(Spoiler alert:  The contents of this post will be our prayer letter arriving in America in several weeks)

 

After Katie and I were married on Friday, August 13, 1999, we spent our honeymoon in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It was beautiful there. Katie was beautiful. I was beautiful. Everything was beautiful. Trip of a lifetime #1.

In 2000, I took my first trip to Bulgaria, the place where we have spent the last thirteen years. While we spent much of the trip visiting gypsy churches, it was home for me and I knew it. Trip of a lifetime #2.

In 2003, I took a trip to the Philippines with five or six other preachers. Not only did we preach non-stop, (I was 23 and they handed me a microphone in a stadium with 3,000 air force cadets in front of me and said, “preach the gospel”) we visited Baguio City and shot machine guns, we visited the public school and went from class to class giving the gospel…and much more. Trip of a lifetime #3.

In 2005, I took my first trip to Turkey to meet a convert that had been saved through email. I invited and paid for Mark Bachman to come down from Germany and join me and we spent five days with Ertegrul in open markets, in homes, on the street witnessing to sunni muslims. Trip of a lifetime #4.

In 2012, I went to Alexandria, Egypt with John Wilkerson where we taught in a Bible institute. Also, spent a day in Cairo. Didn’t have time to see the pyramids. Drove over the Nile. Trip of a lifetime #5.

Two weeks ago I returned from Malawi, Africa. I was invited by my partner in crime…uhh, Christ, Neal Greenfield. We succeeded in burning down no buildings nor causing any major international incidents in the two weeks we were together. The missionary family we visited may be twitching for a while, but we tried to behave. Really.

Not only did I eat sugar cane, nsima (the national dish – corn beaten to powder then baked and then dipped in beans or greens or some other “relish”), and a baobab fruit, but I had the privilege of intermingling with Malawians. Malawi is one of the ten poorest countries in the world and we were in the poorest part of Malawi. The people had nothing, literally. The soccer ball or two I saw there were plastic bags and stuff wrapped up with rubber bands.

But those people love to smile, love to laugh, love to wave, love to sing. And they listen. We went out several times in villages simply to talk to people about Jesus and salvation. I witnessed to probably 80 different people or so. Many did not know the story of Adam and Eve. I never felt rushed. There was never a press for time. I loved it. I mean – I loved it!

When I updated the ten or so people following my trip, my explanation of Malawi was simply this – a breath of fresh air.

Some people take vacation in New York or Washington, D.C. or the mountains in Tennessee or the Rockies or the Atlantic or the Pacific or Nebraska, wait – nobody goes to Nebraska, scratch that, or Florida, but after my debriefing with my gracious wife and battle-hardened children, we decided that someday we want to take a vacation to Malawi – the warm heart of Africa!