a word on travel

Okay, there is not just one word that can sum up travel. So, here is several words on it. It changes you.

When I was 35 years old and my children were 13, 11, and 7 my husband decided we needed to show our children how the majority of the world lived. We were living in Poipu on the beautiful island of Kauai. We all surfed a ton, we took bike rides at night, worked hard and played harder. But then we left all of that to be a 13 hour bus ride from the Indian Ocean to live In Western Kenya. The first four months of living there was a major adjustment on our stomachs as we learned to boil water just a little longer to kill whatever was in the water. We homeschooled our kids and looked forward to market days where vendors would bring in used clothes & shoes from all of the world. Seriously great finds. Being there for nine months meant we made it past the honeymoon phase where everything was new and beautiful to wow our cultures are really different. Americans are so fortunate for clean water and free education, kids in the states don’t know how good they have it. We have traveled back there as a family probably 8 times, spending a month there every December was our favorite. Their Christmas is not commercialized like in the state so you don’t know it’s Christmas until Christmas Day.IT’s quite beautiful. Everyone puts on their finest clothes and walks the streets hoping to buy a soda and watch people singing and dancing. Traveling to Kenya with our young kids and watching the world through their eyes has given us a beautiful perspective. Is the Lord calling you to pick up and move, get a little uncomfortable, and learn how to love another culture without changing it? Happy leaping!