I’m packing for Training Camp.
I’ll let that sentence sink in. This is actually happening. I head out in three days.
This is what my living room looks like currently…
My mom asked me how I was feeling yesterday. She listed nervous, excited, and sad for me to choose from and I chose them all. The next month and a half contain an awful lot of changes. Tomorrow is my last Sunday as intern and my final chance to say goodbye to the members of the church I’ve spent the last nine months working for. While I won’t be present to walk, I am graduating a week from today with a Master’s of Divinity. Training camp starts the same day. One month later, I’ll be packing all my belongings and moving up north. Less than two weeks later, the World Race begins.
I was searching for something to watch on Netflix this afternoon and I came across Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. I knew it was a travel show related in some way to food, so I scrolled through the first season searching for any place I may find myself in the next year. Low and behold, South Africa was on the list. The show is in fact about travel and food, but I appreciated Bourdain’s complete honesty in searching for more than good food. He talked with different types of people about South Africa itself: their experiences, what living in South Africa is like, what the future might look like.
As I watched, I became overwhelmed with emotions. I was reminded of a day years ago when I told a friend that my head loves to travel in Europe because of the history, cities, and art to explore. I went on to say that my heart is in Africa because of the people. I realized, for possibly the first time, I am actually going back. Watching a man interview real people about their lives and the hopes they have for their future, my own heart was filled with hope. I can only hope that I will have the chance to meet people just like them, that I will have the chance to truly get to know them, not just in Africa, but everywhere I go. I hope to meet God in every country, city, and person I meet in the next year. More than that, I know I will! This is the redeeming quality of travel. It allows me to explore God in new ways. Sure, I may bring God to people I meet, and I will certainly strive to be the Christ-follower I always hope to be. Yet, I also fully expect to see God already at work, and that is what I look forward to most.
It’s moments like these, where a few school children steal my hat and a beg for a photo, these are moments of God. Sure, I was annoyed by the hat stealing, I wasn’t exactly having a good hair day. This moment is no longer filled with that annoyance as I look back, but rather as a moment when I made myself vulnerable to these children. I met God here. Where will I meet God next? Where will you meet God?
