa:
Six days after arriving back in Ft. Myers from Panama, we boarded yet another plane to head to Kansas City. This was a trip to do some support raising while visiting friends and family since we hadn't seen any of them since February or longer. It was interesting having to rely on God to put a burden on the hearts of our friends and family to provide us with transportation the entire 2 1/2 weeks we were up. Several friends were great at giving us rides from one location to another, and my parents were gracious enough to loan us their car for the middle portion of our trip.
From Kansas City, we traveled back and forth between Iowa and Missouri a couple times, making several visits as we went. During that time, we were also able to present at a new church, Rosendale Christian Church, attend a wedding, and celebrate with my parents their 25th wedding anniversary.
It was a whirlwind trip that had us sleeping in more than 10 different beds, seeing around 50 people/families, and putting a lot of fuel in gas tanks.
Back in Ft. Myers:
Arriving back in Ft. Myers was both a relief and a bummer. It was hard to leave our family, friends, and Midwest landscape and weather. (Let's face it, Florida is hot and flat. I need more variety.) But it was also a relief to be back to our house, schedule, work, Florida friends, and our own bed.
So for this Iowa farm girl who never set foot on a plane until she was 22; I feel pretty well traveled at this point. But then I think, boarding 8 planes in 7 months is nothing compared to some of the people I work with. Two to three hour plane rides is nothing compared to the regular occurrence of eighteen hour, even 23 hour flights some of these amazing missionaries go through. And 20-30 total hours in a car across a 2 1/2 week span is laughable compared to three days in a 'bus', packed to bursting with locals, driving across the country 'roads' of Africa.
Next time you want to complain about the traveling you do, think of these amazing missionaries who do it all with a smile on their faces because they know that at the end of their journey is a village hungry for the Word and example of Christ they are bringing.
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